#i’m also just feral for a good tragedy

[sapphiccyranodebergerac]

kaz brekker is ace and he and inej could never be together intimately, and that is painful but also like fucking awesome. like yes young adult fantasy but with realism in characters. not every problem is overcomable, not every pairing with chemistry ends up together.

[akystaracer22]

Distrust Fall:

A leap of faith gone wrong, an eternal promise kept eternally. No matter how long it has been some things never truly change.

Notes

How to fail a trust fall: Step one

Vaggie's relationship with Adam is very complicated, but at the moment there is a lot of animosity and it shows.

Adam is of the opinion that Sorry doesn’t mean jack shit if you make the mistake again, so he just doesn’t apologise because he thinks he’ll just fuck up again so there’s no point.

The hotel needs a licensed therapist at this point dear lord.

Alastor still isn’t over the whole “Radio is fucking dead” thing.

If there is one thing that Adam knows off by heart, it’s the names of animals scientific or otherwise. That was the guys job once upon a time and assuming he doesn’t know that stuff is the true quickest way to piss him off. He’s also really good with animals which pisses off Anthony because Fat Nuggets *likes* Adam and it drives the sinner up a wall.

Alastor and Lucifer are on the ground. Angel, Husk, Charlie, Vaggie, and Adam are on the roof.

Alastor was going to let him get a cm from the ground before catching him dw.

Lucifer used to be friends with Adam in the garden because I live for that sweet sweet friends to enemies tragedy.

Adam really does not like people staring at his face, it’s a mild form of scopophobia caused by his time in heaven with people always giving him shit for how he looked, particularly his facial features (Yes I drew on everyone calling him ugly and average on twitter and shit). He used the mask to get around it, that way people couldn’t actually see what he looked like.

This was originally 1260 but then I got an idea that blew this out by 500 words lol.

The graveyard with be elaborated on in a future connected one shot.

This is officially a fully fledged AU

Regarding Adam's claws, they're gold to combat the greyness of his palette, but also as a nod to Midas, the arrogant king who's touched turned everything to gold. Angelic blood is also gold so if you want you can interpret it as having blood on his hands.

Fingerless gloves because I thing they're neat.

I based Lucifer's wings off of duck wings!

Also Lucifer's angelic appearance was based on space. I heard Sera call Charlie "Daughter of the Morning Star" and I went feral.

He has a full shifting night sky in his wings, clothes, and hat.

Angels have white pupils now I don't make the rules.

References saved my life.

Word count: 1725

(Comic and fic under the cut! Click for better quality)

@irregular-child

Adam leaned away from the edge as the wind drifted through his wings, keenly aware of the fact that his wings wouldn’t break his fall and he did not in fact trust jack shit in hell to break it except the ground.

“Are we sure this is a good idea?”

“I’m with princess perfect this is a fucking death sentence,” Adam agreed, a little reluctantly because it was still the princess of hell, “You’re trying to fucking kill me.”

Vaggie smirked, because of course she did because she was trying to kill him, he wasn’t that dense, and just shrugged, “I mean, worked for me didn’t it?”

“That wasn’t even a fucking trust fall that was to get you to fucking fly and you know it! Fucking bitch,” The first man scowled and tried to step away from the edge, the crack whore of an arachnid immediately shoving him back up, “Would you fuck off?!”

“Would you stop being a dick?”

“Would you stop sucking them?”

The white jumping spider stared at him for a long moment and Vaggie stepped away from him for once, great! Cool! One person was leaving him alone and soon a second one will!

Great! About fucking time they got the message-

-------]

Lucifer paced nervously around Dazzle’s statue; this was a terrible idea. Having Adam go through a trust fall this early was going to end in disaster one way or another.

The main issue being nobody liked Adam and wouldn’t care if he fell. Hell, Charlies girlfriend has already tried to kill Adam off for good multiple times since he got here!

This was going to be a mess; Alastor was supposed to be catching Adam but he was just standing there looking completely unprepared and-

“Are you going to get ready or not.” Lucifer snapped at the radio demon, wings flicking out behind him in agitation.

“Oh, I have no intention of catching him.”

Lucifer froze, his tail stilling before lashing behind him as he turned on the deer-eared sinner, “What.”

“You heard me.”

“Oh, I heard you alright, and I think you should try that again.”

“And why are you getting so worked up, hm?” The sinner hummed, sneering down at the king, “Last I checked, the first man was your enemy after he tried to kill your own daughter.”

“I-” Lucifer paused, then scowled because Alastor was right. Why was he getting so worked up over this. This was Adam they were talking about. Adam who was crass and rude and cold to everyone. Adam, who would rather sit in his room all day than even look at any of them. Adam who was…

“…Luci, do they all hate me?”

…

“I can see why they left me for you.”

…

“It is good to see you again my friend! Come, much has changed since your last visit!”

… Adam who was so much more than who he was now. Who was probably the only person left in hell that remembered Eden.

Damnit.

“That’s none of your business you son of a bitch,” The fallen angel snapped at the cannibal, eliciting nothing more than a growing grin from the bastard.

Not a day went by in hell where Lucifer wished that this wasn’t his circus and that the sinners weren’t his monkeys.

Someone screamed above him.

The seraphim whipped his head up, eyes widening as he registered Adam twisting the air as he was shoved off the roof by Angel Dust.

Fear struck his heart like an exorcists blade when the first man tried to use his wings to glide, only for a single wing beat to send him into a spiral hurtling towards the ground.

He caught Adams eye for a single moment before it was obscured by his good wing, the man was terrified. He didn’t know sinners reformed after death and despite it all. Lucifer would never wish someone to experience falling from their death after quite literally falling from heaven.

Not even on Adam.

Something in his heart spurred the king into action, kicking off the ground as his wings snapped open to catch the air. A single beat of his wings and he was already well off the ground.

Lucifer reached a hand up for Adam as the fallen angel reached out to him in kind, panic written across both their faces at the idea of a horrible accident.

Lucifer’s wings moved the air one more time and-

“And… you will catch me?”

Lucifer laughed softly, a gentle chiming sound from where he stood behind Gods first man. He was trying to show him a game Lucifer and his kin would play from time to time amongst the spires of heaven.

The game was simple, one angel was to stand up high with their wings folded and fall. Then the other angel was to catch them. It was supposed to build trust, not to mention it was a delight in and of itself.

Standing amongst the grasses of Eden, Lucifer saw no reason not to share this game with Adam. He’s already grown fond of the way that Gods creation would go out of his way to show the angel what he’d been up to since his last visit.

“Be not afraid my friend!” Lucifer’s wings spread quietly to punctuate his point, divine magic threading his words, The Voice ensuring that the first man would hear and believe him.

“No matter how far you fall, I shall always be there to catch you.”

Lucifer wrapped his arms securely around the fallen angel as his wings curled around wing and man alike, bracing himself as the added weight as they both fell together.

It’s funny, it reminded him of when Adam first fell, a fiery ball that could have almost been mistaken as a shooting star had Lucifer not known better.

They hid the ground with a slam and the fallen seraphim had to bite back a shriek as his wings took the brunt of the force. They’d be left aching for a while.

Lucifer grunted as he pushed Adam off of him, sitting up and folding his wings in, allowing them to slip out of existence while they healed, he definitely didn’t want to do that again.

He slowly got to his feet while the first man got his bearings, dusting himself off and rubbing his shoulders to try and alleviate the pain.

“Why the fuck did you save me?”

Lucifer jerked and looked down at Adam from where he was glaring up at him, a note of confusion held carefully in his gaze before it dropped.

“I-”

“Well, isn’t this quite a surprise!”

Lucifer’s expression shot into a scowl as he rounded on the radio demon very blatantly interrupting the moment. The bastard just grinned and stared down at the both of them.

From the corner of his eyes Lucifer noted Adam’s good wing hitching up instinctively to cover his face from the demons gaze before dropping.

Lucifer turned his attention back to the radio demon with a glare that could melt steel, “You were going to let him fall,”

“I was going to do no such thing,”

“You just said-!”

“I said nothing you just assumed I was going to do nothing at all!”

“Listen here you!” Lucifer was just off again by the main doors opening and the other’s all barrelling out at the commotion.

Lost in the sudden onslaught of attention and having to field Alastor’s snarky comments, Anthony’s suggestive remarks, and Charlie’s concern, he didn’t see Adam flee the scene.

It wasn’t until much later that he was able to recognize the first man’s absence, searching the hotel to see if Adam was okay.

He found him at the graveyard, sitting among the many tombstones for the exorcists slain in the battle that caused Adam to fall.

Lucifer paused at the entrance to the burial ground, watching Adam sit there facing away from him for what felt like an eternity.

Despite the dead being gone, the king of hell still felt like the exorcists weapons were pointed at him, a warning that if he made one wrong move they would rise from their graves to protect their leader, to avenge him, to strike Lucifer down in an instant.

The once-angel of the morning star carefully stepped away from the cemetery, making sure he didn’t break the silence. Even if Adam wanted to be disturbed, he wasn’t the right person to do it, not in this place.

Besides, he still had his own thoughts to sort through, like why in the name of the divine he saved Adam when he would have survived regardless. He would have been fine even if he did hit the ground unimpeded so why-

Lucifer grimaced as the answer stuck to him like a parasite, he knew damn well why he saved him. It was the same stupid reason he preened Adams wings for him, the same reason he treats the first man’s wing rot and the exact same reason he made that deal with Adam after he fell.

He was attached.

Stupids horribly foolishly, Lucifer still cared for Adam even after everything.

By the stars he beat Adam within an inch of his life! Adam tried to kill his daughter!

But emotions were hardly logical. They weren’t logical when he fell for Lilith in the garden and taught her and Adam both The Voice, they weren’t logical when he freed Eve, and they weren’t logical now.

Lucifer cared for Adam, even if by all logic he should hate the man.

“Dad?”

Lucifer looked up to meet his daughters eyes, a small smile letting her know he was okay, “Hey there Duckie.”

Charlie’s expression softened at the nickname even if he still looked concerned, “Dad… are you sure you’re okay?”

“If I’m not now, I will be, so stop worrying about little old me Char-char,” Lucifer chuckled, “However… Adams in the graveyard if you want to talk to him, he seems like he needs some company right now.”

He made his exit quickly after that, he knew what Charlie would do, it was in her nature to help people, it was what made her so special.

But Lucifer, he helped people once, and now… he had a new person he could help again.

And he might just know where to start.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

i love how you write for gojo i would die for you...... with gojo though, how would you describe his personality/character??? vv curious about what you think <3

🥺🥺🥺 ANONNNN i would die for you too btw….. i’m so happy you like my gojo!!!!

hmmmmm it’s a hard question to answer since his character is so complex….. but my general take is that he has three layers to him!! :3 you’d think he’s just a silly guy at first glance, but when you peel back that layer you catch a glimpse of the sadness and isolation beneath. his inherent air of tragedy <33 i also like to include gojo’s darker side here — like, the ’cold logic’ he sometimes has, his more feral side, etc. basically, he’s not as lighthearted as he seems!! and i think understanding his particular isolation is really important to understanding him overall.

the third and final layer (and also the most important imo) is his kindness <33 this is the one i think the fandom might be most divided on? but also not really… gojo isn’t a saint by any means, but he’s an all around good guy. i don’t see him as being morally dark, and i also don’t see him being an asshole. or a cheater, or a player, or a yandere, etcetcetc — they’re all popular depictions of his character that i respect but just can’t get behind myself!! :> gojo is a nice guy at his core, and that’s definitely something i try to emphasise while writing him… he has an air of maturity to him that only slips out when it really counts, but it’s his most charming trait to me!!

[can-of-w0rmz]

“Aaron Tveit is a tenor he shouldn’t have been cast in a baritone role”/“Sondheim is rolling in his grave rn”/“He sounds too cute and unthreatening.” Genuinely shut the fuck up oml how does it feel to be boring asf 😭 He played the role extremely well, the songs sounded great in his vocal range, he WAS extremely threatening, and y’all are just being petty and puritanical about this shit. I’m a hardcore fan of Josh Groban and Len Cariou’s interpretations of the character, but Aaron Tveit did just as good of a job playing Sweeney Todd as anyone who came before him.

Sweeney Todd is a show that is and always has been continuously reinterpreted and played around with, while still keeping its core characterisation, plot and themes, which, just saying, were way clearer under Tveit’s portrayal of the character than for example, some of the “classic” baritone portrayals like George Hearn (iconic as his performance was, totally rewatching my 1982 proshot DVD on loop over here). He captured the sympathy and tragedy of the character whilst still being feral, aggressive, passionate and threatening, he’s a great actor and apart from the very mild set-back of his vocal range just being higher, he’s probably the best portrayal of Sweeney Todd I’ve ever seen. And even then, his vocal performance was far from bad — I’d totally stick it on in the background if he had any songs professionally recorded. He just doesn’t have the deep oomf that Josh Groban had, but if we’re going to talk about Tveit’s Todd being too “cute”, I’d totally say the opposite — as much as I absolutely love Groban’s interpretation of the character to bits, he arguably kind of lacks the feral aggression other actors who’ve played Todd have.

And, as for “Sondheim is rolling in his grave”, excuse me?? Sondheim has always been explicit about wanting an actor that can sing over a singer that can act. He reworked the structure of “Send In the Clowns” specifically for Glynis Johns because “she couldn't sustain notes,” his words. Not that either Johns or Tveit can’t sing, but you get the picture — yeah, no, Sondheim would absolutely not be rolling in his grave because a tenor played a baritone role he wrote extremely well and opted a couple notes higher than they were originally written.

Also, while I’m on the subject, listen, ok, I love the original 1979 cast recording so much that Angela Lansbury was my top artist (😭), and Annaleigh Ashford is actually my icon oml I absolutely adore her, but bsfr the hate on Sutton Foster was wayyy out of order. I’m not really a fan of a lot of the stuff she does (no harm to her or anything, just a personal preference 🤷‍♀️), and I think her portrayal of Mrs Lovett was a LITTLE bit surface level at times, (imo she didn’t REALLY have the same super strong characterisation that Ashford brought to the table tbf?), but for the most part she was actually really really funny and her chemistry with Tveit was on point, and she was still really good during those serious scenes too.

And don’t get me started on that one time I read a comment that said “Sweeney Todd is not a comedy”….bro… some of these people don’t even know what the fuck they’re talking about 😭

[literallyjusttoa]

Friendship is Magic (Post-Toa Version)

About a year ago I made a couple posts about some niche gods I wanted Apollo to become friends with and now I’m back at it! Have some more post-toa relationships for our dear boy. (Warning, this is really long)

Prometheus: Ok, so I actually already said I want Apollo and Prometheus to be friends, but over the last year I have only grown to find this idea to be so interesting. I see the two of them as being so similar, with a strong love and respect for mortals, and a bleeding heart that ostracizes them from their family, who are more easily able to turn a blind eye to any tragedies that occur. But while I think their base personalities and motivations are similar, I think their tactics differ just enough to cause conflict. But the two respect each other so much that they can push and pull at each other enough to find a middle ground. Apollo has always been impressed by Prometheus’ craftiness, and lengths he’s willing to go for his own beliefs. Prometheus has held affection for Apollo for a long time, mainly bc he’s Leto’s son and he pleaded with Zeus to let Prometheus out of his punishment. Recently tho, Prometheus has been relieved to finally see another immortal who is just as against the state of Olympus as he is.

Idk if I’m explaining this right, but like. Apollo’s going to spend a lot of time trying to bring his family around to accepting the flaws of Olympus and the way they treat mortals. And that’s good! And he wants to do that! But when you’ve been a victim of a corrupt system, and then you have to spend a lot of mental energy helping other people realize how much this system hurts people, it can be such a relief to talk with someone who already agrees with you that things are fucked. LIke, “yeah, you don’t have to convince me that you’ve been hurt, I’m not going to challenge you on that at all, or try to justify it, I just believe you, and I agree that things need to change.” That’s what I want these two to be for each other. 

Menoitios: The brother of Prometheus, and Titan of violent rage and rashness. If Prometheus allows Apollo to air out his hurt, Menoitios helps him to work with the violent, and often terrifying responses he’s had to the trauma he’s ignored. Apollo has not been a good person, and he is often horrified by the actions he’s taken in the past. Instead of letting him spiral, Menoitios tells him that he can’t stop these behaviors until he finds the reasons behind them. He also tells Apollo that the emotion that often led to him lashing out and hurting or even killing others, that feral rage that came from being raised up in such a toxic society and being harmed on such a deep level, does not have to be inherently harmful. They work through coping mechanisms, and work on using that rage to make real change. Oftentimes, Apollo and Menoitios can be found sparring, no holds barred. They go until their energy is spent, and then Menoitios carts Apollo over to Prometheus and caringly forces him to talk it out. 

Aporia: Aporia is one of Nyx’s kids! I picked her specifically bc while there are a lot of Nyx’s children that I think would be interesting for Apollo to interact with, Aporia’s domain is especially interesting to me. Aporia is the personification of want, difficulty and powerlessness. These are three things that Apollo has definitely struggled with, and will continue to struggle with as he goes on post-toa. It’s especially hard for him because these three emotions are so heavily looked down upon on Olympus. Gods are not allowed to desperately want, or to struggle, or to be powerless. Apollo has hidden these feelings away for so long, and then he was forced back into them during the trials. It’s jarring, and he hasn’t really found peace with it yet. So when he starts getting visits from a literal representation of the parts of himself he wants to push down the most, he freaks out. But Aporia is not there to make him more powerless, or wanting. Instead, she wants him to embrace these parts of himself, to understand how they make him whole. The two of them struggle to connect, but when they do, their friendship is so impactful. 

Boreas: I have been introduced to this ship and I actually love it oml. With Boreas, Apollo gets the one thing that he really needs after the trials. REST. Boreas pulls Apollo away from Olympus, and lets him get some good rest in his palace. It helps that the two of them have a very peaceful, slow and steady sort of relationship, where there are very little expectations on either side. (Basically, you’re hot, I’m hot, we wanna make out sometimes, let's just do that and be chill about it) Boreas is calm, but can be very stern at times. When he knows what needs to be done, he gets it done. Oftentimes this no-nonsense attitude helps Apollo to start moving too. When Apollo wants to give in, Boreas is the type to be like “You can rest for a while here, and when you get up again, I’ll help you figure out what to do.” And especially post-toa this is really helpful for Apollo. They cute <3.

Euphrosyne: Apollo’s half-sister! She’s the daughter of Zeus and Eurynome. She’s also one of the Kharites (Charities, or Graces) and she’s the goddess of Mirth. I think after Jason, Apollo reached out to some of his half-siblings, honestly just wanting to make sure they’re all doing ok. He and Euphrosyne hit it off quickly, and the two of them really just have fun together. Apollo is a person who feels his emotions so strongly, both sorrow and joy. So while he needs people around him to help him through his tragedies, he also needs someone who can match him at the levels of wonder and delight. These two hype each other up a lot, and while that might be two much for others, it’s what the two of them need to work through the emotions they have. They watch movies and listen to music that they rant about for hours, gush about their closest friends and family, and just sit and bask in it all sometimes. It’s just a lil bubble of joy and comfort. 

Haha psych! Got you! I disguised this as a friends post, but it’s actually my roundabout way of giving Apollo therapy while there’s no god of therapy!! Heehee I’m such a prankster!!

[autumn0689]

My guilty pleasure ship is Copollo… those two make me FERAL!!!

THE DYNAMIC!! THE FORMER FEELING FOR ONE ANOTHER!!! THE FEELINGS THAT PROBABLY STILL LINGER!!! THE TRAGEDY AND TOXIC PART OF IT ALL!!!

I wish we got more scenes, their drama was SO GOOD!!! I often reread the Flashback scenes CONSTANTLY and I just- their relationship fills me with SO MANY FEELINGS!!!

Istg if they ever get adapted to Live Action… they better do it justice! This is an important relationship that shaped Apollo! He can’t even look into water without getting flashback for gods sake! I really hope that if it does ever get adapted that they don’t take away they’re romantic relationship, because it’s such a key aspect to both of them.

I wish we got to see more of their dynamic, I loved how they both interacted in TDP when Apollo enters the stadium and Commodus semi-flirts with him and when Apollo charges at Commodus and when Commodus shouts at Apollo that “HE WILL ALWAYS HAVE MY BLESSINGS!!” I- these two are so dramatic and I LOVE it! I also like how Apollo still describes Commodus with “perfectly tanned calves” and “perfectly sculpted abs” like Apollo normal people don’t often comment on someone’s appearance like that unless they harbor some attraction to them. Commodus is also just… he is so driven by Apollo’s betrayal and harbors such hatred towards him, and how he used to have so much love for him. How they both loved each other, but Apollo couldn’t bare to see Commodus die by anyone else’s hands, and, for the second time in Apollo’s life, he fulfills that, he kills him twice, and isn’t it poetic, how Commodus, once again, dies with Apollo’s hands wrapped around his throat?

I just- these two!! Their complex dynamic is one of the reasons I adore the book series. I’m honestly shocked by how much you can talk about their relationship even with how little they interact. Their dynamic and how it was written is, to me, something I rarely ever see in media, with the bitter feelings and the lingering emotions… In my honest opinion, i’m not ashamed to say that Apollo and Commodus are THE BEST SHIP in the PJO-verse. I ship them more than I shipped any of the other relationships in the novels since I’m more of a platonic friendship type of person, but these two… I rarely ship anything, so to have these two invoke so much emotions within me… to me, it’s truly a one of a kind experience.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

KATHERINA MINOLA (THE TAMING OF THE SHREW) (CW: Domestic Abuse)

1.) We had to read this for English my senior year. I got so mad at the way she’s treated. She’s the titular “shrew” of the play. She has to be married off before her younger sister can get married, because that makes sense.

Then the most dogshit man imaginable comes along, and everybody thinks they’re perfect. He literally gaslights her and denies her food and water.

Fuck Petruchio and Katherine Minola deserved better!

2.) Literally the whole play is about how she is so awful that the main guy needs to change her entire personality, which he does as a challenge not because he likes her, and then proceeds to her abuse her for the rest of the play. Yet, he is portrayed as the hero, not a villain and she is shown to have “improved” at the end. People will say, oh it’s open to interpretation, it can be played different ways, it’s satire, but i don’t find abuse funny and there is a distinct lack of commentary in the play to count as satire imo. Taming of the Shrew is a tragedy not a comedy, I will die on this hill. Kate deserves better!

3.) The title isn’t joking, ya’ll. She literally gets broken like a rebellious feral animal and it’s treated as a happy ending.

CORDELIA CHASE (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER/ANGEL THE SERIES) (CW: Pregnancy)

1.) (downs an entire bottle of vodka and slams it back on the table) SO. CORDY. Cordy started off as a supporting character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At the start she was your typical high school mean girl character, but as the show went on we got to see more depth to her character: her insecurities, her courage, her capacity for incredible acts of kindness. Then after the third season she moved into the show’s spin off, Angel, where from the beginning she was basically the show’s secondary protagonist. Her and Angel were the two mainstays of the show’s main cast, she gets the most episodes centered on her out of all the characters aside from Angel (and yes, I’ve checked), and we really got to see her grow from a very shallow and self-centered and kind of mean person to a true hero who was prepared to give up any chance at a normal life to fight the good fight while still never losing the basic core of her character. There were some… questionable moments like the episode where she gets mystically pregnant with demon babies and things got a bit iffy like halfway through season 3 where the writers seemed to run out of ideas for what to do with her outside of sticking her in this romance drama/love triangle situation with the main character but overall, pretty good stuff right? THEN SEASON 4 HAPPENED. In season 4 she gets stripped of literally all agency and spends pretty much the entire season possessed by an evil higher power, and while possessed she sleeps with Angel’s teenage son (who BY THE WAY she had helped raise as a baby before he got speed-grown-up into a teenager it was a whole thing don’t worry about it) and gets pregnant with like. the physical manifestation of the higher power that’s possessing her. it’s about as bad and stupid as it sounds and also is like the third time cordy’s got mystically pregnant in this show and like the fourth mystical pregnancy storyline overall (you will be hearing more on that note in other submissions I’m so sorry). after giving birth she goes into a coma, in which she remains for the rest of season 4 and the first half of season 5. SPEAKING OF WHICH DON’T THINK SEASON 5 IS GETTING OFF SCOT FREE HERE. yeah so in season 5 the show just FULLY starts trying to erase cordy’s existence. she gets mentioned ONCE in the first episode and then never again until halfway through the season where she wakes up, helps out Angel for a bit and encourages him in his fight against evil, and then goes quietly into that good night and dies so it can be all sad and tragic. I’d call it the worst fridging of all time but even THAT feels generous because the whole point of fridging is killing off a female character so a man can be sad, and after Cordy dies basically no one’s even sad about it because the show immediately goes back to pretending she never existed. she is not mentioned ONCE in the two episodes after she dies. in the whole stretch of time between her death and the end of the season she gets mentioned exactly four times. again, I counted. anyway the fun twist to all of this is that all of this happened because the actress who played cordy got pregnant before season 4 and joss whedon was so pissed off about this affecting his plans for the show that he decided to completely fuck over her character and then fire her and write her out of the show. so cordy’s a victim of both writing AND real life misogyny!! good times!!

2.) OH SO MANY THINGS they menaced by giving her terrible hair cuts, making her seem like she’d get together with the guy she loves (and who loves her back) but instead she was killed and when she was brought back, she got possessed by an evil entity who used her body to give birth to itself. afterwards she was in a long coma and died. her character was so throughoutly assassinated

3.) She got demonically pregnant TWICE - there was this real sense of a womb/ability to get pregnant as like, a place for evil to get in. She got positioned as femme fatale and evil mother. The actress basically got fired for being pregnant, and when she agreed to come back for a single final episode she specifically said they could do anything but kill off the character. Guess what happened

[lockandkeyhyena]

Saw you talking about HfjOne's ending and a brainworm came back up. Anyways the ending is so fucking good, I love how vague yet tragic it is. We don't see Liam actually make good progress in the last episode, Airy's dead and he doesn't know how to work his computer; Texty's laptop is also low on battery (and possibly dead) and the charger's gone. Even if he were to make it back to Earth, Liam's life's pretty much ruined on account of him being presumed dead and his job being gone

And now the fact that Bryce is back on the plane with everyone else, Liam not knowing how to work the computer, and Airy being out of the picture (The guy who knew how it all worked), chances are that everything will work out is slim, but never confirmed to be zero. That's why the vagueness works so well in its favor. Anyways sorry about rambling about talking objects I just really like HfjOne's ending

grahhhh hfjone’s ending is soooo good i’m obsessed with it. the tragedy enjoyer in me is like >:D but the fact that theres SOME hope, however slim, just makes me go even more feral. like they COULD fix this. they probably won’t but they could.

[eldrigeonsss]

Favorite fnc au, go

I was told not to overthink this, and then proceeded to overthink it completely-

I went on a fucking heroes journey trying to answer this ask, and though I know in my heart that anon just wanted a tiny glimpse into my brain, my ass was thinking far too much for a cohesive thought.

So here’s a couple that have been on the mind, fnc-centric

- Wild West AU

Yes, I’m also working on a Wild West AU for Ethersea, no you can never have too many cowboy aus. I’ve not done anything about this, I’m just thinking very hard about it, bc outlaws are literally land pirates. Anyways imagine you’re a bounty hunter Chip, going to bust some outlaws smuggling some stuff, and find a captive fish-man who seems way too feral for his own good. Imagine you end up recruiting this fish-man to help you hunt but immediately find out that whatever this guy is involved in, it goes WAY deeper than just getting unlucky and getting taken captive by some lowlife thugs. Shenanigans.

- Spaceship AU

(If you’ve ever listened to Swan Song by The Mechanisms, you get it) Chip finds this battered, strangely-shaped ship while stranded on a planet, and ends up stealing it, later discovering that the ship is powered by the mind of a long-dead champion named Gillion. Time for some space adventures! No tragedy here ahah :3 how much can it possibly hurt to fall in love with someone that you know you’ll never truly get to touch?

- Old Tattoo (the coffee shop au that lost its way)

This one’s literally just a self-indulgent (fully projecting) modern au where the albatrio are all adults trying to live a normal fucking life, while the universe is trying super hard to put them back together. (Soulmates frrrr) They eventually become roomates, and are also pulled into various schemes cooked up by Old Man Earl, as normalcy slowly begins to lose its meaning. They’re all trans, they’re all mentally ill, and they’re all vaguely aware of the fact that they knew each other in a past life. This one’s fnc-centric I think, unless PolyPirates demands it becomes known, and in that case I cannot stop it. I don’t control my writing my writing controls me.

Stone Age AU

This one requires knowledge of the Just Rolled What If: Stone Age session for it to truly make sense, but if you don’t have access to it, just imagine; what if there was timeline shenanigans a la spiderverse? Essentially, the crew of the Stone Age timeline fucked up in their world, and jeopardized multiple other universes. Chip and Jay from this world are completely immoral, and Gillion is trying his best to fix what they have done, while swearing an oath to kill his Chip and Jay. Stone!Chip and regular timeline Chip swap places, and while Stone!Chip learns of what could have been had things been different, the family he missed out on, regular Chip meets a broken and battered Gillion, devoid of that spark he’d grown familiar to. This au is mostly angst. I wanna talk more about it but I’d want that to be it’s own post (or fic)

[rainswept]

i saw a post that talked about how akutagawa was never a violent person before the mafia, that described his violence as trained, not innate but i CAN'T FIND IT ANYMORE

anyway. akutagawa dog symbolism makes me feral. all he knows is to lash out, to strike at whatever is closest, but the instinct always comes from either self-preservation or a desire to protect the people around him. only after dazai becomes his mentor does he begin to be the 'rabid dog' that he is. i wonder sometimes, if he never met dazai, if him and gin got to live a life of safety, would he bite? would he be the what he is now? would there be light in his eyes? would he be happy? is he happy now? does he even remember what it is like to feel at ease, content? what purpose would he even have, if not to kill? after all, what is an attack dog, if it knows not to bite?

hi avery. hold on give me a minute to pick my JAW up off of the FLOOR.

this is EXACTLY what i mean i’m going to cry. UAAGGHHHH. i don’t have much else to add directly onto the topic of akutagawa dog symbolism ™️ because i think you summed it all up perfectly, so i may go on a few tangents, sorry 😭 i could say a lot more on that pure aspect but i don’t want to just repeat what you’re saying so i’ll branch off a little bit

i think he’s a good example of nature vs nurture, to be honest. and it’s a hard topic to speak on, because, “would he bite?”— that’s something you can use for anyone with trauma, any sort of situation of “could it have happened differently?”. no, he probably wouldn’t bite, not if everything worked out perfectly. but it didn’t, so he does. and maybe the violence was trained and not innate, but now it has become so, and that’s the root of the tragedy of it.

he used to have a soft mouth, and now only knows how to draw blood. it’s awful and it’s sickening and it’s sad, but was it not necessary? i think that’s part of why it’s so horrid. it was either his blood shed or theirs, whoever they may be. is it worse to see his kindness killed or him? is it worse to watch him tear (when he never would have if he didn’t need to), or to watch him be torn apart? i don’t know if he knows how to close his mouth without biting down anymore. i don’t think he knows safety. i don’t think he ever has. i think he fears it, because safety means vulnerability, but vulnerability does not mean safety (in fact, to him it means the opposite, and he’s not wrong in feeling that way), and so the cycle will repeat over and over like a dog hopelessly chasing its own tail 💗

(also, when it comes to that hardening being necessary in a way, that’s why i don’t understand why people hate dazai for what he did to akutagawa. no, it wasn’t okay, but they were both kids. it sucked all around. there was no way dazai could have treated akutagawa like he does atsushi. he would be dead. yes, maybe he deserves some sort of. something. now. but is that even worth anything? what would he gain? would it really be as fulfilling as he thinks it would? or would his purpose just suddenly dissolve? his chains may be cut off, but he’ll still be suffocating in a collar, yet now with no hand feeding to make up for it. he will lose all he fought for, which is part of the reason i think dazai has never given it to him.)

on the topic of dazai: some people think akutagawa loves him, some think he hates him, whatever. i think he’s chained to him (like a dog), not because of dazai himself but because of akutagawa’s own expectations (of himself) and what he was forced to latch onto to stay alive. because he is loyal to a fault—not necessarily to dazai, it could be anyone if it worked out that way, but to the promise and cause he devoted himself to. he asked dazai for a reason to live and he gave him one. if he is acknowledged, what then? i don’t think what he thinks he vies for will satisfy that craving. does he like dazai? no, i don’t think so. if he never latched on so hard to the idea of trying to win dazai’s approval being his reason to keep going (see: a dog and its purpose, whatever that may be, guarding, attacking, protecting, killing, loving) — would he even care about him at all?

kind of off topic but i remember seeing something talking about how his ability can be used for so much more, how originally he only ever used it for offense and to use it for defense had to be taught, but that even still he’s holding himself back. he is the flea in a jar that will not jump higher than it could when in it even when set free. he is the dog raised in a shock collar that never leaves the yard even when the fence is off. anyway. i’m normal

[kylermalloy]

Hi hello sorry for spamming ur notifs sndndnd i have a question for you! Are you just into elijah and klaus (and rebekah too??) or do u go crazy for all the mikaelsons? If u dont whats the main appeal of elijah and klaus for you! Im very glad to have found ppl who are also Insane™ about the mikaelsons in the year of our lord 2023 and its really fun seeing ur takes on things and reading ur work! Hope u have a good day/night uwu

Hi hi hi never apologize for spamming! How else would we express our passion for the things we love? ❤️

Klaus and Elijah are definitely my favorites out of all the Mikaelsons, but I do love Rebekah a lot too! Freya, Finn, and Kol are further down the list, in that order. I love my murder children, but I’m not their mother—I’m not obligated to love them all equally!

I think the main appeal of Klaus and Elijah for me is simply their intensity. They’re the first originals we meet in tvd, and before we even see them together onscreen we can tell they have a fraught, complicated history—yet there’s love there too.

The flashbacks to the 15th century as they prepare to sacrifice Katherine? Klaus laughing about their silly ploys throughout history, while Elijah gazes lovingly over his shoulder? Bliss. I swoon. And the scene in present day, after Klaus has broken the curse and has just transformed back into a human? Elijah, the previous night (or however long ago) was prepared to kill him. Had his hand in his heart and everything. Yet now here he is, helping Klaus dress like some kind of butler—someone who’s been there for him like this time and again.

I go similarly insane about the flashbacks to the 1920s, in which Klaus has to explicitly tell the audience that Rebekah is his sister and not, you know, his girlfriend. But they do undercut this slightly with Rebekah immediately jumping on Stefan and, while I approve, climb that ripper tree, it does take away from her psychotic, erotic bond with Klaus.

And that’s just in tvd! That’s only setting the stage for TO! In TO, Klaus and Elijah’s bond is ramped up to main character status. Elijah is simultaneously Klaus’s brother-associate, his overbearing, cautioning father figure, and the lover with whom he has frequent spats and reconciliations. Klaus is having a baby? No, Elijah says, we’re having a baby! And inserts himself into this pregnancy situation with Hayley, and no one questions it.

(Klaus and Rebekah’s relationship also gets some amazing moments in s1 of TO, and for the first time Rebekah and Elijah’s relationship gets to shine too! But alas, after some of the best episodes of the entire show—episodes 1x14-16—Rebekah departs, so we get to see less of her with her siblings, and Klelijah continues to take center stage.)

I could detail every single thing I love about Klelijah’s relationship, their ups and downs, their tragedy and their comedy—and I might come back later and add on, if I feel like it!—but yeah, that’s my draw to these two. Canon is so generous with them, and I simply go crazy for it!

Not to mention—the actors’ chemistry had a huge hand in all this. They bounce off each other so well, and their mannerisms are so different yet both so old at the same time. You really believe they’ve known each other for a thousand years, and any fight that they have is mere window dressing to the centuries they’ve stood shoulder to shoulder.

And not only that! But! (⚠️Spoilers for the end of TO, if anyone still cares about that⚠️) The show rewards me and lets them die together. Klaus makes the ultimate sacrifice for his daughter, and Elijah’s like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ guess I’ll die too, and follows him into oblivion for no other reason than he wanted to. Ah yes, a very normal brotherly relationship. (I’m going FERAL just thinking about it again!)

Truly I have not been normal about them since 2018, and that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. I will keep repeating myself in posts like these until…either the whole world understands the brilliance of TO, or until I die. Whichever comes first.

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

True but I’m a bit optimistic when it comes to it because the writers have demonstrated they are not turning the women into caricatures and have added layers to most of them so it gives us a strong hint of what’s to come for other characters we haven’t been introduced to yet! I also feel that Ewan could have chemistry with anyone 😆

I have no doubts Ewan will drive this fandom absolutely feral with literally every single thing he does in Seasons 2 and 3, like his attention to detail and commitment to every role is just otherworldly! 😍

Now, with the writing...I am not quite as confident. Overall I think HOTD Season 1 was very good, however there were some inconsistencies in characterization that bothered me. I thought the jump from rebellious fiery Rhaenyra to adult Rhaenyra was a bit abrupt and not fully addressed (I suppose she alluded it to it when she talked about her life being "droll tragedy" to Daemon). I also thought adult Alicent's attitude towards Rhaenyra and the succession waffled in a way that made me unsure of her true feelings. And of course I am eternally horrified by the characterization of Aegon! They made him super sympathetic in some scenes and a rapist in others?? A choice that the actor himself KNEW was nonsensical and yet was left in the script anyway??

I think the talent of these incredible actors sometimes serves to disguise subpar writing and characterization. Also some of the best lines were apparently improvised by the actors themselves, so...

[infolane]

ARC-V Month Day 2: Kahyoreigetsu

Today is a day for the Bracelet girls. We have a couple things for the day :> We have plenty goodies so they’ll be under a read more! @arcvmonth​

First up is just a couple quick sketches of them!

--x--x--x--x--

Here’s a headcanon dump, too! I write about the girls fairly often, and they appear in roleplays as some of my favorite characters to write. I like to emphasize their roles in AUs, too!

Yuzu: The world’s longest normal girl. She’s a kind person that wants to help her friends and we love her for that! Has a rougher side with a bit of a temper, which she indulges in around friends. On her own she can be hesitant to take action and gets intimidated by sudden changes. Basically “Do it” “But I’m scared” “Do it scared”. Also loves to money, but doesn’t everyone?

Ruri: Easily the most eccentric of the four. Before the war, she was certainly like Yuzu- and if you ask Ruri, she would make a Face and condemn that past self as simply “living by inertia”. The war has changed her a lot, and she tends to consider that a positive that makes it harder to connect with others. She’s inquisitive and believes people are good at heart- which fuels a fascination with the enemy and a sharp wit that sees masks and acts as something to break through. Sometimes she says inscrutable things or uses metaphors in confusing ways.

Rin: If Rin is Yugo’s common sense, then Yugo is her moral compass. It isn’t that she’s a bad person at heart, but that she does not care for large causes, great wars, symbols, bureaucracies, lofty goals, utopias... to her, it is all part of the same rubbish that keeps her head down. Rather, she cares for people, and Yugo is at the center of it. She’s not terribly friendly, on her own, but she would gladly see Synchro burn if it would benefit people she cares about personally. She is smart and scrappy and well aware that her dream of dueling with Yugo for the Friendship Cup will land one of them in forced labor. Complexities.

Serena: She’s all about her sense of right and wrong, which is often misaligned. She appreciates efficiency and strength, which sounds pretty villainous until you put her side to side with the other girls. Not one for talking much, she’s very actions over words. Her upbringing at Academia has left her unsocialized, so in a way, she’s like a spicy feral kitten. If you can beat her, you get her respect, and that’s an important thing for her. She wants to do good, prove herself and live with honor, which are all difficult things to do in her situation. Easy to frustrate, can get physical if annoyed enough.

--x--x--x--x--

Last is a comic by Nihil and Birdie. It pertains a particular AU. (cw: Some blood)

RURI: I want to have a role. Serena says she doesn’t Get it. She cares for freedom, the forest, the wind in her hair... the blood in her mouth. So I turn from her, even though she is right. I don’t need to be a hero.

RURI: There is Golden-eyed Rin. She has plans she only shares with that person I look up to the most. I don’t get how she can call herself selfish when it is her efforts that will help up. A trial by fire. She is right- Heroes are covered in ash and sad debris. I look away.

RURI: I am certain Yuzu gets it. She just does not want it.

YUZU: People will die, can’t you see that?

SERENA: But I want to be free.

RIN: But the grudge needs avenging.

...

RURI: A solemn stare, it was loaded with a question:

YUZU: Can you handle the price of having a role in this tragedy?

RURI: I don’t just want a role to feel good. I want to understand, while I’m not in my brother’s shadow. Wings that protect. I don’t want to suffocate inside my egg. Let me face the sun, I won’t faulter, won’t flinch when I see the scars.

When I see her.

[brilliantfantasticgeronimo]

"the church on ruby road" thoughts + reactions

(tumblr is broken so i cant delete this space without breaking the post :))

"you saw a ladder in the sky and you thought, yeah, ill give that a go, babes" rose tyler CALL OUT

"what's the problem with hanging on? it's all the friction and the weight and the burns. so i got rid of that" and that's why u are still Fucked Up doc. this is NOT how u do rehab!!!

"learn the lenguage" eyes emoji "coincidence is what makes the baby tasty" EYES EMOJI

"it sitches you in. it weaves you into the day. you become all complicated and knotted and vivid"

"it's like a tapestry, it's gorgeous" self congratulating ur own writing, russel? sldkfjsdlkfj

"like the best, like wow" 13 and ‘fam’ walked so 15 could run

"a screwdriver needs screws" (so whenever the screwdriver works it, it works by resonating articulations and undoing binding agents, but it cannot do “untangling”)

VENTILAITON SHAFTS!!!! (my "this new era is the cartoon era" meta is born)

"amazing!" "no it's not" nothing changes lol

this feels *so* wilderness years (positive)

the MASTER knot you say....………………………...

"i've got no one" aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

"it's not magic, it's a lenguage, like a different form of physics" he’s coping about the “little” salt mistake still...

damn 15/ruby chemistry is so good….. can't wait for it all to go up in flames. And tragedy. Flaming tragedy.

"but only one of them stayed" mirror...? QUICK someone count how many companions have there been and if it's 33?????

im having sm emotions wtf

honestly ppl thinking rtd would retcon this were so hilariously off-base lol as if there's anything more of a catnip-plot for a soap opera writer than a “figure out parental origins” plotline

follow the crack... the crack in time and space...

it bothered me that in the special they used so much contemporary colorful theatrical lighting, that didnt fit the "grounded" doctordonna era at al, but it works much better here in that we're properly in the color ncuti era

"dont say that" aggggggggggggg

(ppl forgeting about ruby feels kinda clara coded / foreshadowing?)

"then why are you crying?" im going feral

"i will fix this" rtd voice: he will make it worse

oohh, the hubris in this ep was the arrogance of the doctor saying "they are NOT time travellers" sdklfj

baby catching... xena coded

blue / gold motif my beloved!!!

its a wonderful life~

"everything i do just makes it happen" -> "maybe im the bad luck"

"where are you goin now?" nbd just ruby going to buy some bread at the same store as yaz

CONCLUSIONS!

this was so wholesome t.t i really enjoyed that!! it has some lore implications and long-run stuff but mostly i’m really glad to finally get some new stories/a new vibe. I really enjoyed the glimpse we got of ruby’s family world and also love that both mine and 15’s reactions was “i’ve only had ruby for half an hour but if something happened to her i’d murder everyone here and then myself probably”. her wardrobe is beyond iconic.

besides the “biggest family in the world” parallel, the bb photos in the fridge give me like… TTC’s o"ther lost incarnations are their siblings vibe". Or, every "other time lord is technically the doctor’s children" vibe.

aesthetically, i really enjoyed this one. Specially The Big Scene (13-era blue/gold motif my beloved). This is one i see myself rewatching in the future just for the feel-good feel of it. the goblin number was fun! a clever parody of how much of pop uses “baby” and sweets-related metaphors for the sake of romance and here it becomes all for the sake of cannibalism lol (big brown eyes, caramelise~). 15/ruby being *so in* tune is cute+fun (and slightly sus). promising start to the new era.

[blightsending]

It has been brought to the attention of the Blights Ending Moderation Team that a couple of anonymous messages have been shared with the claim that we have a ‘man hating’ plot and system. We can only assume this is a reference to our matriarchal clan, GladeClan, and would like to take a moment and address those concerns.

First I would like to reassure that GladeClan, both culturally and on an individual character level, does not “hate men.” The toms in the clan are highly valued and beloved the same as their molly clanmates. There are numerous, important roles which they can still occupy - such as herbalists, advisors, monarchs, and runners. 

Approximately 30% of GladeClan are toms, about 27% are some flavor of Non-binary, and less than half are mollies at around 43%. It would not make sense to have a clan that hates or undervalues ⅓ of their population. In battle toms will be defended just as fiercely as their molly clanmates, and in tragedy they will be mourned just as deeply.

In order to help understand GladeClan’s matriarchal society I think it would be beneficial to discuss the several, key influences which it is a culmination of.

I work at a veterinary clinic and am studying feline behavior - not only on my personal time, but attending courses - with the goal of becoming a behaviorist. I’m fascinated by the feline world and love to utilize my knowledge and experience in the worldbuilding process when possible.

In the real world, away from the anthropomorphized world of Warriors, feral colonies - without human intervention, such as TNR - will naturally form around nursing queens and their kittens. It is a sort of communal child-rearing situation.  Females from previous litters may stick around to help raise future litters, while toms will typically leave when they approach sexual maturity in order to establish a territory of their own and reproduce. 

Domestic cats are uniquely social, their structure and means of communication deviate from the way lions - the only other truly social feline - operate. As fascinating as this is, it’s often ignored in the development of Warriors and other xenofic societies because it can be difficult to navigate in a way that is both believable and palatable. What the goal should be, when tackling this obstacle, is to maintain the suspension of disbelief without crossing into problem territory.

You can read more about the fascinating domestication and social behavior of cats here: [link] To learn more about what I discussed, scroll down to Part Four: Literally Tiny Lions.

Another great love of mine is hyenas, in particular the spotted hyena. These are extremely intelligent animals, at times described as comparable to - or even surpassing - certain subgroups of primates. Despite this, hyenas remain widely misunderstood. They are very efficient hunters, despite their reputation as scavengers - not that they’ll pass up a good meal if they find one - and operate on a matriarchy far more stringent than GladeClan’s. They also employ a fission-fusion society, which was a major inspiration for GladeClan’s multiple camps.

In spotted hyena clans the lowest ranking female is still above the highest ranking male, and the offspring of the matriarch will be of higher rank than the offspring of another hyena. This was an inspiration for GladeClan’s tradition of nepotism, but we did not translate the strict dichotomy of males and females into the world of Blights Ending. A male warrior and a female warrior, for example, are of equal value and all kits are celebrated and treated equally.

Although it was my fascination with the natural world that laid the basic foundation, or the framework, for GladeClan it was Mod Cedar’s heritage and experience which introduced the needed human element into GladeClan and fleshed it out, building it into the amazing and nuanced society we see in our roleplay today. 

So I’m going to let Mod Cedar take it from here.

Mod Rufus

I am Indigenous and would like to weigh in on the concerns regarding our roleplay, in particular the matriarchal group GladeClan, through the lens of my culture. I hope that by doing so, everyone reading can understand our intentions a little more and why we've made the decision to write GladeClan the way we have.

There are some things about my tribe’s culture I am not permitted to share with outsiders, but I don’t believe anything that's applicable to anything I'm discussing here. If you’re from another tribe and reading this but have a different experience, that is okay. I know that Native tribes are not the same and we’re all different. GladeClan was mostly based around hyena & feral cat dynamics, but I touched up on it and created or contributed to various lore pieces that are loosely inspired by my culture.

Firstly, I want to put a stop to the idea that matriarchal societies are inherently cruel or unfair to men. In my tribe women are considered extremely close to the land, being creators and the mothers of all humans. As such, mostly women own land. This isn’t to punish men - who are still extremely important and have their own traditional roles in our tribe, but women are the ones who are trusted with tending to the land the most. Women have special ceremonies and dances that only they are allowed to do, and women get to decide who the next chief of the tribe will be. Men are not allowed to marry women without proving they’re capable of taking good care of them.

Men are brothers, fathers, role models, protectors, sacred members of our tribe. But they aren’t given full power. That was my inspiration for GladeClan.

In my tribes eyes, our creator gave women and men different gifts (as in roles, abilities, dances, etc), and it is seen to be disrespectful towards the other if you take from them, because you are taking that group’s gift. Of course, if you're two-spirit this is another story.

Although this may remind you of gender roles typical in American, European, and other colonized societies but we have always recognized the varying expressions of gender and welcomed those who are two-spirit to participate in special roles as well as the roles of the "opposite" group. I've always loved how my culture celebrates all genders and their own unique ways and presentations. Essentially, "Western" understandings of gender and transness can't be accurately applied to my tribes experience and beliefs. I wanted to clarify and express that here.

I wanted GladeClan to be based around mothers. In my culture mothers are incredibly sacred, and I wanted to play with the idea of celebrating mothers and motherly roles in the clan’s society.

The combination of my tribe’s culture, hyena and feral cat behavior, and motherhood seemed to mix well together to create GladeClan. I wanted a nice balance, and I want to believe that we achieved that.

The Mother is an important part of the lore of Blight's Ending. She is the ultimate creator, which is another similarity to my tribe's culture (one I really like!) and an inspiration for how I envisioned GladeClan. If The Mother is such an important figure in the clans' lives, I figured that a matriarchal clan would make sense - a clan that celebrates mothers.

If you check our wedding lore, you'll see how that inspiration for motherhood and its importance was incorporated into the lore.

If you'd like to read more about feminism from an indigenous perspective this article is a good place to start: [link].

Mod Cedar

Addendum: An additional concern has been raised during the time we took in writing this post, instead of addressing it in a separate post we’re going to discuss it here given that it is an extension of the subjects which we’ve addressed above.

When it comes to the matriarchy of GladeClan it is very oriented around the “sense of self,” while toms are not permitted to be leaders, deputies, or healers there is no set definition of “tom.” I am a trans masculine butch lesbian who uses he/they pronouns - as a side note, the lesbian in me is rather tired of the ‘man hating’ accusations - and if I felt I met the cultural understanding of the requirements for leadership then I would be permitted in the role. If another trans masculine he/him butch lesbian felt they didn’t fit the role, then they would not.

Early in the roleplay we were presented with the question of what would happen if a molly became leader, or another high rank, and later realized they were a trans tom. Would they be forcibly removed? In truth, the most realistic course of action in this event would be that the character would voluntarily resign as he no longer meets the requirements of the position. This is a culture he was born and raised in, there would be no reason for him to dig his heels in for the sake of maintaining power.

GladeClan has existed for a long time in Blights Ending canon, established well before the memory of any living cat or their immediate kin, as such their beliefs and traditions are fairly cemented. We do not allow character arcs or sub-plots where characters question or revolt against the matriarchy because it simply does not make sense for that society, anymore than it would for a RiverClan cat to suggest they move away from a fish-based diet because the other clans don’t rely on fish.

We do not have cats who question BarrenClan’s rough-and-tumble lifestyle in favor of pacifism - despite being a far more recent clan, nor do we have characters who question why CopseClan will only say StarClan when performing a ceremony. BarrenClan’s punk influence and CopseClan’s Jewish influence isn’t questioned in the same way GladeClan is, and we honestly find the amount of controversy surrounding it to be concerning. We do not think that people who criticize, or are uncomfortable, with GladeClan are misogynistic or anti-indigenous but we do implore them to re-examine where these thoughts and feelings stem from.

Mod Rufus

[turboweenie]

4, 27, 28, and 29 for the ask meme pls 👀

What’s a word that makes you feral? 

If we’re talking about “words that I behave like an impulsive, uncontrollable animal about and literally could not stop using if the threat of death loomed forth above my neck”, I like words to indicate exactness (“precisely” “meticulously” “distinctly”)... If we’re talking about a word that I will stop to turn over in my mouth when I see it used, and contemplate how no other word could have fit in the place of the one chosen, and consider that one single word has encapsulated an entire concept or atmosphere that would have otherwise taken an entire paragraph to describe… I will have to get back to you. I only know them when I see them.

Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? 

Stressful for me? Or stressful for those around them? ... I had a lad named Ewan (I’ve mentioned him) whom I loved dearly, but he ended up causing me a really profound amount of distress, because his story ended up being a tragedy. I’ve never like, bawled into a friend’s arms over an original character like that, before or since. Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written? Why?

Okay, uh, for whatever reason, the first character that came to mind was Dorian. Writing from his perspective felt like slipping into a really comfortable skin and it allowed me to meet a lot of really sweet, fun, and talented people. He has just the right amount of snarky zing for me to get a good joke in but also a level of gravitas and intelligence that prevents him from becoming solely comedic relief. I hope I managed to do him justice while I was writing for him!

Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

A lot of the time I struggle because I can’t quite get into a character’s head, or I feel like the combinations of words that I’m using are becoming stale. The best thing for me to do in those cases is sit and binge read novels: it reminds me to use words I’ve fallen out of practice using, it gives me a series of fresh patterns and rhythms to try out with sentence structure when I see them utilized effectively, and getting into someone else’s head for a bit means when I come back to whatever hurtle that I was stuck on I’m equipped to take a different angle of approach on it. Watching movies helps too, for the same reason, or listening to music, anything that provides concepts and beats that you don’t feel like you have to pull out of your own ass, or can remind you of the beats you started with that maybe got lost or put on the wayside.