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420technoblazeit · 3 days

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(this got long sorry)

the crux of the idea is the question “what if sam and dean ran into someone who has only a horror-movie level understanding of the supernatural?” it also plays with the idea of generational hunting, and expands the world of hunters who arent winchesters. its your typical monster of the week episode set in probably the second season. the beats are something like this:

cold open. girl home alone, staying up late. she hears a weird noise coming from upstairs. taking a knife from the kitchen, she goes to investigate. creepy man-looking shadow is up there, tries to attack her. she stabs him with the knife, he vanishes. she realizes that the thing was a ghost and looked like a painting her parents just bought. so she does everything under the sun to trap the ghost. salt ring, metal ring (cobbled together from necklaces and silverware), salt around the entire room including windows and door, a couple googled latin incantations, and a sprinkling of herbs from the spice drawer.

next day. someone knocks on the door. our favorite hunks, sam and dean. theyve been looking for the haunted painting and are posing as art dealers. girl wont sell the painting, says to talk to her parents, wholl be back in a couple days. they cant convince her but none of them say anything about the painting being weird. snd decide they have to steal the painting before the ghost kills her.

that night. snd are at the house, get to the window of the room where the painting is. see all the assorted protections. door is closed but they can tell someone is behind it in the hall. ghost appears but cant do anything because salt. ghost begins threatening person behind door, person (girl) seems unfazed. snd realize theyve walked in on someone elses hunt and leave. they decide to go back again tomorrow and offer the info theyve already gathered.

next day. snd at the door again. sam notices some sort of warding/protection symbol, confirming girl as a hunter. girl opens door, snd spill the beans and ask to come in and collab. girl is like wth are you talking about. after some discussion, snd convince her they are not insane and can do something about the homicidal ghost in her house. she lets them in and shows them the setup. its clearly the work of someone who has exactly half a clue what theyre doing, but some stuff is odd. heres more warding symbols around the house and some of the herbs are rare with no real cooking use. she mentions the stabbing/vanishing and they investigate. every knife in the house is either iron or silver. oh, and every room in the house has at least one mega-creepy painting. snd realize that the girl is not the hunter but someone in the house is. they ask about her parents. theyre art dealers who specialize in old paintings, and often go on “scouting trips” snd attempt to gently break the news that girls parents are hunters who probably deal with haunted paintings, but she doesnt want to hear it. she hasnt slept in days because of the ghost in her house and now theyre dropping like six bombshells on her at once. she kicks them out, despite them trying to stay to destroy the ghost.

i havent got the rest of it properly nailed down but the parents come back, theres a scene where girl confronts parents about being hunters and they fess up. she runs off and snd follow her (they were outside the house). they go to talk to the parents. somehow the ghost gets killed and the paintings still intact (parents genuinely like them). parents promise to never send a haunted painting home when girl is alone and to also train her so she can protect herself if needed. snd drive off and done.

the beginning is definitely better but i kinda ran out of ideas. im pretty sure i wouldnt be able to characterize either sam or dean properly and i also know i wouldnt be able to make myself even begin writing it. also i did not explain it well. thats why i wanted to turn it over to someone else. its rough now but i trust that someone who knows more about supernatural and writing could make it good.

WAIT I FOUND IT. big poggies. also this is a cute idea i feel like ur oc would fit right in w/alex and claire and all of jodie's other kids. there's plenty of spn fanfic writers who im sure woud b thrilled to write a fic for u if u wanted to commission them!

#the pig squeals

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catboymoments · 2 years

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hello your tangled AU has entered my brain and refused to leave. i also like to kinda shuffle things around in AUs to keep it interesting lol.

consider: caleb and philip are the kingdom's princes, and caleb is first in line for the throne. philip slowly grows more and more spiteful that caleb won't listen to the policies he wants to implement (idk what those policies would be tho lol) and tries to murder caleb. he fails, barely, and gets exiled.

while exiled and looking for a way to get back at his brother, philip finds raw magic (?) stored in a huge pink flower. he cant just take all of it bc that would explode him, so he periodically comes back to the flower to gather magic energy and learn to cast Evil Spells. this kinda fucks him up tho, and eventually he needs the magic just to stay alive.

caleb marries evelyn and gets crowned king, but when they try for baby, they realize that for one reason or another, they're unable to conceive kids. they consult the collector, who tells them that if they find some raw magic and each sacrifice one of their bones, he'll make them a kid. caleb and evelyn hunt down the raw magic flower, they each chop off a finger, and the collector uses their bones and the raw magic to create hunter.

philip goes back to his cave to find the flower gone, and goes into a Rage. he spends months searching, until one day he sees a picture of the royal baby, a little boy with bright pink eyes. the same pink as the flower.

philip uses the last of his magic to break into the palace, and discovers that magic is stored in the baby. he steals hunter and locks him up in a faraway tower, where he raises him to be as submissive and obedient as possible, and keeps reminding him of the fact that if hunter ever leaves him, both of them will perish because hunter is too good and pure for the evil outside, adn philip needs the magic thats inside him to live.

hunter is a very curious and energetic dude tho, and through the books philip brings him, teaches himself everything from sewing to cooking to basic martial arts. by the time willow enters the tower, he's more than capable of knocking her out in one hit, though he very quickly realizes he shouldnt have done that probably cuz shes very nice.

willow has a hard time convincing him to leave with her, because hunter is still like "nooo if im not here my uncle will die" but eventually he lets her convince him that he won't notice if it's just for a day, right??

wrong. cause in the 15 years that hunter's been gone, caleb has learned some magic of his own, and has been carving and sending out magic wooden birds to look for his boy. and wouldnt you know it, on hunter's first day out, he gets found by a little cardinal who keeps trying to bully him into going to the castle. and yknow, hunter would really like to see the castle and his uncle usually doesnt show up for weeks at a time and he can't resist two sources of peer pressure at once, so,,,, yea.

i really like this AU can you tell? :P

OH THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD I’ve been trying to think of a good way to shuffle the plot to fit the characters AND THIS ROCKS!!!!

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larnax · 1 year

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tentative ochette rework with unfucked formatting

so ochette is a little different than throné in that her problem is fundamental and so basically everything but the bones of her story is Bad, for one simple reason: the implementation of the beastlings sucks ass

now that being said i am not going to sit here and explain why the beastlings are handled very poorly bc 1) ive already done that and 2) it's actually a really easy fix. just make beastling a trait you gain becoming a hunter and the rest of toto'haha are just normal fantasy pacific islanders. they did this with tropu'hapu and it was fine so they clearly can make a normal fantasy pacific islander region if they want to, so just. do that. and then because beastlings are just humans who've become hunters, treat them like humans. they speak the language they're already all native speakers of fluently and they are just people do not be weird.

but you may ask, how would becoming a hunter give you cat ears? and the answer is very simple, deus ex subjob menu. in ot1 the subclasses are literally blessings from the gods, so you can just imply that a similar thing is happening here where draefendi blesses you with the power of kemonomimi once you join her hunt. or a wizard did it who care. beastlings 100% exist primarily so the hunter class can make your characters catboys bc thats awesome so its better for everything if we're just honest with that

how does this fix everything?: well 1) as the beastlings are no longer infantilized animalistic caricatures, there is less racism in the game, 2) this makes the hunter subclass no longer technically racefaking, and 3) it means that the 20 year old woman who is the only protagonist from toto'haha no longer has to be treated like a toddler

yes i know this breaks temenos' chapter 5. i dont care. skill issue.

so anyway ochette. unfortunately ochette's entire character is noble savage/toddler so she needs an overhaul

my proposal is to make her more autistic keep her caring a lot/focusing on her interests, which are now: hunting, cooking, and languages.

these were mainly chosen based on her existing mechanics, except for languages which is tied into the fact that i want to change her night path action to be swapped with hikari's so befriend now gains you information. (yes i know this would make bribe identical to hire so you would have to change what mechanic it relies on. idk which one im not a doctor). this is mainly because ot2 already does a lot of interesting things with path actions even outside of character stories and i wanna push the thing where some NPCs can only have certain path actions just a little farther and make it so that not all NPCs can be info-gathered by all characters because some of them only speak other languages. yes ik this would require them to create some conlangs but it doesnt have to be Every character and creating one fairly simple conlang for ochette's story and maybe like 3 more for random NPCs to have 1 line in seems fully possible. they already made a couple different writing systems. actually they could literally just keep the writing systems and just write romaji/english/etc sentences in them if they dont wanna do a real language.

why ochette? Because I Said So. i told you guys i held back on throné ochette not having much of a character means i get to enter silly mode

anyway so Ochette Autism activate. she will now love cooking. she invents new recipes and likes finding ways to cook complicated stuff with only things she can gather in the moment. she has extensive knowledge of every edible plant in toto'haha. her first thought when she sees an elemental spirit with no physical body is "yeah i could make a mean fucking soup of that creatyre". she would hunt regardless as the main hunter for her village but the reason she Loves hunting is that she loves finding her own ingredients. she also really loves languages. no longer is animal language automatically translated, now she just learned how to speak the languages of animals from toto'haha and some others from juvah. she likes talking to people and is academically interested in languages. this partly comes from convenience bc shes had to get used to learning languages to speak with the village and her animal companions but its also partly because she has trouble communicating with people and its one of the ways she tries to account for that. also more on that in the story since its what ill be focusing on. she cares a lot about sustainability and is fundamentally against killing what you won't eat. her main flaws are that 1) despite her love of languages she often has difficulty communicating with people even if she can understand them, 2) she doesn't really care about anything outside her interests, and 3) due to her living her entire life in a small village of people who all knew her she's kind of unfamiliar with the concept of a stranger who doesn't immediately get her and can sometimes be overly familiar or opaque to people who don't understand her

her extensive cooking knowledge will mostly be used for jokes and in travel banter while her language skills will be the driving force of the story

also due to this im rewriting her relationship map lets just go in order. so as she and castti now are both knowledgeable about plants and meat(most of the human body is meat) the two of them keep finding things they have in common, and also because ochette's prepared food grants a bunch of positive effects she and castti end up talking about the benefits of healthy eating and medicinal properties of food a lot. she and throné initially have an awkward relationship because ochette is very satisfied with her life and she. isnt, but as throné goes through her story where she's worried that a killer is all she'll ever be and she's a permanent net negative for the world, ochette provides her with an example of someone who has a sustainable relationship with life and death and gives her hope that she might eventually be able to find an occupation where she can use her skills to benefit herself and other people, and also they are gay. osvald and she are initially very awkward because ochette talks a ton and osvald is completely unreceptive but as their stories progress osvald decides that ochette would probably make a pretty good scholar if being a hunter ever falls through for her and shes like yeah haha maybe in another life. partitio and her are mismatched despite being similar because despite both of them being singlemindedly determined about their interests but coming off as endearing because one of those interests is befriending people means they get along on a lot of fronts, partitio is very focused on progress and increasing in scale whereas ochette simply isn't and couldn't care less about inventions that don't have anything to do with her specialties. agnea finds out in her chapter 2 that ochette actually has a really good singing voice and spends the rest of her story trying to get ochette to contribute a verse to the song of hope but hijinks ensue as ochette only knows how to write lyrics in languages agnea can't understand and in the case of a bird language can't replicate. temenos and she spend basically all their travel banters fighting about theology because ochette could not give less of a fuck about any gods besides draefendi and temenos is like What do you mean "tell aelfric to call me back when he can give me awesome cat powers" and "if my religion was existentially threatened by the existence of other religions i would simply not lmao". she and hikari are just kind of on the same team because she's very against killing without purpose

now onto her story. the basic structure will actually be the same, i'm keeping the night of the scarlet moon and her journey to be finding and bringing back the three guardian beasts, However the how will be different

chapter 1: i'm removing the territorial dispute entirely partly bc as beastlings and humans are now the same theres no village divide and also octopath's tone and writing simply aren't equipped to handle this issue well, so we're cutting it. we are keeping the flashback of ochette choosing between the jackal and owl though, and the first scene being her hunting the king iguana its basically just that the companion is like "can we not wait until we get back to town to cook this thing" and ochette is like "no it tastes better if you cook it immediately" and then theres a little cutscene of her grilling it on the spot. she gets back to town and is sharing the jerky with everyone and then goes to speak with juvah, who tells her she's going to be the village guardian. ochette is reluctant because she enjoys her current life where she's able to only do things she finds interesting, but juvah says she's the only person strong enough to do it, and they talk about how the forest is changing. suddenly cohazeh shows up and says that a woman has wandered into the tomb of the wanderbeasts and can someone go get her, ochette says yeah of course and sets off. when she arrives the woman is acting very strangely and ochette has to provoke her. after being defeated she calms down and can be befriended to gain information about being attacked by a weird creature. after that she joins the party and they return to find juvah fighting the weird creature, with her taking over after he's injured and defeating it. after it's defeated, juvah takes her to the tombs and tells her about the prophecy and that this will be the final test of whether or not she's ready to be the guardian and then falls asleep. ochette reluctantly sets off, unsure if she'll be able to pass this trial.

chapter 2: the structure of 2 is actually mostly fine it's just ochette as a character that's changed. when she shows up she's frustrated by the way conning creek differs from the village and has an awkward confrontation with a food stall owner because she doesn't understand the concept of making food when you might be making more than you need before being stopped by her companion and reminded what she came here for. she goes to the coast and finds alpione who blocks her path and tells her that she'll be encroaching on sacred land if she goes to the island, ochette insists she needs to go and is confused by alpione not trusting her even though ochette knows she's not going to do anything bad, but fails to communicate this effectively. alpione has to be challenged and after her defeat ochette goes to find the island completely empty. at the tail end of the little spiral alpione shows up. she initially refuses to talk but can be befriended, at which point she'll share that cateracta was killed by a strange hunter and left to rot. alpione and the other guardians made use of her remains out of respect. ochette is angered by cateracta's death but is relieved that she at least wasn't left to decay, and alpione finally realizes that ochette holds the same respect for animals that she does, at which point she asks why ochette wanted to meet cateracta. ochette explains her situation more clearly and alpione is like. why did you not say that before. and mentions that there's one piece of cateracta that remains, and that it too shouldn't go to waste, giving her cateracta's egg which hatches into acta. before leaving, ochette is again conflicted and reflects on what happened. she still doesn't really get why alpione took so long to understand her motivations and wonders if she could ever be capable of being the village guardian when she feels like she'll never really understand people even if she can talk to them. she'll especially never understand people like the hunter, and doesn't know what she would do if she ever came across someone like that.

chapter 3: ochette shows up in crackridge to find the earthquakes and goes around asking about tera but everyone refuses to talk to her about it, except for an old woman speaking a language she doesn't understand but who reacts to the name 'tera' by speaking a lot. ochette has to go around befriending people until she finds the woman's son who when befriended will share the location of a [language]-solistian dictionary which ochette can use to understand how to befriend the woman, at which point she gives ochette directions on where to find tera. ochette finds the sleeping tera and tries to wake him up but nothing works until the old woman from before shows up and shouts something in [language], at which point tera wakes up, but attacks ochette. after being captured, he calms down and recognizes that ochette is from toto'haha and figures out what's going on. he says that the old woman is a descendant of the first inhabitants of crackridge and that she's been waking him up to feed him while he tries to recover from a fight with the hunter. ochette asks why he attacked her and he says that the hunter tricked the woman's ancestor into revealing his location and he thought this was another case of that. ochette is like ohhh i see, and tera says he's healed up enough to accompany her back to the island. tera also teaches her how to thank the woman for her help, and he explains what's going on to her and that she won't need to feed him for a while. on the way back, the townspeople get angry at her for all the earthquakes but ochette says that she subdued tera and he won't be back for some time and also will be calmer when he returns. the old woman's son finds her and says he's surprised that anyone actually bothered to understand his mom, saying that although plenty of people have tried to calm down tera all of them gave up when they realized she didn't know any solistian. ochette says it's lucky she's good at learning languages, but the son says that it's probably also that she realized ochette was trying to help. he wishes her luck on her journey. ochette stops to think about things. she's still conflicted, now aware there are lots of kind of miscommunication, but found it satisfying to actually use her skills to talk with someone she otherwise wouldn't have been able to . she still doesn't want to be the guardian if it means she can't just do what she wants, but wonders if she might get to feel this satisfaction over being able to help resolve an issue using her skills if she did take up the job.

chapter 4: ochette arrives in stormhail and after befriending a townsperson is told that glacis lives on the peak of the mountain, but the townsperson warns her that the blizzards have been so intense that trying to climb it will be extremely dangerous. ochette says that she doesn't really have a choice and sets out for the mountain anyway. she's blocked by the sanctum guard and although she tries to explain why she needs to get past the guard refuses to listen to her and she eventually resorts to knocking him out. just before she starts up the path, she's stopped by heig who Again warns her and ochette, now very annoyed, snaps at him that for the last fucking time she just needs to see glacis, heig insists she'll die just like the others, ochette says she's built different and leaves anyway. on the way up the mountain she finds several frozen corpses which she and her companion figure out must have been caused by glacis. heig shows up and is like "see? all these great hunters were felled by glacis' fury. you're fucked". ochette realizes he's trying to help her and befriends him to figure out his perspective, he explains that this is his old crew and they were trying to hunt glacis. ochette asks why, he says for glory. ochette's disgusted that they were just planning to take her head and leave, and says she doesn't have any sympathy for the dead hunters. heig admits they were acting selfishly and says that he only survived because he hesitated, and then fled while glacis was killing the rest of his party, so now he tries to atone by making sure nobody else makes it up the mountain. ochette says she has no intention of killing glacis and that he's actually preventing anything from getting better by just locking her away instead of actually trying to make it up to glacis herself. heig is like.... shes a bird, and ochette explains that all animals are sentient and can be reasoned with if you're willing to learn their language, and that he should apologize to her personally. he leaves, but ochette notices that he's going up the mountain instead of down. she thinks that just leaving the bodies here is wasteful, but eventually decides it should be up to glacis who hunted them what to do. she gets to the peak to find heig unconscious in the snow and a furious glacis who attacks her. after being subdued ochette asks glacis what happened and she says that heig started shouting at her. ochette explains that she told him to apologize for he and his comrades' selfishness. glacis is surprised, but allows ochette to get heig, and when he wakes up glacis says she'll listen to ochette if she translates for him. heig apologizes on behalf of his party for attacking glacis and says that he's spent the years since then trying to atone, but that her blizzards are wrecking stormhail and killing innocent people and it may be time for both of them to move on. glacis is suspicious that he's only apologizing because ochette made him, but reluctantly accepts that he actually never attacked her earlier and was just talking in a way she couldn't understand. she agrees to accompany ochette back to toto'haha, and says that when she returns to stormhail she will protect it instead of attacking it. she also says that if heig learns how to speak to her, she'll allow him to atone for the attack by becoming her helper, which he agrees to. ochette asks what glacis wants to do with the bodies of the fallen hunters, and glacis replies that now that the blizzard is gone they should naturally be consumed by the animals of the mountain. heig is resistant to the idea until ochette explains that it's a sign of respect to allow them to return to nature in death and should be their way to make up for their actions since they're not alive to do it themselves, which he accepts. ochette leaves the two of them and returns to stormhail to think. she's still angry on glacis' behalf at heig and the hunters, but this has shown her that there are cruel or selfish people who can be convinced to change if made to understand the problem and people who appear to be acting cruelly who just don't have the full context. she also realizes that understanding people means considering the perspectives of people she's diametrically opposed to even if she never comes to agree with them. from her experience with juvah she knows that being the guardian comes with the responsibility to protect the entirety of toto'haha, even the parts and people she doesn't particularly care about, and thinks that she would probably have to change as a person to achieve that level of understanding. could she do it? does she want to? does she have the obligation to even if she doesn't want to?

chapter 5: ochette returns to toto'haha with all the guardians. juvah is relieved, saying that the amount of weird beasts in the forest is increasing and that people were starting to get hurt. he asks her if she's ready to take on the mantle of guardian, and ochette admits that she's still not sure. suddenly, night falls and the blood moon is out. that sequence is mostly unchanged, you're fighting tons of Weird Creatures and using the guardians to bust through until she comes upon the companion she didn't choose and gets thrown into the ocean. she's rescued by the might of her current companion who channels the same force of draefendi that gives ochette her beastling power and they drag her out to the beach where she comes across the darkling. the climax is already very good so i'm leaving it unchanged except for ochette befriending the darkling and getting an info window that mentions that the darkling can now rest. the epilogue is juvah asking her the same question as before and ochette realizing that it's worth it to be the guardian and she's willing to grow to fill that role, deciding to continue on her journey until she's gained enough experience to confidently be a good guardian.

ochette's crossed paths is actually mostly good and in fact her translating the dourdour boar is one of the reasons i thought of the language thing for ochette, basically the only change is that ochette and castti have a different dynamic so no milf jokes(29 is too young to be a milf anyway. sorry) and the joke is instead that ochette is like "hmmmmmm. i wonder if i could cook the shadowy being" and castti is like "i feel like that would at least give you food poisoning"

#c.paradisi #octoposting

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ossseous · 4 years

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hello!! hope you're well! just saw ur response to the "properly formed society" comment on the carrier bag theory ursula post, i felt like the way u answered was so gentle but firm and informed. was wondering if u could maybe share some recommendations for texts to read more about this? cos i agree w/ the idea but its hard to find books like that. for example i think yuval's book ultimately has this kind of idea behind it (havent read it but from what ive read OF it, thats the vibe). thank u!!

sorry the word limit probably didn't help me express that right, i meant more books about anthro that focus on exploring human nature and our beginnings with a less "man is violent. man is the best supreme species. progress greatest invention. colonialism good because progress" yadda yadda yadda kind of deal, does this make sense? thank you again. also i think im obligated now to ask u your garbage ship of the week

I’m much more of an article person than a book person because I can only take so much dry jargon filled writing for so long, but I do have some suggestions.

The biggest one is probably Questioning Collapse. For context, Jared Diamond is a man (not an anthropologist) that shares all his theories on how past civilizations, such as the Greenland Norse, or the Rapa Nui, or the Maya, collapsed, in the terribly titled book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (yikes). Let's get some things straight though. Jared Diamond proved in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, that he is a white supremacist who exploited the people of Papua New Guinea and believes that euro imperialism was just , bound to happen because europeans were more "civilized." So it was no surprise when all his favorite themes, that people, especially "uncivilized" ones, are violent and selfish, showed up in Collapse.

Unfortunately, many of these theories have become very popular and many people assume them to be correct when they aren't. Some examples: Diamond posited that the Rapa Nui (Easter Islanders) essentially destroyed their own natural resources which lead to warfare, cannibalism, and eventually their own demise. This ignores the fact that the island was ravaged by european expeditions, which included Fuck Boy Supreme James Cook (of the botched kidnapping and eventual killing by Hawaiians fame). Of course these encounters with Europeans led to the enslaving of the Rapa Nui, as well as the introduction of diseases that had a devastating impact on the population numbers.

Anyways, Questioning Collapse, edited by McAnany and Yoffee, is a collection of essays written by different people in the scientific community to dispute the theories Jared Diamond lays out in his book Collapse.

Ancient Civilizations by Fagan and Scarre, specifically chapter 2 “theories of states”

Another one would probably be Almost Human: A Journey into the World of Baboons written by Shirley C. Strum. I cant quite remember if Strum ever addresses this because it has been a few years since I read it, but: some of the earliest "man is just naturally violent and animalistic" ideas actually come from the surveying of baboon (and other primate) behavior and comparative anthropology. However, this came early in the field of primatology when observation methods weren't pinned down. Long story short, the male baboons that were being observed weren't actually being "naturally" violent--they were agitated and scared because the people observing them were literally observing them from a big ol scary unfamiliar jeep/atv thing that they drove up right next to the baboons' band. That was decades ago, and a lot of changes have been made since to how fieldwork is done. Anyways, Strum was one of the earliest groups of people to go out and observe baboons and she continued to do it for decades. Almost Human is essentially a look at her field notes/diary during the time. I have a couple other primatology book suggestions if you are interested. Here a couple: Gorillas in the Mist or anything else by Dian Fossey. Manipulative Monkeys by Susan Perry.

The next book I recommend is Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900-1960 by Nwando Achebe. From what I remember, Achebe isn't terribly fond of the anthropology field, (which is interesting because much of the book is ethnographic), but what can I say, I personally do not like historians myself so 🤷‍♀️ (also I might be thinking of someone else)

My personal loathing of historians aside, this is a great book that explores the ways in which women... well... navigate power and authority. You get to learn all about Female Kings and how the Igbo do not fit in with eurocentric gender norms--as well as the impact that European colonization eventually has on the Igbo culture and the role women and men play within their families and society.

Some articles that discuss the effects of colonialism, structure of prehistoric societies etc etc from an anthropological perspective:

State Formation: Anthropological Perspectives by Krohn-Hansen and Nustad

Different Types of Egalitarian Societies and the Development of Inequality in Early Mesopotamia by M Frangipane

Change in the Lives of Brazilian Indigenous People: To Pluck Eyelashes (or Not?) among the Canela by William and Jean Crocker

Gender Dynamics in Hunter-Gatherer Society: Archaeological Methods and Perspectives by Brumbach and Jarvenpa

Economy, Ritual, and Power in Ubaid Mesopotamia by Gil Stein

I have a lot of these articles (and more lol) as PDFs. If you would like to read them and cannot access them, let me know, I can put them in google drive or something.

also my garbage ship right now is still beth/borgov from the queens gambit lmao

#maryjaneoliver

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lizbian · 7 years

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you know i gotta ask all those questions for the thuvia crew, if youre able

1. A little-known talent of your OC?

Alexis enjoys bookbinding as a hobby. He’s probably upholstered a couple journals for Aster for birthdays.Bivir, among the Metias tribe, was a hunter - they’re a skilled marksperson and it’s hardly ever seen, now that they’re in Thuvia.Damien plays the oud - he’s still learning, really.Solange is, while not masterful, practiced at parkour. She initially learned it to better evade her father.Vita derives great satisfaction from her skill at calligraphy.

2. What trait does your OC like best about themself? (Eyes, guitar skills, random bird facts, etc)

Alexis doesn’t particularly like much about himself, but values his honor.Bivir loved their hands. They’ve got long, graceful elven fingers, cute birthmarks on the palms, soft enough to be pleasant for a lover but hard enough not to hurt easily, and they are capable and deft - but they need to reassess this as things stand now.Damien likes how good he is at makeup - he’s an expert at winged eyeliner, just like his (late) father was. (According to the portraits)Solange is proudest of her achievements as a spellblade - no matter how much they’re biting her in the ass.Vita likes her obstinacy - once she settles on a goal, she doesn’t let go.

3. How many pillows does your OC sleep with?

Alexis sleeps with like, seven. Some of which are rather large. He practically entombs himself in pillows.Bivir would mostly rather sleep cuddled up to a friend or lover, sleeping sorta on them, their head on the side of whoever’s chest and their arm around them. If that’s unavailable, two pillows.Damien sleeps with three pillows, practically sitting up. Solange sleeps with one pillow, out of habit. Vita doesnt sleep.

4. Is your OC good at keeping secrets?

Alexis wears his heart on his sleeve, but will never tell verbally/ Bivir is extremely good at keeping secrets, and equally good at making sure no one suspects they have any in the first place.Damien keeps secrets, but mostly out of anxiety. Solange keeps so many secrets.Vita doesn’t much care for it, but keeps secrets.

5. Your OC’s worst habit?

eh fuc this im tired

6. Does your OC prefer tennis shoes/sneakers or flip flops?

Alexis - sneakersBivir - flip floopsDamien - converseSolange - sneakrersVita -flip flops

7. What is your OC’s opinion on body modifications?

Alexis is SO INTO THEM.Bivir is very into them, and would like to get more.Damien is also another who approves of them.Solange likes ones that are easily undone and redone, like hair dye, but doesn’t like them with permenacy.Vita is neutral to them, despite having a few of her own.

8. Your OC is given a full-ride scholarship to any college they could want to go to. Where do they go and what do they major in?

I literally couldnt care less abt this question so im not answering it.

9. What chore does your OC hate the most?

Alexis hates dusting very much, since his breathing is dubious on the best of days.Bivir isn’t fond of cleaning anything related to bathroom actions - they’re a little squeamish in that way.Damien has never done a chore in his damn life.Solange hates clearing the forge.Vita dislikes making beds.

10. Would your OC prefer to live in the city, the suburbs, or the country?

Alexis is a suburban boy, but he’d find living in the city very convenient. Bivir was raised in a hunter-gatherer community, and likes the compromise between that and city that they’ve noticed in the suburbs.Damien is a city boy, and would like to experience all the other ways of life.Solange couldn’t imagine not living in the city.Vita doesn’t care where she is, so long as shes with friends.

11. Is your OC a blanket hog?

Alexis isn’t a blanket hog, but he’d be the sort of person to try and preemptively discourage blanket hogging by having separate blankets for everyone in the bed.Bivir isn’t a blanket hog unless they’re having a nightmare.Damien is totally a blanket hog. He wakes up swaddled every morning.Solange doesn’t use blankets in the first place. Vita doesn’t sleep.

12. Would your OC play by the rules in a fight or take cheap shots?

Alexis is very good at rules. It’s part of his honor.Bivir isn’t afraid to fight dirty.Damien doesn’t care about the rules. Or know them.Solange plays by her own rules.Vita is a fucking necromancer, which is regarded by all as a cheap shot.

13. Does your OC have a widow ’s peak?

Alexis does not.Bivir does.Damien does not.Solange does.Vita does not.

14. Happy birthday! What kind of present would your OC want?

Alexis would like something handmade or heartfelt.Bivir would like to receive flowers, but that’s unfortunately not possible since they’re born in the middle of February. They’re happy about cute pastel clothes, though.Damien’s never got a birthday present before.Solange is very fond of jewelry or shoes - or materials with which she can make herself more jewelry.Vita likes getting books!

15. Something that grosses your OC out?

Alexis is emetophobic.Bivir is disgusted by bathroom smells. Damien is grossed out by the smell of cooked vegetables. Despite this, he is vegetarian.Solange hates the smell of blood.Vita was very disgusted at the sight of severed fingers on the floor.

16. Your OC is suddenly on an adventure! Where do they go and what do they do?

I think this will inevitably be spoilers.

17. Is there a real person that looks like your OC?

Alexis resembles Soo Joo Park but thats the only one i remember right now. Oh yeah also Solange resembles a young Meryl Streep.

18. Something that makes your OC laugh without fail?

Alexis enjoys having his own antics commented upon.Bivir is usually full of laughter and grins - it’s not hard.Damien giggles when he’s flattered.Solange enjoys crude jokes.Vita doesn’t laugh much, but enjoys knock knock jokes.

19. Something that makes your OC cry without fail?

Alexis cries when he is told he’s hated.Bivir only ever cries as a result of nightmaresDamien is an easy crier. Show him some baby animals.Solange doesn’t cry.Vita cannot cry.

20. A obscure/ridiculous fear your OC has?

spoilers

21. Does your OC have any type of disability, whether it be mental, physical, etc?

Alexis has bipolar + cptsd, was born missing his right arm, and is immunocompromised and has tuberculosis. Bivir has persistent nightmares, adhd and ptsd, and is now missing two fingers on their right hand (ring/pinky)Damien has the anxiety and cptsd.Solange has the depression and cptsdVita is a harder one to place because im not sure where inexperience ends and genuine difficulty begins.

22. Does your OC get frustrated when people forget to close the door behind themselves?

Alexis absolutely does.Bivir doesn’t care.Damien is impartial.Solange is furious.Vita doesn’t care.

23. What is your OC’s first memory?

Alexis’ first memory is languishing in bed.Bivir’s first memory is their mother’s first speech on how important they were, and how they were destined for great things, and then she gave them a little smooch on their baby forehead.Damien’s first memory is probably picking up a nice book.Solange’s first memory was probably receiving her first hammer from her dad.Vita’s first memory was being booted up for the first time by her creators.

24. Something you like that your OC would hate?

i started doing this but then it hurt my confidence so i stop

25. Your OC is going into battle/on a mission! What song is their anthem?

Alexis BivirDamienSolangeVita

26. Does your OC have good or bad posture?

Alexis’ posture varies on how good he feels - it’s a pretty reliable litmus test on his physical state.Bivir has a dancer’s posture.Damien has very bad posture.Solange has pretty good posture.Vita has average posture.

27. Most despicable thing your OC has ever done?

Alexis is committing massive fraud on multiple levels.Bivir probably broke a rich person’s leg once or twice as Direct Action.Damien once pointed a gun in the face of an innocent, even friendly, dwarf.Solange made a bad deal with a corrupt princess.Vita hasn’t done anything worse than study necromancy.

28. Is your OC a conspiracy theorist?

Alexis is not.Bivir is not.Damien absolutely is.Solange doesn’t have time for it.Vita would probably believe them.

29. Someone does something awful in front of your OC. How do they handle it?

Alexis arrests them, probably. Bivir files it away in their mind and impartially tries to find the best option.Damien shoots them if it’s at all warranted.Solange kicks their ass.Vita doesn’t care.

30. What is your OC’s favorite drink?

Alexis loves hot chocolate.Bivir loves amaretto sours.Damien enjoys red wine.Solange enjoys milkshakes.Vita doesn’t drink.

31. Does your OC prefer to sleep in a warm or cool area?

Alexis likes warmths.Bivir likes warmth.Damien likes warmth. Solange likes cold.Vita doesn’t sleep.

32. Would your OC like you if they met you?

Alexis definitely would.Bivir also definitely would.Damien would probably find my enthusiasm anxiety-inducing.Solange would like me well enough.Vita would like me well enough.

33. A song that reminds you of your OC?

Alexis - Somebody To Die ForBivir - Heal MeDamien - Silent ScreamSolange - AdiaVita - Wicked Game

34. Is your OC a nail biter?

Alexis is.Bivir isn’t.Damien is. Solange isn’t.Vita isn’t.

35. What is your OC’s favorite quote?

meh

36. Your OC’s favorite fashion era? (20’s, 70’s, etc)

Alexis - 1920′sBivir 1970sDamien - 2000sSolange - 1990Vita - 1860

37. Does your OC get excited when they get mail?

Alexis is - the only person he knows who is afar is Astr.Bivir doesn’t get mail.Damien doesn’t get mail.Solange hates mail. Usually it’s taxes.Vita doesn’t get mail.

38. Random thunderstorm! How does your OC react?

Alexis watches from his window.Bivir dances in the rain, they don’t give a crap.Damien cries from fear.Solange doesn’t care.Vita is disappointed because she can’t recharge.

39. A strange talent of your OC?

Alexis can write backwards and upside down at the same time.Bivir is very flexible and bend all the way back.Damien can disassemble a firearm in half a second.Solange can catch a fish with her bare hands.Vita can cook good despite having no sense of taste.

40. Assuming your OC doesn’t have them already, what superpower would they want? If they do already, would they change it, keep it, or get rid of it?

spoilers

41. Does your OC like/make puns?

Alexis doesn’t make many puns, but appreciates them.Bivir isn’t fluent enough in Common for it, but makes excellent puns in Elven.Damien is too nervous. What if someone doesn’t like them?Solange doesn’t really make puns.Vita doesn’t understand the appeal.

42. What kind of shampoo does your OC use?

Alexis uses lavender rosemary scented shampoo.Bivir does a rosewater rinse. Damien uses tea tree oil scented shampoo. Solange uses herbal shampoo.Vita doesn’t really bathe - mostly wipes herself down regularly. She occaisionally washes her hair out, and uses Alex’s shampoo to do so.

43. Your OC wakes up with a coin super glued to their forehead. How do they react?

Alexis probably cries.Bivir doesn’t notice until someone points it out.Damien assumes he did it, and does not leave his home, ever.Solange rips it off her forehead skin and all.Vita doesn’t care.

44. Can your OC sleep if there’s any kind of light?

Alexis cannot.Bivir can.Damien can.Solange cannot.Vita doesnt sleep.

45. What kind of self-esteem does your OC have?

Alexis has…. average self-esteem.Bivir has pretty good self-esteem.Damien has absolutely none.Solange has far too much self-esteem.Vita has little self-esteem.

46. A word that your OC can’t stand?

i dont really get hating words tbh so i couldnt say

47. Does your OC fold their clothes, hang them up, or just leave them in the basket/dryer?

Alexis doesnt do any of that - he’s a spoiled nobleman. Bivir hangs them up.Damien has never done any such thing.Solange folds her clothes.Vita drapes them on a chair in her room.

48. Would society call your OC a good guy or a bad guy? What would they say they are?

Alexis - a good guyBivir - depends on your view of potentially-violent anarchy.Damien - a rambunctious good guy.Solange - a good galVita - a bad guy

49. Your OC’s most prized possession?

thres probably spoilers here too. im sleepy

50. What is your OC’s happy place?

Alexis’ is being held by a close friend or family member. Bivir’s is on a dancefloor, but their ideal character growth is for it to become ‘safe in the arms of a lover’. Damien’s is at a shooting range.Solange doesn’t have one.Vita’s is the Adrieux manor library.

#asks #pathfinder tag

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