#integration problems

[cinnamon-flame]

A background study with a random skywing. Transparent wings are a fancy compromise between having wings and having visible legs

[lilacandladybugs]

Studying for my calc 3 exam and I had a nightmare that I was trying to solve something weird like x²+ 4x + 9 = e^x² + e and I don't remember what my strategy was but you know natural logs were involved. My professor walks by looks at my paper and goes " oh in this situation e is actually a variable" and I was so mad I woke up

[tsuisuta]

scribbling these goofs in an attempt to drag myself out of burnout (but not brain rot lol)

[leroibobo]

really do not think people understand the extent to which palestinian sites/landmarks (especially muslim ones) were destroyed, beginning in 1948 until now, even in cities. the oldest extant mosque in jaffa (al-bahr mosque) was built in 1675, even though islam came there in the 7th century

[bigmoon-is-bigwife]

TR!Ros is such a dear character to me because she is a female character that is so important to the story and she's so emotional and messy and flawed and that's never treated as a bad thing. No character on the server treats her being very emotional as a weakness and in fact many of them respect her for it. That being said I am never going to check what people are saying about her off of tumblr. Realmblr you have been so good and based and have never let me down. I have never seen hate for TR!Ros, only justified criticism. I fear the misogyny that lays outside our walls.

[rooolt]

the curse of having been very Normal about s2 of dndads is that at any point I can remember real and true facts about the kiddads and feel genuinely sick in my body

[anghraine]

Hi! Can you explain what really the power of foresight was with Faramir? I read the books earlier this year and I don't really quite understand it. He could predict the future? Like he would see it in his dreams? But how did he found out from Gollum that he was taking frodo and sam to cirith ungol and that he had committed murder before?

No problem, it's one of my favorite topics!

The concise explanation: I think Faramir's foresight/aftersight in terms of visions is a largely separate "power" from his ability to bring his strength of mind and will to bear on other people and animals, and to resist outside influence. The visions seem more a matter of broad sensitivity, something Faramir doesn't appear to have much if any control over. The second power is (in our terms) essentially a form of direct telepathy, limited in some ways but still very powerful, and I think this second ability is what Faramir is using with Gollum.

The really long version:

In my opinion, Faramir (or Denethor, Aragorn, etc) doesn't necessarily read thoughts like a book, particularly not with a mind as resistant as Gollum's. Faramir describes Gollum's mind in particular as dark and closed, it seems unusually so—

"There are locked doors and closed windows in your mind, and dark rooms behind them," said Faramir.

Still, Gollum is unable to entirely block Faramir's abilities. In LOTR, it does not seem that Gollum can fully block powerful mental abilities such as Faramir's, though his toughness and hostility does limit what Faramir can see. (Unfinished Tales, incidentally, suggests iirc that Denethor's combination of "great mental powers" and his right to use the Anor-stone allowed him to telepathically get the better of Saruman through their palantíri, a similar but greater feat.) I imagine that this is roughly similar to, but scaled down from, Galadriel's telepathic inquiries of even someone as reluctant to have her in his mind as Boromir, given that Faramir is able to still see some things in Gollum's mind, if with more difficulty than usual.

(WRT Boromir ... ngl, if I was the human buffer between Denethor and Faramir, I would also not be thrilled about sudden telepathic intrusions from basically anyone, much less someone I had little reason to trust.)

Disclaimer: a few years after LOTR's publication, Tolkien tried to systematize how this vague mystical telepathy stuff really works. One idea he had among many, iirc, was that no unwilling person's mind could be "read" the ways that Gollum's is throughout LOTR. IMO that can't really be reconciled w/ numerous significant interactions in LOTR where resistance to mental intrusion or domination is clearly variable between individuals and affected by personal qualities like strength of will, basic resilience, the effort put into opposition, supernatural powers, etc. And these attempts at resistance are unsuccessful or only partially successful on many occasions in LOTR (the Mouth of Sauron, for one example, is a Númenórean sorcerer in the book who can't really contend with Aragorn on a telepathic level). So I, personally, tend to avoid using the terminology and rationales from that later systematized explanation when discussing LOTR. And in general, I think Tolkien's later attempts to convert the mystical, mysterious wonder of Middle-earth into something more "hard magic" or even scientific was a failed idea on a par with Teleporno. Others differ!

In any case, when Gollum "unwillingly" looks at Faramir while being questioned, the creepy light drains from his eyes and he shrinks back while Faramir concludes he's being honest on that specific occasion. Gollum experiences physical pain when he does try to lie to Faramir—

"It is called Cirith Ungol." Gollum hissed sharply and began muttering to himself. "Is not that its name?" said Faramir turning to him. "No!" said Gollum, and then he squealed, as if something had stabbed him.

I don't think this is a deliberate punishment from Faramir—that wouldn't be like him at all—and I don't think it's the Ring, but simply a natural consequence of what Faramir is. Later, Gandalf says of Faramir's father:

"He can perceive, if he bends his will thither, much of what is passing in the minds of men ... It is difficult to deceive him, and dangerous to try."

So, IMO, Faramir's quick realization that Gollum is a murderer doesn't come from any vision of the future or past involving Gollum—that is, it's not a deduction from some event he's seen. Faramir does not literally foresee Gollum's trick at Cirith Ungol. His warning would be more specific in that case, I think. What he sees seems to be less detailed but more direct and, well, mystical. Faramir likely doesn't know who exactly Gollum murdered or why or what any of the circumstances were. Rather, Gollum's murderousness and malice are visible conditions of his soul to Faramir's sight. Faramir doesn't foresee the particulars of Gollum's betrayal—but he can see in Gollum's mind that he is keeping something back. Faramir says of Gollum:

"I do not think you are holden to go to Cirith Ungol, of which he has told you less than he knows. That much I perceived clearly in his mind."

Meanwhile, in a letter written shortly before the publication of LOTR, Tolkien said of Faramir's ancestors:

They became thus in appearance, and even in powers of mind, hardly distinguishable from the Elves

So these abilities aren't that strange in that context. Faramir by chance (or "chance") is, like his father, almost purely an ancient Númenórean type despite living millennia after the destruction of Númenor (that destruction is the main reason "Númenóreanness" is fading throughout the age Faramir lives in). Even less ultra-Númenórean members of Denethor's family are still consistently inheriting characteristics from their distant ancestor Elros, Elrond's brother, while Faramir and Denethor independently strike Sam and Pippin as peculiarly akin to Gandalf, a literal Maia like their ancestress Melian:

“Ah well, sir,” said Sam, “you [Faramir] said my master had an elvish air; and that was good and true. But I can say this: you have an air too, sir, that reminds me of, of—well, Gandalf, of wizards.”

He [Denethor] turned his dark eyes on Gandalf, and now Pippin saw a likeness between the two, and he felt the strain between them, almost as if he saw a line of smouldering fire drawn from eye to eye, that might suddenly burst into flame.

Meanwhile, Faramir's mother's family is believed to be part Elvish, a belief immediately confirmed when Legolas meets Faramir's maternal uncle:

At length they came to the Prince Imrahil, and Legolas looked at him and bowed low; for he saw that here indeed was one who had elven-blood in his veins. "Hail, lord!" he [Legolas] said. "It is long since the people of Nimrodel left the woodlands of Lórien, and yet still one may see that not all sailed from Amroth’s haven west over water."

In addition to that, Faramir's men believe he's under some specific personal blessing or charm as well as the Númenórean/Elvish/Maia throwback qualities. It's also mentioned by different groups of soldiers that Faramir can exercise some power of command over animals as well as people. Beregond describes Faramir getting his horse to run towards five Nazgûl in real time:

"They will make the Gate. No! the horses are running mad. Look! the men are thrown; they are running on foot. No, one is still up, but he rides back to the others. That will be the Captain [Faramir]: he can master both beasts and men."

Then, during the later retreat of Faramir's men across the Pelennor:

At last, less than a mile from the City, a more ordered mass of men came into view, marching not running, still holding together. The watchers held their breath. "Faramir must be there," they said. "He can govern man and beast."

Tolkien said of the ancient Númenóreans:

But nearly all women could ride horses, treating them honourably, and housing them more nobly than any other of their domestic animals. The stables of a great man were often as large and as fair to look upon as his own house. Both men and women rode horses for pleasure … and in ceremony of state both men and women of rank, even queens, would ride, on horseback amid their escorts or retinues … The Númenóreans trained their horses to hear and understand calls (by voice or whistling) from great distances; and also, where there was great love between men or women and their favorite steeds, they could (or so it is said in ancient tales) summon them at need by their thought alone. So it was also with their dogs.

Likely the same Númenórean abilities were used for evil by Queen Berúthiel against her cats. In an interview with Daphne Castell, Tolkien said:

She [Berúthiel] was one of these people who loathe cats, but cats will jump on them and follow them about—you know how sometimes they pursue people who hate them? I have a friend like that. I’m afraid she took to torturing them for amusement, but she kept some and used them—trained them to go on evil errands by night, to spy on her enemies or terrify them.

The more formal version of the Berúthiel lore recurs in Unfinished Tales:

She had nine black cats and one white, her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew those things "that men wish most to keep hidden," setting the white cat to spy upon the black, and tormenting them.

Faramir, by contrast, has a strong aversion to harming/killing animals for any reason other than genuine need, but apparently quite similar basic abilities. He typically uses these abilities to try to compassionately understand other people or gather necessary information, rather than for domination or provoking fear. Even so, Faramir does seem to use his mental powers pretty much all the time with no attempt to conceal what he's doing—he says some pretty outlandish things to Frodo and Sam as if they're very ordinary, but it doesn't seem that most people he knows can do all these things. This stuff is ordinary to him because it flows out of his fundamental being, not because it's common.

It's not clear how much fine control he has, interestingly. This is more headcanon perhaps, but I don't feel like it's completely under his control, even while it's much more controlled than things like Faramir's vision of Boromir's funeral boat, his frequent, repeated dreams of Númenor's destruction, the Ring riddle dream he received multiple times, or even his suspiciously specific "guess" of what passed between Galadriel and Boromir in Lothlórien. Yet his more everyday mental powers do seem to involve some measure of deliberate effort in a lot of the instances we see, given the differing degrees of difficulty and strain we see with the powers he and Denethor exhibit more frequently and consistently.

This is is also interesting wrt Éowyn, because Tolkien describes Faramir's perception of her as "clear sight" (which I suspect is just Tolkien's preferred parlance for "clairvoyance"). Faramir perceives a lot more of what's going on with Éowyn than I think he had materially observable evidence for—but does not see everything that's going on with her by any means. He seems to understand basically everything about her feelings for Aragorn, more than Éowyn herself does, but does not know if she loves him [Faramir].

I'm guessing that it's more difficult to "see" this way when it's directly personal (one of the tragedies of his and Denethor's relationship is that their shared mental powers do not enable either to realize how much they love each other). But it also doesn't seem like he's trying to overcome Éowyn's mental resistance the way he was with Gollum, and possibly Frodo and Sam—he does handle it a bit differently when it's not a matter of critical military urgency. With Éowyn, he sees what his abilities make clear to him, is interested enough to seek out Merry (and also perceive more than Merry says, because Faramir has never been a normal person one day in his life) but doesn't seem to really push either of them.

So I tend to imagine that with someone like Faramir, Denethor, Aragorn etc, we're usually seeing a relatively passive, natural form of low-grade telepathy that simply derives from their fundamental nature and personalities (as we see in Faramir with Éowyn, possibly Faramir with Aragorn). That can be kicked up to more powerful, forceful telepathy via active exertion of the will (as described by Gandalf wrt Denethor's ability to "bend[] his will thither" to see what passes in others' minds, and seen with Faramir vs Gollum, Aragorn vs the Mouth of Sauron, more subtly Faramir vs Denethor). At a high point of strain this can be done very aggressively or defensively (Denethor vs Gandalf, Denethor vs Saruman, Denethor vs Sauron seriously is there a Maia that man won't fight, Faramir vs the Black Breath given his completely unique symptoms that Aragorn attributes to his "staunch will", possibly Aragorn vs the Black Breath in a healing capacity...).

Anyway, I hope these massive walls of text are helpful or interesting! Thanks for the ask :)

[beneathsilverstars]

longfic writers who go more than a week between updates (aka a normal reasonable pace) i am on my knees politely requesting a 1-3 sentence “previously on This Fic” section in the opening author notes for new chapters, so i can fully appreciate each update within the context of the story instead of spending the first 30% of it desperately trying to figure out which half-remembered scenes and emotional beats this fic belongs to. like i’m sure i remember the fic but the problem is i also remember five dozen other fics

[xxplastic-cubexx]

it doesnt need to be said but its genuinely so funny how at-the-hip charles and erik are in krakoa like they really had the green light- the OBLIGATION- to be as obnoxiously close to each other as possible and abused that right to the fullest extent

[deoidesign]

I need to paint my characters realistically every so often. for my health. I need to see him.

[ganondoodle]

okay i typed this in a reply but i need to say this more detailed here too, the way totk dealt with horses (and stables) is bad and worse than botw imo (yes i can rant about that too, these weird choices are in every little spot in totk, its almost impressive)

in a game that lets you build cars and stupid flying maschines, towers that shoot you into the stratosphere AND teleporting points all over the place, the chance is already low that you use a horse- though i would be one of them bc i love horses and hate building and didnt find it fun at all-

(also i almost never used any parts i had with me bc you cant put them back and your dumb vehicles despawn as soon as you dont look at them- also a negative thing about that system that reinforces the feeling of actually using it being more punishing than rewarding with the added bonus of the good ol saving your health potions forever problem)

-and something i DID like was that you can have more horses and the ... one.. new color (the lil spots but only AFTER you do that one quest in the spy post)

the stable points seemed like a neat idea, but like so many things, are utterly cheatable, imo the system should have only given you a point when you visit a new stable, so you actually have to go around and visit them all

(also .. add new stables, like mini ones or sth that dont offer beds- you dont need that anyway- so you have more places in which you can get them ... why did they remove some of them anyway, shouldn there be MORE now that the land is supposedly healing/being repaired? especially the one next to the big canyon, its so empty there it would have the perfect place for sth like a new settlement or a big boss arena but no its more empty than it was before, why?? and then putting yet another repeating annoying quest there in that weirld empty place?? i just dont get it)

letting you farm points by sleeping at a stable or bringing in a horse gives you LESS incentive to actually go around the world bc you can just farm it there

(and if that was done so youd 'discover' the malanya talks to you in your sleep 'secret' ... that is literally told to you, and if its bc you dont want to force players to go around and find every stable to get all those rewards ... why do you have 140 or whatver caves then with the majority of them being the literal same thing over and over ... to make people actually use the sleeping thing there? .. why, who uses that anyway, and farming points by sleeping there .. what the hell does that add? AND THEN the stupid sleep over tickets, probably the most nothign reward ever, dont count?? i dont think i ever used one- it just all doesnt make any sense, everything plays against each other)

the upgrading system for your horse is .. once again, a neat idea horribly executed, you have to go find malanya to upgrade them, and similarly stupidly like the fairies, they only tell you what food you need for what upgrade when you are there .. or when you are sleeping in the special tm bed at a stable, randomly, one food, bc the quantity changes too

which is just so ??????????? let me go and do a quest that rewards you with a lil booklet in which you can look up what an upgrade costs, or let the stables have that, either as a list or in the menu when selecting a horse or something?? (also why the hell is malanya in a different spot anyway, like, it feels like a modder just plopped them over there, their og spot is just empty now - except for yet again a stupid filler quest for .. another big horse and a yaaaaaaaaays crystal shrine quest- ... the spot is even still called spring of the horse god .... its so stupid, just like the fairy shuffling around, like you really couldnt think of a better way to reuse that concept other than to ... move it to a different spot in the same map and map level???? and not change anything in their og spot except idk, put a hole in the map ... for one of them like .. its like they moved them around last minute just to have the semblance of things being 'changed' with no regard what makes a change actually feel like one and what just feels like, pick up thing, click on random spot on map, drop thing- its like that for the fairies and shrines too, its so dumb and .. feels disrepectful to botw and how much thought seemed to have went into these spots that were clearly built about those things)

and like it couldnt get WORSE, they cut off the paths that horses follow automatically with one of those miasma buttholes (sorry its just a hole cut into the map, it doesnt even look like miasma burst through, it just .. cut out) a monster camp (that RESPAWNS, i thought those camps you clear with a quest would stay clear, but that would make sense, so of course it respawns and you can do the frame rate killer quest over and over yippieee) or otherwise like, with a big rock or a broken bridge-

and there is NO WAY to create a new path or fix or move anything in a game ABOUT BUILDING supposedly, like you needed more reasons to never use a horse????? i liked jsut hopping on and letting them follow a path and chill looking at the landscape, you cant do this here, and you cant even excuse it with 'its bc of the theme' as in, stuff is destroyed bc calamity 1.5 or whatever bc nothing in the game makes it feel like theres anything actually at stake, but the real crime is to make it not be fixable. WHY??? link moves entire buildings with ease but cant move one freaking rock that fell into a river?????? you swing around logs like a club but cant fix a bridge so your horse can get over it??????????????????????????????

[thepersonalwords]

Understanding RELATIONSHIPS – If I have something to share, however, I didn’t share it with you because you didn’t ask me. It means I DON’T TRUST YOU. Even if you didn’t ask me, I still shared it with you, giving my trust to you. However, you shared it with the entire world. It means YOU ARE UNTRUSTWORTHY. I know what you know, however, when I asked you, you lied to me. It means YOU ARE DISHONEST.LOVE and AFFECTION are two essential elements of HUMAN RELATIONSHIP. However, whether you deserve my LOVE and AFFECTION or not is based on your TRUSTWORTHINESS and HONESTY.

Sanjeev Himachali

[rustedleopard]

I feel like if Chujin was still alive during the events of Undertale Yellow, his and Clover's relationship would be incredibly rocky. Pacifist!Clover could bring him around to tolerating them (after all, they have that sort of effect on everyone), but it would be more in a "this human is the only 'good' human" manner than a "maybe I should reevaluate my opinions on humans overall because you can't judge an entire group based off (very biased) stories and one bad experience." Even then, that opinion would be subject to change should Clover ever get frustrated or behave "too aggressively" or act in any manner that isn't perfectly docile. If Clover ends up attacking a monster then it's "humans are just as horrible as they were in the war stories, I should've known better" regardless of the circumstances that could've pushed Clover to fight. Suffocating expectations and endless demands for patience when he wouldn't ask the same of a fellow monster.

And heaven forbid he ever meet Clover on a No Mercy Run...

[fourshords]

ever think about how it took a long time for blue to actually believe vio was evil. I do. a lot. he trusts and believes he's a good person. (AND HE IS!!!)

vio: i'm evil

blue: NO UR NOT! REAL VIO WOULD NOT

vio trying to be evil: (BLUE SHUT UP U IDIOT IM TRYING TO BE EVIL SHADOW IS RIGHT THERE) I'm real evil also you guys suck and I hate you uhhhh darkness cool.

queue blue getting rlly upset and angry its the real vio and then immediately forgive him when he realizes what was happening after like SEE I KNEW HE WAS AIGHT. PSSSH TOTALLY KNEW THAT THE WHOLE TIME.

[nightmare-foundation]

Yknow, I feel like part of the reason why people don't understand Ozpin as well as they probably could is because they... don't understand how the merge works. Let me explain.

The fandom has this expectation that Ozpin will take over Oscar when the merge is finished, and that Oscar will just disappear. Honestly, I think this is an extremely inaccurate reading of the merge based in bias and listening to unreliable narrators.

"But Oscar says he's afraid of disappearing, and expects it to happen. Isn't this reliable?" <- good question. No, I don't believe it's all that reliable. Oscar is experiencing the merge for the first time, and has no clue how it'll end; because of this, and his personal fears, he draws conclusions, and that conclusion is "I'm going to disappear into the collective of lives that is Ozpin." I also don't believe that this specific sentiment has been said by Oscar since v6, but it's been a while, so I can't remember.

Meanwhile, though, Ozpin himself never said that he was going to take over Oscar and that Oscar would disappear. When it comes to talking about the merge, Ozpin always frames it as Oscar gaining, rather than losing to him. Oscar will inherit my memories and muscle memory, you're recollecting my longest held memories and gaining control over my remaining magic, etc. It's almost framed as if OSCAR is taking from Ozpin, rather than the other way around.

"But Oscar has been changing throughout the volumes, if Oz isn't taking over, why is he changing?" <- another point. Oscar IS changing, but it's more superficially. His vocabulary is widening ("plummeting immediately" for example), his mannerisms have changed a little but mostly in the confidence department, and his voice has lowered, plus the inherited magic and memories. But his actual personality and deepest parts of his identity hasn't changed; he's still wise in his own way, notably different from Ozpin; he's optimistic but still realistic, for one, and he's very contemplative, and expresses importance in the individuals, vs the many as Ozpin does. He also still has his own unique brand of sass, his unique strategies and planning (how he handled the situation in Monstra), etc. He still identifies as Oscar, and the biggest change is definitely the gained confidence.

But, harder to notice, especially if you're not insanely obsessed with them like me, Oz has also changed, arguably more than Oscar. At this point, his entire voice has changed; the cadence of his voice, the timbre, his vocabulary and how he words things, etc. If you compare Ozpins current voice and Oscars, both Aaron Dismukes version and Shannon Mccormicks, they sound nearly the exact same. There's VERY little difference- at times, Oscar seems a little more formal than Ozpin! Oz's mannerisms and facial expressions have changed a lot as well, adopting more of Oscars (wider eyes, softer looks, lots of movement with his hands without their cane, honestly likely more that's escaping me rn). He also talks to the other characters as peers now, though it's hard to tell if that's from the merge or character development. I'd also mention how Ozpins worldview has drastically changed, but that's from character development and canonically, Oscar inspired him, but basically he's completely picked up Oscars views and beliefs (even if he's a little hesitant at times, he still trusts Oscar).

But basically... they've both changed, arguably Oz more than Oscar, both from the merge and character development. And it seems to me that it's more likely that Oscar won't disappear? Especially when you consider Ozpin saying "I understand. I went through the same panic and confusion you are." <- this is talking about the merge in v4, when Ozpin just appeared in Oscars head. Obviously, he'd have to be referring to being an ordinary person (likely a teenager) suddenly having a voice show up in your head. Ozpin identifies AS Ozpin- not as any previous incarnation (though he identifies with the memories too), so I doubt he identifies as Ozma. Thus, this implies that they change.

Also, soul in rwby IS identity. Aura is your soul but tangible. Thus, if two different souls merge- that inherently implies a change of identity. The souls change, thus the identity changes. Plus, Ozpin literally says IN v5 that "I am the combination of countless men, living, dying, and reincarnating, and i am changed- but my memories stay with me." It seems that the only constants are their memories, magic, and immortality. Everything else changes- "I am changed."

So I definitely don't think that Ozpin just takes over and absorbs his hosts. Everyone who thinks that's how it works in-universe are unreliable narrators; Ironwood, Leo, Qrow, Salem, even Oscar himself (though atp I think he might have an idea that he won't disappear, but he still doesn't want to change, which is reasonable). Oz's inner circle members wouldn't know in-depth how the merge works, bc a) Oz tended to lie to them and b) i doubt that's something he wants to discuss anyways. Salem wouldn't know because when Ozma told her, he'd only reincarnated once, and he only had the God of Lights really vague, cryptic words to go off of, and Salem herself has likely only been informed by people who wouldn't know how the merge works anyways (Leo). And i already explained why Oscar is also an unreliable narrator about it too.

Light and Jinn are also hints as to how it works too; they imply the hosts don't disappear by saying "Until then, you will reincarnate, but in a manner that ensures you are never alone." And "As the centuries passed, he learned to live with the people in which he had been paired." So naturally, the hosts don't disappear, and everything else says that Oz changes.

Another, smaller note, but you can tell with the other Oz's seen in The Lost Fable that they all act differently. It's more obvious with Ozma and Ozma 2.0, but you can tell with the rest of them (and even the hermit in the story of the seasons), since they all have different mannerisms and, for those who speak, they kinda speak differently as well. They're also vastly different from how Ozpin acts, both from the beginning of rwby to now, and they act differently from Oscar.

TL;DR: the merge isn't a takeover on Oz's part; they both change and, at the end, identify with whoever the host is (hence the name change).

[guplia]

I hate A levels.