#is for them to just accept that they can't be separated from the 'originals' as we consider them to be?

[ambrosiagourmet]

I love Izutsumi. She's got a great design, she's a fun addition to the main party, she adds some new tension, and she's honestly one of the reasons I read dungeon meshi in the first place. I mean, "the most cat to ever girl" is an extremely appealing hook to anyone who loves cats and girls (me, I love cats and girls).

However, while I have always liked Izutsumi, I finished the story kind of feeling like I didn't really get her. I felt like I had a decent grasp on her character an character arc (she's a traumatized teen given space to feel safe and open up, and because of that she realizes that she can't grow without letting go of the coping mechanisms she once needed). But I didn't feel like I really understood her role in the story as a whole.

She follows the group of her own accord, after a coincidental meeting and a misunderstanding of what they can do for her. She's never super invested in saving Falin, at least not compared to the rest of the group. Though they do help her escape Maizuru's shackles, and are clearly good for her in general, she doesn't really have a healing Moment with the group the way that Senshi does with the hippogriff soup.

And yet, she gets an entire chapter, the third-to-last chapter, dedicated to exploring her growth and future. She's the one who frames much of the falling action, who lets us check in with everyone. She's the one who helps talk Laios into accepting his role as king. She may join the story part way through, but she is there for most of it. So Izutsumi! What's your deal!?

Well, I think I've come up with an answer, at least for myself, that I really like. Two of them, even! Though they both really work together to form the overall point - Izutsumi is the character that most helps the story face towards the future. Here's why I think that.

So the first of these "ah-ha" moments was when I realized that Izutsumi really is the best supporting evidence for Laios' point about the good things that wouldn't have happened if Falin hadn't died.

If Falin hadn't been eaten by the dragon, Izutsumi probably would still be a slave. It was because of Shuro and Laios' parties both being in the dungeon to rescue Falin, as well as Marcille's use of ancient magic in the resurrection, that she got the chance to escape. None of that would have been the case if Falin hadn't died. Shuro wouldn't have separated from the group and joined up with his retainers, Marcille wouldn't have revealed her knowledge of ancient magic, and Izutsumi never would have even met any of them. They are only part of her life because of Falin's death.

Though this isn't explicitly pointed out by Laios or Izutsumi in the scene, I do think you can very much feel the presence of it. For one, when Marcille reflects on the journey and how much it made her realize she didn't want to lose everyone, her relationship with Izutsumi is prominent:

It's the main original group at the top and center, but when you read it right to left, it’s Izutsumi and Marcille who might catch your eye first. And it's specifically Marcille and Izutsumi's relationship on display here, not just Izutsumi's presence in the group in general.

Also, after Laios' statement about how none of their adventure would have happened without Falin dying, it is Izutsumi who gets the final word:

Izutsumi is also the one here who is the most forward-facing. Chilchuck is trying to correct Laios, Senshi is focused on the immediate future, and Izutsumi is talking about her new goal.

And I want to talk about that goal in general as well, because it’s also interesting how it comes up. In that moment, everyone is trying to remind Marcille of her less destructive desires - to eat food, to share it with them, and to meet Chilchuck's family. All of which are previously established, existing desires. When prompted by Chilchuck to join in, however, Izutsumi offers something new:

That's interesting, isn't it? It's kind of funny, of course, to see her rambling on about a completely new thing, her own personal motive, in the middle of everyone working together to reach out to Marcille. Izutsumi doesn't even know who Yaad is! But at the same time, it’s kind of meaningful. Amidst the focus on desires that everyone already had, she adds a completely new one to the mix. It’s even the final bridge that lets Laios reach Marcille.

It is, in fact, even an idea that comes back later to help out another lord of the dungeon. The idea of finding new goals and feeling new desires... this is exactly how Kabru reaches out to Mithrun, after the Winged Lion is gone

So yeah, Izutsumi's presence here, both in what she's actively choosing to say as well as what she represents of the consequences of Falin's death, supports the story's ideas of moving forward. Of accepting the past, and finding new reasons to live.

Which is all really good, and that alone works pretty well as an answer to what Izutsumi's role in the story is.

But oh, oh. There's more. Something I realized after having thought of all this, because I still couldn't let go of the feeling that there was still something I was missing.

And as I reviewed the things I loved about Izutsumi - her sometimes unhealthy ways of coping with trauma, her struggles with isolation, her skill with fighting, her selfishness contrasted with the ways she grows to care for and protect the group, her perpetually guarded nature, born from the seeming impossibility of ever fitting in or finding a safe place to just be herself - I realized something.

Izutsumi...

is a foil to Falin.

Where Falin copes with isolation and trauma by being eternally caring and struggling to say no to people, Izutsumi copes by constantly saying no to everything she can. Falin is often considered selfless, but does have selfish desires that she can’t easily express until a moment of crisis. Izutsumi is delightfully selfish, but chooses to stick by her friends when they need her. They are both transformed, against their will, into partly monstrous hybrids, and they both will have to live with that - there is no undoing what has been done to them.

Falin anchors the group in the past. Izutsumi pulls them towards the future. Neither would find freedom without the other - it is Falin's death that leads to Izutsumi joining the party, and likewise, it is Izutsumi who inspires the realization of how they can save Falin.

And Falin is her future, as much as Izutsumi is Falin's. Both learn to be a little more like each other, even though they never meet. Falin gets a little more selfish. Izutsumi gets a little more willing to bend.

In this context, I feel like I have finally started to understand just how important Izutsumi is to the story. She is a proof that they cannot just go back, and she is a clawed, happy-to-scratch-anyone-who-pisses-her-off reminder, at that. In any conversation about what the group wishes would have happened with Falin, she cannot be ignored or brushed aside.

She is a reminder that, even in the midst of a tragedy so big it feels like a shadow you will never escape, you have yet to met all the people you will love. Hell, some of those people might even be catgirls. We should all be so lucky.

[lost-in-lamentation]

a moment of respite.

the brothers have nightmares, but you're there.

all brothers × gen!reader (separate. you/your).

belphegor;

sloth slips into your room without a sound, footsteps muffled against the floor as he climbs onto your bed. with more hesitance than usual, belphie places a hand on your shoulder, timidly shaking you until you blink your eyes open. he stares at you awkwardly, hints of shame and fear flitting across his expression, but as you hook your arm around his neck, belphie melts into your hold. sometimes, the one who is in charge of dreams needs someone else to take control.

═  ˎˊ˗

beelzebub;

not yet asleep, you hear shuffling and what sounds like sniffling coming from the kitchen. you can't deny the curiosity or the concern that bubbles up inside you, so you make your way over to find none other than beel. he rummages through the fridge half-heartedly, eyes lined with red and stifling the occasional sob. you step into the kitchen as you knock on the doorway to announce your presence. you walk up to him carefully, and as soon as you're in reach, beel grabs you and pulls you close, relieved that there is something other than food to bring him comfort.

═  ˎˊ˗

asmodeus;

the fifth born knocks on your door with the usual energy, but when you come face to face with him, you see the light in his eyes has been snuffed out. you invite him inside, guiding him to sit on your bed before flicking your lights off. only when asmo is confident that you can't see him do the tears begin to fall. you feel around in the dark for him, wrapping your arms tight around his waist as he clutches at your clothing. and even now, at his lowest, asmo now knows that you accept him today, and will accept him tomorrow, tears and all.

═  ˎˊ˗

satan;

the doorknob to your room turns with alarming speed, but as it quickly as it does, it returns to its original position, and you hear a soft rapping of knuckles instead of the click of a door. you call them to come in, and when satan finally reveals himself to you, you can't help but clamber off the bed to move towards him. there is anger, sorrow, confusion, and helplessness clouding his gaze, all brought together by the tears that slip down his cheeks. gently, you take his face into your hands, thumbs swiping away at the tears as he shows you that he is much more than just wrath.

═  ˎˊ˗

levi;

your phone wakes you up with a series of notifications, all coming from one place. you rush over to levi's room, reciting the password as quick as you can before pushing the door open. to your dismay, you find levi trembling in the tub he uses for a bed, his hands white knuckled as he curls in tightly around himself. your heart twists when he calls out your name, his voice smaller than usual. you pad over to the side of the tub, prying his hands away from himself to take them into yours, running your fingers over his as you remind him that you'll always be here.

═  ˎˊ˗

mammon;

the door is slammed open with a bang, your heart nearly jumping out of your chest when suddenly there is a pair of arms nearly choking you in their embrace. the light that floods into your room from the hallway reveals the head of white hair that is now pressed into your shoulder, and you realise quickly that your shirt is becoming damp. you take a second to ground yourself before bringing your own arms up to envelop mammon, one of your hands playing with his hair as you pull him down to lie next to you. mammon doesn't say anything, but you know he'll be okay as long as you don't let him go.

═  ˎˊ˗

lucifer;

lucifer doesn't bother to knock, and simply opens your door to find you sitting at your desk. when you see the fear that fills his gaze, you quickly shuffle over, coming to a stop in front of him. your own fear is mirrored in his eyes as you raise your hand to cup his face, the other slowly trailing down his side until it lands on his waist. at your touch, lucfier unravels, a quiet sob breaking free from his chest as lowers his head. you meet him in the middle, pulling him to rest his head on your shoulder. his heart, marred by everything that haunts him, finally feels clear as it beats in tandem with yours.

a/n: idk man i can't sleep

reblogs are really appreciated (´ω｀) ♡

[fantastic-nonsense]

I think people who genuinely wanted Percy to rebel against the gods and overthrow the system kind of...miss the whole point of the series

The question is not whether or not the gods deserve to rule; the books are kind of unambiguous that they don't! That the gods are generally undeserving of their children's loyalty is the one thing that Percy and Luke both agree on! But PJO is less about divine right to rule vs. ruling via consent of the governed and more about improving dysfunctional family systems. It's not about whether unfair rulers deserve to continue ruling; it's about forcing the gods to be better, fairer rulers and a better, fairer family given limited alternatives.

Because what are the alternatives, as presented to us within the scope of the original PJO series?

Option 1: allow Kronos to topple Olympus and take over. Clearly not a viable alternative for all of the reasons the books show us.

Option 2: the demigods overthrow the Olympians and rule the world themselves. Okay. How's that going to work out long-term, given demigods are mortal and cannot control or protect their parents' domains? Demigods will die out within a generation or two, so that's potentially a one-generation short-term solution, and then everyone's right back where they started. Except worse, because now the world has been out of divine balance for a century and the gods have a completely legitimate bone to pick with all demigods. Materially worse outcome.

Option 3: demigods ignore the gods and their will entirely. They integrate into the mortal world, refuse to participate in quests or talk to their parents, and pretend prophecies don't exist. Except that's clearly not a viable option, since we see that demigods usually can't safely exist in the mortal world without monsters coming after them, the gods are cruel enough to use blackmail and engage in hostage situations to get demigods to act as heroes, and prophecies have a way of coming true regardless of everyone's best attempts to circumvent them. Again: materially worse outcome.

And for Percy, for the demigods at Camp Half-Blood, for Luke and for everyone else who defected....for the most part, they don't actually have an inherent problem with the gods ruling them. They just want to be acknowledged, valued, and loved by their families, to be treated as more than a tool for their parents to wield whenever their services are needed. That was the core thesis of the demigod rebellion, which was wholly separate from Kronos' specific motivations for overthrowing the Olympians, and it's why Percy's asks at the end of TLO were what they were.

The point was always that had Percy grown up in a slightly more dysfunctional family environment...had he grown up with Frederick Chase's seemingly conditional love or May Castellan's madness instead of Sally Jackson's steady, quiet, unconditional love...he could have turned out like Luke. Like Ethan. Like the dozens of demigods who defected from camp to join Luke's cause. Percy could have turned out just as a bitter and angry and vengeful. Just as ready to tear down the system. Just as willing to betray and kill his own family for the sake of making a point.

But instead, Percy openly reprimands the gods for abandoning their families and using them as cannon fodder in their own petty disagreements. He forces them to acknowledge and claim their children. He demands that everyone who is part of the godly family be recognized and accepted, not just those related to the Twelve Olympians. He asks for those unjustly punished (like Calypso) to be set free and accepted back into the family. Because that's the point at the end of the day: not forcing bad rulers to step down, but changing an insanely dysfunctional family system that the gods and demigods are all members of into a better, safer, and more accepting environment for demigods to grow up and live in.

Overthrowing the gods wouldn't solve the problem at the heart of the series, which is the gods' shitty parenting and family management skills. It would only exacerbate the massive familial fault-lines that Kronos exploited and leave the demigods open to more godly manipulation. Which is why the series ends as it does, with Percy using his wish to tangibly improve the lives of his family instead of selfishly improving his own life (via accepting immortality/godhood) or overthrowing the gods. Because the conflict isn't about the gods as rulers. It's about the gods as parents.

PJO's core thesis is Percy, who grew up knowing unconditional familial love, looking at this whole world of children who didn't and saying "that's not fair. Gods should be better than this!" But instead of destroying them the way Luke wants to, instead of overthrowing them and putting himself on the throne, he instead challenges them to be better parents and family members. To be part of the solution instead of the problem. And Percy's demands don't solve everything, but they were necessary first steps! Without forcing the gods to acknowledge a bare minimum floor of inclusion, the cycle would simply begin all over again the next time a major conflict popped up.

So that's the problem Percy solves and how he successfully fulfills the prophecy: by believing that the gods had the capacity to change and forcing them to break the cycle of familial abandonment, he preserves Olympus and takes the first steps towards a new status quo, one that is objectively better for demigods than the one he grew up in. That's why he succeeds, and it's why Percy overthrowing the gods would have made for a much less satisfying ending than what actually happened.

[callmerainman]

First Man on the Earth still couldn't hit this | sinner!Adam x fem!sinner!Reader

pairing. sinner!Adam x fem!sinner!Reader

themes. enemies to lovers, Adam reincarnates as a sinner, Reader is a royal guard.

spoilers! for Hazbin Hotel S1 finale

tw! mentions of sex, suggestive themes in general, the feminism leaving my body as I write for Adam

When Adam came back as a sinner and asked to be redeemed at the Hotel, no one was having that shit lmao.

But, as always, Charlie believes in second chances and it didn't feel right to her to just not let him in.

At only one condition: he would always have to be supervised by you, Lucifer's royal guard.

You were skilfully trained to become a guard at the royal family's services, and Lucifer had just the right mission for you in mind.

You accepted gladly, finally a task that wasn't guarding his rubber ducks.

But then you meet Adam, and you start immediately regretting the ducks.

You both find each other totally INSUFFERABLE.

He hates the idea of someone watching over him, so he lashes at you multiple times a day, as you talk back to him.

"Can't you just not stick your fucking angelic spear in my cereals?"

Despite your hatred for him, you took the mission very seriously and watched over him to check all his moves, just in case he had bad intentions.

But if you could, oh you would have ran away from his repellent presence the second you saw him at the Hotel.

He despises you so much that he doesn't even dare to flirt with you. You heard right. ADAM.

It takes some next level skill to get on his nerves to the point where he doesn't even want to sleep with you. And he remarks it a lot.

You do the same honestly.

"An old hag like you can only DREAM of having a piece of the original dick!"

Your face distorts in disgust "I would rather swallow all of Lucifer's rubber ducks than even think about it!"

At least you agree on something.

So your dynamic mainly consists of fighting, shouting at each other, name calling, pointing at his throat with your spear, Charlie separating you two as soon as you start throwing hands.

Speaking of Charlie, she had some special classes to make you two get along but they made things worse if anything.

One of them lead to the biggest fight you and Adam ever had.

As soon as you both get up to go to your respective rooms, still shouting insults at each other, Angel Dust raises one of his hands.

"Is it me or I sense some unspoken sexual tension?"

Everybody groans in disapproval, but immediately starts placing bets. Angel Dust is the only one who bets that you two will end up fucking.

In your room, you try to cool down but Adam is just making your job impossible. You're in fact fuming just by thinking about him and his stupid pretty face and his way of talking back to you.

Exasperated, you knock at his door, face already hot in anger. You want to set things straight.

As soon as he opens the door and sees you, he's already annoyed.

"You're making my job fucking impossible, you know?! If you really want to redeem yourself maybe you can start collaborating instead of being the most fucking annoying being to ever land in Hell!" you scream, pointing a finger at him.

Adam gets close to your face, towering over you "I'm not the one who asked to have someone fucking glued to my ass, you know?!"

Neither of you noticed your proximity, not until your foreheads were touching and you were breathing heavily against each other's faces, both hot. From anger, or...you know.

And then, something happens.

You both just lean in and kiss.

Oh boy Angel Dust may be onto something.

The moment you and Adam start to make out is the one you realize that all that fighting was your way of denying something that is now obvious.

The magnetic, undeniable sexual tension that wasn't just some weird figment of imagination.

In a matter of seconds you're all over each other and Adam drags you inside his room. You shut the door, just in case.

After you're done you find something else to agree on! 1. Best sex ever 2. No one has to know 3. Never again

You end up having sex again that very same day. And everybody knows because they heard you downstairs. A very lucky day for Angel Dust's finances!

Neither of you knew that the others at the Hotel were aware so you two would try to sneak out to have sex discreetly.

"We'll go upstairs to...uh...FIGHT! You know? Because we always fight! And we're totally not going upstairs to have sex...'cause we would never have sex with each other!"

Except none of that is discreet, you two go absolutely wild at it.

Meanwhile, you and Adam start to open up to each other more, mainly during pillow talk. You find out that you have a common music taste, and humor. Conversations flow so naturally, something that you would have never guessed.

Something blossoms, and you and Adam realize that you are head over heels for each other.

In the end, Charlie brings up to you two that everybody at the Hotel knows that you have been hooking up. On one side, because she's genuinely happy that you two get along in one way or another. Second, Alastor threatened to obliterate you both if you don't stop exposing him to your obscenities.

So you and Adam decide to stop keeping it a secret, to both yourselves and the gang, and officially become a couple.

Let's say that you still are all over him but in a very different way.

The other guests at the Hotel start regretting the times when you two would just shout at each other incoherently.

Lots of PDA, that's the point.

Not in front of Alastor though, you don't want to risk anything.

But what's more redeeming than a really, really, really stupid love?

[emilky-whim]

Folklore Legacy Challenge

Hey Ya'll! I've been working on this one for a little while and I can't wait to share it with you! It's a 16 + 1 generation legacy challenge for the Sims 4 based off of Taylor Swifts album Folklore! There aren't many solid rules for this one, I mostly just want ya'll to have fun and play it in a way that makes sense to you. That being said: - Mods and cheats are ok to use (I even encourage it). - Each Gen must have at least one child to play as the next heir. - I have used lots of packs in making this, you will need: City Living, Cats and Dogs, High School Years, Get Together, Crystal Creations, For Rent, Outdoor Retreat, Island Living, Dream Home Decorator, Parenthood, Discover University, Dine Out, Stranger Ville, Get Famous, Spa Day, Growing Together + more that I've probably forgotten. - If you do not have the required packs, feel free to change what you need to as long as it is somewhat similar to the original.

Gen 1: The One

You’re a meticulous gardener with a penchant for perfection, fiercely loyal to your craft and to your loved ones. Despite your somewhat snobbish tendencies, you dedicate yourself to finding true love, and when that journey ends, you never REALLY get over it. Yet you continue to cherish your familial bliss and vibrant social life.

Career - Gardener (Either Branch)

Traits - Perfectionist, Loyal, Snob

Aspiration - Curator 

Complete the soulmate aspiration with only one sim. Your sims permanently ‘separate’ once the aspiration is complete.

Always accept invites/calls from other sims.

Adopt at least one child.

 ‘’ = You may separate them as you choose.

Gen 2: Cardigan

You're a charismatic politician, oozing self-assurance and intellect, always in the know. As a Renaissance Sim, mastering myriad skills comes naturally to you. Amidst your political pursuits, you find time for youthful adventures, savouring bar dates, maybe one day you’ll finally settle down with a cherished companion.

Career - Politician (Charity Organiser)

Traits - Self-Assured, Genius, Insider

Aspiration - Renaissance Sim

Master all the skills needed for the politician career. 

Go on at least 5 bar dates as a young adult.

Eventually marry a childhood friend.

Gen 3: The Last Great American Dynasty 

You're a devoted stay-at-home parent, balancing material desires with a deep love for family and furry companions. Despite setbacks like a failed marriage and neighbourhood feuds, you find solace in nurturing your family and friends, building a home filled with love, even amidst domestic changes.

Career - Stay At Home Parent (You can work any career until you parent a child)

Traits - Materialistic, Dog-Lover, Family-Oriented

Aspiration - Mansion Baron

Have one failed marriage.

Become enemies with at least one neighbour.

Have your first child as a newly aged up young adult.

Move in with friends for at least one year.

Gen 4: Exile

In the world of espionage, you've always stood out. While others excel in covert ops, you thrive in building connections. Romantic at heart, yet socially awkward, you're drawn to leading, seeking solace in your club's camaraderie. After heartbreak, you relocate, shying from commitment but embracing your chosen family.

Career - Secret Agent (Diamond Agent)

Traits - Romantic, Socially Awkward, Gloomy

Aspiration - Leader Of The Pack

Create and lead your own club. Become friends with all the members.

After a major breakup, move to a different world.

Never get married or stay in a long-term relationship.

Gen 5: My Tears Ricochet

Amidst canvases and clay, you've always preferred solitude to the bustle of social affairs. As a critic, you explore the depths of creativity, while crafting jewellery and crystals on the side. Despite your artistic fervour, relationships falter, leaving you to nurture your creative progenies and seek solace in your craft.

Career - Critic (Arts Critic)

Traits - Loner, Creative, Art Lover 

Aspiration - Crystal Crafter 

Have a side business selling Jewelry and Crystals.

Get left OR leave someone at the altar.

Have at least 4 children.

Gen 6: Mirrorball

In the spotlight's embrace, you dazzle as an entertainer, with moves that mesmerise and demands that rival divas. Behind the glamour lies a heart yearning for connection, seeking solace in fleeting affairs. As you master the arts of song and stage, you flit from home to home, craving new experiences and relationships to fulfil your insatiable appetite for life.

Career - Entertainer (Musician)

Traits - Dance Machine, High Maintenance, Generous 

Aspiration - Friend Of The World 

Have a secret love affair, with whom you’ll eventually marry.

Master the singing, piano and acting skills. Never master any other skills.

Live with at least 3 different sims over your lifetime. 

Gen 7: Seven

Beneath the stars, you find your playground, a whimsical astronaut drawn to the great unknown. Childhood antics linger as you escape the mundane, running away with a friend to explore the world. Haunted houses hold no fear for you, just another adventure in your quest for outdoor thrills. With each holiday, you uncover new wonders, embracing the vastness of the universe.

Career - Astronaut (Space Ranger)

Traits - Childish, Loves Outdoors, Good

Aspiration - Outdoor Enthusiast 

Run away from home as a teenager with a friend/s

Live in a haunted house. 

Go on a holiday seven times over your lifetime. 

Gen 8: August

In the vibrant world of social media, you craft narratives with precision, driven by ambition and a hint of envy for the spotlight. Amidst beachside dreams, you seek solace in Sulani's embrace, drawn to its sun-kissed shores. An affair with a married sim sparks passion, leading to a child and an obsession, anchoring you to the idyllic island life, forsaking love for the serenity of the sea.

Career - Social Media (Public Relations)

Traits - Jealous, Ambitious, Neat

Aspiration - Beach Life

Have an affair with a married sim you meet while on vacation.

Have at least one child with the married sim.

Live in Sulani for most, if not all, of your lifetime.

Never date again after your affair ends.

Gen 9: This Is Me Trying

Driven by a desire to transform spaces, you carve your niche in the world of interior design, fueled by ambition yet shadowed by melancholy. As a youth, you flee, severing ties to forge a path of your own. Love finds you in the arms of a cheerful soul, grounding you upon your return, where you rebuild bridges and strive to be the ultimate caregiver to your children, overcoming personal demons along the way.

Career - Interior Decorator 

Traits - Ambitious, Overachiever, Gloomy 

Aspiration - Super Parent

Move away as a teenager/young adult and lose most of your sims relationships.

Get married to a Cheerful sim. 

Move back as a young adult/adult and re-make all the relationships you lost.

BONUS (Only if you have the Basemental Drugs MOD) Become addicted to at least one substance and successfully complete rehabilitation for it.

Gen 10: Illicit Affairs

In the courtroom's halls, you weave tales of justice as a private attorney. Driven by wanderlust and a fear of commitment, marriage comes swiftly, but it's the thrill of forbidden affairs that ignites your passion. Caught in multiple webs of deceit, divorce looms, leading you to Henford-on-Bagley, where you navigate the complexities of parenthood alone, seeking solace in the quiet countryside.

Career - Law (Private Attorney)

Traits - Non-Committal, Advenutrist, Clumsy

Aspiration - Serial Romantic

Get married young and have at least 4 affairs before getting caught. 

Have at least one child through an affair.

Get divorced 

Move to Henford-on-Bagley to raise all your children by yourself.

Gen 11: Invisible String

You always dreamed of sizzling pans and crafting culinary delights, a romantic at heart with a green thumb to match. Love's journey takes unexpected turns—a tumultuous romance with a mean spirit, a dance of uncertainty with a lifelong friend. As the years pass, you find your soulmate as an elder, nurturing both your restaurant empire, a family and a thriving garden.

Career - Own your own restaurant (or multiple restaurants)

Traits - Romantic, Good, Green Friend

Aspiration - Soulmate

Be in a long-term relationship with a mean sim and eventually break up.

Have a ‘will they, won’t they’ type of relationship with a life-long friend sim.

Get married as an Elder.

Have a well-maintained garden.

Have all restaurants at 5 stars.

Gen 11: Mad Woman

Betrayed in your youth by those you trusted the most, you harbour scars deep as loyalty binds you to your cause. You ascend the ranks of the criminal underworld, fueled by anger and an unyielding pursuit of justice and vengeance. Marriage offers solace, yet the thirst for retribution remains, driving you relentlessly until old age grants the serenity you seek.

Career - Criminal (Boss)

Traits - Hot-Headed, Perfectionist, Loyal 

Aspiration - Seeker of Secrets

As a teenager, have an ex friend/friend group/lover ruin your reputation/life.

Spend the rest of your adult life trying to get revenge.

Marry a friend. 

Only find peace/let go as an elder.

Gen 12: Epiphany 

Straight out of high school to the covert operations of the military, you excel, driven by duty and a longing to provide for your family. Medals adorn your chest, earned through dedication and sacrifice. Love finds you in the arms of a medical professional, but shadows linger, as memories of battle haunt your days, a silent reminder of the price of service.

Career - Military (Covert Operator)

Traits - Overachiever, Family-Oriented, Good

Aspiration - Big Happy Family

Join the military immediately after finishing highschool.

Retire/quit your job as soon as you earn all available medals.

Date and marry sim with the medical career.

Live with PTSD (you can use a mod for this)

Gen 14: Betty 

Your high school romance blossoms into marriage, yet jealousy festers, leading to a massive indiscretion that fractures the trust you’ve built. Amidst the wreckage, you strive to mend what's broken, seeking solace in weekly garden dates as you navigate the rocky terrain of love. In the digital realm, you thrive as a freelancer, coding with confidence and a hint of cringe-worthy humour.

Career - Freelancer (Programmer)

Traits - Cringe, Jealous, Self-Assured

Aspiration - Joke Star

Marry your high school sweetheart. 

Have weekly dates in your back garden.

Have an affair for an extended period of time before being caught. 

Spend the rest of your life trying to heal the connection between you and your spouse. 

Gen 15: Peace

Unable to make friends, you shed the burden of high school to focus on working toward your dream job and pursue the limelight. Amidst the glittering lights of fame, you still struggle to find your place and people in the world. Eventually, love finds you in the presence of an outgoing spirit, but as stardom ascends, so does the weight of its demands, testing your quest for inner peace amidst the chaos of stardom.

Career - Actor

Traits - Socially Awkward, Creative, Squeamish

Aspiration - Inner Peace

Dropout of high school and work a part time job to earn money.

Master the acting career.

Master the acting and wellness skills.

Marry an outgoing, good sim.

Become a Global Superstar and struggle with the price of fame.

Gen 16: Hoax

Born amidst the urban hustle of San Myshuno, your artistic soul yearns for expression amidst the city's chaos. Love's path proves rocky, a journey of unfulfilled connections and shattered dreams. Seeking solace in a fresh start, you depart the city's embrace, yet the ghost of past loves haunts your brushstrokes, forever captured in the vivid hues of your yearning canvases.

Career -  Painter (Master Of The Real)

Traits - Gloomy, Vegetarian, Generous

Aspiration - Painter Extraordinaire 

Grow up in San Myshuno.

Be in a long-term, unfilling relationship with sim you have bad compatibility with. Eventually break up.

Have a failed relationship with a family friend. 

Move out of San Myshuno to get a fresh start. 

Never get over one of your previous relationships and spend the rest of your life yearning to have it back.

(Bonus) Gen 17: The Lakes

Amidst the rustle of leaves and the whisper of pages, you find your muse as a writer, enchanted by the dance of words and the embrace of nature. Poetry flows from you, a testament to your romantic soul. Holidays are cherished escapes, moments of tranquillity by the water's edge, fueling your creative spirit. Yet, it's in solitude that your greatest works are born, a testament to your dedication to the craft.

Career - Writer (Author)

Traits - Romantic, Bookworm, Loves Outdoors

Aspiration - Bestselling Author

Only write poetry (unless specified for the aspiration)

Go on Holiday with your spouse and family often, staying as close to a body of water as you can get.

Complete the gemstone collection.

Leave the world behind for a period of time to focus on writing (completely alone)

[the-beaten-and-the-damned]

third post today because it's been on my mind for a while and since we're back in business anyway

to all nontraumagens, you know why systems are against you?

cuz you aren't systems, but trying to invade system spaces. AND NO, SIT THE HELL BACK DOWN, let me explain. just for you, i will mark the keywords in different colours this time :)

you see, "system" is initially a medical term. "multiplicity" is a word associated with a medical condition, which happens to be basically synonymous to "plurality". which isn't medical. i don't support the usage of this word by systems, but i'm merely explaining why it happens

let's just hypothetically say, you can be plural without trauma. spiritually, religiously, by the means of taking substances, etcetera. that's still not a system. because it's a medical term. and one medical criterium for being a system (out of many) is that you are multiple without any of the above.

call those entities in your brain a joint, a commune, whatever you want! but not a system. please.

let's say i believe your plurality. i won't either say i 100% do or 100% don't, i never looked into that and this mutual aggression i see between systems and plurals doesn't make me wanna do it one bit. you say it yourself, it originates from something other than trauma! then it's different in nature. WHY are you trying to get into the spaces of traumatised people that aren't going to understand your experiences anyway? WHY are you trying to wage a war on the said traumatised people? Why do you come after those trying to make, in your words, their "endo-free internet bubble"? you can't shove acceptance down someone's throat, especially when your community acts like this.

have your own community. make terms that aren't medical. make flags, i see many of you are passionate graphic designers anyway. here's a couple of basic terms for you i just came up with! entity (part/alter), nucleus (host) walk-in (introject), guardian (protector), warden (gatekeeper), and so on. MAKE YOUR TERMS. PLEASE

tl;dr: endos, you don't belong in the system community only because our experiences differ. make yourself a new one, that won't touch people with severe trauma. this way, you won't have to harass and get harassed back.

sincerely, a traumascum.

to anti endos here, i get the fun you're getting from reclaiming the terms that endos make. do it with those that are based on medical and sys community exclusive ones. DON'T take the terms that are made by them to separate, for the love of god, you're prolonging this war. if you see them making an attempt at separating, leave them be. EVEN IF you don't believe in their experiences, EVEN IF you think you can't be plural without trauma, period, DON'T TOUCH THEM. they'll be in their own space we won't need to invade, and we'll be in ours. isn't it what we all want, for endos to get out of the system spaces?

upd.: a simple solution to systems that DO support nontraumagens! don't post about them in spaces exclusively made for traumatised people. because these spaces aren't about non-disordered plurals. post about them where it's appropriate, not wherever you want to. personally, i think you're still allowed to use your community tags, #systempunk included, but don't drag what doesn't belong in it in there.

nontraumagenics are welcome to interact only if they're being civil and understand my point. and only with this post. otherwise, if you decide to be a little shit to us, we will be meaner to you tenfold, just a warning.

since quite a bunch of endos decided to stir up shit and argue instead of actually understanding our point, hell naw, you AREN'T welcome to interact. i take it back. -💀

our inbox doesn't have anon asks turned on anyway :3

[animeyanderelover]

For shit and giggles what if older sister reader drink the poisonous tea meant for yui by reiji what he doesn't know is the side effects is making the person that drink it in the younger age so now reader is the same age as yui and don't have any memory of the brother she still cares about yui a lot calling her a precious friend tearing her like a sibling she never had and get angry at the sakamaki brothers when they try to manipulate her

Tw: Yandere themes, possessive behavior, obsession, clinginess, delusional behavior, paranoia, manipulation, isolation

A sip of poisonous tea

Shu Sakamaki

🎵​The only reason why Reiji hasn't been violently assaulted by all the younger siblings after that incident is because Shu is one of the few who have held them back. He is not doing it out of brotherly love though as he himself understands the urge some of the other Sakamaki brothers feel. However, he also understands that Reiji has the best chances of finding a remedy to return you to your original form. He won't lie though, it is hard at times to control the violent urge to hurt his younger brother for what he has done. You were the only person Shu has ever felt truly peaceful with as you were the only one who he willingly told everything that was a burden on his soul. Now that you have lost all your memories though, Shu experiences true loneliness but he can't even show that as the gates to his heart completely close. When he realises that you are not able to recall anything about him, he stops trying to maybe trigger a memory of yours. Shu decides to avoid you for a while as the hollow pain in his chest only gets stronger when he watches you and that human girl together, although he still ends up torturing himself by secretly watching you from the distance.

Reiji Sakamaki

☕​Reiji is the one who takes the hardest emotional blow because he is the one who prepared that poisonous tea to get rid of that girl that was stealing your attention. He could have never predicted that you would actually try that tea for her yet you did and now all of your memories are gone. You're gone. He wants to blame that girl and he would have almost murdered her if it wouldn't have been for Kanato having his meltdown and trying to hurt Reiji. Yet a part of him is unable to protect his own ego and pride as he realises that he is also partially responsible for it even if he tries to make Yui the sole scapegoat of this situation. To think that he would be the one to do such a thing to his own beloved sister is a burden unspeakably heavy and there is a tight knot of fear and panic in his chest that makes him feel like he is slowly dying. Unable to live with the thought that he ruined you who he has always idolised and who has always been perfect in his eyes, he completely locks himself away in his chambers and sometimes doesn't leave his room for day. His sanity is on the brink of shattering but he has to find an antidote. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to look at himself in the mirror anymore.

Ayato Sakamaki

🥇​If it wouldn't have been for Laito stopping him from breaking Reiji's neck, he would have committed murder right then and there. How dare the bastard to poison you and take you away from him?! The only reason why he stops wanting to kill Reiji for now is that he understands that the older brother is the only one who can also create an antidote. That doesn't stop him from knocking violently on the door leading to Reiji's chambers once or twice a day and asking him pissed if he has done finally something useful, barely able to suppress the urge to just kick the door open violently. Ayato will be quite persistent with you though because he just can't accept that you have lost all of your memories. How can you forget him? You have always praised him and cheered him up and now you dare to forget him and replace him with that stupid human girl? He attempts to monopolise all of your time to separate you from Yui and try to awaken your memories by retelling you all of his achievements and showing you what he can do. His mind is just blown that you seem to have forgotten him, your favorite brother from the entire bunch... In his mind at least.

Kanato Sakamaki

🧸​Together with Reiji he has the worst reaction to you losing all of your memories and turning to the same age as Yui. He has to be physically restrained and dragged away from Reiji as he screeches and screams promises of death to him. His mental condition has always been quite fragile but that was what you were for. You were always there to comfort him and hold tea parties with him and Kanato has always been so incredibly attached to you. Now you have forgotten him though and instead treat Yui like she is your sibling and his mentality is thoroughly shot after that incident. He in fact acts so extreme that his other brothers have to keep him away from you as he even tries to break into your bedroom. He's sure that you will remember him if he brings you to his room where the both of you have always held the tea parties and ties you to a chair to keep you from running away. Kanato has just completely lost it since you were the sole anchor who could control him enough for him to not be too crazed. But now that you have forgotten, there is no one who can protect others from Kanato as well as protect him from himself.

Laito Sakamaki

​🎹​Laito has some rather gruesome fantasies about what he would like to do with Reiji but he keeps it all within the realm of imagination for now. He is after all quick to recognise that Reiji has the highest chances of undoing all the effects the poison had on you. He hopes that the bastard suffers as much as possible for messing up so majorly in the first place though. His inner demons are hidden pretty well though when he approaches you though as he tries to find a way to make the best of the situation. You have forgotten everything which means that as long as you are so clueless, he may as well try to gain your favor. Laito is quite good in hiding his true intentions as he tries to get you away from that little bitch you spend so much time with. To his bittersweet delight you have kept your sharp intelligence even at such a young age though so his attempts to play the good guy fail as you get even more protective of Yui as if sensing that Laito might otherwise plan something. Just because he has failed doesn't mean that he will leave you alone though. He will interfere whenever he can and squeeze himself in every moment you want to have with Yui alone. Please, don't forget him...

Subaru Sakamaki

​⬜​Subaru is in a way in a similar situation as Shu. You were the only one he felt safe wnough around to express all of his emotions, even his vulnerability. Now that you have forgotten him though, he has no one anymore who he can tell about all of the crying sadness inside of him. So he ends up trying to push it all down but this leads to an outburst of violence and hot tears sooner or later when he is alone. He despises Reiji for having done something like this to you. He has never really liked him before to begin with but now he just really wants to rip his limbs apart from his body. He can barely hold back though with the promises of the other brothers that Reiji will find a cure to your current condition. He hates that he doesn't know how to act anymore around you because not only have you lost all your memories but you are physically younger now than even him. It just seems all so strange in his mind but the greatest suffering he receives is your new attachment to the human girl. He is always boiling when he watches how you play with her as he recalls that you used to do the same with him and eventually has to tear his gaze away from you, on the verge of another outburst.

[shoujo-wizard]

I read butter, sugar, and northern mockingbirds by througheden on ao3 before bed awhile ago & now I can't stop thinking abt kitchen witch Steve Harrington & want to make something sweet

This is an omegaverse AU so if u don't like tht don't bother me, I sent an ask with my initial ideas for this to @lexirosewrites & the flavor is steddie with a buckingham palate cleanser but the thoughts r dominated by Steve the kitchen witch

I've changed a few details from my ask

Steve is an omega & a kitchen witch

Robin is an omega & can see/communicate w ghosts

Eddie is an alpha & an co-owner of the new bookstore/record store

Chrissy is an alpha, an occult fanatic, & co-owner of the same bookstore/record store

Steve didn't grow up in Hawkins but in Indianapolis, but he'd visit every summer

Steve Harrington who learned recipes & spells at his grandpa's elbow, in the trailer theyd lived in since they were a young couple, summers spent helping in the vegetable garden & running through the nearby woods w a little boy w wild curls while their guardians gossiped on the back porch

The summer he turned 13 he became a rare case & went through his presentation heat 3 years earlier than the average & afterwards his mother takes him to get omega birth control tht is designed to regulate heats & she stands silently to the side while his father gives him a lecture abt sex in their living room, then they're driving to Hawkins at a later date than anyone wanted

The summer he turned 13 his friend with the wild curls brought him wild flowers & declared his intentions to be his Alpha someday & Steve accepted his suit, when he shared the news with his mother he immediately knew it to be a mistake from her intake of breath & he never got to visit his grandparents after tht summer, not even being allowed to go back to Hawkins for his grandma's funeral not till he's 18 & refusing the mating their all but forcing on him

So he drives to Hawkins with Robin, who he met in a mandatory Omega Health class they both took together. Where they bonded about the embarrassing verbs being used. He ends up inheriting the property and house a year later when his grandpa passes away. The 2 of them move in & make the house more to their tastes while keeping a lot of the original 50s features

Steve soon finds himself baking cupcakes from his grandpa's recipe journal that is meant to bring sweet dreams that night, he goes around to his neighbors & evenly distributes the cupcakes finally coming upon the Munson trailer with a sense of familiarity. Wayne is home & delighted to see Steve is his new neighbor, he & Robin are promptly invited to dinner that Sunday, & Wayne makes a chicken & rice casserole that always pleases others & Steve brings dessert: berry cobbler. Eddie comes home just in time for dinner & time feels like it stops for the two of them as their eyes meet again after years of separation & before dinner is even served Eddie has asked Steve for permission to court him

They have a sweet courtship with Eddie learning that Steve is a witch & he simply takes it in stride & brings him gifts relevant to his talents

They exchange mating bites barely a year later & Eddie happily moves into the trailer with Steve & Robin

[sunnycanvas]

Could you make one where fem! was blackmailed to leave Baldwin?

"Please you can't do this to me, I love him so much" (Y/N) said with tears streaming down her eyes. The Byzantine princess scoffed annoyed and grabbed (Y/N)'s throat. (Y/N) gasped in fear and the Byzantine princess smirked sadistically. "Say one more word and you will be begging for air instead". Angry (Y/N) tried to claw her hands out.

"Oh no! Don't even try to think about it". "You will be in more trouble" "After all you are no longer queen" Fearful (Y/N) handed her annulment papers (Y/N) couldn't help but think about events while back she said to her husband king Baldwin IV of Jerusalem

"What do you mean you have fallen in love with another man" Baldwin IV yelled in anger. (Y/N) let out frustrated sigh and said "Just what you heard". Baldwin IV got up so fast from his chair that his chair fell and table moved. (Y/N) backed up against the wall in fear. With Baldwin IV cowering her. (Y/N) gulped in fear staring wide eyed to her husband who said "Moment a man lust after some one else in heart that moment itself they have committed adultery" . (Y/N) retorated "You can't control whom you fall in love with". (Y/N) looked him strongly in eyes daring him to challenge her. (Y/N) was confused when she heard him laughing "You think a Leper like me, who was fortunate enough to marry you a commoner because of love would simply divorce you. "(Y/N), you are lying. I can tell" (Y/N) didn't let disappointment noticable in face and scoffed and said "Suite yourself". As (Y/N) left the hall. (Y/N) was grabbed by a noble man who dragged her to isolated room. "Did you convince him for an annulment". (Y/N) couldn't help the tears streaming down her eyes. That man was Byzantine ambassador whom she recognised had originally orchestrated the plan. The noble man let out frustrated sigh and warned her again "This alliance is important for both empires" "A useless commoner like you will ruin everything" "Do us all a favour and leave him, or else we will kill that little boy in the palace with whom you have grown attached to". "Countess Agnes was smart to accept annulment unlike you " (Y/N) red faced with trembling voice cried out in anger "I am trying my best" "You don't understand how difficult it is for me as well". The noble man covered her mouth with his hand and warned her "Don't you dare yell or else consequences will be severe". Their conversation with a knock on the door. Both of them separated from each other. The noble gave a glare to (Y/N) one last time before saying "Come in". The maid hesitantly entered the room and could sence the tension in the air. She nervously looked at (Y/N) and said "Your Grace, his majesty has asked for your presence in hall".

Your thoughts were interrupted and brought back to present. When you heard the sound of glass and wine. You recalled the next thing you knew that before entering the hall and metting the king and high court of Jerusalem the noble man asked to you meet the princess. Byzantine princess who was drinking wine smiled in victory and said "I will finally get to marry a king and get to be queen of Jerusalem". "Don't worry I will ensure to give you place as a maid in palace, I am sure your ex husband would agree as well me". The Byzantine princess smiled as she watched your face flush in embarrassment

Just then then the door was opened with loud thud.

"Who the hell dares to interru-Oh your majesty". The princess quickly composed herself and stood gracefully. You watched in amazement how quickly her character changed. "Nobody would believe that she is so cruel". You thought sadly. Baldwin IV was quick to recognise your change in mood. He quickly addressed the princess "You are under arrest for threatening and blackmailing the queen". The princess looked at Baldwin IV in shock. Before she could defend herself. The king presented beaten up noble man and continued his statement from before "With your ambassador". The princess shed crocodile tears and pleaded her innocence. Baldwin IV not hearing her cries signalled her to stop

Baldwin IV continued saying "I knew my wife appeared to be distressed by quite some time" "So I asked my spies to follow her". "When she said that she fell in love with someone else I knew for sure that she was being threatened and I secretly followed her as well". "I hope God forgives you because I sure won't for how you treated my wife". "We have enough evidence to convict you" The princess was forcefully dragged away shouted "You won't get away with this, my relative Emperor manuel Ī will ensure that". King Baldwin IV calmly replied as he watched the princess and the noble man being dragged away. "We have enough allies to defend ourselves". Baldwin IV soon turned his attention to (Y/N) who refused to meet his gaze. Baldwin IV slowly approached her. He gently put his hand on her shoulder and said "As much I am angry with you, I am willing to forgive you since I knew you were scared but next time if someone threatens you please let me know about it first". (Y/N) finally turned her gaze to her husband and nodded shyly before both of them embraced each other. Finally happy that they are together again

[hindahoney]

I want gentiles to understand that Islam and Judaism are closer to each other than either are to Christianity. One thing you're taught growing up is that if you need to, it's more acceptable for a Jew to pray in a mosque than it is to step foot in a church. I've also been taught by my Muslim friends (I could be butchering the wording of this, if you know better feel free to correct me) that while in Islam everyone is believed to be Muslim and just don't know it yet, a jewish person is closer to Islam than a Christian would be. Jewish and Muslim rituals, practices, and cultures have a lot of similarities that just can't be found in Christianity (ie. Lunar calendar, sabbath on friday/Saturday, hair covering). The Christian belief in the Holy Trinity is largely what makes them completely separate from Islam and Judaism, despite sharing origins of Avraham. It's for this, and other reasons, that Jews don't accept that our G-d is the same as Christianity's version.

So when you say Judeo-Christian, not only is it offensive to link Jews with the people who have murdered us for centuries, but it's also just inaccurate, and I can guarantee that nearly any comparison you make between Judaism and Christianity is going to be wrong.

[superkooku]

Dionysus' iceberg

This post is what remains of an initially very long rant idea. That means there will probably be a part 2 😏.

Here's the reason for my title :

In theory, you can stop there since my meme pretty much summarizes my complaints. But since I like ranting, I'll continue 😈

The tip of the iceberg

When you think "Dionysus", which words come in mind first ?

Probably "wine", "party", "alcohol" "fun god".

These words are what most people remember about Dionysus. And yes, I'm not going to deny, they fit.

Unfortunately, my problem comes with the fact that 9.5 times out of 10, Dionysus' personality will exclusively revolve around these aspects.

Since the issue is about modern adaptations and perceptions, I'll use a modern term.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with flanderization, right ? If not, the link to TV Tropes' article on the subject is available.

Many adaptations fell into that trap for, I think, every single Olympian.

Hades, god of the dead, lord of the Underworld = Satan, evil death god, darkness and sorrow

Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty = Superficial bimbo who only cares about her pretty face

Zeus, king of the gods, lord of the sky and thunder = 100% pure God OR more recently : evil king god who constantly abuses women.

The gods are stripped of their complexity to fit simpler and more "digestible" characterizations. It doesn't help that the cultural context surrounding them is also taken away...

But this is about grape boi, right? Well, Dionysus is no exception to that rule. In fact, he might be one of the worst cases.

So far, he was never really portrayed in an "insulting" light, like Apollo in Lore Olympus or Hades in the Percy Jackson movie. Fortunately.

But, from all the popular adaptations I've seen, none of them manage to portray Dionysus ! None ! Does that make them automatically bad ? No, of course. It's just something I noticed.

God of war ? Doesn't appear, only mentioned

Disney ? Don't even try 🤣. Just a drunk goofball. Yes, that includes the fantasia segment and Hercules.

Lore Olympus? Well, he's a baby for 99.99999% of the time, so it doesn't count. But he's still a quiet little Gucci bag for Persephone.

Hades I ? Just a nice guy. But hey ! He can give us useful boons ! And I like his sass.

Maybe he'll do more in Hades II. They're usually more accurate than most, right ? Though that's not a very high bar. And they know about Zagreus ! Surely that's a good sign, right ?

Nevermind...

Here's what all these adaptations tell us :

Dionysus is the god of wine, feasts and parties

He's an Olympian

He likes to get drunk and party 🥳

And that's it.

Again, I'm not blaming anyone, but if the myths stopped with those three points, wouldn't everyone wonder why he's even an Olympian ? I sure did when I was a kid.

We have the god of thunder, the goddess of wisdom and war strategy, god of music/arts/medicine/100 other things, the god of the oceans ! Many cool gods !

And some drunk dude. He's not given any particular power, except the power to stay super passive no matter the stakes ! If the story revolves about epic godly fights (which is often the case), he's absolutely useless.

Heck, Hades II even actively depicts him as a pacifist who can't handle war. While he's not physically a weakling, he sure psychologically is.

Why is this a problem ?

I am not going to beat around the bush: this gives us a very incomplete and incorrect perception of the god.

Even the things that aren't forgotten about him (like his link to wine) aren't explored.

The thing with Hades II (that's the last time I'll mention it) is that it tries to deepen the flanderized version of Dionysus. He's not stupid, but afraid. He drinks to forget his issues.

While this characterization can be very interesting taken separately, we must remember that this isn't an OC, but an interpretation of a cultural figure.

It must be accurate ! While I can accept some liberties, I think that those should mostly be an extension of the original material, not a total deviation.

Dionysus isn't a scared little boi or a stupid drunkard you can manipulate. In fact, that's quite the opposite. And he's not afraid to get his hands dirty.

(even if the "dirt" in question is the blood of his enemies).

Under the surface

Though it's rather "stuff you can find on Wikipedia". Or by reading the myths.

More about it in part 2 of the rant...

It'll be about theater, madness, travels, link between mortality and immortality and... pirates turning into dolphins.

The actual interesting stuff about Dionysus.

Edits :

1. Thanks to @st4riel-the-w1tchling for clarifying the situation about Percy Jackson. I made my own research about BoZ. My opinion is basically still the same. Again, nothing terribly offensive, but nothing that interesting for Dionysus either.

2. I made part 2 a while ago, might as well add it here :

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

Guys. Why is there even a debate here. Some of the games were explicitly written to be connected, some of them weren't. Not everything has to fit into one cohesive timeline. As a matter of fact, they can't. Now, there is some more nuance to it. Read below for my explanation (infodump) plus a more nuanced chart.

Red and blue lines are canon within the games' text. Ambiguities are filled in with green. I'll get more into that later. Let's first explain the two completely separate mini timelines.

The Four Swords miniseries stands mostly alone. The Master Sword and the Triforce are present in every other game or (mostly--looking at you, Master Sword in LoZ and AoL) have a good reason not to be, but they are not present at all in these three games. Instead, we have the Four Sword and Light Force. The only wrinkle is that Ganondorf shows up in FSA... so I don't know about that one. I don't think anyone does.

As for BotW and TotK. Oh brother. What do we do with these. Skyward Sword is intended to take place seemingly millennia, or at least several centuries before Ocarina. We see the founding of Hyrule with the first monarch and her chosen knight, the cycle of recurring evil and heroism being established, and the forging of the Master Sword

Wait. What about Rauru and Sonia? I thought they were the first rulers of Hyrule. And if the Zonai were around long before Hyrule, where is any of their presence in Skyward Sword? Huh. Alright. We don't know how much time passed between the first Calamity and the second, but from the past era of TotK to its present, we can account for at least 10,105 years of history. We don't even need to get into how Zora and Rito coexist or anything smaller like that. There's just no fucking way these two games fit with any of the others. Fine, that's fine. Moving on.

There's also a little hiccup around the Oracles. Nintendo seems to go back and force on whether the Oracles feature the same Link as in ALttP and LA, but if they do, it probably makes more sense that Oracles happen before LA (the linked Oracle game ends with Link boarding sailing off on a small ship and LA starts with him on one). So like... I guess they fit there?

Either way, let's take a second to look back at where this idea of a timeline split happened. Remember that WW and TP both clearly take place after OoT. That isn't theorizing, that's in the actual text of each game. The thing is, they're mutually exclusive. TP has Ganondorf being executed, as he would have been after the Hero of Time goes back to his original era and warns Zelda that her plan to get to the Triforce first isn't going to work (which is implied to be what happens at the "The End" screen of OoT). WW has Ganondorf coming back by breaking the seal put on him, and the Hero of Time didn't appear to stop him again (as would happen if Link was sent back in time). Fans started theorizing way back in 2006 that OoT created separate timelines, with WW and TP being mutually exclusive sequels to it as the evidence.

Some fans have asserted that Nintendo just "took" the fan theory. But come on, put everything together here. The texts of OoT, WW, and TP HEAVILY imply the timeline split. The only reason we called it a theory is because the writers didn't literally say "And then the timeline split in two". The texts are pretty clear though. It's the only thing that makes sense. That isn't to say that there needs to be a cohesive timeline, and that the split is the only way to fit it together. No, OoT is connected to both WW and TP no matter what. That was the intent. It's just that the explanation for OoT to have mutually exclusive sequels actually fits neatly into the texts of the games.

And now we come to the tricky part. Put yourself back into the 90s real quick. ALttP seems to have been written as a prequel to Zelda 1, showing Hyrule before its period of decline. Alright, let's just accept that because it may as well be true. The lore at that point was so thin that it made enough sense. I kinda slapped Zelda 1 and 2 at the end there to show it, because we do have a cohesive timeline from ALttP to TFH. That's fine, all well and good.

Likewise, OoT seems to be written as a prequel to ALttP. We see conflict over the Triforce, the origin of Ganon, the seven sages, and an earlier iteration of the Master Sword. Back in 1998, we had no reason to not believe it. These are tenuous connections that are not explicit in the games' text, so I've paired them with green lines to show it.

But wait. ALttP is ALSO mutually exclusive to TP and WW. Oh brother. What do we do about this? Even after figuring out the timeline split in 2006, fans didn't know what the fuck to do with the first four games of this franchise. They could go after TP, but that's even messier than putting them right after OoT. Yuck. This doesn't feel good at all. Oh yeah, and then there's the Four Swords games that don't fit anywhere.

Now you can imagine the position the writers of Hyrule Historia found themselves in when they were tasked with creating an official timeline. Some of the games have certain explicit connections, as detailed in my first chart. But they had to cram everything into one timeline. Well. They knew they had a timeline split in OoT, because that's what the texts of OoT, WW, and TP collectively say. The lore of ALttP also mentions seven sages (or wise men, but let's call them sages), but not a legendary hero. So... if you really stretch your brain out here... it kinda makes sense that there's a timeline where the Hero of Time died fighting Ganon. Maybe. Kinda. Not really, but kinda. And then there's the Four Swords miniseries. Fuck it, throw them in randomly.

The two-way split doesn't disagree with OoT's text at all, which said that Link won. The three-way split does disagree with it by asserting that Link lost. But if we're really trying to fit everything into one timeline, that is the cleanest place to put them. Some people really hate this, but it does seem that those are the same people that demanded that there be an official timeline in the first place. ie the same people who were gonna be pissed off with anything Nintendo gave them that wasn't exactly their own theory being confirmed.

Alright, real talk. The producers of the Zelda series have said time and time again that they think of what would make a fun game then write a story that fits around it. The Wind Waker devs wanted you to sail around the ocean. Then the writers decided "oh, we could put this after Ocarina! After all, weren't they left without a hero? What if Ganon came back with no one to stop him? How would that problem resolve itself? What if the gods just flooded the world?" Then the Twilight Princess devs wanted a spiritual successor to Ocarina, with an epic adventure on horseback across the traditional Zelda kingdom setting. So the writers went "hey, in Ocarina, Link warned Zelda about Ganon, right? What if he was executed then, and then the world was never flooded?"

We have to realize that trying to put games with this design philosophy into a neat little timeline is a futile effort. It's never gonna work because it wasn't designed to. More so than any other storytelling medium, video games take so many approaches to continuity. The Halo games were all meant to be sequential and fit neatly into a strict timeline. Pokemon is all canon within itself but the ties between games are less important than the stories of each game. Mario essentially has no canon except for recurring characters and settings. Zelda is gameplay first, canon second. That's why the two most recent mainline games don't even try to fit in the canon of the previous eighteen. That's just how it works and we're gonna have to accept that.

[redfurrycat]

🤠🐕‍🦺☃️🐾🏍️🐱🐓Animal Companions Fic Recs🐓🏍️🐱🐾☃️🐕‍🦺🤠

Check the Top Gun Masterlist post for the latest updated version. 💕

Ao3 Authors: Aphroditedany, Bbr1, BeautifulCreature, Buckybraciole, Callsignyours, Demiclar, Emmedoesntdomath, Indybob, Kazanskysmitchell, Kerbyfullyloaded, LemonsAndSugarMakeLemonade, Lesbiseresin, LoveChildofInsertShowHere, SunMonTue, Teacupivy, ThisisYour_Captain_Speaking, ToukoJalorda003, Whimsicule.

Art Bonus - (coming soon)

> Mythological Creatures & Shapeshifters {🤠🐓} > Daily Heroes/Animal Care {🤠🐓}

his dark materials / dæmon AU by buckybraciole {T} {🤠🐓}

A series of one-shots about fighter pilots and their dæmons.

Golden Retriever Puppy by bbr1 {G} {🤠🐓}

“Have you ever had a dog?” Jake asks. “Nah, who am I kidding. Of course you haven’t. I’m going to get you a dog.”

Bad Idea! by LemonsAndSugarMakeLemonade {T} {🤠🐓/☃️🏍️}

Bradley: Hey, are you and Ice around? Well, this is slightly odd Mav thought but he replied anyway. Yeah, why? Bradley: We have our baby! We’ll be there in 10. Mav almost dropped his phone at the reply. What the fuck. Bradley Bradshaw, you better call me this instant.

A cat named Crow by LoveChildofInsertShowHere {T}

The Meowfect Evening {☃️🏍️}

Sometimes a kitten can make an evening even better

Some Birds Can't Fly {☃️🏍️}

Crow becomes more of a part of the Mitchell-Kazansky family

How Crow Won Slider's Heart {☃️🏍️}

Sometimes a cat will settle an insane debate better than Ice can

The Bumps in Quiet Nights {☃️🏍️}

Ice worries when Maverick takes too long to come back home from picking up dinner

And A Partridge in a Pear Tree {☃️🏍️}

Mav and Ice obtain 3 new family members in the form of kittens

Is it a Racoon? {🤠🐓/☃️🏍️}

Rooster meets the new additions to the Mitchell-Kazansky family and gets talked into getting a pet

Goosebumps {🤠🐓}

Jake and Bradley find the perfect cat for them, which brings up some emotions for Bradley

How to make a Flock {🤠🐓/☃️🏍️}

Mav discovers a box full of kittens on the side of the road on his way to suprise Ice at work

Nick's worst weekend ever by Aphroditedany {T} {🤠🐓}

Nick Bradshaw, Bradley Bradshaw's cat, might unexpectedly bring him closer to a charming co-pilot. It doesn't mean Nick likes it, though.

Skies of Dust by kerbyfullyloaded {T} {☃️🏍️}

Walking into the sky

Pete Mitchell was fourteen when his daemon settled. It took him a few years to join her in the sky, wings on his chest and steel all around him.

Every atom of me and every atom of you

The turn of a dial, snapshots of a life, dust all around. Maverick, Iceman, and their daemons in the years between 1987 and 2019. "'On,' said the alethiometer. Farther, higher. So on they climbed." The Subtle Knife (or: a series of stories based on the different symbols of the alethiometer, a sequel to Walking into the Sky)

at my side by demiclar {M} {☃️🏍️}

"If there's one thing Maverick is good at, it's taking care of his own." Slider said, throwing his arm around his shoulders and tugging him close. "I'm just glad we can return the favor from time to time." Pete Mitchell came back from the Dagger mission with PTSD worse than he'd ever experienced before. His family is eager to help, but piecing themselves back together after a decade of separation is a challenge not easily overcome. Pete isn’t the best at accepting help, and the family’s problems go deeper than expected, but they won’t stop trying until they bring everyone home.

Goose the Dog and Mav the Human, the Fun Never Ends by ThisisYour_Captain_Speaking {G}

Man's Best Friend

Maverick is one of the most kind hearted people ever and the things he loves, he does so with everything he has. Why not let him have a dog? AKA What if Theo was originally Mav's dog?

Well Well Well, What Have We Here?

It's Fourth of July Weekend and Ice has invited friends and their families over to celebrate. However, before the day of the actual celebration, Mav takes his dog Goose out for a run. Will they be able to beat the storm brewing or will Mav land himself in trouble yet again?

Wrench the Golden Retriever by emmedoesntdomath {T} {☃️🏍️}

“Mav, please tell me you didn’t get us a dog.” Silence. He sighed. The contractually obligated hey-I-bought-a-dog-without-asking-and-then-gave-it-a-name-you’ll-hate-but-you-should-still-love-me fic

call it what you want by lesbiseresin {M} {🤠🐓}

“Shit, Mav,” Bradley says through a laugh as he squats down, leaving his beer on the railing so he has both hands free to stick out. “You finally get me that dog I was always asking for?” It’s another joke. He knows that Theo belongs to Penny and Amelia, but there has to be a reason Maverick is bringing this up. “You caught me,” Maverick deadpans. Bradley can see Penny elbow him out of the corner of his eye, but he doesn’t bother looking up, too engrossed in the happy pants Theo is letting out as Bradley switches to scratching under his chin. “You could say I did. Sort of.” “Sort of, huh?” (alternatively: jake & bradley getting their shit together ft. theo the dog)

Dust is Everlasting (And Love Even Moreso) by ToukoJalorda003 {M} {🤠🐓/☃️🏍️}

If Time Rewound to Dust (Love Would Endure Anyway)

All Rooster had ever wanted was to work for Jurassic World - his godfather did, and for his whole life, it had been his dream. Now he finally had it, and he…wasn’t so sure how he felt about Hangman. The man was just too dangerous, too unpredictable, and Rooster feared it would end in disaster. …But disaster had found them anyway, and now it was starting to look like it was too late to accept Hangman’s offer for a date. Damn.

When Dust is all That Remains (Love is Eternally Present)

After the events of the park’s catastrophic closing, Bradley just wanted to rest. Maybe take a nap and remind himself what he’d nearly had. But he couldn’t do that, because an active volcano was going to wipe out the remaining dinosaurs - including Jake’s raptors. …And if it was possible, he wasn’t going to let that happen. Maybe, while he was at it, he’d finally get that date, too.

be the ocean where I unravel by whimsicule {T} {🤠🐓}

He’s not even thirty years old. A lieutenant in the United States Navy. A highly-decorated aviator with two air-to-air kills. And he’s suddenly gone ahead and become scared of the goddamn sea. What a fucking joke.

make a lil' room for me by callsignyours {G} {🤠🐓}

Jake somehow ends up with Bradley's dog.

The Tiniest Problem by BeautifulCreature {G} {🤠🐓}

Bradley has an allergic reaction to his and Jake's new puppy.

Mine, Immaculate Dream by kazanskysmitchell {M} {☃️🏍️}

After the ever-so-stressful Dagger mission, Pete Mitchell is tired and craves some normalcy. It's seemingly difficult for him to return to normal this time, and his protective (and very worried) husband can't help but notice the changes in Pete's mental health. After an official PTSD diagnosis, being permanently grounded, and the adoption of a service dog, Pete Mitchell attempts to adjust, but can't do it without the help of his wingman and their adopted and dysfunctional family. (+ art from Cannibal_Hellhound)

better than your best dreams by teacupivy {M} {🤠🐓}

“Hey,” he says, nudging Bradly with his toes. “You brought Aubergine in, right?” Jake watches Bradley look up from his screen, stare into the mid distance, and decide to lie to him. “…Yes.” Tense and robotic, he slides his laptop onto the coffee table and slips out from beneath Jake’s legs. “Unrelated, I’ll be right back.”

With our pets, a house becomes our home by SunMonTue {E} {🤠🐓}

Jake adopts a puppy and then proceeds to fly across the country to take up a flight instructor position at Corpus Christi where Bradley is the vet (DVM) that Jake takes Brisket to once he arrives. Bradley asks him out. MeetCute.

Domestic Bliss by indybob {T} {🤠🐓}

Jake has had the longest week of his life. Between hops, training, and instructing, he’s worn out. Noticing how exhausted his husband is, Bradley takes it upon himself to go above and beyond to give Jake the most relaxing evening and weekend possible. Or: Much like Jake in this story, I’ve been very busy for the last couple of weeks, so I’m using this as my own form of catharsis. Feat. Brisket the Dog

Come on baby light my fire… by SunMonTue {E} {🤠🐓}

An apartment fire alarm at 1am featuring Jake in his underwear and Bradley with kittens.

[cottoncandyafterdark]

Kunikida SFW Alphabet

Character(s): Doppo Kunikida (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Tags: SFW, fluff, alphabet meme, headcanons

Warnings: None

Notes: Originally posted on ao3 here; uses an a different SFW alphabet template than I usually use as this was the first one I ever did

A = Admiration (what do they absolutely adore about you?)

We all know Kunikida has a lot of criteria for the ideal partner, and you might not necessarily fit all of them, but he will love you for any of those traits you do have.

B = Body (what is their favorite part of your body?)

He'd probably say your eyes or something nice and romantic like that but in his heart of hearts, Kunikida is a leg man through and through

C = Cuddling (how do they like to cuddle?)

He's pretty low-key about cuddling; usually he prefers to just sit with you with his arm around your shoulders, holding you close. He also likes to hold you while falling asleep, and prefers to be the big spoon.

D = Dates (what does their ideal date with you look like?)

Something traditional and romantic. Dinner at a nice restaurant, followed by a walk through a park. He'd rather it not be too crowded, if that's at all possible to achieve, so he can just focus on you and on making the night as enjoyable for both of you as possible.

E = Emotions (how do they express emotion around you?)

He has a tendency to not show strong emotions unless they're negative. He'll definitely let you know if he's angry, one way or another, but it takes a bit more work to coax a smile or laugh out of him. It comes a little easier than normal around you, though.

F = Family (do they want one? If they do, when?)

Kunikida has multiple pages dedicated to the topic in his ideals notebook.

He'd like to have exactly two children- he doesn't mind whether they're adopted or biologically related to him-, preferably by his mid-to-late 20s. He knows he doesn't have any control over the gender of his children, but having one girl and one boy would be ideal. He has a shortlist of acceptable baby names, and will not deviate from it. He will let you pick what name from the list to give your child(ren), though.

G = Gifts (how do they feel about gift giving? What are their habits when it comes to this?

Kunikida isn't a spontaneous gift-giver- he'll get you gifts at Christmas, on your birthday, Valentine's, etc. but not really outside of those occasions. He might give you flowers if you're going on a date, but that's about it. He just prefers other ways of showing his love for you.

He does try to make sure those gifts he does give you are good, though. He pays attention to things you want but can't or don't get for whatever reason throughout the year and you can bet you'll be getting some of those things for Christmas or your birthday.

H = Holding Hands (when/how do they like to hold hands?)

Hand-holding is one of the few acts of affection Kunikida is willing to do in public. He likes holding your hand a lot, because it feels nice, and it has practical benefits as well. It's a simple way of showing affection and displaying that the two of you are together, plus it's harder for the two of you to get separated. The way he sees it, there's no real reason not to hold hands.

I = Injury (how would they act if you got hurt?)

He'd be very concerned, of course. If it was a life-threatening injury he would take you to Yosano, but he'd rather not subject you to that, so if it's serious but not immediately life-threatening, though he would take you to the hospital and, once you were home, would make sure you were resting and recovering properly. Expect a lot of scolding along the lines of "don't do that, you'll tear your stitches". It might be annoying but it's just because he cares (and he's probably right, anyways).

J = Jealousy (do they get jealous?)

He doesn't get jealous, exactly, because he trusts that you'll just turn down anyone who's flirting with you, but he does get irritated and intervene if they persist. Not because he's worried they'll take you away from him or something but because they have the nerve to keep bothering you after you've rejected them and he does not stand for people being so rude to you.

K = Kisses (how do they like to kiss you?)

I hope you like sweet, gentle kisses because Kunikida sure does. That'll likely be how he greets you every day when he gets home from work. You can also expect a quick peck on the lips whenever he leaves. Or whenever the mood strikes him, really. He's also a fan of neck kisses when things get a little steamier- but that's a discussion for a different time.

L = Love (how do they show you they love you?)

Kunikida is surprisingly big on physical affection- only when you're alone in private and have been together for a respectable amount of time, of course, but still. You'll get plenty of gentle kisses and quiet moments sitting together with his arm around your shoulders.

He'll also tell you he loves you plenty- again, once you've been together long enough that he feels it's appropriate. After he says it the first time, though, and you return the sentiment, he gets much more comfortable saying it often.

M = Memory (favorite memory together?)

Any time that you comforted him. His job can really take a toll on him, and when you try to make him feel better it really lets him know that you care about him. Remembering all those little moments makes him feel very loved.

N = Nightmare (what is their worst fear?)

There's two potential scenarios that he worries about: the first is that he'll get killed on a job and leave you alone without even getting to say goodbye. The second is that you'll be attacked and hurt or even killed by the Port Mafia or one of Agency's other enemies. He's well aware that both are very real possibilities, too, and will do everything in his power to ensure neither one comes true.

O = Oddity (what is one quirk they have?)

Well, it's Kunikida. You're going to have to get used to his scheduling and notebooks pretty quick. He doesn't do spontaneous- all your dates and stuff are going to have to be planned in advance pretty much down to the minute.

P = Pet Names (what do they like to call you?)

Your name, mostly. Pet names just aren't his thing, really. If he's in a particularly romantic mood, he might let a few slip, like "my love", "darling", "dear", stuff like that.

Q = Quality Time (how do they like to spend time with you?)

He likes to cook with you. Even if you're not a very good cook, hell, even if he isn't, you will learn together and it'll be so worth it when you two finally get it right.

Outside of that, he's happy just to sit and talk with you. You can tell each other about how your day went, any books you've read or TV you've watched, anything, really, so long as you can hold a conversation.

R = Rhythm (what song reminds you of them?)

Kunikida seems like a fan of what I like to call Dad Music- American rock from the 70s and 80s. He doesn't understand the lyrics, since they're in English, but he doesn't mind that- if anything it just makes it easier to listen to it while he works or focuses on something else. So you'll probably end up associating that type of music with him. (Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top stands out in particular though, for hopefully obvious reasons.)

S = Secrets (how open are they with you?)

Kunikida doesn't want to keep secrets from you, he really doesn't. But it's kind of inevitable in his line of work, especially if you aren't with the ADA yourself. He can't always let you know exactly what he's been doing, either because it's classified or, more personally, because it's dangerous and he doesn't want you to worry about him. Outside of those work-related matters, though, he tries to be as open as possible. Communication is the key to a good relationship, after all.

T = Time (how long did it take you to get together?)

It took A While, mostly because it took a pretty long time for Kunikida to figure out that not only did he have feelings for you, but you returned those feelings. Once he figured that out, though (possibly with some "help"- read, relentless teasing- from Dazai), he didn't waste a lot of time in asking you out.

U = Upset (how do they act when you’re upset?)

Kunikida isn't the most comforting person by nature. He'll try to get you away from whatever's making you upset first and then stay with you as you calm down. He might not say anything, but if you need him to hold you or something like that he will.

If you're upset at him, though, it's a slightly different story. Arguments with him are pretty rare, but they can easily get very heated when they do happen, and he'll probably need to leave you alone for a few minutes to calm down. Once he's calm, though, he'll come back and try to talk it out.

V = Vaunt (what are they proud of? Do they like to show you off?)

He doesn't exactly show you off, he feels like that would be immature, but make no mistake, he is proud of you and your relationship. If you make any kind of major advancement in your life, like getting a promotion, he will be so proud of you.

W = Warrior (how do they feel about you fighting? Would they fight for you, beside you, etc?)

This probably depends on your circumstances a little- if you're with the ADA or have otherwise shown him you're capable of fighting, he'd presumably know you're more than capable of holding your own and do what he could to back you up in a fight.

If you aren't a good fighter, though, he would do whatever he had to in order to keep you out of a fight. He doesn't want you getting hurt and you can bet he'd fuss at you a lot if you Leeroy Jenkins'd into a fight anyways.

X = X-Ray (how well are they able to read you?)

Kunikida is not great at reading people, though it might come easier with someone he's very close to like you. Still, you'll have to be upfront with him about how you're feeling. He'll be able to tell if you're really upset about something but might not be sure what you're upset about; just tell him and he'll try to help. (He isn't super comforting by nature, either, but he'll try.)

Y = Yes (how would they propose to you?)

After you had been dating for a few years, he would take you on a date- most likely what was described in the 'D' section, dinner at a nice restaurant followed by a walk through a park. This wouldn't be the first time you've gone on such a date, but you would be able to tell right away from how he's acting that something is different about this time.

He would propose at the park. He'd wait until no one is around- he doesn't want you to feel pressured by a public proposal- before dropping to one knee and popping the question. He'd be nervous as all hell, but of course that would disappear as soon as you said yes.

He'd start planning the wedding pretty much immediately, if he hadn't started already. He'd want your input on everything, of course, but unless you decided to really take charge he'd definitely be the most in charge of planning.

Z = Zen (what makes them feel calm?)

Getting to go home and sit or lie down next to you. If he's had a particularly frustrating day he'll vent to you about it too but you don't even have to say anything, just your presence is enough.

[4dkellysworld]

Forgiveness for letting go

In Buddhism, forgiveness is not presented as a moral commandment. Instead, it is a way to end suffering. 1 Forgiveness is fundamentally for our own sake, for our own mental health. It is a way to let go of the pain we carry. Like the practice of compassion, forgiveness does not ignore the truth of our suffering.  Forgiveness is not weak. It demands courage and integrity. Yet only forgiveness and love can bring about the peace we long for. 2

“Only forgiveness will make our soul peaceful.” — Buddha

Another element of letting go and being at peace with everything and everyone is genuine forgiveness. How so? Forgiveness is unconditionally surrendering whatever happened (i.e. the stories, the emotions, the thoughts) and accepting things for what they are (both back then and now) regardless of whether things have been resolved or not. It's a weakening of the ego because the ego loves to hold onto the stories it makes, and to forgive is to undermine the very things it holds onto; including its own existence. Forgiveness is also an act of letting go of the attachments and aversions, thus releasing karma as well.

The ego's first maneuver in dealing with this resentment is to try to get others to confess their faults. "You hurt me; say you're sorry." Sometimes this makes the ego feel temporarily better, but does nothing to uproot the original cause. And as often as not, even if the person does apologize, the likely result is now hatred of them. "I knew you did that to me; see you just admitted it!" The fundamental mood of the ego: never forgive, never forget. What the ego doesn't try is forgiveness, because that would undermine its very existence. To forgive others for insults (real or imagined) is to weaken the boundary between self and other, to dissolve the sense of separation between subject and object. And thus with forgiveness, awareness tends to let go of the ego and its insults, and revert instead to the Witness, the Self, which views both subject and object equally. Source

You don't need to do it for them; do it for yourself. Do it to let go of the negativity you've been holding onto, do it to stop hurting from memories, do it to be free of the attachments and the suffering that comes with it. Above all, do it for your own peace; that's the greatest reason of all. It doesn't mean you have to agree with what happened or have a relationship with them again or find the blessing in the pain - just let go of all the negativity you've been holding onto and accept things as they are.

Don't force the forgiveness or suppress emotions in order to do so or it wouldn't be genuine forgiveness. Remember, it is not being done in order to be morally upright (don't think of it as being the "bigger person"; that is an ego trap) or earn points to enter Heaven (lol); it is done to let go of the attachments and suffering and move forward into peace. This is also in line with Robert Adams teaching principles of being at peace with everything (although I haven't read about him talking on forgiveness specifically so far). Forgiveness is akin to mentally giving up everything (as Robert likes to say a lot) and moving on in peace.

Continue what you're doing but mentally give up everything. You have to reconcile yourself with the universe. Be at peace with every living thing, with every sentient thing. As long as you feel these things and you do nothing to stop the feeling, the attachment to this earth will become stronger and stronger and stronger. - Robert Adams

All this forgiveness/letting go/surrendering/giving up is done mentally within yourself; you don't need to communicate with anyone that you're forgiving. Even if you really can't find it in yourself to forgive the other person, at least do your best to come to a place of acceptance and peace for your own sake. If you feel guilty about something you did to someone - apologise (mentally), make peace with them in your mind and see them sincerely forgiving you then let it all go.

Do not judge whatever old thoughts or feelings that come up during this letting go, they are neither good or bad; they are simply leaving and are no longer yours. Just watch it pass through until it's completely gone. Start with something small and easy, and be amazed at the freedom and spaciousness you feel once you've let go of it completely.

All this also applies to yourself and your own thoughts and feelings about yourself; forgive yourself for what you did or did not do in the past and let it all go. Do whatever you can to make peace with everything; this will also help quiet the mind more and more. Remember that desire and attachment create the seeds of karma and that includes regret. When you've let go of enough, the mind will naturally be a lot quieter and it will be much easier to be Self without all the concepts and limitations.

So if letting go itself has felt too vague of an act for you to grasp in order to apply, try forgiveness instead! I recommend reading the linked articles for more information and also doing your own research about forgiveness and how to do so from a genuine place if this is something that resonates with you.

[asha-mage]

Would love to hear five fun facts about an AU where one of the other Two Rivers boys is the Dragon Reborn - Mat or Perrin, the choice is yours.

[Send me a potential AU and I'll answer with five things from that story!]

Going with Mat here-

Since I have such a hard time separating the idea of Rand from the idea of the Dragon, as both mythological figure and for LTT reasons, I'd probably approach this from the angle that Mat is the 'champion of the light' in this specific turning, i.e still the Gambler/Son of Battles archetype, but whose past life resulted in the Breaking of the World, and who must now redeem himself through defeating the Dark One in the present era, and re-sealing the Bore. I would keep the trickster fox symbolism, but mix in heavy elements of Loki (in particular the bits surrounding the death of Balder, and the murder of his sons Nari and Vali as punishment/use to bind him). I would also replaced Callandor (which is an OG exaclibur refrence) with Lævateinn, one of Loki's mythological weapons, an draw heavy parallels with both Gungir and the arrow crafted to slay Balder of mistletoe.

Mat struggles a lot more then Rand with certain aspects of being the savior, less so with others. He's far, far more resistant to accepting his fate especially in the begging, and the story would need to force him into a position where he had the illusion of choice. Rand could be compelled by duty and compassion to accept he is The Dragon- Mat would defiantly refuse just to spite fate.

I would keep the idea that Mat was born outside the Two Rivers, but not make him Aiel born. Instead I'd probably make him Seanchan born- instead of the Aiel War twenty years ago, it was the First Seanchan invasion, with them being beaten back at the Bloodsnows instead, in a decisive (but costly) Westlands victory. Instead of Maiden of the Spear, Mat's biological mother would have been a Deathwatch Guard, likely someone also originally from the Westlands, with a parallel story to Shaiel'sl. His father would have been an Imperial Prince (an adoptive brother of Radhanan's/potential threat to her power) placed in charge of the invasion as a suicide mission/punishment for disgrace.

Conversely it is the Seanchan that Mat has to bind to aid him rather then the Aiel- something he struggles with a lot more then Rand did with the Aiel, though he also feels a lot less guilty about upending their culture and social order then Rand did. This also means he spends TSR/TFOH journeying to, then having to directly confront the Court of the Nine Moons et all, where has to reveal the secret lies of which the Empire predicates it's strength. This leaves Tuon in Couladin's approximate role: the rallying point of Imperial opposition, attempting to pry loose Mat's grip on power.

Because I am, in my heart of hearts a filthy Cauthor shipper- I would have Rand remain at Mat's side as confidant and guardian through to the bitter end. In my head he ends up taking up the dagger in order to protect Mat from Mordeth, and almost consumed by it in a similar way before breaking free/being healed. Though I wouldn't have him Aiel born, I probably would give him an parallel Aiel Training Arc to both help get over Dagger Withdrawal Syndrome and find his niche (assuming he can't channel in this turning).