#just speculating here mostly

[zo1nkss]

So I just had a thought. I was a little surprised Tony welcomed Winner back so warmly after he just sort of failed spectacularly at every single order he was given, up to and including getting thrown in jail.

And I know Tony views himself as like a father to the people he takes under his wing, and Winner displayed a lot of blind loyalty in exchange for a little slice of power. So Tony would obviously want to milk that. Of course that angle makes sense.

But it's the attitude that gets me. Because he was never that forgiving of any of his "children". He threw Charlie out when he couldn't live up to his expectations, and he almost did the same to Kenta. But strangely, when he broke them out of prison his tone and demeanor toward Kenta had drastically changed. And I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I want to jump ahead a little and start with a certain detail I've kind of been squinting at the most through all of this.

Hair Down was A Choice. That wasn't just an aesthetic shift. Every single aspect of a production is accounted for. Every prop in every shot, every detail of the wardrobe, every sound in the back AND foregrounds, every lighting shift. Everything is curated to coincide with the story at play.

Tony with the ponytail was up-tight, unforgiving, quick to violence, and had expectations higher than the Eiffel Tower.

Hair Down Tomy is warm, friendly, inviting, forgiving. Its okay that Kenta stabbed him with full intent to kill, effectively taking away his ability to walk (though temporary as he is ambulatory right now). It's okay that Winner never accomplished a single thing he was sent off to do. It's okay that Kenta refuses to come back to his "family" and chooses to walk away. Everything is fine.

Something that sticks out to me about this correlation is that hair down, covering the face, hiding his features. This is one of the many visual storytelling tools that is sometimes used to represent a disconnect between what a character is saying, and what they're thinking. He's hiding something behind that curtain of hair.

In season one, he had the power of his image and reputation to protect him from the consequences of his actions. He was confident that no one could stop his operation because the public opinion of him was very high. Hair up.

In season two, he's been exposed. The world knows now that his elaborate orphanage scheme was a lie, and that these auctions were serving as a gateway for child trafficking. Hair down.

So in one way, he is hiding from his new reputation. He lets the world think he's dead. He wears his hair down. He rebuilds his empire under the radar, with a new goal in mind. He's trying to rebuild quietly enough to take his enemies by surprise.

But then, why extend any forgiveness to the person who put him in the position to have to do all that? What purpose could inviting a traitor like Kenta back into the ranks hold?

Obviously his attitude is meant to lure them into a false sense of security. Make them believe he values them so he can use them again. His reputation has been shattered, his life has been forever changed, his minions can no longer be trusted to be loyal to him. He'll do anything to get a few more people on his side.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't still have influence. People who will work for him no matter what. He managed to build an entire underground opperation and have it fully functional and pumping out dead bodies by the dozens every day in under a year. Tony is never lacking in allies, because he will always have his money. And money can buy you anything. So he doesn't actually need Kenta or Winner that badly. They could easily be replaced by someone else, who might be a lot more capable than either of them (Willy comes to mind). He could let them rot in prison, rebuild everything, and never spend another moment relying on either of them. That fact, in my opinion, is made abundantly clear by the fact that they intended to shoot Dean down for trying to escape. They are still utterly expendable. They will never mean more to him than his delicately maintained secrets.

So that begs the question. What else could he be hiding under all that hair? What's he not saying, what doesn't he want them to see? What motives are buried beneath that false kindness?

Could it be that, with these new experiments on his watch, he intends to give them special senses using that serum? Perhaps they're meant to be later-stage guinea pigs once they have more successful cases.

[sleepyorchidmonster]

Soo, remember in Glorious Masquerade, when Malleus came up with the story that the cause of the Crimson Lotus was unknown, and Rollo was actually trying to save everyone alongside the NRC students?

What if that's another bit of foreshadowing for the end of Book 7?

Briar Valley is in a really precarious position now, still recovering from the Silver Owls, with the Senate mostly taking over while Maleficia grieves, so Malleus overblotting is just another blow to the fae, even if students like Leona, Kalim, Vil and Idia manage to advocate on his behalf.

So why not spin the tale of how there was an unnamed threat on the island that was so Dire (pun intended for Crowley) and all-encompassing that Malleus had to go all out?

To avoid collateral damage and prevent the issue from reaching the rest of the globe, he had no choice but to use his UM to cover the whole island, keeping everyone safe in a peaceful slumber while the threat was dealt with. Luckily, STYX coordinated efforts with the rest of Briar Valley and they managed to subdue the threat both inside and outside the barrier, and everyone is safe now!

That way, the world can see Malleus not as an uncontrollable monster, but as a fierce protector who might go a bit overboard, but means well (also he's a dragon and his remaining family was on the island, so his protectiveness is understandable). Therefore, it's best to befriend the fae and Briar Valley than make enemies out of them!

The only problem is the rest of the student body and staff that saw the overblot at Lillia's farewell party, but I'm pretty sure STYX's Lethe program is back on to deal with the mobs, while the rest of the cast can be sworn to secrecy in exchange for having Malleus owe them a favour (they can use Azul's UM for the NDA).

As for the problem, NRC has been dealing with overblots at least once a month, not to mention the STYX invasion, and the Phantom Dwarves back in the mines, and how Book 7 might introduce the true mastermind and that's what we have to deal with in Book 8... They just have to pick ONE of the options above.

As a sidenote, having Sunset Savanna become Briar Valley's fiercest allies because Leona told his brother that Malleus is his friend would be so funny. Falena sees his depressed brother going to the trouble of making a whole Power Point presentation to convince the council on the benefits of allying to Briar Valley, all to save a school friend, and just decides that Malleus Draconia will have his unending support. Kifaji too.

(Leona has been ignored and belittled so many times that he prepared for the worst and made a whole slide presentation in hopes of defending his point well enough. Shoud've just led with "Malleus Draconia is a friend of mine who just went through a very traumatic experience and I want to help him" Kifaji and Falena would accept in a heartbeat).

BONUS:

Leona: *Practicing his Power Point presentation at 2AM*

Cheka: Unca, what are you doing in the middle of the night?

Leona: I'm just practicing, no one (my dormmates aside) ever likes my ideas and I have to make sure this works...

Cheka: Why?

Leona: Well you see... [starts explaining the inportance of supporting Briar Valley at theur moment of need and the benefits an alliance may bring to the table] ... also the Lizard would love if-

Cheka: Why do you keep calling Malleus Draconia "Lizard"? Is he your friend? Do you want to help him?

Leona, sighing: Yeah kiddo, he is my friend. He's been going though some tough times, almost lost his father and brother, and as much as we butt heads, well, no one deserves that...

Cheka: So why don't you just say that he's your friend and you wanna help him instead of talking about those "tweatwies"?

Leona: First of all, it's "treaties", and second, well, Briar Valley is in trouble, and helping them might get us in trouble too. Also I'm just the accursed second prince, people never listen to me, I need to back up my proposal with facts.

*random noise that sounds like a mix between a growl and a sob (Falena and Kifaji are eavesdropping lol)*

Leona: What's that?!

Cheka, panicking: Probably the wind....

*THE NEXT DAY*

Leona, finishing the presentation: And that's my proposal, any questions?

Random councilman: Well I-

Kijaji, smiling menacingly: I think it's a splendid idea, Leona. Briar Valley has been a longtime friend of ours, so it's only right that we help them in their time of need.

Falena, also smiling menacingly: Agreed! I'm so proud of you, my brother!

Leona: Wait, seriously!?

Falena's wife, smiling and sharpening a knife while subtly observing the other councilmen, marking targets: Of course, Leona! You have a sharp mind and this is a good plan. Briar Valley will have Sunset Savanna's full support for the coming criais, isn't that right, councillors?

Other councillors: Yes Ma'am!! Don't kill us pls

[lostwords-found]

Oh god. Okay. SO. The Protocol red string board is going places and I am chewing drywall.

Note: I've been working on this post for a few days and nothing in here involves episode 27--I don't talk about episodes before they're out for everyone, so no worries about patreon spoilers.

Quick recap of some suspicions about Protocolverse I've written about previously:

1. I think this universe runs on a kind of balance of good & bad luck (or suffering and happiness), and that it's possible--under certain circumstances--to pawn the bad stuff off on other people and keep the good that arises to balance it out. I suspect a big piece of Protocol's overarching plot is going to be about the different ways people go about trying to come out ahead in that bargain.

2. I think some alchemists figured out how to attach bad luck and/or other similarly abstract ills into physical form.

3. I think they were trying to use this to cast out bad luck to other worlds (including that of Archives) and get good luck back. I think this is how the Fears got to Archives in the first place.

4. I think the books and coin in the tomb from MAG 23 got there this way, probably with the involvement of Protocolverse Albertus Magnus. The year on the coin -- 1279 -- is the year before Albertus Magnus died.

We'll come back to that stuff in a bit.

There's an apparently minor detail that was nagging at me recently: in TMAGP 22 Hans Berger specifically mentions having switched to silver wires in his experiments, and this change enabling his breakthroughs. It's through these silver wires, implanted directly into Herr Schmidt's brain, that he later receives the desperate telegraph signals that appear to be from a previously unheard part of Schmidt's brain.

By itself, that wouldn't ping any alarms. Silver wires are in fact what Berger used in real life; silver's highly conductive so if you're trying to read electrical impulses from the brain, probably a good choice of material. But the writing is very deliberate about mentioning them, and coming only three episodes after another historical letter about a scientist also working with silver -- Newton's tree in TMAGP 19 was a fantastical variant of a Tree of Diana, dendritic silver -- Berger's wires start feeling like maybe they're not just there for accuracy.

If, as it appears from Newton's work, consuming silver in certain forms can cause a new kind of consciousness to arise--and also, uh, turn you into a tree--what might implanting silver wires in a human brain do? Is the silver contacting or awakening something that was already there, or is it putting something there? Was that desperate OUT OUT OUT message really from half of Herr Schmidt's mind--or from something in the wire itself that was trying to get out?

That would be weird though. I mean--what, Protocolverse silver's inherently evil or something? But then I got back to thinking about alchemists trying to transmute things into precious metals. Gold's the one we mostly think of, but silver was also of interest. Which in real life is where you got stuff like the tree of Diana--alchemists thought that was a precursor to the philosopher's stone.

So... then I start thinking, if I was right in my other post that alchemists were figuring out how to put evil / misfortune / suffering into a physical form that could be used to transfer it somewhere else, what if silver was involved in that? What if they were either turning misfortune into silver, or trapping it in silver that already existed?

What if they did that, meaning to send it away, and some of that silver made its way into use?

Then I started looking some stuff up.

Did you know silver used to be mined in the Black Forest, in Germany? One mine there had a name meaning "Blessing of God." That mine dates back to the 1200s--Albertus Magnus's lifetime.

Did you know that starting in the 1600s, the G strings on high quality violins were typically wrapped in silver wire?

Do you know why movies are called the silver screen? In the 1920s, literal silver was used to make cinema screens. This fell out of favor as other cheaper designs were worked out, BUT in the 2000s silver has come back into use a bit because it works well for 3D movies. I would not be surprised at all if the screen that Tom went to see Voyeur on had silver in it.

Did you know that in the early 90s there was a specific plant in the UK that manufactured CDs covered with a layer of silver? This later turned out to cause some problems as the silver reacted with sulfur (oh hai, another alchemically significant substance!) and slowly degraded the discs. In real life these CDs were manufactured up through 1993. Per TMAGP 10, Mr Bonzo made his debut in '96 (the interview is from 2021 and is the 25th anniversary of Mr Bonzo's first appearance). The two times Mr Bonzo has appeared in person he's been summoned by playing a CD of his theme song. I wonder where and when those CDs were manufactured...

Did you notice the caterer Lady Mowbray hired in TMAGP 15 mentions that his company did silver service events? Betcha that particular feast was served on literal silver platters.

...I'm starting to think it's a really good thing ink5oul didn't end up tattooing Gwen with that silver spoon.

Okay. This all seems like there's maybe a theme here, but let's take a step back. Some materials have just been used for a lot of things throughout history; it could be coincidence. IF the above is actually on the mark--IF these were all intentional majorly-plot-relevant inclusions of Things Wot Involve Silver--where else would we expect to see this cropping up in the story? Because the topic of silver has barely been raised directly at all; I'm extrapolating wildly here, mostly on the basis of a couple episodes.

Well, here's a thought: silver was used in everyday currency for a long, long time. If there was a bunch of Evil Silver floating around surely someone would have stuck it into some money at some point. "Ill fortune" in the most literal possible sense, or whole new meaning to the phrase "bad penny" -- there are various bad jokes there that more or less write themselves. Though whoever was doing this would have had to to mark the bad money somehow so that they could avoid it...

Hey, um, remember how the OIAR's offices are in the building that housed the Royal Mint for like 150 years?

Actually, while we're on that subject, here's a funny little tidbit: Before it moved to Royal Mint Court, the Royal Mint was in the Tower of London for several centuries--its first home after being centralized. Wanna guess what year the Royal Mint was established in the Tower of London? Go on. Guess.

1279.

The same. Fucking. Year. As was on that coin waaaaaay back in MAG 23. Which was a thing I had noticed a while back when looking at the Germany eps, but I hadn't been considering a "what if some metals can be Bad" angle at that point and had just written it off as an odd coincidence.

Which I mean, it's probably still just a weird coincidence, I'm building this entire elaborate framework out of assumptions on top of assumptions on top of -- hang the fuck on, let me look something up real quick, I've gotta be misremembering--

I'm not misremembering! Isaac Newton was the Master of the Royal Mint for the last 30 years of his life.

Cool. Okay. So that's--hm. I think I'm genuinely starting to convince myself none of this is a coincidence.

Then I start poking through Wikipedia, and you wanna know some other interesting things? One, Newton himself apparently saw his work in economics as a continuation of his alchemical work. And two, during his tenure at the Royal Mint, he put limits on how much gold people were allowed to exchange for silver, and this led to a silver shortage. Because apparently, when other countries imported goods to them, the British paid for those goods in silver coins. When they exported goods to other countries, though?

They would only take payment in gold.

And there it is--there's the exact outsourcing scheme I was looking for. Stick all your suffering and pain and misfortune into your money, use that money to pay other countries, and get only the good stuff back. That... sounds really believable for the British Empire, honestly.

So I really think I might have some decent guesses on the historical stuff at play here. That only goes just so far though, because these days, silver doesn't really get used in coinage much.

Know where it does get used? Circuits. Electronics.

Computers.

If I'm right, whatever machinery the Mint used to store the intangible evils of the world in physical coinage for exportation, I would guess the OIAR is now using to instill all of those evils into FR3-D1 instead. One all-containing artifact of misfortune.

What the endgame is there, what the government gets out of it, I'm still not 100% sure--but I can't help thinking about Jonah's line in MAG 160 that Jon is not the Archivist but the Archive. That he is the record of fear, the physical embodiment of it.

There's people wanting to outsource absolutely fucking everything to AI these days, I guess.

SO THAT'S BEEN MY WEEK this is what my brain does when I have to drive all the way across the US alone, apparently. How are you all?

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

It is truly fascinating how the common tumblr narrative around John and Paul somehow makes the guy who literally got violent multiple times over people insinuating he was queer appear more "on board with the whole gay thing" than the guy who said some awkward/dated stuff in interviews a couple of times.

[kenzan-brainrot-mp4]

Rahhhh I think the Ishin bit with Ryoma telling Okita that he sees him as his kyoudai was really cool but now it also just makes me wish Musashi and Majima (Gorohachi) had something like that in Kenzan because they definitely had a sort of "kyoudai"ship going on with everything that happened to them imo

It's very interesting to me how Kiryu/Majima seem to cooperate more actively/directly (if that makes sense?) in the spin-offs. Not to say that they don't work together/do things for each other decently often in canon, but it's either usually a) more one-sided (glances at Majima) or through b) more grandiose/overarching gestures that still allow for distance (see: "go back to the tojo clan to do x and y for z goal"). Meanwhile, you have Ryoma/Okita and Musashi/Majima actively risking their lives Together (changing literal history together </3), which requires them to cooperate actively with one another and work to protect the other in equal amounts.

Idk I think that difference between those games and canon make it make sense why Ryoma would see Okita as a "kyoudai" as opposed to canon Kiryu who doesn't say anything like that, and that's a pretty cool distinction (but also I just wish it was in Kenzan too rahhhhhhh)

[orcelito]

Hello it took a lot of energy but I FINISHED!!! My presentation. Got enough of my website done to give a decent demonstration & just talked about what else I plan to implement. And people had good feedback to give about it!!! It felt like a rewarding time. A Job Well Done. And I wasn't even the only person who didn't have a finished website (it's officially due in a week), so!!! It all works out!!!!

I ALSO got my best graded game today in bowling. A 135!!! We were facing against some real skilled bowlers, but we managed to overcome them 😎😎 with the power of Large Handicap Values 😎😎 lol the benefit of me sucking shit earlier in the semester means my average started lower so my handicap started pretty high. It's slowly been decreasing as I increase my average, but not enough to severely impact my scores!! We have One more in-class game, I think... the last game of the tournament... my team is actually in the running for 2nd or 3rd place!! Maybe!!!! So we'll see how Wednesday goes. Gonna be sad to say goodbye to bowling class, but I'll find times to bowl in the future... gonna have to take advantage of discount bowling times and whatever to keep my game up... I like being good at bowling and wanna keep getting Better at bowling... even if I sadly can't bowl unlimited games anymore after this week (I think?).

Last week of classes!!!!! This week!!!!!! Is the last week of classes!!!!!!!!! I'm so close to done with school!!!!!!!! Holy shit!!!!!!!!!!!!

[arabella-strange]

My dream conversations from tonight’s ballroom blitz:

Orym & Yasha

Caduceus & Dorian

Veth & Imogen

Jester & Fearne (more)

Beau & Yasha & Imogen & Laudna

Fjord & Dorian

Caleb & Veth (tbt)

Ashton & Beau

Chetney & Jester (more)

Veth & Jester & Braius (as we all are keen to see)

[goodluckeddie]

so what im hearing is that next time buck sees tommy he will have already kissed eddie

[sparring-spirals]

There is a universe in which i was caught up properly on CR whenever what the fuck went down and Imogen verbally and definitively declared that- after everything leading up to this and the back and forth and indecision- that she'd be willing to take down her mom if need be. and i would have been deeply insufferable and writing 20+ separate meta posts and liveblog yelling posts and shitposts. This is not that universe so instead we will put this post here where i can have wildly uninformed (aka 20 eps behind) Emotions about it until someday i actually catch up.

(I know. i accidentally wrote potentially wildly off base/deeply out of date meta again. what can i say. i like shaking the concept of An Imogen (even if it is Outdated Imogen) in a jar. sorry.)

Because i was watching long enough, I think, to see Imogen in the throes of the hope for something better, to understand that Imogen was viewing her mom was a figure and an idea and an answer, that would make things easier. Her mom was- gone, so early. And so her mom, in her mind, was not a person she was an idea, and there was so much hinged on that! Dogged determination and anger at her father and a deep seated dislike of the powers in her hands and head even as they gave her a guilty rush. There were promises there that maybe no one else had made, but Imogen believed. Things built up. Expectations made. Lore crafted, even unconsciously, around someone who was, yes, important to Imogen, but more importantly: Missing. Gone. A blank slate to be filled in. A promise of an answer guide to open questions.

And then she meets her mom, and Liliana Temult goes from a figure to a person- with all the bells and whistles and rough edges. She meets her mom and her mom turns her away. Tells her to run. Tells her she should go. Tells her to leave.

And Imogen doesn't. In the same way she kept visiting libraries, keps asking, kept pushing for answers when it was just about her magic and her headaches and the voices. Imogen always, always wants to know. She keeps digging, she keeps trying, she reaches out, over and over and keeps trying to touch this figure in mist until she's real under her hands, and. Evidence piles up- of deeds gone wrong, blood on her hands, a figure standing next to Otohan (her friends bodies scattered, lifeless, around Otohan). She keeps reaching out, keeps trying, and is rebuffed, over and over. Things get worse and the skies get redder and magic goes dead and she's still- unsure, because what if there's a better reason, what if there's a better way, there has to be a reason, why. There has to be, right- maybe if- maybe. Maybe-

Its just like- a person as an idea. As a symbol. As a promise. One you build yourself up around and towards. One you talk about, not talk to.

And then the fog clears, and they are a human.

(And she's your mom, and she's not what you imagined. She's done you wrong. She's done your loved ones wrong. She's hurt you. She's hurt others. She's going to keep hurting you. She is going to keep hurting everyone. She is too far gone to reason with. She is not listening to you. She is flawed. She is. dangerous. She looks so much like you. You look just like her. You are so similar. You have always known you were similar. You always hoped. You.

Are not her. You are not hers. She is not yours. She is not who you thought she was. She was always someone else. So are you.)

Imogen walks through the bases pretending to be her mother. Liliana is a known face- a powerful one, a figure people fear. A well known silhouette. Imogen slips into the shadows of it, sometimes, when it serves her, but we know- she knows- its all an act. All a lie.

Liliana, after all, is alive, and well, making choices that she believes in and fighting for things with a dogged determination maybe only matched by her daughter.

Imogen knows this. I think. There's a part of her that maybe wishes that wasn't the case.

"There is no loyalty with this blood." And after all- only living people bleed.

[lostwords-found]

putting my "celia is actually archivesverse jonah lol" tinfoil-and-red-string truther hat back on for a moment, just to say i cannot believe it didn't occur to me until now how incredibly fucking perfect that would make the first statement chester reads to her.

celia: *sits down at computer*

chester, immediately: I RESIGN, MY BOSS IS THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD AND I'M SO GLAD MY HORRIBLE WORKPLACE GOT BURNED DOWN. HERE IS A LIST OF ALL THE WAYS MY JOB TRAUMATIZED ME. PLEASE SEND FORMER BOSS TO GET INTERROGATED BY PYROMANIAC TRIGGER HAPPY MERCENARIES KTHXBAI NEVER SPEAK TO ME AGAIN, ALSO YOU OWE ME SO MUCH MONEY, LOSER

[maulfucker]

I saw you had a post where you thought abt Dathomirian culture and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how specifically Dathomirian queer culture manifests. I'd like to come up with things myself but I don't actually know a lot in general abt Dathomir yet, so I want other opinions. I've got two ideas tho

-Dathomirian queer ppl call each other "family" like some queer ppl did in our world

-Trans men might like earn their horns thru hunting and using animal bones and stuff as their horns? Idk like I said I don't know much

Good question! I haven't actually thought that much about queer culture in Dathomir despite having a gay nightbrother oc,,

I think the calling each other family thing probably wouldn't work very well since they already treat their clan as family and call each other brother and sister even without blood relation, but I love the idea of trans nightbrothers earning their horns! Dathomirians as a whole seem to be pretty open to body modifications, with tattoos being so natural in their culture, so hunting animals to use their bones or teeth or something to produce "prosthetic" horns sounds very fitting. It could be a whole thing for both trans and cis nightbrothers, using the extra horns as a way to show off their strength. plus it opens up the possibility of nightbrothers implanting horns in whimsical shapes such as smiley faces, stars or penises

I think as a people composed of multiple isolated communities, there's probably not a uniform queer culture across the planet. But also as people who tend to live in single-sex communities they are likely far more queer on average than what we see in the rest of the galaxy, like how cowboys were famously queer. They supposedly spend most of their lives around the same gender, so it wouldn't be unusual for that to be the gender they express attraction to more often. Though, much like how cowboys have been "reinterpreted" as a symbol of straight white masculinity, there's probably also a popular misconstruction of their culture as extremely straight, and/or extremely celibate. The "Nightsisters rule over Nightbrothers" reading of their culture is very obviously meant to show them as a reverse-sexist society, making the nightsisters a sort of "girl power" icon — they are strong independent women who can pick any man they want (implying that they do want men), which is like saying cowboys are strong fearless men who woo every damsel that crosses their path. which. sure, cowboys did have sex with women. sure, nightsisters do have sex with men. but more often than not they will be around other nightsisters, so they will more often than not have relationships with women (even if they're not really gay).

but I am not usamerican and my brain has the consistency of molten ice cream, so my knowledge of american cowboy culture is. basically just that. (the brazilian cowboy culture is quite different, especially considering there's like three distinct cowboy "sub"cultures, each with their different history, territory, and associations) So that's as far as I can take the cowboy comparison, but cowboys can be a pretty good source of inspiration I think. maybe look into that?

A quick look into medieval monasteries (another famously gender-segregated culture) says they were also pretty gay. And that the sexual persecution that is so commonplace in christianity today was not really a thing yet back then, which is also something to consider when trying to conceive the queer culture of a people who have nothing to do with our modern (overwhelmingly christian) society — do they have a reason to reject queer people and relationships, or are we just projecting our own worldviews and experiences onto a people who have none of the sociohistorical context that shaped our experiences?

I think homosexual/romantic and even polyamorous relationships would be pretty normalized, since there's not really any reason to only accept hetero relationships if they rarely ever live in mixed-sex communities. That said, there's probably still some expectation of heterosexual activity, in the form of the Selection and its implied procreation purposes. Dathomir is a very isolationist world, so to keep their population stable they need to procreate, even if it "goes against" an individual's sexuality. And this is where I think polyamorous relationships have reason to be encouraged: if a nightsister or nightbrother who already has a partner takes part in a Selection, why not bring their partner(s) into the relationship as well and increase the likelihood of producing offsprings?

As for the gender side of queerness.... well that's probably A Lot more complicated than I have time to discuss here. The gender binary seems pretty enforced in their culture from what little we see, and their sexual dimorphism probably makes trans and/or intersex people stand out A Lot more

I've mentioned this before, but I headcanon that the skin color difference is not a sex-chromosome-bound characteristic, but instead a sex-hormone-related expression of pigmentation, like in some birds such as peacocks. Both males and females are shown to have a range of skin tones, but in females it manifests as grayscale while in males it manifests as a color scale from red to yellow. So intersex people might have colors that are in-between, or that don't "match" their apparent sex, and trans people who undergo their equivalent of hrt might slowly change skin colors over time.

As for how nonbinary people work.... well as someone who is from a latin american country and speaks a romance language, I would like to imagine their "nonbinary" is a lot like ours — there is no "neutral" gender, they simply play with their presentation to be between one and the other, leaning towards whichever one might be considered more "transgressive" at the moment.

I don't think trans people would be forced out of their clans for being a different gender than everyone else, but it's possible their role in the clan might change to something more "befitting" of their new gender I also think there's probably a lot more contact between different clans than just the Selection, so it's possible for people who decide to start over as a new gender to take one of these moments of contact as an opportunity to "visit" another clan and never come back.

..... aaand it's almost 2 am so I gotta hit post

[orcelito]

Thinking. About working on a smut fic for rn to get myself back in the groove of writing. And also I kinda just wanna write some bullshit. Good bullshit. Some fucking around, so to speak. Both literally and figuratively, you could say.

Anyways I wanna make a poll. For the different vashwood smut fic ideas I had. Wanna see what people are potentially interested in.

So.

Ideas explanations under the cut!

Idea #1: sequel fic to my one posted smut fic, I Know I'm Gonna Die of This. Roughly in line with trimax, but with a lil bit of plot convenient revival. Not a huge narrative deal, mostly just an excuse to make things tragic then sweet. The catharsis. The desperation. It'd be pure joy and relief and Need as Vash goes a lil kooky with how fucked up he was after all that. Gotta get his hands on wolfwood ASAP.

Idea #2: bathroom smut fic. This has been a WIP for like a year now. I started working on it then just stopped. But maybe I could pick it up again. Vash gets a lil hurt. Wolfwood gets protective angry at him. Vash needles back and Wolfwood is like "you wanna be like that? Sure, I'll bite." So, light pain play, mostly in the pressing into bruises and being kinda rough with each other. Mostly them being stupid horny for each other and fucking in a bathroom after Wolfwood patches Vash's wounds lol

Idea #3: mirror sex fic. I'd need to look back on the whole convo that prompted this to remember all the details, but it's essentially Vash guiding Wolfwood in getting himself off as they both watch in a mirror. And then Vash getting just Stupid horny for him bc of it so he fucks him raw. Ft my weird lil tendrils plant junk idea. Oh yeah I think Wolfwood was gonna suck him off too. Just a lil bit o squirmy guys. And them both being stupid horny for each other. Of course.

Idea #4: dragon vash oviposition fic. 🎶 One of these is Not like the others 🎶 anyways yeah shapeshifter dragon vash is in heat or whatever (logic doesn't need to matter for stupid horny fics) and his friend/situationship(?)/the man he's in love with (it's Wolfwood) goes to check on him. Gets a few eggs for the effort (lol). Ft Wolfwood who's got a lil bit o dragon in him too, so his body Knows What To Do. Also ft a kind of half-transformed Vash bc he can't hold his human form completely but if he went full dragon he'd probably just crush Wolfwood. & idk what else to tell u, just some good monsterfucking fun.

Ok those are the current ideas I'm raising the possibilities for. Now Vote...... pretty please 🥺

[pynkhues]

https://www.tumblr.com/pynkhues/781678933370355712?source=share

This makes me feel even more (along with Eric saying that about not wanting to lose Delainey, plus what Rolin has said) that we'll hopefully get some real ghostClaudia and Claudia flashbacks

Me too, anon! I feel particularly confident in terms of the Claudia flashbacks (and can't wait to see Delainey play more of Claudia when she's young + for her to have more scenes with Sam), but I'm mostly curious at the moment in terms of Ghost!Claudia. There are a lot of ways I feel like they could do that, and it'll be interesting to see if they approach her as a Dreamstat-esque hallucination, or if they decide to really lean into these different supernatural archetypes. Mostly, I think I'm curious as to the level of agency she might have as a ghost though, especially given Dreamstat didn't have any, of course.

[charmac]

Quick question regarding the Paddy's Pub Blog:

The major intent of the blog is to be a place for resources, references, and information, with blog posts highlighting canon discussion/analysis. The idea, as Season 17 comes around, is that there is a page you can go to for information and updates regarding the upcoming season (as opposed to last year when I was running a spreadsheet that was all over the place, lmfao) and S17 blog posts will begin when we get to a place where we can start piecing info and plots together.

As 17 is on the horizon but basically everything is speculation at this point, I'm wondering if people would enjoy having the blog as a place where they can see early speculation/guesses for the season (i.e. based on Rob tweeting and saying X, it's likely we will see an episode about Y) or if people expect/would prefer updates be kept only to hard/official information (i.e. simply reporting that Danny Devito said "we are going again in September")?

Either way I'm gonna post all my thoughts here, so I'd really like to find out if the majority of people are expecting S17 updates on Paddy's Pub Blog to be as "official" as possible or if people are hoping it will be a place they can check/read for any and all information about the upcoming season.

Obviously it's dumb early, this is more-so just a question for the summer (pre-filming) when most things are either hard information or wildly speculative (or both, being Charlie told someone drunk in a bar). When we move into filming I'll re-assess and adapt based on how much info we're getting/RCG are sharing :)

[papabirdurskeks]

So, a little side note to my headcanon on speculative stuff on the Witness's people with some backup help from my OCs:

A lot of my characters actually have female/feminine voices even if they identify as male. This is largely because the species themselves are intersex and do not rely on the concept of gender to determine who they truly are. They distinguish and choose their pronouns when they are old enough to decide what they feel fits themselves best.

For example, both Turey and Hutia identify as male but have female/feminine voices. Rahe and Zinato also have female/feminine voices but identify solely as non-binary to name a few.

In much earlier times before the species evolved to be more humanoid, the species had a large female to male ratio. A cis male would number 1 to every 50 cis females. Because of this, the species eventually began to evolve with more intersex individuals being born to help reduce the chances of inbreeding between the populous. It wouldn't be long before the intersex gene became the dominant gene to take over in full. However, pieces of prior evolution still linger when vocal cords and language began to develop alongside this gene as well. This is why if one is to find themselves among the species, they would often hear female/feminine voices.

Very seldom do any of them actually have male voices and if they do, they are usually very soft spoken and quiet.

For example, again, both Baracutey and Homayoun have masculine voices. The same goes for Bijirita. Mabuya also has a masculine voice yet identifies as non-binary. And I'naru', who has a masculine/male voice, identifies as female.

Voices are not usually loud or deep within this species as this is a species that heavily relies on body language to communicate with each other more effectively.

Again, in earlier times before the Traveler, the species often found it easier for them to speak more softly to evade any sort of danger while also being able to signal and commune with one another should said dangers be around. Softer tones and effective body language also aided them in hunts as they further evolved to become the apex predators of their world, keeping them out of sight and sound of potential prey. Body language also helps in detecting how one feels without saying it or understanding the state of their overall health.

I'll further explain this with more speculative doodles later down the line, but I felt the need to add this in there for the sake of understanding/knowing what will be when said doodles and posts do come about! Hope this makes sense to some degree.

Again, these are just personal headcanons for my lore/story building.

[gio-cosmo]

Guys I am so excited for LIS Double Exposure but I am also so so nervous