#little treat culture has gone too far

[tee-chan]

I'll never understand the people that have already come to the conclusion that I'm going to make their drink wrong while they're ordering it

[vaguely-concerned]

john gaius through all of nona the ninth: why no respect for the lord's okayest little wizard boy :( im just a lil guy :( how come all the haters, PETA assholes and internet trolls are treating me like I just started a nuclear apocalypse just because I just started a nuclear apocalypse :( :( :( cancel culture has gone too far man :( :( :( :( :( my friends all loved me so deeply and trusted me so much so what was I supposed to do, not wipe their minds and then make them eat their loved ones so I was the only thing left for their lives to orbit around???? :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( the primal soul of the very earth doesn't like the body I made it even tho I based her on the prettiest barbie I knew and her 'concrit' is starting to make me feel really kind of attacked and hurt tbh :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( like and subscribe to witness more death magic with little to, actually, let's face it, no thought given to the ethical ramifications of any part of it

I hope someone tears him into a million pieces and sends each piece to a fresh new kind of hell for eternity <3

[heyclickadee]

Saw another “why would Tech even be interested in Phee” take out in the wild, so here’s a partial list of Phee’s many attractive qualities, because the double standard of every other character vs Phee is exhausting:

(Quick disclaimer—this isn’t me saying anyone has to like the ship. You don’t. It’s fine. Don’t ship things you don’t want to ship. Dislike the way it’s been written in the show if you want. Ship these two with other people or with no one if you want. I don’t care. This is just me being tired of people being weird about Phee):

1. She’s smart. She can improv her way through dealing with death traps and she’s got an area (areas) of expertise that Tech knows relatively little about. That makes her interesting. Also hot.

2. She’s gorgeous. Look at her. She’s ridiculously pretty.

3. She’s a great storyteller. Yeah, she changes her stories every time, but that’s at least part of why Tech is paying attention, because he notices that.

4. She’s a stone cold badass. And she’s a FUN stone cold badass. Disarmingly charming stone cold badass.

5. She’s a remarkably good person. She steals artifacts so that refugees can hang on to a bit of their culture in diaspora. This seems to be what pushes Tech from, “Oh, she’s interesting,” to, “OH. SHE’S BRILLIANT AND I MIGHT BE IN LOVE.”

6. She’s not nice, but she is kind, and that’s honestly a quality that she and Tech share. Phee isn’t soft, she’s not going to talk in therapy speak, she’ll push a little hard sometimes, but gosh darnit if she isn’t the person who would always stop to help someone with a flat tire (or respond to finding out some friends are broke, jobless, and on the run by immediately taking them back to her secret refuge so they can rest and recoup).

7. She’s incredibly direct and unafraid to speak her mind and…okay. This is going to get long. And I know some people will disagree with this, and that’s fine because everyone is different, and wants different things. But. Speaking personally from my point of view. The fact that Phee gives as good as she gets would be a really reassuring quality to have in a partner. I see a lot of myself reflected in Tech, but one of the many, many ways in which we’re very different is that I’m a consummate people pleaser, and Tech is very much not. At all. I don’t think he has a people-pleasing bone in his body.

But, here’s the thing—about half of my people pleasing comes from being terrified that I’ll say or do something that inadvertently hurts someone, and that person won’t just tell me or give me the chance to explain or make things right. And for how that relates to dating, I had people—friends and family—keep trying to set me up with incredibly shy men through most of my early twenties, no matter how many times I objected, because they had this perception that I was soft, wishy-washy, and needed to be treated with kid gloves. And…no. I’m opinionated as hell. I’m relatively confident about certain things. I just shut down my ability to project any of that because I was terrified of running roughshod over people without meaning to. But when I’m around someone who I know is willing to disagree with me, who I know will explain why, and who I know will push back if I take something too far? About 90% percent of my people pleasing and social anxiety evaporates. I know I don’t have to walk on eggshells around them—and that they aren’t going to walk on eggshells around me, either. They’re going to be direct about their issues and treat me like a freaking adult.

And, honestly, the fact that Phee doesn’t walk on eggshells around Tech (who also gives as good as he gets—Tech isn’t soft, nice, or shy and retiring; he’s confident as hell and he should be, because hot damn)—is. I don’t know. I like that she’s direct, and that she will recognize and pull back if she’s gone too far. This is projecting a bit, but, speaking personally, I would rather be with someone who treats me like an adult and tells me what’s up even if it’s uncomfortable than someone who never, ever tells me when they’re upset because they’re afraid of hurting my feelings and just lets me stew in social confusion all the time.

8. She can more than hold her own in a fight and she carries a sword around. That’s hot, I’m sorry.

9. Phee’s fantastic with Omega. She talks to her like she’s a person, she doesn’t ever shut Omega down, she’ll tell her stories, she’ll joke around with her, and she’s generally very respectful while also not holding her to the same standard she would if Omega were an adult. She’s even a little protective of Omega, even though Omega isn’t at all her responsibility. I think the moment that took Phee from ‘cool’ to ‘fantastic’ for me was towards the end of ‘Entombed’ while the Deadly Giraffe of Death was collapsing; Phee’s right there trying to shield Omega alongside Hunter. And. Like. Omega is Tech’s baby sister, he’s probably going to notice that how Phee treats her. Massive points in her favor for this.

[blakeswritingimagines]

Wednesday characters with a southern s/o

Wednesday: She has found you to have a very charming voice. She does not think your southern drawl is very hard to understand or very annoying but she won't tell you that, but it does get on her nerves when you occasionally use words that are grammatically incorrect. Such as saying "I seen.." She has explained to you that saying "I have seen.." would make more sense when recounting an event but if you keep doing it she does find a soft spot for it, she has learned to like your accent. It’s very attractive, especially the way you pronounce “Wednesday”. She enjoys that you can make all kinds of southern phrases sound lovely to her. She loves it when you call her your “little witch”, or your “mischief” Since she will often hear you call other people darling and sweetheart.

Enid: Having an attractive southern romantic partner is a treat that not many others have. Enid loves having a southern sweetheart in her life because you always treat her with respect and adoration. She thinks you're always extremely polite and chivalrous, opening doors for her and pulling her chair out at restaurants. She doesn't like it when others try to get you wound up and listen to your accent get thicker but does love hearing how you say the same thing as her just differently and it's always a surefire way to cheer her up.

Xavier: Oh, he thinks it's a lot of fun. He loves your southern drawl, and he finds it to be so cute and charming. Even when you get mad, and start swearing up a storm, he can't get mad it's just so adorable. It is a little annoying sometimes as not everyone understands your accent, which can cause some misunderstandings especially after he noticed your southern drawl gets a lot thicker when he teases you playfully. Loves it when you start being a bit sassy toward him if he pushes too far. When you both tease each other, you both can often go into a bit of a little argument, and he can tell your trying to resist laughing a bit it's actually really adorable to him.

Rowan: He thinks southern accents are the most attractive accents in the world. He can't get enough of your sweet southern accent and dialect. He absolutely melts whenever you say "y'all, bless your heart, sugar, baby, mama, honey, dear, sweetheart, babe, sweet-tea, etc", It's rough sometimes. Especially because you can speak too fast for him and sometimes the words just mash together like goulash. He'll think the biggest issue is when you use "y’all" because he keeps thinking you're talking to or about multiple people. But the real icing on the cake is when you say “I love you” or when you call him “Honey”.

Tyler: He thinks it can be frustrating sometimes because he has to concentrate on everything you say or tell you to repeat/slow down so he feels like he has a chance. He has wished you would just be quiet sometimes and stop speaking like he teases by saying, cowboy. Your accent was one of the reasons why he fell in love with you though. It’s unique and not everyone gets to hear it every day. It’s just adorable but he was confused when you said you liked his accent even if it is to tease him.

Ajax: It was not easy to understand you in the beginning. But once he got used to the accent, he found your accent absolutely cute he guesses he is now used to it and he likes it even if people do have to come to him asking what it was you said. He finds it unique and it makes you special to him. (If you were to try to get rid of your accent or hide it, that would feel like some part of you was gone and he wouldn’t like that. A thick accent is actually part of who you are).

Bianca: She thinks having a southern romantic partner is lovely but also a challenge in some ways. You both come from different backgrounds and you each want the other to embrace your cultures. This is great because it brings more color and culture into your lives and your relationship. However, it can also create tension since you both need to learn to appreciate and respect the other's culture. The challenge is worth it, but it does take effort and compromise. In the end, has really come to enjoy when you sweet talk her more so when you will use words commonly regarded as a sign of endearment such as "darling" and "sweetheart" to describe her as you think that she is most pleasant and attractive.

[togglesbloggle]

Just musing out loud-

One of the gifts that time brought for me, ish, was a reduced interest in labels for myself. Reduced-not-gone, because humans love a good sorting hat, but definitely not what it once was.

It's most obvious in media, like with those YA books that routinely have explicit caste systems or divide people up by thematic groups, or with video games that let you pick a faction. But it sneaks in to real life too. Like, take the famed Tumblr* neogenders/neosexualities and proliferation of flags. It is, of course, unironically fun to watch the ever-increasing fractal complexity as people chase the questing beast of a coherent taxonomy of sexual nonconformity, and I think the people that do so often find it very rewarding. But I watch mostly as an outsider, because the whole thing is answering questions to which I already have satisfying answers in my own dialect- at least insofar as it comes to how I think about myself. And what's true in the narrow case of Tumblr's culture has some far-reaching impacts on politics as a whole, as you might guess.

It's not that I find the castes/factions/neogenders themselves uninteresting- almost the opposite really. I like exploring and thinking about them all, but in a way that doesn't trigger any questions about me as an observer; the 'me' in my sense of these things is a fairly high-inertia construct, one which doesn't really deform much in the presence of exciting new taxonomies. They tend to show me much more about their authors than they do about myself, though as always there are exceptions. It's like seeing a new map of a place you know well, where you're not so much discovering the territory as appreciating a new view of things through the eyes of someone else, a pleasure that follows from an appreciation of the cartographer's choice of framing and the cleverness by which they drew the lines.

The reason I say 'gift' is, most of the benefits of that sorting-hat instinct are front-loaded; a map, any map, is worth it's weight in gold when you're new to someplace. It helps you find a community where you can thrive, it helps you communicate with others and build shared expectations. But especially once you get a little bit more used to things and learn how to get around without a reference sheet, labels are a double-edged sword. There's no perfect label that can really capture a human person, leading to all manner of suffering as we try to conform to the labels we find ourselves carrying, and we can fall down a really deep hole if we start trying to treat those labels as the axioms from which a human is derived.

It also becomes clear, with the benefits of distance, that while a lot of my exertions in label-making felt like introspection at the time, they didn't really manage to be introspection. Introspection, I think, would have been a little more about my identity as a thing-in-itself; after all, it revolves around the question "who am I?" But a curious fact about these identity groups is that they're meant to be comprehensive; every single student at Hogwarts is placed within one of the four Houses. That is, playing around with these things isn't a matter of asking "who am I?", but rather, of describing the society in which we find ourselves, and our relationship to that society. Ruminating about the proper label for ourselves is asking a different question than introspection does: "where do I belong?"

A good chunk of what I thought was self-discovery was, in hindsight, something closer to self-consciousness. Trying to figure out how to be seen, how to be known, how to take up space in a social world where all of those things can be very high-stakes. But I seem to have stumbled in to a degree of equanimity with myself regardless, so I suppose no harm done. Probably you need to chase both lines of inquiry in parallel, but I think it would have helped me at the time to realize that they are fundamentally different questions.

[ciaossu-imagines]

Imagine Anna wanting to go trick-or-treating with everyone else. How do you think they would react to the idea and how do you think everyone would dress up?

Oh, this is such a cute ask! Thanks so much for sending it in and I hope you'll enjoy the headcanons!

Okay, but I can definitely see this being a thing. I don't really think Halloween is celebrated in the same way in Japan but we're going to set aside cultural differences for this ask and use more Western standards of Halloween, like trick or treating so please don't come for me haha.

Now, Anna has obviously never been trick or treating in her life, given her past and then coming to HOMRA, where trick or treating takes second place to drinking and partying on Halloween. So when she hears about the custom, it really intrigues her and she does kind of want to do it. It takes her a couple of weeks though to really get her mind made up enough and to feel confident enough to go and tell someone how much she wants to try it out.

Of course, everyone is kind of supportive of Anna getting to experience it and they'll all kind of help in their own ways. Izumo does have to stay at the bar, or so he declares, so he offers to help Anna shop for her costume but does beg out of actually taking her out. Both him and Totsuka (I'll setting this before he dies, for once) agree that Mikoto is too intimidating to take Anna out trick or treating…he'd scare everyone answering the door and there's worries Anna would end up with no candy and a less than ideal Halloween experience so it's decided he'll stay at the bar with Kusanagi, something Mikoto isn't exactly fighting against.

However, it is Halloween night, there's a lot of mischief and parties and just tomfoolery going on and there's some worry that, while everyone knows Totsuka is more than capable, maybe it's not the best idea that just the two of them goes. So Kusanagi voluntells everyone else in the main part of the HOMRA gang to take her out and also voluntells them that they're getting dressed up to do so, to make Anna's Halloween the best it can be.

There is a lot of fighting around this and some members might not have walked out of that fighting without some new bumps and scrapes.

Totsuka is all in though. He helps shop for Anna's costume and she goes as a princess, because she is the princess of HOMRA, and they spend far too much to get her the absolute top of the line princess costume…she demands they buy her a prop sword as well though because she wants to be a warrior princess.

Totsuka himself goes as a zombie and he had actually gone through a spell where he got really into special effects makeup and prosthetics so he's actually really excited to whip those skills back out. He looks surprisingly horrifying and he has fun helping out anyone else who needs him with their costumes. Totsuka still would have come as a zombie even if this had been set post death because I have a warped sense of humour.

Shouhei doesn't really fight the idea much. If they take Anna out early enough, he's more than okay with it. In fact, he's a little excited to be able to go out trick or treating again, because he was definitely one of those people who trick or treated until they started getting refused candy for being too old. He's even okay with dressing up because he was going to dress up for a Halloween party he was going to later on that night anyway. He just makes it very clear that he has to leave by a certain time…there's about three or four parties he's already agreed to make an appearance at so it's going to be a busy night for him. He had planned on just dressing up like a 50's greaser or a biker, but he lets Anna choose his costume for him and she dresses him as a pirate. He's not honestly all that disappointed as it's a pretty sweet costume.

Bandou, on the other hand? He was definitely one of the people who fought the decision. He's way too old to be out trick or treating, even just taking someone else out trick or treating, and the very idea embarrasses him. Besides, there's this online game he plays that has this huge event going on just on Halloween night and he can't miss out on all that special, one of a kind loot and skins and such. He's scowling until he starts getting free candy and then all of a sudden warms up to the occassion. He claims to be dressed up as a 'rapper' but honestly, he's just wearing his normal clothes with the only addition being the gaudiest, biggest, flashiest chains he could find.

Chitose had to be dragged along, and was the one who fought it the hardest. Do you know how many slutty nurses and Halloween cat costumes he's missing doing this?? He dresses as a 'serial killer', which is just his normal clothes and a big ass (supposedly fake) knife because all serial killers pretty much look like normal people. Or at least that's his excuse. It surprises no one when only a couple blocks in, they take Anna up to the door and come back to find Chitose has just kind of disappeared.

Dewa is the only one to actually win the fight to not go…and it's only because his excuse of having a shift at his part time job that night was proven to be legit when Kusanagi checked it out. He pretends to be very sad he'll miss the occasion and says he wishes he could be there to see Anna enjoy her Halloween…word he regrets as Totsuka took him seriously and sends him pictures and videos throughout the night. Most of the other boys follow Totsuka's lead, some out of pure spite for Dewa's 'good luck', and Dewa is driven half crazy until he just turns off his phone.

Eric has never experienced trick or treating or really Halloween in general so he's a little confused at first. It becomes the goal of certain members to make sure that, since this is Eric and Anna's first Halloween experience, it be the most amazing one for the both of them. He gets bought a knight costume and happily plays Anna's knight for the evening and is surprised by just how many houses insist on giving him candy too despite him not being a little kid. All in all, he has a lot more fun than his complaining and swearing lets on.

Fujishima really didn't care one way or another. I headcanon him as having younger neighbours that he got asked to take out trick-or-treating once he reached middle school and stopped going out himself so this is kind of routine and common for him. He dresses up like a dog. Legit, he wears a full on mascot suit that is definitely not a fursuit (if he was to have a fursona, it would not be a dog, thank you very much). He makes sure to say thank you to everyone who gives him candy and makes sure the others do as well.

Yata pretended to hate the order to take Anna out but honestly, he's a little excited to go trick-or-treating again. Plus he gets to play protector for Anna for the evening as Kusanagi and Totsuka point out to him and he feels very proud to be trusted that much with Homra's princess. He puts a lot of work into his costume, choosing to go as Tony Hawk…nobody gets it and he gets the least amount of candy behind Chitose and Bandou.

Kamamoto is so in. Everyone deserves a night of free candy when they're young. He has so many fond memories of trick or treating himself and he definitely does everything he can to make the night the best. He's also the only one to think to bring along extra pillowcases so that they all can continue to trick or treat after their buckets get full. Due to all the community connections he has, he also kind of snoops out ahead of time which neighbourhoods are going to be giving out the best candy and makes sure that Anna gets to hit all of those. He doesn't really go overboard on his costume - there's not a lot of options for plus size male costumes honestly, and he just kind of cobbles together a hobo outfit for Halloween.

[moonlight-tmd]

Random idea inspired by a thing i read;

BlitzBee but Blitzwing gets amnesia and falls in love with Bee whom he hated before.

While on some mission, Blitz gets (more)processor damage and all his memory data fries. Megs wants to dispose of him and use his parts cuz the little control he had over him is gone.

Blitz runs away and the Autobots find him and take him in, they initially wanted to try and get whatever leftover information he might have but the only thing they learn is that the Decepticons are stationed somewhere in a cave.

They wanted to help him but Blitz would straight up panic whenever they tried to pull him into medbay or when Ratchet had his tools near him, at one point he got aggressive so they stopped.

The Autobots don't know what to do: on one side- this is a wanted Decepticon, on the other- the poor guy didn't even know what his name was until they told him. Then the Elite Guard arrives and thru some chain of events Megs and other Decepticons are captured in their own base and Blitz stays with the repair crew cuz 1.rehabilitation, 2.he's useless anyway so they leave him with the low-ranks.

Blitz gets branded an Autobot and gets his own place in the plant. The others try to teach him stuff and get him to be nice but it's not really effective. The only one to really get along with him from the start was Bumblebee.

The little chatty bot has captured the Ex-'con's interest; Bee was different from the other Autobots, he was funny, kind and especially cheeky for his size.

Bee was sceptical at first- the guy did try to kill him multiple times after all, but he felt bad for Blitz not knowing anything about himself. One night he found Blitz sitting alone and sad, "Why am I so messed up?" he asked Bee, and that's when Bee's Spark softened for him. He just couldn't be mean to him anymore. Everyone has been treating Blitz like an outcast and Blitz didn't even know why.

And so, Bee tells him how he knew Blitzwing and tries to answer other questions Blitz has. Key word being 'tries', he doesn't have answers for most of them.

Blitz learns to like earth's culture, Bee teaches him how to play video games so they can play together, he discovers his Dancer side and his passion for sculpting again and so begins to hang out with Bulkhead sometimes, even Sari gets the status of "closer than a stranger". But the status of "friend"- only Bee gets those privileges.

One night Blitz has a nightmare- Megatron's promises of killing him and the looming frames of a whole legion of pissed off Decepticons plaguing his dream and resulting in waking up to a panic attack. Bee, who has been staying up late watching movies again, goes to invesitgate the sudden sounds of distress. He comforts Blitz the best he can. Blitz, not wanting to go to recharge again, joins him in the main room for the late night romance movie marathon. They watch few romcoms and animated movies. Then they get to live-action Beauty and The Beast- Bee's favorite.

Blitz is surprised to find Bee crying after the movie ends, Bee tells him that he's always been a hopeless romantic. "Big, bag guy learns how to love because someone showed him kindness when everyone else treated him like a monster... man, I wish I had someone who'd love me for real." Bee had said. That night, something in Blitzwing ignited like a candle. A flame of something that only grew larger the more he hung out with Bee.

The others started to trust him too, he started to feel welcome in their presence, everything was looking up.

...Then he started remembering snippets of his past. Flashes of memories returned to him from time to time. Even tho they were very brief, it was enough for Blitz to start to piece together of what kind of person he used to be. He kept quiet about it, he didn't wanna ruin what he had now.

The flashes showed him little parts of his past- what he did, who the other transformers were, even going as far back as showing him what he once looked like. The flashes often showed him what he did on earth; the damage he caused, the brutal fights with his autobot team,.. and how poorly he treated the one he cared about the most now.

Bee noticed something was up, but Blitz brushed it off everytime. Then when the base was empty, only them in Bee's room, he asked him about their past- conveniently disguising the real reason as 'i used to be a 'con, surely we fought or something right?'. Bee told him about the fights and encounters he remembered, one particular event stuck out in his mind- the time Bee made him fall from the sky, straight into a frozen lake. Bee himself chuckled at how funny it was.

Later that night Blitz couldn't recharge, the ghost of that specific memory tickled his processor as if it was important. Blitz went to watch romance movies instead. Something about them just made sense with Blitzwing's Spark. Maybe that's why Bee loved them so much? At one point the pick up line "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Beacuse you look like an angel." came up in a movie. Blitzwing has been educated on earth's culture enough to know this was a form of courting. Did Bee-... no he couldn't have been, he hated him back then. Bee was afraid of Blitzwing back then, he backed away with fear whenever they met. And Blitzwing was so mean to him, he tried to kill him for Primus' sake!

He thought about all the bad things that happened between them in the past; they were enemies, of course they didn't like each other... But then the thoughts of what has happened since he got put on earth slowly flooded over the bad ones; Bee was nice to him, he spend time with Blitz and taught him all the things he knows now. Bee was kind to him, and kindness was something he never experienced nor remembered being done to him.

The realization that he might like Bumblebee a little more than a friend slowly set in his processor.

He doesn't know how to act; he wants Bee to like him back, he want to spend everyday with him and possibly have an actual relationship with the minibot- but at the same time he's guilty about what he's done to Bee and feels he doesn't deserves it.

Little does he know Bee has been feeling similar: Blitzwing is nice and funny, caring even when you really get to know him. He feels a little bad for all the insults and mockery he's thrown at the ex-'con, even if said ex-'con tried to kill him. You'd think he'd be a love expert, having watched all those romance movies, but really he has no clue what to do. Similar to his past-crush on Prowl, Blitz has always been on the attractive end. Since the two used to be enemies, only now he's realy started to appreciate it.

This is where the idea kinda dies- idk, maybe Bee got damaged and was laying in medbay in critical condition and that's what snapped Blitzwing out of the love/self-hate loop. So after Bee got better and was staying in base for few days to recover, they had another romance movie night. They watched all the movies that played on the first night and when the Beauty and The Beast came on, Blitz slowly brought up how worried he's been about Bee-

"It's like jou said... 'Big, bag guy learns how to love because someone showed him kindness'..." Blitz have muttered once the dance scene.

I cannot put to words how fluffy and soft the confession was, there were little words but just enough to cover every bit of emotion they were feeling. They fell asleep on the couch and the others found them cuddling in the morning.

It took them a while to officially announce they were dating- it was a surprise to them, Bulkhead was a little worried about Bee cuz- well, that was Blitzwing he was dating but Bee assured him he knew what he was getting into.

And it wasn't a bad decision at all, those two are absolutely happy together. Took them a bit to officially say "I love you" but the fluffy cuddles and soft kisses make up for it.

[coolclaytony]

I don't know if Jello has ever gotten into the nitty-gritty about the the different countries in Epithet Erased. But here's some headcannons:

Australia

• The southernmost continent. The mysterious Australians are a reclusive people who's homeland is protected from outsiders by a severe storm that surrounds most of their territory, save for a single island which serves as the primary hub through which the country interacts with the rest of the world.

• Few people have gone to the Australian continent and returned; those that have speak of living dinosaurs, impossible weather patterns, animals that defy description, music in the air, and people with unusual anatomies that might not even be human.

• Australia is said to be even bigger than has been explored thus far, but it's natives refuse to give outsiders too much of a glimpse for too long.

• The Australians possess technology seen nowhere else and they horde their advancements agressively.

• Those who have seen the capital of Canada note that it seems paradoxically primitive compared to the rest of the country. But why that is has not been determined.

Deepwood Country

• The Deepwood is not actually a single forest, but several that converge on eachother. The north bordering Taiga country is a open canopy boreal forest; with a closed canopy boreal forest further to the east, the middle-country is composed of a dedicious, coniferous, and temperate forests; the Capital of Bellmouth sits where these three forests touch eachother, the south is has tropical forests of every variety. The areas where different forests overlap have animals seen nowhere else.

• Each forest has it's own tribe that calls it home. They don't get along, but Bellmouth has done a lot of work in last few centuries getting them to cooperate for the country's collective well being.

• Other countries covet the Deepwood's ample and diverse lumber. But while logging does happen in Deepwood, it tightly regulated with sustainability and environmental health held as chief concerns. This results in Deepwood lumber exports being very expensive and leads to resentment from the other countries.

Desert Country

• Tall mountains surround the border of the continent that makes up Desert Country, ensuring the entire area is dry and arid.

• The Desert used to be much smaller, but an old kingdom that used to rule the country over exploited it's natural resources and caused the desert to expand rapidly.

• Consequently, the country is criplingly dependent on foreign imports and many of it's citizens live in poverty. Bandit Clans run nearly unopposed by the government. Many a settlement has dissappeared under devastating and frequent sand storms; thus most people live as nomads.

• Mining has become the chief industry of Desert Country and the Republic of Longshot has not learned from the mistakes of it's predecessor. Mining operations are private institutions who treat their workers virtually like slave labor and little care is made for the already struggling ecosystem.

• The petrified skeletons of the continent's now extinct megafauna litter the landscape of the Desert. Some of the larger ones are used as building material in some settlements.

• Fresh water is so hard to find in Desert Country that it can be bartered and the government is ruthless in it's efforts to control what few remaining natural water sources exist. Purposefully dumping water is considered a crime punishable by death.

Island Country

• The the Coalition of the Islands in Coriolis city manages the most prolific navy in the world and the country's near monopoly on international trade has made it the single wealthiest nation in the world.

• Island country maintains trade ports in most every other country and it has been accused multiple times in history of attempting to colonize and conquer the rest of the world. The Admiral of the Coalition denies this.

• Every island in the country is it's own unique and distinguished culture and as such, trading and naval ships come in a cluttered hodgepodge of designs and functions.

• The Capital of Coriolis is a cluster of barges, rigs, harbors, and anchored ships put in place around a massive unending whirlpool that has deep spiritual significance to adjacent island cultures. Without the barges that anchor the city to the nearby islands, it would be sucked into the vortex.

Ocean Country*

*Read Prison of Plastic, as that book gives us lots of context about what Ocean Country is like.

• Though they are technologically sophisticated enough to compete with Australia, the country's true power lies in it's citizens skill with the mystic arts. Most everyone, even Mundies, possess some talent with magic.

• He Who Hungers, however, will suffer noone in his vicinity who could even 'potentially' rival his power. Thus most government officials are non-magical mundies equipped with mystical gear built by enslaved inscribed.

• All people of the Ocean are expected to prepare for the day when He Who Hungers achieves Proficiency 100 and begins his grand mission of conquest against the surface world.

Taiga Country

• Taiga country used to be a communist republic, but meddling in the country's politics by Island Country lead to a shift towards free-market capitalism.

• Sweet Jazz City is in-fact where Jazz was invented. The city was named after a mundie pirate.

• The country famously has been home to many of the most legendary Inscribed in history and every settlement has at least one Inscribed hero who left a significant impact in the world. As such, the state is even more legally preferential of Inscribed than anywhere else to the point of absurdity.

• Hot Coacoa is a national beverage and traditional Taiga Folk culture is very Christmas-esque.

@dailycharacteroption

[syscourse-confessions]

I'm honestly just so tired of endogenic logic it makes zero sense to me. First off: Yes, the DSM isn't the best resource. I am studying Psychology and one of the first things they teach you when studying clinical psych is not to use the DSM as your crutch. It constantly gets edited or changed, and over the years information can get outdated, null or void. That's just how science and research works. It happened with the atom, and it can happen with the brain. That being said.

DID, OSDD-1(a and b), UDD, etc. has been meticulously studied. The research is limited, as with every disorder. You aren't going to find a Real Good paper on anything unless you try. Google Scholarly, Wikipedia citation tabs (not Wikipedia directly Do Not Use Wikipedia As A Source) and the Public & School libraries are my best friends, but even they don't answer everything as many psychiatric and mental disorders are under-researched, even the prevalent ones. Especially the prevalent ones. Yet, near every article and case study (if not, every article) has something in common: The disorder has a positive correlation between adverse childhood experiences. The more trauma a person has gone through as a child, the more likely they are to have the disorder. We do not only cling to the DSM-V. We cling to the countless case studies that are out there. Yes, more research needs to be done, but we cannot deny the facts we have found. You want to know what else is under-researched? Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD. Yet, my friend can take Clomipramine and feel okay! Why? Because science evolves to find answers!!! We discovered evolution through science and geneticists, so you can't just say "Adam and Eve" and call it a day sometimes. We discovered that trauma in young childhood is the main cause of DID. You can't just say they randomly appeared and call it a day. That's not how the theory works. And yes, nothing is proven in psychology, we don't use the word prove. You know what else we can't prove? Cell theory. Theories don't exist not to be real, but to explain the real. We use Pavlov's theories and still apply them to this day! Does that mean it's all a lie just because we can't use the word """prove"""? A little afterword, too. It still baffles me how the word Tulpa was also completely ripped from Buddhist practices and turned into an endo thing. It's mind-boggling how a spiritual awakening tied to cultural practices was taken and appropriated by people who turn it synonymous to imaginary friend. It's honestly disrespectful. Culture is not a game that you could cheat off. Dissociation isn't fun! Remembering and compartmentalizing your trauma is not fun! I go to a therapist for this, while simultaneously having to juggle classes and life in general because of generations of unrealized trauma and the oversexualization of women in many cultures. To see it become a game where people believe that alters can just magically appear without reason, despite all the research done, it's just downright insane to me. We did not go this far in our science to do this. We did not develop The Structural Dissociation Theory for this. We have come so far in this research from where we were before, just to find out that 1-2% of people have DID takes a lot of work! It's terrible to me that people can take this research and throw it out the window for the sake of ignorance.

DISCLAIMER: Posts may or may not reflect accurate information. More info here: https://www.tumblr.com/syscourse-confessions/728819621058232320/disclaimer-treat-posts-here-like-you-would-any

[wall-legion]

Welcome Commanders~! The Hoelbrak Maid Cafe is Open!

(Welcome to my contribution to NA VS Art Party! This is written from the perspective of being trained as a new employee at the hot new maid cafe in Hoelbrak. Yes, I know it’s weird but please remember I wrote the reason for the charr dance last month. Enough explanation: it’s time to clock in!)

“Hi there!” The norn behind the front counter looks up as you come through the front door, an hour before the cafe is due to open. “You’re the new hire, right? Great! I’m Tora, and I’m the shift lead this morning. Here, the owner put your uniform back here. This is your size, yeah? Okay, good. You go get changed and meet me back out here.” She leads you to the back, and a locker room set up, just off the entryway. There’s a locker already assigned to you, decorated with paper flowers and a tiny welcome banner. Tora leaves you to get changed and, true to her word, is waiting for you when you come back out in your uniform. “You look great! I was a little worried. These can run a little small on some folks, but it looks like a perfect fit on you,” she says with a smile. “C’mon, follow me and I’ll introduce you to everyone who’s working this morning.” You follow her into the cafe proper, and are introduced to the asura Xynni, another norn named Arne, a sylvari named Darragh, and a human named Kennan. Surprised at the gender diversity - after all, thus far you have two female, two male, and one nonbinary coworkers - you ask Tora about this. “Oh, we do that on purpose,” she answers with a laugh. “People see ‘maid’ in the name and come in expecting only females from the various races to be here. It’s a little funny to throw them for a loop. Besides, once they see there’s males too it’s better for business because then we get customers we wouldn’t get otherwise!” You nod after a moment, supposing that makes sense, and Tora pulls you to a table where a menu is awaiting you and has you sit down as the others resume their prep duties for opening. It’s awkward initially as you take your seat: you’re not used to the poofy bow on your back, and it gets caught for a moment on the chair. Tora waits patiently for you to be comfortable before getting started. “Now then,” she begins with a sort of practiced ease, “every guest who comes in is greeted by all available staff with a hearty ‘welcome commander’ when you hear the bell from the door. If you are with a table or a customer, however, don’t interrupt what you’re doing: they come first. The idea is to make our guests feel like they are the most important people in Tyria when they come into have this experience.” She checks your expression to make sure that you’re following along before continuing. “Tables are seated on a rotating basis, and there will be a count maintained by the wait staff at the host station, so that way if you’re assigned there you won’t accidentally give someone too many tables. Not like that isn’t an easy problem to fix, but if someone has had a rough day with a table and you give them one that should have gone to someone else... well, they may let you have a piece of their mind.” You briefly look worried, which she must notice, because she brings her hands up. “Hey, hey hey! Not like you’re going to get yelled at all the time, okay? Just letting you know that people will want to be treated well around here. We want to make sure that people know when they come in that their coworkers are allowed to express their feelings rather than everyone being treated like little restaurant golems. You won’t get in trouble unless you keep doing it or it looks like you’re doing it on purpose. Got it?” You nod, and she smiles. “Good. Now let’s go over this menu. “So because we are the Hoelbrack branch of the maid cafe, we offer the Icebrood menu. It’s really just norn cultural dishes and some specialties that we designed to make fun of Jormag now that they’re gone, and to celebrate where we’re located. The owners are in the process of getting a location set up in Divinity’s Reach and Rata Sum, themed around Scarlet Briar and Mordremoth respectively. But you don’t really need to worry about that unless we need you to transfer. “Every week there’s a new special we’ll be featuring. Since we’re coming into spring, this week we’re debuting a new appetizer called Shiverpeaks Salad using seasonal greens and herbs on it, and a frozen beverage we’re calling Drakkar’s Blood that has fresh strawberries and lime juice in it. You’ll be able to try them both in a little bit, they’re really good! “The rest of the menu is, as I said, typically norn food: roasts and stews, baked vegetable casseroles, fresh breads. Good filling stuff that will make sure you have fuel in you for the adventure you’re about to set off on, that sort of thing. Of course we have some lighter fare for anyone who doesn’t want to eat like they’re at a moot, but where’s the fun in that?” She checks the clock above the bar. “Ooh, we’re getting close on time, aren’t we? Right, here’s the plan for today. I’m going to have you bus tables for this shift so you can learn the work flow, see how the other servers handle the tables, and maybe you can help serve a couple orders or grab drinks if someone’s hands will be full. We’ll go over the drinks menu tomorrow when you come back in. Sound good?” You nod, and watch as she gets back to her feet, picking the menu up as she does. You move to follow, this time sliding a hand behind you to make sure that the bow doesn’t catch on the chair as it moves past. “Excellent. -All right everyone! We have five minutes until open, let’s start final tasks and then do one last look over ourselves to make sure we’re looking sharp!” She keeps speaking as everyone, you included, hustle towards stations to check if everything is ready. “Arne, Kennan, please keep an eye out on our new friend for me please? Thank you! Darragh, I have you scheduled to take a birthday party that is coming in at 1, and that will be a party of eight, so after the initial rush I will be pulling you so we can set that up. Xynni, dearest, your bun is falling out, go fix that.” Xynni dashes off to the bathroom as you check in with Arne and Kennan about the final checklist, and determine that everything is done and ready for opening. As soon as Xynni returns with bun in order, Tora gives everyone a look over. “Thank you Xynni. Everyone, you’re looking as wonderful as can be. Let’s go ahead and show Hoelbrak what we have to offer!” She goes and turns over the open sign on the front door, and not even a moment later the bell rings as guests let themselves in. You take a deep breath and join your coworkers in cheerfully proclaiming, “Welcome commander!”

[youweremyversaillesatnight]

i’d like to talk a little about felice’s hair in both season one and season two (yes, including the comment from the housemistress).

we’ve talked this one to death but i’ve gone through every episode and there’s a lot. (i also may have gotten carried away and lost the plot a little)

for starters, in season one, no one says anything regarding hair or a dress code and i looked into lundsberg skola (people have said this is roughly the real life equivalent? i think?) and i couldn’t find a dress code on their website but in all of their photos, the girls have their hair down. i would assume this applies to non-white students as well, although i couldn’t find any pictures.

(taken from lundsberg skola website, skogshult dorm)

and in season one, the hillerska girls do too! maddie is the one who most often wears her hair up, and stella does half-up/half-down styles, but fredrika and sara typically wear their hair down, as do many of the other girls in the background.

even on parent’s day, arguably the most important school event in season one, felice’s hair is down, albeit pulled back.

during the formal dinner at the manor house, too, all the girls have their hair down except for maddie.

and, of course, everyone’s hair is down for lucia.

it’s interesting to me that when we see all of these influential parents, the majority of them wear their hair up, and yet the girls don’t follow suit. i don’t know if it’s a cultural thing, maybe a work dress code, or just different standards as girls/women age, but it does seem a little odd. hillerska is meant to prepare students for their futures as rich and influential individuals, so obviously there’s a higher standard for keeping appearance.

for felice, part of keeping appearance is straightening her hair, at least in season one. considering how her style changes in season two, i wonder if part of having her hair down all the time is showing off how much like everyone else she is (even if it isn’t true). she’s trying so hard to fit in and do what is expected of her in season one, and she’s almost hiding behind her hair a little bit. it might not be physically in her face, but straightening her hair is putting on armor that doesn’t quite fit.

in all of season one, the only time felice has her hair up is during riding, when all the girls have their hair up to keep it out of their faces and under their helmets. there is not a single moment outside of riding or coming back from riding that felice has her hair up. and the only difference between season one and season two is that felice is embracing her natural hair.

i do agree that it would have been nice to get more of felice’s individual storyline in season two, but i’m still holding out hope for season three. in any case, the very first time we see felice in season two, she’s at a salon (with other black women - i saw someone say black-owned as well, which would make sense) getting her hair done.

in season two, though, felice actually wears her hair up far more than in season one. in fact, her hair is up almost all the time. i’m not sure whether this is her choice or not. now that she isn’t hiding behind her hair, there’s no reason to keep it down all the time, but the change still makes me wonder if maybe she's been called out for it more than just the one time we see, since her hair is down for the choir performance/first day of class-

-and not much after that-

-until episode four (and the fact that she wears her natural hair for the ball? so much to say about that that i just don’t have the words for).

and then in episodes five and six-

-her hair is mostly down again. with all the drama in the last two episodes with sara, i wouldn’t be surprised if she’s hiding a little bit and (even if she isn’t straightening her hair) going back to old coping mechanisms by trying to treat her hair like she did before. of course, it could also just be that having her hair up is more comfortable now, or that it gets in her face more if it’s down. there might not be some big explanation. anyway, i can’t imagine that the staff are being more lenient about rules, with the jubilee coming up, so maybe there isn’t a rule at all? we’ll come back to that.

the exception, of course, is breakfast in 205, when the housemistress reminds felice to put her hair up.

i originally assumed that stella put her hair up as well even though she didn't get in trouble because she was, as established by fredrika, still drunk from the night before and also not entirely paying attention. however, considering everyone else has their hair up as well (except for maddie? why? idk) i'm pretty sure i assumed wrong.

now (backing up a bit), interestingly, in the formal dining scene in 202 (and all the other meals in season two), all the girls have their hair up, including felice. this is a direct contrast to season one, where they all have their hair down, as mentioned above. granted, this dinner looks less like a performance than the dinner in season one, but sara is still wearing her gifted dress, so i assume it’s more formal than a standard meal.

with all those things put together, i would almost wonder if hillerska changed their dress code. i can't imagine they would do that halfway through the year (and the fact that many girls still have their hair down in various situations, like the choir performances and during classes makes it seem unlikely), but they might have. lending credence to this is both sara and fredrika putting their hair up at breakfast, and then felice and stella later, but i'm still not entirely sure.

and, of course, whatever restrictions hillerska may or may not have regarding the girls’ hair, it clearly doesn’t include dye, considering stella’s purple bangs (and an extra in season one, i think?)

it definitely seems like there’s a double standard or changing expectation here, especially from season one to season two. if hillerska (or just the manor house) changed their dress code, especially in the middle of the year, there would have to be a reason. and as much as i hate to say it, felice is the only one who gets in trouble and the only one whose hair changes drastically. and given the way felice and alexander are treated in the show, it wouldn’t be entirely out of the realm of possibility that they would change the dress code because they don’t like her hair. i hope it isn’t that, but again, i don’t know. i would love more information on all of this in season three, but even if felice’s storyline gets more time, i don’t know that this specific bit will.

if there is a requirement for the girls' hair at all, changed or not, my best guess would be that it is specific to the manor house and most likely is only in effect during meals/house gatherings and that different activities and the school as a whole have their own uniforms and preferences that are not necessarily the same.

[sadsongsandstories]

Somewhere that's beautiful

Okay so upon further consideration, Heather's essentially is little shop of horrors

Thematically, narratively (almost), characterly

They are both stories about a broken cruel world, which gives birth to an equally broken being, who leads the protagonist down a dark path of killing, using promises of love and power which they previously lacked. The killings start inane, the audience is on board with it. The first is practically an accident, it's a murder by omission where the victim really did it to themselves. Besides, this first kill is an evil wicked person, who had previously been set up as a villain, so we're okay with it. The protagonist has to cover up the killing of course, but what the are they meant to do? It's a greasy little nobody who has suddenly been gifted fame and power like that would have never imagined before. They finally have the good fortune they wished for, and they sure as hell aren't going to give it up now. So they ignore the villains opening song, dripping with red flags, and go along for the ride. The second killing is a little more intentional (they differ a little here) and to an equally unlikeable victim. They bullied, abused and took advantage of the hero (sexuality assaulted in one case), so you're what, they had it coming

It's then that things start to get out of control. With more killings comes more power and the hunger only grows. The protagonist is faced with their greatest dilemma: to let go of this life they have been gifted or continue to do messy nasty awful evil things. The final straw comes when their loved one is threatened (and yes Martha Dunstock is Veronica's true love, fight me). Now they are resolute: this has gone far enough and it is time to destroy the monster they created.

Here's where our stories differ. On one hand we have the destruction of evil and on the other we have the crumbling of good. In both cases it comes down to a physical battle with a gun, and a world hanging in the balance. The difference really comes down to the hero, the villain and the relationship therein. Veronica is strong, and has gained only courage over the course of the story. Where she was once a victim of her world, now she has control, and is determined to fight to fix all that is wrong, both with the defeat of JD and the culture that has persisted and worsened. The audience is left with hope and the loves are reunited.

Seymour is not strong. He is cowardly and insecure and lacks the drive to change anything about his world. His fight comes far too late, and so he is consumed by his own creation. Another major difference is that Audry 2 is a symbolic representation of capitalism, which cannot in fact, be stopped or changed by a single individual. The final song, and the musical in its entirety, is a warning to the audience, a cautionary tale of greed and desire and the promises of material wealth. JD, meanwhile, symbolises the toxicity in schools and childhood trauma, which, while it can't be fixed, can certainly be alleviated by a single individual, assuming they become the best that they can be and stand for what is right (ehem the og meangirls movie).

The other key factor in the ending is the relationship with the villain itself. In little shop, Seymour is little more than a puppet playing into the hand of the devil. He signs the deals, does the dirty work and obeys his master to his own demise. Heather's, meanwhile, shows a more sinister parasitic relationship, where veronica enables and empowers JD's psychopathy in return for his love and protection. She holds some power, and so it is only a matter of her will and drive to use that power for good rather than evil. JD is also a much more sympathetic villain. Audry 2 is not meant to be redeemed, while JD, (killing people is wrong, don't do it) is a result of a heavily traumatic childhood and a society that abandons him and treats him like trash. Veronica tells him to "say hi to God" which, while being an utterly badass line, also indicates that, on some level, she understands and possibly even forgives him. Could be looking into it too much, but it's her final words to her own worst nightmare, so I feel like there's something there.

Seymour's last act is the try and hack his monster to bits from the inside, so clearly he doesn't think for a moment Audrey 2 is going to heaven.

Now, none of this is to say that the creators of Heather's the musical (assuming it came second) copied or even emulated the plot of little shop of horrors. It bears a striking resemblance, but that's not unexpected when two stories have the same goal, to make a killer appear moral until the end and then force the protagonist to face a demon of their own creation, and the same musical form to achieve said goal. Besides, each was based off of a movie (and in the case of little shop, a play before that?) and I have no idea which of those came first. I think it's amazing that both of these shows exist, they're two of my favourite musicals, and each have such bangers and hilarious moments in their own rights. Dead girl walking reprise it top five musical songs of all time, I will fight you on this!!

Also, as I mentioned before, their contexts and messaging are totally different. In one camp we have, highschool is messed up, teenagers are mean and traumatised and our society breeds toxicity and normalises horrific behaviour such that school shooters and the like can be created. And on the other we have plant capitalism metaphor, plopped into the middle of an impoverished and broken world, the perfect place to promise material wealth and weasel into the souls of otherwise moral people. In both cases, Audry 1 and Martha symbolise the innocent soul trapped in the balance, the kind too good for a world so cruel. That's all there is really, the hero, the villain, the semi-villains who get killed along the way, and the side characters/chorus who tell the story. The other two Heather's provide some additional dynamics, but otherwise, the cast is effectively identical. And it's the killing (or not) of the innocent that spells out the potential for redemption in the end. Once the innocent is dead, there is no hope left for the hero. And Martha tries too, but luckily is unsuccessful. Audry is not so lucky.

I think the lesson in all of this, and I am truly sorry for the essay, thanks if you actually stuck around this long, is to never let sudden goodness in your own life blind you to the ramifications of such fortune. It's easy to end up lost in the swelling of fame and power, but it is the nature of such growth that it is never and will never be enough. If you want to make the world a better place, it can never come through destruction and death, but rather creation and kindness, opening up to others and working together to create something beautiful.

Don't feed the plants and hold on to what is beautiful, and you might just find a way out of here. Or at least a way to make here a whole lot better.

[whiskeysmulti]

❤️ + eyesofcuriosity

Send ❤️ + a URL and I’ll write something nice about them/their blog!- accepting!

@eyesofcuriosity is one hell of a talented writer. I adore Nessa, she's so sweet and funny too depending on what verse, I've mainly worked with this OC with my OP muses and Ash so I'm basing my review on those verses. In the Banana Fish verse, Nessa treats Ash like a brother and that's something huge to him because he doesn't often trust anyone older than him and Nessa is I think 20-25 in that verse, so for Ash to befriend her is something huge as the only adults he has trusted before her in his canon were Max, Jess, Ibe, and Griffin. (Nerissa in his verse with Miyuki and that's about it.) But Nessa proved she was only there to care about him to be that big sister he needed and a lot of the time he's had to save her because as he's told her before she's "too soft for the streets". It's also a whole culture shock to him because Nessa wants to treat him kindly and be there and Ash has even canonically said no one in his life has ever been kind to him without there being a catch to it. But Nessa is so he's trying to process this while also being the typical little brother to her as well and scaring the shit out of her when another shoot out breaks out and he has to defend her. They're two different worlds colliding and having to learn to understand the other and how their views are different on things even when they want the same goal. ex. Nessa wanting to talk things out before acting when possible, Ash being the shoot first, ask questions later type.

I'm blown away thought at how they keep Nessa strong but soft because often in verses like Banana Fish, that soft hearted character doesn't make it, or ends up becoming cold and cruel from what they've gone through and so far Nessa hasn't and that shows a lot of strength in character.

Give them a follow if you haven't yet, it's a wonderful blog!

[meandmypagancrew]

Aimie and Adam as Rem and Ryuk

Okay, so, I don’t know how many Death Note musical fans are musical fans and how many are just Death Note fans who wandered over and are here now. If you are in the latter post and don’t know much about musicals, this post is for you because I am going to explain Aimie and Adam’s most famous roles and how interesting that is in comparison to the shinigami.

Now, first I do need to acknowledge that Aimie and Adam are both white and shinigami are figures from Japanese folklore and should be played by Japanese actors. There’s no way around that. I’m not really from a culture that has a lot of folklore figures but I would want them to be portrayed by members of that culture. But that acknowledged, let’s move on.

Aimie has been in a lot of shows but I think most people would agree she’s most famous for originating the role of Katherine Howard in Six, a musical that reimagined the six wives of Henry VIII as a girl band group. To illustrate what I mean by that, five of these pictures of actresses playing Misa. One is Aimie as Katherine Howard.

Now, a little history lesson about Katherine Howard. Her exact year of birth isn’t known but it’s generally agreed that she was probably about 17 when she married the king, and was suspected of adultery. Now, before Katherine had married the king, from the age of 13, men much older than her had groomed her and taken advantage of her and the king passed a law that to not inform him of previous relationships was treason just so he could behead her, probably before she even turned 20. History has not been much kinder to Katherine than her life was as she’s been traditionally treated like a harlot and a whore who got what she deserved as opposed to a child victim of SA.

Anyway, for Aimie to go from playing a pop princess portrayal of a tragic story of a girl who died far too young to playing a protector of a pop princess in a tragic story and to even give her own life to try and save her but to only buy her a few more years of misery? Very fascinating indeed.

Now let’s talk about Adam and Ryuk.

Adam’s most famous role is Roger in RENT

He originated the role on both Broadway and the West End and in the movie adaptation. Now, you may not think you know any songs from RENT, but you probably do. Seasons of Love, the one that counts how many minutes are in a year and all that? That’s from RENT.

RENT was written at the height of the AIDS crisis and our friend Roger here has AIDS. He was/is a struggling musician but what he’s really struggling with is his legacy. He wants to write a song. Just one song. One masterpiece, one glorious composition that will outline him. He even has a song (that’s actually better than the song he does end up writing but that’s a tragedy in and of itself because the composer knew the song needed to be rewritten but had a random heart event that killed him the day the show was supposed to start previews so he wasn’t able to get around to it) about this desire called One Song Glory.

So to contrast a character who hears the ticking of his own personal doomsday clock, who knows the end is near and feels that fear acutely and is just trying so hard to create a legacy… to have him now be playing a character who can choose the hour and the day for anyone and who believes that all human life is without meaning or consequence, regardless of any legacy they leave behind?

Absolutely fascinating choices to me on both parts and while again, I wish the roles had gone to Japanese actors, it’s hard to deny they didn’t do absolutely fantastic work.

[pierrotwrites-hc]

🎭 Can you envision your OC in an alternate universe? What au would you choose and what role would they be in that world?

For Luca!

I love this question, because whenever you're writing a deeply traumatized character you start to wonder who they'd be if they hadn't gone through all this awful formative shit.

I've sketched a conversation that takes place much, much later in the series between people who knew Luca before he was taken by the Commissioner and those who only met him after. This was a useful exercise for me because I was able to identify three attributes of Luca as a child that were lost, submerged, or perverted due to his conditioning: chattiness, bossiness, and a desire to please. Luca was one of those endlessly curious kids who never shuts up, the kind who's always asking "why?" and only conks out once they've run out of steam. He could also be a bossy little shit, always making "helpful" suggestions about how a process or activity might be improved. And he was motivated by a deep, driving need to make other people happy. Especially adults, and especially those in positions of power.

The Luca we meet in TGB is about as far from chatty as it is possible for someone to be, but I've enjoyed giving him opportunities to revive his curiosity. His relationships with Asher and particularly Doran have revived some of his bossiness, too. And while he still wants so much to please, he has become more critical about the worthiness of those who have power over him.

The alternative universe I imagine for Luca is one in which he was never taken by the Commissioner. While I expect he still would have suffered at the hands of the occupiers, he would've had his brothers for protection. He would not have undergone the additional trauma of losing his language and cultural identity, or been forcibly transplanted into a culture where he was treated as a hated enemy. And he wouldn't have suffered years of brainwashing that sought to strip him of his personhood.

I've always seen Luca as a Bard, and in this AU his Bard characteristics would be much stronger and clearer, and uncomplicated by the silencing and disempowerment he endured in his TGB backstory. He would be much closer to the chatty, bossy kid he was in Kel. He wouldn't have to find his voice, because it would never have been taken away from him. As a result, he would've become the leader he's meant to be much sooner, and with a lot less mental anguish.

I do think that Luca in any universe would need to overcome his people-pleasing. This is just an innate part of him, and learning to value his own happiness would probably still be a crucial aspect of his growth and development.

Having written this, and looking back on the prompt, I'm now wondering whether I could take Luca even further afield from the TGBverse and drop him in, say, a coffeeshop AU. I can see him as a sweet but anxiety-prone barista whose therapist recommended he get a job where he had to interact with people in order to coax him out of his shell. I imagine him as a burnt-out former dance prodigy now taking classes at the local college and trying to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

Enter a tall, red-headed customer with a crush...

[starlight-starfury]

Side by Side

Book: Blades of Light and Shadow

Characters: (F!Elf!MC) Raine & Kade

Rating: General

Warnings: None that I can think of?

Length: 2k words

Summary: Raine looks back at her childhood with her brother while vowing to free him from the Realm of Shadow

Characters and lore belong to Pixelberry Studios.

@choicesficwriterscreations

A/N: Here’s something silly/sweet as a break from all the angst :))

(Image from Pinterest)

“Raine?” Kade stumbled over a tree root as he ran further into the forest. He had seen her running off towards the woods, but his sister was faster than him and he couldn’t tell where she had gone.

He heard a quiet sniffle and followed the sound until he found her curled up by the creek, pale arms wrapped around her knees.

“Go away.” She said, not lifting her head.

“It’s just me.” Kade sat by her side and she glanced up, wiping her eyes. “Were the village kids teasing you again?”

She nodded slowly. “They were making fun of my ears.”

Her brother frowned as she moved to cover them with her hands, though it didn’t do much good. “Don’t look at them.” She glared, still sniffling.

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking away for a moment as he kicked his feet into the cold water. “But I like your ears, Raine. I think they’re cool, and I bet you can hear everything!”

Raine smiled a little at that, the tears beginning to dry on her pink cheeks. “I can hear you sneak downstairs in the night to slip treats from the baker’s pantry.” She said a little smugly.

“Hey!” Kade laughed and she giggled, finally moving her hands away from her ears.

She gave him a wide-eyed stare. “You should probably lay off the jam tarts for a while, by the way. He thinks he has rodents.”

“Fine,” he groaned, sending a wave of water upward as he kicked his feet again. Raine squealed as it splashed her and she turned towards him, a playful glare in her eyes. “I’m gonna get you for that!”

“It was an accident!” He gasped but she had already retaliated, soaking his vest and laughing loudly.

“Oof!” Kade shivered at the cold sensation, but he was too set on getting payback to care. The siblings continued to splash at each other until they were both thoroughly drenched and breathless with laughter before making their slow way back to the village.

For days after the incident by the creek Kade couldn’t stop thinking about how the village kids had teased Raine. He knew his sister put on a brave face and insisted she was fine but he knew that their comments had hurt her feelings.

As the only elf in Riverbend, Kade knew she sometimes felt like an outsider because she was different, but she was strong and funny and kind and he looked up to her more than anyone else in the whole world. He wanted to find a way to cheer her up somehow, so in the morning he decided to set off to the village bookstore.

The bell on the door chimed as Kade pushed his way inside. He and the bookkeeper were old friends, and he was always welcome to spend hours reading on the special leather chair tucked far in the back corner of the cozy shop.

“Ah, if it isn’t Kade.” The bookkeeper smiled down at him, the lines around his eyes crinkling upward with delight. “What can I help you with today, my young friend?”

“Actually, I’m here for my sister.” Kade propped his elbows up on the worn, timber bench draped with a deep red velvet cloth. “Do you have any books about elves?”

The bookkeeper’s warm expression faded temporarily as he stood deep in thought. “I’m afraid tomes on elven culture are hard to come by these days, they are a very private lot and prefer to keep to themselves, but I...” his eyes lit up once more as he gave Kade a mischievous grin. “I believe I have just the thing.”

He retreated to the storage cupboard and Kade perched himself on one of the wooden stools, legs dangling as he waited.

“Aha!” He heard a delighted cry and the bookkeeper emerged, his tunic thinly coated in dust. He winked as he slid a thin book across the bench, the edges were lined thinly with gold-leaf, though the intricate patterns were slightly faded and peeling. Kade took a moment to inspect its contents before a large smile spread across his face.

“She’ll love it!” He declared and reached for a thin cloth pouch of silver coins from his trouser pocket. It wasn’t much, just a few earnings he had made from playing his lute in the town square. “This is all I have. I hope it’s enough.”

The bookkeeper shook his head and handed the pouch back. “Consider this my treat. That old book’s been sitting there for years waiting for a proper owner. Just tell dear Raine to look after it well.”

“Really?” Kade beamed and the old man smiled. “Let me wrap this up for you.”

Kade tucked the wrapped book under his arm, feeling giddy with excitement as he raced off down the cobblestone streets. He couldn’t wait to gift it to Raine.

He found her skimming rocks by the river, giving one particular throw that jumped across the water’s surface five times before sinking with a splash.

“Oh, hey Kade!” She said cheerily, lilac eyes bright as she turned to face him. “Did you see that throw? I think that was my furthest ever!” She took notice of the package under his arm. “Watcha got there?”

“It’s for you!” He said, shoving it into her arms.

“Me?” She blinked. “But it isn’t holiday season yet.”

“Just open it!” Kade laughed and she shrugged, pulling away the crisp parchment paper to reveal the small book.

“Oh!” She breathed. The cover was a pale green, and she traced a finger over the golden patterns engraved in the corners, entranced by the way they gleamed under the sunlight. In other parts the sheen had dulled with age, and now contrasted against the green fabric like light and shade filtering through the leaves of a tree and onto the forest floor.

Kade laughed at her fascination. “Look inside!” He urged and she did, gasping at what she found within.

The pages were filled with beautiful, vividly coloured illustrations of elves in sweeping gowns twirling across an elegant ballroom.

She squealed with delight, hugging the book close to her chest. “They look like me!” Her blonde hair bounced over her shoulders as she jumped up and down. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She tackled him with a fierce hug and they landed on the grassy riverbank.

“Careful!” He wheezed. “The bookkeeper said to look after it.”

“I will.” She declared and placed the book gently in her lap. “I’ll treasure it forever and ever and ever.”

A couple of years passed by but still they remained the same rambunctious children. Late one afternoon they were following the trail back to town from the woods, exhausted after a long day of scavenging, when the siblings caught sight of a freshly baked pie sitting on the windowsill to one of the cottages backing onto the forest.

It was practically begging to be eaten, with its perfectly golden crust and sweet aroma that had begun to waft through the trees.

Raine grabbed her brother by the sleeve, dragging him down as she knelt behind a large bush.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Just snatch it and run!” She whispered. “No one will even notice.”

Kade shrugged and slipped alongside the cottage walls, crouching underneath the windowsill. He hoped it was an apple pie, those were his and Raine’s favourite. Reaching up a scrawny hand, he quickly grabbed the pie from the bench and was about to hurry back to the bushes when a horrible squawk sounded from behind him.

He glanced back towards his sister, who was frantically waving her arms around.

“Get back over here!” She whisper-shouted.

But it was too late.

Kade turned to see a vicious white bird charging along the grass towards him, its wings flapping wildly. Pie still in hand, he sprinted over to Raine and the two of them darted through the trees, with the goose remaining hot on their heels. Kade could feel time slow down around him as his foot caught on a tree root and he tumbled to the ground, his nose burying itself deep in the pie dish.

“Kade!” Raine turned and pulled him back to his feet, his face smeared with a strange smelling goo that was distinctly not apple.

He spat a mouthful of pie to the ground. “It’s got eels in it!”

“What?” Raine peered inside the dish and saw that he was right. Instead of warm apple sauce, beneath the crumbling pastry was a slimy-looking grey filling. “Gross! Who puts those in a pie?”

He didn’t get to answer her as they heard another vicious honk and the goose emerged from the bushes, beady eyes staring into their souls.

“Quick!” Raine grabbed a fistful of pie. “Throw it at the goose!”

“Will that work?”

“It should!”

Kade buried his hand deep in the dish and the two flung large chunks of pie at the bird until it gave a final hiss and flapped away into the undergrowth.

Still panting, they leant against a thick tree as they tried to catch their breath.

“I thought we were goners!” Kade sighed with relief, wiping the goop from his cheek.

Raine giggled. “You should’ve seen your face when the goose starting chasing after you!”

He elbowed her gently in the ribs but laughed, and they slowly made their way back to town.

A few years later, one summer night, they were lying on the riverbank staring up at the stars. The smell of woodsmoke filled the air, thick and heavy, mixing with the sweet scent of pine from the nearby forest.

“Remember Spooky?” Kade asked and Raine laughed, moving her hand to trail the familiar constellation across the sky.

“I could never forget Spooky the Silly Specter.” She said affectionately. “You created him to protect me from the ghost in my closet.”

“And he was a great protector!” Kade said. “How do you scare away one ghost? By creating a larger, sillier ghost.”

Raine rolled her eyes but laughed all the same. “I think I was too busy trying to find Spooky in the stars to care anymore.”

“Then he served his purpose well.” They grinned at each other before Kade turned his attention back to the constellations.

He pointed to the two brightest stars in the night sky. “That’s you and me, always side by side.”

“The brighter one is you.”

“Oh, because I’m so dazzling?”

“Because of your humongous head.” She teased and he laughed, before his voice quietened.

“Whatever might happen in the future, we can look to our stars and know that we’ll always be together, no matter what.”

Raine frowned. “I don’t want things to change.”

“They won’t.” Kade reassured her. “And if they do, we’ll have each other.”

“Promise?”

“I swear on the stars.”

Raine stood alone by the railings on the Sun Maiden, a fresh night wind carrying the salty ocean air into the sky. She gazed out at the sea, waves shifting beneath the stars.

Her whole life all she had wanted was an adventure, to see the world beyond Riverbend, but she had always imagined her brother would be by her side.

Instead he was trapped in the Realm of Shadow, and she didn’t even know if he was okay.

“This is all my fault,” she muttered to herself. “I was the one who got us in over our heads, and all because I thought I could be a hero.” She laughed bitterly and sighed, staring out across the water. “Look where that got us.”

She closed her eyes and pictured Kade, trapped in the Onyx Shard, his mouth wide open in a silent and echoless scream. “You always were looking out for me, Kade.” Her voice wavered. “If only I could’ve been there for you as well.”

No.

She could still get him back. She would get him back. He was the only family she had left, and gods be damned if she was going to lose him too.

Raine held the clothed Shard in hand, and it pulsed coldly beneath her grasp, humming with a dark, dangerous energy.

She lifted her gaze to the night sky, searching for the two brightest stars. Their stars. Her and Kade, always side by side. She wouldn’t rest until they were together once again.

“I’ll get you back.” Her voice filled with newfound determination. “I promise.”