#meme cobbled together by us

[nova-dracomon]

[marzipanandminutiae]

you know how eventually you can cobble together the plot of media you don’t actually engage with from following fans on Tumblr?

that has never happened for me with...god I don’t even know what it’s called. The Locked Tomb? Harrow The Ninth? Death And Gay And Death And Gay And Memes [five-hour guitar solo]? this is the degree to which I genuinely have no fucking clue about this book series: I follow multiple hardcore fans, and I do not even know its proper name

plot? oh you want to know the plot? I could not have less of a clue what the plot is. none of the information I’ve learned- and there’s been a lot of it - has gelled into anything cohesive in my brain

I know there’s necromancy

I know it’s Deeply Really Truly Incredibly Sapphic

I cannot tell if it’s set in alternate universe (because that would make the most sense given the snippets of worldbuilding I’ve seen) or Earth’s future (because Memes apparently???)

I know some people have numbers after their names? but it’s something to do with numbered clans, not their ancestors having the same name?

I know The One Gay Death Lady Is Based On A Barbie From The 80s, Physically

(they are all Gay Death Ladies, it seems)

at this point I refuse to google it, even though I easily could. I have too much fun reading posts like “omg when Sapphia Dodecarius used Alex’s blood for the ritual to raise the dead king after they fucked with a strap made from his rib I couldn’t even” with absolutely zero context

[ablondpanda]

One very particular pet peeve of mine is people using generative AI to create memes or shitposts that would be so much better if they were just photoshopped by hand or hastily cobbled together in Gimp

[musei-thoughts]

𝘔𝘳. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥.

𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: 𝘐𝘬𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘹 𝘧𝘦𝘮! 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭! 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦.

𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦: 𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘧𝘧.

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩: 1492𝘸.

𝙖/𝙣: 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰 :)

"What's your plan now, Mr. Eveland?" Ike glares at your figure hidden in the shadows. He was tied up to a chair inside a dark cellar.

You didn't even know how things turned out this way. You were just enjoying your evening cuddled up into your comforters while reading angsty fanfics on your phone, next thing you knew, your men informed you of a trespasser in your hideout.

When you saw the greyish blue or pink, or green, or- you know what, whatever his hair color is, when you saw him, you were rather….intrigued.

He was a pretty boi.

Ike kept his mouth shut as he tries to break free from the restraints. He's been trying to rub the ropes together in hopes of wearing it down but it was no use. Your amused chuckle interrupts him, "Oh, those ropes are pretty thick, it'll take you days to pry them off you." You stepped out of the dark, your red stilettos clacking against the cobble floor.

Ike avoided you gaze when he got to look at you. You were….dazzling. Entering the cellar with such an ominous aura and your high and mighty personality gave him the willies.

"This is what you get for trespassing into my lair, Mr. Eveland. You get tied up, get tortured, or worse…be killed." You taunt with an evil glint in your eyes.

He just looked up at you with a troubled face. Heh, you have him wrapped around your finger, all helpless and vulnerable. 'Oh you're so cool and evil, Y/n. With your awesomeness you'll definitely get Nicolas Cage's attention.'

"Oh no, I'm so afraid, whatever will I do." His sarcastic remark cuts you off your little narcissistic monologue. "Well, why don't we start with that "or worse…" that you mentioned. Let's see how bad will you really torture me."

'Cute but sassy? My, my, what an interesting boy we have here…' You thought with an irk mark on your forehead as you smiled at Ike, "Oh, I will….

with this period simulator." Ike's mood for sarcasm immediately disappeared when you brought the device out.

"Wait- oh god, please no! Not that thing!" He screeches, wriggling in his chair. No one, I mean no one looks down at Y/n.

The smirk on your face widens as you placed the patches on his abdomen, watching him struggle before you. "No can do Mr. Eveland, you DID dare me after all."

"I didn't expect you to actually go through with it!"

'Bullsh*t' you turned it on at level 3. "Ahhhhhnnn…"

"So you were looking down on me?" Your fingers played around the controls while Ike quivers on the chair. "Hngggghh…Y-you're insane!"

A fake gasp leaves your lips as you walked up to Ike, "I'M insane?! Who was the one who snuck in a criminal boss lady's hideout?? Pshhh, You're one to talk, Mr. Eveland." You roll your eyes at him.

"I don't have time for this- Gahhhhnnnn~" Ike leans over at the weird sensation being zapped through his body. You stared at him blankly, observing the poor novelist.

'How could he look like this in this situation?'

His flushed cheeks, his long eyelashes adorning his pretty lime eyes, and his disheveled look as he pants in pain. "….hot damn."

His cheeks redden as you admired him, this is so embarrassing; but then another shock was sent and he grunts in pain. "J-Just tell me where Vox is!!!" He yells.

The pain in his abdomen stopped when you turned the device off with a look of disbelief and confusion on your face.

You were like that "…what??" meme when you heard what he said.

"Just…give me Vox…and we'll leave…" He says through each pant.

He was met with silence as he looks up at your unamused face. You sigh, massaging your temples, "Mr. Eveland, If you're going to sneak in to an evil lair make sure you go to the right one."

His face goes pale at your words, "You're not…L/n?"

"I am, but there's two L/ns in the criminal world. I think you're looking for my brother. He's the one who has your monke friend." You showed Ike a cctv footage of Vox tied up in a room, listening to Barney's song.

You checked your wristwatch, "He's been there for five hours. It's impressive that he's not rocking back and forth or convulsing in insanity like the other hostages."

"WE NEED TO GET HIM NOW."

Ike knows Vox, he may not show physicals signs of insanity yet, but boy, when he gets out of there, he'd surely strip himself naked and skip around the park whilst flashing at anything that turns oxygen into carbon dioxide; a.k.a anything that breathes.

Ike looks at you in desperation. To you, you call it: puppy eyes. "What? You want me to help?" He nods cutely. Internally, Ike is cringing, but he needs to take drastic measures to get you on board.

"Fine." Mission accomplished. "I'm doing this just to get B/n back for selling my high school diary at an auction."

That diary was not meant to be read by anything that has a mind that can judge. You're brother majority doesn't use his brain so he has no use for it aside from pranking you by selling it to an auction.

Surprisingly, it sold for ¥69,000. That's like ¥69,000 worth of embarrassing secrets and confessions.

You just have to get him back for this…

"Go grab that cage over there and that sack. There's also some gear in that closet. Prepare yourself Mr. Eveland, we're gonna get your monke friend back."

Prank #1. You sneaked into your brother's bathroom while Ike watch you execute your plan. "Get the bottle in the sack." He hands it to you and you grabbed the shampoo bottle and replaced its contents with the one from your bottle.

"What's that?"

"Hair remover."

Prank #2 You and Ike carried the big cage into your brother's room. Ike felt the strong movement from inside the cage and asks, "Are we seriously going to release the creature inside this into your brother's room?"

"Yes. Don't worry, it's not venomous."

Prank #3 This one is pretty tame (at least to you). Ike watches in horror as you mercilessly pour a whole bottle of powdered laxatives into your brother's coffee grinds.

"I feel bad for that toilet bowl…"

Prank #4 This one is the worst. You took a photo of the collection room before posting it all on ebæ, "Ike, help me pack all these into the box." You snickered to yourself as you imagined your brother's reaction to seeing all his precious My little pony collection sold to an auction.

"Okay. Let's get monke man back."

Ike walks along side you, observing the silly smile on your face. You're actually not that bad. He thought that you were literally a criminal, but recalling all those 'crimes' that you did, they were not entirely harmful or illegal…well some of them may be...

But you never killed someone more or less did anything that threatened somebody's life.

You were just a prankster who got a so called 'criminal hideout' and some followers who probably sided with you about pranking the government.

Ike remembers the 'evil' smile on your face, it wasn't evil at all, it was cute. "I still think that cows work for the government more than birds-" Ike's chuckle cuts you off your rant, making you stop in your tracks.

"Are you laughing at me?"

"No, ma'am." He smiles, stifling his laughter.

"That's what I thought."

You were not evil at all, you're just a cute dork.

Once you got to the room, you kicked the doors open "VSF da!!! BAABBABABABA- eh?"

"I love you, you love me, let's go out and k*ll barney, with a bang, bang, bang, and a slash, slash, slash, no more purple dinosaur."

Vox stared at the purple dinosaur on the TV with killing intent, but continues to sing the wholesome song.

"Vox! Let's get out of here!"

"Give me a second, Michael, let me just finish my song- Hey!" Ike pulls him out of the room and immediately runs out of the house when you heard you brother's shriek.

"OMG GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!!"

Ike pushed Vox in the car and quickly gets into the driver's seat and quickly drives off. You and Ike shared a look and both bursts out laughing, "He sounded like a valley girl on helium!!"

The three of you enjoyed the car ride back home, enjoying a good laugh and some tunes. Once you arrived at your hideout, he walks you out of his car, "Well, Mr. Eveland, I'll see you around." You saluted at him.

"Why do you always call me Mr. Eveland? Call me Ike."

"I just like the sound of your last name, it's unique."

"Oh…

If you love it that much, then I guess you won't mind being called Mrs. Eveland."

Bonus:

Ike was driving Vox home, a little worried about his companion who was silent the whole ride. Though he didn't question it.

Even if he should've.

Vox just sat there with a smile on his face. Singing a certain song in his mind...

"I love you, you love me, let's go out and k*ll barney, with a bang, bang, bang, and a slash, slash, slash, no more purple dinosaur."

← 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 │ 𝘕𝘦𝘹𝘵 →

[mephestopheles]

I have finally finished Harrow the Ninth, and I genuinely adored it. I tend to read exclusively with audiobooks because I cannot sit still to just read like I used to, and audiobooks give me the ability to do other things while listening.

Harrow was a hard one for that. It took several tries to get up to speed and I ended up relistening to Gideon and then going right into Harrow so it was more fresh and I could follow the plot.

Which... Fuck. I'm still not sure I get it all. But I will say these lesbian necromancers sure do be messy. I did in fact yell out loud a few times when I started picking up on things and putting shit together.

I did read a few reviews that seemed to hate the "4th wall breaks" which were actually just memes and they were well earned. Yes the yelling halted some of the story, yes it was appropriate. No I do not wish anything was changed. Gideon set the stage for the humour and the meme stuff, and considering what the end of Harrow the Ninth revealed. . .

She gets it honestly?

I do not have the wherewithal to even try and cobble a meta regarding this. I will say my internal monologue is entirely in Moira Quirk's voice and waffles between Gideon's inflection and Mercymorn. I will forever now when making fun of friends being young just keep de-aging them for the bit.

[misscammiedawn]

what is your hypno origin story? (have you shared it before?)

Cobbled together from some old posts, as I couldn't find a definitive "this is our origin" post:

From our post on why we love Hypnotic Theory

My earliest days online I remember reading up on subliminal advertising techniques and going down a rabbit hole of "Painted Ice Cubes" and other such things which seemed too weird to be true.

From there I ended up reading Subliminal Seduction in my late teens out of curiosity and was kind of fascinated by the concepts at play. I was already well and truly fascinated with hypnosis but hypnosis was this magical spell that was cast by magicians. This psuedo-science of advertising execs promising that glimpses of sharks and phallus' would unlock the secrets to sales was my first and unfortunate step into understanding the theory behind it all.

Next step was of course M.K Ultra which is 100% a meme in today's hypnokink community and at best an aesthetic for serious torture-brainwashing play which is at a much higher level of anything than I'm really capable of. But it cited itself. Which got me looking into the history of Mesmer and Braid and then onto a bloke named Milton Erickson...

Archive.org had a lot of his stuff. In fact all of his stuff.

Between Erickson in my textbooks and Derren Brown on my television, right at the start of his career when the fascination of mentalism was still tied heavily to hypnosis (and early Derren Brown was a Fae and a bit of an ass XD) my earliest teachers were pretty bad at consent. Which lead to certain expectations of hypnosis which lead to me picking bad partners at the start of my career.

But Erickson's stuff compelled me.

Early 20s Camden used a lot of Ericksonian speech patterns in her play. Though back then she was only really hypnotizing people under compulsion and usually while hypnotized to channel or outright become a character.

The fact I read medical journals is the moment I knew this fascination had evolved into a life altering obsession. That this was my One Thing.

It was the studies of Erickson working on participants with amputated limbs to study the phantom limb theory that really got me to sit up and pay attention to the science behind it.

At this point of my life I'd been studying on surgeries being performed with hypnosis (a terrifying concept. When I have my surgery I will be hypnotized to go under for the anesthesia like a good girl) and I had seen EKG readings that proved that hypnosis changes the way that the brain scans.

Every step of my life I have leaned on evidence and proof and every step of my study into hypnosis taught me it was not fantasy. It was reality and the more I accepted that the better I was at both hypnotizing, free of doubt and insecurity, and being hypnotized, trusting it works.

I still struggle with that. A lot. Thinking I am just acting or following along. But the more I read the better I feel.

I got my certification at the age of 23. I am not a fan of George Kappas (his work is misogynistic to my eyes) but his school taught me for a year (one of my classmates and the person I studied with for my finals is actually another high profile member of the online hypnosis community) and taught me the most important lesson any school has ever taught me:

I ALREADY KNOW THIS.

I was 23 years old and knew as much as the instructors. That was a good feeling.

Also my classmate and I are still friends. We're not super close, but she and I are in contact. I spent some time with them at a recent hypnosis event. It means a lot to me that even though my name and gender changed, they still remember me.

In my 30s I moved on from academic hypnosis materials to community driven information. I have read Lee & Pynch's book on Amnesia, sleepingirl's Brainwashing and NLP books and of course Wiseguy's Mind Play. I've also taken Wiseguy's class, though didn't bother taking my final. Which was a good use of $1,200.

Every now and again Sleepyhead will show up and just put a book in my hand. I think her copy of The Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism has graduated into my copy of The Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism (Sleepy, you can have your books back at any time).

These days I am lazy and can't really read much. I'm studying therapy more than anything with my latest obsessions being Janina Fischer and Melissa Tiers; Tiers herself being a world class hypnotist that many of our top community members have spent big bucks to train under.

-

From our post on Truth Spells

My earliest hypno-fantasy was to have a hypnotherapist ask me if I was in love with someone (who I did not really have feelings for, but social pressure and all that jazz) and I kept that silly little 14 year old's dream in my heart.

-

From a set of Hypno Asks

1. How long have you been into hypnosis?

Since I was a teenager at least. I used to fantasize about hypnotherapists taking me deep and asking me the truth to questions which were too emotionally complex for me to untangle myself. I used to stare out of windows and think of pendulums and grandfather clocks. I got into the hypnosis community when I was about 19 via Yahoo Groups and kinda followed the growth and pilgramage from platform to platform.

I guess I did kind of get the therapist honesty thing happen to me one time, but that's another story and you'll have to ask for it specifically.

2. Describe your first experience with hypnosis

I remember when I was young I couldn't really move my computer or stretch audio cables, so I needed to make a little cot for myself in the corner of the room. I was awful in my early days. Just listened to files without care for my safety. I just wanted an escape. I bought 45 minute files. I recall one framed like a bank heist with pink mist seeping into the vault of my brain to change things. Predated Inception, even. I was always scared neighbors would hear so I put the speakers on the ground and pulled headphones in and just slept away. I had tons of rituals in the early days, scented candles, boiling baths, anything to try and make it work better. I was AMAZING at visualizing back in those days. I would just get absorbed in the fantasy.

My first interactive partner was an RP buddy on Yahoo Groups who became my first Master. He kept me for about 5 years. I adored him. Did everything he wanted. Even to my own detriment. He was an awful human. I am ashamed I followed him.

My first IRL session was with the woman I married. There was the golden glow of an American sunset pouring through her window as the heaviness of a 12 hour journey across the planet to see her was catching up with me. Her parents were going to drop me off at the hotel to sleep. She thought she could keep me there with her if I fell asleep. She stroked my brow. Cooed for me to just relax. I sank into her lap. It was pure peace and serenity. She tells me she snuck in our first kiss while I was under.

3. Are there any TV shows/movies/books you liked when you were younger that you think got you into hypnosis?

There was like a Magic Block on TV when I was growing up. Masked Magician SECRETS UNVEALED, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna. I watched every week and was fascinated. I loved magic as a child. But it was all the mystic allure and not real. At least until one of my mum's friends was telling her about being on the McKenna show, a show where they hypnotize people in the audience and do skits. British Broadcast Standards do not allow the airing of any hypnosis so they always made it seem secret and taboo, hidden behind a blurry screen and mum's friend had THE SECRETS. So I listened (she had a Pepsi that night so couldn't go on stage) and was just fascinated. It was not just real magic, it was something that could work on anyone. That real person who was in my life had witnessed it and could have "gone under". I remember my obsession was born in the childish awe of that story.

That should cover it, I believe.

[shirefantasies]

From mossthebogwitch I had no idea what i was doing but I did my best.

Since it was now a dare i am submitting myself for a matchup: presently I am mortified.but too curious to back down now. I have sealed my own fate per usual. I appreciate you taking me on this journey and hope you enjoy the experience! I don't know what gender I prefer in partner: I have a huge weakness for Kíli - I have no hard fast rules- just have fun it's a Tumblr matchup yknow?🤣

I would prefer Hobbit based matches since that is my current hyperfixation.

I radiate golden retriever energy: loyal, never gonna give you upn never gonna let you down, never gonna turn around and desert you. I'm the unofficial security guard according to my boss. I have a level head under pressure and I don't back down.  I have a constant stream of humor. The comedy doesn't end. I enjoy being an artist and writer in many media's. I study folklore and weird nature things. Im the weird facts kid grown up to the ' adult who knows how to do a bunch of different things'.

I have trouble socializing due to anxiety and OCD. Because of this I'm naturally more of a watcher until I feel comfortable.  I'm either casually friendly or hiding behind other people talking.  I'm a mom friend and the one people go to for help. I work in counseling its natures pipeline.

If I'm not working, reading, tending my pets, wild foraging for supplies or exploring hiking trails, I can be found cobbling together my house and garden from whatever I get my grabby hands on.

I have a community garden and regularly supply winter camping gear, food, first aid, and hygienic supplies. I do feral cat housing too so I just do a lot of weird stuff. Last week I saved a squirrel?? Befriending crows is starting this week lol. Never dull.

I plan on painting my entire house in fantasy based murals and hiding meme paintings behind appliances..Spock is behind my stove.

One funny thing i do that my coworkers thinks is hilarious is I have an entire measurement system for measuring animals using only potatoes as a counting system. Yknow how you count horses with hands?I count animals using potatoes and i am right every time the key is when to switch your counter between Russetts and Yukon golds. It's a good day when a growing animal graduates from being counted from russetts to Yukon golds.

I'm 5'0  and don't mind because I grew up LOTR with Gimli!! He's short and I'm short too!! I am told I have mood ring eyes that change shades of blue with my emotions and I'm red green color blind so that's fun.

Voted most likely to have a mug of coffee or tea in hand at work while I give one of my coworkers a gentle peptalk which turns into me pulling out the Gimli scale and asking them where they are on there today.

Yes, this is great @mossthebogwitch ! More detail always helps on my end 🥰 also you sound like such a fun person I wanna be friends 😆😆😆 the potato counting & secret memes are legendary OMG! I definitely saw you with a dwarf right away, but after some thought, I decided on...

Bofur!

You meet under curious circumstances, you having settled at the foot of the great mountain after the war. Thinking you are alone, you had made your way to the woods, idly walking until a chattering squirrel spiraling up a tree distracts you. Given your love of animals, you strike up a conversation, getting quite lost in it all when a jovial voice rings out behind you, asking if you’re getting along, then. Turning, you see a dwarf with a large floppy hat and twin braids standing a ways behind you, apologizing for startling you- you must've jumped more than you realized. In the end, he introduces himself as Bofur and offers you a piece of one of his brother's biscuits from his pockets to give to the squirrel. Finding out that he works as a toymaker, you promise to visit his shop, and when you take in all the wonders he creates with his cousin, well, you can hardly stay away! Bofur ends up enlisting you to paint murals upon the walls of his and Bifur’s shop, which the young ones of Erebor and New Dale alike delight greatly in. Bifur is very impressed by your art and building skills, elbowing Bofur at every chance he gets and waggling his eyebrows over the amazing lass that’s seemingly just fallen into his life.

The first time Bofur actually initiates some time alone with you, he asks you to join him for a night in town, and that’s when he learns you work with livestock. You best believe he laughs his mustache off at your counting technique and also vows to steal it. You can see in his manner, though, and what you know of him that he would be great with the animals too. He can see that you prefer him not to ask so many personal questions and to lead the conversation which he is more than happy to do! He tells you all about his family, the quest he went on, his funny nice hobbit friend Bilbo, where to get the best ale in town if you’re into that sort of thing, a cool rock his brother found in the mines the other day, you name it! Everything is lighter when you two are together. Ever the gentleman, he waits to share your first kiss until he is completely sure you’re ready.

Bofur loves your height; you are a few inches taller than him, not much but just so that he can rest his forehead against yours and put his head on your shoulder. Either one of you can cuddle against the other’s chest as desired. Knowing how much of your time goes to helping others, though, brings the dwarf to lean heavily towards caring for you whether that means he is the one holding you or singing for you or simply by giving you lots of time to get comfortable and express your needs, even if it’s hard. Even in your most tender moments, though, both of you are cracking jokes. Always laughter between you two! Anything big gets called a Yukon Gold with you two because he just loves that saying so much.

If you are comfortable with it, Bofur loves to take you dancing just to show you off! He also adores the way you’ll stand up for him if anyone is mean or pushy- your loyalty is astounding and you truly have a dwarf-like spirit. He gets heart eyes when you become a de facto bouncer and actually throw a drunk or two out of the place. He also takes you camping, pitching a tent and bringing your supplies so you can stay wrapped outside with your animal friends and some weenies to roast beneath the stars.

Teases you to high heaven about being colorblind, though. Overdramatically reminds you what color you’re painting that toy, asks you if you’re sure that’s the right color for the leaves on your mural. Feel free to smack him lightly, he knows he deserves it and he’ll just laugh! If anxiety or OCD symptoms lead to you having a routine or a placement of things that being comfort (if so, big mood friend!), Bofur is definitely the best at remembering to have them out there and follow that for you, no questions asked. You’ll feel so cared for, that his house is a home. You are his warm hearth, his neverending laughter, the only person who could convince him to take home a wounded opossum and call it Bofur jr. but this is his life now and you know what? Bifur was right- he’d run into quite a catch in those woods, a lass far more beautiful than any old fern or flower.

Taglist: @lokilover476 @fuckyoumakeart @kilibaggins @pirate-lord-of-narnia @ibabblealot @joonies-word @stormchaser819 | Reply/Ask/Message to join!

[archaiclumina]

『 ↳✧･ﾟMaster Post;

This entire blog runs on a queue, so there is no queue tag! This blog is just aesthetic posts and FFXIV related content. I like to keep my queue very full for inspiration for my writing, (or procrastination from it maybe, haha) I also schedule posts of other peoples content into my queue completely arbitrarily! I enjoy reblogging the content of others with supportive tags, even if I don't know them from a bar of soap! Sharing creations is scary and hard sometimes, and I think everyone deserves a hype man personally! Most of my time on tumblr is spent browsing various tags for content to reblog. Once a week I go through a random selection of my mutuals' blogs and try check for content I missed to interact with in some way; like send an ask, signal boost something, or leave a friendly comment. And of course I reblog screens and writing too, in those cases I literally just throw in a random date and time! That's my whole system for keeping things active here even when I am busy with work/real life!

Obvs what that means is that this blog runs all the time even when I am not at the dash. If you send me a message, and I don't respond, please don't worry! I'll always try to get back to you within a couple of days! ♡ I've made this master post to help people find some relevant stuff amongst all the trees! (literally I guess because I reblog a lot of trees c': ) ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃ 🗝Character Info 🗝Carrd 🗝 Tags 🗝 About ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ˚✩ ⋆｡˚ ✩ ┊ ┊ ┊ ✫ ┊ ┊ ︎✧ ┊ ┊ ✯ ┊ . ˚ ˚✩

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Character Info

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Ren A Sharlayan trained arcanist and Studium graduate with a deep love for Hydaelyn's history and languages and a very tepid interest in the politics and bureaucracy of her homeland. Currently living as an expatriate in Eorzea, working as an archivist sorting out her uncle's private library located in Ul'dah. Ren enjoys a strong cup of dirty chai, long walks at midnight, stimulating intellectual conversations, papercrafts, weaving, old jewelry, and finger sandwiches. She dislikes her mother, politics and people who bend the spine of books.

Oli A rather introverted, albeit well-traveled, herbalist and alchemist. A half-Hyur, originally from the South Shroud. Excellent with plants, with a sharp right hook when startled. Currently makes her living taking on odd alchemy jobs and running errands for her rich Sharlayan friends. Oli enjoys aromatic tea with a slice of Hannish lemon, sun showers, making perfume, talking to plants and baking pies with berries. She dislikes people who walk very slowly, jokes about her ears and impractical hats.

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Carrd

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Tags

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#totw — thematic aesthetics for Ren and Oli #cargo — aesthetic inspiration for current writing I'm working on involving additional characters/RPs I'm involved in with others #asks and answers — OC asks and my answers, also some of the WoL/OC QotD posts by others that I've answered #tag game — piccrew memes, uquiz and other such tag related shenanigans

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About

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This blog is purely aesthetics for my original writing set in the XIV universe and occasionally some RP related stuff. It also reblogs content created by others in the community.

I go by Elu most of the time in online spaces. I am in my late-thirties, happily married to this ⋆˙⟡♡ rad dude ♡⟡⋆˙ and the proud co-owner of a menagerie of cats. This blog collects inspo material for my original writing about my OCs on the Crystal DC, plus where I post screenshots I take of them, and very occasionally I might post some original writing too (but not very often tbh c': )

I try to stay pretty relaxed in online spaces, but due to past experiences on the web, I like to maintain my privacy. I am WCIF friendly for pretty much all of my mods I use except for the ones I cobble together myself (e.g. Oli's tattoos which are obviously not available because they're my frankenstein creation and I am not a modder c': )

I am open to some forms of RP and more information about the kind of RP i participate in is available in the info section of my carrd linked above.

However, two things worth mentioning: 1. I don't do any RP here on my tumblr. 2. I only RP in-game at events and venues for the purpose of connecting and meeting new people (especially those who might like to RP with me outside of the game.) I don't participate in in-game RP regularly because I'm unable to commit to long term in-game plots of any kind due to my timezone. As I'm located outside of North America, I am only available to RP on my days off work (Mon/Tue) in-game.

My focus is long form RP and in depth plots centered around adventure, intrigue, combat and morally grey situations and outcomes, plus they include a healthy dose of lorebending! So, it is not often appropriate for a teen or general rated setting such as within the game itself, and due to the long form stye and a focus on continuity, it is rarely accommodating to walk up styles of RP outside of the sort of pre-established scenarios that events and venues provide.

The majority of my RP is conducted via gdocs both for the convenience it provides me in my weird timezone, and as I am rarely interested in pro-longed casual and slice of life style RP. While I am not averse to discord RP via group chat or DM, I do use my discord for work and so it's problematic for me... I got a new job where I don't have to use my Discord anymore and so am open to engaging in Discord RP via chat. I would prefer server-based RP for group related plots, but I am not currently aware of any discord servers dedicated to long form styles of RP. If you have a RP focused discord server where people actually do the roleplaying part and not just a hub for sharing advertisements for events and carrds, please feel free to drop me a link to it! I am always happy to use discord for the purposes of plotting and general conversation! I don't hand my handle out publicly, but if you would like to connect via Discord, please just shoot me a message or ask!

I ship my OCs with my husband's OCs so they're unavailable for romance-style RP.

I prefer not to interact with minors.

I do tend to curate my online spaces very closely. If things someone posts cause me anxiety I am likely to block that person. It's not meant to be an offense, but I value my mental health and time away from work-related stress. Tumblr, writing and casual RP are relaxing hobbies for me and I don't want them to turn stressful. So, if you have been blocked by me, for whatever reason, please don't try and circumvent it.

My tumblr also does this weird thing lately where it puts the "follow" button back on blogs I am already following and when I click it I actually unfollow that blog. It is really frustrating and I do try to remember to double check, but sometimes I press the button like a monkey so if we were moots and you can still see this post, it means you're not blocked and that probably is what happened, please just shoot me a message/ask and I will rectify that! (many apologies in advance if it's happened too!)

I really don't enjoy interacting with 'diskhorse' of any sort here, be it fandom, political, cultural, or any sort of subject that is causing heated debate amongst people. There may be times I make an exception to this and something related to human rights may be posted to this blog, but it will be very rare. Please don't assume my lack of engagement with these subjects means I am uninformed about them, or my lack of comment about X means I support Y. It simply causes me a lot of anxiety to engage with those discussions in an online setting and if I have made an exception it is because I have decided the issue being discussed is an issue I can contribute something of value to besides my personal opinion and deserves reach beyond my personal circles.

Lastly, if you're a bigot of any sort, we just can't be friends. I don't want to list the whole sordid table of bigotry here, but regardless of my dislike for online political discussions I very firmly believe in personal freedoms, personal autonomy and personal respect. I don't want to associate with people whose values are focused on impeding other peoples rights to those three things. I think that's just about everything that needs to be here for now!

[mrs-gauche]

There’s something about the ocean...

(In which I finally go completely haywire, because the wait for this next game is slowly but surely rotting my brain...)

So, here's something that has been on my mind ever since I first read all of Tevinter Nights.

Tell me if I'm wrong, but surely I wasn't the only one who thought, after finishing the whole book and looking at it in its entirety, that there seemed to be a notable recurring theme related to... the ocean?

A quick summary: We've got...

- the Qunari occupying the shores along the Arlathan Forest, to get resources for building more ships/dreadnoughts for their invasion

- some truly horrifying creatures lurking underground/beneath mountains that are not darkspawn but something much worse, probably the result of some evil ancient lyrium experiments from Ghilan'nain, made with "a gray fluid that smells like the ocean", despite the fact that they weren't anywhere near the sea

- an entire chapter about another octopus-esque monster with tentacles that lives in the sewers of Minrathous and kills countless people

- a confrontation on board a Qunari ship, the new Darvaarad, right before Rivaini harbors, that almost lead to war between Tevinter and Rivain

- in general, most of the chapters including scenes set around docks, harbors, beaches, coasts, rivers and lakes at some point

- an appearance of one of the Executors, a mysterious group of people who are coming from across the sea, and that Solas labels as "dangerous"

There's also this super gorgeous illustrated map of Thedas that came with every copy of the book and features quite a lot of intriguing looking sea creatures. 👀

Now, when I first thought about why that would be, I concluded that, well, of course the ocean is going to be more "prominent", considering how DA4 will be set in northern Thedas, primarily centering around Tevinter, Antiva, Rivain, Seheron or maybe even Par Vollen, ALL of which located directly at sea or very near the coastline. So naturally it makes sense for a book setting up the course for the next game, to focus more on that part of the world.

So when I first saw the DA4 Behind the scenes video at Gamescom then, a lot of the concept art seemed to confirm my assumption, presenting the possibility of a much more "oceanic" setting.

All this being said though, upon second thought... If we turn to the deep sea lore with all of this in mind, I think.. there might be more to the ocean and its relevants for DA4 than just the setting. 👀

Let us start by thinking about how the elements/nature factor into the lore in general. The first that comes to my mind is the oldest and perhaps most significant conflict in the history of Thedas that we know of (to date). The ancient elves, their magical floating cities, "gods" flying around in the form of dragons and a civilization build and dependent on the magic of the Fade, also called "the Sky", going at war with the Children of the Stone or rather "the Pillars of the Earth" itself, the Titans.

So, if we have the "Sky" essentially fighting the "Earth"...

Then... what about the Ocean?

Where does the ocean factor into all of this/what role does it play in the great scheme of it all and how is it relevant to the story of DA4, aside from its setting?

I might have an idea, but you may want to get that tinfoil hat first (and maybe some tea and a bit of time) before reading any further. 😁 It's just thoughts cobbled together in the hope of making any lick of sense (it won’t). lol

(Also, please picture me exactly like this meme while reading any of this.)

So... Let's talk about the Void for a second, shall we?

It's funny how it took me like a year to realize that the Fade and the Void were apparently two seperate things, because when I first started playing Dragon Age in German, in which the Fade has always been called "das Nichts" literally "the nothing", whereas the Void was translated with "die Leere", which is practically interchangeable in meaning, so until I looked deeper into the lore, I always assumed that they were pretty much the same thing. lol

(Ironically though, that's also what many people in Thedas seem to think as well?)

But, what really is the Void?

As it is with most things in DA, it really depends on what religious belief we're looking at.

The one thing that most cultures seem to have in common though, is that the Void is also called "the abyss" in myths and historical texts.

Its location is undefined, but it's believed to be probably somewhere within the Fade, rather than being a seperate place entirely.

Some also call it the "raw Fade" where there's nothing, simply "empty places between dreams".

Looking at the Chantry's definition, to make a long story short, the Void is basically the Thedosian equivalent to the real world's Christian belief of Hell. After death, you either take your place at the Maker's side or - if you're a sinner - your soul will be lost in the endless abyss and wandering the Void forever.

But then there's also this part of the Canticle of Andraste:

Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls.

From these emerald waters doth life begin anew.

Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you.

In my arms lies eternity.

Hmmmm. A well of all souls, where life begins anew.... Sounds a little familiar, doesn't it?

Take it from the man of the hour himself. After Wisdom's death, Solas will return to Skyhold and, if you like, explain to the Inquisitor what happens when a spirit dies. He also says this:

"I visited the place in the Fade where my friend used to be. It's empty. But there are stirrings of energy in the Void. Someday something new may grow there."

So according to Mr Take-it-as-fact-cuz-I've-literally-been-there, the Void is the place where spirits are born/die. So it's interesting that it does seem to somewhat align with the Canticle's depiction of a "Well of all souls, where life begins anew".

(Getting a bit of "Hades' river of souls" vibes here. Anyone?)

(Stay tuned for more Greek mythology comparisons, by the way. lol)

Anyway. Going quickly back to the Canticle however, it also mentions "emerald waters":

"This fragment is where Andraste goes to speak to the Maker for the first time and convinces him to forgive mankind. It describes “a beautiful temple deep under the earth surrounded by emerald waters".

One interpretation of this verse directly equates "the emerald waters of the abyss" to "the waters of the Fade".

So we have the "Well of all souls, where life begins anew", the Void as the place where spirits are born, and a beautiful temple surrounded by "emerald waters of the abyss" deep under the earth.

The capital of Elvhenan, Arlathan, is said to have sunken "deep onto the ocean floor" when the empire fell. Could this be in any way connected to the temple Andraste saw deep under the earth surrounded by water? This would fit well with the theory of Andraste being Mythal's previous host, assuming that she were shown visions or dreams or whatever in the Fade by Mythal.

See, the thing is, I'd count myself to one of the people who are pretty much convinced at this point that Arlathan was/is the Golden/Black City in the center of the Fade (not going into details here, because this is way too long already..), and according to the lore, it was Tevinter who sank Arlathan into the ocean long after the Veil was created, so unless Tevinter fabricated that part of their victory as well and it wasn’t actually them who sank it (just like it wasn’t actually Tevinter that caused Elvhenan’s downfall)... how would this make sense then? I mean, there cannot be two Arlathans, one in the center of the Fade, and another Arlathan essentially at the center of the world, which is what I'm going to say "on the ocean floor" means.

Which is where we finally go back to Ancient Greek Mythology! 😂

So.. I am by no means an expert on Greek mythology, but even I know that there's only one city in history that became pretty much so popular for having "sunken into the ocean" that it's still talked about over 2000 years later as one of the oldest and greatest mysteries of the world.

So I think it's pretty safe to say that the devs must've taken at least some inspiration from the story of the Lost City of Atlantis. (Like, it even sounds similar? Atlantis/Arlathan? No?)

Let's see...

Atlantis, a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works, representing the antagonist naval power that besieges Ancient Athens = Arlathan, the capital city of the empire of Elvhenan, representing the epitome of power and pride of the Evanuris, the evil false gods, who enslaved the Ancient elves, and "Pride" essentially being the cause for Elvhenan's downfall

Hmmmmm.

"It was the hubris of men that brought the darkspawn into our world." - literally the first line in Origins, and a theme that's conveyed throughout the entire series. I could talk about why I believe that the Evanuris are to blame for the Blight, but that's a rambling post for another day (and oh boy, will it be a long one lol).

Let me take this even further, because that tinfoil is eating up my brain.

Cerberus, hellhound of Hades = Fen'Harel, the Dread Wolf, demonic god of Nightmares

Hell/Underworld = Void/Abyss

Cerberus guards the gates of the Underworld = Fen'Harel guards the gates of the Black City/prison of the Evanuris

Plato's story concludes with Atlantis, a powerful and advanced kingdom, falling out of favor with the deities and submerging, within in a night and a day, into the Atlantic Ocean = Arlathan is said to have sunken onto the ocean floor (after Solas created the Veil to lock the gods away?)

Okay. Taking (*gestures wildly*) whatever all this is.. and moving on... you may remember a certain little codex entry that can be found at the Temple of Mythal.

The codex speaks of a story about Ghilan'nain who was offered apotheosis if she would destroy all her creations, elevating her to become part of the elvhen pantheon and claim godhood. It is said that she then destroyed all the creatures of land and air (except for some birds and halla 'cause they're way too pretty), but when she was about to do the same to the creatures of the deep sea, "Pride stopped her hand".

Alright. So why would Mr Capital P Pride prevent Ghili from destroying her sea creatures, if it doesn't turn out that Solas somehow just really loves big fishies. Knowing our man, he does nothing without a reason or a plan behind it.

(And going by any of the descriptions used in the "Horror of Hormak" chapter in Tevinter Nights, I can only imagine what kind of terrifying, monstrous creatures of Ghilan’nain must lurk at the bottom of the sea...)

I hope that tinfoil hat still sits on tight, because this is where I completely go off the rails.

Ok so, even though I'm fully convinced that Arlathan has to be the Black City...

Let us just for one second here assume that Arlathan really did sink onto the ocean floor and the Black City in the center of the Fade is.. idk, maybe just another part of Arlathan that split when the Veil was created? So if the rest of Arlathan really did end up on the ocean floor, why would Solas need big dangerous ancient sea creatures to still exist?

Well, the Black City in the center of the Fade can't be reached, right? And that's intentional, because no one should be able to open its gates and free the Evanuris from their eternal prison (and maybe unleash something even worse), right? We know what happened when the Magisters Sidereal did just that.

But... what if it's the same thing with the "other" Arlathan in the real world? What if that place is also not supposed to be reached? And how would you achieve that in the real world? I mean, I feel like dumping it onto the ocean floor would probably already do the job, but to really ensure that no one would ever dare to go there, Solas - in true Solas fashion - planned way ahead and made sure that big scary ancient monster Kraken Cthulhus would prevent anyone from ever reaching that place.

Solas told us that sleeping in ancient ruins will allow you to enter/explore such long forgotten places/memories in the Fade. So.. what if entering the ruins of "Arlathan" in the real world would be the key to enter the Black City in the Fade?

Do I sound insane? Does any of this make sense? I don't know anymore. My head hurts.

But why else would Solas do something like this?

Ok, pushing the Atlantis/Arlathan insanity aside for now, let's take a closer look at something that's less headache-inducing. lol Notice how one of the murals seen in Trespasser shows those wavey, "water-like" patterns that look different from how the “waters of the Fade” are depicted in every other mural, so could there be a hint at some kind of connection to the ocean?

Going back to the beginning though, when we talked about the Void/Abyss. Because hell, we haven't even talked about how the elves themselves define it (unless you count Solas as one of them, which he doesn't even do himself, so whatever 😂).

So the Dalish speak of the abyss as the home of the Forgotten Ones.

(And while I'm writing this, my mind just went completely bonkers and.... what if.. the Forgotten Ones.. are locked in that other part of Arlathan that's on the ocean floor?? Dalish legend says that the creators where locked in the "heavens"/the Sky/Black City in the Fade, while the Forgotten Ones were locked in the "abyss"/underneath the Earth/the other part of Arlathan on the ocean floor?? And maybe THAT'S why no one shall reach it/the thing with the sea creatures??? Guys, my head is about to explode. This doesn't make any sense, right? It's stupid, right? Right??)

Anyway. Back to the Void and Dalish legends. *trying to calm down*

"When Andruil began stalking the Forgotten Ones in the Void, she suffered longer and longer periods of madness after returning. She put on armor made of the Void, and all forgot her true face. She made weapons of darkness, and plague ate her lands. She howled things meant to be forgotten, until Mythal turned into a great serpent and sapped Andruil's strength with her magic, stealing her knowledge of how to find the Void. Andruil could not get back to the abyss ever since, and peace returned."

I mean, upon first impression, that does sound pretty damn similiar to what we know of corruption by the Blight/red lyrium/etc... But that honestly kinda irks me, because it's actually conflicting with my own theory on how/when/where the Blight originated 😂, which I believe was the Golden City, Arlathan, itself and that it was the origin of the Blight that lead to it turning black.

Hmm.

We already established that the Void is the place where spirits are born, emptiness between dreams, a "well of all souls". During the Witch Hunt DLC, Eleni Zinovia speaks of a breached prison and the shadow that will consume all. (Sandal's prophecy says "the shadows will part" when "he rises".) She then mentions "a hunger, a cage, a yawning void". There are also the "Empty Ones", a Nevarran cult predating the Chantry, who preached that the Blight came from the Void, a place of nothing.

So how about this idea then: What if the Blight came indeed from the Black City, BUT Arlathan was somehow contained within the Void, which prevented the Blight from spreading any further (until the Magisters breached in) and is also preventing anyone from reaching it now??

(I officially have no clue what I'm talking about anymore. And what does any of that have to do with the Ocean, you ask? Hell if I know. 😂)

So ANYWAY.

At last, let's paddle back and talk about DWARVES.

As you return to the Deep Roads section in Trespasser, the one that was mined for lyrium by Mythal, you'll see that it's almost completely flooted and submerged by water at that point. Trespasser also told us that the ancient elves tried anything to seal and destroy parts of the Deep Roads, after the Evanuris had uncovered something in their lust for power/mining the Titan’s blood/lyrium, that could have destroyed the entire world. And looking at these massive amounts of lyrium “coffins” that we saw in the Deep Roads in Trespasser, you have to wonder what would happen to such a place or any sea creatures living down there when it’s completely submerged by the ocean.

Additionally, the three lower levels in the Descent DLC - Forgotten Caverns, Bastion of the Pure and the Wellspring - are grouped at the expedition table as locations within "the Uncharted Abyss". 👀

In Origins, the Anvil of the Void turned living dwarves into golems of stone with the use of lyrium.

Medusa Solas has the ability to turn people into stone (and apparently even golems, who just.. die, I guess, according to Tevinter Nights). So could this ability be in any way connected to the Void then? Taking my unhinged idea from before, about the Black City maybe being contained within the Void, Solas would've been the one who did this.

We also have Meredith technically turning into "stone" of red lyrium when she died and a certain someone's idol taken out of her chest...

Gosh, why does everything ALWAYS end up getting back to this damn thing?? It's like the biggest enigma to me in all of this and it's obviously going to play a big part in the next game with how much attention it's getting.

And speaking of the idol getting attention, in the tale of the infamous "Hunt of the Fell Wolf" codex in Jaws of Hakkon, which is likely to contain a number of super ominous hints, Ameridan lands in a "watery grave" at one point. This could mean absolutely nothing, but given all the potential implications this tale could have for the Inquisitor in DA4... Let's just say, I'm scared.

(And looking at this concept art again with all of this in mind, if the thing we see here really is Ghilan'nain and take all the stuff in Tevinter Nights into account with the "ocean-smelling gray fluid" and the horrifying creatures underground that are, I quote, "Waiting for her", seeing as this "goddess" appears to break out of what looks like huge ocean waves and the last we heard from the Evanuris being "If we get out of here, I will end Fen'Harel"... I don't know about you guys, but after rereading that Horror of Hormak chapter again, I genuinely think that we'll need Solas to be on our side in the fight against this thing, because I honestly can't see how we're going to counter this, unless we have our own "god" to match this "goddess". 😂)

Additionally, besides the before mentioned Executors in Tevinter Nights, the World of Thedas book describes entire nations living across the sea and beyond the borders of the map that have never even made contact with anyone in Thedas. There are also legends of the Amaranthine Ocean, in which people had mysteriously vanished or gone mad after travelling there. Not to mention the age-old question of where the humans of Thedas or the Kossith even came from in the first place. 👀

I think, if there's anything we can actually take from all of this, it's that the ocean was and still is a widely unexplored, unknown territory to the people of modern Thedas, as it was to the ancient elves and the dwarves all these ages ago. The dwarves never left their Titans and the ancient elves travelled by using eluvians, so there would've been no need to venture to the sea.

In modern Thedas however, the sea is now being explored not only for trade and travelling by common folk, merchants and pioneers, but also the Qunari with their dreadnoughts, slave traders, pirates like the Felicisima Armada operating from Llomerryn in Rivain, which happens to be known for being a haven for raiders, brigands and various criminals, due to its location as a port city and political neutrality, and also the base to the a certain renowned guild of treasure hunters introduced in Tevinter Nights.

(Hands up if your money is on Lord of Fortune for next protagonist 🖐)

Look who’s stepping out of the ocean here like it’s their own friggin domain, with all that sweet shiny loot and this gigantic burning dreadnought in the back, hell yeah.

But maybe that's exactly what will be one of our next protagonist's biggest advantages. For all his god like powers and knowledge, the ocean might be one of the few things that Solas doesn't know shit about. lol

To quote himself, "The dreams were never worth the effort".

Which raises the question.

...Can wolves swim?

[thedawningofthehour]

Okay. I am all fed, Angel is placated for the time being, and I have my noise-cancelling headphones on to drown out the sound of the 24/7 news cycle my mother keeps on constantly. I'm sitting down to write out Tigerclaw's Tragic Backstory. Not all of it, because there is stuff I'm going to have him reveal in the story and stuff I want him to be mysterious about, but whatever we'll get to that. Uh, all the warnings.

(bean wait to read this until you're clocked in)

Ah shit, where do I even start? So our Tigerclaw was born somewhere between 1810 to 1830 in a rural mountain community in China. I know 2012 Tiger Claw was Japanese, but I do believe I explained why I decided to change that when he was introduced. (in short-tigers aren't native to Japan, and while it made sense in the lore of the show it bothered me immensely as a stylistic choice) I've researched and cobbled together information kind of sporadically over the chapters and I keep terrible notes, but I think this is generally where I've been assuming he grew up:

I know this area is technically in Sichuan when Tigerclaw said he's from Chongqing and I'd like to clarify-the last Yokai holdout in China was in Chongqing. He went there before the last of them emigrated to the Hidden City. And I may be misunderstanding this-forgive me this is an area of history and geography I didn't know much about going in and I'm still learning-but it looks like Chongqing and Sichuan were combined at the time? Chongqing wasn't its own province until 1997. Also they were still under the Qing dynasty and China didn't really exist as we know it today. I'm not sure what labels Tigerclaw would have used at the time, and I'm also keeping in mind that he was young and from a community that had a pretty small worldview. They fished and farmed, considering the region they probably primarily raised livestock. So Cass's assumption that they were uneducated in not far off. (if someone knows more about this specific region feel free to chime in, but that's what I've gathered so far) He probably didn't grow up hearing the names of his province or kingdom, just 'our village' and 'name of river we fish from' and 'name of town we go with Dad to trade stuff in.'

I don't have anything concrete for his backstory preceding his kidnapping. Kind of just an average upbringing for someone in that region. His community wasn't thriving or rich, but they got along decent enough. He probably lived in a multi-generational home, with his father's parents and potentially great-grandparents and aunts and uncles. He has at least one sister, who I described as being younger than him, (though I've been thinking about flipping that because I kind of like the idea of Alopex being a protective older sister) but considering the time period and culture they likely had many siblings and cousins. I generally consider them to have been older siblings, if not the eldest. Their abduction wasn't the big event that Donnie's was. Tigerclaw and Alopex went exploring outside town one day, as they probably did a lot, and their family just never found any trace of them again.

So Songpo. Again, I had absolutely no intention of Taishi Songpo ever being like...fleshed out. He was literally just a name thrown in to make the world seem a little deeper. His name is even a fucking joke-Taishi was a civilian title during the Zhou dynasty, and the title for a Mongolian lord at the lowest rung of the latter. So...a baron. I don't even fucking remember what Songpo was supposed to mean, when I look it up now all I get is adverts for brands titled SongPo.

But anyway. This bitch. Was also an alchemist with delusions of grandeur, but unlike Draxum he actually wanted to use his creations to rule. I have no idea what his end goal was-rule over the Yokai population in that specific region? Take over the humans as well and crown himself emperor of China? He probably didn't quite think 'world domination'-but it was a much bigger world back then.

A meme to break things up.

So this guy kidnapped like. A lot of kids. Mostly from various rural communities around the countryside. His methodology was a bit different from Draxum's-he'd keep and work with the kids for a few years before mutating them, partly because the mutation process is extremely dangerous to young (especially pre-pubescent) people as it's hard to predict how the whole 'growing' thing is going to go, but also to learn their talents and tailor each mutation to take advantage their natural strengths. Tigerclaw wasn't a tiger by chance-Songpo specifically chose to make him one because he thought that would best suit his skillset.

But apart from the whole 'raise children to be my loyal warriors' thing, Songpo was very far from Draxum. He was extremely cruel, and used a combination of physical abuse and non-hypnotic brainwashing to bind his servants to him. By the time one of his kids was mutated, they were terrified and in awe of him.

Tigerclaw was his favorite, but that was more of a curse than a gift. He was subject to stricter training and punished far more harshly than the others, and Songpo kept him close. He was constantly tested and interrogated for signs of weakness or disloyalty, and beaten when he fell short. After a while Songpo's paranoia grew to the point where Tigerclaw was rarely allowed out of his sight, forced to sleep in his master's bed with him, and was barely allowed to talk to anyone besides Songpo-not the other mutants or kids, not even his sister. There was probably a sexual abuse element there, but we won't get into that part. Songpo saw Tigerclaw as the pinnacle of his work and his exclusive possession. And in turn, Songpo was Tigerclaw's entire life.

I got the brainworms for this from the kind of plot hole that is 2012 Tiger Claw trying to resurrect Shredder in season 5. A lot of people have floated that question-because, yeah, it doesn't make sense. Tigerclaw is a mercenary. His loyalty to Shredder is dependent on his paycheck not bouncing. No disgrace in that, that was the agreement between them. He doesn't seem to particularly like his job-he hates Karai and dislikes the other henchmen-aside from Bradford, who he tolerates. He didn't even like the Shredder. He disagreed with him over practically everything and showed that he was willing to go against him, such as when Shredder prioritized killing Splinter over stopping the literal end of the world.

Like bro this was not a good look for you.

And I'm not excusing that plot point here. That was a dumb storyline. This might be a controversial opinion here but I think 2012 had shit writing and was riddled with inconsistencies. I still love it, I love it for its characterizations and its plotlines, but how they executed it all was...not great.

But I kind of dug where my brain went trying to craft a narrative that might explain that. Someone who was trained to follow, to obey, to maybe question orders for the sake of learning and improving but will follow them regardless. Someone who was molded into a slave, had every bit of the human he was ripped out of him, and when his master was dead and he was free he could no longer remember how to be a person, much less his own. He's been conditioned to be obedient, merciless, and to throw himself on a spike to serve his owner. And he is far too proud to admit that.

So he sells himself as a mercenary, unconsciously searching for someone worth his loyalty and obedience. Because that's what's comfortable for him. He doesn't feel truly at peace unless he's serving.

That takes us to Draxum. I won't get into exactly why he chose to join up with Draxum in the first place, but at the beginning he thought Draxum was just another Songpo and figured Galois must be his own Tigerclaw. Maybe lacking a few of the more horrific details, but a master and his masterpiece all the same.

And make no mistake, Tigerclaw is not weeping for his lost childhood. He enjoys his longevity, his abilities, and he's fine having traded his humanity for that. But he's also aware that that's him talking. He recognizes that Songpo was insane, that what he was doing was despicable and that no kid should have to go through what he did. It turned out okay for him. That didn't make it okay.

When he meets Cass and Gale, he expects them to be child soldiers. Broken, obedient things that Draxum plans on enforcing his will with. But that's not what he finds. They're kids. Maybe kids with too much on their shoulders, but kids with a father who tries to keep their loads light. Kids who do dumb shit for the lulz and tease the people they're supposed to be subservient to.

And Draxum himself, while he's weird and dramatic and possessive over his son in his own way, still cares for them in a way Songpo never cared about anyone. He pushes them to eat well and get enough sleep not for any effect it has on the work the do for him, but because he cares that they're healthy. He's mindful of their mental health and constantly builds them up because he honestly thinks the world of them. He encourages independence and personal growth because he wants his kids to develop into well-rounded adults, and it legitimately pains him that he can't allow them their freedom.

In Galois and to an extent Cass, Tigerclaw sees the person he could have been, the person he should have been allowed to be. He sees all the children he watched suffer at the hands of Taishi Songpo, the children he watched die, and thinks of how wrong it all was. And maybe Draxum isn't right, but he's right in all the ways Songpo was wrong. Galois is his father's masterwork, his right hand and most valuable asset-and he is his son before any of that. He is a teenager. A child. And so is Cass.

So yeah. Tigerclaw isn't mourning his own loss. But if anyone tries to hurt those kids, tries to force them to do any of the things he was forced to do, does anything to prevent them from having the happy lives they fully and completely deserve-Tigerclaw will carve out their lungs with his bare hands.

[tanninbalm]

There is something so powerful about using ABO to separate out sex from the rest of your identity. In most ABO, that's the main source of tension - you are You, and biology dictates that you are also Sexual. There's the tension of resistance to that dichotomy, and the release of giving into it - or being forced into it. But when we take it further, it can also be a way to play with gender identity, or even identity that exists outside gender. The "Type" becomes the troubled point of identity; any sense of self beyond that gets to be a nonissue, taken as a given for the purposes of the story. Anxiety doesn't live in the Gender, it lives only in the Sex (represented by the Type). Pepe Silvia Meme, but do you see what I'm saying?

In every day life, Gender and Sex are so tied up together that it's hard to meaningfully separate them (if we even can! (we often can't)). ABO gives us a way to invent a new way to talk about the simple business of being Sexual. Being Horny. Being Fertile. Whatever trappings we want to assign to sex, we put all of that on the Omega and the Alpha (or even the Beta, if we're feeling frisky). We can talk about knotting, and slick and packs, and mpreg, and types and all of these words we've either made-up or cobbled together for the purposes of exploring this trope. And all that time we are very much talking about sex; we've just given ourselves a new way to talk around it, which empowers us to talk about it more.

[cubistemoji]

All of my comic recs from 2022 posted on WWAC and cobbled together in a single post- Jan 11

This was saved to my drafts in January and never posted, but here it is now because I stand by these recs!

Thieves by Lucie Bryon

Thieves is so, so pretty! I’ve been a fan of Lucie’s art for a while, and I was excited to see her use her talents for a full-length graphic novel. The limited color palette, off-white paper, and adorable art style create a dreamy, classy reading experience. It’s also a lovely story about partying, first love, the end of high school, and stealing stuff! Ella has a problem: it’s the day after a party at her crush’s house and her apartment is full of things that do not belong to her. Fortunately, Madeleine not only likes her back, she’s willing to help Ella secretly return all the stolen stuff to its rightful owners... and more. Ella, Madeleine and their friends all feel like such real, believable characters. I love how cheerful and extroverted Ella is and how well that contrasts with Madeleine’s more reserved nature. Thieves is funny, beautiful, and full of heart!

Love and Leashes by Winter

Love and Leashes is the only Webtoon I’ve read this year that made me laugh out loud at every single episode. Ji-u Jeong and Jihu Jeong, coworkers with similar names, enter an unusual arrangement in which Jihu, a submissive who’s been hiding his kinks from everyone around him his whole life, asks Ji-u to be his master. Ji-u, who’s cool and competent on the outside and shy on the inside, considers running away immediately, but instead decides to try this thing out for a bit and see if she likes it. Spoiler: she does! Despite the subject matter, the actual content of this Webtoon is fairly safe for work.

What really makes Love and Leashes stand out is the eccentric cast of characters surrounding the main couple, as well as the couple themselves. They care a lot about each other and prioritize clear communication, trying to figure out how to best make each other happy while not causing problems at work or with their friends and family. And boy, are their friends and family... a lot. Jihu has a group chat of fellow BDSM enthusiasts he met on a forum, Ji-u has a younger brother and work friends, Jihu’s high school friend owns a bar, and they all have so much going on. And whenever all of these people intersect, it is so, so funny. I don’t know how accurate the BDSM stuff is as depicted here, but the characters focus on consent, communication, and mutual enjoyment, and figuring out how to live in a way that makes them happiest.

I spent money on this comic! I can’t think of anything else I straight-up enjoyed, just had fun reading, as much as Love and Leashes this year. I’m going to tell my kids this was 50 Shades of Grey or however that meme goes.

Clown Corps by Joe Chouinard

If you’ve seen that Frasier meets Columbo comic going around on Twitter, you may not be surprised to learn the guy who drew it also does an ongoing webcomic about organized battle clowns. Clown Corps follows the adventures of reformed burglar turned reluctant clown college student Mary McBell and her clowning cohort as they work to stop a shadowy organization bent on destroying the entire Clown system. It’s hysterical, with great stylized action sequences, physical comedy and fourth-wall-bending humor, but also moments of surprising gravity as the characters grapple with the troubled pasts that brought them to clowning in the first place. The art improves quickly for a webcomic, and the characters are both silly and serious (one of the best fighters in the class can only kick ass when he’s asleep!) I caught up in a day and wished I could keep reading.

Pyramid Game by Dalgonyak

I am so obsessed with the Webtoon Pyramid Game right now it is unreal. I made a Youtube video about it. I drew fanart for it. It’s SO GOOD and NO ONE UNDERSTANDS.

Pyramid Game, by Dalgonyak, is a comic about gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girlbossing all at once. Suji is the new kid at an elite private school and it turns out her new class has a complicated hierarchical system of bullying, created by the richest and most powerful teenage girl in Korea specifically to get back at the nicest girl in the world who slighted her in some way the readers haven’t learned yet. It’s SO MUCH. It’s got some very messy homoerotic subtext (and text!) It’s got the most toxic friendships I’ve ever seen in a Webtoon. It’s got really appealing character designs and a fun and interesting protagonist who takes no bullshit from anyone ever and is going to beat the billionaire at her own game. Eventually. I believe in her!

I like Pyramid Game because I love this kind of mean girl drama; it’s got all the fun parts of a political intrigue story with none of the confusing world building to go with it. The bullying the girls take part in is creative, high-energy and visceral, but what really makes this comic so hard to put down is how keenly observed every character is, how real and complex and distinct they all feel, even the minor players in this game that act more like pawns for the leads to take turns pushing around. … Maybe I will write a full review about this comic someday.

Suji Seong could beat L in Death Note but Light Yagami could not survive a day in “The Happy Class” of Love High.

What Happens Next by Max Graves

I am at all times thinking about What Happens Next by Max Graves. It’s a pretty dark comic about what happens when some terminally online Tumblr tweens… have to deal with the aftermath of committing a gruesome murder, years after the fact. What I find really fascinating about this comic (besides the fact that I can never remember the title D:) is how accurately it portrays every detail of this hyperspecific internet community I remember so vividly from my own teenage years, and the kinds of people that participated in those spaces. It really captures… something. I don’t know. It does make me want to know What Happens Next.

Black and White: Tough Love at the Office by Sal Jiang

Do you think all yuri manga is too soft and sweet and schoolgirl-ish? You should check out Black and White by Sal Jiang, a workplace lesbian comic that I hesitate to call a romance, given how the two leads resolve their sexual tension by hatefucking in the conference room. Not appropriate for all ages, this yuri. The rivalry between Shirakawa and Kuroda crackles with chemistry, and Jiang draws the two of them fighting and having sex with a specificity that makes the whole thing feel grounded, rather than the ethereal above-it-all purity older yuri comics often have. I also like how they’re both good at their jobs and have good relationships with their coworkers, who see them as reliable and helpful and sweet. The contrast between their public personas and how they beat each other up in private makes Black and White impossible to put down.

Drip Drip by Paru Itagaki

I think Paru Itagaki should be allowed to draw whatever she wants forever. Drip Drip (which I discussed in a past Pubwatch) is incredibly weird, gross, and horny, much like her acclaimed longform series BEASTARS. But it’s also extremely interesting, and definitely a comic I will never forget reading. Drip Drip is about a woman so sensitive to germs that she gets a nosebleed every time she touches anything that isn’t 100% sterilized. She wants to find love and have sex, but every time she tries, her nosebleed scares men off and ruins the mood. When she finally finds a guy she thinks she can be with, it turns out he has dark secrets of his own. The single-volume story follows several of her attempts to rid herself of her curse, with a bonus unrelated one-shot about Santa Claus thrown in at the end.

Itagaki’s imagery and unusual choices of environments and locations make her comics very memorable: I haven’t reread this since October and I can still see the splash pages in my head like I’d read it yesterday. Itagaki and Tatsuki Fujimoto (of Chainsaw Man and Look Back fame) kind of occupy the same space in my head in their commitment to their singular, very specific vision. A kind of boldness I wish I were capable of.

[shuttershocky]

Sometimes I go to gamepress just to use it as a wiki and inadvertently check the dumb shit they write outside of just data aggregation and I'll be real the guy that goes 'should you pull gor Kazemaru? No, just get Eyja instead' is absolutely fucking hilarious. Like. Damn man. How can these people be so bad at missing the point.

I don't even want to know if that was a joke or not. I'm busy cobbling together what my next meme team is going to look like (Beehunter ASPD stacking on a target with Lee's S2 debuff so they suffer a Fist of the North Star style death)

[mirorbdangamachine]

Okay I am on an Orre kick lately and so it is time to tell you about my thoughts on if Orre had a Pokemon League

I don't have the gym leaders figured out yet entirely, but I do have eight locations for gyms in mind and where the Pokemon League itself would be featured. I'll list some names for potential gym leaders of each area too from pre-existing characters only. Should note this is working under the assumption of being set sometime after XD, so unfortunately The Under is inoperable.

Also, there wouldn't really be an order of which gym to challenge. You think the governmental structure of Orre is organized enough to let that happen? They probably can barely cobble together a list of who is a recognized gym leader and who isn't.

So with that, here is the list below the cut:

The Gyms:

Phenac City

Okay so this one is kind of a gimme answer because there is literally already a gym there of sorts. There's really not much to say other than obviously Justy is getting the promotion he deserves of being an actual official gym leader. The type of gym could be a toss-up of Ground, Water or Grass given the multiple environments inside of it. If not Justy, then perhaps bring back Trudly and Folly as double gym leaders like Tate and Liza, or even potentially have a triple battle with Bluno, Verde, and Rosso for a Fire, Water, Grass core.

Gateon Port

It is tradition to always have a port city host a gym in Pokemon, and Orre would be no different. I feel like pulling an Olivine would be fun, except this time have the Lighthouse actually be the gym itself as opposed to just where you find the gym leader. The typing would most likely be Water given the setting, or possibly Steel even given the machine shop. Some potential gym leaders could be Miror B since he performs at the Krabby Club, Perr assuming he's still helping at the machine shop and his position in Kids Grid/ONBS probably got him some cred, or maybe if he turned over a new leaf, even Zook.

Pyrite Town

We are continuing the train of the obvious choices, don't worry, the weirder ones are saved for the last few because unsurprisingly, Crime The Region doesn't have many actual towns. I feel like Pyrite would probably convert the Pyrite Colosseum into its gym, or perhaps they could go salvage a part of The Under and use its remains for it. For gym leaders, the first one that comes to mind would be Cail given that he calls himself the gatekeeper of Pyrite. Other potential candidates would be Duking as the unofficial leader of the town, Silva, who Duking left in charge of Pyrite Colosseum, or even Agnol, the Deep King of the Deep Colosseum who odds are was likely a part of Cipher. Potentially even Reath and Ferma to do the double gym leaders act like Trudly and Folly. The trainers of Pyrite actually are all pretty varied in type, so you could take your pick with any of them here. Potentially Rock or Ground simply to represent the history of the mines.

Agate Village

The last of the actual towns in game, Agate with its cliffside and waterfall and the forest and cave leading to the Relic Stone provides a good handful of locales to host a gym. Maybe there's another giant tree around we didn't notice aside from Eagun's house and something like White Tree from Pokemon White could happen. For types, a lot of the trainers use Pokemon who share a typing of Bug or Poison, and of course the obvious potential Grass motif. As for potential gym leaders, there's the obvious pick of Eagun himself considering he is the only significant NPC who lives there, and if so he's still sporting that Pikachu making him an Electric leader. Other than him, you could potentially have Rui make a return as gym leader. Or I dunno, bring back Skrub the peon. Early internet meme days all over again for the Skrub Lord.

Eclo Canyon

Probably more commonly remembered as the Team Snagem Hideout. Perhaps not the strangest idea really, you could refurbish the blown-to-smithereens base into a nice sized gym, or perhaps some kind of multi-faceted company building or factory. For a gym leader, you have any of Team Snagem members in Gonzap, or the three main grunts in Wakin, Biden, and Agrev. Clearly, all of them end up being capable battlers if you can fight them at such high levels in the post game colosseums. Along with them, you could have Wes himself here as a gym leader, but I feel like if he was involved in the League at all, it would either be as Champion, chairman, or more than likely just not involved with it at all and disappearing into the desert, and serving as a potential superboss in the post game. Aside from him, potentially bring back the imposter Fein, acting like Wes once again only to reveal it wasn't him at all and you just got your hopes up. As for types, uh, I dunno, Steel or Poison I guess, that was Snagem's MO.

Cipher Lab

If it hadn't been taken over by Cipher yet again by now, I feel like this lab would probably be converted into a proper research facility by the governing body of the region, or perhaps become an extension of the Pokemon HQ Lab. As for who the gym leader would be, assuming that all former Cipher members are arrested, the next best choice could be Chobin who might have gotten a better job here instead of working for Kaminko. Aside from him, there is of course Ein or Lovrina, though I think even if all Cipher members weren't rounded up by now, those two would definitely be ones put behind bars for crimes against Pokemon. Though some Cipher members who might work, and bear with me, could be the Hexagon Brothers. These six bumbling fools are definitely not there in scientific capacities, and odds are they most likely are more hazardous to the research being conducted anyways. However, having six different type specialists there would probably serve as great resources for research data on certain Pokemon. They could be a collective gym leader like how Cilan, Cress, and Chili were in Unova, and perhaps depending on the day or other external factors, that determines which one you face for the badge. If not them, more than likely this place would be an Electric gym.

Pokemon HQ Lab

Speaking of labs, the Pokemon HQ Lab I also think could potentially serve as a gym for one specific reason. If there ever was a "first gym" to do in the game, it would most likely be here, specifically because of the Battle Sims system. With that being what is supposed to serve as a tutorial system, I could see it easily being converted into an advanced challenge for beginning trainers, where if you can defeat it and win a badge, then you could probably face any gym. While yes, Realgam Tower is where the advanced Battle Sims happen, I have a different purpose in mind for it that you can probably guess. This way you technically don't have to have anyone be the gym leader at all, the computer itself already is. Though I suppose if you wanted a physical named NPC in charge who could potentially provide a final battle, there's Professor Krane, Lily, Jovi, and of course Michael himself. Unlike Wes, I could actually see Michael being more likely to be involved in the League as an opponent, and if not in the Elite 4/as Champion, then here as a Gym Leader. This gym probably wouldn't have any one type if Michael was the leader except for maybe Normal because of Eevee. If not, then again perhaps Electric, especially if Jovi was the leader with her Plusle and Minun.

Cipher Key Lair

Our last gym is the former Cipher Key Lair, that creepy pyramid now being converted into the world's most off-putting office space. I imagine if Clay ever had a gym in Orre instead of Unova, it would have been this. That aside, I feel like you already have a potentially cool gym challenge based on the exterior. Move those stones around and create a mini labyrinth to get inside, and then begin the ascension to the head office building just like before. Only instead of Gorigan awaiting you at the end, you have someone totally different. Some potential candidates are Zook again here instead of at Gateon Port, or perhaps Eldes since unlike Greevil and his brother Ardos, it felt like he became a better person by the end of XD. Potentially if you wanted to upgrade the ONBS station/former Kids Grid again, move them from Pyrite to being based out of here, and you could have any choice of Nett, Megg, Bitt, Secc, Marcia, or Perr if you move him from Gateon to be the leader. As for type, like Pyrite there really isn't any one choice here, perhaps Normal, Ground, or Fighting.

The Pokemon League:

Realgam Tower

So this was probably obvious, but Realgam Tower is just the perfect location for a big finale. Piercing the skies, a symbol of greed, avarice and the arrogance of humanity, having played a role in a couple crises in Orre already. Now though, it has been purified itself, becoming the home of the Pokemon League. The colosseum in the sky, standing high above the rest of the region, is the perfect place to have the final gauntlet of the gym challenge.

As for who runs this joint, I have a couple ideas, none of them fully concrete. For the Elite 4, I was thinking about a handful of candidates, such as Willie, Cail, Eldes, Miror B, Agnol, Eagun, or any number of Area Leaders from Mt. Battle like Vander or Battlus/Somek. Potentially could have it consist of a mixture of the other past Cipher members as well, like Dakim, Lovrina, Nascour, or maybe even Gonzap.

As for the Champion, I feel like it just would have to be either Wes or Michael. More than likely it would be Michael, simply because I do not see Wes wanting to have all the focus on him, let alone stay in a pretentious place like Realgam Tower all the time. Though considering there was the beta concept of Wes being the second leader of Cipher instead of Greevil, I suppose that is entirely possible. You could still very easily make Wes the leader of Cipher version three, and have him be the champion on top with all the money in the world with the betting battles and the casino below. Either way, it could work.

As for whichever of the two of them isn't Champion, then I feel like they would be the superboss of the game. Perhaps you could travel back to Citadark Isle and find them back at the top of the old Cipher HQ and square off with them. After beating them there, you would unlock them as the final gauntlet of the Orre Colosseum, which still is the criminal underworld final challenge not regulated by the League. Away from the public eye in the middle of nowhere desert, just battling for the sake of battling.

And those are all my ideas right now! I had some other potential location ideas such as the S.S. Libra, or perhaps recreating The Under and using the subway, or the Outskirt Stand. I am still formulating a bit of a story in my head, but if you have any thoughts of your own, I would love to hear them!

[thewildnopeboat]

Since I'm a dumb fuck and don't know how to draw, I legit collage/cobble together what I think shit should look like, then outline that bitch. Like with the Rosa art, which in total, took over a year to finish because I kept trying, but failing due to my lack of skills but love for the craft, (first was simple free hand art, then I said fuck it and did it)

I use this in order to make shitty thumbnails or memes for my discord/dnd sessions.

I am threatening to use this abuse of technology to make even more shitty art.

You will know no peace, only shitty and still drawn art.

[eorziapple]

(@driftward) Dirty Alphabet Meme! Oh, we should go easy on poor Apple, should we not? (I)ntimacy, (N)O [something they would NOT do, turn offs], (T)oy, (E)xperience, and (R)isk.

Well, not that easy, I suppose. Pip gets (P)ace and (I)ntimacy

Okay! For Apple (GA Apple to be speicific, WoL is a work in progress):

Intimacy- "Right, what was this study for again? Well far be it for me to stand in the way of scientific progress. Truth be told I struggle with this in general, and it seems to be a sore spot for the few partners i've had. I find myself rather distracted and out of the moment at times, to the point where I've been unsure if relationships are for me at all. I do know that I crave it at times though, I get lonely just like anyone else."

(N)O- "Oh I find myself perusing erotica with enough curiosity that I feel like I might be willing to try many things, I suppose the issue has always been the willingness to actually... do anything that I struggle with? A little odd that I rather enjoy all the fiction and aesthetics though. I suppose to answer your question, anything that is particularly messy would be out of the question."

(T)oy- "Ohohoho, well, in this regard I believe I have some degree of experience in. It's nice to have something at hand to help get focused, not to mention a very efficient and pleasurable way of getting to sleep faster, which I struggle with from time to time. There's actually quite a lot i've unearthed from the Sons of Saint Coinach's delves, though they tended to miscategorize them as lab equipment. Some of them are -quite- elaborate contraptions, which makes sense, given the society's end being brought about by sheer boredom in part. I've cobbled together a few recreations... and taken a few of the pieces from the Free Company's showroom... I dont think Erick would want some poor client or employee pushing one of -those- red buttons. Oh uhh.. yeah, I have many and use them.

(E)xperience: She sighs "I.... have had two partners, and not for very long. It's been a bit of an issue and usually tied to me having trouble with attraction in the moment. I often feel vulnerable or... perhaps I let my mind wander, which caused some degree of awkwardness. It can be frustrating, as I daydream from time to time, and the mood strikes me often enough that I seek out art and fiction, or the recesses of my imagination. I've mostly accepted that i'm a bit outside the norm, I suppose."

(R)isk: "I'm a little more likely to take risks in my profession that in intimacy. It's easy to dive into something dangerous and exciting when you can predict a positive end state. I have trouble picturing that with sex. I suppose I have gotten a little... well lets just say a knock on the door while i'm using said devices has led to some rather enticing daydreams? I suppose that might count as risk, getting caught?"

For Pip!:

(P)ace: "Ummm well shit, I guess it's not hard to tell I do everything to the max! I mean, what's not to love, you get a good cardio in, feels -amazing- and that post-destroyed-or-destroying bask feels better than winning a good fight. Finding a good sparring partner for horizontal bouts can be rough though, not everyone can handle my special moves!

(I)ntimacy: "Ehhhhhhhhhh it's kinda annoying, not gonna lie? I mean yeah yeah yeah I'm the best and who'd want to leave a dynamo like me but.... girl this talented can't be shackled down, it would be unfair to all the realms to keep me for yourself, so really in the end expecting such is quite cruel to the world, and hasn't the world suffered enough? Just be glad you got to tangle with a hurricane, it's the experience of a lifetime, after all" *she flexes at the interviewer and kisses her biceps*

For @biot08 celebrating my tumblr comeback with a megaprompt