#so feel free to debate any of this

[clausmotherthree]

Team Fortress 2 Mercenary Ages - given all of the canon information we know!

Scout - 27

In the TF2 Comic “The Naked and the Dead,” Spy (Scout’s biological father) states that Scout was conceived 27 years ago, making Scout 27. This is the only 100% confirmed age.

Soldier - mid 40s to early 50s

It’s stated in Soldier’s description that he attempted to join the army during WWII. If we assume Soldier was a young adult when he attempted to enlist, he would now be in his mid 40s to early 50s during the events of TF2.

Pyro - unknown

There is very little information out there on Pyro. It would be impossible for me to accurately identify their age.

Demoman - mid 30s

The only information I have in regards to demoman’s age comes from a line his mother says in the book “Valve Presents Volume 1: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories” in which Demo’s mother remarks: “No demoman worth his Sulfur ever had an eye in his head past thirty!” Which means Demo is most likely somewhere in his 30s.

Heavy - mid 40s to early 50s

In the update comic “Meet the Director,” it is revealed that Heavy was sent to a North Siberian Gulag in September 1941 alongside his mother and sisters. Heavy also canonically has a PhD in Russian literature, as revealed through his dialogue in the game ‘Poker Night at the Inventory.’ It would take around 9 years to obtain that PhD, meaning- depending on if he obtained the degree before or after 1941, he would be either in his mid 40s or early 50s.

Engineer - early to mid 30s

Engineer designed and built the Sentry under contract from TF industries in 1965, with him also spending 10 years in the West Texas oil fields- assuming Engineer was 18 before this date, he would be in his early to mid 30s during the events of TF2.

Medic - late 30s to early 40s

Medic’s description explicitly states that he was “Raised in Stuttgart, Germany during an era when the Hippocratic oath had been downgraded to an optional Hippocratic suggestion,” This implies that Medic was brought up during, or just before, WWII. The word ‘raised’ heavily implies the Medic to still be in adolescence during this era, making him surprisingly younger than expected, with him being around his late 30s to very early 40s during Team Fortress 2.

Sniper - early 30s

In the Team Fortress 2 comic ‘Blood in the Water’, Miss Pauling directly states that New Zealand sunk 40 years ago- in the same comic, Sniper is shown as a baby in a flashback, 10 years after New Zealand sunk. This makes Sniper out to be 30 or 31 in the TF2 present.

Spy - unknown, estimated early-mid 50s

Given Spy’s secretive nature, it’s difficult to deduct how old he is. However, since he has a 27 year old son, it’s likely that he is in his mid 50s. There is a single comic panel (Found in ‘Unhappy Returns’) depicting Spy’s hair to have a grey tint to it, further emphasising this fact.

[definitely-not-iorveth]

does he say it bc he really considers nassau his home or only bc he knows that this is the thing that will have the biggest emotional impact on charles

does he say it bc he really considers nassau his home or only bc he knows that this is the thing that will have the biggest emotional impact on charles

DOES HE SAY IT BC HE REALLY CONSIDERS NASSAU HIS HOME OR ONLY BC HE KNOWS THAT THIS IS THE THING THAT WILL HAVE THE BIGGEST EMOTIONAL IMPACT ON CHARLES!!!!!!

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

i know a big point of contention in this fandom is Ed's Anger. but the thing is that it's rlly hard for this to be an "agree to disagree" issue because the sides are like:

edward teach does have anger issues. in the show he becomes disproportionately and irrationally angry, and he expresses that anger in harmful and unacceptable ways. saying ed doesn't have anger issues is flattening a complex indigenous character for the sake of respectability politics.

edward teach does not have anger issues. every instance of ed's anger in the show is proportionate to the situation he is experiencing and ed is shown to be capable of controlling his anger. the way ed expresses his anger is normal and acceptable within the fictional comedy universe he exists in. saying that ed does have anger issues reflects implicit biases about men of color being inherently and exceptionally angry and violent.

and like, i've rewatched this show a billion fucking times at this point. i've seen these scenes more times than i can count. never, at any point, did i think ed's on-screen expressions of anger were indicative of anger issues. i have always considered ed's anger to be reasonable. even in the brief period of time before i began engaging with this fandom, i did not think ed had anger issues. i was surprised to find out that some people believe he does.

i just. i have a hard time, after watching this show over and over again and finding ed's anger to be a reasonable response to some very difficult situations, seeing people say they think those reasonable responses are indicative of anger issues. i've heard the arguments, and i just don't agree. and the question of why i don't agree really comes down to: am i subconsciously over-correcting for racial stereotypes and flattening the complexity of a character of color, or are other people reading ed's anger as more extreme than it is due to subconscious racial bias?

and that's. really not a question i think any of us are ever going to be able to answer.

EDIT 7/8/23: A QUICK POST ABOUT THIS POST

[blastlight]

every so often i think about how if i ever make a post or something that blows up, i'll immediately be harassed en masse by people claiming i'm a zionist

[the-greek-mythos-project]

The Greek Mythos Project: The Submission Process

Hello everyone, Camila here! Finally have the time to actually flesh out the details of this project so here we are, with the Official Submission Process Post :). Dw, it's absolutely not as formal as the name suggests. This is mostly just a heads up on what will happen once you reach out with your submission (also... art is totally included btw. I need to put this in an official post but now that I've learned how to post art on AO3? Yeah, we're doing this 😂😂).

The Very First Step: How Do You Submit. Submission somewhat varies between whether or not you have an official account on Tumblr/want to stay completely anonymous or if you have a tumblr account you can submit to us through (although you can totally ask to stay anonymous to the general public or even just beyond me, Camila, who is currently and at this point going forward, the only one who maintains this account and therefore will see everything). Here are the two pathways to go through, separated for everyone's convenience :).

If You Don't Have Anything For Us To Communicate Back To Us Through, such as wanting to stay completely anonymous or just not having a Tumblr account, then you can just send us an anonymous ask! Of course, though, when you do this, we would like for you to acknowledge the fact that we will have no further communication with you other than public posts, and so basically when you submit your work, it's a "one and done." Yes, you can absolutely sign off a pseudo-name in your ask as something to keep track of you by and I'll explain that further later in this post, but just acknowledge and know that you're basically "dropping it off" into our hands from then on and we won't be able to offer further resources such as editing, "beta-ing", or even just asking for further clarifications of stuff :(. But! I promise to you that it's not that intimidating. Submitting things anonymously into this project will allow you to test the waters of your particular fixation and build confidence without having any strings attached and, honestly, we'll take good care of your works :). I personally am a writer of over 7 years, have been hyperfixated in Greek Mythology, and I've edited and worked with hundreds of writers over the years, scholarly or at the basic world-building levels. This is a project aimed to bring together a wide audience and just bring content to those niche writers/concepts and so, what's the big deal? We've got you <3.

If You Do Have A Tumblr Blog/Way To Communicate Back With Us, it's the exact same submission process as those without a blog. Just open up the ask box, copy and paste your submission along with any additional information you'd love to give, and send it our way :). You can tell us if you absolutely do not want to hear anything back from us or even have your name attached, or if you'd like to be connected with those similar to your interests :). Either way, the submissions are the same--via the Ask Box--but this just allows for better communication between us and you. There are two aspects of this project: getting people's work out there and building a community, and both ways of reaching out to us accomplish at least *one* goal of the two, if not both :).

The Second Step: What Happens After You Submit Your Work To Us. Well, we review it. Depending on what's going on, I and/or one of my lovely teammates will go through your work to do some basic editing and formatting work to make sure it fits Wattpad/AO3's structure along with making sure that all the triggers are correctly tagged. This is a requirement in your submission process, especially the trigger warning tagging process. As much as this is based on original writing styles, I do want to make sure we maintain a baseline level of conformity between the works as much as possible. Small things such as the space between paragraphs along with how the breaks in scenes are presented are mostly the things we'll be looking at but it'll really depend on the actual fic and it absolutely will not be on you as the writer to do this. Write it how you want to write it and we'll find a way to meet you in the closer-to-you middle :).

[Coming Soon] Here Is What We Ask For In Your Original Submission.

Optional Steps Within This In-Between Process. We provide in-depth editing, worldbuilding, and beta-ing help! Currently, as I am writing this, there are only two of us on the team--me, Camila/ @sleepdeprivationbutitsvaruna along with Leo, He/Him, @pluckedchicken --but I hope to either expand as this project develops further or we just grow comfortable in our roles. I personally specialize in developing worlds/AUs/worldbuiling while Leo has reached out to help with general editing and working with those darker AUs that I'd personally rather not touch. You can even reach out to us before you start your work! I know quite a lot of people with a diverse understanding of the myths that I can either point you to for help or I can even just do my own deep-dive search and help you out directly! This can be done based on request in the original ask submission--for those wanting to stay anonymous--or over DMing with me, my own blog, or Leo's blog. Just feel free to reach out and we'll try to help you out with anything!

The Third Step: What Happens When This Is All Published. Currently... absolutely no clue. It's only like a Month into this thing and I haven't even written the first sentence of my own submission, so this answer is really only going to come with time. Half of this post in general contains stuff that I came up with on the spot, and don't think that we (or at least I) have all the answers over here just because we have a fancy and cool blog. It's 2300 rn and I've literally written over a thousand words in one sitting while having spent the entire day luring out my motivation kitten and only managing to get it an inch closer and nowhere near out from under the bed, so. Yeah. We're figuring it out over here too.

As for a literal answer to this very real question: my current thoughts is that, at some point in the sooner or later stages (probably when I get the "What We Ask For In Your Original Submission" post posted), we'll come up with a general template to go off of, showing the submitter's name, socials, where to find them, additional information they want to give, author's notes, TWs, etc. in an easy-to-navigate way for both us and the reader.

[housewifebuck]

Do you have any unpopular and/or strong opinions about car care? Products people get or don’t when they should?

I’m in the freaking out about getting a cat soon stage lol

🩵💜🩵💜

hiiii<3 congratulations you have pressed my special interest button! I have extremely strong opinions on proper cat care from the perspective of a rescuer since every day I am faced with cleaning up the messes of people who do NOT take care of their cats properly. I am putting everything under the cut since this will include mentions of animal abuse/neglect etc. And also it’s going to be very long I fear.

First and foremost as I’m sure you will soon be able to tell animal welfare is something I am very very passionate about. Rescue work is my entire life. These are all things I have had to repeat over and over to people who just don’t care/don’t get it and so if some of it sounds aggressive that is NOT directed at you (Michal) 😭 I’m talking to the royal you here since this is advice for everybody.

the most important thing in the world is to make sure your cat is FIXED. if she is coming from a rescue she likely already is, but if shes not, make sure you have an appointment set up to get it + rabies and FVRCP vaccines done asap (I also recommend getting the feline leukemia vaccine, which is not usually done in house by rescues). I would even make the appointment now if you know when you are bringing her home. on top of preventing countless health issues down the road, it will also keep her from reproducing if she ever accidentally gets outside. not only is that awful for the mom cat but we already have enough homeless kittens out there tyvm. PS this is just as important for male cats.

speaking of which, do not let your pet cat free roam outside*. Ever. here is a handy article outlining just a few of the many many reason why it is a terrible and irresponsible thing to do. I dont care if you think you live in a low risk area, or if your cat seems to want to get outside, or if you've had outdoor cats before with no issue. I have had to scrape countless dead cats out of the roadway after being hit by cars because their owners let them outside. Rat poison (very commonly found around peoples houses and in trash cans), if ingested, will literally cause an animal to exsanguinate and die in agony. Other stray cats in the area could be carrying FIV/FeLV or worse. If any of your neighbors grow lilies and your cat brushes against one and licks the pollen from their fur, they will die. There’s just so many reasons to keep your cats indoors I could go on about this forever. if you absolutely must take your cat outside either leash train them (properly, dont just take them out on a leash for the first time and expect them to be okay with it) or get a kitty stroller. But there are PLENTY of ways to keep your cat enriched and entertained indoors. Cat trees, shelves, bird feeders outside, interactive toys, treat dispensers, just to name a few. Go on chewy.com and just browse. They have an excellent selection and great customer service. Another alternative is building a catio! Just make sure your cat receives regular flea/tick treatment year round.

avoid the hell out of those backpack carriers with the clear plastic windows. those are terrifying for cats to be in they feel completely exposed and the ventilation is shit. get a proper hard sided (plastic) carrier. I recommend one with two doors (one on the front and one on top, otherwise known as a top loading carrier). When you travel outside or in the car be sure to cover the carrier with a towel or blanket. This calms them down a lot. The reasons I recommend against soft/mesh carriers are: they are impossible to clean or sanitize if your cat has an accident (very common in the car) or contracts an infectious disease, they provide no protection in the event of being dropped or if you are in a car accident or if you run into a cat-aggressive dog in the vet waiting room, and especially anxious cats can and will fight their way out of them and having a terrified cat loose in your car on your way to the vet is extremely dangerous for both of you.

Expect your new cat to be scared and shy for a few days-to-weeks, minimum. This isn’t always the case, but it is more often than not. I have had so many cats returned for not being friendly enough right away because adopters were too impatient to wait. It takes cats time to decompress in a new environment. I recommend keeping your new cat in a separate room like a bathroom or small bedroom for the first few days so a) it is less overwhelming and b) once you allow them access to the rest of the house, that room will be their “safe space” to retreat to. Also normal when a cat has experienced an environmental shift are: mild vomiting and/or diarrhea (I recommend keeping the cat on whatever diet they have been fed previously and doing a slow transition to your food of choice, + add in probiotics. Proviable and Fortiflora are two brands I like, both available on chewy), hiding in one place for the first 24ish hours, and occasionally stress induced urinary issues such as UTIs. To best avoid the latter make sure their litter box is somewhere they can get to easily without encountering any human or animal traffic. But don’t put it next to their food/water obviously.

And speaking of food/water! Cats tend not to like their food to be right next to their water. I recommend placing the dishes a few feet away at least if not in separate areas of the room. Also, cats by nature do not drink enough water usually so some amount of wet food in their diet is pretty important, and water fountains/bubblers also help get them to drink more. Chronic dehydration can cause urinary issues and more. Dry food is better for their teeth but higher in carbs and a dry-only diet often leads to an overweight cat, and wet food can cause plaque buildup faster but has a much higher moisture content. A balance of both is ideal. Avoid raw diets as well as these food brands: Hartz**, kit & caboodle, meow mix, friskies.

If you keep houseplants, be very very careful. Cats are curious and love to chew on anything that smells like nature and will go out of their way to do so, but a LOT of common houseplants are toxic to cats (for example, every part of the Lily flower, if ingested and not treated immediately, will kill your cat within a day). The ASPCA has a database online to search for plants and see if they are toxic or not.

The rule of thumb with litter boxes is 1 per cat +1. So if you have one cat, you need a minimum of 2 litter boxes, preferably in separate rooms of the house. Corners and secluded areas with little foot traffic are ideal. Make sure the box is the length of your cat standing up + about 6 inches for ideal comfort. Avoid “lightweight” litter; it’s super dusty and very fine and can irritate both your lungs and your cat’s lungs.

Stay on top of your annual vet exams. Even if your cat seems perfectly healthy it’s better safe than sorry, and having a good rapport with your veterinarian makes it much easier to deal with them in the event of an emergency. And on that topic, make sure you know where your local ER vets are + their hours and phone numbers. Cats are tough and resilient but they are also fragile and stupid.

*obviously different rules may apply if your cat is feral or semi feral and cannot live happily indoors. It is not typically a good idea to try and force a feral/working cat to be strictly indoors before they’re ready. But a regular domestic pet cat does not ever “need” to be outside, nor is it cruel to keep them in. This doesn’t always stop them from being interested though, so be careful around doors until you know how your cat will behave around them.

**while the other brands are just low in nutrients, high in filler byproducts, and just overall not super healthy, Hartz brand products (especially their flea and tick medication and shampoos) have been known to straight up kill peoples pets. Like, a LOT. I have seen this happen countless times. Everyone I know who’s ever used a Hartz product has a horror story about it. Do not ask me how they’re still in fucking business.

Honestly that’s all I can think of off the top of my head but I’m sure I’m forgetting some stuff. If you have any specific questions you can hit me up, I don’t mind! Part of my job as a rescuer is educating the public so this is information I am very happy to share. Congrats on your new kitty and good luck!!!!

[bearotonin-international]

hey, no pressure, but can i ask why pandas are only occasional bears? is it that they only bear occasionally?

please read the tags of our previous post about pandas that no doubt prompted this ask. the team is not in the mood to entertain questions about pandas or our classification of them as such so to you and everyone else who sees this, please be advised

[sunlitmiracle]

smashes my current interest together with my old interest (aka yet another "what Dungeon Meshi but Gamers?" AU)

Once when I was a child I had a complete crying meltdown over Creatures, because the manual insisted that the complicated AI of the Norns made them truly alive and 10-year-old me was freaked out at the idea of being solely responsible for making sure these real animals wouldn't die. The funny part was that this was the Playstation version of Creatures, which has no biochemistry and very basic AI compared to the PC/Mac games where players actually were debating whether or not it was true artificial life. A PSX manual gave me existential dread and it wasn't even telling the truth.

Anyway, kid!Marcille would also have a meltdown over the Creatures series, especially if she had the computer games and got to see how vastly different some breeds' lifespans are. Like in C2 where you have Norns that live for around 5 hours and Norns that live for 10, both of which are vastly more than Ettins who don't even live for 1.5 hours (and usually less due to radiation or starvation).

Lucky for her, having the computer version means she could download modified genomes made by other players that make creatures live longer or even outright remove certain death triggers. However I think she'd have more fun learning to read and edit the genomes herself, to get a better understanding of how the game works and how to change it to suit her own tastes. And because she could pretend she's one of the mysterious ancient Shee who created the Norns, Grendels, and Ettins and then vanished, leaving behind relics of their old society.

(Speaking of Grendels, she would unfortunately dislike them because they're the Designated Evil Species and she'd hate how they harass and attack her Norns. I think she'd also pity them though, because they get sick a lot and have short lifespans. Likely she'd just end up downloading/creating a genome without the aggression towards Norns. Ettins she'd like except for in C3 when they dismantle her meticulously-placed gadget setups, so she might mod out their hoarding compulsions too. Both of them would of course also live for however long her Norns would live.)

Also. While standard creatures' lifespans are counted in hours, if you modify the half-lives in the genome editor you can increase it to centuries. Or even just over a millennium if you set the half-lives to their max length (assuming you also leave the old age death trigger at its vanilla value).

and I like to think that elven Creatures players would pass around copies of what they consider a template genome that's appropriate to their own lifespans. Something that would make their creatures live for weeks or months of continuous play. I also like to think the Creatures DS Warp is still active in this AU because of the hilarious frustration when these long-lived Norns travel to worlds run by short-lived players whose Norns have vanilla lifespans, and vice versa.

(Most of the time in Creatures, offspring of parents with different lifespans will just have one or the other, but there's a chance the genes cross over right in the middle of the various age triggers and cause unstable aging rates. Like a Norn that goes through the childhood stages in hours but then has a very extended adulthood. Or a days-long childhood followed by suddenly dropping dead of old age once the vanilla adulthood genes kick in. Or, if the child has one parent's half-life decay rate and the other parent's age triggers, all sorts of odd things could happen. I once had hybrid Norns who lived for 20 hours and would die of organ failure before reaching the old age threshold!)

(Now that I think of it, Marcille would absolutely hate fast-agers. The first time she watches a creature hatch, turn old, and die in just one brief minute of life, she would be sobbing for days. One of the first things she'd learn to mod out would be mutations that cause the Ageing/Life chemical to decrease unusually fast.)

On a lighter note, while I don't know what her favorite designs would be I think she'd love choosing cute breeds to use in her world. Once she figured out how to give her creatures the comfortable life she wants them to have I can see her redirecting all her gene-editing efforts into changing color expressions. She might even learn to sprite or model her own custom designs.

[nexus-nebulae]

whenever i see hollow knight theorists talk about the grubs i almost never see anyone mention certain things that i always think about so i'm just gonna infodump and see if these theories make any sense? I'm going to be such a nerd about taxonomy and real-life bugs. also note that i haven't genuinely studied this shit in school, i am running purely on wikipedia and Autism™

First things first: they're grubs. They're larvae. They're not finished growing, and as we see from the charm they give, they metamorphose into some form of flying being. It's not clear what, but if the Elegy charm in any way resembles what a Grubberfly actually looks like, then they would seem to have multiple wings and a thick, tapered body (with no apparent legs). We also know that the process of being eaten by the Grubfather involves some form of metamorphosis- either of the Grubs, or even the Grubfather itself. You can even hear them making noise within Grubfather, meaning they're not dead (yet. we don't know if they Will Be Eventually).

most of the time "grub" refers to beetle larvae, but... moth larvae can look pretty similar. grubs and caterpillars are often mistaken for one another. the main thing that gets me is the legs- the legs of the caterpillar are typically a lot thicker and better for movement. whereas most grubs have thinner, typically segmented legs and often can barely even move around with them. We see the grubs in hallownest with relatively thick legs- most other bugs in hallownest just get black lines for legs- and they're able to move incredibly freely.

Now- there's a lot of types of bugs in hallownest, which means a large variety of larval stages. We've got moths, obviously, which are caterpillars. We've got mantises, which have no larval stage and instead hatch directly into nymphs (So, the Mantis Youth enemy is likely a nymph). Baldurs are like woodlice, or isopods, meaning intstead of larvae they have manca, which essentially look just like tiny versions of the adult (e.g., the regular Baldur compared to the Elder Baldur). Bee larvae are simple white grubs, which are typically sealed inside of the surrounding honeycomb until they metamorphose. Spiders hatch as spiderlings, which we see plenty of in-game (and, before the Lifeblood update, Deeplings would even actually pop out of eggs when broken).

We have flukes, which seem to moreso resemble maggots, or fly larvae. The tiny flukes we see at the entrance to Flukemarm are clearly the youngest of the larvae (despite the Flukefey being labeled as such in the Hunter's Journal- the larvae in the walls aren't considered an enemy type in the Journal, however, so were likely not considered). Despite the fact that the Flukes more often resemble worms, we know they are not, as some varieties have legs or wings. Annelids (true worms, like earthworms, leeches, etc) never have legs, much less wings. Meaning the flukes are most likely arthropods, and thus most likely are something close to flies.

And then we have creatures that are in completely different phylums to arthropods, such as the jellyfish (cniderians), snails and slugs (molluscs), and mushrooms (fungi. not even in the animalia kingdom).

But by far the most common type of bug in Hallownest are beetles. Beetles are some of the most diverse insects on the planet even in real life, and in Hallownest it's no exception. We see plenty of beetles based on real life- Dung Defender being a dung beetle, the Nailsmith being a rhinoceros beetle, Willoh being a giraffe weevil. Most other insects in hallownest mostly resemble beetles than other insects, with hard, plated shells and often visible elytra (the hard shell casing that covers the wings). Because beetles are so abundant, and because most other insect species in the game tend to keep within their own separated groups, "grub" most likely became the colloquial form of "baby" within Hallownest. Therefore, these Grubs might not even be grubs at all, but another form of insect larvae that was labeled as grub due to its similarity to beetle young.

We never see any direct inclusions of the young of the Moth Tribe nor the various beetles found around hallownest. There is only a single known caterpillar seen in-game, and that is Marmu. It is not known if she is connected to the Moth Tribe or not, however Marmu's design was based on a Puss Moth caterpillar, of which the real-world equivalent grow up to be similarly fluffy moths to the ones seen in the Moth Tribe. The visual similarity between Marmu and the Grubs is striking- and they even sound remarkably similar, meaning they could be of related species.

Now, back to actual Hollow Knight Lore™:

We know that the Collector is definitely related to the Kingsmoulds, as they are both made of void and have the same body template. All Moulds were made as servants to the king, and do not seem to have their own motivations or interests. The Collector, however, definitely has a personality, ranting and raving about how much it loves the Grubs.

The corpse holding the Love Key in Queen's Gardens is a Husk Dandy, or one of the high elite of Hallownest. It was clearly a high-ranking member of society, and may have had some connections with Lurien, or even the Pale King himself. The Tower of Love was most likely this Dandy's tower, and it was likely the one who began the collection of grubs, with the Collector as some form of assistant (thank you mossbag for this one).

Now, the Dandy's Dream Nail dialogue says "Too long spent together... we become as one...". This, paired with the black streaks around the Dandy's eyes as well as the Void particles seen around the corpse, leads most people to assume that the Collector being made of Void somehow started to physically affect the Dandy, leading to its death. But what if it weren't simply one-way? What if, somehow, the Collector started to mirror the Dandy- if the Dandy was enthusiastic enough about its work, then the Collector may have become obsessed as well due to this.

We also know that the Pale King was attempting to snuff out almost everything he could about the Radiance. The Moth Tribe were apparently born from the Radiance, either metaphorically or literally. While the Moth Tribe did reject the Radiance and follow the Pale King, some moths still chose to remember their old god, until, according to the seer, "all of Hallownest began to dream of that forgotten light". Somehow, this hushed worship of the Radiance could have led to the infection taking hold in the world.

From what I could find, it was not entirely clear if any of the Void experiments began before or after the beginning of the Infection. The Collector could have been created any time in between the creation of Hallownest to its fall- it could be an early, perhaps unfinished form of a Kingsmould- it could be a typical Kingsmould that was altered in some way- it could be a late, more adavnced form of Kingsmould with traits unlike the other more typical Kingsmoulds (for example, it has a voice, where seemingly no other Void being does whatsoever).

Another thing to note- it's not made clear what kind of power exactly the Elegy charm draws from. Because of the Grubsong charm's connection to Soul, one might assume it is also Soul energy, however the slash doesn't draw from the Knight's Soul meter and any charms that directly affect spells or Soul use (other than Grubsong) don't have any sort of affect on the Elegy charm when equipped together.

So, my theory:

The Grubs are actually caterpillars, created by the Radiance in her return to Hallownest. The Pale King, or someone underneath him, noticed the appearance of these bugs and decided to study them- that, or they already knew of the bugs' connection to the moths and thus decided to trap them. The Dandy was the one in charge of this, the head researcher who collected and researched them. The Collector was a Kingsmould gifted to the Dandy by Lurien (or even the Pale King himself) to help with research- and perhaps, if they knew about the Radiance connection, also as a form of extra security (The vessels were Void beings created to contain the Radiance. The Collector is a Void being who obsessively contains Grubs. There's a reflection there). The Collector may have even specifically been granted a voice in order to be able to communicate with the Dandy.

Over time, the Dandy and the Collector being around each other so much caused them to start to become one. Not just in the Dandy becoming somehow infected with Void, but also in the Collector's obsession with the Grubs. This ultimately led to the Dandy locking the Collector in the Tower of Love and attempting to run away with the key before succumbing to the Void in the Queen's Gardens.

Being an experiment specifically created by the Pale King and his court, the Collector likely had some form of "programming" by the court to complete its intended tasks. Unlike the Kingsmoulds' simple programming to Defend the Pale King, instead the Collector's would have been to collect or trap bugs. It could have even been the case that the Collector was the Dandy's field agent- going to collect the Grubs itself so as to not put the Dandy in danger. We can even see this in its attacks- it doesn't necessarily slash at you, but instead makes a grabbing motion. Perhaps the Collector was programmed to Contain and Protect, with protect applying both to the Dandy and the collected specimens (a dead grub is no use for research, now is it?). However, now there seems to be some sort of bug in the programming (pun not intended) where the Collector doesn't seem to distinguish between what it should or shouldn't collect- we see bottles of Vengeflies and Aspids and Baldurs, and even the player's Shade, but these are only ever found within the Tower of Love where the Collector is locked away. It's likely it was the Dandy's orders that told the Collector exactly what to collect, and without those it simply overdoes its programmed task.

Unfortunately, the Knight eventually comes along and destroys the entire operation before we can find out the real truths regarding the Grubs. Hopefully the Grubberflies aren't actually tiny Radiances.

[batking-lich]

"i'm not like those Other People, i only consume Unproblematic Media™ with Good Representation™ and i don't like Irredeemable Media™"

"i'm not like those Other People, i don't like this Sanitized Media™, i only like Real Art™ with Bad Messy Representation™"

you are literally the same people wearing different hats the only things you disagree about are what counts as bad media and what counts as good representation

[waywardsalt]

not to be That Kind of zelda fan but the hyrule historia does also explicitly refer to the world of the ocean king as ‘another world’

[sincerely-nines]

I’ve never read homestuck but I have heard of classpects which I find fascinating 

would you mind sharing what you think the mcyt characters would be if they had classpects ?

Im not going to lie, Im not very good with classpecting! It takes a lot of research and character study for me. I can only really classpect Team Rancher and maybe give some aspects to few mcyt but that's about it.

Oh, Jimmy would be Page of Doom or Knight of Hope (so canary coded) . Tango would be Mage of Rage because obviously.

I think Grian is a Time player. Scar i see as a Light player. Scott is a Mind player. For some reason, Martyn as a Breath player. Pearl is a Blood player. Cleo is a Life player.

Uh i got nothing else im totally blanking lol! Dont ask for the thought process xx

[utter-queer-nightmare]

Something I can't stop thinking about and a lot of people may disagree with;

VERONICA WAS JUST AS BAD FOR JD AS HE WAS FOR HER

In the following rant, I will only be talking about the musical, not the film.

I see a lot of Heathers fans talking about what a sweet baby Veronica was and how she got caught up in something she never wanted to be a part of. And that is wrong.

At the beginning of the musical, before Veronica meets/starts dating JD, we see Veronica looking admiringly at the Heathers. She acknowledges their cruelty ("She is a mythic bitch") while also wishing to be one of them. Even in the midst of a song about how she wishes the world could be kinder, she admits that she would also choose the easier, crueller route if only she thought she could. After her (willing!) transformation into a Heather, we see her almost immediately begin to neglect her only actual friend, Martha ( "Dear Diary: It’s been 3 weeks since I became friends with the Heathers." "I’m really sorry that I flaked on you last week."). It is also before meeting JD that Veronica tricks Martha with the Ram Note. Despite not wanting to at first, we see her being quite quickly/easily persuaded. It's also worth noting that she makes no attempt to help Martha between giving her the note and seeing her at the party. Even then, she didn't stop Martha from talking to Ram, though she did tell her to leave the party when the Heathers borough out the Martha-Piñata.

In the middle of Veronica's morality crisis comes JD, an abused traumatised teenager with an addiction to guns, explosions and slushies. At first, JD seems pretty set on getting through high school relatively quietly, since he believes his dad will force him to move away soon, so there's no point in making friends/getting involved. He only beats up Kurt and Ram after ignoring them doesn't work, and actively tells Veronica not to go through with the Ram Note. He quickly becomes dependent on Veronica, who he imprints on almost like a duckling does, on the first person to show him kindness. At this point, he essentially becomes a loaded weapon for Veronica to point and shoot. He sees her being upset and he does what he thinks is right to protect her. While he does have his flaws (mainly lying to Veronica about Heather, Kurt and Ram's deaths), it's important to remember that he grew up in a violent house and associates certain types of violence with love. I also think seeing Veronica (someone he loves) being hurt/abused will've brought back feelings of anger and helplessness from seeing his mother abused. There's a chance her suicide left him with a literal "kill or be killed" mentality. It's also possible the knowledge that he couldn't help his mother led him to be more extreme in his protection of Veronica than he otherwise might've been.

After Kurt and Ram's deaths, Veronica asks JD to stop being violent, AND HE DOES. I think this is something very important that a lot of people ignore/overlook. Violence/murder is a legitimate addiction for JD, and he mentions in Freeze Your Brain that his addictions help with self-harming and even suicidal thoughts and feelings ("When the voice in your head, Says you're better off dead, Don't open a vein! Just freeze your brain...") And yet, when Veronica asks him to, he stops cold turkey. Unfortunately, going completely cold turkey is always very difficult, and JD begins carrying a gun again. We only see it when he's at home with his Dad, who we can see earlier makes him uncomfortable/unsafe (depending on how the actor plays it). It's possible, though stretching a bit, that JD was only carrying at home because of the lack of safety with his dad. However, Veronica leaves him as soon as she sees that he's struggling.

To summarize, she forced someone with untreated trauma and a long history of homicidal/suicidal urges to quit an addiction cold turkey and then left when he began struggling with staying sober. Again, I'm not saying that JD was blameless, or that Veronica should've been responsible for her boyfriend's mental health when she was struggling with her own, but there were better ways to approach the situation and it feels a lot like Veronica used JD and left him. He was completely dependent on her, and I believe both of them knew that. At the very least, JD seemed to fully acknowledge the way he "needs" her (": I was meant to be yours! We were meant to be one! I can’t make it alone! Finish what we’ve begun!") Veronica, however, isn't dependent on JD in the same way. She, knowingly or unknowingly, uses JD. She even admits "I wanted someone strong who could protect me", then immediately turn the blame on him, claiming her "infected" her. At any rate, this is when JD goes full homicidal maniac. It also says a lot about Veronica that she does not attempt to inform any teachers, local law enforcement or her parents about what was going on. While I admit her parents probably wouldn't believe her, a teacher would easily be able to check the boiler room to confirm/disprove Veronica's accusations, and police/fire would definitely take a bomb threat seriously, especially from a school that had three student suicides in the past few months. I'm not sure whether she was banking on JD's dependence on her to prevent him from hurting her or if she was worried her involvement in the previous suicides would be uncovered, but neither is a good enough reason not to have the school evacuate the way a teacher/emergency services would be able to.

All in all, JD and Veronica were both flawed people and they amplified negative qualities in each other. It's not fair to treat either of them as blameless or perfect when most of the plot of Heathers wouldn't've happened if they hadn't met and brought the worst out in each other. The End.

[chisatowo]

I am BORED someone give me enrichment NOW

[mamaowlcat]

Hello, please enjoy this topical meme I made (’:

[hightaled]

why is perfume so expensive