#this is so long omg

[znghao]

this is ZEROBASEONE !

[ndiebrioxhe]

Another Rambling post about Ascendance of a Bookworm:

BLUE - ORANGE MORALITY

(with minor digs at Harry Potter)

When I was younger I used to browse Tv Tropes and I really enjoyed looking at them describe things I noticed in media but didn’t have a name for. On a rare occasion, I would find a trope that I had no real reference for and one of those was “blue-orange morality”.

The concept of having a morality system completely divorced from our own that we can’t really judge it. Now it’s not like I have never seen like a series or text attempt to create a character or species that has different standards of morality but the issue I always had was, that the supposed “different moral standards” were always included as a contrast to a more recognisable real world standard - which meant it was framed from a real world standard anyways.

It is always seemed like one of two scenarios:

Scenario A:

Alien/Monster/Non-human: “Here is our horrifically barbaric practice that has no functional purpose to our society and entirely superstitious!”

Human/Humanoid 1: “That’s bad”

Human/Humanoid 2: “Oh that’s just their culture”

And its like no… the narrative framing still shows that is weird and barbaric and not at all a foreign concept which is it’s own morality system so divorced from our own. If we have to be advised not to judge it on our own standards, it can be judged by our standards.

Scenario B:

Olden Times!

Stories being set in a distant past/medieval times where there are different moral standards is not true blue-orange morality. They are just the worse models of current moral standards. We are not divorced from those at all. They are just uncomfortable to think about. Like, yes it is fucked for dudes to claim to be kings and murder thousands to maintain their power… but people weren’t super cool with massmurder back then either - it was just an inevitability due to the social economical problems. It’s like being a billionaire with hundreds of sweatshops now. Even with people who are cool with the system - we all know that shit isn’t our “moral standard” - it’s our uncomfortable reality. Pushing the setting back or forward a 1000 years doesn’t really change anything. Our countries’ leaders still go off to kill and exploit people to maintain power, they just don’t get crowns for it anymore.

And I don’t care if you chose to do this with fictional races and places, that is just set dressing. They still resemble human society as we know it.

So I just never really saw a series that really grabbed me as authentically blue-orange… just typically shades of grey.

But then I read AOAB… and I really saw the potential of blue-orange morality. And it was done well.

Now it might seem logical to treat Bookworm as a Scenario B.

After all, it’s literally nobles presiding over commonfolk and elizabethan era political drama… but heres the thing… the framing of Scenario B is based on understanding that some characters still fit our present mold of a good person:

caring

considerate

fair

just

humble

attractive (no literally)

would not murder babies

religious in the right way

And these characters are the ones we root for. The characters we aren’t rooting have qualities we do not desire

mean

selfish

powerhungry

bloodthirsty

unattractive

will murder babies

over zealous or cult-like

Like in a Scenario B you can’t show the main characters enslave children in a sweatshop and allow grown adult attendants put their hands on them - and still be the good guy. You can’t plan the purging of an entire faction and hold their children hostage under penalty of death - and be THE GOOD GUY . Can’t overtly tax a city to the bones and deny them the best possible harvest because the previous mayor annoyed YOU — AND EVER HOPE TO BE THE GOOD GUY.

Well you can in ascendance of a bookworm tho.

And the readers will agree with you.

And it’s NOT because readers can overly moralise the actions of main characters.

And it’s because unlike a Scenarios A and B which are just OUR WORLD where we are all AWARE that we don’t really need kings or billionaires and antiquated traditions that rely on human suffering for the world to work. AOAB is different

The world of AOAB is not our own. Nobles have more rights because the world explicitly requires their mana to function. Nobles are human plus. They are what rich people in the regular world pretend to be.

Remove the army, the wealth, the status of a king and he is commoner. AOAB Nobles are literally magic batteries that build cities, make harvests happen, keep the population safe from deadly magical creatures …like the yearly giant blizzard monster that won’t literally won’t let spring come unless you have an army of trained magical knights slay it. Without Nobles the world literally be a giant sandpit.

So right of the bat, the nobility are integral to society. You simply don’t live your life raised as a necessary part of the world functioning and not have a social structure that reflects that. Its our world turned on it’s head. All the commoners could die and all that means is the nobles have to do more work. Instead of rich needing the poor, the commoners need the nobles. Otherwise they rarely even interact. The commoners and nobles are almost different species.

And not like it’s particularly unfair on the commoners. Not having mana simply bars you from a lot of activities, duties and experiences. Hell, not having a lot of mana as someone born into a noble family arguably sucks more than being a commoner. Nobility is earned, not given. Being born into a noble family that doesn’t have the means to regulate your mana means you won’t even make it to age where you are considered a separate entity from your parents in that society. If you have enough mana to make it to the Royal Academy without getting sent to the temple and the ability to pass or even excel at the Royal Academy - congrats you are now an asset to your duchy and that includes the commoners inside it. Just make sure you don’t blunder and cause your own execution.

So if murder, classism, deception and greed aren’t necessarily immoral in AOAB, what is?

The only real way to be a labeled a bad person in AOAB noble society is to endanger your duchy and cause widespread problems. Which only means the real way to be immoral in AOAB is to be incompetent or to FAIL.

You might initially think The Veronica-Georgine faction are the antagonists because they try to murder a barely baptised child but the guardian trio literally admitted they had plans to kill her too. They are ones committing the most one sided mass murders in the series. Ferdinand being able to outmanoeuvre and manipulate his enemies in the ring of politics is considered a SEXY TRAIT.

So what’s the difference between the Florencia faction and the Veronica-Georgine faction? Easy. The V-G faction is DESTABILISING AN ENTIRE DUCHY WITH SHORTSIGHTED NOBLE BULLSHIT. And just escalates into the entire nation being in jeopardy… because the Ahrensbachian Archducal family keeps producing nobles that are profoundly worthless with no sense of noble duty. They are defective.

In the next paragraph, I’m just going to state something this legion of defective nobles did and the names of who did it/involved.

They don’t respect the authority or wisdom of nobles of higher rank so they disobey orders (Bezewanst, Veronica). They force already new brides on married nobles that ruin established marriages for no benefit besides sating their schoolyard fantasies on a whim (Gabriele). Their spitefulness and cruelty to one of the biggest archnoble families in the duchy has made the Ehnferestian faction politics a disaster (Veronica) and were forced to create an entire section of mednobles not even loyal to Ehnferest because archnobles rightfully disliked them (Shikikoza and Gloria). They’re such suck ups it endangered their own duchy���s stability to the point where their only options is an intermediate archducal candidate that was poorly raised by all metrics (Gieselfried). Ahrensbach archducal children are regularly raised to be puppeteered by the parents instead of independent thinkers (Detlinde). Which is a real fucking problem for duchies when you keep trying (and typically succeeding) in making these children the Aubs of duchies (Georgine).

Ultimately it comes down to the fact they believe in their ideological RIGHT as nobles over their ideological DUTY to prioritise their duchies running smoothly. And that leads them to overestimate their APTITUDE as nobles.

Which is REALLY telling when a little powerhouse is redefining what it means to be an accomplished noble and entire political career is to the benefit of Ehnferest. Which is why the Ehnferest archducal family and Florencia faction who prioritise the stability and growth of the own goddam duchy instead of their own personal grudges are the good guys.

Bad guys are bad because they are bad what they are supposed to be doing and the good guys are good because they focused on what they should be.

There’s even a moral gray zone which is “trying your best but not being enough” and the prime example of that is the current the royal family. The country is only in this sorry state because one prince allowed his ineptitude and thirst for power to spiral and cause the nation lose the most important tool, and now it has a king that was only ever raised as a vassal is struggling (impressively) to keep a nation that should have dried up to keep running… A shame his intel gathering is dogshit so he keeps making mistakes and even overlook things that could have solved the problem.

So the dynamic of magic and morality is baked in the worldbuilding and it’s doesn’t feel dumb that nobles have all this power but somehow DON’T really interfere the non magical inhabitants in the world on a grand scale. These features, not flaws.

It is so much better than making a magical world where wizards hide their shit IN non magical places but don’t interact with non magical humans and have poverty and slaves that do house chores despite HAVING MAGIC that handles that shit. And also celebrate non magical people’s holidays despite thinking non magical people are beneath them because despite the book apparently being about fascism being bad - it doesn’t address any of the core issues of it and even has extra issues layered on top!

AOAB doesn’t operate on regular morality so it’s not mind numbingly incongruent when bad things happen in the universe because the magic people choose to let it happen despite thinking it’s bad. Even tho nobles do not care about the commonfolk it would stupid if they hid magic from the non magical folk and even dumber if entire spinoffs were based in fighting to keep it secret. Having a series where the protagonists realise that a faction in their world is a problem and getting RID OF THEM? Imagine getting rid of people who are the problem instead of fighting them in a WAR and reading checking the epilogue and that faction caused the fascism is STILL THERE and children are scared to end up there?? WHY DOES SLYTHERIN STILL EXIST—

Anyways,,,

I haven’t had the pleasure of reading past the translated pre-pub myself, but from what I do know is the Ahrensbachian penchant for stupidity and shortsightedness in the pursuit of positions of power they couldn’t hope to manage effectively… while destabilising as much of the nation as possible continues and I can’t wait to read it.

[haruniki]

Under the Mistletoe + Kobeni please :3 I've become quite the Kobeni enjoyer!

Also happy holidays <3

a/n: first rq yippee!!! :3 i hope i get back into the writing spirit and into writing better link to post for prompts

under the cut

An office party. That would be the last thing you would except coming from the public safety division, but here you are in a room with a bunch of loud individuals. Denji and Power running around with tinsels and lights wrapped around them, Aki looking stressed with a drink in his hand. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Except for one person. You hadn't really gotten the chance to speak with her before. You remember Himeno talking about how timid she was, maybe you could chat with her. Standing off to the side with her hands folded in front of her, she looks around the room. A nervous look spreads around her faces as you approach. "This party sucks, doesn't it? These are usually way quieter than this. I'm (y/n). You're Kobeni right? It's really nice to meet you." A warm smile stretches across your face. You see Kobeni's flush a little before she gives a nod. You both stand and make idle chitchat before you both wander over to the probably spiked by Himeno punch bowl. "I can't imagine working with that blood fiend or that chainsaw guy, I bet the rush in without much thought. I heard it was nice working with Aki thoug-" Cut off mid-sentence by a drunk Himeno, her words slurring as she speaks.

"Look, you both are... un'erneath that plan'...whassit called again...oh, I remi...remem...ber... the mistletoe! You gotta kiss or else...you'll...get bad luck?" You really doubt you get bad luck if you don't kiss. You look up and see the mistletoe hung up, you wonder why you didn't see it before. Glancing at Kobeni, you give a small laugh. Her face goes red and it's audible to hear her breath being sucked in. "Don't listen to her, Kobeni. She's drunk and you don't have to kiss me. Besides I don't think you get-" You're again cut off by lips being pressed against yours. Though as soon as they're pressed against you they leave. A bashful Kobeni looking away and playing with her hands , the sensation of where her lips were tingle a bit and after lightly running your tongue against your lips you can taste cherry chapstick. "Th-there's no sense in g-getting bad luck, pl-pl- plus, it's a t-tradition, right?"

[sergeantpixie]

my thoughts after watching episode five of the Artful Dodger:

1. SARDINES

2. “the whale’s wife” oh fagin can turn a phrase

3. “being spurned by a woman is a great boon to our profession” DON’T REMIND ME

4. “i want a win” 😭😭😭

5. “i keep seeing these in my dreams” FANNY 🤭

6. Belle’s red coat is Stunning, i envy her wardrobe

7. “WHY” Belle is so funny pls

8. NUTMEG

9. Jack is only thinking of Belle 🥺

10. BUTT - 2/10 not juicy enough

11. i know fagin is just lying to buy them more time but it’s so nice of him to throw jack an interesting case and give him an excuse to talk to belle after their fight 🤭

12. “we all thought that that smell was coming from you” CHILDISH but so funny

13. Fanny is actually a great sister, we stan

14. THROUGH THE WINDOW, YAS

15. he’s eating her soup, i love them

16. “apparently a tree” HIS FACE

17. they’re in love, your honor

18. “it is so dangerous.” “yeah, but you love that, don’t ya”

19. “but i don’t really know how to talk to women, i’ve never really found the need to” “i am similarly rarely interest in what a man has to say” and that’s on soulmates (also same @ belle)

20. “not all of you.” i think they should kiss 😊

21. “tell me why you like being a navigator?” god belle’s bedside manner has improved so much

22. jack being honest with him and letting the man decide if he wants to take the risk!!! what a man!!!

23. i love the quiet scenes after surgeries between them, it’s so intimate

24. “i’d never had my own bed before” 😭😭😭

25. “it was the best and the worst times” love these fanfic writers for letting the dickensian character quote dickens lol

26. the way he looks at her 🥺

27. THEY SLEPT THERE ALL NIGHT!!! THAT’S MY SHIP!

28. the glove slap, i snorted 🤣🤣🤣

29. Belle’s mama is a savage

30. Sneed saying “christ” and stumbling back when he says Belle coming at him at least says he’s not a complete fool

31. SHE SEASONED HIM, I’M DYING 💀💀💀

32. the wink, this idiot lmao

33. “oh.” THAT’S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY JACK

34. “hmm, lobster bisque.” PLS SHE’S SO FUNNY

35. i don’t trust youuuuuu fagin!!!

36. fagin trash talking sneed is funny tho

37. the tears in jack’s eyes when fagin has to take his place in the duel, a soft boy 🥺

38. HE SHOT SNEED THAT IS SO FUNNY PLS

39. the navigator mocking sneed 💀

40. sneed being put in the position of begging jack to save his leg is delicious, pls sir i want some more

41. belle, jack, and hetty working together is everything i’ve ever wanted, ot3?

42. ngl i kinda enjoy hetty calling jack out

43. THEY SHOULD SHAVE OFF HIS EYEBROW

44. THEY KISSED!!! FINALLY!!!

[ladyfromaspookyforest]

Wheeler/Byers Wardrobe Analysis

Season 1 Part 2

Part 1 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Hello, hello, hi. Continuing this journey through Stranger Things attire. And I want to preface quickly that I don’t have an agenda. I’m just examining the clothes as I go and seeing what I think they tell me. I'm not digging for evidence of anything.

Anyway, Episode 3! Nancy gets home from Steve’s house and is confronted by Karen in her lil PJs. Do these PJs seem familiar? Oh yeah. They look like Nancy’s.

The next day at school, post red-stripe-shirt-at-the-pool-party, Nancy’s wearing another light sweater, a common Nancy top choice. But this one’s intriguing to me because while it contains the same two colors she usually wears, they’re darker. Darker blue and more of a brick red, but they’re small stripes on this delicate sweater. We also saw her wear stripes for the first time in the aforementioned red shirt. So this outfit here feels like a compromise between what she chose for Steve for the party and what she usually chooses for herself because of the stripes. The darker colors I think are not intended to reflect Steve in any way, but Nancy's state of mind. She's worried about Barb and feeling conflicted about the whole experience of losing her virginity. She's paranoid right off the bat when she walks into school that people are looking at her differently. She's feeling weighed down and the shades of her colors are reflecting that.

I was also immediately into Steve’s shirt here because Steve, for the entirety of this season, wears blue. But here, and only here, the blue has shrunken down to a few stripes on this shirt. This shirt which also contains pastel pink, a color Nancy is often wearing or surrounded by, but not wearing in this scene. Both Nancy and Steve are wearing clothes that reflect one another more than usual, and yet they don't quite match. This is the most I can recall Steve ever reflecting the Wheeler color palette (I'll find out if I'm wrong later). This is also the day after he slept with Nancy. So I think his choice to wear Wheeler colors afterwards shows that he feels closer to Nancy while her choice to wear darkened colors shows that she's feeling hesitant and unsure.

Here, Karen has dressed Holly up in light pink and blue (as per usual), but she herself is wearing a navy and teal plaid dress with black tights. She wears plaid a lot, but in order to bring a casserole to Joyce (a mourning behavior), she’s donned darker colors than usual. This scene already felt uncomfortable to me, like Karen doesn’t know how to behave because she’s giving Joyce a casserole (like when someone in the family has died) even though Will is not yet believed to be dead. Maybe this isn't unusual. I apologize for my ignorance on casserole etiquette, but it’s an awkward moment there at the door. And Karen’s wardrobe choice here makes me feel even MORE like she doesn’t know how to behave. She’s intentionally dressing less light and happy than usual but not in the official mourning color. And dressing Holly the way she usually does really shows this juxtaposition because Karen often matches Holly to herself. So this is like looking right at how Karen usually presents herself next to how she's choosing to now.

This episode puts Mike in this green and blue striped shirt. In the first photo, he’s talking with El before he goes to school. El is dressed in Mike’s clothes, a navy pullover and grey sweatpants. Blue is Mike’s color and grey is a neutral he (and Nancy) is often seen in. For example, in earlier episodes, both Mike and Will wore shirts with blue and yellow stripes, but Mike’s was also grey and Will’s was also brown. Grey is a cool toned color, a Wheeler neutral, while brown is a warm, earthy Byers neutral. So El’s outfit is screaming I BORROWED THIS FROM MIKE WHEELER in every way. She then spends the day wandering the Wheeler house and examining everything. She’s basically trying to figure out what it means to live like a Wheeler, to have grown up in this home with these parents and with blood siblings. She’s trying to put herself figuratively in Mike’s shoes while literally wearing his clothes.

And back to the Wheeler vs Byers neutrals, I really love that Mike is wearing this tan jacket when he goes to school. It’s a very Byers jacket. It’s got corduroy on the collar and brick accents on the inside. In the screenshot here, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas are being harassed by the bullies making fun of Will. They also trip Mike despite the fact that it’s Will they’re mocking. Basically, they’re treating Mike as a proxy Will while Mike is wearing this Byers-esque jacket. He’s also wearing the jacket for the remainder of the episode as the party hunts for Will (and as they witness his "body" being pulled from the quarry), but he was not wearing at home with El while his attention was on her.

I forgot to mention this jacket in my last post, but Mike also wore it in episode 1 while the bullies were harassing him. And he leant the jacket to El after they found her in episode 2.

She's wearing this big yellow shirt (Will's color) and Mike puts her in this Byers-y jacket. El isn't really El to him yet in this scene. She's some strange girl they found while looking for Will who Mike keeps around in hopes of her helping him find Will. So in addition to El wearing Mike's clothes in episode 3 and acting like Mike, in episode 2, she's wearing a Will-coded outfit and being valued for her connection to Will. The wardrobe for El this season has no reflection whatsoever on who she is as a person because she doesn't know yet nor do the other characters. So when Mike was at home with her in the red shirt, no jacket (episode 2), that moment felt more about the two of them getting to know each other outside of how she can help him find Will.

Joyce has been wearing this same outfit since late episode 1. Jonathan also wore the same outfit during both episodes 1 and 2, but now he’s changed his clothes and what he has changed into…is the same shirt he was wearing in the flashback in episode 2. Obviously, the episodes that go by without Joyce or Jonathan changing their clothes speak to how panicked by Will’s disappearance they are. But once he does change his clothes, the choice for Jonathan to put on the same shirt he was wearing in a memory he was just reflecting on is really curious. And by “choice,” I mean on a grander, show-level. Not Jonathan’s choice. He’s seen snagging this shirt up without even glancing at it and tossing it on as he gets out of bed. The costume department chose to put Jonathan back in this shirt we’d just seen him in via flashback for a reason. I find it notable that Jonathan changes his shirt again before going to school. He just spent two days in the same outfit and now he cares enough to change twice in the same morning? Weird. That’s all I’m saying. Maybe it reminded him of that same moment just like Should I Stay or Should I Go coming on in the car did, and maybe it was too hard for him to think about it again. So he changed. Or maybe it felt too light for the mood he was in.

During the Steve Hulk Camera Smash scene, Jonathan is wearing black and a dark grey or dark denim button-down. Dark colors. Darker than usual. The polar opposite of the first shirt he put on that morning. He usually has more earth tones in his wardrobe than this and I think this choice is less about mourning, as the dark colors could indicate, as it is about guilt. This is because even after he believes Will to be dead, Jonathan doesn’t start wearing blacks. This scene, instead, takes place after he does his stalker photo shoot of Steve’s party. So the dark colors are very likely a reflection of how he feels inside, having done something dark. He took photos of other people, including Nancy undressing, without consent and despite the fact that we know this is not what he set out to do, he did do it, spur of the moment. Now in the aftermath, he feels guilty and ashamed.

EPISODE FOUR

I had to lighten this one a lot to really see what the colors are. Karen is still wearing the dark plaid dress from the last episode while Ted is wearing what appears to be a white button down with red and blue checkprint. Very Wheeler. He’s continuing to present himself in the Wheeler fashion while Karen is struggling with figuring out how to present herself. When she got dressed, Will was missing. Now, in this screenshot, Will has been declared dead and Barb is missing. Karen doesn’t know how to be there for her children (or for Joyce earlier) and the way she dresses in this episode reflects that she feels like she can’t continue on the way she has been. (side note: check out the couch and throw pillow. Wheeler pastels)

Here’s Karen later (sorry I don't have a full body shot). She’s wearing a cream turtleneck, a dark grey vest, and black pants (out of the shot). Her prints, her checks, and her pastels are gone.

Nancy and Steve fight. She’s wearing pink (just pink) and he’s wearing blue with maroon stripes. Going back to what I said about their outfits in the previous episode, it looks like Steve is still sporting Nancy’s influence while she has dropped his. This is the first time we’ve seen Nancy in a solid color with no prints or detailing, her PJs aside. Even her purple sweater from E2 contained threads of other colors. So she’s in solid pink, she says to Steve, “I can’t believe you,” then she walks away and leaves him in the alley. And WHAT DOES THIS PARALLEL?

I’ll get to that scene later, but for now, I’m intrigued by the fact that both Steve and Nancy are wearing grey in the season 2 fight whereas in this season 1 fight, they’re wearing opposing colors, though Steve’s shirt contains bits of Nancy’s coloring, which shows that he’s more invested in Nancy than she is in him. This is probably a contentious point to make for season 1 considering he’s being a douche in this scene and making Barb’s disappearance about himself. BUT I stand by the fact this his feelings for Nancy are stronger than her feelings for him, even here, despite the fact that he’s lousy at showing it and his mind is in the wrong place.

In season 2, they’re actually on a lot more common ground. Maybe this is why they’re wearing the same color. There’s no more I’m-right-you’re-wrong. There’s only this-isn’t-working. But back to season 1.

I hate to say this, but this shot here is giving me hella “It’s twins and one’s a boy and one’s a girl!” vibes. Which is kind of irrelevant. What actually matters is that El is wearing Nancy’s clothes. She’s wearing a wig and yet another article of Wheeler clothing, presenting herself as a different Wheeler. She even had short hair when dressed in Mike’s clothes and long hair here dressed in Nancy’s. It’s kind of like she’s trying out the Wheeler life from both angles.

Guys, I don’t know HOW I never realized how much pink and baby blue the Wheelers are surrounded by. LOOK AT THIS WALLPAPER!!! Plus, with El in pink and Mike in blue and the greenery in front of the mirror, they basically ARE the wallpaper. It’s pink, blue, and green leaves. What is the reason. It basically tells us that this (Mike and this version of El) together equals Wheeler conformity. And by “this version of El” I mean her dressing like someone else and trying to behave like someone else. This version of El is still trying to find herself, trying to fit in (a theme that returns later). Basically Mike + dishonest El or confused El = unhappy couple pretending to be in love (Ted + Karen). Eleven is spending this season trying on other people’s clothes and other people’s lives because she never got to have one. And this image is a big red flag right here because I can’t imagine anyone looking at this shot and thinking “awe cute.” It’s so newborn baby-colored and domestic it makes me gag. This screams that El needs to find herself in order to avoid THIS. This nuclear nightmare.

This also feels weirdy similar to what we just witnessed of Steve and Nancy, what with the baby pink and blue solid colored costuming. Almost like a MIRROR IMAGE WOULDN’T YOU SAY? No, I’m stretching. I’m actually reaching blindly. I have no idea where I’m going with that. But the mirror shot is interesting. If anything, I’d say it ties back to them being a mirror of Mike’s parents BUT I can’t help but think there’s subtext here for both couples about gender roles what with these colors being, as I mentioned, the ones assigned to babies at birth. El will later go on to find that she’s the fighter. Steve will go on to be the babysitter. Defying gender role expectations. Both of these characters are trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be this season while both Mike and Nancy are trying to find their lost friends.

Basically, I’m getting identity crises and Don't Become Your Parents.

And to finish off with the Byers...Joyce is still wearing the same outfit she’s been in since episode 1. Clearly collapsing. And Jonathan Show's-Over Byers is wearing this cozy lil sweater fit to the morgue, which I find especially interesting in this scene here:

Jonathan, in his lil beige sweater, is matching Hopper's uniform. And this is the first time these two characters really connect. Prior to this, Hopper has shot Jonathan down and told him to let Hop do his job. Here, they're talking openly and calmly, and they're talking about Joyce. They are speaking on even footing about someone they both care about (though at this point in time, we aren't sure the extent of Hopper's feelings for or history with Joyce) and they are matching. This feels especially intentional when you watch moments before, when Jonathan was looking at "Will's" body and see that he was wearing a jacket and then the scene after when they're leaving (above) and he's wearing the jacket again. He didn't take it off to come inside, but specifically for this sit-down moment with Hopper.

[fatelesschild]

Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology 9: The Senses

A worryingly comprehensive and extremely unofficial guide to Gallifreyan and Time Lord/Lady Anatomy and Physiology, constructed with love and sweat.

This is a project that attempts to draw together everything we know about gallifreyan anatomy from every source available to place it in a valid biological system, like some Grey’s Anatomy textbook you didn’t know you needed.

The author of this has no affiliation with the BBC, and owns nothing but this lovely chocolate bar and good intentions. Nothing in this guide should be taken as de facto and everything should be free to be challenged and changed. I welcome any comments, questions, points of interest, or corrections - just aim at my ask/inbox.

Absolutely nothing in this guide constitutes professional medical advice. Always seek your human advice from a healthcare provider, and always seek your gallifreyan advice from a hospitaller on Gallifrey.

This is version 1.10.x See the main document or Tumblr masterpost for the latest version.

x Tumblr masterpost

x Main document with sources (Google Docs, not optimised for mobiles)

x Tumblr tag page with Q+As etc.

x Glossary

The Senses

AKA You know it makes sense.

Contains:

Context & Anatomy

The Main Senses - Sight, Sound, Taste, Smell, Touch

Somato - Thermoception, Nociception, Equilibrioception and gravitoception, Mechanoreception and magnetoreception, Proprioception

Chronopsionic - Time, Psionic

Summary

Key: [External link] [Guide link] [Glossary link]

9.1 Context & Anatomy

Gallifreyans have the same senses as we do, they’re just much, much better. 

They also have a few extra ones besides.

They use the same organs (ie. they don’t hear with their feet)

All of the senses can be consciously controlled by the gallifreyan, either enhancing/reducing sensitivity or shutting them off altogether.

9.2 The Main Senses

Gallifreyans senses can be broadly categorised into seven distinct areas:

To save my bloody stumpy fingers typing it out seven times, just remember that acuity of the senses will vary from body to body and gallifreyan to gallifreyan, for example, some rely on taste more heavily than others and some don’t wear glasses. All gallifreyans are individuals and no body is the same. You are all individuals!

9.2.1 Sight

The Importance of Being Eyeful

This guide is definitely not any sort of deep exploration of gallifreyan society, but when it comes to explaining the importance of eyes this suddenly becomes very relevant. Gallifreyan eyes are very important to their culture. On Gallifrey they are one of the primary methods of machine interaction. They use them to interact with with the Eye of Harmony as well as the deeper workings of the TARDIS, and use them with other varying gallifreyan technologies, right down to humble door locks. Without their eyes, they would be very limited on their homeworld.

Why is this? Because unlike fingerprints, gallifreyan eyes remain individually consistent throughout their incarnations. Basic retina patterns don’t change from body to body, meaning it’s a far more reliable way of identifying an individual on Gallifrey.

As with most things to do with gallifreyans, they may look pretty human on the outside, but gallifreyan eyes are significantly different from human eyes. The retinas perceive and process visual data on their own without the brain having to get involved. This is just one more thing their brain doesn’t have to bother with so it can get on with being clever. 

The eyes are made out of three cell types, cones, rods, and octagons. 

Cones

Cones are what we use on a day-to-day basis to see the world around us. There are around 4.5-7 million of them in three colour types - red, green, and blue. We see something, the cones are stimulated by their according colour, and the brain interprets the data to give you an image which may or may not always be reliable (remember that dress?).

Gallifreyan visuals are much more reliable, as they are pentachromatic. They have five cone types in their eyes, allowing them to see more reliable colour images. They also have more cone cells, making them more sensitive to light and giving them all round better vision.

Rods

Rods are for night vision - we have around 90-120 million of them and they require far less light stimulation to ‘activate’. However, humans can only receive black and white data through them.

Gallifreyans have more rods than we do in three types (red, green, blue), meaning they can see much better in the dark and in colour (although not as well as in daylight). 

Octagons

In humans, rods and cones work together to build the best picture they can, but in gallifreyans the eyes will switch from cones to rods and vice versa depending on what the retina deems to be the better image. If desired, this image can then be supplemented by the octagons. There aren’t that many octagons (1-2 million) but they are very powerful, and they’re what allow gallifreyans to see tiny details of objects from very far away. If you think of normal gallifreyan vision as 4k definition, then octagons make it 8k.

Topographical sensitivities

So you’re probably now thinking ‘gosh, that eyesight is practically endgame-level’, and yes, you would be right. But that’s not all. Timegri are actually able to take this to an even higher level. Their extremely sensitive eyes allow them to see even minor distortions in their field of view, leading to logical deductions on the space they’re in. For example, they’ll be able to see if they’re in a holographic projection (they can probably see the glitches and dead pixels) or a dimensionally transcendental space (there is usually slight warping on the edge of the field of vision).

Problems, Diversity & Solutions

Genetic and regenerative disorders

Colour blindness: Despite this high level of sophistication, colour blindness is possible in gallifreyans, whether through genetics or injury/disease, but the presence of these issues will vary with each incarnation.

‘Polyheterochromia’: Beyond the regenerative ‘moulding’ period, eye colour may change during the course of an incarnation, sometimes as frequently as every few minutes. This is a curious condition that appears to come and go at random and may be linked to some sort of instability during the regenerative process or interference with their biodata, though could also be linked to changes in mood or perhaps something potent that they’ve digested or inhaled. It doesn't appear to cause any harm to the gallifreyan.

Age-related degeneration: As a body ages, visual acuity will decrease as everything becomes less new and shiny, just like many of us.  Of course everything can be made shiny again by regenerating.

Other conditions: There are many other conditions we’re all familiar with, such as cataracts and glaucoma, and yes, gallifreyans can be affected too, but not nearly quite as frequently. Blindness in a fresh body is possible.

Traumatic experiences

Eye removal: Physical removal of the eyes is exceptionally traumatic and recovering from this is very difficult. Their eyes cannot simply grow back and a new manufactured pair of eyes will probably be rejected (the original eyes need to be surgically put back). In addition to this, if they regenerate with no eyes then they will not grow back in a new body. The affected gallifreyan will have to rely on their psionic and somatosenses to function, and they won’t be able to use much gallifreyan technology. Put bluntly, if someone removes the eyes of a gallifreyan and completely destroys them, that gallifreyan will probably never see again.

Critical damage: Their pupil response is very quick to changing light, reducing their risk of damage by brightness/intense photo-emissions. However, severely adverse events such as exposure to the vacuum of space, high levels of ultraviolet light, or other ‘catastrophic accidents’ can cause blindness, however, as long as the eyes are still in their sockets and the visual pathways aren't completely fried, any blindness caused is curable by regeneration. If the eyes are still where they should be but the visual pathways are completely destroyed, then only extremely advanced technology can restore sight.

Interventions

While glasses are good for minor corrections, more extreme vision loss can be supported by technological interventions such as specially designed glasses or lenses, or even the use of a telepathic bond with an animal. Nothing will completely restore their sight, but it allows a good degree of functionality.

Unlike the skin, implants put into gallifreyan eyes will remain in-situ until physically removed. This is obviously a good thing if it’s intentional, but if it’s without their knowledge then the gallifreyan cannot instinctively tell there is an implant in their eye.

Natural individual variation

Gallifreyans can be short-sighted or long-sighted in one or both eyes and require glasses, in some bodies and not in others.

Gallifreyan eye colour is more often than not what we would deem to be ‘natural colours’, however, similarly to skin and hair, some more wacky eye colours such as red or purple are not completely off-limits.

The differences between masculine and feminine eyes are negligible, but if you want to get picky then on average masculine eyes may be able to pick up movements better over long distances and feminine may see more vivid colours.

9.2.2 Sound

Sound stimuli are received by the ears and processed by the brain with the help of the nervous system to give living creatures a soundscape of their surroundings. We talk about sound in two ways - as frequency (measured in hertz) and as volume (measured in decibels).

Frequency

Every living creature has a range of frequencies it’s able to hear, with various species able to hear things others can’t perceive. This is called their audio frequency spectrum. To give you some perspective: 

The gallifreyan spectrum is much wider than in humans, sitting around 12Hz to 30kHz (this varies). This means they can perceive some infrasonic sounds we can’t, such as avalanches and earthquakes, severe weather and turbulence, and also hear ultrasonic sounds like electronics/machinery. It’s also because of this wider range gallifreyans can listen happily to frequencies we’d find hard to tolerate for too long ie. nails down a chalkboard. So if you ever wondered why the Music of the Spheres sounds so terrible to us and great to the Doctor, it may be because he was hearing things that we can’t perceive (or he just has a terrible taste in music).

Timegri have an extra enhancement, where they are able to perceive the sounds of their symbiotically-linked TARDIS over great distances due to their attunement as the pilot.

Doctor Wholittle

Because they can hear higher frequencies, this enables gallifreyans to hear some forms of animal communication (specifically known, dolphins) without artificial support, and then by understanding how certain calls relate to certain moods and messages, they can replicate the sounds vocally and ‘talk’ to them using their excellent vocal cords.

Volume

Volume is measured in decibels, and our scale, rather selfishly, centres on humans. 0dB is silence, while 185-200dB will genuinely kill a human. Meanwhile dogs can hear between -5 and -15dB, making them able to hear things that are too quiet for us. Gallifreyans are similar to dogs in this way - they can hear sounds down to around -5dB and tolerate noise up to 190dB without ill effect.

Problems, Diversity & Solutions

Deafness is very rare on Gallifrey, so rare in fact, that it’s never been mentioned, but any issues with this sense either through disease or injury would be able to be cured by regeneration. These diseases and injuries would be very much the same ones we may contract and/or experience. Theoretically it would be possible to regenerate with deafness on Gallifrey but this sort of thing would be quickly corrected either with a mini-regeneration or by surgery.

Again, differences between the sexes is negligible, but in general females tend to be more sensitive to loud noises, and can process auditory data faster than men, making them quicker to respond to noises like being in a conversation.

9.2.3 Taste

Taste is experienced by humans through 2000-10,000 taste buds which live for around a week at a time, detecting salt, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami of food and drink.

Gallifreyans have a very sensitive palette, with a lot more taste buds than humans (around 10,000-20,000 renewing every 3 days), and their saliva has more enzymes. This combination allows them to get information about things and objects purely from taste, from telling blood types through the taste of differing antigens, types of minerals and substances,  to making logical deductions about atmosphere, as well as being able to tell the age of certain objects through the taste of rot and other decaying factors. Yuck.

Problems, Diversity & Solutions

As with everything else, diseases and injuries will affect the function of this sense. A severed tongue won’t grow back until regeneration, hospitaller intervention, or surgical reattachment, and disorders like dysgeusia are possible. Anything affecting this sense will obviously make their taste a little bit off. 

Those with feminine bodies tend to have a better ability to identify substance with a lick due to more sensitive taste buds.

One absolutely crucial note to mention is that their smell and taste aren’t linked like ours, so losing their sense of smell will have no effect on their sense of taste.

9.2.4 Smell

Smell (or olfaction) is perceived by humans and gallifreyans alike through the nose, and has connections to memory and emotion. Gallifreyans have far more receptors in their noses, making them more sensitive to odours.

Gallifreyan olfaction is similar to their taste sense in that it’s so sensitive they’re able to draw logical conclusions from the odours they can detect, right down to chemical level. This includes being able to work out where and when they could be in time just from odours they find familiar to a certain time period. And it’s not just environment, it’s also people - they can detect changes in people’s odours such as being able to smell a clone of someone they know. Using this impressive schnoz they can even identify species by smell. 

In Timegri, they are also able to smell time itself, with paradoxes and artron energy having their own specific scents they’ll be familiar with. They can also use smell to track down other Timegri with a well-placed sniff.

Problems, Diversity & Solutions

They can be affected by conditions like anosmia, parosmia, and phantosmia, but these are usually secondary to some other cause such as a disease, medication, or injury. Again, these types of conditions are quite rare for them and usually clear up once the cause has been identified and solved.

With age, their abilities mentioned above deteriorate in their proficiency, but in a minor way.

Once again just for a reminder, their smell and taste aren’t linked like ours, so losing their sense of smell will have no effect on their sense of taste.

9.2.5 Touch

If you’ve read the integumentary system section then there’s not much to say here besides that gallifreyans are much more sensitive with more nerve receptors in their skin, so their touch sense is a lot more effective than ours. There’s no differences between the sexes. Check the integumentary section for more fun facts!

9.3 Somato

No, it’s not the ability to see dead people (sorry, disappointing, I know). Somatosensation (abbreviated here to ‘somato’) is an umbrella term for a lorry-load of sensory inputs that allow us to understand our body’s reaction to its environment. In gallifreyans somato can be largely defined as breaking down into:

Thermoception (temperature)

Nociception (pain)

Equilibrioception and gravitoception (balance/gravity)

Mechanoreception and magnetoreception (vibration/pressure/magnetism)

Proprioception (positioning and movement)

9.3.1 Thermoception

Thermoception is the ability to sense when you are hot or cold. As discussed across the nervous system and integumentary system sections, thermoregulation tends to take care of itself using the autonomic brain and a highly effective heat maintenance method. Despite this, gallifreyans can feel hot and cold and will consciously adjust their water intake and clothing choices appropriately, however, their temperature control is so adept that they need the more extreme temperatures to need to act. These extreme temperatures are only able to be handled in short bursts (-200°C for 3 minutes), with length of time depending on how extreme the temperature is. When these temperatures become too extreme or too prolonged, gallifreyans will go through the usual motions of things like burns and frostbite, and they’ll even get sunstroke, which can be identified by a loss of memory.

9.3.2 Nociception

Gallifreyans feel pain, however, they are far better at managing it through their conscious ability to prompt the manufacture of endorphins (the pain reliever hormone). This allows them to effectively manage severe pain and makes them good at handling torture and interrogation methods. However, this is not a magic solution, and they will still feel and be limited by pain - the manufacture of endorphins only serves to take the ‘edge’ off.

If the pain becomes too severe or the damage is too great, then a gallifreyan will sink into a healing coma, which is a trance-like state designed to promote rapid recovery of whatever is causing the pain.

9.3.3 Equilibrioception and gravitoception

Equilibrioception encompasses the feeling of acceleration and balance. As previously discussed in the Nervous System section, due to their enhanced cerebellum and multiple brain stems, gallifreyans have better equilibrioception, to the degree they don’t feel things like sea sickness, jet lag, or vertigo and can stay standing perfectly upright without aid in situations where we’d all fall over. For example, ever tried to walk down the aisle of a moving bus without holding onto something? They’re very good at that.

They are also able to feel gravity strength more acutely than humans. This gives them heightened awareness of gravity and gravity fields, for example, using their gravitoception in conjunction with their mechano and magneto receptors they are able to feel planetary rotation and the sensation of their body being “stuck” to a planet’s surface. It’s through this they can also instinctively tell when gravity could be artificial.

9.3.4 Mechanoreception and magnetoreception

Concerning magnetoreception, as described in detail  in the nervous system section, gallifreyan brains have a strong electrical baseline, which makes them particularly sensitive to changes in magnetic fields, which force their brain to operate on a modified electrical level. Initial reaction to this includes goosebumps, but may result in things like headaches, confusion, and fainting if sticking around them for too long. 

Timegri can be even more sensitive to changes when using machines with high levels of magnetic alterations, such as transmats. They can experience paresthesia in the fingers or spine, tachycardia, insomnia, amnesia, and general disorientation. These altered magnetic fields may also cause fluctuations of the amount of artron in their blood, which can invoke either mild blood clots or temporarily excessive bleeding.

9.3.5 Proprioception

Proprioception allows you to sense the location and movement of body parts. Put simply, it’s how you know where your body is. Close your eyes and try to touch the end of your nose with your fingertip. Did it? Grats! You have excellent proprioception, because you knew where your hand and nose were without being able to see. 

As discussed in the nervous system section and above, gallifreyans have a more advanced cerebellum and multiple brain stems, which makes them incredibly dextrous. This heightened awareness of their position and movement through proprioception is what makes this work so flawlessly. The end result of this is that gallifreyans are able to learn and perform extremely precise calculated movements.

9.3.6 Sex, Age and Regeneration

This is sex, age and regeneration specific to the senses. For a wider explanation see the basics main section and the regenerative system main section (link to be added).

There are no notable differences between the sexes.

You've got the picture by now that somato will be affected with age-related decline. Older gallifreyans will feel the cold more easily, feel pain more, and have less balance and awareness of their bodies and environment. This means they have a little trouble orienting themselves in their environment and it can result in more chances of falls, but in gallifreyans falls will only occur in a really old body.

9.4 Chronopsionic

The chronopsionic sense is the seventh sense. It’s split into two main categories:

Time: The main ‘special feature’ of a gallifreyan, providing senses for use in time travel.

Psionic: Basically, telepathic and telekinetic abilities.

Both of these exist in all gallifreyans, but Timegri will have far more advanced time and psionic sensitives. Having these senses is absolutely essential to using a TARDIS. 

But before we touch any of that, we just need to quickly go over how Timegri actually see the universe. And hang onto your tin foil hats, people, because this is where we get proper sci-fi.

Dimensional perception

In Doctor Who lore and actual quantum theory, there are 11 dimensions. Timegri are five dimensional beings. Let’s just clarify what that means - human perception of the universe comes in four dimensions. Humans can operate in three dimensions: length (1st), width (2nd), depth (3rd). As for time (4th), we can't operate in it (ie. We can't travel in time) - we can only perceive time moving. Existing in five dimensions means Timegri can travel in time, and see and operate in the multiverse, which in Doctor Who lore is the group of parallel worlds that all started from Event One (AKA the Big Bang). 

Still with me?

So, as five dimensional beings, they subconsciously see the universe in five dimensions. What does that mean? Well, when the Doctor looks at a person, he is subconsciously seeing their entire lifespan from birth to death, as well as everything they could possibly become. When he looks at the world around him, he sees all potential pasts, presents, and futures, as well as what could be and what must not be, alongside what absolutely must happen (a “fixed point”), what could be changed (a “nudge point”), as well as remembering what didn’t happen and what would have happened if it did. Is it any wonder with all this information to sift through that he sometimes misses the obvious?

Dimensional perception continued … you can quit here if you want this is just for fun

So that’s five dimensions. What about 6th-11th, I hear you say? These are known in Doctor Who lore as the Six-Fold-Realm and it’s where all the transcendental beings usually hang out. For Timegri, a little part of their brain above the pineal gland known as the Superior Epiphysis Cerebri‎‎ can allow them to see these higher dimensions, but this requires intense training to use. Being able to access these higher dimensions would allow a gallifreyan to access the Omniverse - that’s every that ever was, is, could be, and will be, simultaneously across every single universe that could ever exist. In practical Doctor Who terms, that’s what an Eternal is, or Bad Wolf.

I'm not going to go any deeper into this, so if you'd like  know more then I recommend you start with this page on the TARDIS wiki and get a basic understanding of dimensional theory.

9.4.1 Time

So now that’s cleared up, I’ll return to the rather easier to understand fact that gallifreyans are time sensitive, and the time sense is exactly what you think it is. It isn’t exclusive to Timegri, normal gallifreyans have it too, just to a far lower degree. It grants a wide range of abilities, received through the other sensory organs and processed by the time lobe in the brain. These senses are enhanced by artron energy, which builds with excessive time travel.

Heightened awareness of the passage of time: obviously, gallifreyans are able to sense the passage of time far more keenly than us, and Timegri even more accurately - they can sense when time is not passing normally (ie. time jumps or distortions) and can resist it. There is also an additional skill known as ‘internal chronometry’, which is a learned skill that can be used to tell the time to within a nanosecond of accuracy.

Ability to identify other time sensitive species: Gallifreyans can instinctively detect when another being is time sensitive like some sort of alternative time-driven gaydar. 

Gut revulsion to time anomalies: When confronted with someone who is anti-time (sorry, Jack) Timegri get a repulsive feeling in their gut. It feels a little bit like biting into an apple and realising it’s full of maggots. 

Detection of exotic time particles: Regular time travel causes the accumulation of exotic particles to build up in the systems of any time traveller, and Timegri are able to see them as a sort of ‘slithery mist’ around the person. These particles include bockatrons, harminums, artron oxidants, and chronitons and antechronitons. 

Breaking of the Laws of Time: The Laws of Time are absolutely hardwired into Timegri as part of their biology, so they instinctively know when one has been broken, whether by themselves or others. This is usually accompanied by a feeling of a shiver running down their spine. In its severest form, those who aren’t used to breaking the Laws of Time will have acute physical symptoms before doing it, such as memory problems, and pain.

Detection of other time phenomena: There are of course numerous additional time-related phenomena that they can instinctively sense, some of which cause physical reactions. This includes parachronic time fields, paradoxes, time fissures, and more. If hanging around these for too long, they’ll start to physically react to them, with headaches, tingling sensations, and dizziness being the most common symptoms. None of this will kill them, but it ain’t half unpleasant, gov.

9.4.2 Psionic

As the psionic system has its own section, I’ll just cover the basic sensory inputs here. 

Psionics in its most loose and frivolous definition is psychic powers. By using this system, this grants gallifreyans a host of special psychic senses using their epiphysis cerebri, including:

Recognition of a TARDIS: Timegri can recognise a TARDIS, its type, and its condition straight away, regardless of its shape and form. They can also physically react to fully energised TARDISes with a tingling sensation in their fingers and toes.

Ability to identify other gallifreyans: They have another gaydar, this time it’s for identifying and detect members of their own species irregardless of their appearance, which as you undoubtedly read in the nervous system section is made possible by the reflex link. This can be supplemented by using their sense of smell to detect and locate each other to a specific area.

Ability to identify other psionic species: The final gaydar, this time it’s being able to identify if someone they encounter is also psionic.

“Finding evil”: The Doctor appears to have quite a knack for sensing evil and claims that this is one of his senses. It does exactly what it says on the tin - he seems to be able to instinctively feel the presence of something bad. However, this sense appears to be exclusive to the Doctor and somewhat intermittent and there’s no evidence any other gallifreyans have it, so use it carefully.

9.4.3 Injury, Disease & Healing

This is injury, disease and healing specific to the senses. For a wider explanation see the immune system.

Damage to either of these senses is extremely disabling for a gallifreyan, especially a Timegri. Forcibly removing them would be nothing short of horrific for the individual and a form of torture.

Injury tends to come from traumatic damage to the brain that affects the time lobe or the epiphysis cerebri, such as severe head trauma or a psychic shock. Depending on the severity of the damage this may require regeneration, or alternatively could be fixed by assisted or natural healing.

There are some extremely unique diseases for creatures with time and psionic sensitivities which can cause the hampering or destruction of sensory inputs, which are known to be far worse than anything on Earth, only a few of which we know about (Regeneration (link to be added) and Immune System sections). If you ever invent anything, drop me a line and I’m totally there to read it!

9.4.4 Sex, Age & Regeneration

This is sex, age and regeneration specific to the senses. For a wider explanation see the basics main section and the regenerative system main section (link to be added).

There's no discernable difference in the time sense between masculine and feminine bodies. However, those with more feminine brains tend to have better psionic senses as their epiphysis cerebri is naturally larger.

Age, as ever, causes these senses to be a lot less refined. And apart from where I’ve noted, regeneration will cure most issues with these senses.

9.5 Summary

Remember - you are all individuals! No body and no gallifreyan are the same.

Gallifreyans are extremely sensitive to pretty much everything, they’re better at everything than us.

They’re also incredibly resistant to adversities to protect their sensory organs.

Eyes are really, really important …

… As are chronopsiotic senses, because without those they’d lose what it means to be a gallifreyan.

Magnetic fields are quite a challenge sometimes.

Time adversities cause physical symptoms.

They’re 5D creatures so don’t underestimate how differently they perceive the world.

Rejected Evidence: 

I don't think this is anything more than poetic scripting, so I'm not gonna try and physiologically justify it, but please do enjoy:

‘Eyes could be used to tell [a gallifreyan’s] true age’

I cannot find at all where this came from (my best guess is Sleepy?) and the use of mRNA is so tenuous anyway I’ve decided to let this slide for now, may return later.

‘Some Gallifreyans can use their stomachs to interpret human memory RNA and producing the Gallifreyan equivalent.’

This is a cute thought but this seems defunct in the hierarchy considering how boy spends a lot of his time wandering around in full-on coats and jackets in high temperatures.

‘Gallifreyans tend to find a room temp of 20 C to be uncomfortably hot.’

I’ve covered the topographical sensitivities, but I don’t believe this is a sense of its own, this is just a case of good memory.

‘This Topographical Sense also allows them to remember any path they have taken (this might work by tracing their own biodata). To use their Topographical Sense they must however remember to store the path they took.’

I suspect this is probably in reference to The Christmas Invasion, but the recent regeneration mitigates this.

‘Through an act of will, a Gallifreyan can compartmentalize pain to the degree that they can block the pain from a severed limb.’

Curious about something? Need some creative gallifreyan biology-related advice? Wanna say hi? Ask away!

[highseraphs]

🌈 RAINBOW — what is your oc's sexual orientation/gender identity? what pronouns do they use?

🌴 PALM TREE — does your oc have a green thumb? do they enjoy gardening?

🍎 RED APPLE — where was your oc born? do they still live in/around their place of birth or do they live somewhere else? how do they feel about their birthplace?

💘 HEART WITH ARROW — what and/or who do(es) your oc consider the most important to them?

💚 GREEN HEART — does your oc prefer being inside or outside?

🍔 HAMBURGER — is your oc good at cooking? are they good at baking? which one do they prefer?

😊 SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES — what are your oc's career/general life desires? what do they want to get the most out of life?

🤔 THINKING FACE — what are some of your oc's quirks/mannerisms?

🤓 SMILING FACE WITH GLASSES — is your oc chatty or quiet? are they at ease in social situations, or are they more shy?

🌈 For Lovelace he’s nonbinary and achillean! He also uses They/him pronouns

For Ebrietas, he’s agender and I’d say he’s gray ace. His pronouns are they/he/it

🌴lovelace loves flowers but he doesn’t have a green thumb! He doesn’t have much experience gardening.

Ebrietas doesn’t have much of one either, especially since he grew up in a mansion, he never had to tend to any gardening. He’s interested in botany as a science, but he doesn’t active engage with it.

🍎Lovelace was born in Golmore Jungle, Dalmasca in a village called Del-Eleyh. He doesn’t live there now, but he does visit. He lives on his airship, so he doesn’t really have a set place that he lives in, though he does have a few homes in some city states he stays in when he is in those locations. He lives Del-Eleyh, even if he does have some unpleasant memories, still he is proud of his birthplace.

Ebrietas was born in the northern mountains of Sharlayan in a densely forested, isolated location. There wasn’t any civilization around, just the large mansion his parents owned. He still lives in Sharlayan, but has a smaller property near old Sharlayan so he can frequent the town easier for books and other indulgences. He doesn’t like that old mansion that he lived in, he changed it to fit him after he killed his parents, but he still feels whispers of their presence with the home so he only goes there if he has to.

💘Lovelace considers Elidibus to be the most important to him because of Dionysus and Elidibus being such passionate lovers in ancient times, as well as the many things Lovelace had gone through with Elidibus throughout the years. Despite Lovelace seeming like he wouldn’t get along so well with Elidibus, they are very infatuated with each other. Lovelace is the most open with him. But other than that Ebrietas, Thancred, his voidsent familiar Ash, etc. He also keeps a ribbon with him that his adoptive father gave to him as a child.

Ebrietas doesn’t consider other people he meets as important, but he does place value in the books and items people give him. He acts as if he doesn’t, but he likes receiving gifts from others (this could be because of the ways his parents gave him ‘gifts’ (sacrifices), he also enjoys things with heart like 🫀 imagery. Won’t go too far into that reason tho LOL)

💚Lovelace loves being outside! He hates being cooped up in buildings and would rather be out within nature.

Ebrietas likes being inside unless it’s cold outside. He hates warm & hot weather (but like it’s when it’s warm inside of buildings, he’s just weird about things like, that) it could also be a result of how he was before he became himself, he’d destroy stars and they’d be engulfed in flames, it made him viscerally angry that his influence was always resulting in ruining his goal of ruling over the planet, so the cold is a comfort for him.

🍔both of them can’t cook to save their lives, but Ebrietas’s food would be downright inedible, like it would be absolute eldritch abomination type shit it would be indescribable LOL

😊Lovelace is a sky pirate! And he wants to remain a pirate. He can’t see himself doing anything else but being a debaucherous sky pirate. He always thought playing hero was just to off to him, so he’d still even now, rather remain a pirate.

Ebrietas just wants to travel, read and eat sweets lol. He has a very unnerving presence, so he doesn’t even try to interact with people because he thinks it’s not worth it. But yeah, he also wanted to destroy Etheirys after he regained his abilities while he was ‘resting’ within the coffin in his home, but was stopped by Lovelace. He realized then besides the interesting history and food Etheirys has to offer, he can play cat and mouse with Lovelace for fun.

🤔Lovelace’s ears are very expressive! If his expression doesn’t show on his face, it’ll show up on his ears. He tried to bully himself out of doing that, but he still does it occasionally.

Ebrietas sucks his teeth at anything that annoys him (many things), he tends to scratch down his arms if he is stressed enough (though the self-harm he does to himself will heal very quickly, and due to his limbs being black, and scars he does have aren’t very noticeable) he frowns a LOT, most of the time he is frowning or looks like he’s seething/annoyed.

🤓Lovelace is an extrovert, so he talks a lot. He doesn’t have much shame and he is not shy whatsoever. Given he’s a captain of a huge amount of criminals, he himself isn’t afraid to be blunt and honest with others, so yeah he’s def a talker.

Ebrietas hates other people so he won’t engage in conversations unless he has to. And when he does he is not very pleasant, often scaring other people away from him, making them uncomfortable, or angry. He doesn’t care at all how he makes other people feel unless he does have a semblance of care towards them. (Like Erenville, he’s very cautious with how he talks to him because he actually likes him, but a lot of their conversations are Ebrietas being like ‘are you sure you wanna speak to someone like me?’ To him and Erenville being like ‘?…what is the harm?’) Though he is charming appearance wise, which annoys him because it’s always been something that has made people want to talk to him, so unnerving other people gives him pleasure because they back off.

[frnkxalvrz]

❝ See, the life I’ve had, Can make a good man bad❞ Is that TOMMY MARTINEZ? no, you’re mistaken, that’s actually FRANCISCO ‘FRANKIE’ ALVAREZ { cismale, he/him }. He a 26/55 YEAR OLD VAMPIRE. He is a personal trainer and can easily be found at THE UGLY DUCKLING OR SUNNYSIDE. He is known for being IMMATURE, IMPULSIVE, and VAIN but also CHARISMATIC, ADVENTUROUS and BRAVE. You could probably bribe them with a NIGHT ON THE TOWN or piss them off by MAKING FUN OF HIM IN ANY WAY.

tw: blood, death, sex, drugs

Basics

Name: Francisco Alvarez. Nickname(s): Frankie, Frank, Franco Age: 26/55 Gender: Cis Man Species: Vampire Turned By: Luca Florres Occupation: Personal Trainer Lives In: Sunnyside

Personality

Character Inspos: Stiles Stilinski, Steve Harrington, Michael Kelso, Jason Mendoza, Troy Barnes, Jason Stackhouse, Lance Arroyo. Positive Traits: Charismatic, Adventurous, Brave. Negative Traits: Vain, Impulsive, Immature. Likes: 80's Movies, Old Pop Music, Cocktails, Working Out, Sex. Dislikes: Hurting People, Rude Clients, Awkward Silences, Sushi.

History:

Francisco was born on the 5th of January 1968 in Florida, he was raised by his dad after his mother passed away when Francisco was only two.

In school he fell into the wrong crowd, getting into fights, drinking from a very early age and even partaking in fairly heavy drug use. He had a fake ID from around the age of 16 and was very much into the party lifestyle, often being the life and soul of any social event he attended.

Frankie was kicked out of school for starting a fire in the locker rooms when he was seventeen, not that it mattered much, he was never an academic kid and though he was always friendly and upbeat, he was dumb as hell, even the fire was an accident.

He got a job working at his favourite nightclub, he was much too young but the manager overlooked his age since he was desperate for staff and had already served the young man plenty of times before. He worked there for a few years and became a very popular fixture of the club. He was friendly and had a bit of a reputation of sleeping with the patrons of the bar.

One night whilst working late on the bar, a handsome older man caught Frank's eye. They spoke, flirted and the man invited Frank back to his place for a bit of fun.

On the walk back the two men could barely keep their hands off one another, but soon enough they reached the stranger's apartment.

Barely in the door the men were all over each other again, they eventually reached the bedroom where things took a strange turn. As they laid there making love, he suddenly felt an intense pain like he had never felt before, a feeling that wouldn't stop, and only got worse and worse, and as the life slowly drained from him, it all went black and Frank knew this was the end for him.

He awoke a few hours later. His one night stand nowhere to be seen. Wondering if the pain he had felt before had all been a drunken dream. He felt good, great even, but a strange hunger overcame him. He then watched the door open and the man from earlier entered. He continued to apologise, profusely for what he had done, and Francisco's confusion only worsened. The handsome stranger went on to explain what he had done exactly and that Frank was now a vampire, a being that he had only heard about in stories, but it all made sense, and he knew what the hunger was for now.

Francisco tried to return home to his father and explain what had happened to him, but being an extremely religious man, his father threatened his son and told him to leave, and to never return.

Upset and confused Francisco travelled across the country, trying to find a place to call home, but unable to control his hunger and still in some denial about what he was, even after decades, he never settled anywhere for much more than a few months.

Eventually he found himself in Los Santos, and believed he had finally found the right town for him. He bought a rundown old gym and did everything he could to finally feel normal for once. He isn't the most subtle vampire in town, still struggling with it all, but for Francisco it's so far so good, and he hopes things stay good.

Head canons

Francisco doesn't mind being called Frankie, but hates when people he barely knows call him Frank. It's what his father used to call him when he was in trouble and it always reminds him of home, but not in a good way.

His least favourite thing about being a vampire is hurting people, he isn't good at controlling his hunger and often feels guilt for days after feeding on an innocent victim.

He never quite grew out of the 80s, he loves the music, the movies and most of all the fashion, often dressing a little questionably like he's still living in the iconic decade.

Francisco is one of the friendliest guys you will ever meet but he struggles to read a situation most of the time. He'll talk to anybody no matter if they want to talk to him or not, he can be a little annoying and it often leads the young vampire into sticky situations.

Sometimes his love for being liked can lead to Francisco showing off, be it his vampire strength at the gym or other abilities when he's drunk at the bar, almost outing himself on several occasions.

More to be added~

Wanted Connections

Roomie

Mentor

Drinking Buddy

Ex Lover

Vampire Who Turned Him

Client at the gym.

[barrowsteeth]

i'm a new to posting gifs. how do you know who to tag to get more exposure? my last couple of sets haven't gotten a lot of traffic.

Hi anon! I always start with the name of the media i'm giffing and the edit tag for the show or movie, transatlantic and transatlanticedit, for example. If there are other popular tags for the media, I also include that, e.g. transatlantic netflix.

Next I try to include a few source blogs related to the media. Some fandoms have dedicated source blogs, like heartstoppercentral, narliesource, tedlassogifs. Other source blogs focus on specific characteristics, like blackandwhiteedit, dailycolorfulgifs, usergif (for sets with effects, like blending and animated transition or text). There are a ton of source blogs out there and I think it's a bit of trial and error in figuring out which ones to tag for each set. My advice is to look at other sets in your fandoms to see what source blogs others are tagging, then check out the blogs to see if you like the content they post and want to include them. Note: some blogs only post and queue creations from their members, so make sure you read the individual blog rules before you start tagging.

I also belong to two gifmaker networks, @pscentral and @lgbtqcreators, where we poll our fellow gifmakers to see who might want to be tagged in a set to help spread the word. Tiny plug here but both groups are really fun and the members are very helpful and encouraging regardless of your skill level. I will be completely honest with you -- I was nervous and intimidated when I first joined but I'm happy to say my fears were unfounded. I've learned a lot in the time I've been a member and it's great to be part of a community of other gifmakers. If that seems like your kind of thing, I encourage you to check the networks out and join us!

I also have a few gifmakers I've gotten to know through my fandoms and who generously support other creatives by adding posts to their reblog queue. I've posted about this a few times but along the same lines, you are welcome to tag me by adding #userbarrow to your tags. If you're not sure if you should tag me, check out my tracking tag page. for more info.

It's also important to remember that only the first 20 tags on your post will show up in the tags on tumblr, so if you flail wildly add commentary tags, save them for the end.

Finally, the best advice I can give you is to be active and engage with other creatives. Reblog posts you enjoy instead of just liking them. Reblogging is the best way to promote other's work, as you would want them to reblog yours! Add fun tags in your reblog if that's your thing. Or leave a comment letting the original poster that you loved their meta or photo edits or gifset. The more you engage with others, the better chance you have of making new fandom friends and increasing your exposure!

[sinistergooseberries]

whats ur opinion on vegas bc rn i think i have very mixed feelings

its normal to have mixed feelings about him eqhqjbvekfj

this is a mafia show, so obviously we shouldn't expect any kind of difference between 'good' and 'bad'. theyre all part of the crime world and there's nothing that can redeem them irl.

the moment i saw vegas and the show introduced him to us was that he was a disgusting person as very soon into the show he is sexually assaulting porsche. every action of his towards porsche established that he is one of those manipulative bitches who will go to any lengths to get what they want. he didn't appeal to me in any way, to be honest. he enjoys torturing people inhumanly to an almost insane degree. but as the show revealed more about him and i began to recognise the parts which were lies which were truths (cause there are parts where is being truthful before the warehouse scene, right? like when he told porsche that the minor family has to do all the dirty work), i kind of realised that he is the product of his environment.

i guess during the whole temple scene i understood the appeal of vegaspete. from the start there were small hints as to pete's real self and the mask he puts one etc etc.. vegas and pete both put on masks and i guess i latched on to the part where they both have to reveal their truest selves to each other and from then on i became a vegspete fan fekhdvnbfjv.

in ep 11, we get to know about gun's abuse and that's part of the reason i felt a bit sorry for vegas. but obviously abuse doesn't excuse the shit he does. almost all the characters in this show are not good, cause, again, mafia, but you can clearly see the difference between kinn and vegas. vegas is shown to be a disgusting human being.

you don't have to justify vegas' actions, obviously. having mixed feelings about him is inevitable because he is that kind of character.

all im saying is that vegas is an evil guy whose reasons for being Like That™️is understandable but does not excuse his actions. he is an immature manchild who blames others for his short sightedness in his plans. and inflicts his anger on others the way his father did to him. to me, he is pathetic and would 100% die if he ever faced high school bullying. also the daddy issues kinda got to me sorry

[heart-locket-musicboxless]

•. A visit in a dream .•

[imaggots]

someone needs to make an app yhat has the picsart stcikers search and ivis paint eveyrthing

[dcymcres]

      I’ve got a decent amount of stuff done today, but there’s still more to do! I’m happy to have the threads I have & hopefully there will be more to do v soon.        keep in mind that my reverse starter call is here and still considered active for this week! I’ve yet to get to all of the ppl that liked but pls don’t fret. I promise that I didn’t forget about you! my brain just draws blanks with some things so I gotta revisit. pls don’t hesitate to give that more likes bc I love having something to do when I’m avoiding drafts at times lmao.       got work later on + a movie date with my work bestie so I’ll be catching you guys hopefully after the movie or just tomorrow. we shall see! but for now, I bid you adieu. have a wonderful day y’all. ♡

[seainspanish]

late art for callie day 💖

[lovely-v]

I do genuinely believe that the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (and arguably the Zelda franchise as a whole, though i myself have played literally none of these games) is closer to fitting the description of ‘Tolkien-esque Fantasy’ than most other movies/shows/games/books etc that claim that label

Like, compare this post by tumblr user wufflesvetinari, which makes an important point about Tolkien’s worldbuilding, and also lives in my head rent free:

and then these quotes from Jacob Geller’s “Every Zelda is the Darkest Zelda”

and his conclusions about the messages in Zelda games are thematically very similar to the through-lines about friendship and love in LOTR, and what a lot of authors miss about what makes a fantasy story personal and memorable:

“A world without joy and humor isn’t a compelling world to fight for” is exactly why there are so many pieces of fantasy media out there that just feel like carbon copies of each other (i’ve seen many posts that explain this better than I can though I can’t find any specific ones at the moment, just know that I didn’t invent this thesis). You’ve got the cool swords, you’ve got the wizards and the spells and the battles, but first and foremost you need the LOVE.

[ilyuu]

NAURURURUUR UR TAGS ALW GET ME SCREECHING GIGGLING SO HARD ILY BRO

ok but fr i didn't like alhaitham at first,,,,,,,, but he grows on u ok like at first u look at him and ur like pretty but bitchy ew but then u study him closer and he's just !! blunt cuz he doesn't??? care??? somehow ???? but he's not rUDERUDE when u does care he tries ok AND LIKE MAN IS SO AWKWARD PSLPSLSKDB

I MEAN I ALWAYS SMILE WHENEVER I READ ONE OF YOUR WRITINGS WHETHER SMALL OR NOT SO🤭🤭 mwah ily and your writing got me kicking my feet and everything

but like exactly tho,, literally the first time he came onto screen i took a double look when i saw him I CAN’T DENY THAT HE’S VV PRETTY but when i met him during the quest and afterwards and see through the way he talks and acts and such i started to see him maybe a bit more than just some pretty boy (and to quote, “but bitchy ew” JAHAJAAH)

AND THAT’S WHAT I FIND ENDEARING TOO (?!?!!!?)

but bro i can see why kaveh is so fed up with him imagine dealing with him for nearly every minute every day 💀

so uh,,,,,,, thanks for listening to my ted talk :)