#ties that tether

[sincerelyveronica]

Have you Read...

How are ya now, book buddies? Enjoying the month so far? I sure do hope so! I have some book recommendations for you, specifically highlighting Black authors. For me, it's been important to discover more black literature and authors. I wasn't exposed to much of it growing up. I make sure that I do from now on. I have discovered some beautiful works of art.

Let me share:

Children of Blood and Bone- Tomi Adeyemi: YA fantasy

The Last Black Unicorn- Tiffany Haddish: Memoir

The Hate U Give-Angie Thomas: YA Contemporary/social justice

My Sister, the Serial Killer- Oyinkan Braithwaite: Mystery thriller

Binti series #1-3- Nnedi Okorafor: Science Fiction

The Poet X- Elizabeth Acevedo: Poetry

The Sun is Also a Star- Nicola Yoon: YA romance

Ties That Tether-Jane Igharo: Romance/contemporary

Helium-Rudy Francisco: Poetry

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America-Michael Eric Dyson: Nonfiction/social justice

The Fire Next Time-James Baldwin: Nonfiction/essays/social justice

The Library of the Dead & Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments(Edinburgh Night Series) -T.L Huchu: YA Fantasy

Iyanu, Child of Wonder vol. 1- Roye Okupe: Graphic Novel/comic

I have enjoyed these books so much over the last few years. These authors have taken me on many emotional rides. Journeys that take place in magical lands, filled with rich culture, and beautiful characters. Some stories that have been heartbreaking and sorrowful. Bringing up uncomfortable conversations about racism and black lives. Stories that are needed to understand the injustices that plagues the black community. The prejudice and hate the lingers and spreads throughout so many communities that are not white. It’s hard to hear BUT it’s imperative to read or listen to. But there have been stories and characters that have made me smile endlessly! As all books should do. I hope you add these books to your collection.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[coralhoneyrose]

Pairing: Chrom/f!Robin

Rating: Teen

Words: 13,742

Tags: Accidental Engagement - Didn't Know Item Was Traditional Betrothal Gift, Courtship - Misunderstood Attempts at Courting Result in Surprise Proposal, Misunderstandings, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, Canon Universe

Summary: When Emmeryn leaves for Ylisstol after the Hierarch's betrayal, Chrom is riddled with worry. Robin is determined to prove just how committed she is to supporting him, and when she learns of a traditional Ylissean gift that symbolizes devotion and friendship, she thinks she's found just the way to do it. But Chrom’s reaction to the present is much more intense than she expected…and his behavior only gets stranger from there.

[araneitela]

Seeing Kafka in overtly revealing ("sexy") dresses in fan arts: I just... don't see why? Me over here: The most 'revealing' thing that I can imagine her in, if I envision her without a coat draped over her shoulders, is something like this. Am I just weird; where am I supposed to see this 'overtly revealing' nature of hers that oozes 'sexy'? That woman has class, and in that, I think she's sexy (f I have to use the word). And where do I get that impression from? Her entire default attire screams it at me from the rooftops.

[maphel-n-doodles]

Sketch dumpa

[fostopia]

I'm sorry to ask but could you explain both the tethered au and the broken ties au to someone who is for the most part clueless? I've been scrolling trying to figure things out but I keep getting the two mixed up (despite one being a subsection) my brain is just struggling for whatever reason lol. but I'm super interested because the universe you created seems really cool and I'm not usually into tmc aus! ty

Nah don’t worry about asking anon! I don’t mind answering the questions. I get how they can be mixed up a good bit considering they’re relatively similar minus a few details. The introductory post for Tethered itself is here

I’m also gonna toss in the subsection au where the group ends up with alt!Cesar since I think it’s funny

Also— Alt!Cesar he/it user

TETHERED TOGETHER

The main AU and the one the alternate scenarios/subsections come from; Tethered Together (usually referred to as just Tethered) is an au in which those who die relating to alternates come back as spirits; their visible form varies (as seen with Mark, who has wings when no other one does) but it always shows how they have died. The general idea for Mark and Cesar is that Mark has a gunshot wound to the side of his head while Cesar’s throat is slit. Mark is infinitely bleeding from his would, and the blood flow gets worse the more upset he is. Sorry Mark fans, he has a bad time here ^^’

The two spirits ended up tied together and then to Cesar’s old house, but when Adam and Jonah came along for their ghost cat the spirits ended up stopping them from respectively leaving the house and going into the basement. The two alive teens end up stuck with the ghosts because the two accidentally ‘tethered’ to them, hence the au name.

Alt!Cesar is a prominent figure here! Long story short, he tries to kill Jonah. In this, Jonah survives.

A note about alt!Cesar— alternates shouldn’t be able to physically harm or touch anyone; however when he killed Cesar it took over their body and now he can physically touch people. Sucks for his victims

I feel it’s also important to note, in the overall au + it’s subsections Adam is not an alternate‼️ He’s just an apathetic guy lookin’ for his mom.

BROKEN TIES

The first of the subsections, this follows the same timeline and all of the rules to the first one, but when Alt!Cesar attacks Jonah, he dies. Upsetting, unfortunate, it be like that sometimes. That’s basically the difference, he’s just a ghost now.

He can’t speak like the others and his bones glow through his skin. He doesn’t bleed like mark unless he’s reeeeally upset. I feel like the reason for the name doesn’t need to be explained

TANGLED BINDS

(name may be changed)

This is just the au where Jonah somehow befriends alt!Cesar and the entire group is stuck with him because whenever alt!Cesar tries to leave (trust me it’s ass does not wanna be with them) he blacks out and wakes up by one of the group again.

It’s basically just:

Jonah, stoned: you ever just,, wonder if you can say nuh uh to the guy telling you what to do

Alt!Cesar: ..CAN I?

They’re buddies. Jonah’s got a friendly/neutral dynamic with him since yknow. He tried to kill him and already did kill two of his friends; but Alt!Cesar’s basically like a really feral guard dog with Jonah. Mark tries to sick him onto Adam one day but Jonah stops that.

It’s called tangled ties cause somehow they managed to get a fucking alternate in the family dynamic

-

This looks coherent to me but if there’s anything you want clarified just ask!! I might leave out a few details since I do plan on doing the ask-the-characters stuff but yeah :]

[antisocialxconstruct]

.

[cpressmn]

steddie tangled au yes but steve as rapunzel admiring all the lights, wide-eyed, and eddie as flynn rider staring at steve with the exact same awestruck expression

[definitionsfading]

there always comes a point in my fandom arcs after 2-3 business years where all the creative passion and wind goes out of me and I fall to the floor like an empty sheet. I always get a prickling sense of when it's time to Move On with something else. but the fact that this happened immediately after part 1 of a 2-part fic that I haven't written a single word of prose for since March 17th is really a low blow, lmao.

somehow I have to find the scrap of light in me to finish this thing before I can close the door for a little while, and it's hard to even find that minute spark right now. I almost don't even want to do it. I keep hoping that waiting more weeks, or months at this point, will somehow grant me enough creative fortitude to finish things off. but I don't think I can keep going with any consistency right now. I do this for free and I'm all used up 🫠

[ierogenvy]

it could be argued that the current trend of leaning into traditional female gender roles - women claiming to not want to work, to be anti feminist, to wanting to be housewives, and even the concepts of girl math and girl dinner - is derivative of the 2015 trend of cottage core. in this essay i will -

[these-books-may-contain-magic]

I finally received my new batch of books the other day! though I'm a bit disappointment in the haul :( The seller told me over email that five of them were cursed, but upon further observation, I unfortunately found that only one of them is. Though calling it “Cursed” is certainly a bit dramatic, rather I'd label it as “lightly haunted" if anything.

However! I am pleased to say that the rest of the books are still interesting enough. Definitely antiques by the look of them, and I think they will look quite nice sitting by the front window.

[impossible-rat-babies]

once again. plagued bu 1.0 WoL thoughts !

[danthropologie]

do we think daniel has gone insane or does he know something? he is so media trained and still he went on air to say that the redbull seat is the number one seat he wants. he is gonna get cooked for that but he has been so confident about his chances of getting back like i can't imagine him being like this without having some sort of agreement with redbull that gets him that seat under certain circumstances

i mean bestie do you really think that EYE, the person that's been saying the entire fucking time that there's gotta be some sort of clause in his contract that gives him first look at that seat, am capable of having anything close to an objective take about this? 😭

[randomnameless]

We aren't the sexist ones. Edelstands are, and we can't let them run this stupid narrative of lies. We know Edelgard was written for men, by men, to be bought by men. Her fans like her because she's cute, okay, they pretend to be progressive or agree with her is just adhoc excuses to justify them liking the small uwu girl who's afraid of rats, draws pictures of MALE Byleth, and is just a pawn of Thales, a MAN. They're misogynists for hating Rhea a woman with actual autonomy unlike their waifu.

Eh,

I wouldn't call people misogynists for not liking a female character, but I remember someone received a lot of flak earlier this year (... I think?) posting about Supreme Leader's fate in AG and ending with Supreme Puppet, and, well...

I also really don't like it when a character I like is only seen as waifu-material/fanservice by the devs or the company who makes games and merchandising involving said character - and if everyone was hit with the moe hammer and the "u must luf the self-insert" rule, Supreme Leader as a character is a basic example of what not to do.

We're told and we saw a character who is hell-bent on following her path, always moving forwards, no matter the consequences, to reach her goal -

But in Tru Piss, she put her war on hold because "she was so sad uwu when u disappeared :'("

And that thing only exists in this route, the route you can access if you already have a certain fondness (or are supposed to!) for the character. It's like we have two Supreme Leaders, one existing for Fodlan and the rest of the verse, the Red Emperor with earl grey ; and the one meant for the player, with the uwu rat scene, the drawings, the war on hold, etc etc. And as annoying as it is, the Fodlan games were designed around this, what if the Red Emperor was the waifu du jour, rather, waifu of the verse?

The Cipher cards already heavily implied what Supreme Leader was, for IS, we have the nightgown card and the naked Supreme Leader in the Hegemon card, and I've been looking carefuly at FE Cipher, I don't see anything remotely similar for the other characters from the same verse...

And then, we have Nopes, Supreme Leader ditches her commanding and badass imperial clothes and garb for a sailor fuku. We have a panty shot of Supreme Puppet in AG's finale - on top of all the implications Supreme Leader reverting to a 12 years old imply.

As annoying as it is, Supreme Leader seems to have been designed by the guy who invented "Cow-milla", and I understand some of her fans being pissed at how IS/KT/whoever else wasted her character to make her pander to the player - who is always assumed to be male - however, the double standard of some devoted fans is kind of jarring, but it's something to be expected now, nearly 4 years after this game's release.

I still find it ultra ironic how some of the most ardent defenders of the "she was manipulated by Uncle who fed her lies etc etc had to start her war etc etc" reject AG because it removes her agency, when they eluded it in earlier fandom discussions to make a general point about "my fave would never" -

But I already said something about double standard lol

[araneitela]

Notes on Kafka's trailer, "A Dramatic Irony", this'll include the obvious and the less so noticeable details. I'll be elaborating on and making use of these in the future, but for now— a little list for myself (and you?) on things I want to talk about. Oof, my dear girl, there is a lot to unpack about you and I still won't be done in a year from now: Edit: It ended up being long, but who's surprised, really?

— Background music. Entirely based on Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Most very accurately pick out 'Winter' as that's what it starts with and it's also immediately recognizable, but it actually transitions into 'Summer' just after about halfway through and beautifully ends in it. The inclusion of them both is one of HoYoverse's finest decisions musically.

— The usage of rose petals instead of blood. This one thrills me, because they add such an inherent romanticism to the concept of death, which is an ages old tale and concept (hey, do we want to tie in the beauty of how Blade craves its peace so desperately yet cannot obtain it and she cannot grant him it? I do), and it plays in beautifully to the concept of what 'fear' is usually most tied to, and how she doesn't feel it. Now what exactly are these petals of? If it's your regular red rose, then yes— it is likely referencing the intrinsic romanticism of death. I initially wondered if it could be the China rose, which would indicate longevity which could be hugely interesting but no. However, with the impending goal of 'seeking fear' and tying it directly into 'the value of life', I find the more traditional take of the red rose, a sign of intense passion/love, or a potential for the hope of passionate love, incredibly intriguing (my stance on the potentially implied ship with the MC is still where I stand, but another is creeping in through a lot of rationality and logic; because I do think that's how they plan on doing it— it's what makes most sense with implications made in her dialogue).

— Inspiration: Rorschach inkblot test. "What do you see?" It says at 0:15, and it threw me for a moment, until I looked around the text. The ink blot. Leave it paused for a second. What do you see? It's the Rorschach inkblot test. It hit me with the ferocity of a ton of bricks. For those not sure what I'm talking about, do a little search and you might have seen it used in television by some psychologists, it is a test to examine a person's personality characteristics and their emotional functioning, everyone may see something different in specific ink blots. When you leave it paused at 0:15 seconds in, that's the first card and it's called The Fear Card; intrinsically fitting, considering: "Elio said that I'm good at creating "fear", even though I don't know what it is." I didn't actually recognize the ink blot until I started typing this up and analyzed it again for the umpteenth time. I'm losing my mind, no, I've actually already lost it, because on further analyzing, I think the spider on the back of her coat also looks like it's been designed after the ink blot/card in question because it grows into a similar shape, though more so when it grows into the lines/threads of her Spirit Whisper that you see around the 1:13 mark. The entire sequence of ink blots at that timestamp give us an insight into what the guard sees that she's talking to, he sees his own death. /breathes very casually. God, I'm losing my mind, this might actually play so much more into her character. What do you see, she asks— Kafka, what do you see?

— She's so incredibly cultured. There are a lot of very classical but also archaic elements that play into the design of her character across the board. Classical music is so rarely used anymore, but it adds such a different level of sophistication to her character. Kafka stands out amidst most of the other characters, not because she's classier in general, but because they tie very old-fashioned and less used concepts into a very modern design and mold them into a perfect whole. The classical music and how she never foregoes this intense connection she has to it, the insane archaic katana versus the very modern uzis (ode to Devil May Cry, anyone? A pair of guns, one black and one white, and a katana? Along with having once worked as a 'demon hunter'? Capcom deserves the nods) and grenades, her attire especially between the coat, the high waist, the glasses and the dress shirt— but it's all beautifully put together in an incredibly modern outfit. She's so cultured, there's an intense class to her and I will not stop falling more in love with it with each passing day.

— Storytelling. 'Intermission', 'oneiric structure', 'MacGuffin', 'non- linear structure', 'fin', these are all firmly tied into the art of storytelling in film (and literature as well). Intermission is a pause in the midst of a performance. Oneiric structure refers to a structure of a tale that replicates something non-linear, so something relating to the dreamlike (oneiric comes from the Greek 'oeneiros', which means 'a dream'), think of... something surreal or distorted in reality, something that simply can't be real. MGuffin in a plot device that takes form of an a goal (an object, for instance) that is an important element in a story due to it being firmly tied to the story's characters, a driving force if you will (so for Kafka, you could see her pursuit of feeling fear). Non-lineaur simply means that a story does not follow an order of events that's necessarily chronological in terms of timeline. And 'fin' marks the end of a performance. I cannot stop being feral as to how consistent HoYoverse is with this. It isn't just referencing her trailer, or the overarching narrative of the game of Honkai: Star Rail, but also her character directly, terminology commonly used in film are in her trailer, she herself seems to be rather passionate about film (you receive a text from her regarding being alone in a movie theatre during the play of one, and she laments that there aren't more people there to watch), her eidolons being after musical terms tied to music that she thoroughly enjoys and is used time and time again to represent her. God. God.

— What some may note as being a clock counting down, is not a clock at all, but an elevator that represents a life counter. With each kill, the elevator descended one more level until it reached the ground floor. I've seen some make references to Inception and upon further glance, the reference can be intended. The 'floors' can be seen as being representative of the different levels or layers of a person's subconsciousness as she delves deeper and deeper, as she is inherently able to control and manipulate minds. God, Kafka, surely this isn't a power all from New Babylon have.

— Threads of silk; a Moirai reference tied in with the arachnid? "The silk is too fragile to be a threat, unless you're more fragile than the silk." We know she isn't fate itself, but we know, in essence, a puppeteer that ensures all sort of unfolds as Elio has foreseen, particularly with the Trailblazer, even if she trusts him/her to make the right decision. We know arachnids are far and wide associated with manipulation, which we know she's abundantly capable of and responsible for, but it goes infinitely further than that. Spiders spin webs of silk, threads of silk, threads of fate, destiny, this is an incredibly thorough and intricate character design that they settled on. Everything is so perfectly interconnected, it's absolutely unreal.

[lets-talk-spirituality]

How do you clear the field etc you mentioned a few times

Hi! Thanks for asking :) Sometimes it’s about time, like after a breakup how you keep thinking about someone and then it lessens. Or you know how you have friendships that fizzle out, it’s when your energy is no longer compatible. And that’s what I mean by clearing them from your field. It’s not that you don’t care, it’s like you don’t really feel them anymore.

Sometimes it’s about time, it’s also about changing your environment, your energy. So part of why I think a lot of my friends are leaving is tied to the universe clearing away Jesus. Well first let me say, I think the island is sending some people away because their energy is no longer compatible here. But a lot of the people I had a lot of major moments with Jesus with are leaving. I think part of that is to help me clear him away. It’s hard when so much reminds me of him and our mutual friends ask if I’ve heard from him and stuff (I haven’t).

I’ve been trying to change my energy by enjoying life more, spending time with friends, etc. And I was made to move, like right after he left. So I changed my environment too. I���m working on reestablishing habits in my new place. But I’ve said it to people, it’s like the ghost of him is still here, like I feel the absence of his energy, like there’s this remnant part or essence of him here. I can tell our tether is weakening to a point where he’s almost cleared my field.

Of course I will always have a small piece of his energy within me, as he will have with me, as we do with all soul connections. But that’s different, because that’s the piece that transformed when we met. Our energies melded so it’s my energy now, if that makes sense. But I’m clearing his energy that’s just his from my field (my wider energetic body).

You can’t make an energy clear your field. You have to work through the process. And some energy is harder to clear than others, depends on the intensity and length of time you were connected, what emotional energy was created together etc.

Sometimes it’s harder to clear people from your field when they’re also still thinking about you and holding on. That’s how my ex and I cleared karma through dreams, we were still in each others field because I think he felt a lot of guilt and pain over what happened and so did I. So we did energetic work when sleeping to work through our human emotions so we could clear each others fields. Because we couldn’t do it in person.

You never lose your tether to them because the pieces of you that transformed through meeting will always tie to each other. That’s why some ties are so strong, especially past life or multi life ties. Those are like gravitational pull strong at times. Like can pull you to them thousands of miles away. That’s what I meant when I said I could feel my soulmates coming. I was feeling their energy entering my field. But your tether energy can sort of lie dormant I guess is the way I’d describe it, like it’s not as active. It can be reactivated through emotions and depending on how big those emotions are shows how much tether energy is being transmitted or received.

Hope this explains some stuff and makes sense! A lot of this I didn’t know til I was typing so that’s dope.