#under a readmore because its a LONG post

[mythtiide]

recent falklers from the past few weeks! (+ click the readmore for a SCARY suprise….) ❄️

BOO FALKLER JUMSCARE

[root-of-theseus]

Gratia Magia - 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌰 𐌼𐌰𐌲𐌹𐌰 - The Language of Magic

Take the Latin language and give it both Gothic phonetics and Alchemic symbols, and you're speaking the language of Patria Magia. Gratia Magia (Lit: Magical Grace) is a demunitive language of Träkrapsár after the people of Patria Magia seceded from Vassatänder 1300 years ago. Because of this, the language may look vaguely similar to Träkrapsár, but is phonetically much different.

The language itself has 27 letters, 7 phonetics, and up to 3600 symbols including variants. The letters names are a remanent of the history before the country was founded.

The Alphabet, Epistolarum - 𐌴𐍀𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍉𐌻𐌰𐍂𐌿𐌼 - is as follows:

Letters: A, B, G, D, E, Q, Z, H Gratia Magia: 𐌰, 𐌱, 𐌲, 𐌳, 𐌴, 𐌵, 𐌶, 𐌷 Letter Names: Asha, Bairkan, Giba, Dags, Aihvus, Qaithra, aZeti, Hagl

Letters: Th/Þ, I, Y, C/K, L, M, N, J, U Gratia Magia: 𐌸, 𐌹, 𐍁, 𐌺, 𐌻, 𐌼, 𐌽, 𐌾, 𐌿 Letter Names: Thiuth, Eis, Kusma, Lagus, Manna, Nathus, Jer, Urus

Letters: P/Pi, R, S, T, W/V, F, X, Pu/ƕ, O Gratia Magia: 𐍀, 𐍂, 𐍃, 𐍄, 𐍅, 𐍆, 𐍈, 𐍉 Letter Names: Pairthra, Raida, Sauli, Teiws, W/Vinja, Faihu, iggXs, Huawir, Othal

Extra Phonetics: Ai/Ï, Ei/Ë, Au/Ü, Iu/Ú, Ng, Tsh/Ћ Gratia Magia: 𐌰𐌹, 𐌴𐌹, 𐌰𐌿, 𐌹𐌿, Ŋ, 𐍊

Numbers: Same as Roman Numerals, though some opt to do Tally Numerals as well.

Symbola Alchemiae - 𐍃𐌹𐌼𐌱𐍉𐌻𐌰 𐌰𐌻𐌺𐌷𐌴𐌼𐌹𐌰𐌴 (Lit: Symbols of Alchemy) is a system of symbols meant to be shorthand for various elements, metals, magics, and words that are better simplified. Each Symbola is broken down into categories.

Magnis Lapis - The Diamond of Magical Elements

Sanguis Regium - The Blood of Royalty/The Major Phratry

Corpus et Anima - Body and Soul (Aka Anatomical Elements)

Metalla et Petra - Metals and Rocks

Objecta Notabilia - Miscellaneous

Symbola can vary depending on the parish, but they are taught in an egalitarian way so that if mages travel to the other parishes, they are able to understand the symbola of each region.

For Example, the element for: Fire (Ignis - 𐌹𐌲𐌽𐌹𐍃) can have one of five symbols: 🜂, ▲, ⟁, 🢁, and Λ Earth (Terra - 𐍄𐌴𐍂𐍂𐌰) can have one of five symbols: ◻, 🜃, ᨒ, ﹏, and ⛫ Air (Aer - ��𐌴𐍂) can have one of five symbols: ⏦, 🜁, ∿,࿐, and ࿓ Water (Aqua - 𐌰𐌵𐌿𐌰) can have one of five symbols: ⬭, ଳ, 🜄,🡻, and ♒︎

In posts that talk about these elements, they are coming from the capital parish, Urbs Aeterna - 𐌿𐍂𐌱𐍃 𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍂𐌽𐌹𐌰 (Lit: Eternal City) and are considered the standard symbola.

Basic Phrases/Grammar:

Basic Phrases/Grammar:

-- Phrases – Welcome: Salve (sin) Salvete (pl) – S𐌰𐌻𐍅𐌴 / S𐌰𐌻𐍅𐌴𐍄𐌴 Hello: Ave – 𐌰𐍅𐌴 How are you?: Quid agis? (sin) Quid agitis? (pl) – 𐌵𐌿𐌹𐌳 𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃? / 𐌵𐌿𐌹𐌳 𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍄𐌹𐍃? Good/So-so/Bad: Valeo / Licuit / Gravi  – 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐌴𐍉 / 𐌻𐌹𐌺𐌿𐌹𐍄 / 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐍅𐌹 Long time no see!: Quantum tempus! – 𐌵𐌿𐌰𐌽𐍄𐌴𐌼 𐍄𐌹𐌴𐌼𐍀𐌴𐍃! What's your name?: Quid est nomen tibi? – 𐌵𐌿𐌹𐌳 𐌴𐍃𐍄 𐌽𐍉𐌼𐌴𐌽 𐍄𐌹𐌱𐌹? My name is ___: Nomen mihi est ___. – 𐌽𐍉𐌼𐌴𐌽 𐌼𐌹𐌷𐌹 𐌹𐍃𐍄 ___. Where are you from?: Unde es? – 𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌴 𐌴𐍃? I'm from ___: ___ sum. – ___ 𐍃𐌿𐌼 Which parish?: Quam parochia? – 𐌵𐌿𐌰𐌼 𐍀𐌰𐍂𐍉𐌺𐌷𐌹𐌰? From the ___ parish: Ex ___ sum. – 𐌴𐍇 ___ 𐍃𐌿𐌼.

Good morning: Bona dies (sin) / Bonum diebus (pl) – 𐌱𐍉𐌽𐌰 𐌳𐌹𐌴𐍃 / 𐌱𐍉𐌽𐌿𐌼 𐌳𐌹𐌴𐌱𐌿𐍃 Good afternoon/evening: Bonum meridies / Bonum vesper – 𐌱𐍉𐌽𐌿𐌼 𐌼𐌴𐍂𐌹𐌳𐌴𐍃 / 𐌱𐍉𐌽𐌿𐌼 𐍅𐌴𐍃𐍀𐌴𐍂 Good night: Bona noctem (sin) Bonum noctem (pl) – 𐌱𐍉𐌽𐌰 𐌽𐍉𐌺𐍄𐌴𐌼 / 𐌱𐍉𐌽𐌿𐌼 𐌽𐍉𐌺𐍄𐌴𐌼 Goodbye: Vale(sin) / Valete(pl) – 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐌴 / 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐌴𐍄𐌴

Congradulations!: Gratulationes! – 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐍄𐌿𐌻𐌰𐍄𐌹𐍉𐌽𐌴𐍃! Good luck: Bonafortunam! – 𐌱𐍉𐌽𐌰𐍆𐍉𐍂𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌰𐌼! Get well soon/Good health: Convalescas ex aegroto mox / Bene tibi! – 𐌺𐍉𐌽���𐌰𐌻𐌴𐍃𐌺𐌰𐍃 𐌴𐍇 𐌰𐌴𐌲𐍂𐍉𐍄𐍉 𐌼𐍉𐍇 / 𐌱𐌴𐌽𐌴 𐍄𐌹𐌱𐌹! Bless you:  Tibi bene volo! – 𐍄𐌹𐌱𐌹 𐌱𐌴𐌽𐌴 𐍅𐍉𐌻𐍉! Good meal: Bene sapiat! – 𐌱𐌴𐌽𐌴 𐍃𐌰𐍀𐌹𐌰𐍄! Good travels: Bonum cursum! – 𐌱𐍉𐌽𐌿𐌼 𐌺𐌿𐍂𐍃𐌿𐌼! Happy holidays: Annum faustum (New Year) / Killik redit (Their Easter) / Nativitas Domini Killik (Their Christmas) – 𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌿𐌼 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌿𐌼 / 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌻𐌹𐌺 𐍂𐌴𐌳𐌹𐍄 / 𐌽𐌰𐍄𐌹𐍈𐌹𐍄𐌰𐍃 𐌳𐍉𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌹 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌻𐌹𐌺 Happy birthday: Felix dies natalis – 𐍆𐌴𐌻𐌹𐍇 𐌳𐌹𐌴𐍃 𐌽𐌰𐍄𐌰𐌻𐌹𐍃 Father Son and Holy Spirit (prayer to ward off evil spirits): Pater filius et spiritus sanctus. – 𐍀𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍂 𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍃 𐌴𐍄 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐍂𐌹𐍄𐌿𐍃 𐍃𐌰𐌽𐌺𐍄𐌿𐍃 Let the good times roll!: Bona tempora volvant! – 𐌱𐍉𐌽𐌰 𐍄𐌴𐌼𐍀𐍉𐍂𐌰 𐍅𐍉𐌻𐍅𐌰𐌽𐍄!

Yes: Vero/Ita (Lit: Yes, true) / Etiam (Lit: That’s so) / Sane Quidem (Lit: Yes, no doubt) / Certe (Lit: Certainly) / Factum (Lit It's A Fact) – 𐍅𐌴𐍂𐍉/𐌹𐍄𐌰 / 𐌴𐍄𐌹𐌰𐌼 / 𐍃𐌰𐌽𐌴 𐌵𐌿𐌹𐌳𐌴𐌼 / 𐌺𐌴𐍂𐍄𐌴 / 𐍆𐌰𐌺𐍄𐌿𐌼 No: Non / Nullo modo (Lit: By no means) / Minime vero (Lit: Not at all/Not by any means) / Non quidem (Lit: Certainly not) – 𐌽𐍉𐌽 / 𐌽𐌿𐌻𐌹𐍉 𐌼𐍉𐌳𐍉 / 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌴 𐍅𐌴𐍂𐍉 / 𐌽𐍉𐌽 𐌵𐌿𐌹𐌳𐌴𐌼 Maybe: Forte (sin) / Fortasse (pl) – 𐍆𐍉𐍂𐍄𐌴 / 𐍆𐍉𐍂𐍄𐌰𐍃𐍃𐌴 I don't know: Non scio / Nescio – 𐌽𐍉𐌽 𐍃𐌺𐌹𐍉 / 𐌽𐌴𐍃𐌺𐌹𐍉 I understand: Intellego – 𐌹𐌽𐍄𐌴𐌻𐌻𐌴𐌲𐍉 I don't understand: Non intellegio – 𐌽𐍉𐌽 𐌹𐌽𐍄𐌴𐌻𐌻𐌴𐌲𐍉 Please speak slower: Sodes loquere paulo lentius. / Iterum dicere potes? (Lit: Say that again?) / Sodes id scribes? (Lit: Can you write that down?) – 𐍃𐍉𐌳𐌴𐍃 𐌻𐍉𐌵𐌿𐌴𐍂𐌴 𐍀𐌰𐌿𐌻𐍉 𐌻𐌴𐌽𐍄𐌹𐌿𐍃 / 𐌹𐍄𐌴𐍂𐌿𐌼 𐌳𐌹𐌺𐌴𐍂𐌴 𐍀𐍉𐍄𐌴𐍃? / 𐍃𐍉𐌳𐌴𐍃 𐌹𐌳 𐍃𐌺𐍂𐌹𐌱𐌴𐍃? Please: Quaeso / Peto a te (Lit: I ask you) – 𐌵𐌿𐌰𐌴𐍃𐍉 / 𐍀𐌴𐍄𐍉 𐌰 𐍄𐌴 Thank you: Gratias tibi ago (sin/inf) / Gratias vobis ago (frm/pl) / Multas gratias vobis ago (Lit: Thank you very much) – 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌰𐍃 𐍄𐌹𐌱𐌹 𐌰𐌲𐍉 /  𐌲𐍂𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌰𐍃 𐍅𐍉𐌱𐌹𐍃 𐌰𐌲𐍉 / 𐌼𐌿𐌻𐍄𐌰𐍃 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌰𐍃 𐍅𐍉𐌱𐌹𐍃 𐌰𐌲𐍉 You're welcome: Precare (sin) / Precamini (pl) – 𐍀𐍂𐌴𐌺𐌰𐍂𐌴 / 𐍀𐍂𐌴𐌺𐌰𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌹 Excuse me: Me excusa (sin) / Me excusate (pl) – 𐌼𐌴 𐌴𐍇𐌺𐌿𐍃𐌰 / 𐌼𐌴 𐌴𐍇𐌺𐌿𐍃𐌰𐍄𐌴 Sorry: Ignosce mihi! – 𐌹𐌲𐌽𐍉𐍃𐌺𐌴 𐌼𐌹𐌷𐌹

I miss you: Të desum. (Lit: You I am without) – 𐍄𐌴𐌹 𐌳𐌴𐍃𐌺𐌿𐌼 I love you: Të amo. – 𐍄𐌴𐌹 𐌰𐌼𐍉 I lust after you: Të cupio. (Lit: I want you) – 𐍄𐌴𐌹 𐌺𐌿𐍀𐌹𐍉 I hate you: Të odi. – 𐍄𐌴𐌹 𐍉𐌳𐌹 Leave me alone: Abi! (sin) / Abite! (pl) – 𐌰𐌱𐌹! / 𐌰𐌱𐌹𐍄𐌴! Stop!: Siste! (sin) / Sistete! (pl) – 𐍃𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌴! / 𐍃𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌴𐍄𐌴! Go Away!: Cede! (sin) / Cedite! (pl) – 𐌺𐌴𐌳𐌴! / 𐌺𐌴𐌳𐌹𐍄𐌴! Help!: Adiuva! (sin) / Adiuvate! (pl) – 𐌰𐌳𐌹𐌿𐍅𐌰! / 𐌰𐌳𐌹𐌿𐍅𐌰𐍄𐌴! Who / What / When / Where / Why / Which / How: Qui? /  Quae? / Quod? / Ubi? / Quid? / Quod unum? / Quomodo? – 𐌵𐌿𐌹? / 𐌵𐌿𐌰𐌴? / 𐌵𐌿𐍉𐌳? / 𐌿𐌱𐌹? / 𐌵𐌿𐌹𐌳? / 𐌵𐌿𐍉𐌳 𐌿𐌽𐌿𐌼? / 𐌵𐌿𐍉𐌼𐍉𐌳𐍉?

-- Pronouns – I / me / my / myself: Ego / Meï / Mihi/Mï / Më – 𐌴𐌲𐍉 / 𐌼𐌴𐌴𐌹 / 𐌼𐌹𐌷𐌹/𐌼𐌴𐌹 / 𐌼𐌰𐌹 (Singular) You / your / yours / yourself: Tu / Tuï / Tibi / Të – 𐍄𐌿 / 𐍄𐌿𐌴𐌹 / 𐍄𐌹𐌱𐌹 / 𐍄𐌰𐌹 He / him / his / himself: Is / Eius / Eï / Eorum – 𐌹𐍃 / 𐌴𐌹𐌿𐍃 / 𐌴𐌴𐌹 / 𐌴𐍉𐍂𐌿𐌼 She / her / hers / herself: Ea / Eius / Eae / Earum – 𐌴𐌰 / 𐌴𐌹𐌿𐍃 / 𐌴𐌰𐌴 / 𐌴𐌰𐍂𐌿𐌼 It / its / itself: Illud / Illïus / Illorum – 𐌹𐌻𐌻𐌿𐌳 / 𐌹𐌻𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍃 / 𐌹𐌻𐌻𐍉𐍂𐌿𐌼 (Formal/Plural) You / your / yours / yourself: Vos / Vestrum/ï / Vos / Vobïs – 𐍅𐍉𐍃 / 𐍅𐌴𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌿𐌼/𐌴𐌹 / 𐍅𐍉𐍃 / 𐍅𐍉𐌱𐌹𐍃 We / us / ours / ourselves: Nos / Nostrum/ï / Nos / Nobïs – 𐌽𐍉𐍃 / 𐌽𐍉𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌿𐌼/𐌴𐌹 / 𐌽𐍉𐍃 / 𐌽𐍉𐌱𐌹𐍃 (Singular) They / them / their / themself: Istud / Istïus / Istï / Istud – 𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌿𐌳 / 𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌿𐍃 / 𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌴 / 𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌿𐌳 (Plural) They / them / theirs / themselves: Istï / Istorum/ï / Istïs / Istos – 𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌴 / 𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍉𐍂𐌿𐌼/𐌴𐌹 / 𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌹𐍃 / 𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍉𐍃

-- Family –Family: Familia / Fraternitas (Lit: Phratry/Brothers) – 𐍆𐌰𐌼𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌰 / 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍂𐌽𐌹𐍄𐌰𐍃 Parent(s): Parens (sin) / Parentes (pl) – 𐍀𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌽𐍃/ 𐍀𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌽𐍄𐌴𐍃 Mother(s): Mater (sin) / Matres (pl) – 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍂 / 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐍂𐌴𐍃 Father(s): Pater (sin) / Patres (pl) – 𐍀𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍂 / 𐍀𐌰𐍄𐍂𐌴𐍃 Child(ren): Puerum (sin) / Liberi (pl) – 𐍀𐌿𐌴𐍂𐌿𐌼 / 𐌻𐌹𐌱𐌴𐍂𐌹 Son(s): Filius (sin) / Filii (pl) – 𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌻𐌿𐍃 / 𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌻𐌹 Daughter(s): Filia (sin) / Filiae (pl) – 𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌻𐌰 / 𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌰𐌴 Husband(s): Maritus (sin) / Viri (pl) – 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌹𐍄𐌿𐍃 / 𐍅𐌹𐍂𐌹 Wife/Wives: Uxor (sin) / Mulieres (pl) – 𐌿𐍇𐍉𐍂 / 𐌼𐌿𐌻𐌻𐌴𐍂𐌴𐍃 Fiancé(e): Sponsus (masc) / Sponsas (fem) – 𐍃𐍀𐍉𐌽𐍃𐌿𐍃 / 𐍃𐍀𐍉𐌽𐍃𐌰𐍃 Sibling(s): Fratrem (sin) / Fratres (pl) – 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍄𐍂𐌴𐌼 / 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍄𐍂𐌴𐍃 Brother(s): Frater (sin) / Fratres (pl) – 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍂 / 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍄𐍂𐌴𐍃 Sister(s): Soror (sin) / Sororibus (pl) – 𐍃𐍉𐍂𐍉𐍂 / 𐍃𐍉𐍂𐍉𐍂𐌹𐌱𐌿𐍃 Relative(s): Relativum – 𐍂𐌴𐌻𐌰𐍄𐌹𐍅𐌿𐌼 Uncle: Avunculus (sin) / Patrui (pl) – 𐌰𐍅𐌿𐌽𐌺𐌿𐌻𐌿𐍃 / 𐍀𐌰𐍄𐌿𐌹 Aunt(s): Matertera (sin) / Materteri (pl) – 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍂𐍄𐌴𐍂𐌰 / 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍂𐍄𐌴𐍂𐌹 Nephew(s): Nepos (sin) / Nepotis (pl) – 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐍉𐍃 / 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐍉𐍄𐌹𐍃 Niece(s): Neptis (sin) / Neptes (pl) – 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐍄𐌹𐍃 / 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐌴𐍄𐌴𐍃 Grandfather(s): Avus (sin) / Avorum (pl) – 𐌰𐍅𐌿𐍃 / 𐌰𐍅𐍉𐍂𐌿𐌼 Grandmother(s): Avia (sin) / Aviae (pl) – 𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌰 / 𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌰𐌴 Grandchild(ren): Nepotis (sin) / Nepotum (pl) – 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐍉𐍄𐌹𐍃 / 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌼 Grandson(s): Nepos (sin) / Nepotes (pl) – 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐍉𐍃 / 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐍉𐍄𐌴𐍃 Granddaughter(s): Neptis (sin) / Neptes (pl) – 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐍄𐌹𐍃 / 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐍄𐌴𐍃 Father(s)-In-Law: Pater in lege (sin) / Patres in lege (pl) – 𐍀𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍂 𐌹𐌽 𐌻𐌴𐌲𐌴 / 𐍀𐌰𐍄𐍂𐌴𐍃 𐌹𐌽 𐌻𐌴𐌲𐌴 Mother(s)-In-Law: Mater in lege (sin) / Matres in lege (pl) – 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍂 𐌹𐌽 𐌻𐌴𐌲𐌴 / 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐍂𐌴𐍃 𐌹𐌽 𐌻𐌴𐌲𐌴

Additional words can be viewed in the dictionary.

[filibusterfrog]

I’ve been thinking about rescuing/adopting a parrot that needs rehoming when I get to the right place in my life to accommodate everything they would need. I've been curious about your experiences with Monty/Eclectus parrots in general and would love to know what your thoughts are about their husbandry if you have the time!

hello!! i do have thoughts on this, i go more in depth on some of my other posts in the '#monty tag' but ill pop some bulletpoints for you under the readmore

pros of ekkies:

-sweet, smart, loving birds as far as everyone seems to report, to me monty is my special boy and i love him more than anything

-are fairly quiet compared to other birds of similar size

-they telegraph what theyre about to do and move slowly so its easy to tell when theyre about to bite or if they need to otherwise be removed from a situation. other medium to large parrots are faster and less predictable ESPECIALLY cockatoos

- may be a pro or a con but they probably dont live as long as a cockatoo or a macaw. supposedly in captivity theyre expected to live to 30 or 40, which means you get plenty of time with them in your life but you wont be burdening anyone who would have to inherit them after you shuffle off this mortal coil

-monty is an excellent talker, though that probably depends on the individual

cons:

-all birds but medium/large birds especially demand a lot of attention. you need to train them set up foraging toys and play with them daily or near to daily

-ekkies subsist best on fresh veg and fruit, (though you can supplement with pellets) so their food costs will be higher

-ekkies have a higher rate of plucking than just about every other type of bird kept as pets. i think african greys may be tied with them for biggest pluckers. even if youre doing everything as right as you can your bird may still pluck because of any number of reasons and it really hurts to see your little guy go through it

-exotic vet bills

-ekkies on the whole do not really like to be scritched though some individuals do. theyre still cuddly in their own way

-bc of the aforementioned fresh diet they have big wet poos and youve gotta be ok to clean that. its water soluble but the smell can Linger

-they are very messy eaters (cute but also sweet potato residue is hard to clean)

theres probably way more, give the tag a geez and have a consider. i love monty, would not rec an ekkie if you do not love to spend time with weird little guys who love you soso much but will do everything in their power to make your life just a little bit harder in a cheeky fun way but also a screaming and crying way

[lucabyte]

obligatory ramble about postcanon loop ask

also your art is amazing

Hiiiiiiiii :D thank you :)!!

and thank you for the excuse to post the. just absolute wall of text that i truncated down to form the tags of that post. (i did,,, hit the tag limit. i forgot tumblr had one of those...) so let me just paste that and tidy it up a bit...

I am putting this under a readmore because it's a bit long. but:

This is like. The General Context for all* of my postcanon doodles? (Except AUs obviously) Like this is the base idea I've been drawing them all in. So, feel free to backread with this in mind. I've basically had this 'postcanon' timeline set in my brain since finishing the game...

My general thoughts are that I like the idea of Loop (even if through dubiously ethical means) being able to slowly reintegrate with the party as a whole new person, because they are, in fact, their own person.

It's a muddle of thematic threads im pulling on and "wouldn't it be fucked up if", but. (at its core, it's powered by the fact that like, while narratively isat's theme of 'the only person who can truly take the first step to help you is yourself'. (wrt: loop helping the party help siffrin in act 5) which i LOVE AND IS GREAT NARRATIVELY…. would be super fucked up irl to learn that your friend 'learned as a lesson' while you stood by kinda uselessly. I know i'd be upset about it. but thats mostly background here. doesn't really come up. at least not until loop has to explain who they are and the party realises they had to fall back on literally themselves again for help, but i digress,)

The real core concept is: Occam's razor. It is like, inherently, a buckwild thing to accuse a person of being somehow a clone or copy of your friend. Even if they start vaguely alluding to a backstory it's far more likely they were some other person before all that. (I still think Odile has that theory in the back pocket but she's rational enough to know it's a really long shot without a solid explanation. and i think Loop deep down knows this, and would, if cornered into confessing, turn the situation around to go J'ACCUSE and make HER explain it instead. Ever longer dodging being direct with their emotions...)

And the party are nice! And if someone has changed and wants to keep stuff secret it's kind of not their business? (Though it's hard not to speculate… see: the main joke of the doodles) And they seem important to Siffrin so they just try to accept them abrasive quirks and all. And eventually the question of their prior identity just fades away since, well, they're Loop. Their friend Loop.

but yeah. personal headcanon is that a few months/weeks after picking up and getting aquainted with Nille** (since that was presumably the IMMEDIATE TASK postgame), Loop reappears (either after a literal period of nonexistance, or just spending a few months wandering the french countryside alone being attacked by wild dogs). Since Siffrin has had a while to be therapised by the party they're doing mostly okay, but Loop showing up and still being agitated/aggressive pulls them both into a bit of a backslide behaviourally and puts the party on the back foot again.

Hooowever, I do think that due to no longer being literally stewing in the worst pressure cooker of all time together, the two do mostly actually sort themselves out with productive conversation. (Via a cycle of: genuinely distressing argument -> weeeird lovebombing -> ok we're good -> repeat, that gets less intense over time)

Thus, allowing the party to just. Integrate loop as a new person. They and Siffrin shuffle into different ecological niches (Loop taking over stuff Siffrin is now too squeamish for, etc (see: hunting, mostly)), and while it's not exactly what Loop wanted they generally get that beggars can't be choosers and it's a pretty good deal. And the rest of the party does straight up just like them as a friend, especially when Loop quits trying to actively antagonise them after a few weeks of being around them, since they just can't keep up being mean to people they like forever.

As for how I think the truth eventually drags itself out. This is where I invoke The Isabeau Torment Nexus™. So its gonna get shippy here for a bit hold on.

Which is, I think giving them time before Loop reappears long enough that Siffrin and Iseabeau actually manage to become established, Isabeau has to be the one to nudge the pair of them and go. "Hey. You know we're in Vaugarde right. I'm okay with polyamory if we all communicate." Before Loop and Siffrin actually even acknowledge that whatever the fuck they have going on kinda looks a lot like a relationship of some kind. (or have already been agonising about that via fighting and arguing, depending) (Obviously this comes after Isa "Emotionally intelligent enough to keep a lid on the jealousy" Beau has managed to use that big brain of his to Not just go Scream somewhere on the daily because oh godddd they keep talking like theyre suicide-baiting each other jesus chriiist. is it overstepping his boundaries to bring that up?? god)

This, taking a bunch of the tension out of Loop and Isabeau's relationship (Since I imagine Loop is a. being weird for the obvious reasons and b. feeling kinda guilty about 'getting in the way of' Siffrin and Iseabeau), allows them to actually get close in a normal friend way. (I think an interesting turning point could be Isabeau actually taking Loop's side in an argument vs Siffrin, which would absolutely break Loop's brain. Especially if it's an argument that matters. Like what do you mean he isn't just going to play favourites. What?)

Then Isabeau, just actually open minded and charmed by Loop (and maybe even somewhat at Siffrin's suggestion?) tries to close the final open side on the polyamory triangle here and that's the final straw for Loop on "This lie by omission is too unethical to keep up, this is just actually sick and wrong. I can't do this while he doesn't know who I am." Though. Obviously it probably goes. Very poorly with emotions high like that. And the added element of several months of deceit. Getting dark here for a second but that dagger is going MISSING and so are THEY for a hot minute.

Then yaaay everything works out in the end 👍 yippieee!! all it took was maybe a lot of harrowed recontextualisation of all the weird shit your new friend said and did when it turns out they're your old friend. It's fine.

But yeah. this is basically the context all of my postcanon doodles have existed within? And those exist to give other people something to chew on. So this does too.

I suppose TL;DR: Imagine if sloopis almost fucking happens before isabeau knows who loop is. can you fucking imagine. can you imagine having to navigate that. nightmare.

*Yes this includes the implied cannibalism comic. Uhh. Comes part and parcel with headcanoning that Loop went way off the deep end similar to A5 Sif But Maybe Worse before giving in. Add weepy half-asleep confessions to murder wherever you see fit in your mind palace. 👍👍👍

**Re: Nille footnote. I don't have anywhere to put this besides here! I have some thoughts on Loop and Nille having an odd dynamic. I don't imagine Nille to be super gung-ho on trusting a bunch of adults (even if they are majority around her age) given their implied backstory. It's probably a big shock to the system, especially since Bambouche is a good couple hundred Kilometers up north from Dormont and these guys don't seem to have trains. She would've been unfrozen and without Bonnie for some time....

Which is to say: I think she's suspicious of them. I think she may be looking for excuses to distance herself, keep Bonnie safe. SO.... A new guy showing up? And antagonising the party? What do they know that I don't...? I should find out.

And since... Loop didn't ever know Nille, they have no ammunition or real reason to be cruel. Plus, if they're trying to stay on Bonnie's good side (SINCE... if Bonnie thought Loop was cringe they may as well kill themselves. In their mind.) they SUPER have no reason to antagonise Nille.

Mostly, they might be able to open up to each other easier than they can the rest of the party?

I feel like this resolves with Loop feeling compelled to apologise for what they and Siffrin let happen to Bonnie, though... Hmm... Depends on how you interpret Nille that they'd be glad nobody else had been told about that yet, or furious it had been secret this long. I lean toward the former.

[acorviart]

Europe VAT laws not changing any time soon, recent. If understand FAQ well, mean shipping to Europe impossible for several years minimum?

That's correct, I won't be shipping to the EU for the foreseeable future due to some import packaging regulations that either have already been implemented or are planning to be implemented in the future.

Note that this is for EU countries only—I can ship to all other non-EU countries like Switzerland, except for the UK due to the UK's own convoluted VAT system.

The only workaround I can offer for EU folks is that you can have a friend or family that lives in a non-EU country place an order to deliver to their address, and then they are able to ship that order to you marked as a gift. Not an option for everyone, I know.

Longer explanation under the readmore for those curious:

As it stands now, each EU country has its own system and fees that I can't keep up with (for example, France would cost me 80 euros per year), I'd need to individually register and report to each country, some require reporting and tracking of what sources of packaging I use, I believe? It's all very complicated, and it makes my head spin just trying to figure out what the requirements actually are, so that's why I stopped shipping to the EU entirely out of an abundance of caution. I also just don't get enough sales to the EU to justify the headache, I'd probably actually lose money paying all the fees. Actually, while I was looking up details while writing this post, apparently there's a new PPWR that's going to replace the old EU Packaging Directive? This is why I can't handle this (ಥ﹏ಥ)

As for why this doesn't seem to be affecting all companies—corporations can obviously afford their own professionals whose entire job is to handle this stuff, and the requirements are also different for large vs small volumes. Meanwhile, a lot of other small or 1-person businesses straight up don't know about these requirements, because it's not like there's a memo passed around about updates to international shipping law. It's also even more confusing because some packages are slipping by without any issue, probably in part due to how the regulations are still new and still being implemented, so I assume it's kind of a mess.

I know of a few people who are willingly taking the risk and shipping to the EU anyway and have had no consequences (for now at least), but I'm not risking the fines ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Now for the UK, their VAT system doesn't have anything to do with packaging, but what it does require is similar registration with the government, and I'm required to collect and pay the VAT myself. No thanks!

TLDR; laws hard. laws also expensive. too stupid to figure out and too fearful of fines. no ship to countries

fun story: someone also once emailed me this long diatribe about how they think I'm shit at research and that I'm just making all this up (specifically just to screw with europeans or something, I guess?), so I sent them a few links to the literal official government websites where I got my info (like that UK one), and they never responded. lol

[tsubasaclones]

"wtf is that book", "do i have to read clear card", and other questions you might have after reading holic rei chapter 58

this post is going to be under a readmore because it contains spoilers both for xxxholic rei chapter 58 and like, the entirety of clear card lmao

soooo the last page of chapter 58 of holic rei made me gasp out loud because i never thought i see this fucking book again

for those who may not know, this is the new magic book that's introduced in clear card, generally labelled "alice in clockland" by akiho (who does not know about its magic properties)

the most important thing here is that clow reed once had this book in his possession, and even he failed to use it successfully

i don't have a screenshot on hand rn (too lazy to keep looking) but he then continues on to speculate that it might have been connected to why clow split his soul in half.

if you know why clow exactly clow split his soul in half you can get a pretty good idea of what clow was trying to accomplish with this book (especially with the "couldn't achieve the impossible" bit): he tried to use it in relation to yuuko.

now you might start to see why i'm a litttttle bit nervous to see it in xxxholic! we already established that this thing can't bring yuuko back. what's the point? are we going to rehash that? try to retcon it? what is clamp cooking here???

now you might be asking, what does this book even do? so glad you asked because it's been too long since i wrote an essay-length post yapping about clear card's bullshit.

to summarize, it can rewrite time, with some limitations.

this thing's not exactly easy to use either, if you couldn't tell by clow fucking reed failing. at some point in clear card it's stated that it's been over a century since it was successfully used (until clear card's nonsense, of course)

in clear card, kaito uses it to rewrite akiho's life so that she's actually sakura's twin (but in order to make things largely the same so they didn't have to get into it as much as they Really should have, clamp was just like "oh she was sick as a kid so she had to go live with the great grandfather until conveniently around the time she would have become part of the story originally anyway" which really gives me a lot more questions about this altered timeline that, of course, never get answered. lmao)

the catch here is that he couldn't rewrite anything that was older than him. so he can rewrite akiho's entire life no problem because he is in fact significantly older than her, but her mom had future-seeing abilities and kaito is younger than her so he couldn't erase that completely, so the past/young version of her knew something was up. he also didn't account for the fact that the guardian of this magic book was fucking sick of his shit and thwarted this plan behind his back by leaving a message to sakura that stayed in the altered timeline.

and that brings me to my next point. the guardian of this book, momo (who i love very much. she's awesome)

here's a fun fact about her that's not relevant to what role she could possibly play in holic rei: she's [most likely] named after the book momo by michael ende, which makes sense considering her ultimate role in clear card's plot, but she has this name because akiho is a fucking book nerd who decided that was her name.

you see, the way she works is that whoever she's in a contract with or whatever decides her name and her book's name. now akiho does not have magic and is not in a contract with momo, kaito is, but akiho's mom gave momo to akiho (in plushie disguise) the day she was born, and akiho had no clue she wasn't just a plushie until after the timeline shit (they also never get to reunite after this and they just straight up don't let akiho express any opinion about this ever afterwards??? hello?????????????? but that's beside the point of this post). anyway

but because akiho had momo with her long before kaito realized she was a magical creature and got into a contract with her, and because he was raising her (yes, he's raising her. yes, he's like literally twice her age. yes, clamp thinks this is romantic. this is not a post about how i dislike certain writing choices in clear card so i will leave it at that.) he got used to calling her momo so once he started a contract with her she became officially named momo.

^ also. look at them. why would you separate them clamp.

anyway all that to say, momo is her name & alice in clockland is her book's name now but clow would have called them something else. don't know if holic rei will elaborate on that.

also here she is in her true form. the crown thingy is actually the ring from akiho's mom, lilie, which she gave to her for magic reasons or whatever (yeah there's a little bit of subtext between them but also i might be crazy. that's besides the point)

although when she shows up in clear card's special chapter (not physically, it's some kind of apparition type deal) she notably does not have this ring-crown-thing anymore. which makes me wonder if holic rei will answer why that is.

anyway there's a reason besides "we already established that she can't be used to save yuuko" that makes me nervous for her appearance in holic rei, and that's clear card's ending.

she actually doesn't show up in the last chapter of clear card (chapter 80), she's mysteriously MIA (and i guess we know why now ???) but the situation that makes me worry is as follows:

-throughout the story we are told time and time again that due to his overuse of time magic kaito is literally on the brink of death.

-he finally manages to use momo's book, which is an insane feat as we know because it hasn't been done in over a century and clow couldn't even do it. in any case this is a stupid big amount of magic, since earlier in the story he turns back like a couple hours or something which is noted as being significantly more than he had done before. then when he uses the book he's turning back WAY more than just a couple hours. he's rewriting several years. people's entire lifetimes.

-when the timeline shit is fixed thanks to sakura (which, it took her so much magic to do that that she was passed out for FOUR DAYS and a couple of the clear cards straight up died in the process) he should be in much worse of a condition that he's in, and he's only fine because his time got stopped.

DOES THAT SOUND FAMILIAR???

now i guess their sneaky little loophole is that they don't say "he should be dead" but just like, he should be doing really bad, but fuck that. like man, he was ALREADY on the brink of death before this which we were shown very clearly, he should be dead. what worries me about this is they're having akiho go "i'm gonna find a way to un stop his time and heal him" as if that's possible! as if that doesn't go against, well, yuuko's entire circumstances around her death.

which has always been extra baffling to me BECAUSE of how they implied clow used momo's book to try (and fail) to save yuuko. so when the chapter came out i was like "lmao they can't have momo here because she'd know this isn't going to work"

and the thing is, they've done dramatic irony with akiho a couple times before this

(this still makes me laugh btw)

but this isn't framed as that. it's framed as a good ending, like they may actually be able to pull that off at some point. but like??? they really shouldn't given. you know. everything that tsubasa & xxxholic established. and clear card is very much connected to these, given that the only thing that even really fucking matters at the end is that sakura has a second staff conveniently due to the timeline bs (and not anything she even did herself) so that when she has to give up the old staff she's not even inconvenienced, which kind of cheapens the whole thing imo. but besides that clear card has sooooo many tsubasa references, some of which i'm fine with but a lot of them i don't think really work in its favor.

so that's why i'm really worried about them bringing clear card stuff into holic rei. i can't trust their writing skills anymore. i can't trust that they won't be like "wellllllll what if we can bring her back after all"

i can't even be excited about the possibility of seeing momo again when she's one of the best things to come out of the trainwreck that is clear card. i'm like lowkey scared they're gonna use her to fuck everything up. please clamp. please

in general, i think clear card kind of needs to be quarantined as its own thing. i don't want that energy brought into their other stories that still have good writing. OTL

also, here's another fun fact: as of the end of clear card, all of the clear cards (except for one) were basically made to go be part of momo's book by the forces of the universe because they're also kind of forbidden magic like her book is (and whose fault is that? not sakura's. it's kaito's, because he was indirectly manipulating her into situations where she'd subconsciously make them in hopes she'd make one that worked for his plans so he could steal it and use it instead. but that's beside the point)

so uhhhh we might see the clear cards in holic rei? what fucking timeline are we living in

sorry this ended up long. i got nothing else to do rn

[rontra]

(this is comic #11) [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [all posts] [from the start]

a story about the japanese language teacher from persona 5 being paid to do nothing. (under a readmore because Long)

you can tell she's growing closer with an MMO gamer girl because she's started being assigned joke nicknames based on her quirks. "professor" 😭

ah, but not that close.

anyway this one really took on a life of its own so there's a lot of stuff left on the cutting room floor... hmm. there's even some setups that didn't get their punchlines (lol). her misery is too powerful...ms "the rest is simply not funny" over here

[fulgurbugs]

What would the travelers Pokémon teams be?

I can totally see Alfyn having a Blissey. Therion seems like he’d have a Gengar, potentially.

ok. upon literally hours of deliberation and team building (i actually already had ones for the OT1 travelers but decided to revisit them and change a few picks) me and my bestie @snailcruncher have settled on some teams. i will be going in depth on reasonings for these so prepare for a long post lol. im gonna put it under a readmore because really im not joking about how long it is

we also came up with some ideas/lore for why some of these would be picked in a pokemon AU setting, so i’ll be explaining any of those thoughts if they’re relevant too.

Ophilia:

one of the only teams left untouched, I think this is a good batch for her. i’m imagining a scenario where the sacred flame takes the form of a pokemon, and it’s a lampent. frosmoth and togetic felt just like… the right vibe. Lapras and Ampharos both have associations with guiding, so they’re in. Audino is a notable healing pokemon, and it feels in line with her personality as well.

Cyrus:

Alakazam for mr high iq smart guy. duh. oranguru for his role as a teacher, and Runerigus would be a late acquisition to his team in his ch4. Flareon, Glaceon, and Jolteon for the 3 scholar spell types. i also think him having 3 eeveelutions could also be kind of like, they’re really good for demonstrations for single-type stuff, as well as being popular with others. people might come up to him and be like omg you have a flareon i love flareon pleaseeee tell me more (flirtily) which of course would go over his head and he would start telling you flareon facts. I feel like Cyrus would excel in double battles.

Tressa:

Meowth: the pay day signature pokemon. this is as close as i can replicate to tressa randomly finding money. Skwovet (she can now take her pet squirrel with her in a pokeball)

Gyrados for sure. one, she lives along an ocean, so she should definitely have a water type, two, i’m imagining a scenario where she buys a magikarp cheap, seeing the potential in it, then raises it into a real powerhouse. just like her!

carbink: really funny scenario me and the bestie came up with that instead of eldrite the treasure was diancieite. the carbink is from the same cave. tressa did try to evolve it with the diancieite. it didn’t work.

pidgeot… felt like she needed a flying type (wind magic rep) and i feel like she’d gravitate to the humbler normal types… doesn’t get much more straightforward than pidgeot. Dhelmise… maybe it used to be captain leons, maybe she fished it out of the harbor in rippletide herself. either way, she thinks it’s cool

Olberic:

Aegislash: sword form, shield form…. this pokemon itself is the unbending blade. obviously i have given him several other sword based pokemon, too.

gallade, escavalier, and sirfetch’d badically all fit this. they’re knight-like, so they feel fitting i think to him.

as for conkeldurr and garganacl, they feel kind of… solidly built. like him. ( ⬇️ garganacl pick lore)

Primrose:

almost all of her pokemon can learn some kind of dance though their level up. Oricorio is the obvious choice, dragonair reps dragon dance, beautifly reps quiver dance, and lilligant… well they can learn so fucking many. we couldn’t decide on which one to give her, so we ended up giving her both. they’re her backup dancers or whatever.

mawile just feels very primrose to me. its cute or pretty or whatever, and you might underestimate it… but watch out. it bites.

Alfyn:

he feels like a guy who loves a big fluffy dog. and stoutland has also been used in games for its ability to sniff out items, so it feels like it’d be a good pick for an apothecary looking to sniff out herbs and such. Comfey is an obvious pick, i mean its signature move is. floral healing. meganium also has mentioned in its dex entries its healing and calming properties. it’s also a cool as fuck dinosaur so i think alfyn would like it.

chatot. does this even need explanation

we also wanted to give him an ice type, and settled on cubchoo. it has a perpetually runny nose… even Alfyn can’t fix it, try as he might.

as for leavanny, we had some trouble picking the last slot on this team. we were looking through friendship evos, and leavanny caught my eye. it’s dex entries mention that it’s very gentle, it also shows no mercy to foes who target young pokemon. seems fitting… we decided alfyn got it as a swadloon (maybe it could be taught to use its sewing abilities to dress wounds?) and it evolved during his ch3.

Therion:

I think Krookodile, mimikyu, and klefki are quite obvious picks, so i won’t go too in on them. Ninjask and Shedinja…. Ninjask is super speedy, so it felt right to give one to therion, but also i feel like.. he’d keep the shedinja around. even with 1 hp and one billion weaknesses… it’s still a part of his team. it and ninjask were born from the same nincada. he couldn’t abandon it like that.

and applin lol. something about therion gives me “guy who’s going for a cool as fuck hydrapple and ends up with an appletun actually”

H’aanit:

If anyone’s allowed to have legendaries, it’s the hunters. Chien-pao is as close as we can get to a snow leopard. and yeah maybe it’s a little evil but H’aanit is built different. Decidueye feels like an obvious pick, and spirit shackle is a great signature move for the h’aanit vibe. trapinch for. leghold trap. kilowattrel is literally a thunderbird. and ariados… well, it has the ability sniper, to reference hunter’s crit boosting abilities, as well as having some trapping moves like webs. for the Hunters, I’ve left their last spot blank, but this just means like, a “flex” spot that would be different each time you battled them. H’aanits got boxes of options to choose from.

now, onto the OT2 ones!

Ochette:

I’m sure you can see what i’m going for here. it’s just the closest i could get to Akala/mahina and her 3 story beasts. and again, like H’aanit, the last spot is “flex” not empty, so imagine her bringing some different new bullshit to every battle.

Cassti:

i wanted to do a few things with Castti: obviously, give her some healing-y mons, but also a few oddball picks that might have you looking twice. picked Shiinotic because of its ominous dex entries, and then. toedscruel because i realize shiinotic actuallt doesn’t get spore i think? and i think castti “put em to sleep right in the street” florenz should have a mon with spore. (edit. i actually just cant read the bulbapedia tables and shiinotic does get spore. anyways she gets two spore mons i guess cuz what if she’s gotta knock out two people at the same time. or whatever. dustox emits toxic powder from its wings, which seems like it could be something castti would want to keep on hand for poison axe. these three might seem a little weird tho, and reinforce her bad first impression in canalbrine, even though i’m sure they’d all be very well behaved and nice. Blissey and Arboliva are straightforward healing picks. I feel like these would be common for apothecaries to have in general.

and then galar-slowking. poison-activated brain nonsense. i feel like she acquires this one post-amnesia. they feel a kinship with each other.

Throné

Throné’s team is half-blacksnakes dedicated, half catered to herself. Every blacksnake has a seviper or an ekans, as well as probably most of them also having other grunt-esque pokemon, like zubats and such. throné’s taken care of hers, though, and friendship evolved it into a crobat.

chose furfrou because i think throné would like a prissy little dog she can dress up cutely. milcery, which she’s waiting on evolving until she can figure out what alcremie form she wants, and a shade-cherrim.

oh, and zangoose, of course. the natural enemy of sevipers. one appeared to her right after she left new delsta. what a sign, right?

Osvald:

Osvald we had some interesting stuff to work with, I think. we decided that most of his pokemon were newly acquired after his prison escape- not on purpose. they seem to just take a liking to him and start following him around.

the avalugg helped get him out of the frozen water at cape cold, and then stuck with him.

the teddiursa.. also just stuck with him. we wanted to give him something that felt a little oddball for him… so this doesn’t evolve. it stays cute and unevolved forever.

the shuppet was found hovering around the ruins of Osvald’s house. he was reluctant to take it, but if it was formed out of some semblance of his desire for vengeance… he has to be responsible for it.

the Indeedee is the only one of osvalds old pokemon, out of this lineup. since indeedee are so helpful to people, it was kind of a family pokemon acquired after elena’s birth (dex mentions they’re good at babysitting.) Osvald could probably also trust it with simple lab assistant tasks like moving stuff around. was a very beloved pokemon within their family. anyways, following his sentencing, clarissa managed to get ahold of the indeedee and took care of it all this time. when osvald returns, it’s clear it wants him to take her with him.

the drampa was acquired after the events of montwise, having shown up and basically just forced itself to go with osvald. somehow it seems to know what’s going on and who it can trust…

and slowking.. well, smart guy needs a smart pokemon. it’s another one that took a shine to him, though at that point he was getting used to this happening.

Partitio:

Talonflame: partitio’s aptitude for fire magic and the “chickadee” nickname made this an obvious choice for an ace. I can imagine a young partitio’s first pokemon being a fletchling, for sure.

bramblegast. the funny tumbleweed. put it on the team immediately.

Milotic: Paritio picked up a feebas. having a knack for seeing the potential in pokemon, he wasn’t wrong, and now hes got this thing. it’s very popular with other people, though it seems an odd pick for partito at first glance to strangers.

armarouge: ok this one’s a little convoluted so i will explain it later. kind of vibes based pick tho lol. revavroom kind of. uhh. steam engine. (we can pretend)

there ain’t a more partitio pokemon out there than gholdengo. everyone say thank you scarvi for giving partitio most of his team.

Agnea:

hey, it’s another oricorio! i think you can guess why.

volcarona: learns fiery dance, but we thought up even more lore on this one. the larvesta was a family pokemon. mostly belonging to Garud (we ended up deciding that the Bristarnis had a lot of bug types, who help out with the sewing stuff and larvesta does give a little bit silkworm, lol..)

anyways, part of his blessing for sending agnea off was telling her to take the larvesta, who also turned out to be a dazzling star in the end too… after a lot of hard work.

altaria and leafeon rep dragon and swords dance. i just feel like they’re good picks for her energy, too. lunatone reps the moonstep. I’ve also opted to give her a sunny cherrim, which i think would be cute contrasted with Throné’s gloomy one.

Temenos:

temenos has quite the oddball lineup for a cleric. but hes kind of an oddball cleric so i think it works.

Absol. man. a lot of shit happens to temenos. this absol is stressed tf out 24 fucking 7. sorry man.

Clefable: felt like we had to give him a healer-adjacent pokemon and this one evolves with a moonstone. feels fitting for mr night-ability mistral tbh.

Lokix. alright. another scenario based pick. Temenos caught this thing on the pilgrims way as a nymble at like level 2. probably rustling in the metaphorical tall grass, crick is all “get behind me, it could be dangerous” and then. lvl 2. nymble. doesn’t even need to be fought to be caught. and then temenos is all hey crick, it’s a “crick”et pokemon! (we’ll ignore that the dex says grasshopper) he’d keep it just to mess with crick, but it ends up sticking around.

Houndoom. well, temenos is the pontiff’s hound, so we did need to pick a dog for him. it’s a houndour in the beginning, houndoom by the end. probably evolved in a moment of crisis (in ch4?) the yamask is from crackridge.

wooloo. this is actually Crick’s. it wasn’t helping with the little lamb allegations… after the events of stormhail, Temenos takes it in.

Hikari:

Kingambit: i mean. come on. gotta get a kingambit for the future king.

Gardevoirs dex entire mention that it is dedicated to its trainer/cause to the bitter end, and would do anything to protect it. perfect for Hikari.

Morpeko and Zweilous. some literally two-faced pokemon. (maybe he feels a little bit of a kinship with them in that way) i also really wanted to give Hikari a pseudo-legendary, and i think that his zweilous would probably evolve just in the nick of time to kick some ass against mugen. Hydreigons might be notoriously destructive, but something about the personalities merging into one brain in evolution seems to have mellowed Hikari’s out. it’s remarkably personable, for a hydreigon.

lucario: i really wanted to give him a pokemon that learns copycat, and lucario fits that bill. plus, he definitely needed a fighting type.

Cerudelge: formed from bitterness of old cursed armor, but also an extremely skilled sword fighter… one of hikari’s aces.

I also like to imagine that a lot of hikari’s pokemon are quite difficult to deal with (his ceruledge in particular is quite belligerent and mean) but they all have utmost respect for him as a trainer, once they’re on the battlefield. but onlookers sometimes worry… how the hell does he deal with it all?

other notes about some of the picks :

Partitio’s amarouge. Paritio picked up a. charcadet later on, and hikari personally warned him that it might be difficult to deal with. (his charcadet and later ceruledge were super hard to train for him) of course, partitio did end up in possession of the cool nice armor that evolved it into the better mannered and nobler armarouge… but honestly, even his charcadet was far better behaved.

paritio and tressa both get those shitty fish that get cool. must be because they both have an eye for a diamond in the rough.

agnea and throné’s cherrims are best friends. throné rarely got to see her cherrim sunny-form until she left new delsta… she wonders if maybe it was upset about being so nocturnal before, with the blacksnakes.

castti and osvald, team mom and team dad somehow both ended up with slowkings. everyone’s a little concerned about castti’s, though…

after the events of his story, Osvald leaves indeedee and teddiursa with clarissa and elena. the teddiursa and elena in particular take to each other very well… when osvald finally is able to return to elena’s life, the teddiursa is really much more her pokemon.

also. H’aanit and Ochette and far and away the best battlers of both groups. i know i only have them with one flex spot, but you can imagine that they’d swap out a lot more for whatever they need to do to build a good team. they’ve got loads more options than everyone else.

you know that thing about giving someone an applin in galar? therion did trade it over to alfyn at one point. but really they have joint custody of that thing. which definitely ended up as an appletun.

we also had some npc aces sprinkled in there, so here’s some other thoughts, just as bonus!

Malaya: Pawmot (revival blessing), rapidash.

Elena: Abra

Harvey: Hypno, Bacephalon

Pala: Kricketot (formerly belonged to her and agnea’s mom)

Roque: Metagross

Kazan: Husuian Braviary

Ori: Chatot

Trousseau: Glimmora

Cordelia: ….ferrothorn

Erhardt: Aegislash, Hisuian Samurott

Z’aanta: Zamazenta

Juvah: is literally a solgaleo

Darius: Scrafy/Pangoro

Simeon: Malamar

Esmeralda: Mismagius (wanted to give her something with perish song)

Mattias: drifblim? darkrai?

Lucia: Hatterene

Miguel: Grimmsnarl

Werner: spectrier

Mugen: Kingambit. mirror match with Hikari, but mugen’s has supreme overlord while Hikari’s has defiant.

Kaldena: we couldn’t pick but maybe she goes like lusamine mode and fuses with something.

Claude: Cradily. (uh. literally fossil pokemon)

Dolcinea: belive it or not, also an oricorio. also, solrock. but her oricorio is the prettiest.

veronica: she has somehow acquired the worlds first and only female gallade through the power of lesbianism.

Crick: … wooloo….

I do wanna make some drawings for these ideas, but this post was literally already one billion miles long and has way too many images, so it’ll probably be a separate post. thanks for the ask! and sorry for talking so much, but i fucking love making pokemon teams so much it’s insane.

and a big thank you again to my bestie @snailcruncher who helped me with a lot of these picks (and did basically all of the npc picks thank you so much i love you). tysm for pokemon octopath brainrotting with me for like 4 hours.

[nocturnalnewsiestrash]

I'm in my feels about how the way ghosts interact with the world and each other affects Edwin and Charles as sensory seeking and sensory avoidant neurodivergents.

While it's already hard to understand the dynamics of ghostly interactions with their environment at play I'm pretty sure of these things. So we know that Edwin and Charles don't feel items and other alive people the same as they would alive. It's a different touch-based-sensory-less experience(?) at least that's what we know. And we know that they can feel other supernatural beings and each other, differently. I'm in the camp of its basically the same as normal human sensory touch but that could be argued a bit. However we're sticking with that both for the sake of this post and cause I want to.

This analysis got long as shit so readmore it is

Now we see Edwin being very touch avoidant with relatively everyone (besides Niko and Charles) and we see Charles being touch seeking with just about everyone. This makes sense to me under the fact that they as neurodivergent beings both have their more usual "resting state" on the touch-sensory-acceptance scale where Edwin generally rests at the sensory avoidant side and Charles rests at the sensory seeking side.

The implications though of how the fact that you can't really feel things through touch the same way as you would alive really gets to me though. Because you might think that without the sensory part of touch there wouldn't be anything to activate the neurodivergent avoidance right? Well obviously this is not the case for Edwin as we see him from the beginning tolerating touches from Charles and no one else. Then we gain Niko too as someone he appreciates the touch of. And if he can't really Feel the alive people, like Crystal, the same that means that the new ghost touch sensory experience also triggers the touch avoidance. And we see Charles practically touching anyone and (anything) who will let him which means the ghostly touch also triggers touch seeking. So does this mean that under DBDA dynamics neurodivergence finds a way to still be sensitive to sensory experiences under any circumstance? Both in avoiding and seeking it? Does this mean that it's more of a mental thing than the actual 5 senses of it? This is so interesting to me because I've often thought that having the ability to turn off and on sensory capabilities would be LOVELY for my mental health (I have ADHD) I'm not so sure that's true anymore because my brain would just adjust and find ways to avoid and seek THAT new feeling. The feeling of the absence of feeling.

Now the difference between ghost-alive touch/ghost-environmental object touch and ghost-fellow ghost or other supernatural being touch is also interesting to me in sensory seeking terms. Because we also see Edwin enjoying Charles touch specifically and at first we could assume that he only likes touch under ghostly sensory feelings. And us neurodivergent people often have our people that we have more spoons to handle the touch of than others. Which also has very adorablely soft implications of Charles being Edwin's Safe Person including sensorily. But then we see him enjoy Niko's touch too which means that he can also find his sensorily safe person in alive interaction sensories terms. And obviously we see Charles being sensory avoidant too when he's out of spoons for that, like when he bats Edwin's hand away when Edwin attempts to comfort him at the lighthouse. And we see Edwin also sensory seek in, as George put it, craving Charles' touch after their hug in episode 5.

Now I'm fairly certain that they feel things in Hell the same as they would between other supernatural beings and as they did when alive. Which after 70 fucking years of that, I don't even KNOW how I would feel about touch as an already sensory avoidant person if I was in Edwin's shoes. Genuinely an unfathomable part of the experience for me. But clearly Edwin still can handle touch just more specific about it. No different than a regular neurodivergence experience really. Which just gives me so many emotions because Edwin baby boy I knew you were so so strong but 🥺 how did you handle this so well too 🥺. I don't know how you did it. He has so much credit for how he's handled (well everything, but specifically this) so well under these circumstances. Someone pls tell him he deserves more credit than he gives himself.

Anyway my Edwin hell emotions aside, i saw someone mention awhile ago (I would credit them but I don't remember who) that Charles and Edwin wear their gloves so often specifically to avoid having to think about the fact that they don't have the normal human sense of touch anymore which is just so something. Because that in and of itself is its own sensory avoidant behavior. Avoiding the fact that they're not really experiencing a specific flavor of sensory anymore? Could this be true for their many layers of clothing they don to possible keep from feeling that they can't feel the environment the same? Like wind/the snow in ep1, the temperature, and other elements? Sensory avoidance too. A supernaturally charged type of sensory avoidance but still. Sensory avoidance. Plus how we see them lose their layers and gloves when they're in their office bubble alone? Their home? Their comfort space where they have the spoons to relax? And possibly have the spoons to handle the new (well new as a relative term) different type of touch sensory experience that is their ghostly existence? Cause in THESE terms Edwin's sensory seeking in the form of rolling up his sleeves and placing his legs propped up upon the couch arm to experience this new type of environmental feel more fully. And Charles is sensory seeking in the form of Touching Everyone of His Magic Bag Items (and doing classic neurodivergent rearranging and setting up just to take back down play but that's beside the point) and fidgeting by throwing (and consequently touching) the ball in ep1. Which IS in line with how when we're more emotionally comfortable we have the spoons for being more comfortable with other things like more touch and more audio and more visuals as neurodivergents. These are the environmental and worldly items based touch. But we also see them touching EACHOTHER more within their office comfort zone, which means they also feel more sensory seeking in the way we're familiar with in their home bubble. And having the spoons for being more emotionally vulnerable there too but that's not really the point of this post.

In conclusion, how Edwin and Charles still act as touch-sensory seeking and avoidant neurodivergent individuals after this long as ghosts really enamors me. I didn't really go into analyzing the other 4 senses have changed for them but we know they can see and hear the same so those sensory seeking levels wouldn't change, and smell and taste are too things they mentioned they don't have anymore as ghosts but they HAVEN'T touched on how smell and taste senses would work between them and other supernatural entities like. I can't really comment on how the minute differences between ghost on alive and and ghost on ghost feelings would differ without knowing more. Like perhaps this would be touched on more in season 2? Like the taste of eachother hmm? Much to think about. Anyway yeah this was my neurodivergent reading of their touch based sensory seeking, I probably didn't consider some things, so I would love to hear your input on this too!

[sarcophagid]

Night Watch 2024 Letter - Breakdown and Personal Thoughts

my personal thoughts and initial analysis of ithaqua's letter!

these are mostly just my own opinions and will bounce off some pre-existing ideas i have, so feel free to let me know if you'd like anything clarified or if you want to discuss your own thoughts!

readmore because it's very long:

A Stack of Unsent Letters to Home (2024) (It's speculated that this stack of 18th-century letters was frequently examined. The papers are worn and damaged to varying degrees. Below are excerpts from the organized and restored legible text.)

The 18th century line really throws me off. IDV's main events and manor games take place in the 1880s-1910s, and this detail states that the letters were written before 1800, which wouldn't make much sense if we assume both Ithaqua and Lagertha lived at the time of the manor games. It's also not a mistranslated '1800s' because the original Chinese version also states '18th century'.

Avoiding rambling as best as I can there are two main ideas this brings to mind:

The plateau of Leng is considered old itself, with practices that are possibly centuries behind 'modern' practice for the time. Lagertha and the Vilulf clan seem to be based off of vikings which were also figments of a much earlier past. This could be an effort to ease the time gap by setting the story earlier.

However, I still severely doubt either Ithaqua or Lagertha have lived all the way from the 1700s to the 1900s. As aforementioned, I have no concrete proof, but it's just not sensible for either of them to be supernatural beings themselves, given the thematic importance of Night Watch being a human disguised as a monster. If we assume the 18th century thing is true, then they died. If we assume it's not true, then Ithaqua is alive and Lagertha's fate is unknown.

EDIT: I started this analysis before Brynhildr Vilfulf dropped. Her weibo lore seems to imply Ithaqua's story did in fact take place 200 years ago, but I will leave this part up because I'm petty and the detail bothers me for reasons I will expand on in a later post. 

[I] The star cluster of Vilulf will fall into the fourth house, symbolizing the law of "disintegration." This powerful force compels the life chart to discard the old and embrace the new—not in a gentle manner like a snake shedding its skin, but rather with the sudden breaking of a dragon bone, causing thousands of tons of iron and wood to sink to the depths of the sea. —The prophecy of the star atlas foretells suffering. My brave Ragnar, how have you fared? You were still young when I left Medan, yet I believed you would ultimately choose to follow the old man and navigate the oceans. I have no idea where to send this letter, but I trust that the power of the universe will carry my thoughts to you as I write under the moon.

I will have to check the original chinese text to see if there's any nuance I missed for many of these terms TOT. I think I may make a separate post looking into these specific terms, but for now I will look at the general idea.

Lagertha seems to be describing the movements of a fictional star cluster associated with the Vilulf clan, fortelling of a sudden, possibly dangerous event that would change the trajectory of her life (most likely foreshadowing meeting Eta/Ithaqua). 

As stated on the wiki, Ragnar and Lagertha are based off of Viking folk figures who were married. But in this letter, she seems to talk about him more as a younger relative than a spouse (I'm going off the wiki's old note on the chinese translation but I will come back to confirm/deny). The 'old man' could be another relative and also possibly a clan leader. 

I hope that when you gaze up at it, your spirit will be stirred to heed my guidance: Ragnar, do not attempt to conquer lands with ships. Our era has passed. Ragnar, gather our people and leave the Indian Ocean. Head north to Scandinavia, where you can rest and recuperate for at least a century.

The Vilulf clan is presumably Scandinavian. Lagertha in Viking legend is also from Norway. The Vilulf clan isn't explicitly stated to be Vikings, but they seem a bit inspired by general writing stereotypes associated with them.

They also engaged in some sort of "conquering".

Ragnar, I do not wish for you to abandon your beliefs, but please understand that the rationality and morality of humanity form the true foundation of a just society. A well-ordered world is the only environment where true freedom can thrive, and it is this discipline that will illuminate the world with the light of civilization.

Lagertha has clear and firm ideas about morality and order. She believes that people require a sense of structure and logic to adhere to, and sees civilization in a positive light. This is a detail I will come back to later with more context.*

Anyways, her ideas constrast Ithaqua's philosophy of giving up civility and humanity in general - he believes these things to be unhelpful, false, harmful. Ithaqua most closely associates them with the society in Leng, and the society that Nathaniel represented. But we now see that Lagertha was also a very order and structure oriented person, just in a different manner. 

[II] Back then, the old man often said that in the brief span of life, you and I would eventually be gone; he urged us to be bolder. I understood that he was imparting the values of our family—honor, freedom, adventure, and the spirit of resilience. Yet, his words also inspired me to explore an alternate path in life. I found solace by the shore, wisdom in books, energy in the city, and peace in the wilderness. Amid the winds of the grasslands, I discovered a different kind of faith that resonated deeply with my soul. Had the old man known, he would have deemed me a traitor and perhaps even broken my legs. But the call of the north was undeniable, and it held true transcendence and meaning, guided by the sea of stars.

The Vilulf clan values freedom, she also mentioned freedom in the previous letter. There's a degree of tragic irony given what eventually happens.

Lagertha followed the same faith as the other Vilulf clan members, but after travelling north, she converted to a different one. It is possible this is the same faith as the dominant, christianity-analogous religion in the Plateau of Leng. This detail is corroborated by the weibo description of her as "devout/god-praising" and Ithaqua finding it illogical and hypocritical to claim she was transgressing against it. 

However, my journey was far from smooth. The remote northern lands were as perilous as the sea, filled with their own brutalities and sins. Each time I offered seed pods to pregnant women or rowan berries to those in need, I felt the watchful eyes of the local church committee upon me. The already tense atmosphere became dangerously charged, forcing me to move on before I could linger too long.

I'll tentatively assume Leng is the product of a few creative liberties, because there aren't many countries farther north than Norway that are also a close match for the British-esque culture in Leng. 

Her practice of offering medicine and berries was most likely misconstrued as witchcraft, and her being an outsider also likely contributed to the distrust. 

Ragnar, you might think I am struggling. Lagertha, who once fought valiantly before you, now lives like a deserter, avoiding bloodshed. Yet, I find myself questioning whether my true self ever existed at sea. The concept of "my true self" is fluid, and the quest to "become my true self" is a journey without end.

*To expand on the aforementioned detail about valuing civilization and morality: Lagertha's past, and the Vilulf clan in general are no strangers to violence, conflict, and potentially disorder. At least some of this conflict arises from a practice of 'conquering' or otherwise invading other lands. There's not enough details nor do I plan on making statements on anyone's political views from this scant knowledge, but it's clear that Lagertha underwent a significant personal shift after leaving her clan, where she now adopts a less violent lifestyle, valuing order and civility.

EDIT: Brynhildr Vilulf's new weibo post gives some more context - the Vilulf clan was considered socially separate from the other clans, disliked for their isolation and rejection of other clans norms. However, this is not necessarily a negative trait, as they also did not have the prejudices of that time.

This is purely personal interpretation, but "true self" is very interesting considering the issue posed by Ithaqua and Nathaniel's birth - two identical people have drastically different personalities and values because of mostly environmental factors - implying a "true self" is not concrete, but rather a mutable identity that changes over time. The fact that Lagertha transitions from the lifestyle associated with the Vilulf clan to a much more peaceful one is another example of this concept. 

[III] I believe I have discovered a piece of the "meaning." I have named him Eta. The star η Ursae Majoris hangs in the northern sky, serving as my guide. 

Eta is the 7th letter of the Greek alphabet, and his character day is Dec 7. 

The star is also known as Alkaid, and Beidouqi in Chinese (North Dipper Seventh, as the star is considered the 7th star in the constellation).

Ursa Major is also related to the "mother bear" constellation. 

Remarkably, this star has led me to this young life. He is intelligent and tenacious, possessing the courage and strength to stand firm. Unlike you, his strength is deeply internalized, making him perhaps more like me. 

Ithaqua canonically not the beefiest guy around, but from his design that was probably inferable TOT.

The old man valued character above lineage, and he would surely recognize Ithaqua as a member of our clan. So, when you come to visit, please remember to address him by his name: Eta Vilulf. As for me, I might not be able to wait for your arrival, as the star atlas indicates I must travel far after three years. But he is still so young. Will a few years together be enough for him to learn to thrive on his own?

[IV] Dear Ragnar,I am truly happy to hear that your astrolabe is back on track! This is a promising sign.  This opening implies that she had gotten a response from Ragnar, but her letters were unsent, so I'm not sure if they communicated through some other way. Eta has kept me from stargazing for quite some time, possibly because he was worried about my strange behavior when I predicted that my star cluster would fall into the fourth house. He tends to treat me like a fragile being who can't manage even the simplest tasks. I wonder how he would react if he knew his mother was the second mate on the Medan. But I digress. You are on your way to the peninsula, are you not?

As stated on the IDV wiki, 'Medan' may be a reference to the ship 'Ourang Medan' which disappeared in Indonesia (this would've been in the Indian Ocean). 

Ithaqua has always been a bit protective of Lagertha… he also might be skeptical of Lagertha's astrological predictions, given he would rather her not stargaze. 

It also seems she predicted the event of the attack as referenced earlier, but chose to stay. 

This change has taken fifteen years longer than I initially expected. 

I have a tentative guess at Ithaqua's 'canon' age: In the previous letter, Lagertha said that she predicted she had to leave Ithaqua after three years. Adding this to her prediction, it's been at least 18 years since she found Ithaqua as an infant. However, this letter was also probably unsent, and most likely was written close to the time of the hunters attack. 

This is in line with Ithaqua's weibo post saying that the attack happened when he "became an adult". Ithaqua probably remained as Night Watch for any time between a few months - a few years, but this is a bit more evidence that he's a 'young adult'. 

Perhaps I should adjust my interpretation: everything has a natural trajectory toward improvement. "Disintegration" can signify both the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. By recalibrating the ego's inertial patterns, one can harness a powerful regenerative force. Just like the treasures controlled by Pluto can only be unearthed amid peril, as long as you stay steadfast in the face of danger, you will ultimately prevail. Perhaps the danger I foresaw is not destruction after all; it may nurture life and grant me a few more years with him. Forever your family, Lagertha Vilulf

As a final general note, this series of letters solidifies Lagertha as a character who's very spiritual, and has an open minded and optimistic viewpoint on her predictions even when they don't seem to bode well. But as the audience, we know what happens eventually

[sidecast-text]

hey your tags abt project hail mary on that one post were fascinating can you pleeaseeee elaborate :3. the white saviorism & consent ones…. that book took my brain over for a month and im still in its clutches every now and then

HI HELLO YES OF COURSE

(disclaimer: i just love sci fi and literature and took a sociology module this year i am Not a media scholar this is just my personal analysis of this book)

Project Hail Mary was a really intriguing read for me because I went into it somewhat cynically, you know? I really like Andy Weir's writing, but from the moment it became apparent that this is another book in first person about a guy stuck alone in space I was fully expecting for the style and tone to match the Martian. After finishing it, I think he clearly managed to separate Mark Watney from Ryland Grace, mostly by their general attitudes but also with the situations they are getting put in. Watney is an astronaut, he knows what he is doing, and he has (sort of) been trained for the crisis he is in. Grace has no idea who is or why he is in the Tau Ceti system and this memory loss trope is exploited audience for loop after loop.

Spoilers under the readmore because honestly going in blindly is the best way to read Project Hail Mary in my opinion GO READ IT GO NOW

So. We figure out who Grace is, why he is 12 light years away from Earth, what he has to do: he has to save Earth from a major extinction event by sacrificing his own life. The rest of his crew died while they were in comas for the voyage, so the entire fate of humanity is resting exclusively on his shoulders. This is where I kind of heaved a sigh. At least it's not a twelve year old saving the world, but it is a white American man. This plays into the white saviour trope stemming from colonialism in the 15th-16th century, wherein concepts such as humanity and civilisation are values inherently tied to whiteness, exclusively possessed by white societies and must be spread to "uncivilised" areas through colonialism. Overall its an ethno- and eurocentric way of thinking that views the image of the white man as cleaner, better, more educated, et ceatera. This bias remains present in Western society and therefore in our media as well, in the form of the aforementioned white saviour trope, which I had expected Project Hail Mary to unintentionally cater to.

In the case of Project Hail Mary, Grace must be the saviour of humanity by journeying through space. The book makes references to Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and you can see the general similarity in the premise of both stories: men are sent on a voyage further into space than ever before with varying certainties of return. While the men abroad the USSC Discovery know they will be placed into cyro-freeze and retrieved by another mission in the vague future, the crew of the Hail Mary have no such hopes. They are sent out into space at nearly light-speed with no fuel for a return trip. Hail Mary plays with the trope of the traveler changed by his journey by making return both figuratively and physically impossible for Grace. As readers, we assume he was aware of this when setting out.

The audience also assumes that Grace is on the Hail Mary mission because he volunteered. He is set up as feeling great responsibility for his students and the children of the world, so although we are not shown for a long time why he decided to volunteer for the Hail Mary, we assume that at some point he must have, since we are tied to his first person perspective and he assumes the same. We keep on waiting for some sort of eureka moment in his flashbacks when he realises what he must do and with newfound conviction pledges his life to save humanity. We find out that he was not the first choice for the mission's science specialist; he wasn't even the second. The book introduces Shapiro and Du Bois, and as the audience we know that they will either die before the launch or be incapacitated in such a way that Grace is forced to step up. Again, I was rolling my eyes here. Somehow, Grace had to be switched into Du Bois's place, changing the intended protagonist from a black man to a white one, and I thought somewhat begrudgingly that if the author acknowledges that it could have been Du Bois who saves Earth, then why not just write it as so? After all, all the accidents and consequences through the story are conscious choices by the author. Why does it need to be the white man who bravely steps up and declares that he will sacrifice his life? I felt that there were biases in the writing and in the choice to portray the white man as the brave, lonely hero who will die for the greater good in the far depths of space, alone, afraid, and without complaint.

The actual reveal of the circumstances that landed Grace on the Hail Mary is expertly teased and foreshadowed. We see from the start that Ryland Grace isn't a particularly courageous man. He leaves his academic field after his paper is badly received, he surrounds himself with students who are easy to impress and who idolise him, he doesn't seek out relationships or even friendships because he fears rejection. He throws up in zero g, is not used to space travel, he's queasy around the idea of self administered death and generally lacks the brave enthusiasm and commitment that other astronauts in his flashbacks are shown to have.

So when we find out that Grace is actually a sort of coward, it all falls into place. Stratt gives him the option of joining the Hail Mary mission after Shapiro and Du Bois die, and Grace presents an obviously weak excuse and it's painful to read because the eureka moment we were waiting for never comes. I was personally thinking "wait a second, this isn't how it's supposed to go". But it also makes sense, after all, Stratt is asking him to go die in space and he's a high school teacher.

Stratt is also set up as someone who always gets what she wants. She is legally exempt from any consequences; she could kill a man and she would be pardoned since pulling together the project that will save Earth is her responsibility. She is ruthless, but as a readers we think that Grace is safe from her decree; he's her right hand, and furthermore Captain Yao is adamant that no one be forced to join the mission. If Grace decides to go, it must be on his own. Up until the last moment, we expect Grace to experience sudden onset character growth, to stop when he reaches for the door-handle and to overcome his cowardice and to say "yes, I will go, I will die for Earth".

And it doesn't happen. At this point I was texting all my friends "i am gouing to throw up". It is revealed that Grace was only given the illusion of a choice. In hindsight, it makes sense; he was given no choice about joining the project to begin with or at any step in the process. Stratt was hoping that he would choose to join, but when he refuses it the carpet is immediately pulled from under his feet and it becomes apparent that he has had no agency at all since meeting her. He has been set up and manipulated to be the second backup for the role of the science specialist on board of the Hail Mary by being placed with Shapiro and Du Bois and learning to use space equipment under the guise of testing it. He was kept close to Stratt, so he would always be at hand. Even more terrifying, Stratt has a way to work around Yao's demands. She has Grace drugged so he forgets that he is on board involuntarily and he is heavily sedated until launch.

This is what I meant by saying that Grace's autonomy is entirely taken away. Thorough the entire book, he is dragged and ordered around by Stratt's men, and now he is drugged and forced into a coma. His violation goes to the extreme; not only is he not allowed to say no, he is also not allowed to Remember wanting to say no.

Overall, Grace is a really interesting character to me. He is faced with a situation where only he can do what must be done and instead of rising up to the challenge he pleads and begs for someone else to be chosen. The book completely and satisfyingly flips the white saviour trope on its head. The protagonist is so against the idea of self-sacrifice that he threatens to doom Earth by self-sabotage if he is sent into space. Grace is not a bad person, but he has accepted that other people will take care of the crisis, that other people must die and that is the way things must be. It reminds me of Omelas; it is impossible to walk away, so how do we each accept the world that we live in? Grace accepts that three people must be sent to die in space in order for the rest of the Earth to have a chance of survival, but he thinks of that sacrifice as something that unquestionably happens to others. This echoes the contemporary state of affairs more closely; Western society is upkept by Eastern and Southern labour. We are aware of this, but still benefit from it.

Ultimately, Grace rises to his task and manages to save humanity. He could even return to Earth, but he doesn't. That's the part I think about the most. The journey changes and improves Grace, to the point where he does choose to sacrifice himself in order to save Rocky and Erid. We can ask what happened to make him more willing to save an alien world than he was to save his own. He does have a real choice, he could return to Earth and experience no consequences for leaving Rocky behind. I think the reason is that Grace has changed, yes, but Earth has changes as well in his eyes. Earth violated him, and in way exiled him, ruling through the figure of Stratt that his life was expendable.

First I thought the ending was cheap, but I've been thinking about it for days and I am coming around. It's just!!! I haven't formed concrete thoughts about it but God. God Fuck UGH. It's been 26 years on Earth. His students are grown and up his knowledge is probably archaic by now. His use for humanity has been expended. I am in pain. Would you crawl back home if the value of your life had been dismissed. Would Odysseus go home if he knew no one was waiting for him. I'm going to be sick.

[gallopinggallifreyans]

I would love to hear your opinions about ancient currency! And any recommendations you have for learning more about the Roman economy!

oh boy i am SO glad you asked! I'm going to put everything under a readmore because it's a Lot.

I have a few opinions on Greek coinage, specifically that of the introduction of coinage to Athens, though I'm working on a proposal for studying Spartan coinage rn.

Current publications re:Athens haven't really determined For Sure who introduced coins; it's a toss-up between Solon and Pisistratus but I'm in the Pisistratus camp for reasons that I can absolutely summarize in a separate post, as I've written and published a paper in my undergrad journal that (hopefully) holds weight in the current hodgepodge of thoughts. If you'd like that, I can write it up and link it here!

Re:Spartan coinage, I think the Spartan homoioi were real idiots. Most city-states were using silver (and very occasionally gold) for their coins, but Spartan homoioi were using iron spits. The spits (obeloi) were six to a drachma, which was the exchange rate for a long time. And by long time I mean there was no such thing as a floating conversion, coins were just the most portable form of precious metal, which was intrinsically valued. Outside Sparta (even the perioikoi) most city-states would have used ingots pre-coinage and that evolved into stamped metal, i.e. coinage. The Spartans considered themselves to be very religious and followed the Great Rhetra (unsure if Lykourgos existed), which maintained that silver and gold were holy and could not be used, so they used iron.

Unfortunately, the rest of Greece didn't follow that, and used silver in their coins, especially influenced by Attic-Ionian city-states who were in regular trade with Persia and further east, i.e. regions that valued precious metal outside their religious significance. Essentially, Spartans kinda screwed themselves over re:trade outside Sparta; they couldn't even trade in contemporary currency with the rest of Lakonia and forced their subject city-states into the same position. This is supported mostly by the explosion of Messenian and other Lakonian coinages after Sparta collapsed, though I want to see if I can find more text evidence, since I (an archaeologist) tend to rely too heavily on material. It's a whole thing, personally I believe this was a significant factor in Sparta's collapse, though other things factored in as well. Sparta was incredibly insular both in its trade/economy and religious practice and that combination led to its downfall.

For the Roman sources, I recommend starting with the Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy by Walter Scheidel, and The Ancient Economy by Walter Scheidel and Sitta von Reden. Von Reden has excellent articles related to the ancient economy in general, and most are available on JSTOR, so I recommend giving her stuff a look.

I also highly recommend reading Moses Finley's work The Ancient Economy (no relation to Scheidel and Von Reden's work), as it lays the foundation for much of our current school of thought. Peter Temin's subsequent work, The Roman Market Economy argues against Finley and kicks off a whole debate about how to define an economy without using capitalism as the basis, because capitalism as we know and define it did not exist then, and it is incorrect to assume that. We can call it protocapitalist, but not capitalist.

Slavery in Rome is a nuanced subject that is integral to learning about its economy — I suggest keeping an open mind and treading carefully with respect to post-1492 slave trades. Noel Lenski's chapter "Framing the Question" (linked; you need access through your institution) discusses the slave trade against a Finleyan model, while Scheidel (him again) talks about how to determine the wages of slaves (JSTOR link). W. V. Harris talks about the demography and geography of slaves here (JSTOR link). These three are good starts for learning about Roman slavery, but if you want more sources, I can pull some up for you.

I don't want to overload you with sources, so in general I'll recommend anything by Scheidel, Von Reden, Nicholas Purcell and Peregrine Horden (connectivity), Seth Bernard (coins and emissions), Astrid Van Oyen (tech innovation), and Willem Jongman (economic structure). As with the slavery sources, if you want direct links I can definitely find them for you! I'm always happy to share info :)

[timetravelinghearthian]

Continued thoughts on Hearthian timekeeping.

[Video ID: A time lapse video of the Outer Wilds solar system. The camera is in space and pointed at the sun. The various celestial bodies of the solar system orbit around the sun horizontally across the screen. The video starts and ends just as Timber Hearth begins to pass in front of the sun. The orbital cycle is about 4 minutes long. End ID.]

Timber Hearth’s celestial “years” run into a similar problem as their “days:” they’re best measured in minutes (approximately 4, in this case.) Even worse, as you may have noted, the Timber Hearth sidereal year is noticeably shorter than an average day!

As mentioned in the previous post, biological clocks are more useful for tracking time under circumstances like Timber Hearth’s. And when it comes to time periods longer than a day, a common biological clock is that of a species’ reproductive cycle.

Wait wait wait, before you leave! I said nothing about it being their own reproductive cycle that they use! (More on that in a different post, if ever.) If we’re being honest, following the life cycle of the local pine-like trees seems an easier, safer bet for a headcanon (it’s not my personal one, but we’re exploring here.)

You know the drill: more under the readmore

We already know they tap these trees for sapwine, and if it’s anything like maple tapping, it can only be done at certain times of the year. Now, with maple trees, that timing is dependent on the seasons, as the sugar in the sap comes from stored starches being used to feed the tree as it begins to wake up from winter. Problem: pine trees aren’t deciduous (they don’t shut down in the winter the same way broad-leafed trees like maples do, so there’s no rebound,) and as mentioned prior, Timber Hearth almost certainly lacks seasons in the first place due to its lack of axial tilt. However, a light and temperature-driven cycle isn’t the only one we can follow.

Thing is, producing gametes takes energy and resources, so you ideally don’t want to be doing it all the time (unless there’s some sort of beneficial tradeoff you’re getting, but in general, plants stick with being part-time producers.) Since neither you nor your potential mates are continuously available to reproduce, you’re going to want to sync up your timing across your species so that A meets B as efficiently as possible. Hence, a breeding season (or, in this case, pollen season) that can then be used as a basis for other events in the organism’s life.

(How do they all know when to reproduce at the same time without light or temperature signals? Uh… mycorrhizal networks, I don’t know. Plants aren’t my jam.)

I can easily see Hearthians structuring their year-equivalent around the different stages of life of the trees around them, from pollen season to pine-nut-harvesting season to tree-tapping season.

Of course, now that we have a year kind of defined, there’s the question of “months,” as demonstrated by Hal using that time measurement when estimating how long it would take them to start translating the Inhabitants’ language. The easy answer, of course, is that it’s related to the seasonal cycles mused about above. We’re largely in the great unknown here, though.

(It could be lunar (Attlerock-ar?) The period of time between instances of a new moon is roughly the same as the time loop (~20 minutes.) That puts it at about 3-4 solar cycles. Still small, but maybe we’ll keep it that way to make Hal’s estimate more impressive ::) )

[[Author’s Baseless Headcanon Alert!]]

As alluded to prior, having the Hearthian year revolve around their trees isn’t my primary headcanon. I still feel it plays a role in their timekeeping, specifically by marking their equivalent of spring, summer, etc. (and thus helping define how to divide their year into months.) However, I do headcanon Hearthians as having a breeding season, with that being the big time marker. However, because the cycle is so long, they divide the time between into thirds for a more manageable time frame, leading to a “Before-Hatch-Year,” a “Hatch Year,” and an “After-Hatch-Year,” followed by the next “Before-Hatch-Year,” and so on.

Following some calculations around a largely arbitrary ratio between “make egg,” “egg hatch,” “make egg again,” a Hearthian “year” is about 312 Hearthian “days.” This sounds somewhat comparable to the Earth equivalents, until you remember the previous post where I set a day to be about 20 hours. Doing the math, one of their years ends up being about 260 of our days. So the next time a Hearthian in the MBMP universe tells you their age, take it with a grain of salt.

Col: Seeing the final numbers on the page before me, I blurted out, "What the hell do you mean you're twelve?"

[[End Alert]]

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

(🖋 so i can keep an eye out)

AITA for reporting fanfic on tumblr for sexual content when its untagged/not under a readmore?

I'm mostly asking this because I'm curious, and full disclaimer I am not anti- or pro-ship, I don't subscribe to shipping discourse at all, as long as it's tagged and warned correctly, go nuts show nuts.

I have a pet peeve about fanfic authors posting their 'x reader' fanfictions in main tags (I follow quite a few main tags). If the fanfic is properly tagged, it has warnings on the introduction regarding the content, and the main body of the fic is under a readmore, I don't touch it. It's easy to scroll by, it doesn't hurt anyone, I don't care. Obviously, there isn't a universal 'x reader' tag, or they would all be blocked by my tumblr filters automatically.

But when a write posts their fic with graphic sexual content, doesn't add the community warnings FOR sexual/mature content, and doesn't put it under a readmore, filling main tags with graphic sexual descriptions, I report that post for sexual content. I used to try sending anonymous asks to the writers, asking politely for them to use readmores or to at least use the community warning tags, but more often than not I've either been ignored or they replied rudely like "I don't think I should have to do that." More often than not, these writers have 'Minors DNI' in their bios too, but they're not actually tagging their fics so that minors (or anyone else who doesn't want to see that) don't see them when they go into main fandom tags. I think that when posting anything, it's important to tag it properly so that the people who don't want to see it aren't subjected to it. I've also blocked a load of these accounts because their fics were flooding my followed tags dashboard, but at some point I don't think that I should have to. I think that they should be marking their works properly.

So, to tumblr as a whole, am I the asshole for reporting explicit, untagged fanfiction for sexual content?

What are these acronyms?

[brutalitybunny]

warrior cats/spirit of justice au that i cannot stop thinking about

under the readmore is a bunch of screenshots of posts i made rambling about it + design notes + misc

dragonstorm is dragon(fly) and storm mostly because dhurke's real name is derived from druk, the bhutanese thunder dragon,... even when he's leader of defiantclan i don't think he'd be dragonstar because it's LAME!!!! he's not intending for defiantclan to be official. he was not sanctioned by starclan. its fine. his markings are pretty self explanatory..... it's really just his hair LOL maybe i could have pushed more of his jacket into the design but i was originally trying to keep it simple...

runningheart is bc datz's jp name is like "fleeing as fast as you can" and hes always RUNNING and Ok you get it. i already explained it. cheers to /beauzos for pointing out that -heart is very datz though! his scarf is just a ratty piece of fabric he likes. i don't know how it gets on him don't ask me. i don't know where the piercings came from don't ask me. despite having a bobbed tail, i think he's incredibly agile and graceful. compensation king! his markings mimic his gloves+boots and harness, and the scars on his shoulder mimic the defiant dragon's band he wears :3

sunsight is a kit they found...probably a kittypet who got lost and they were like ok well he's ours now ^_^. named him sunkit/paw because the marking on his back looks like the sun. when they return him to twolegsplace for his own safety, he's picked up and named apple... but when he eventually returns to clan life, he's given the name sunsight because dragonstorm hopes his perceptiveness will help bring justice to [khura'inclan]. and because it rhymes with spiritflight. LMFAO the sunback marking is kindddd of like his attorney's badge and the band around his wrist is You know what it is

spiritflight was a pain in the ass for no reason. he's long. he needs to be. he's like they turned a borzoi into a cat. like dragonstorm, his tail calls back to his long hair... the swirls on his body are mimicking his flowy flowy sash, and also, just a way of stylizing mackerel tabby swirls that i like :3 spiritflight was a name entirely made by /beauzos THANKYOUUU because..you know...spiritual freak..the flight brings to mind that he uses religion as a way to flee from the horrors of It All. to me. it seems graceful and elegant but with an underlying current of "let it go and move on"...

i don't have names for amara or ga'ran cats but rayfacat would be called lilypool (/beauzos) because its cute and i want it. it's cute. NEKLNDFG khura'inclan also doesnt have a name yet... they live IN khura'in so that can't be it. we'll figure something out. im obsessed w these cats. I love these cats.

this is all because of the anon that reminded me of dear fellow traveler, which i only know from a talljake amv i saw. it's all connected!!!!!

[sonknuxadow]

What do you think Knuckles Generations would look like

feels like a good time to bring back this image i made when sonic x shadow generations was first announced. we can make this real if we bother sega about it enough (joking)

i feel like a knuckles story set during generations might be hard to pull off considering knuckles was in sonics whitespace but then again so was rouge and she still played an important role in shadows story so i guess its not impossible . anyway i think the rest of this post got way too long so im gonna put it under a readmore actually

idk if this is a good idea at all but like. sonic and shadow each have their own sort of gimmick right . for sonic its the classic and modern thing and for shadow its the doom powers. and classic knuckles isnt in this game. so maybe his whole thing can be switching between more typical sonic gameplay and the treasure hunting gameplay from the adventure games..... idk ....

for stages. my personal picks would be angel island* for sonic 3&knuckles, red mountain for sonic adventure, aquatic mine or pumpkin hill for sonic adventure 2.. i dont really have a preference for which one but there should probably be a sonic heroes stage. and obviously ares island for sonic frontiers. and i feel like there should be a level from knuckles chaotix as well but idk what it should be because i dont really know anything about that game. sorry.

(*could be based specifically on angel island zone from sonic 3 or just be a general angel island based stage like how they did a space colony ark stage for shadow gens. also i tried to not repeat any stages from sxsg but i think re-using sky sanctuary could work here. like i dont have many story-related ideas for this but knuckles' story would have to start after sonic frees him so maybe it begins with him going into sky sanctuary which leads to him finding the knuckles specific whitespace)

as for other characters that would feature in the story . i know its not a strict rule that there cant be repeat characters but i also wouldnt want for there to be too many repeat characters anyway which kinda limits our options ……. i think tikal should be a white space character for sure. maybe pachacamac too i think he would be an interesting addition. sega would never do it but mighty would be a good choice too. actually maybe they wouldnt be too opposed to it in this context considering gens is a game where classic and modern characters interact. idk. im struggling to think of boss battles right now but i think rouge would be a fun rival battle since we already know she leaves her spot in sonics white space at some point. maybe she could try to see if the master emerald is still intact and if she can steal it while nobodys paying attention to it. i also would want a sonic rival battle soooo bad but idk how they'd work that in