#warning: wall of text

[leam1983]

On Eureka Moments

There is one tiny, tiny plus-side to insomnia: the epiphanies you get when you finally manage to catch a few winks.

So, I finish my shift, clock out, term out of my Linux resources and crash into bed before supper gets going. Sarah's not tired enough to join in, but Walt is definitely leaning on his concern for me and joins in. We spoon in the way I like and soon enough, even though it takes me a while, I'm gone. Poof.

It's not long, mind you - an hour and some change before we have to cook dinner - but it's enough to strip me of that sense of distance I mentioned, earlier. Dots start to connect, and what's really fucking weird for me is that I don't so much start dreaming as I'd say I sandboxed while asleep.

It felt a little like waking up without actually waking up. I was in the same posture I'd fallen asleep in, locked in thanks to Walt's body weight and aware of the fact that I was actually in REM sleep, but the room had this hyper-vivid texture that it only gets when my brain goes hog-wild at the end of an insomnia episode. I couldn't make out anything out of the noises coming from the living room, as speech and sound were as distorted as they usually are in my dreams. What still made sense, however, were my own thoughts.

This is a longboi, folks. Clicky if you dare.

I started going over the root causes of my insomnia, starting with the fact that I had to play IT Goon for six small dealerships staffed with reticent, tech-adverse fuddy duddies and dudebros who really just wanted something to run their CRM resources and the occasional instance of Google Chrome. I have to field everything from keyboards no longer working to printers going on the fritz to login credentials with big dealerships' own Finance portals no longer being valid - all of it while keeping an eye on our Linux-using Call Centre employees, listening in on calls, taking briefs from our Marketing department (basically one gal plus Walt) and occasionally physically schlepping campaign material - albeit with some help - because most manufacturers are a bit averse to the idea of dealerships passing resources around externally.

Simplified, that gives me two large task groups:

Network Admin

The Nuclear Football, as I call my laptop that's intermittently crammed with marketing-level campaign plans that dealerships treat like they're handing us a hydrogen bomb. That mostly involves carrying it to the dealerships involved, giving it network access, transferring the relevant files and walking the staff through their resources.

I only really administer the Call Center stuff, and anything Network Admin might be involved, it doesn't drive me as stir-crazy as reassuring a bunch of Boomers and non-tech-savvy Millennials that we do, indeed, have their parent company's provided resources on-hand.

That part, and everything related to their fucking PC installs, I could do remotely - either with Microsoft Azure or Windows Server Edition 20XX.

I'm sleeping on three of my most important certifications because the people I work for are too risk-averse to realize we could just drop everything on a remote server and walk them through everything with a video call or two. Everything short of physical hardware failure, I can handle or control using a Windows Server hub and the most wonderful tool known to man, which is known as the Fucking Group Policy Editor. Pair that with a few hires we keep in-house at each dealership, and I could set things up so I never need to leave my home office ever again.

Ever. Again.

No scheduling conflicts, no waffling about because my Paratransport ride is late, no depending on Walt or Sarah when the short bus isn't convenient or fast enough.

There's just one hitch - money. I can set up a would-be master server and rope every single of our dealerships and every single of their PC installs under a single server's wing within a week or two, give or take a few days for unplanned events. Even simpler, I could do the same with Azure. Option 1 requires a wee bit more cash on the Infrastructure part but could mostly be one-and-done if we're willing to be smart about it, Option 2 requires tossing money at Microsoft on a monthly basis, at no extra power cost or space management worries for us.

Then, there's the unavoidable warts and blemishes. I'd need to image everyone's workstations across our dealerships, format their entire fleet and then rebuild everything using these images and WSE's Deployment Tools. I can't do this on weekdays, these guys have promos to run - and there's weekends where I can't do it either. Our Mercedes joint is expecting visitors by Canada Day, for instance. It's time-consuming, I'd need to plan it out with them and any time I spend setting up someone's server-based clone of their previous Windows install is time I can't spend doing anything else.

Ergo, that needs to happen during a massive holiday. The only one that fits the bill is Christmas.

Then, there's the fact that I need some leeway now. I need to go back to a decent sleep schedule starting yesterday. I can't just hold on, grit my teeth and expect to hold on for six months of this; I'll keel over before Halloween if nothing changes.

But, the fun thing with luxury dealerships is that they tend to give themselves off-weeks when sales ramp down seasonally. That includes mid-July.

I wake up with a start and, barely lucid, ring up our Mercedes and Audi clients. Confirmed: they're aiming for a ramp-down of their operations in mid-July. I briefly expose my plans, set up a Web meeting, and spend the last twenty minutes of what should've been my nap explaining to two befuddled Sales Directors that I'm about to propose gaining complete control over their infrastructure, with the included benefit of a drag-and-drop common directory where I'd simply organize promo materials as we obtain them. I could even use it to deliver patches that come to us in binaries, as a few do apply. Their on-site guys could handle printer clogs or dying USB ports, I'd take care of and automate most of everything that's software-based.

And, what I didn't tell them, is that I'd even be able to finally restrict Sales reps from unnecessary account privileges, which could make the occasional case of disciplinary action even more occasional. You can't loaf around at work watching PornHub on the job if there's a rule in place that specifically includes it in a list of banned addresses and IP ranges...

I know how it sounds - it's basic fucking barebones IT stuff, it's the fucking bedrock of Network Admin, maybe one or two rungs above CompTIA resources - but you'd be surprised at how many dealerships have exactly zero administration. They don't see the need; they're car guys with maybe one or two Web apps of choice, if any! As to why I didn't think of it earlier, it's mostly because it's not technically my job. Walt, Sarah and I distribute and manage promotional material and help dealerships to keep up with user retention and analytics. We do everything a Sales Director should do, except most Sales Directors are usually tied up with their local Karens complaining about the Service department's mechanics.

So what if we gave them an infrastructure? What if we air-gapped it, made it easily reproducible and deployable, and made it so working with us only means looking at a slightly different Windows login screen, before starting your workday?

If this works, we'll expand our services and solve most of my problems. Salesguy McGee's computer ain't worth shit? No prob, just clone his install, nuke the base, reinstall from the clone and spend a few minutes mothering it to make sure you haven't imported previously-observed bugs.

I mentioned Azure, but I know our guys won't want to contribute to a cloud budget. Again, they're tech-averse and think using the cloud means you're at the mercy of a Redmond or Seattle-based server outage. Psychologically, they'll want the comfort of their own spinning rust and SSDs. If I've got that WSE server I mentioned, it's no skin off my teeth.

So, while Walt was trying to follow along, I tried for my most diplomatic cough imaginable.

"I'd, uh, need another 20K for our IT budget. Six of 'em would go for a WSL license, the rest would go for maybe two extra 2U units over at the office."

I thought Walt would protest, but he just gave me a level look. "Will that help you sleep?"

I shrugged. "At the end of a somewhat lengthy process, sure. Relief's going to count for something, though, and I'm pretty much guaranteed to sleep like a baby tonight if you approve."

Boss Walt reacted first, by giving me a shoulder clasp. "Purchase approved. You've got our card, make it happen starting Monday."

Then followed Boyfriend Walt, who pulled me into a hug. "You're going to have to walk me through this, though - this is black magic to me."

Sarah, who'd caught wind of my WSE for Dummies talk, stopped by before heading into the kitchen. "He means he wants to be Emperor Palpatine, hon," she joked. "Ultimate power, Force lightning, no idiots being so much as able to install unsigned software on their machines, lockable USB ports - the works. You're the only one who'd need to keep visiting our guys in-person. The real challenge is going to involve letting a bunch of unaffiliated dealerships share the same basic server architecture, and even that's not too complicated."

I parted with a frayed, and possibly half-mad little laugh. "Holy shit, I'm gonna sleep tonight!"

Sometimes, one of the perks of insomnia is being able to take a few steps away from your professional bugbears and your clients' weirdo and inefficient methodology - and remembering the skillsets you actually paid for.

[28ms28]

its been a while since i did lestappen text posts so here you go

all other parts here

[sualne]

wanted to see her move

[ryuu242]

something about Ryōshū and Yoshihide

[might be a bit offensive, most is personal thought about Yoshihide and how PM build Ryōshū at the moment]

As someone who love Ryōshū, me and my friend wanted to make this post

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In Jigoku hen (Hell’s Screen), Yoshihide is a peculiar, arrogant, and conceited painter who looks down on all rules and traditions. He’s someone who cast away the Five Constants 五常 ( 義 justice, 禮 politeness, 智 wisdom, 信 fidelity and 仁 benevolence) to pursue art.

「あゝ、これでございます、これを描く為めに、あの恐ろしい出来事が起つたのでございます。又さもなければ如何に良秀でもどうしてかやうに生々と奈落の苦艱が画かれませう。

あの男はこの屏風の絵を仕上げた代りに、命さへも捨てるやうな、無惨な目に出遇ひました。云はゞこの絵の地獄は、本朝第一の絵師良秀が、自分で何時か墜ちて行く地獄だつたのでございます.... 。」

“It was for this reason, indeed, his consuming desire to paint this picture, that the terrible incident occurred. If it had not been for this event, how could even Yoshihide have succeeded in painting that graphic picture of the tortures and agonies in Hell? 

So, he could complete the picture, his life had to come to a miserable end. Indeed, it was to this very Hell in his picture, that Yoshihide, the greatest painter in Japan, had condemned himself.”

In the game, Ryōshū is depicted almost exactly the same way, if not more explicitly deranged than the original. There are numerous moments in the game that describe her eyes lighting up when she starts “painting” or marveling at piles of [censored] meats while exclaiming in delight.

You don’t even have to look so far—just read the uptie story of Warp Corp. Ryōshū. It vividly portrays her happiness and joy in cleaning up the hellscape created by centuries of despair-driven madness. I'll even quote here

"I get to visit a museum, an exhibition featuring brand-new pieces of art every single day. All that for a bit of physical labor."

"When this train that people take without giving it a second thought, every single day...Turned out to be a gallery of arts, sculpted with chisels of time! While I was impressed with how well they were hiding this truth from the public... three words came to mind. This. Is. It.

" In hindsight, I was so absorbed with chasing after and creating my own art "

"One that wrapped its flesh around the plush side of the seat, embodying a new chair with extra cushioning...One that is an amalgam of many, taking the shape of a new organism and lurching on... Though I wouldn't classify that as 'art'. Not yet."

"Shambling without intent is… in the end, insufficient to be called art. It is incomplete at best. I butcher them. Because the company ordered me to make them easier to clean up. To interfere with the process of involuntary art isn't to my liking, no… But that doesn't happen very often. Besides, there is plenty to be gained from the rest."

If that’s doesn't prove much, in the opening moments of the game, she’s visibly enjoying watching people get tossed into a bus to be crushed into fuel, while Sinclair is terrified, and Dante is questioning the morality of what’s happening.

With such evidence, there’s no way to claim her sadistic tendencies are just a façade or mask—it’s her bare essence. And that’s without even touching on her masochistic tendencies, which honestly make Yoshihide seem tame in comparison when it comes to twisted and warped personalities.

Ryōshū and Yoshihide are both artists consumed by blind, inescapable devotion to their craft. They are the kind of people who would willingly open the gates of hell and hurl themselves inside. They are also inevitably doomed to fall into Avīci Hell.

And as for being sad? Was Jigoku hen supposed to be a tragic tale of a father losing his daughter? Was Yoshihide meant to be a character that evokes sympathy for his suffering? Absolutely and definitely not.

Yoshihide himself opened the gates of hell and threw himself in—no one pushed him. He discarded the Five Constants and trampled over human lives in the name of art.

「檳榔毛の車にも火をかけよう。又その中にはあでやかな女を一人、上﨟のをさせて乗せて遣はさう。炎と黒煙とに攻められて、する、車―それを描かうと思ひついたのは、流石に天下第一の絵師ぢや。褒めてとらす。おゝ褒めてとらすぞ」

"A charming woman dressed up like a court lady shall ride in the carriage. Writhing amidst the deadly flames and black smoke, the lady in the carriage will die in agony. Your suggestion of finding such a model for your picture does you full credit as the greatest painter in the whole country. I praise you. I praise you highly."

What Yoshihide receives at the end of the story is the consequence of his own actions. In the end, he finishes painting the hellish screen—only after watching his beloved daughter burn alive before his eyes—and then hangs himself. The masterpiece he created was painted with the agony of witnessing his daughter’s death, and yet, just moments after despair, he finds joy and radiance in it. At his core, Yoshihide is still a painter who sacrifices goodness for the sake of beauty.

He’s no different from his original inspiration, Ryōshū in Uji Shūi Monogatari (Tales of a Rainy Night), who took delight in watching his house burn, his wife and children still inside. Akutagawa’s addition of a sense of love and grief in Yoshihide is a form of punishment—because while the original Ryōshū lost his humanity, Yoshihide still feels pain, which haunts him after completing his masterpiece.

「その火の柱を前にして、凝り固まつたやうに立つてゐる良秀は― 何と云ふ不思議な事でございませう。あのさつきまで地獄の責苦に悩んでゐたやうな良秀は 、今は云ひやうのない輝きを、さながら恍惚とした法悦の輝きを、皺だらけな満面に浮べながら、大殿様の御前も忘れたのか、両腕をしつかり胸に組んで、佇んでゐるではございませんか。

それがどうもあの男の眼の中には、娘の悶え死ぬ有様が映つてゐないやうなのでございます。唯美しい火焔の色と、その中に苦しむ女人の姿とが、限りなく心を悦ばせる― さう云ふ景色に見えました。」

"In front of the pillar of fire, Yoshihide stood still, rooted to the ground. What a wonderful transfiguration he had undergone! A mysterious radiance, a kind of blissful ecstasy, showed on the wrinkled face of Yoshihide who had been agonized by the tortures of hell until a minute before.

His arms were tightly crossed on his chest as if he had forgotten that he was in the presence of the Grand Lord. No longer did his eyes seem to mirror the image of his daughter's agonized death. His eyes seemed to delight beyond measure in the beautiful color of the flame and the form of the woman writhing in her last infernal tortures."

Because of how Jigoku hen is written, readers are left with the impression that “Yoshihide, despite his twisted nature, still has humanity.” But they forget how much pleasure he took in watching his daughter burn. Now they project what they read onto Ryōshū… even though the game hasn’t explored her backstory? So far, the game hasn’t dropped a single hint about Ryōshū’s backstory. She remains one of the most mysterious sinners on the bus. None of the uptie stories for her IDs provide even a shred of evidence that she’s secretly melancholic like Gregor.

What we can confirm is that she cherishes her sword, has some connection to the Five Fingers, and always speaks up when the topic of family comes up. Using the original work as a basis to interpret a character is fine but announcing your personal interpretation as fact while accusing others of not understanding the character is like running ahead of the car you're supposed to be riding.

Ryōshū, Sinner No. 4 of Limbus Company, is a violence-loving mystery of a character with shady connections, an artist who finds beauty in the grotesque. While this is not the entirety of her character, it is who she is. 

Ryōshū is Ryōshū—not Don Quixote or Rodion with a mask slapped on.

Liking her for her violent and twisted nature doesn’t make you a fool. It’s not the same as liking someone and then realizing the person you admired was merely putting on an act or presenting a beautiful façade. If PM later explores a more humanizing or empathetic aspect of Ryōshū, your reaction would likely be, “Oh, so Ryōshū still has humanity/she also has this side to her?” There might be some surprises, but it definitely wouldn’t feel like being deceived.

Even though I’m pretty sure most of the Ryōshū’s shrimp pond will continue simping for her because of her twisted nature as it is now. Either way, even if Ryōshū is shown to have humanity, she’ll still be Ryōshū—she’ll still turn people into a heap of [CENSORED] and call it art. That’s also how Akutagawa described Yoshihide up until the moment he ceased to live.

From start to finish, Yoshihide was always the blind painter single-mindedly pursuing his art, to the point that even his last shred of humanity couldn’t overcome his identity as an artist. As some analysts point out, the last remnants of Yoshihide’s humanity were burned away with the monkey that threw itself into the flames after his daughter.

「さうして朱塗のやうな袖格子がばらくと焼け落ちる中にのけ反つた娘の肩を抱いて、帛を裂くやうな鋭い声を、何とも云へず苦しさうに、長く煙の外へ飛ばせました。続いて又、二声三声 ― 私たちは我知らず、あつと同音に叫びました。

壁代のやうな焔を後にして、娘の肩に縋つてゐるのは、堀河の御邸に繋いであつた、あの良秀と諢名のある猿だつたのでございますから。」

“Amidst the burned crimson-lacquered lattice which was crumbling in pieces, it put it hands on the warped shoulders of the girl, and gave, out of the screens of black smoke, a long and piercing shriek of intense grief like the tearing of silk, then again two or three successive screams. Involuntarily we gave a unanimous outcry of surprise. 

What was holding fast to the shoulders of the dead girl, with the red curtain of blazing flames behind it, was the monkey, which went by the nickname of Yoshihide at the mansion of Horikawa.”

「その猿が何処をどうしてこの御所まで、忍んで来たか、それは勿論誰にもわかりません。が、日頃可愛がつてくれた娘なればこそ、猿も一しよに火の中へはひつたのでございませう。」

"No one knew how the monkey had managed to sneak into the palace. But one thing was certain: because the girl had always been kind to it, the monkey had chosen to follow her into the fire."

Throughout the story, the monkey is the only one who exhibits pure, unselfish love—mirroring the fatherly love that Yoshihide buries under his artistic obsession. When the monkey jumps into the fire, it’s as if Yoshihide is watching the last part of himself—his ability to love—die alongside his daughter.

As he witnesses this, Yoshihide doesn't weep or break down. Instead, he chooses to finish the Hell Screen, embracing his artistic obsession fully. This suggests that whatever remnants of love or morality he had have been burned away, leaving behind only the artist who seeks perfection at any cost.

This also ties into the broader theme of the story: true hell is not just something painted—it is something lived. By sacrificing his last shred of humanity, Yoshihide doesn't just depict hell; he becomes part of it. His masterpiece is complete, but at the cost of everything else.

Yoshihide’s suicide isn’t just an act of despair—it could also be seen as the ultimate statement of his transformation. With his humanity gone, there is nothing left for him but death.

That would be Ryoshu, following the original Yoshihide's portrayal most closely—not some tragic, repressed character. As for how Project Moon plans to cook her up, only they know. They’re keeping it under wraps, so no player can analyze her in depth just yet.

What if they decide to make her a fusion dance of the lord, the painter, and the daughter? Or even the monkey. Thanks to this last part of chapter 18 right next to the part up there.

For those who love Ryoshu because she’s a handsome, domineering figure—well, lucky you, no worries there.

[flecks-of-stardust]

[ID in alt text]

hi sorry still obsessed with this gif i got. it's so funny to me. my baby's little feets sticking out. the pearl in their hands. the slime mold 'walking.' the neuron glow receding. earlier i laughed so hard it hurt and it's still just as funny now watching this help

[nairanorica]

Pure vanilla cookie got to go to hanamicon!

And my photography skills need some work, I know, I know. But look how pretty the pink backdrop was! Bonus marianne:

More yapping about the con under the cut

So it was a pretty small con and *very* hot, but even tho I was very tired for most of it, I had a fantastic time!

Friday wasn't a full con day, it was just a cosplay ball in the evening. Which was fabulous, so many elegant and fancy cosplays! For the opening act we also tried to learn how to dance a quadrille - it was utter chaos, but still very fun. It was also fiance's first time wearing a full cosplay (except for two semi-closet cosplays like... 9 or so years ago and a fluffy tail here and there) and we didn't expect it, but there were quite a few people who knew cookie run and git super excited to see the cosplay. It made me so happy to see him chat with people excited about his cosplay <3 special shoutout to the very excited drunk girl who talked to us about the game for like half an hour, you were great

Second shoutout to the guy who came up to me and yelled "edelgard did nothing wrong!!", to which I agreed. That was clearly not the response he was expecting xD he looked at me in confusion, then doubled down with "nohr is better than hoshido!!"... and I had to agree again, which confused him even more. He then gave me an approving nod and said that usually those are much more controversial opinions xD

Saturday was super hot. I still decided to wear marianne and died a little the whole day. But again very fun - the funniest interactions that day were the girl who held up her phone to fiance (again in pv cosplay) and asked him to do a pull for her in crk (he even pulled an epic!), and what happened after the contest: one of the contestants was a pure vanilla cookie! A truthless recluse to be precise. We tried to find him for a photo after the contest, but initially had no luck. So we went to the bar either to give back our cups or get something to drink and while fiance is in line, I'm waiting a bit to the side, holding the vanilla cone hat. And there comes the other pv rolling in on his wheelchair, grinning. I greet him with a "he was already looking for you!" And he replies "and I was looking for him!" So the two cookies take photos together, and while they're posing I see a bernd das brot cosplayer sneaking in next to them. Fiance then sees him and gets super excited bc I mean, that's a perfect bernd das brot costume. The other pure vanilla just kinda covers his face and says "ye, that's my fiance...". It was amazing

Sunday was even hotter, so I wore my marcille cosplay but without a wig and it was so much more bearable. That day we watched flying sushi theater's newest play - it was a dungeon meshi play, ofc I had to see it. I love them so much, their ability to create a stageplay that's fun and entertaining for people who don't know the source material while also including a lot of nods and references for the people who do will never cease to amaze me. It was a hell's kitchen parody, with a second baking show parody running parallel - I'm sure that's also a play on an existing show, but I didn't recognise it. It was called "mimic'ed it!" and they had to recreate baked goods as shown on a photo. All due to djinn shenanigans. And ofc bc it's dungeon meshi, the djinn got consumed in the end - they made djinn tonic, with the sound effect and recipe card from the anime. Truly amazing - if you ever get the chance to see them perform, I highly recommend!

Ok, enough yapping for now

[chorus-the-mutate]

In another instance of fuck it, we ball this year I am here to drop one of my most nuclear marvel takes: I hate the direction the newest X Men comics have taken all of the X Men characters in. Once the theme of coexisting with humanity and the struggles the X Men faced to integrate with the world at large was abandoned in favor of self segregation on Krakoa I gave up on their comics. This defining theme is not only what the X Men were built on but was the biggest, defining theme that has kept them relevant for half a century when the Inhumans failed to do the same. While finding community is important, especially for all marginalized people, self segregation just isn't feasible because every marginalized group is so large and diverse that they'll eventually divide into subcategories and fall into conflict after conflict until there is no group at all. Just look at how often mutant kind fights each other and that even with Krakoa there's still a Brotherhood. Then look back into your life and your community of choice to see if this same kind of division and subcategorization is happening there. The X Men and every real life rights activist group they've ever paralleled showed that when we as people are struggling to protect ourselves we take a stand, we reach out to the world around us and reaffirm our right to exist. Sure, there are people that will never understand, people that fall into supremacy groups or people that maliciously co-opt these causes for the benefit of themselves. But you know what we do with them? We leave them behind and face tomorrow together, no matter how long it takes to shake off the bad actors. Self segregation might protect you in the short term, but you won't always be able to protect the people you care about. The bad actors, the people in power that instate policies to strip away our human rights count on us to lay down and die or in fight until we give up all of our own. And when you or I are alone, when there is no community, the bad actors will know that their war has been won. The X Men themselves, all of their recent writers and the world at large has seemingly forgotten that. But we shouldn't. Facing the world and reaffirming our right to exist is the only way forward.

And with that serious discussion of why I hate the current state of Krakoa as a concept out of the way, I'm just gonna discuss everything I know about the X Men comics currently and what I dislike about them.

Fair Warning there will be discussions of crimes ahead, including discussions of sexual assault, enslavement, eugenics and murder, lots of murder

. I hate the recent trend marvel has had of babyfying a lot of mutant villains but it is especially egregious with villains like Apocalypse, Sabretooth and Omega Red. Apocalypse's farce of a redemption arc is so bad it deserves its own bullet point later on but Sabretooth and Omega Red aren't getting away so soon. Even if Sabretooth is literally one of the only mutants being punished for the plethora of crimes he's committed he is still a serial killer/mass murderer/terrorist/rapist and in spite of the efforts he has made to change he still doesn't take responsibility for his past when he is judged by the council on Krakoa. The sheer amount of destruction he has caused is just something that cannot be undone and if Sabretooth has made as much progress as certain writers want us to believe he should face imprisonment or execution with acceptance. And if writers want us to believe that Sabretooth is as irredeemable and cutthroat as always why is he being promised any sort of amnesty by people who know that he will do even more reprehensible things? Then we have Omega Red who's somehow more of a muddled mixed bag than Sabretooth is. His edgy death powers, his presentation as a character in general and his mix of good and bad deeds seem to set him up as a prime example of an anti villain/anti hero character. But then you have the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Volume 1, Issue 8 that mentions how Omega Red was killing and assaulting children which is a huge crime that needs to be addressed and retconned if writers want to redeem him. And if writers don't want to redeem him, especially if he is a confirmed child murderer/predator then why are the X Men so cooperative with him? Why are the members of the quiet council willing to prosecute Sabretooth (even if his punishment is lacking) but not prosecute villains like Omega Red or Mister Sinister for the severe past crimes they have committed and still need to be held accountable for? Because they agreed to follow three laws??? That's not enough of a reason to give these people a pass, hell it's not enough of a reason to give people like Professor X or Cyclops a pass for their worst crimes that they still refuse to take accountability for. Also before anyone brings up the point of rehabilitative justice vs punitive justice I'm just gonna say that rehabilitative justice is for people that have committed minor crimes like drug crimes and theft or for people that have committed murder under extenuating circumstances like self defense, the defense of others, revenge for extreme injustices against someone's loved ones/an innocent party and murders committed under duress. Not for people committing war crimes, organized crime, sex crimes or murder for the fun of it. Sabretooth and Omega Red definitely fall into the latter category.

. Everything from Apocalypse's farce of a redemption to his farce of a wife in these recent runs are poorly written disservices for Apocalypse's character as well as a disservice to the characters around him. Apocalypse has been made to be irredeemable from the jump because he is a mutant supremacist that constantly commits mass murder and enslaves others to commit mass murder at his side. Angel's most iconic storyline as a character is about how Apocalypse emotionally manipulates him after the loss of his wings and kidnaps him for the expressed purpose of brainwashing him into the horsemen of death. And this is brainwashing that Angel has been battling on and off with for years. Hell his entire goal as shown through every iteration of the Age of Apocalypse storyline is to create a mutant supremacist ethnostate where he puts mutants in breeding camps and forcibly conscripts them into his armies to kill or subjugate any dissidents he finds. And now that Genesis is around we're supposed to believe that this goal of creating this mutant supremacist ethnostate where his own people are systematically enslaved, abused, bred and killed off is for the greater good??? HELL NO. Apocalypse's goal in and of itself is too harmful for the world at large to ever feasibly be implemented and hand waving that fact off by having Genesis instruct Apocalypse to "make mutants stronger to fight Annihilation," isn't gonna cut it. Genesis herself ain't gonna cut it because she is an arrogant, self righteous war monger who beat her own children to "make them stronger" and dragged half of her people, including her own children, into thousands of years worth of warfare against an alternate dimension of demons because she couldn't handle losing. But the worst part of this all is that the writers don't have the balls to make Genesis look bad. They hand wave her actions away and play up how much Annihilation is influencing her actions in the present, then give her a slap on the wrist by having her exiled somewhere. Hell even Storm, who should know that someone like Genesis is full of shit, voted not to exile her after taking over Arrako and got outvoted. The writers could've saved her character by being honest with the fact that she's a bad person and actually exploring that by discussing if surviving Annihilation's invasion at all costs is worth the price of everyone's humanity and quality of life. That way, when it's revealed that Genesis plunged her own people into war when there was an out it could actually fucking mean something. Looking back on Apocalypse and thinking of his lost loves I am reminded of Autumn Rolfson, another very good reason Apocalypse never deserved a fucking redemption arc. He met her and hired her to become his horseman of famine as a teenager. And then he has a kid with her. At best this is a blatant abuse of power on Apocalypse's part, at worst it's grooming. You could even make an argument that Apocalypse is also guilty of rape by proxy because Angel had sex with Ichisumi, a horseman of pestilence, while he was brainwashed and Apocalypse is responsible for taking away Angel's ability to consent because he brainwashed him.

. Also there is no way in hell I am supposed to sit here and believe that Genesis didn't take Apocalypse with her to Amenth because he wasn't strong enough. That motherfucker is one of the most blatantly overpowered and competent characters in Marvel and all she can do is control plants. While I'd usually admire someone's creativity with their powers there is no way in hell that Genesis is more powerful or capable than he is when she is dumber than a sack of bricks and only controls plants. Hell she's so underpowered in comparison that all of their kids are underpowered. How the fuck was she even able to do that???

. Also also Genesis is beautiful but her main outfit is very unflattering on her, her shoulder pauldrons are extremely bulky and gaudy looking which makes the rest of her outfit look unnecessarily clunky. But even if you removed the shoulder pauldrons her outfit isn't well constructed because the shirt has weird embellishments that don't add anything and her skirt can range from normal to unnecessarily bulky depending on whoever's drawing her. If anything Genesis should've stayed in her Annihilation outfit because at least it actually flattered her and seems to pay more homage to her Egyptian heritage than her main outfit does.

. On another note I feel like the original Horsemen of Apocalypse need to be reworked. None of them make me angry like their parents but I feel like their power sets are lacking, especially in comparison to the other horsemen, and it feels like a wasted opportunity that the writers mainly focused on Genesis instead of them. It also feels like a massive waste of potential for the original Horsemen of Apocalypse to go with their mom to Amenth. I feel like it would've been more interesting to see the original horsemen focus on the goal of making earth stronger, setting a real example for all horsemen to come, and really explore their relationship with Apocalypse, especially since Death seems like a relatively good aligned character all things considered. Them being gone until now could've been explained by having the original horsemen being put into stasis after a devastating defeat and Apocalypse secretly protecting them this whole time because he loves them so much. Plus the emotional reunion of Apocalypse finally seeing his children awaken from stasis and truly being ok after thousands of years would be so much better than what we got.

. Isca the Unbeaten, Bei the Blood Moon, White Sword and Gorgon have all just been wasted in this run because their characters are interesting but are being used in service of Apocalypse's shitty new lore made to help "redeem him". Isca especially shines above the rest because her power of literally being unbeatable is extremely well crafted. Not only has it been explained in a way where she still has tangible, realistic weaknesses but it also shapes her personality and leads to interesting developments where her flaws are acknowledged. I just wish she stayed red. She is perfect and needs to stay when better writers start retconning this entire run. Bei the Blood Moon is also quite nice, she's well designed, has a good personality and her efforts to make her marriage with Cypher is quite sweet. I just hate that they killed Cypher and just turned him into Apocalypse's successor with making mutant kind better but that's not a her problem. White Sword has a really cool power where he just summons an army of champions he's killed with said sword and his temporary dissent into madness where he was trying to defend this one stronghold for ages is quite intriguing, he just needs more content. And our boy Tomi Shishido aka Gorgon has always been an interesting villain, one I always thought was most interesting as a member of the HYDRA Council, but he falls into the redemption arc trap every other mutant in fucking existence fell into. The reason he gets a pass is because compared to the likes of Sabretooth, Omega Red and Apocalypse his redemption isn't as egregious and I respect him for not becoming one White Sword's champions even when White Sword proceeded to kill him. Hopefully when he eventually comes back he'll just go back to working for HYDRA and getting into drama there.

. These recent X Men comics have been very bad at exploring their own allegories relating to mutants as marginalized people. Not only have they had the X Men and mutant kind as a whole self segregate on Krakoa they have also redeemed every goddamn mutant in existence because marginalized mutant = good. This kind of behavior is how we get people being shielded from the consequences of their racism, sexism, anti LGBT sentiments or other forms of bigotry because they're part of a different marginalized group. This behavior is how we get predators, abusers and animal abusers co-opting LGBT spaces for their own benefits. And this sentiment of all mutants being good hasn't even been working in their own comics, sure poor baby Apocalypse has been going through his "redemption arc" but Mister Sinister is actively fucking over other people and using his position on Krakoa as cover for his research even though he knows it's wrong. The X Men, especially the Quiet Council, come off as immoral cowards because they've bent over backwards to shield war criminals, mass murderers and creeps just because they're mutants that are capable of following three basic ass rules (or capable of lying about following those rules like Mister Sinister). But the worst part is that there are enough writers saying that it's moral to shield and babify terrible people just because those terrible people happen to be marginalized. It's the coward's way of writing diversity and I'm tired of seeing this babyification everywhere I look. They also take their own allegory too literally by reincorporating Orchis as the human supremacist opposition to the X Men and fully diving into this conflict, hoping to reflect real life struggles people face against bigotry. But all of these mutants have superpowers and Orchis, a human organization where some people randomly gained powers at some point, are trying to make sure that humanity isn't overtaken by mutants population wise because they're worried about the consequences it'll have on humanity. And yes, I know it's supposed to reflect the fear white Americans have of any minority group out populating them but that fear doesn't make any sense and Orchis' fear does to an extent. X Men stories like these fail all the time because bigotry against super powered mutants can be rationalized to an extent while real life prejudices can't. X Men stories revolving around anti mutant sentiments are at their best when they focus on the mutant characters feelings and the social ramifications this bigotry has on their lives. Nightcrawler running away from his home because people fear him for nothing more than his appearance is impactful. Angel's anguish at having his wings amputated by his own father because his father couldn't stand the sight of them is impactful. This story where a bunch of extraordinarily powerful people bicker and fistfight over who should inherit the earth in 20 years time isn't. Plus characters like Abigail Brand, MODOK and Fenris (Andreas and Andrea von Strucker) have more interesting things to do with their time, why are they here?

. These X Men comics are also structurally horrible. The writers not only eliminated most of their compelling villains by going out of their way to redeem every mutant they could but the pacing is so fast that even I can't keep up with what's happening anymore. The breakneck pace is a trap all marvel comics have fallen into recently in the quest to make the next big event™ but now these writers have to scramble and find things for the X Men to do because they intentionally handicapped themselves by eliminating so many goddamn villains. There's no longevity that gives the readers time to breathe and there are no real stakes to keep readers invested because conflicts are solved so quickly in favor of creating the next big conflict. Pair all of this with how Krakoa functions and the fact that basically any mutant character can be resurrected any time a writer wants them back, nothing matters to the audience reading these comics because every single problem can be solved with ease.

. I also hate how Broo became the Brood King. I love my boy Broo but him becoming Brood King was a contrived solution to the Brood conflict and it detracts from his character since being king of the brood keeps him from exploring his own scientific interests and completing his own goals. I want my boy to cure cancer, not take the Brood out of the equation when we are desperately in need of a sustainable, reliable source of conflict. If the writers wanted to explore Broo's relationship with the Brood more he should've had an adventure where he finds kinship with more Brood mutants and has to decide if he should bring them to earth or not.

. Also while we're talking about space I hate how the X Men just terraformed Mars for Arrako. It feels tacky to mess with Mars and like a waste of potential to do something cool with Mars if someone did want to mess with it.

Tl;dr: These recent runs of X Men comics ruin almost everything good about the X Men and I hope the reception to MCU X Men movies that follow the formula that works for them forcibly retcons the X Men comics back to their roots

[sysig]

Coding woes (Patreon)

[glittergroovy]

Selby Wall - Ethel Cain

[necromii]

idk if anyone has asked this but can you do a tutorial on how to make psd's? whenever you have the time ofc :( i know you have a lot on your plate

You pray to God and then black out for an hour tbh..

But as a serious answer: there's a lot of ways to make colouring psds and there's no "right" way to make them buut I can do a little walk-through / tutorial on how I personally usually go about making them! Again, this doesn't mean this is the correct way to go about making them, I actually have no idea what I'm doing!

All under cut as I talk a lot &&. use a lot of images ^^''

I don't usually go into making colouring psds with anything in mind but when I do I normally pick out some images and a colour scheme I want! For this, I wanted a more red &&. blue theme, so I went into it with that in mind and try to pick images with a bit of the colours I want in it.

To start out, I usually start with Selective Colour and Hue / Saturation, the order of which doesn't matter ^_^! I then adjust them until I'm happy with the colours. ( ps. if you want a colouring to work on a majority of different skin tones, I recommend not changing the red { and in some cases yellow } hues too much! )

After making these adjustments, here's what I ended up with:

Next I'll add a Gradient Map, sometimes multiple, and mess with the blending style for them. Sometimes I'll add another Selective Colour adjustment to further get the colours I'm looking for! Below is with the Gradient Map + extra Selective Colour adjustments added ^_^

And then to finish it up I do Exposure + Vibrance adjustments and add any extra adjustments if I want to. Below is the final colouring, before and after.

I personally prefer for my colouring to be more.. subtle most of the time, but you can go all out if you want or prefer that with your colourings!

If you want to download this colouring, you can do so here! Just credit me if you use it publicly, please.

I hope this gave you an idea at least, as I said at the start, there's no one way to make colouring psds nor is there a right or wrong way! Everyone starts out somewhere and has a certain preference and that's fine! Just have fun and mess around and you'll eventually get something you like!

"How do you make colouring psds" is a pretty vague question for that reason, so if you want more specific help I can try my best but again, I really don't know what I'm doing most of the time 😭...

[valeffelees]

mfw a take about the mage is so canonically wrong it makes my ears ring but i can't say anything bc fandom is a sandbox where everyone is allowed to build their own castle

[cream-and-tea]

everyone look at me. look me in my eyes. okay? thank you. i’m about to make a post about something statistically none of you care about even a little and look. okay. this is the important part. you have to read it. you have to read every last bit of it and then you have to say wow créme that’s so cool and informative i’m so glad i know about this now thank you for making this post i love the post and i love you to ❤️ got it? good. i’m so glad we’re all on the same page here 😀

[into-the-milgramverse]

Do you ever think about how Amane's warnings were either seen as threats (by Mahiru and audience) or as just test of patience (by Shidou)? Do you ever think about how Amane likely was just trying to protect the ones she cares about? Do you think she didn't actually want to kill Shidou, but felt like she had to to save Mahiru? Do you think that's why she's mad at us for not stopping him?

First MV, shows her helping a (cartoon) cat, getting punished, then promising to be good. Gets voted guilty and punished, giving a message that practicing medicine is bad and deserves punishment.

Second MV, shows what the punishment was and that the cartoon cat was real cat.

Do you think after that first vote result, she started to think of Milgram as the same as her mom? That Milgram has the same rules against medicine? That if Shidou continues to practice it, Milgram will punish both him and kill Mahiru?

Do you think Amane killed Shidou immediately after knowing that he was voted Innocent? Do you think she felt like that was a huge risk and that she'd get punished again, this time for ending a life too early before it was supposed to, but that she thought it was worth it to protect Mahiru from same fate that the cat she took care of faced? Or do you think she waited until she was voted Innocent as well, to get confirmation that it's acceptable to punish someone for breaking the rules? Do you think even then it felt like a risk given how close she was to being voted Guilty again? Do you think she's currently scared of what we'll do now?

Do you think she regrets the decision? Do you think she too blames herself now for Mahiru's death, along with millions of voices that blame her for it?

[cosmicseapop]

Aqw’s Structure of Existence Theory Pt2

Upper Planes dont have a better name

Funny enough this is the more simpler one to explain, despite having only a bit of info on them. 

True gods that are also considered alien to Lore if Fimbul calling the Hero an interloper holds any weight. They can influence existence as a whole through their domains depending on what it is, either through their power alone or through their followers (ie Infamy and doom spirits). Their realms on different planes of existence and can’t easily be accessed unless a god is the one opening the way, but another god could block access (Malgor keeping the Hero out of the Timestream for a bit). 

With the exception of EDoT and Adimonde, all of the gods are considered dead and mostly forgotten. EDoT for obvious reasons and Adimonde for some other reason that hasn’t been shown yet (probably from just chilling in his realm or a special Fiend Shard). Adimonde could also be dead since we’ve been shown them as a floating mask, and they just manage to escape being tripped in the Mana Core. The OWO isn’t completely forgotten since the Mysterious Stranger still remembers Infamy (if they’re the god of Doom, but thats all but confirmed at this point) and their goal, so there’s probably others factions that would remember the other gods either on Lore or in space.

There had to be some sort of council or a criteria to determine who to ascend to godhood pre Reset. Also there’s issue of how the power is distributed, like is it taken from the original god, is it formed from the newly made concept and needs to grow in strength, or is it from worship of followers. Kathool did seem to get a boost in power from their ascension but the Hero didn’t seem to be affected (tho thats probably because they had so much power to begin with, it was more like a drop in the bucket), and quickly gained followers that could increase their range of influence. The fallout of that will definitely come last after things with OWO is settled, when everyone isn’t threatened with getting snapped for existing without OWO’s approval.

Infamy and Adimonde most likely weren’t ascended by another gods, so there has to be a way for them to ascend by themselves if they didn’t just show up out of nowhere in the beginning of everything — probably by killing and taking the godhood from a god since their goals boils down to conquest. Law and Tranquil are more difficult to determine how they got their godhood, but Law feels like they had it from the beginning and Tranquil would have gotten theirs through diplomatic means or worship. EDoT most like was born with their pre Reset power since time one of the more fundamental concept for the universe. 

Kathool would be a minor god of sorts, if only because of the Hero tying them to their existence. They were ascended the same way that OWO would ascend other gods, but with the small changing of wording got placed under the Hero’s control by tying them to their existence. There’s probably going to be a way around or getting out of being tied to the Hero’s existence to be a proper god, but probably a problem for another story arc.

Malgor and the other Speakers would also be demigods of sorts, not ascended to godhood but being born with divinity that allowed them access to the Timestream and the ability to control it. 

Theres possible identities for 2/3 gods we do talk to in OWO. Infamy is all but confirmed in game to be the God of Doom — them taking such offense to Gravelyn and Sepulchure ruling the Shadowscythe Empire, stating the shadows came from their throat (weird way of saying creating them), and Gravelyn’s wound being confirmed to be Doom. Law is probably the God of the Creatioux Dragons (maybe the Decadere Dragons too since they’re part of the same species of Void Dragons) — mostly because dragon face mask shape but also since their views regarding Chaos aligns with what the Creatioux’s view is on the Decadere’s use of Entropy from DF. Tranquil is a bit hard to figure out, mostly due to that it was stated in the merge quest for the Mana Core that they were part of a pair with someone else (neither Law or Infamy tho, probably another god that didn’t get the position of being the mouth piece of OWO). It also worth pointing out that these three feel like the representation of the other main games’ timelines that were merged into Aqw’s, and their identities are probably tied to things that hold importance to the stories — Infamy for Mechquest, Law for Dragonfable, and Tranquil for Adventure Quest.

It's also worth pointing out that once someone becomes a god, that position cant be taken away, and the only way to remove them is through killing them — ie Nulgath wanting to usurp Adimonde as Fiend God. Silencing is more a less permanent solution (and a whole other theory post) that still keeps the god alive enough so that they’re not a problem anymore but don’t get rid of their domain or disrupt their influence on the universe. This probably why OWO hasn’t straight up killed Einsolf since there power would mostly go to one person rather than spitting it up between all the dead gods, then that god would be put to sleep/killed and that devolves into a cycle of infighting until there’s not enough gods left to keep that one down and they all get killed.

Another speculation, but gods don’t seem to be by the powers of other gods, or at least not like how it affects mortals. The OWO are aware of the EDoT’s death and the Reset that came of it and seem to be aware of the cycles Malgor went through and the outcomes of it (probably how they know about the 3 threats but not knowing who they are if they aren’t lying about that). Which is good thing since the Hero can become the Champion of Doom, something thats toootally going to work out well and couldn’t go wrong at all what so ever /s. 

Space as an element 

This is on here solely for the fact that the dragon egg in the Mirror Realm hasn’t been mention in years and thats thing is technically the counterpart to one of the most powerful being in the universe. And with space being set as the counterpart to time in the game, Space Dragon God. 

A fun headcanon I have is they play a similar role to the EDoT and the Reset and created the Mirror Realm indirectly — either by just existing or dying in the past. 

Mana Core

Just as confusing as the Elemental Planes 

A realm that was created from the Reset and condensation of timelines and universes, and an 'Avatar’ that was immediately put in baby jail for just existing. 

Contrary to the Elemental Avatars probably just being Champions that raised to the position, Einsof sees more like the personification of the Mana Core. Calling him an Avatar is probably easier to explain or its current way of trying to make sense of him (since the creation of the Elemental Avatars hasn’t been explained yet). It's literally taking all of OWO to keep him asleep and will start waking up if any three of them lose focus, while they were ably to Silence Neso with ease — seems a bit of an understatement and insult to compare him to the regular Avatars. 

It feels like Einsof is more the god of all creation than Mana with how powerful he should be (being the personification of mana in a universe that thrives because of mana would do that) and would be above the Hero in terms of power, even with all the stolen power and authority from OWO. There’s also a good chance that actually kill him would also lead to all of existence ending if someone doesn’t take that mantle, probably similar to the Mana Affliction but on a wider and more devastating scale. That’s probably what happened in the Ultra!Malgor timeline, with the Hero taking Einsof’s authority over Mana after killing him.

A fun headcanon of mine is the reason Einsof is basically a child in terms of god years is the fact that he’s technically the embodiment of how old the timeline is, since Aqw’s is technically fairly new.

[lux1fer]

GUYS IM SO HYPE I LOVE THIS ok so im making. a concept. either making it an ask blog or just a general au. heres the concept prologue CW TEXT WALL Gradient was sitting on the gentle carpet of dark grass that lined Outertale's glittery environment. The calming scent of the night's chill, mixed with the stinging aroma of grass pollen was the only thing he could sense. He was calm, as he watched the stars with wide, curious eyes. Fresh gently patted his head, turning to him with a warm smile. "Stars are pretty rad, aren't they?" Gray nodded, grinning. "Thanks for taking me here, Fresh!" "No problemo, kiddo." He murmured, turning his gaze back to the galaxy painting the night sky in an array of colors. For a moment, he almost thought he saw a shooting star streak the sky, which made him perk. "Didja see dat?" He glanced to Gradient, who's jaw was gaping in shock. "I did!" He giggled, kicking his feet. "That was so cool! Aren't we supposed to make a wish after those?" Fresh nodded. "Go ahead." Gray closed his eyes, thinking for a moment. "I wish... I wish to visit the stars someday!" He smiled. Smiling, Fresh looked to Gradient. "That's a pretty dope wish! Hopefully someday we will." Gradient stared at the sky with a lidded gaze. It had been almost a decade since that day. He's never forgotten about that wish- he's thought about it a lot. It's never come true, well, at least, not yet. "Perhaps we will." He murmured to himself, glancing beside him, where he vividly remembers Fresh being, though he was nowhere to be found.

[acosmicwayfarer]

🌠 Sal

Profile

Full Name: Salaria Kriston

Aliases: Sal, Sally, Kriston, Angel

Sex: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Physical Age: 24-26 ᶜʸᶜˡⁱᶜᵃˡ

Actual Age: Old

Species: Human

Attributes: Ethereal

Height: 5'5"

Weight: 135lbs

Skin Tone: Ivory

Eye Color: Mint green

Hair Color: Russet brown

Overview

Ruminative, Curious, Altruistic —⠀Personality In Three Words

Having a vast array of tales to tell in her relatively short life time, Salaria (or Sal, as she prefers to be named) is known for being a wandering soul throughout the cosmos as we know it (and as we don't!) She has her work and obligations to attend as they provide the funding and means for her nomadic lifestyle, but even so, she isn't always easily found in one area for too long. If a piano crosses her path, she often stops to play it, sometimes singing along, having a rather deep connection to music that she doesn't always share with others.

Personality wise, she's a curious and thoughtful soul, often coming off as gentle, pensive and even "playfully bizarre." To those closer to her, they regard her as a maternal figure who can grow more protective of them, depending on the situation. She's very protective of her little "kitten cat" Chaku, in particular.

Brief History

Although her childhood had its share of mysteries, it was relatively normal by comparison to the later parts of her life. Both she and her older brother, Kenneth, were raised by a single parent - an adoptive Nyalan mother named Shyra - in a small coastal town. She was also close friends with another Ethereal child named Shilo. As children, Sal and Shilo were both left in the dark about what they were. This resulted in an accidental expression of their Etherealism on and off throughout their childhood. This later led to Shilo's disappearance, supposedly connected to the IGG. Trouble with the government didn't seem to end there either...

By her late teens, Sal's brother, Kenneth, tragically fell ill. One evening while staying with her brother at the hospital, a mysterious man appeared, requesting that Sal join him "for her own safety" and further more, "lest she share the fate of her friend." The prospect horrified her, however, she was left with little choice but to agree to it. Her compliance would soon lead to the introduction of Aexena, an anti-governmental organization. The Aexena aimed to keep her and her kind safe from the government that, little did Sal know, had begun hunting her down. Given the notion that she would have shared a similar fate to Shilo otherwise, Sal became invested in "what that meant" after being taken in. The aforementioned mysterious man, Amthyr, and fellow Ethereal, offered her the opportunity to assist them in their efforts to find him. Knowing what she could be capable of as an Ethereal, her participation was promising. Under the wing (all pun intended) of Amthyr, Sal was then taught how to utilize some of her Ethereal power. By her twenties, after many years of training, she had become one of Aexena's most dangerous personnel.

During her years in Aexena, she met many new faces that she still stays in touch with to this day. Post Aexena, her lifestyle was rather aimless until Dr. Quin, one of a few public faces that held a connection with the agency under lock and key, offered her a small job as an assistant at his lab, which later evolved into a place she could consider the closest thing to a home after having lost "home" time and time again.

It could be said the nature of her past feeds into her current lifestyle as a nomad. However, she continues to wander the cosmos to this day for many reasons beyond this as well. Some of these reasons may be unknown even to her!

Extras

Birthday: April 4th ᴱᵃʳᵗʰᵉⁿ ᶜᵃˡᵉⁿᵈᵃʳ

Orientation: Demisexual

Occupation: Lab Assistant

Past Occupations: Café Barista, Member of Aexena

Skills: Can sing, play piano and retains some advanced self defense combat skills

Hobbies: Writing, playing piano, dancing and stargazing

Favorite Colors: Whites, pastels and various shades of blue

Favorite Consumables: Sushi, most seafood, various teas and coconut ice cream

Fears: Herself, losing loved ones

Trivia

Raised by a Nyalan woman, Sal's name was derived from the Nyalan language. The name "Salaria" translates to "Star Angel." It can also be written as "Aria en se Salus," translating to "Angel of the Stars."

Also derived from the Nyalan language, Chaku's name translates to "Chance." Sal felt the name suited him, being particularly entranced by the language in her younger years and feeling the way they met was very much by pure chance.

Her middle name, Ileana, was given to her in her biological mother's respect as it was her name. It had also been Ileana's wish for her children "to get to know the world through the beauty of music," which Shyra also promised to teach, so Sal's musicality and middle name are living legacies of both her mothers, Ileana and Shyra.

She is a hilariously awful cook. To the point she seems to have this running curse of burning almost everything she tries to make. The "can burn cereal" type, if you will... though, cereal and other dishes that involve no heat are among the few that seem doable for her. This is one of a few references made to the whole burn/heat factor of her Etherealism.

References