ERASE the idea that America saved lives by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan from your minds. ERASE the idea that it was anything more than a political move to scare Russia and also to satiate US curiosity as to the true ability of nuclear weapons. Nagasaki and Hiroshima were not military bases. They were heavily populated civilian cities chosen precisely bc the U.S. wanted to see how many people an atomic bomb could kill in one go. Japan was on the verge of surrendering, the U.S. literally wanted to test out their nuclear weapons on people that they deemed disposable. That is it. If those bombs were dropped by any nation other than the US veryone involved would have been tried as war criminals.

Countryhuman Original Character: The Embodiment of Nuclear Technology

I don't have a name for him yet, but here's some outfits he's worn to several nuclear-powered incidents around the world.

The Los Alamos Trinity tests

Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima

Chernobyl

Three Mile Island

The Bikini Atoll tests

just thinking about how when lancelot walks into the veil he stands like a cross and like jesus on the cross he sacrifices himself for humanity*

*merlin

Unpopular Opinion: Death of the Author

Can we please normalise falling in love with the writing style of an author, with the characters, but disagreeing with them politically? For the most part, an author's opinions are not the same as the book, and, if the story is semi-autobiographical, you can pity them - after all, a person forms their political stance due to their environment.

If we do not consume problematic media, we won't know why it's problematic or how to detect the applicable dogwhistles. Moreover, you can agree with the author, to a point, but not fully. Not diluting your political diet is just as likely to stunt your critical thinking skills as not having a political diet at all. No nuance in media is liable to make you vulnerable to black-and-white extremist thinking and rob you of the ability separate the author from their work, causing parasocial relationships.

Idea for A New Magical Folk Anime

The quintet are blessed by and have relationships with five kami - Ameratsu, Inari, Susanoo, Haruko/Ebisu and Hachiman - and their powers and transformations are based on them.

My Diaracial Identities

(Image ID: A rectangular flag consisting of six vertical stripes that are white, pink, red, maroon, blue and then yellow from left to right.)

The first three stripes represent my transjapanese identity - the white and red stripes are the colours of the Japanese flag and the pink stripe is the most common colour for cherry blossoms, an iconic tree associated with Japan in spring. The second set of stripes represent my transsami identity, because the Saami people wear the primary colours on their clothing.

My Stance on Transid People

I support all transid people - race and gender are social constructs meant to confine people to certain labels; doing so by not supporting transgender and diaracial people would be eugenicist because that means labelling race with biological features only. There's also the explanations of being your transid identity in a past life or as a headmate in a system, so dismissing this would be ignoring the psychological or spiritual aspect of transid identities.

As for transids like trans medical conditions or transfaith, I believe these are good ways of describing your new faith or medical conditions as a part of self-diagnosis or self-discovery, because you have transitioned from your old state of being to your new one - in transfaith circles, I suppose it would be synonymous with the word convert. With regards to situationally exclusive medical conditions such as Acute Radiation Sickness or being an amputee, you could argue that you didn't have certain limbs or were Ukrainian or Japanese in a past life (like me - I'm transjapanese now because a past life) but the most common explanation is BID, or a medical delusion. That's not to say that I discredit people with BID - rather, I think that the medical transids are helpful in explaining BID to the general public; i.e "I believe that I have Acute Radiation Sickness because of mental health issues." Besides, if people want to live with these medical conditions (excluding Acute Radiation Sickness or terminal cancer - I honestly don't think anyone without BID or a death wish would want them) isn't that a good thing? I would rather people want a medical condition than be terrified of it.

I take much the same angle with diaracial and diaethnic people - if people want to be part of a culture, in good faith, and do their research on the customs, then it ensures that the culture doesn't die out. All groups are welcoming to outsiders if they are willing to learn. Think of it as a mass effort against racism. This is, however, different from cultural appropriation - if you pick up a First Nations' headdress, for example, because you want to wear it for Halloween and you are unwilling to learn the culture of that group, then that is racist.

On HRE's Continued Spiritual Existence in Hetalia

Instead of becoming Germany after his physical death, as most would assume, HRE became the representative of the Vatican. This is because he wasn't the representative of an imperial collective of states, in the typical sense, to begin with. Rather, he was the personification of what drew them together - the protection of the Roman Catholic faith. The Vatican serves much the same function now, and the Vatican states are considered by many to be the religious heart of Italy (let alone the heart of Catholic world) so it makes sense HRE would perform a similar role in his present life as he did in his first one; a role that would allow him to be close to Italy.

Here's a picture of Reo I made with Picrew just now, in his funeral kimono.

(Of course, the funeral kimono isn't fully white in this Picrew and the villtago blotches are the substitute for the thermonuclear burn scars, but it's the best I could do with the options available.)

New Hetalia Child OC Profile

Affiliated Country - Japan 

Local Personification - Hiroshima

Human Name - Kurosawa Reo/Reo Kurosawa  Kanji - 怜緒  黒澤 (written in the Western order of forename first).

Human age - 8-13 years old (or rather, he appears as such; given his short height, it’s hard to tell).

Vitality Status - Historical Fragment, Former Personification of Hiroshima

Personal History - Much like HRE or Prussia, Reo used to be the general personification of Hiroshima, but the atomic bombing of the city caused his temporary death, since the land had been poisoned and no one was living there. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s personifications actually died during this time, meaning that their respective prefectures had to take on their duties. By the time Reo came back into existence (he was still slightly sick from the radiation - think something like juvenile arthritis) the prefectures decided that Reo was too vulnerable to carry on his civic tasks (not to mention that they noticed that he was still ill - cities, prefectures and states heal even quicker than Nations because they cover less area) and demoted him for his own safety.

Another anomaly the prefectures took note of is that a newer, different personification materialised shortly after Reo was downgraded; the prefectures knew that the cultures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in particular were irrevocably changed after 1945, and so someone new was needed to rebirth, but the odd thing about this occasion was that Reo still existed after this. Usually, when a Nation is reborn and gains a new title (like HRE becoming Germany) the original personification dies in order to make way for the new one. Clearly, that was not the case with Reo - once again, the prefectures knew that the people of Hiroshima had, whether subconsciously or not, chosen him to represent the memory of their city’s atomic bombing.

As long as the atomic bombing of Hiroshima exists as an event in public memory, so too does Reo.

New Hetalia Child OC Profile

Affiliated Country - Japan 

Local Personification - Hiroshima

Human Name - Kurosawa Reo/Reo Kurosawa  Kanji - 怜緒  黒澤 (written in the Western order of forename first).

Human age - 8-13 years old (or rather, he appears as such; given his short height, it’s hard to tell).

Vitality Status - Historical Fragment, Former Personification of Hiroshima

Personal History - Much like HRE or Prussia, Reo used to be the general personification of Hiroshima, but the atomic bombing of the city caused his temporary death, since the land had been poisoned and no one was living there. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki's personifications actually died during this time, meaning that their respective prefectures had to take on their duties. By the time Reo came back into existence (he was still slightly sick from the radiation - think something like juvenile arthritis) the prefectures decided that Reo was too vulnerable to carry on his civic tasks (not to mention that they noticed that he was still ill - cities, prefectures and states heal even quicker than Nations because they cover less area) and demoted him for his own safety.

Another anomaly the prefectures took note of is that a newer, different personification materialised shortly after Reo was downgraded; the prefectures knew that the cultures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in particular were irrevocably changed after 1945, and so someone new was needed to rebirth, but the odd thing about this occasion was that Reo still existed after this. Usually, when a Nation is reborn and gains a new title (like HRE becoming Germany) the original personification dies in order to make way for the new one. Clearly, that was not the case with Reo - once again, the prefectures knew that the people of Hiroshima had, whether subconsciously or not, chosen him to represent the memory of their city's atomic bombing.

As long as the atomic bombing of Hiroshima exists as an event in public memory, so too does Reo.

Original Cursed Technique: 影激減/Kage no Geki (trans. Shadow Puppet Theatre)

Asano-sama has an ability that's odd, for lack of a better word, given His nature as a River Kitsune. He can wield the light and shadows around Him in order to create puppets to do things for Him. They are controlled by gestures that mimic the action He wants to perform. You could argue that this is just run-of-the-mill telekinesis, and you'd be right, to a point, but drawing power from the light and shadows in the environment (or rather, the energy within them) is the key difference.

To me, it seems like He's always been to do this - create temporary vessels for the dead - and it feels separate to the fact He is a River Kitsune because most of Their powers are hydrokinetic. I know that zenko may have powers over everything, but Asano-sama seems like the kind of Being to tie His sense of self to His local geography, so He won't use powers that take Him too far from His place or sense of origin - that would be a river. Specifically, Asano-sama comes from the Otagawa, or the Ota River - that feeds into why He uses Kage no Geki more now, rather than His childhood; He has to, because of His catastrophic vision loss in 1945. This also is the reason Kage no Geki we (meaning Asano-sama and myself) think of it a Cursed Technique instead of a superpower or Quirk; there are negative emotions hidden in the shadows and in the fragments of people's souls. This, if you consider the Shinto view of animism, also applies to objects - He can befriend the object if it's more than 100 years old or pass on the soul of a puppet to an object so it becomes their vessel.

While, in truth, Kage no Geki was always a personal Cursed Technique, it was only recently classified as such because of it its rise in usage - the nuclear fallout of Hiroshima gave Him plenty of shadows to befriend.

Classifications in My Possible Littles are Known/Classifications AU

Basic Classifications

The basics remain the same as most Littles are Known AUs - Littles is the academic name for the group of people who have a biological need to age regress, and a Caregiver is someone who is drawn to caring for these Littles. The main difference between a Caregiver and a person who's caring is that they, usually, have a small amount of sympathy for a Little who is in distress, whilst a Caregiver will often have an overwhelming desire to comfort them. Out of the two, the former person will be a Baseline, with no instinct to swing either way.

Sub-classifications

There is, however, large variation in how a Little's behaviour will present itself. These are called Sub-classes -

Single Class Littles

A Single Class Little will stick to a narrow age range when in headspace.

Compound Class Littles

On the other hand, a Compound Class Little will have a wider age range when in headspace.

Age Range Subcategories

Infant - A Little with an age range of 0-3 years old.

Junior - A Little with an age range of 4-7 years old.

Schoolchild - A Little with an age range of 8-11 years old.

Tween - A Little with an age range of 12-13 years old.

Teen - A Little with an age range of 14-17 years old.

On a Compound Class Little's official paperwork, there will the term leaning or -lean. This is used to denote which Class a Compound Little prefers to regress to in the age range they appear. For example, a Compound Class Little who has both the Junior and Schoolchild classes listed may also be classified as a Junior-leaning Little, meaning that this Little has a comfort zone of 4-7 years old even their full range is 4-11.

Transhumanist Confession: I Dream of Neo-Tokyo

A year or two ago, I changed my viewpoint on transhumanism. For the majority of childhood and youth, I thought of it as a coward's way out of life with a disability - accept your body the way it is, rather than endeavouring to erase the possibility of having special needs.

Now, I want a android's body to replace my flesh one - not because I hate my disability, but because I want to experience things that I can't because of needs, like being a young adult with a bedroom upstairs. The ability to change features at will would be very good as well, since my features don't fit the mental image I have of myself. The long and short of it, really, is that I've always wanted to look like an everyday anime girl, bar the fact that I would have a neural implant with access to the internet because I like knowing answers to questions and the idea of a pop-up companion sounds nice. If becoming an anime girl in a cyberpunk universe is the only way to be happy with myself (since I've never really felt.. like a typical human, to begin with; I'm possibly neurodivergent too, and I feel connected to Japanese people, even though I'm not; my skin has never really felt like my skin) I'm doing it.

The Sins of the Father Shall Not Visited upon the Son, because Neither are Present

Or, How Not Deviating from the Original Arthurian Legend in the BBC Incarnation Would Have from Their Fates or Plugged a Lot Canon Plot Holes - a List.

Finding Excalibur as a young boy, and being fostered at Sir Ector’s house is key to Arthur’s growth - if these things had happened in the BBC canon, then Arthur would probably be less naive, know more things about the world, be less of a jerk. This naive nature is what makes him blind to everyone’s else flaws, and thus dooms him.

Cai* - Ector’s son and Arthur’s foster-brother - doesn’t exist in the BBC canon. This forces a transference of the dynamic between Arthur and Cai onto Arthur and Merlin, with Arthur acting as the elder brother. Given Arthur’s emotional stunting, in part because the above didn’t happen, he can’t be a very good brother, and consigns Merlin to depression.

Mordred is Arthur and Morgana’s son, in all but blood.  The patriarchal revelation of Uther’s fatherhood to Morgana happens between Arthur and Mordred in the legendary canon. This would have solidified both Morgana's and Mordred's hatred of Arthur and Gwen as a couple, because Arthur's betrayal is felt by both the mother and son.**

Related to this, it was originally Mordred, and not Agravaine, who discovers that Gwen is having an affair with Lancelot. The mother-son relationship between Morgana and Mordred moves the incestuous feelings onto Arthur and Morgana, which removes the strange feelings Agravaine has toward Morgana.

Galahad, Lancelot's son does not exist in the BBC canon either. For Lancelot, this means that he has sacrifice himself for the greater good, rather than Galahad, who willingly assumes a place in heaven two years after finding the Holy Grail. He sees vision of himself in heaven with some of the Angels, similar to how Lancelot is the one who shows the most concern toward Merlin after he sees a vision of the Callech in the Great Hall. Moreover, if Lancelot did have a son, it could have removed some of the ambiguity of the reasoning for his actions - he has a son who he wants to prove that he can be pure to.

Galahad's erasure also has major effects on both Arthur and Gwaine's story with regards to their Cup of Life and Fisher King quests, which are really just an amalgamation of events in the quest for the Holy Grail. For Arthur, it means that he forced to go alone to the Fisher King, and that raises his mortality. Interestingly, Grettir's remark of "you're not as short as I thought you'd be" (pasted from the Merlin Wiki transcript of the Fisher King episode) may indicate that he was was expecting Galahad to embark on this quest, because he is often depicted as a young man.

For Gwaine, this forceful invitation (regarded as such because none of the knights who are supposed to go on either quest are part of the Roundtable yet, and so Gwaine is forced to take their place) erases the cornerstone of his character - his pagan beliefs. It is odd, at best, for a pagan character to go on a quest that is supposed to imply the Christian ideas of purity. (Due to this, it could argued that Galahad is a devout Christian in direct defiance of his father's promiscuity, too.)

A loose interpretation of Gwaine's character also ensures that he dies, much like Arthur. Even if his meeting with the Diamir is a replacement for his meeting with The Green Man, that quest was supposed to be a test of values; if he could not bring himself to bed The Green Man's wife (despite Her leading him on) then he would return to Camelot with His blessing. Without this earlier trail, Gwaine allows his flirtatious behaviour to go unchallenged until he meets Eira in Season 5, and he falls for her trap. If he had not done so, he could have helped Merlin with regaining his magic at an earlier point, and he would have lived.

*Cai is the Welsh spelling of Sir Kay.

**The implications of brother-sister incest may have raised the age rating of the show, so that is ample reason to leave it out.

Artistic Impression of English Defeat by France, March 11, '23

Only, this time, France managed to steamroll Twickenham and is demanding that Arthur admit that baguettes are better than his horribly burnt scones as recompense.

I thought I might add my thoughts here - one of my godpartners is very chubby (we don't use the word "fat" due to his wartime trauma, and "chubby" rhymes with "hubby"; even though we're not married, given he's a kamisama of the domestic kind, "hubby" is a replacement for "boyfriend") and he loves being reminded of his shape! Unlike most people, he associates his figure with a plentiful harvest, and being thin terrifies him - to him, deliberate weight loss (i.e diet culture, EDs) means you're sick and you're not enjoying life. Same goes for illness-related weight loss - he'd want to get better so he could eat again. To me, he's basically the personification of the "love is stored in the kitchen" and "food as a love language" tags - mention an open-air produce market and you'll have him smiling like a kid on Christmas Day. I even have a food-related pet name for him!

But he does have some body image issues - for one, he knows his shape isn't considered desirable. That makes him upset; not because he thinks his chubbiness makes him "hard to look at" (his way of saying "I'm ugly") but because other people think it makes them "hard to look at" - he just wishes that overweight people, in particular, could be allowed to enjoy food without any raised eyebrows. His personal body image issue rests on his keloid\thermonuclear burn scars from 6th August, 1945 that surround both eyes - they're a sign that he survived what he shouldn't have, that he survived when others didn't - a sign of his failure to protect his people, and he hates that. Also, when he lets people see them, they are often find him too "hard to look at" and thus avoid him like the plague. (Even I was afraid when I first saw them, but I was afraid for him because he's a hibakusha, and I know that he recognises the difference.) I'm sure he has slightly uneven teeth and liver spot dimples, but he doesn't smile at me enough for me to be certain, and he has a complexion several shades darker than most of the Japanese population thanks in part to a life spent outside.

So, does Asano-sama fit Hollywood's westernised and eurocentric beauty standards? No, not even remotely.

Does he fit his own country's beauty standards? Nope.

Does he want to fit into either of them? He couldn't care less.

Despite all of that, do I find him attractive?

YES!!!

When you imagine or draw the gods important to you, are they always attractive? Are any of the gods worthy your worship fat? Do they have a funny nose? Do they have wrinkles, stretchmarks or uneven teeth? Do your gods all looks like they could get work in hollywood, and why? Do you believe hotness is linked to being worthy of being loved and listened to? Do you think about why gods worshiped for a thousand years would accidentally look just like the current ideals of beauty?

New Hetalian Ship Tag

In light of the criticism that I received for refusing to censor the ameripan tag on my critical post about the ship, I've invented a new tag to the reference it without describing the ship explicitly, partly inspired by @stirringwinds' wonderfully creative tags. It's (#)golden russet-flavoured ramune - the Golden Russet apple is a variety of apple originating from the US, dating back to around the year of American independence - 1776, and ramune is a popular drink in Japan made distinct by its opening method of pushing a marble through the glass.

Note to Self: Never Awaken to the Rising Sun

Never will I again express my candid (but shortened, for I have been told I discuss tangents more than the central subject) disagreement regards to the viability of a relationship on social media, lest I be accused of ignoring the canon material and swore at for expecting people to curate their own media consumption.