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smalllonelyegg · 6 months

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My Own Headcanon to Echani Society bc Why TF Not

Most of this was kinda drafted up by me for the sake of a half Echani OC who went from merely lashing out however she could vs the Empire to attempting to nationbuild, as well as grow as a person, and learn to find value in living, so a lot of it was considered with that in mind, and as such it will not be particularly applicable for your purposes. May this serve more as loose inspiration or an alternate take at best. Also warning Eshan here is meant to be *terrible.*

Echani Command was not merely subservient to the Empire, but enjoyed a position of privilege by them. In exchange for treating Imperial officials equivalent to high caste Echani, including access to training in the Echani martial arts, they enjoy relative freedom, being allowed to maintain their own law enforcement, prevent their businesses being nationalized, and generally enjoyed a lax, comparatively unsupervised, existence under imperial rule

Eshan itself is a colonialist planet, having taken the other of the "Six Sisters" in order to exploit their resources

Echani rule was dictated largely by eugenics. People were sorted into castes depending on supposed "genetic worth," a remnant of their time as an experiment of the Arkanians. Low caste echani face various socio-political hurdles, such as access to education and autonomy

Echani of any variety are not permitted to choose their own romantic or sexual partners. Marriage is based on computations over ideal genetic combinations, and are limited to within a caste. To break this is to drop to the lowest rung of the caste system, along with the offspring of such combinations, and those who openly sympathize and teach low caste people.

Battle, other than a means of communication, is seen as a test of "genetic value." To succeed in combat is to show you are of greater worth than your opponent.

While it becomes frequent for low caste people to enlist in Imperial Academy to escape from the burdens it provides, it carries some degree of social stigma, as while imperials are treated as high caste in a legal sense, in addition to xenophobia leading to a sense of superiority to imperials, low ranking officers and conscripts are often seen as "not worthy" of these privileges. These generally go unsaid, privileged as Command is, imperial rule still holds true.

In addition to the assigned Imperial Governor, leadership was held by High Council, with each member effectively serving as an autocrat over the system they represent- though they still would post their own governors to manage on a smaller scale

Position of Councilor may be won in ritual combat with the current holder of said position. While nothing legally prevented lower caste members doing this, combat education beyond the very basics was limited based on caste, such that in effect only the highest castes may possibly claim rulership. This all builds to a symbolic representation of "genetic purity"- where combat prowess is seen as a measure of genetic strength, to be councilor is to assert genetic superiority over all but the other councilors

Combat is primarily conceived of as dialectics materialized, where strength in combat is representative of the strength of a party's ideals. To win is to let your convictions be heard, and while all but the most traditionalist echani judges find victory in combat something that binds one to action legally, to not follow the victor is seen as incredibly cowardly

While High castes are given a theoretically large amount of freedom, they nonetheless face great social pressures, as deviance from social norm is highly associated with "poor genetics" pressure is thus applied to "perform genetic value"

More lighthearted

Eshan's surface is near uninhabitable due to its scorching sun, a white star named Esh. As a result, nearly all life there dwells in the vast cave system spanning the entire planet beneath its surface

Due to the nature of Eshan, much of Echani diet is centered on fungi. Mushroom stew is an incredibly common dish, with many households having their own unique takes on how it should be made

Most animals on Eshan are insects, though many have evolved to convergently resemble other creatures such as mammals at a glance. Traditional Echani armor, though almost never seen outside museums, are made of their exoskeletons, being flexible, though still durable

Echani diplomats and senators are very frequently taught they *can't* challenge people to a duel. This has to be heavily stressed

Echani funeral garb is white, while the garb of the deceased is to be black

Weapons of Echani firedancers are often derived from farming or foraging tools, such as sickle like tools that were designed to scrape lichens from rock- This is allegedly because of a legendary farmer who, upon finding his village razed by bandits, killed all of them with a scythe. It is said his rage burned hotter than the burning village homes

Echani alertness can be a double edged blade- horror stories can get an extreme reaction from even seasoned echani warriors. Offworlders who bring holovids have often been told to ensure any media like that is to be hidden or disposed of

Many Echani clothes are constructed out of silk created from the cocoons of a particular species of insect. These clothes are often designed to be quick to take off, should a fight start and they prove too restrictive. Most Echani do not see any possible symbolism from this, coincidental or otherwise

Post war, many echani writers ruminated on the nature of battle droids. In a culture where combat serves as a form of communication, what is to be said of constructs who don't have any larger point to communicate, who simply fight because it was what they were made and ordered to do. Many echani tend to be put off by these droids, who come across as uncanny.

Echani made products used to fetch high prices in galactic markets, often being handmade artisanal products of high quality. As automation developed more and more, however, these items became more and more novelty: armies could be armed with state of the art blasters for the price demanded for a set of echani vibroswords. Echani attempts to automize struggled, often being low quality, not only in comparison to their specialty items but also in comparison to other similar competitors. As a result, Eshans economy began to center more and more on raw materials. Ironically, some of the biggest consumers of echani materials is MadalMotors.

#cw: fascism #cw: ableism #cw: eugenics #my ocs #Star Wars #Echani #The general concept for the oc is she didn't get to know her parents- they were killed by the empire #so she turns to Echani culture as a way of trying to connect to them #but echani culture is so similar to the empire- and more importantly dehumanizes her to such a similar degree #that she can't merely turn to echani culture as a way of achieving a sense of self #at least not as it is #so she starts to attempt on eshan a sort of 'takeover'- a push for a more humane society #of course this falls apart when eshan is destroyed #so her new goal becomes to form a new civilization from its remnants #one that tries to borrow elements from echani culture but that represents the wills of *all* who are a part of it #so no caste system or nothing like that #I will say a lot of it was kinda because like #I feel like echani are kinda frequently portrayed as like. 'the good guys' or something in comparison to mandalorians?#A lot of this I thought of beforehand #Some #Like the 'they get scared ez' I kinda just made up on the spit

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box-dwelling · 7 months

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So I've had this idea swimming in my head for a bit and I considered doing a fic about it but honestly I just want to do a headcanon write up for now at least. So narumitsu Franmaya post SOJ kids!

So I think after SOJ the elders in Kurain are going to start really getting on Maya's ass about having a baby. And it's getting really annoying. She been dating/married to Franziska for years at this point but I think they're solidly convinced she's having her "lesbian phase" and that once Pearl is of age and doesn't need looking after anymore and she's officially the Master of Kurain she's going to find herself a husband and settle down.

Maya fucking hates this. She wants them to properly recognise her relationship and while her relationship with the entire concept of having kids is very complicated, she doesn't want Channeling to die out so she condededs that fine, she'll have the damn kids but Franziska is being their mom.

Franziska has her own complicated ideas around legacy but is equally getting annoyed but she recognises this is important for Maya's culture and she doesn't dislike kids in general, she's been a good Tante to Trucy and while her relationship with Pearl is rocky she's thinks she's done a perfect job being her quasi step mother.

So they concoct a plan.

One day they sit Miles, Phoenix and Trucy down and say they're going to try IVF and they ask Miles to be the donor because in the absence of true male Von Karma DNA, honourary Von Karma DNA will do the job. Phoenix is completely on board because hes been listening to Maya complain about this for literal years and wants it to be over and done with for her. Trucy finds the idea hilarious because it promises to make their already insane family tree even more convoluted and she thrives in that chaos. She's also very aware that's she's presently the baby of the family and is a bit worried about her dad's empty nesting. Miles is honoured to be asked.

They do the thing. Then a few months later the Wright-Edgeworth's get a panicked phone call. Maya has just had a check up and has found out that she is pregnant with triplets. But one of them is male. 3 kids was going to be a lot anyway but there's enough people in Kurain that they can make it work. But Maya is very very aware of how weird the village is around men and really doesn't want her kid raised in that environment. And Phoenix and Miles, bleeding heart chronic adopters that they are agree that they'll raise the boy and Maya and Franziska can raise the girls in Kurain. So begins the chaos.

Miles does an insane amount of prep for the baby. He reads literally every parenting book he can get his hands on. He might as well have an honourary degree in child development after the amount of research he does. He calls up old contacts from universities he's taught at to get access to papers, he complies reading lists, he makes binders full of note, he goes completely overboard because he's going to raise this kid right. (I honestly think he did this when he first became involved in Trucy's life too but those stages of development are vastly different to that of a baby)

Franziska, does not. She is convinced she knows everything she could possibly need to in order to do this perfectly. Pearl turned out fine. These kids will too. Miles keeps sending her papers he's read and she will skim them, states that she already knew all of that and tell him he's over reacting. However she does do a good number of therapy sessions in preparation to get her head straight about what stuff Manfred did that was good and what stuff he did that was bad.

Phoenix is panicking and being way way too attentive of Maya. He's calling every few hours to make sure she's ok. Not because he's worried about the babies, though he is, but because his best friend/kid sister is carrying 3 human beings and he's terrified she's going to get hurt. He will cross the bridge of raising them when he gets there, he did fine with Trucy and he's kind of a dad by nature at this point.

Maya Hates being pregnant. She despises it. She can't do all the cool active stuff she's used to, Nick is being overbearing as well as all the other general stuff that sucks with being pregnant. She is not enjoying this and is actually kinda glad it's triplets because that means she has 2 female heirs an she never has to do this ever again. She is however also not stressing about raising them. She has some basics covered like making damn sure no one pits them against eachother and that they can chose among the pair of them who's going to inherit her title when they're good and ready. They'll need a certain level of spiritual training obviously but she's determined to give them as normal a life as possible and hopefully when they're old enough have them travel a lot with her and Franziska while Franziska is working.

This is a more complicated other headcanon but I think this is around the time Trucy starts properly coming to terms with the fact that the Gramaryes suck ass and she doesn't actually want anything to do with them. So she's kind of doing some soul searching and decides to take a gap year after school to figure out if she wants to be a magician or not by trying to define herself by something else. This gap year ends up manifesting by being an investigative assistant full time at the WAA while also trying out literally everything else she's ever had a passing interest in. She's figuring herself out during this time basically.

The babies come. Nick is incredibly overbearing during the labor. Franziska is just focusing on helping Maya through it and Miles is stressed the fuck out that this is happening and real.

And so Richard (after gumshoe), Sakura (named after the Pink Princess), and Brunhilde (named by Franziska because it means Armoured for battle which Maya thought sounded cool as hell) are born. The elders are very upset about how the names don't follow traditional fey naming convention but Maya doesn't care. She wants these kids to grow up knowing the exist outside of the village and giving Brunhilde a German name makes is even clearer that Franziska is her mother and nothing is changing that fact.

Maya and Franziska have a basically uneventful time raising the girls. The elders have been prepared for this for years. Maya goes by Mom/Mommy, Fran goes by Mama. As they planned they take them all over the globe with Frans work with Interpol. Maya gets to call it a holiday regularly and fobs off the elders by saying that they'll be better trained by being more worldly. She'll look after the kids as Fran works and when they go back to Kurain they switch and Fran will take cases in the japanifonia prosecutors office when the elders want to train them. They're a well oiled machine. Brunhilde ends up taking more after Fran and Sakura takes more after Miles. Brunhilde is actually really good at channeling but decides to let Sakura take the title because she enjoys it more. The elders are actually pretty glad about this because Brunhilde is absolutely terrifying. She got the Edgeworth glare which combined with supernatural powers makes her seem like something out of the Omen. Franziska and Maya couldn't be more proud. Sakura is a little more mild mannered but given her parents it's not by much. She's still a forceful presence but she's just typically a lot more easy going. She is genuinely passionate as hell about Channeling, she got Maya and Miles' autism and it's becomes her special interest. She's studious and devoted and really cares about what she does. She ends up doing a ton to revolutionise channeling when she becomes master and basically brings it into a new golden age. The two of them are close and their parents make certain to makes sure there's absolutely no bad blood there.

Miles and Phoenix have a slightly more chaotic time raising Richard. They're both workaholics and also running major legal bodies so figuring out how to make time to raise a baby amongst that is difficult.

They start with Phoenix taking paternity leave and calling in to talk with Athena. Trucy at this point is still in her final year so the office is quiet as hell and Athena HATES it. She needs a busy environment and being alone in the office is driving her mad.

So that last like a month before they just decide to baby proof the WAA and have Phoenix look after Richard while he's there. Athena likes babies (like come on, she does) but the crying is difficult on her ears so Phoenix gets her some very strong noise cancelling headphones and the pair of them come up with an insane series of methods of non verbally communicating. Phoenix and Athena barely have a braincell of common sense between them so they end up with various whiteboards all over the office to write stuff on and a nerf gun each to get each others attention.

One Apollo's first return visit from Kura'in with this as the new status quo Richard nearly chokes on a dart and he asks why they didn't just both learn ASL to which Athena and Phoenix both look at each other because the sensible solutions never even occurred to them. They learn ASL after that.

The first time they have to investigate a case Phoenix just straps up with a dad harness and takes the baby to the crime scene. This goes predictably poorly. Richard won't stop crying while they're talking to witnesses and Athena has to put on her head phones which means Phoenix has to write down everything the witness says to show her but his handwriting is terrible and he can't spell when writing so quickly so Athena keeps misunderstanding what's been said. Richard throws up on some evidence. They then get threatened by some goons which when Phoenix reports back to Miles about his day nearly gives him a heart attack.

After that one of 3 things happens. If Trucy is free, she'll either babysit her kid brother or investigate with Athena, if she isn't and Miles is free/just doing work in his office, they'll drop Richard off with him for the day where Miles has baby supplies ready. If neither of them are free, Phoenix will stay in the office and look after Richard while Athena has him on face time. That being said I'd give it 3 years before that kid's back to being dragged along to crime scenes. It's the Wright kid way.

I feel like the courthouse probably has a day care so they drop him off there during trials

When Richard is in Miles office is comparatively calm compared with the WAA. Klavier comes in to coo and sing him lullabies. Taka will sometimes take vigilant watch when he's sleeping. Simon will on occasion ask about his psychological development. But it's a lot more sane. When he's a bit older I'm reasonably certain that Simon will let him play with his katana at least once but other than that its fine.

Despite this Richard grows up to be basically fine. Weird girl energy as comes with the territory but they try to make sure he's has as normal a childhood as possible. He takes after Maya a lot which is either a biological thing or just kind of what happens when a considerable chunk of your devolpment is done in a WAA that is lacking Apollo. Miles is keeping a detailed track on all his development milestones and he's pretty far ahead but reasonably so. He's smart but he's not a Prodigy which they take to mean basically healthy. If and when he ever does struggle with something they're very good about telling him that's ok and that helping him improve while also making sure he knows it's not a moral failing to struggle. He's aware that Brunhilde and Sakura are his siblings but it's explained more as 3 kids being a lot to handle rather than the stuff about Kurain being weird. He sees them both regularly and all 4 of them love all 3 kids to pieces.

In terms of appearance as they get older, I think Richard has Maya's round soft features but Miles' grey hair and eye colour. Brunhilde is kind of the opposite, she's got the dark hair and piercing blue eyes but the sharp Edgeworth features. She also got his shitty eye sight and has glasses from a very young age. Sakura has grey narrowed eyes but round cheeks and dark hair.

#this is semi Inspired by nutmeg mayonnaise's au which is great but it mostly not #franmaya #narumitsu #Wrightworth #ace attorney headcanon #Phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #franziska von karma #maya fey #trucy wright #athena Cykes #my aa kids au #waa shenanigans #klavier gavin #Apollo justice #simon blackquill

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streets-in-paradise · 24 days

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Secret Presents

Relationships: (platonic) Faramir x Sister!Reader, (platonic) Boromir x Sister!Reader.

Genre: family fic, sibling bonds, fluff, birthday fic.

Warnings: Denthor's terrible parenting, use of she/her pronoums. I am not sure if birthdays are culturally accurate for gondorians, but since in lotr we saw at least one hobbit birthday let's pretend they also could have birthday customs for the sake of this.

Summary: Boromir and Faramir surprise their sister on the morning of her birthday filling her with affection while furtively bringing her different sorts of gifts their father wouldn't approve.

Note: (Late) birthday gift for my bestie @beautifultypewriter, also inspired in her gondor girl concept. I hope the fluff will be good enough to compensate the delay <3

She didn't expected anyone to remember, there were allways more important things going on in such convoluted times.

Completely absent from her father's thoughts, only her brothers could possibly think about it. During the occassions in which Denethor do cared to celebrate her, he was always actually celebrating himself. Birthday parties that were generic social events for the nobiity, occassions for him to show off his might in decline and pretend for the public that he could resemble a father.

If he could possibly be thinking on doing something, she would rather hide far away from it for as long as possible. The only good reason the Steward of Gondor could have to remember that he had a daughter were the men arround him making the recall. He would only use it as an excuse to push yet even more insufferable nobles in her direction.

Feeling the call of the servant announcing her waking time that morning made her groan of frustration, wanting it to be over before it ever began. She emerged from the covers only caring to make sure to be in a visible state before opening the door, trying hard to remember not to share her mood with the servantfolk through terrible manners.

What she found instead were her two brothers hidding their presence on the usual call, ready to join forces as soon as they will find her. Their happy faces said it all, and she almost regretted her grumpyness.

" What are you doing here? "

To a gestural sign of Faramir, Boromir went ahead to lift her up from the ground. Almost like a father would do for his child, only with tons of chuckling in between.

" HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR SISTER!!"

In a matter of instants she was smiling again while being carried back inside her bedroom.

" Are you insane? What is this? "

Faramir calmed his own laughter to explain.

" Your birthday surprise! I bet you thought we would forget. "

She was perfectly aware of how strongly they loved her, but war kept them always bussy and she was perfectly ready to forgive them if that was the case.

" Orcs are constantly pushing the limits of our borders, of course you could forget! "

" But we would never. " Boromir cheerfully insisted, releasing her on her bed. " Have we ever failed you? "

She giggled and nodded negatively.

" ... Then why did you seem so upset looking at us from you doorframe ? " Faramir inquired. " It think somone really needs to get their spirits lifted. "

With a mischievous look he approached for a strong hug ending only when he sneaked one hand to her already known ticklish point. Her loud laughing comforted them all, so Boromir encouraged Faramir to keep going untill she started fighting back and the situation could escalate into an actual tickle fight unleashed right in front of the servants.

She was red from laughing and playfully smacked them in return, when her eldest brother gave premission for the maidservant to enter. She was carrying a curiously long chest with the help of one lad and presented it to the lady by command before retiring.

" See, if we would have waited untill you would come down for breakfast, we wouldn't be able to bring your presents. " Faramir continued. " These are of the kind our father will not wish to see. "

A sparkle of excitement lighted her eyes.

" Certainly not fitting for a lady, by his expressed opinion. " Boromir added. " He would be very dissapointed of me if he would find out I'm letting Faramir present you with this."

" Not as much as when he will see what you got her. " He commented in response. " ... And yours can't be hidden easily, as one can do with mine. "

Curiosity was growing with each of their teasing recalls and she rushed to open the mysterious casket used to hide such secret present from the world untill reaching her.

It revealed a bow, perfectly new and with its matching quiver following the style of the one that was her brother's favorite.

" Nurturing your passions is important to me, and being honest i'm slightly jealous you have gained more practice with Boromir's weapon of choice. "

He was joking and she could perfectly tell. Her brothers never had to compete for her love the way their father intended them to.

Here eyes were roaming the weapon with increasing surprise, then inmediately directed to look at her brother with the happiest adoration.

" It's perfect!! Just, ... perfect!! Beloved brother, I would love to practice with you. " She thanked, hugging him from up front and practically jumping from the joy. " I can't wait to try it!! "

" We will tell father is an harp." Faramir joked, sharing her excitement. " I doubt he would ever ask you to play music for him, so he will never discover it."

You chuckled together seeing that Boromir was allowing you the mean spirited commentary.

" My gift will also work as a distractive strategy: he will never get a moment to wonder about anything else. "

She questioned Faramir with her glance, but he provided no clues.

" Boromir ... what have you exactly done?? "

Their eldest brother began to chuckle, assuming the mysterious guilt for some possibly memorable mischief.

" Come down with us and you will find out. "

She smiled and quickly followed the instruction, begging them to leave her proper space to at least dress decently before being publicly perceived for the first time in the day. Neither of her brothers wanted to miss what was about to come, so they awaited outside only to find themselves going after her later because excitement made her run her way down.

Hardly catching his breath, Boromir indicated her to go outside. Her cluelessness made her even more desperate for finding the surprise, but she inmediately stumbled with it once the final instruction was correctly followed.

A magnificent horse, one that she never recalled to have seen before.

" It was almost impossible to import, but your dear brother planned things with time and sent clever merchants on the quest for it. " Boromir recalled, pridefully. " They wouldn't have sold this easily for a mighty lord of the city, but couldn't refuse when told it would dissapoint a young lady. "

She looked at him in disbelief, unsure of the guess she was about to make.

" No,no, no ... There is no way. You couldn't ... "

" Send men to Rohan despite the uncertain danger it implies just to get you a horse? " Faramir followed, finishing her sentence in a wondering tone. " Don't worry, your present also worked as harmless excuse to obtain trustable testimonies about the state of our old allies. Something we have been wanting to find out for a long time, but father kept refusing to investigate. "

The clarification amused her more than the explanation itself.

" You are unbelievable!! How are we going to hide this? "

Boromir wasn't troubled by her very logical reasoning.

" We won't, and I will assume all guilt. Wait to see how fast he will find a reason to excuse me. "

He made her laugh through that lighthearted mock of his unwanted privilege, aspect he manipulated in contructive ways when it could bring a side benefict to his siblings.

Looking at her smiling brothers awaiting her final verdict made her feel the luckiest girl in Middle Earth.

" I have the best brothers in the world. "

#lotr #lord of the rings #faramir x reader #boromir x reader #gondor girl

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k4txlulzz · 4 months

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i haven't explained why i dislike the dick and damian as father-son troupe so!! here goes nothing

1) its connected to bruce's characterization as an abusive/absent/bad father and just. 2) doesnt make sense to me on its own ; no offense to people who enjoy it LET ME EXPLAIN !! hear me out before getting upset🙏🏼

dami has talia and bruce who should definitely not perfect parents but are supposed to care about him and be like average at LEAST but DC keeps messing them up and portraying them as terrible terrible parents and the troupe of dami and dick being father-son specifically only makes sense with this characterization of bruce and talia(because why would dami seek out fatherly stuff from his BROTHER if he has decent parents already lol) so ! this is why i dislike it:)

at the end of the day, in my opinion, there is also a clear difference between an older brother-younger brother dynamic and a father-son dynamic! a father, compared to an older brother, is generally a lot more mature and has A LOT more responsibilities regarding the kid. and i see bruce as someone more fitting for that role? considering that he's much older and as a father in the family already has all these responsibilities and putting them on dick instead feels unhealthy for grayson AND as i already mentioned you would have to characterize bruce as a bad father to make this make sense because. once again. this troupe wouldn't need to exist if bruce is a decent father figure

the whole "parentified older sibling dick grayson" troupe is interesting in concept but to me is very. upsetting not because its a writing issue but instead i just feel bad for dick and much prefer the good father bruce characterisation

not to mention damian is from a culture that has a traditional idea of a family with each person have a distinct role and i say that cuz im from that kinda culture too and damian would most likely be used to a traditional family structure and clearly established roles rather than this . brother-dad mix thing? this point isnt really that logical LOL i just thought i might add it still because i feel like that explains why i have this icky feeling with the troupe

#dc #nightwing #dick grayson #dc batman #batfam #batman #dc comics #dc nightwing #batfamily #damian wayne #robin #dc robin #batman robin #dc damian al ghul #dick and damian

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tricksterlatte · 4 months

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Akeshu Holiday Heist Special WIP

This was going to be a oneshot sequel to my completed Persona 5 Akechi/Joker fanfic, Chase the Joker, set nearly one year after the ending. While I still have a few oneshots set in their future planned, this one's entire concept was changed, and the fic was scrapped. Since I had fun writing their banter, I'm going to post the WIP here anyways. You can read underneath the cut! As it's incomplete, there is no concrete ending to this segment at this time.

Sometimes, life could feel just like a Christmas movie. One could find the true meaning of holiday cheer amidst the chaos, no matter who they are or where they came from. It was a special time of year, and whether people celebrated or not, sometimes beautiful magic happened.

Joyful moments could be shared underneath the tree as families discover the true meaning of the holiday season, whether related to Santa Clause, the meaning of life, or Kentucky Fried Chicken. True love could be discovered underneath the mistletoe, all while some coworker’s annoying as hell kids at the office Christmas party went ooh or help me or perhaps ew, gross much? On occasion, the stars aligned just right each December, and picturesque moments captured in the mind’s eye forever would feel just like the more diverse Hallmark movies. All three of them, if you were being generous.

It was at these times one must remember Die Hard was also a Christmas movie…which was the evidence Akira needed to utilize for their current situation, no matter how Goro denied it, all while they drove towards some rich bastard’s Christmas bash on a hellbent mission.

Car rides anywhere were enjoyable as long as they were with each other, and in the end that was all Akira could ask for. As Goro rambled on and on about cultural variations of the holiday, and how supposedly none of them involved homicide, Akira just held back laughter while applying the reddest lipstick known to man. He hadn’t ever worn a cocktail dress before today, but no one could deny he looked incredible. He was dressed to the nines in luscious red, a silky wig, and enough makeup that not even his own parents would recognize him, and yet it wasn’t technically for a date. What a homophobic shame dealt to him by the gods themselves.

…Okay, his parents hadn’t seen him in years, and the last time had been Goro punching his father in the face. It was better stated that not even his cat would recognize him, but Akira didn’t want to think about that either. So instead he just bickered with the man he loved.

“Honey, listen,” Akira countered, after Goro ranted for the entire length of some bubbly kpop song about being merry and happy. “I know you pride yourself on being right about everything, and I support you unconditionally, but have you ever considered you’re totally wrong about literally everything? We are living out a Christmas movie right now. I’m right.”

“Stating I’m wrong without providing actual evidence as to why again, Akira?” Goro said with an eye roll, though his rolling eyes struggled to stay focused on the road when Akira’s dress kinda showed his upper thigh. “You would not have lasted one week in a university setting’s debate team, and it shows.”

“Hey, neither of us went to college, on account of me being a sexy criminal superstar and you being sexy and also super dead. At least I read dozens of books on mythology and cultural figures when we still had the Nav,” Akira said right back. “I’m a master debater–”

“I swear if you say ‘and also a masturbator,’ I’m hitting the brakes at mach speed.”

“I mean no, I don’t need to do that when we’re in the same room twenty-four hours a day. Wow, you have such a dirty mind, did you know that?”

Goro finally stared not at the road nor Akira’s legs, but a secret third thing–his smug, stupid face, so he could shoot Akira the nastiest of glares. “Quite the talk from someone who made a kidnapping roleplay joke months after literally being kidnapped.”

Okay, that had been one time. And they were not talking about it. Not if Akira could help it. He finished applying the last of his makeup and examined himself in the mirror. If looks could kill, Akira wouldn’t need a knife tonight. Tragically, he still needed a knife, but at least he was pretty.

“I never joked about that again, give me and my coping mechanisms some credit. Anyways, enough talk about my abduction. Ever heard of Krampus? He’s like the Mementos Grim Reaper used to be, except real, and festive, and I’m pretty sure he murdered children. How’s that for Christmas cheer?”

“I appreciate the sentiment behind a morally dubious Christmas special, but…Krampus aside, the holiday genre as a whole is ill-suited for activities such as murder, once we put aside frequently debated titles. There is a reason films such as Die Hard and American Psycho are commonly dismissed from a place among happy-go-lucky Christmas movies, and that’s due to them only portraying the holiday as background noise in favor of an action plot. It’s only a timestamp when all is considered, nothing more.”

God, Goro was so pretentious. No wonder Akira was in love with him. Here they were, driving towards some multimillionaire’s holiday party with a heist in mind and also assassination if push came to shove, and yet Goro was blasting some American artist’s holiday music on the Jokermobile speakers and discussing American fucking Psycho versus the concept of Christmas cheer. If he wasn’t wearing nondescript black clothing and gun holsters, Akira would blame the irritated snarl gracing Goro’s face on this Michael Buble person singing some no homo anthem about his buddy Santa.

Akira just giggled in his best falsetto, preparing himself for whatever crossdressing shenanigans he had to pull for their mission tonight, and flipped his wig over his shoulder. Brief little moments of domestic bliss were nice after everything, even if most people wouldn’t get it.

“Okay, ignore the murder then. We’re still living in a real life romcom whether you think my jokes are funny or not, since my entire life is a joke.” Another unimpressed squint as Goro kept his eyes on the road. The self-deprecation didn’t hit like it used to for either of them. Damn their efforts to rebuild Akira’s self-esteem. Those efforts were getting in the way of dark humor! “It’s December 24th, we’re on our way to crash a Christmas party, and we are romantic and comedic. We even took that don we now our gay apparel song to heart, come on!”

Goro snorted, ever the long-suffering, disgruntled man in the face of whatever the fuck Akira was doing. “That can be said for your outfit tonight, but I don’t recall a black turtleneck ever winning one of those ridiculous ugly Christmas sweater contests.”

“No, see, you’re just dressed like the gay goth cousin who sits at the kids’ table during family gatherings because he hates his homophobic relatives.” Akira knew this because he had once been the gay goth cousin who sat at kids’ tables during their rare family gatherings because he hated his homophobic relatives.

Goro looked from Akira, to the road, to their GPS. His brow furrowed and he bit his lip once he saw how little time was left until their arrival. The plan had been for Goro to park the car and follow behind closely, and Akira would do the actual infiltration with a fake identity and a fake adoration for being surrounded by the rich and pompous. The flashy getup was excessive, in Goro’s opinion, but plenty of Shido’s affiliates, and therefore Goro’s whether he liked them or not, were occupying this little gala. Of the two of them, Akira was less likely to be recognized, especially when dressed like this.

That didn’t mean Goro was fond of the idea whatsoever, but that was only one stressor among the many weighing them down tonight. As Goro parked the car, Akira finalized his appearances one more time, double-checking his heels were just short and thick enough that he could still run in them, and that not a hair looked out of place.

He only became aware of his nervous expression when Goro turned off the radio. Turning to face his partner in crime, he saw anxiety reflected back at him, and Akira gulped down a lump in his throat. “Hey,” Akira said, reaching over to grab Goro’s hand as it held the steering wheel in a vice grip. “I know this time of year is stressful for everyone, but I’m going to be okay–”

“Are you okay, though?” Goro cut him off, flexing his fingers before letting go of the wheel. He squeezed his eyelids shut and visibly fought to unclench his jaw. “You’ve spent the entire car ride cracking ridiculous jokes and making up your own lyrics to every damn orchestra cover that played on the radio, but if you’re trying to hide how nervous you are, you’re not doing a great job. I thought we talked about this.”

Akira winced. Keeping secrets hadn’t been his goal at all, but he couldn’t blame Goro for that train of thought. Old habits die hard, whether trauma was involved or otherwise. He flopped back against the headrest, shifting their hands so their fingers intertwined. Even with gloved hands, the grip grounded both of them. “I wasn’t doing it on purpose. I just know if I think too much about the worst case scenarios, I won’t be able to focus on anything else. I’m worried about you too, though. What’s wrong? Is it about splitting up?”

The telltale twitch of Goro’s hand was all the answer Akira needed. He stayed silent and gave Goro a moment to find his words, taking in his harrowed expression as Goro’s thumb brushed across the various scars all over Akira’s hand. Goro had always wielded words masterfully on television and even in battle, whether they were honeyed vinegar or vulgar curses, but words conveying his innermost feelings still didn’t come easily. Akira wasn’t good at sharing his burdens purposefully either just yet, but they were trying.

They were both getting better about trust and honesty, but sometimes Akira worried parts of them would always be trapped in the past, terrified of losing one another, or maybe in some long-lost Palace there was Goro, kneeling on some bloody floor or panicking in a hotel room, or there was Akira, trapped in a diner or tied to a chair in that hellish basement or crawling across frozen earth in a desperate rush because he couldn’t let him die, not here, not again–

“You know you don’t have to do this, right?” Akechi’s voice broke Akira out of the spiral before it could properly start. Suddenly Akechi’s head gently bumped into the side of Akira’s, and his thumb rubbed circles against Akira’s knuckles. Right. It was December, in the present day, almost a full year after three no good, very bad days. They were alive. They were okay. “I’ll admit I’m not fond of splitting up. I…I can’t lose you again.” Okay, so maybe Akira wasn’t the only one spiraling over that possibility. “If you no longer wanted to mingle with Shido’s trash, I would gladly take our little getaway car and drive wherever you wish–”

“Nope, I’m still going,” Akira butted in. He wasn’t offended by Akechi’s offer, but he didn’t want to back down now, and he knew Akechi didn’t either. He could do this. It wasn’t like he had to kill a million people, all he had to do was break into some big wig’s computer with a flash drive and then get the hell out of there. Hopefully no one paid attention to him, once they got over the dress and heels. “I have a dagger and I’m not afraid to use it, and I have my earpiece just in case. You have a sword and multiple guns and an actual sniper rifle. Give the both of us some credit! I killed a god three Christmases ago. A little breaking and entering is what the kids call small potatoes.”

Akechi said nothing, but at the rate he was stressing, he would fracture every bone in Akira’s hand, induce heart murmurs faster than you could say four Five Hour Energy shots, and go bald by age twenty-three. Refusing to let the man who was essentially his husband lose all his hair, Akira indulged in their old favorite vice: deflecting and changing the subject. “Also, this isn’t the getaway car. Stop besmirching the good name of our dearly beloved Jokermobile–”

“It’s not a good name at all, Akira,” said Akechi as he forced himself to relax. He didn’t buy the facade, but Akira wasn’t trying to fool him. They both just needed to calm down before they did anything reckless…even if a heist was also reckless. “Your habit of naming inanimate objects is getting out of hand. This isn’t the Jokermobile, it’s a black 2016 Toyota Highlander, and you only named it that because you wanted to make rear-ending jokes.”

Well, it was a good thing they had only been rear-ended by an actual car once, then. Akira took full responsibility for that one, it was his fault for trying to drive with a broken leg. Pour one out for the fire hydrant, the greatest victim of that hit-and-run besides Akira’s psyche. “And yet you never thought of a better name. Checkmate.”

“You’re insufferable,” Akechi sighed.

“I think you meant irresistible, honey,” said Akira.

“Oh, pardon me. I meant to say you’re irritating and irresponsible. My mistake.”

Goro didn’t give Akira time to reply before he unbuckled his seatbelt and inspected his holsters. “Do you have the flashdrive ready to go?” Akira reached into a side pocket of his dress and showed Goro the flash drive, shoving it back inside once Goro nodded. “And your dagger?” He flipped his skirt completely to the side, exposing lacy black underwear on top of the dagger strapped to the thigh lacking a dress slit. Goro forcibly ignored that and interrogated him again like the bastard cop he once pretended to be. “And your earpiece?”

Wow, not even a verbal reaction to his underwear of choice? Bummer. Akira rolled his eyes and gently swept the wig away. Barely visible inside his ear was the earpiece, but it was in place just as planned. Smiling and hoping the red lipstick wouldn’t smudge onto his teeth, he flashed Goro a thumbs up. “Yes, Goro, I’ll hear your illustrious voice loud and clear. What about yours?”

“I put mine on before we left. I came prepared, unlike you.”

“It’s not a competition, Goro.”

“Akira, we turn everything into a competition whether we like it or not.”

God, could Goro stop making good points tonight? He was beating Akira in the argument category of the Rivalry Olympics. Fucker. Conceding for now, Akira pouted as Goro let go of his hand to climb into the back. “Do we have any of those canned coffees left?” he asked while Goro inspected his ammunition.

“I grabbed extra at the 777 earlier, along with some other beverages,” Goro replied, briefly ignoring his mission prep in favor of caffeinating the idiotic love of his life. As Goro reached into their cooler, he continued, “Some are black, some have cream or sugar. How do you want your coffee tonight, my dear Joker?”

“Black like my soul, Crow,” Akira replied, fondly recalling his dear pal Satanael on the anniversary of a god’s death. Goro gave him a long, hard look, then hurled a bottle of milk at Akira’s face. Naturally, Akira caught it with all the proficiency in the universe. Then he hurled it right back at Goro, who snatched it from the air without even looking. Well, if Satanael wasn’t allowed, then Arsene better be. “Fine. Something with French roast, also like my soul.”

#persona 5 #akeshu #shuake #p5 #goro akechi #akira kurusu #tricksterlatte writes #chase the joker #my stuff #I have two other oneshots planned regarding this heist and then this holiday for them. but.#Akechi overexplaining American Psycho to Akira who just thinks he's ridiculous while also being head over heels. it had to be shared #i had to.#this will not make much sense without the original fic btw so if you like this. go read it! look in my pinned

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bauhinia-sky · 7 days

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Aromanticism in Cantonese

This is a (late) submission to the February 2024 Carnival of Aros on the topic "the meaning of romance across time and space".

Is the English-centric concept of romance and aromanticism useful in Hong Kong Chinese culture? Let's start with weddings.

Weddings

Traditional Chinese weddings emphasize honouring your elders. The couple would kneel and serve tea to their parents and other older relatives. This is in contrast with western weddings, which focus more on the couple. It's common now for people to have both a traditional ceremony and a western one. Chinese wedding dresses, called 裙褂 (kwan4 kwaa2) are usually red and gold, compared to white being the main colour for western wedding dresses.

Rather than a romantic proposal, when a couple wants to get married, the man may ask the woman's parents for their blessing to marry their daughter. This is less common now, though, and much of the younger generation has western-style proposals.

An interesting note on language is that the phrase for "marrying" is different for women and men. There's「結婚」(git3 fan1), which means "get married". In addition, for women, they 嫁畀 (gaa3 bei2) a man.「畀」means "give". Men 娶 (ceoi2) women;「取」means "take" and「女」means "female". So women "give themselves" to men, whereas men "take" women.

Growing up with both Chinese and western culture, I saw marriage not (only) as an expression of (romantic) love, but in some ways an obligation. I used to feel that getting married was something I had to do. With the changing times, there's less pressure from parents to get married, and I'm grateful for that.

Aromanticism

Aromantic is translated as either「無浪漫傾向」or「無戀愛傾向」.「無」(mou4) means "no", and「浪漫」(long4 maan4) is a transcription of English "romance".「傾向」(king1 hoeng3) comes from「性傾向」, a translation of the English term sexual orientation, literally meaning "sexual tendency".

「戀愛」(lyun2 oi3) roughly translates to romantic love, usually used in the Mandarin phrase「談戀愛」, meaning "dating/in a romantic relationship". The Cantonese phrase would be「拍拖」(paak3 to1).

I prefer the second term,「無戀愛傾向」, for aromantic; at least it's likely to be understood as "not dating". The first one,「無浪漫傾向」, doesn't quite make sense unless you know the English "aromantic".

However, if I were to translate "romantic love" into Cantonese, I'd simply say「愛情」(oi3 cing4). This would be translated back into English as "love", but it's used exclusively to refer to romantic love.「愛」isn't a word that's used often. Maybe the younger generation would say "I love you" in English more, but it's still used less frequently than in English.

For this reason, I don't find "loveless" to be a concept that's useful in my culture. "But you still love your friends" isn't something that would be said in response to someone coming out as aro because you don't "love" your friends. For familial relationships, you'd probably say that you "care about"—「關心」(gwaan1 sam1)—them. You can't "love" your hobbies or a TV show; that would come across as quite an odd sentence.

Attraction

"Sexual attraction" has been translated from English as「性吸引」(sing3 kap1 jan5), with「性」meaning "sex(ual)" and「吸引」meaning "attract". However, this is not a term used in everyday conversation. If I wanted to describe someone as attractive, I would use "charm". Yes, in English, because there are many English loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese. "Charm" (from English "charming") is used to mean "attractive" more generally. If it was specifically sexually attractive, "sexy", either in English or「性感」(sing3 gam2), would be used.

There isn't really a term for "romantic attraction". If I wanted to express "I've never experienced romantic attraction", I'd probably say "I've never liked anyone". Trying to directly translate "romantic attraction" doesn't work too well. I've seen「戀愛吸引」used, which is, once again, not understandable unless you already know the English.

The term for gay (or rather homosexual; they're the same) is「同性戀」(tung4 sing3 lyun2).「同」indicates "same",「性」is "sex(ual)", and「戀」usually refers to romance as mentioned above. In this way, the word for homosexual, which in English is considered to be a sexual orientation, is usually understood to mean romantic and sexual orientation as a unit.

A tangent on Japanese

This is similar to Japanese, which has「アセクシャル」(asekusharu; a phonetic transcription of English "asexual"), but it doesn't mean only asexual, it means both ace and aro.「ノンセクシャル」(nonsekusharu) means "asexual", and its English translation would be "nonsexual".

It may be easier to visualize this using kanji, which are similar to Chinese characters. Japanese「アセクシャル」(asekusharu) is 「無性愛」(museiai), which is similar to the Cantonese 「無性戀」(mou4 sing3 lyun2). As「愛」(Japanese: ai, Cantonese: oi3) and「戀」(lyun2) both refer to romantic love, it makes sense that these terms tend to evoke the interpretation of romantic orientation, in contrast to the English "[blank]sexual" format. I don't have any issues saying I'm 無性戀 (correlates to English "asexual"), whereas I wouldn't say I'm asexual because of the English term's emphasis on sexuality.

Conclusion

I'm not sure how I feel about most aro (and queer) terms being translations of the English. There are ways to name a concept that's more intuitively understandable for native speakers. One of the translations for aromantic is somewhat understandable; I have many issues with non-binary, but that's a topic for another day.

#aromantic #aro #arospec #carnival of aros #my posts

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historia-vitae-magistras · 1 year

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How much would you, based in your head canon, say is nurture as versus nature? I know you don't mean actual "blood relations" with family like Rat Dad and kids, but in general, how much of their relationships with each other is tied to the circumstances of how they were nurtured for as versus how they may be under other circumstances. That is, how much of their family is perception and choice?

Just for example, if Alfred had been raised by Antonio, would his relationship with Maria and Matthew be reversed? As in, would he be the younger sibling to Maria, while Matthew could be a friend but wasn't a sibling?

Oooh, good question. So in my mind, there are at least three major things for nations rather than two. Culture, geography, and privilege.

Privilege is the one that defines their relationship to a 'parent' most. Maria, for example, added so much to the Spanish economy that it collapsed the global economy. She's beautiful and intelligent, and Antonio, with his history as Hispania under Rome, used the word he knew from Lucius and set the precedent. That was a choice on the European part. And it was often a long period of that being unchallenged by those dubbed their offspring because of the respectability that could give.

But the second would be culture. The Anglosphere is a very weird concept. As adults, Zee and Jack have a strange time calling Matt or Alfred 'family,' but they and Matt usually don't outright deny it because they have yet to chuck the limey off the money and still look to Britain in some ways as the mother country. 100 year ago, Matt was extremely culturally British; calling him their elder brother was no problem. Alfred was never a part of their lives in childhood. But now Canada is largely French or Americanized and largely irrelevant in their affairs, and the word 'sibling' doesn't quite sit right, but they've perhaps yet to find a better word. Jack and Zee, however, would have a lot longer to go to break that definition between themselves, being both of British cultural background and geographically close. It's much the same in the Atlantic Archipelago. Rhys and Alasdair are both locked into Arthur with their borders in Britain. And they're locked into Brighid culturally due to their Celtic backgrounds.

So, geography often makes them close regardless of culture. Maria and Alfred will be in close proximity, regardless of their backgrounds. He and Maria shared much the same sense of closeness that he and Matt shared from the get-go, but they're translating nebulous dirt fuck feelings onto much more defined human concepts.

There are also the social mores of the time when these relationships were happening. In Matt's earliest days, there wasn't much English influence at all, and he's mostly a very mixed culture of French-Indigenous. So the cultural aspect of siblings isn't present yet. He's also male presenting. Alfred was trying to use human language to describe a relationship that is only partially human itself. When he was very little, the word others used was 'brother' and at that age it was the most appropriate. But when he was independent, he re-evaluated and wanted to find a word for his intense bond with his northern neighbor. But independent or not, he's taking into account what is acceptable, what is appropriate, and what feels right, and that hasn't changed much despite the revolution. The closest word he could find was the existing one. 'Brother.' Matt has always found it accurate enough to reciprocate, so their relationship remained familial, which was later reinforced by Canada's transformation into a largely Anglo culture and country.

Maria, presenting as female and coming to Alfred's point in life where he's a hormonal, self-righteous teenager, sent absolutely careening from any female attention, and Maria was no exception whatsoever. She was the best read and educated of any New World country then. She was in the throws of the enlightenment before Alfred was in many ways, and he was dumbstruck by her perspectives and knowledge at that age. There's this pull between them, the closeness of the future and their geography, and the best way in both their cultural contexts of the time to view and indulge that feeling was through a romantic and intellectual lens.

All that probably reads like a pretentious way of saying, 'Well, it depends,' but that's the thought process.

#fuck i wrote an essay again sorry #Maria || lo que viví lo estoy muriendo todavía #Alfred || o beautiful for spacious skies #Matthew || my country is winter #meatsack mechanics || the sociology and biology of nations #the ask box || probis pateo

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tumblingxelian · 3 months

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Wednesday Fanfic Concept - Soulmate Struggles

Summary:

Wednesday has always loathed the idea of a Soulmates. Emotions of warm nostalgia and love forced on her for a stranger by the whims of fate? IF she ever meets the people whose marks match hers she will ensure she doe snot become a slave to passion as her parents did!

Bianca had always feared meeting her Soulmates. Already terrified of the power she had over the minds of others she could think of nothing kinder than to reject them as harshly as possible.

Enid had always longed too meet her soulmates, hoping to find two kindred spirits who could perhaps love her without conditions or demands.

Too bad for the three of them what they got was each other.

Concept:

This is likely one of m most painful ideas, and definitely the one that explores Wednesday's toxic traits the most overtly.

The nature of soulmates in this world is that as you grow and aspects of your personality, temperament ETC settle in you develop a connection with your soulmate/soulmates.

But all this means is that you have some base comparability. It says nothing for beliefs, ideologies and little for life experience.

Despite this, because of the schooling systems and such most people meet their soulmates in their onw age brackets, communities. schools ETC. & from this comes the entirely cultural expectation of romance, despite the fact soulmates are not inherently romantic or platonic, they just are.

As a result, lots of people with soulmates outside their age range or no soulmate tend to experience some stigma or at least judgement.

This also means a lot of soulmate relationships actually end up really unhealthy and or destructive but not enough that its become a talked about problem. But yeah, basically despite the comforting feeling a soulmate provides, any relationship actually requires work.

This story was also inspired by the concept of "This will always be our first" That is to say, a first meeting, a first reaction, a first date and one party intentionally making it worse either out of some mild selfishness that just exploded or even a degree of malice.

The two inspirations I drew from were:

RWBY's volume 9 with main character Ruby Rose, having been driven to a breakdown lashes out at those around her. Including her sister and her girlfriend because their budding relationship and happiness is just agony to see when she's in so much pain. Any other day or time she'd be over the moon for them, but the tragic thing is this will always be the reaction they all remember.

The other was from a Wenclair fic, where despite having been engaged for months, Wednesday did not tell her parents until she & Enid touched down at the airport. Morticia was awkward & Gomez was distraught and ended up fighting Enid who then went to her & Wednesday's room to be depressed because that too will always be her first meeting with Wednesday's parents.

The first being bad is not something that cannot be worked through but it is inherently bittersweet I feel.

Characters:

Enid: Wow I have two soulmates… Maybe they will, I dunno, love me unconditionally? 🙂 Wednesday: Emotions. Complicated. Vulnerability. Awful. Hate them, you did this to me, how dare you. Stay away! Bianca: I don't like affecting anyone's mind by my mere presence, I hate the idea of someone doing it to me even more, I will not be made vulnerable, so stay away!

Bianca & Wednesday: You made me feel emotions against my will. Die. Enid: Wow, both my soulmates are like this… Great… I'm so lucky... :/

Kinbott is actually a better therapist in this cos her soulmate is platonic, IE Cassie from Uriah's heap. SO she is a bit socially isolated herself and more thoughtful. She also has a thing for Principle Weems who was Gomez's soulmate but that didn't pan out.

Chapters:

As noted, this story would definitely be delving into some of Wednesday & to a lesser extent Bianca's more toxic defense mechanism and general attitudes.

Be they born from being indulged by her parents but socially isolated in Wednesday. Or traumatized by her mother and adopting an extremely toxic self image in Bianca.

Enid will be contextualized below:

Chapter 1:

When encountering Enid for the first time, both register they are soulmates. Desperate to avoid her parents cooing, Wednesday is quick to evacuate the situation and Enid surprisingly enables her.

Through the tour, Enid is much more indulgent of Wednesday and generally open even revealing her issues with transforming. She in essence pulls her rib cage open so Wednesday can see her heart.

Wednesday uses this as a chance to stomp on it.

Partially because of her complexes regarding emotions but also because she thinks Enid is just 'that way; because of the Soul Mark and she just wants her gone and so is generally the worst.

Enid puts up with it until the next morning, where she gently confronts Wednesday and Wednesday keeps trying to antagonize her:

"I really wanted you to feel welcome and safe, to make the feeling the mark is meant to give real. & now… That first day and night will always be how we met. (Deep breath) You didn't want I offered, and fair enough, but-"

"Are your ears as broken as your transformation pick it u-"

Enid literally tackles her to the floor, nearly breaks her wrists and snarls against her throat.

"I have spent my entire life pouring love and dedication down a bottomless pit. I will not do it again. You don't want me? Fine! But I am not your servant, not your friend and not your family. Never demand anything of me again you spoiled brat!"

Then she gets up and walks to class like nothing happened.

Wednesday lies on the floor for awhile longer processing:

1: She drastically misread Enid's personality. 2: She just got physically outdone by a peer for the first time ever. 3: Evidently the soul mark did not make Enid a simpering wreck. 4: For the first time in years, Wednesday felt a spike of fear.

Chapter 2:

Displeased by all that, Wednesday wants to get back on the horse so to speak and restore some of her damaged confidence and also figure out how the hell that happened.

Mostly cos it runs contrary to how she thinks soulmates work despite she herself not following the 'rules' of soulmates.

She & Bianca have their encounter and there is not even any speaking. Both register the other as their soulmate and draw swords and it is on sight, because both of them would rather an enemy that let someone in close.

Wednesday still loses so she's still not having a great time. Especially as it turns out Enid is more interested in chatting up a vampire than her or Bianca!

Enid is not outright blanking her, or hating her, but just treating her like any other student she happened to share a room with.

Wednesday would find cloying affection smothering but not unexpected and she would find hatred acceptable.

But it turns out just being kind of dismissed, really gets under her skin. So she storms off, meets Xavier, is generally caustic ETC.

After the Gargoyle incident Enid did show some concern but very generalized, "We're both Outcasts & you are a person who almost died?" and then gets distracted and spends the rest of the night chatting with Thing.

Wednesday's music garners no real reaction from Enid, though we see Bianca having a not emotionally fun time of it in her room because of it.

After that when they go to be, Enid even says, "Night Wednesday." But that's also its, it's so dismissive, it's so... casual.

Wednesday was not built for casualness.

Wednesday was built for soul crushing devotion be it hatred or love!

Chapter 3:

Because of these elements she does not have Enid's help trying to get out of Nevermore. As a result she may actually turn to Bianca because "We both want me gone, help me make it happen." Which may even cut Tyler out for a bit.

Still, the two otherwise remain in their ongoing "We will be eternal enemies/I will ensure you never get close" stalemate. Its not healthy but both deem it acceptable.

Meanwhile Enid begins to fixate on Enid either in her first session or a later one, talks to Kinbott solely cos she wants an outsider perspective on Soul Marks and obsession.

We learn about her ties to Uraih's heap and that soul mark obsession is just down to obsessive people.

IE, Wednesday is obsessing because she's prone to such behavior and because Enid dismantling and then dismissing her is a huge blow to self identity. Wednesday is used to being rejected, or hated, or feared and even adored without resveration from her family.

She is not used to being looked at like a spoiled teen and summarily dismissed as unimportant and it makes her feel like Enid is 'winning' some kind of contest she's not even playing but Bianca is.

Chapter 4:

Wednesday & Larissa do get that hot choc, & Wednesday does fix the machine & Tyler says he owes her. Later, when drinking, Tyler interrupts claiming Thornhill called and could not get through on her mobile.

Its a brief distraction but it lets Wednesday scribble a note demanding his number and she gets in on the receipt and organizes her extraction.

Cue the festival a brief interaction where Enid warns her of Tyler's hate crimes.

Wednesday tries to ply it into being about her rather than Outcast solidarity but is shrugged off as Enid goes off with Yoko, leaving her in a bad mood.

Yes Wednesday is still jealous of Yoko, she cannot escape it XD

Kinbott is there and chatting with Larissa but not enough to distract her.

Then Wednesday blocks two darts flying at her head and one ends up in her hand.

Bianca shouts "Rowan!" Who takes off running and is followed by Wednesday into the forest.

His ambush doesn't work though cos Bianca was after him to and she knows he is a telekinetic. So she manages to knock him out with a drug and steal the book. Bianca likely knows she has it but won't cause a scene around the sheriff.

Gaplin tries to shoot her but is stopped by Weems and Kinbolt makes sure Rowan is alive before practically shouting the man down and then helps carry Rowan back to Nevermore while Weems rounds up all her students.

Wednesday wants Bianca to use her siren song to make him talk which makes her livid and Kinbolt has to intervene a bit and also reveals its not useful for that as the subject just says what the person wants to hear in their own head not their own mind.

After that, Enid arrives.

Turns out Thing fell out of Wednesday's pocket and she was so pissed off she sort of forgot him in the chase.

So, Thing is sulking & Wednesday is initially more interested in trying to get info on Rowan and or proving a point to Enid to acknowledge it so they clamber back over to Enid to sulk and they go off with Yoko to do their nails.

Though not before revealing Rowan was "More like a normie than Kinbolt."

IE, he did not like other outcasts besides his fellow psychics.

Basically a more extreme version of Xavier's distrust and contempt for Bianca and Sirens in general.

Enid: (Puts Thing in her hand) Rowan was always like, 'Oh you may be outcasts (Sneers) But I am the only Outcaaast! (Falls back and it caught by Yoko. They then put an equally dramatic Thing back on her shoulder and leave.)

Wednesday and Bianca are shooed out while Weems and Kinbolt try to get Rowan to talk (Gaplin is being yelled at by the mayor for almost killing a 15 year old)

She & Bianca likely have a tense stand off regarding the book Rowan stole but Bianca needs to keep her secrets and despite being presumably able to Siren Song Wednesday into giving it to her does not. Instead promising to collect it with her scaled hands later, before ominously vanishing through a secret passageway.

Wednesday returns to her dorm room to find it empty.

Her victory over Rowan, briefly a restorative of confidence now tastes like ashes, the book seems useless, Bianca refused to fight and Enid is still vexing her mind.

She shatters the window, as loudly as possible.

Enid comes racing up and Wednesday antagonizes her and Enid's claws and fangs come out and she's barely held back by Yoko and Thing. But more by the arrival of Thornhill making them all have a "Sleep over" with Yoko cos its dangerous to be in a room with so much broken glass.

The three mostly ignore Wednesday and go on about their nails and let Enid vent about the window, but it never ties back to soulmates, or romance, or anything Wednesday wants it too and they eventually go to sleep, with Thing giving her a judgmental vibe lecture while safety out of reach.

Back to square one, incredibly frustrated!

Notes:

As noted, this story is kind of exploring Wednesday at her most intensely bratty, but I think the window would be the farthest it would go so after that there is nowhere to go but up.

Ya know, maybe.

But she & Bianca still have a lot of issues to work through and if either of them ever want anything more than a superficial understanding of Enid she will need to overcome her distrust.

It will likely be revealed in the Rowan bit that Xavier lied to Bianca about not having a soulmate when trying to become her boyfriend. This also comes up in the herbology class when he tries to flirt with Wednesday and fails hard.

Chapter 5:

I think Wednesday may actually, after a point call her mother and kinda low key ask if she's spoiled and or being childish.

"Your father and I wanted you to have every freedom, every opportunity to explore your passions as you pleased. We have always been astounded by you, but... Perhaps in doing so we did not impart to you some key lessons."

"You think I am broken. The-"

"NEVER. A child cannot be wrong or broken or unwanted in anyway. All this is is that your father and I expected your to enter a contest without imparting to you the rules, you are not at fault for anything."

She later asks Wednesday for a favor.

"You are doing very poorly at imposing limits, mother."

She wants Wednesday to tell Weems she and Kinbolt will have a lovely tea together in her office.

Cos of the attack, Wednesday has another appointment with Kingbolt earlier and imparts the message to her instead and claims its the Weathervane to try and see if she can influence visions. She doesn't get to know if she can.

Also Rowan is taken off campus by his father so he lives but Wednesday gets no more answers from him.

Final Notes:

But yeah that's about where I am with it.

But I wanted to explore the idea of soul bonds but with the romantic angle being entirely socially engineered. Pus other aspects for the casts as you may have noticed :3c

Oh, also Bianca is more shocked by Thing than Kinbolt, a hint that she is from a background that isolated her from the Outcast community compared to Enid or Yoko who are just sorta like, "Weird but neat" and "My sire has a haunted samurai mask that constantly yells at us. Thing is way more polite."

#wednesday netflix #wednesday series #wednesday addams #enid sinclair #bianca barclay #Wenclair #Goth Bees #Enid/Wednesday/Bianca

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artbyblastweave · 2 years

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Gideon the Ninth Liveread, Chapter 9

I like the subtle gag of capitalizing “Gideon’s First morning.”

The bathroom sequence is an old standby- “fish-out-of-water-from-a-spartan-culture-explores-an-upper-mediocre-living-space” and paints an interesting picture of Gideon’s knowledgebase and ingrained Taboos. She knows what a Sink is from comic books but not what a bathtub is. She knows that soap made from human fat is an off-putting thing to wash oneself with, and uses the sonic in light of that, but at the same time grew up in an environment where all soap was human fat and thus there was no local taboo for her to pick up. Strongly suspect she’s never used soap before, just to spite the nuns; it’s also possible that she knows soap generally isn’t made from human fat (again via her comic books) but suspects that First House soap specifically might be, given their parallels to the religiosity of the Ninth House; This seems unlikely, given the lack of available humans, but it’s also unclear where they’re getting their supplies from, so, uh. Who knows. Anway this has been your daily three hundred word tangent about human fat soap.

Gideon’s complaint about Harrow upon finding the ring gone implies a previous track record of Harrow taking Gideon’s things; It keeps coming back to the fact that their Rivalry growing up was comically intimate and petty for how spiteful it was. Harrow knowing enough to cut Gideon’s attempted loophole abuse off at the knees also attests to this.

The general disrepair of Canaan House is interesting; they did the bare-minimum necessary to get it functional for the presence of some of the best and brightest of the empire, and while the house is obviously too big to keep in full repair on a skeleton crew, they had some lead time to get some contractors in, for the quarters at least! The general decay of the situation feels like a flex; “you; treasured scions of the great houses, are not special enough to merit anything but birdnets over the holes.”

Here we get a confirmation of my earlier assessment that Skeletons have essentially taken the niche of robotics technology in this setting; the skills involved in making a skeleton are described in similar terms to coding and precision engineering. This stand-in for robotics technology is notably not a one-to-one thing that could be swapped out for actual robots, or clones, or a similar servile construct race; the one-to-one necessity of human death to provide energy and materials for each skeleton integrates the technology directly into the story’s themes.

Alright, enter Magnus. The way that Gideon juxtaposes Magnus with the horrible teenagers of the fourth (and I love their affect, incidentally, I used to do something similar to my roommate all the time when I wanted to bother him) is interesting. The first descriptor is “Wholesome.” My knee-jerk reaction is that Gideon is casting about for a parental figure of some sort and he’s the first candidate she’s really encountered; I find him mildly endearing if a bit overbearing. There is a Specific Bit that he’s leaning into, the same basic bit that semi-parodic characters like Sir Hammerlock from Borderlands are leaning into. Polite-to-a-fault pseudo-British Gentleman adventurer, except probably less divorced from the imperialist connotations. We’ll see how things go with him.

Gideon’s description of Canaan House- deceptively lateral in its layout, with no obvious path to the upper lower sections, but still deeply confusing- is interesting, because this clearly was a house at one point. What was it like when this place was in use by humans? How many humans was it in use by? Was it a Winchester-house situation where the handful of people using it thought it would be funny to make it impossibly complicated?

Gideon’s earlier lack of recognition of plumbing-like, as a concept- are reiterated here; she doesn’t understand the function of the pool, constantly calling it a “Pit,” incapable of understanding why there would be ladders leading down into it- but she does immediately recognize the rest of the space as a gymnasium, which tells you a lot about her priorities. I get a lot of chatter on this site about the “Pool Scene,” and you know what, I actually really heavily doubt that this scene was that.

Oh, she can’t swim, can she? She’s on an ocean planet, A Pool has very pointedly been presented as a place of narrative importance, and she grew up on a bone-dry rock. She can’t swim.

Alright, this door will be relevant later. And I’m not just saying that because I’m perpetually six chapters ahead in the book of the chapter I’m writing these about, expanding on my initial notes as I go. It’s a big black door with an exquisitely-described skull that only Gideon knows about.

Alright, enter the thirdlings. First real in-depth examination of them.

Naberius is interesting because he’s hitting on basically all the observations I’ve hit upon about the mind games being played at Canaan house- the deliberately-squalid conditions, the funny little mentor man, the shuttles being pushed off the platform- except he’s approaching the matter from the perspective of these mind games’s target audience, that is to say, someone extremely entitled who views these things an affront to someone of his standing rather than, say, as a gigantic red fucking flag that they’re all about to be killed. He’s talking about writing to the heir’s fathers about it. Now, Naberius is implicitly a badass because he’s the cavalier from a House that’s got it’s shit together, so this might account for the discrepancy, but this is still pretty unique; it’s like if the fodder children in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory exhibited suspicion of Wonka’s set-up as a test of character intended to thin them out but plowed ahead with the offending behaviors anyway. He knows what kind of story he’s in but hasn’t internalized it.

I can’t tell which twin is which in the “second voice and third voice” sequence, but I can tell which twin Gideon is very, very into. The takeaway here is that Ianthe is the booky one, Coronabeth is the golden child, and....

oh god. That took a turn. Coronabeth treats Naberius like a dog, and the narration uses that imagery. Ostensibly she does this on the behalf of her sister- the golden child standing up for the maligned lesser twin- but look me in the eye and tell me that this isn’t coming from a place of royalty-inculcated sadism. And then Ianthe, despite being the offended party in theory, despite being the more abrasive of the two by far, is the one to get Coronabeth to simmer down; not on any moral grounds but because she’s wasting time. And then Coronabeth starts being chummy with Naberius (Babs!) again like nothing happened. It’s been implied to me that Ianthe is the evil one in the dynamic? (and what is the dynamic, exactly? Three or four different reads on this sequence. They’re siblings. They’re a preppy clique. They’re... a third secret thing.)

And in the end, Ianthe is the one to hang back and deliver a cryptic warning to Gideon. “I would not attract attention from the necromancer of the third house.” And this could be in reference to her sister (who Ianthe appears to be the leash-holder for) and thus a warning, or it could be in reference to herself, and thus a threat, because Gideon already has attracted her attention. That’s what’s happening right this second. Yeah, no wonder Naberius went right to mind games. That’s just his lived experience with these two.

As a last note, the recurring theme with these three is that of boundries, and pushing them; they were introduced as arriving late, they brought one more person than they were expected to, their conversation was intensely mutually antagonistic but in a reasonable way until Naberius inadvertently crossed an unspoken line; Coronabeth’s response, in turn, is clearly influenced by the need to toe some line Ianthe has set; and as they leave, Ianthe takes time to communicate that Gideon is on the path to transgression but doesn’t yet merit corrective action.

It’s actually a little reminiscent of Gideon’s own situation on the ninth- a upbringing defined by an endless state of rebellion that was still on some level coloring within the lines; the lines in question just being really, really weird. Gideon’s no stranger to fucked-up “what-exactly-is-the-nature-of-this-relationship” relationships, either!

As a last note, “Coronabeth” is an outrageously funny name to me. Part “Corona,” Part “Annabeth.” Faintly portmanteau-ish. Almost reminds me of. It reminds me of. You know what webcomic this reminds me of by now

#gideon the ninth liveread #gideon the ninth #gideon the 9th #gideon nav #blastweave livereads #the locked tomb #tlt #the locked tomb liveread #thoughts #meta #ianthe tridentarius #magnus quinn #coronabeth tridentarius #naberius tern #jesus these keep getting longer and longer

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endcant · 22 days

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bear with me bc i am drinking THC lemonade

whenever my “people shocked by me being interested in consumer aesthetics counter” ticks up by 1, i know that i have failed to express myself on the internet. i am obsessed with commercial ephemera. it’s not that i like it… it’s something deeper. something… worse? better? something more embarrassing, at least.

the only time i’ve ever done psychedelics my profound realization was that i really, really enjoyed going to target. i like the lights. i am always commenting on the products and whether i think they are on trend or off trend for what i understand the target demographic to be. i love nothing more than to watch someone pick up an object, briefly imagine their life with that object in it, and then either put it in their basket or put it back on the shelf. even moreso when i’m watching a friend shop. even moreso when we can only window shop and that friend starts explaining to me what they would do with the thing if they had the money to buy it.

i studied american pop music history in college and i continue to study the history of bubblegum pop in my free time. i want to eventually write up a video or a series or something about the extended international history of teenybopper bubblegum pop. i am trying to learn music industry jargon old and new in my target languages in an attempt to gain access to information about these things that i can’t access in english alone.

i read early 2010s posts about how minimalism was the only morally righteous visual style with rapt fascination. i had a vaporwave phase exactly one decade ago. my friends in high school would bring me arizona green teas because they knew i would find it aesthetic. my advanced painting teacher hated it because i kept painting pale minimalist watercolor pieces that looked like 90s waiting room wall decor. my dream at the time was moving to santa fe and becoming a fine artist.

i was a proto-cottagecore blogger before cottagecore was named. i have well over 100 blogs, considering i hit 96 at some point during my previously mentioned decade-ago vaporwave phase. i do not bother to count anymore

as a young child, i used to go to the store almost daily with my parents and look for unfamiliar packs of gum so i could assess their packaging, flavor, and concept. i *really* cared about this. i got into this because i was given free packs of 5 gum and orange mountain dew at the halo 3 midnight release.

i learned HTML from neopets and i used to code gaiaonline themes and put them up on tektek. they sucked really bad btw.

i spent around 2 decades looking for the source of a single image of an anime river angel i saw on quizilla because she meant so much to me as a child about the power of what mere images could be only to find last year that the artist now draws hentai on pixiv and their art quality is now quite rushed. i think about this regularly when i think about creators i have idolized, and i don’t know what it means to me, but it feels like valuable information.

last night i couldnt sleep because i kept wanting to get on my phone to look at ancient greek vases on jstor

the worst part is i feel that the way that seeing ONLY consuming-or-not-consuming as the primary way to interact with the world is a serious mental roadblock for people in capitalist society. i think that consumer identity is a tool often used to warp the minds of citizens. i think that if i could go back in time and strangle edward bernays i would. i think that it is meaningful that american society has generated dozens of terms for “someone who is stealing or misusing a cultural signifier, or otherwise engaging with a culture or subculture under false pretenses/without doing due diligence/without participating in proper cultural exchange” over just the past couple centuries and that seeing and acknowledging the cycle is essential for anyone working in the arts

ive spent the past couple years reading up on historical art movements since industrialization to see how other art workers have dealt with their jobs being mechanized away, and ive decided to choose to value myself as a human animal who gets to experience the process of making things with my human animal body.

i am compelled to play piano when i drink red wine and i feel that i’m a fundamentally superficial being in function, but i can be more in purpose. like a poster. like a mask. like someone screaming so hard on stage that you believe them. that you look behind you to see what they are screaming at. i think in symbols and colors front and center, with verbal background chatter like an ever-tuning radio, and i am frustrated when people don’t understand that i am speaking my mind when i show them what i’ve made.

i care about aesthetics a lot. consumer and otherwise. it just so happens that i live in a capitalist society wherein the market attributes value to certain aesthetic information, which generates conversation about what certain images mean, what gives them value, what detracts from their value, what they are responding to, what responses they require in turn. but anywhere, anytime that there is a conversation about aesthetics, i want to be there.

i have always loved to perceive and to make, since the earliest stories anyone has to tell about baby cave. if i lost everything that makes me who and what i am right now, i believe i would still care about aesthetics. if there is anything left for even a cell of my body to experience, it would want to experience it beautifully and enjoy it deliciously.

happy 420

#we live in a consumer society -the aestheticer #this is just like #what its about #in da cave zone #🎤

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dailycharacteroption · 1 day

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Races Among the Stars 9: Samsaran

We’ve covered samsarans before on the blog in their First Edition Pathfinder form, but much like the perpetually reincarnating people, things have come full-circle with us covering their Starfinder version (at least until we start doing 2nd Edition ancestries and the upcoming Starfinder 2E’s take on them, again, paralleling the endless loop of reincarnation)

But this also closes the loop in a different way as well, as this is the last of the Pathfinder throwbacks that were introduced to the game in Starfinder Alien Character Deck, which was little more than useful flash cards for remembering the traits of various species, either for forgetful players or perhaps more usefully as a way to help a GM quickly switch out the species of pre-generated statblocks on the fly.

Either way, all of those aforementioned species also got reprinted in both Interstellar Species and in Starfinder Enhanced, adding some actual lore to how those species actually fit into the galaxy of the far future, which is nice. (Does anyone remember when the general consensus for where kobolds were was “They all vanished/died with Golarion”? Easily the most boring possible answer and I’m glad they quashed that with some interesting if borderline retcon meta-joke new lore.

Buuuut we’re getting of topic, let’s talk about samsarans!

True to their name, which is based on the concept of the endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth in Hindu and Buddhist traditions, samsarans were a clade of humans born into a cycle of constant reincarnation, often starting out born as ordinary humans to samsaran parents that give them up to normal human adoptive parents, only for them to reincarnate as samsarans the first time they die, and so on and so forth.

Unlike other species and souls that choose reincarnation in the afterlife, samsarans retain a lof of memories from their past lives, though they are often hazy and incomplete, like vivid dreams to their new incarnation. Even with such gaps, however, that knowledge gives them access to information and skills they wouldn’t normally possess, and helps them infer who they used to be, and how to incorporate the wisdom gleaned from those memories into their daily lives and towards a greater state of enlightenment in preparation for the next life. (Which, ironically, is kinda the opposite of what one normally WANTS to do when one subscribes to the idea of the real-life idea of samsara, but that’s neither here nor there).

Now, you may have noticed that earlier I described that samsarans “were” a clade of humans. That wasn’t a slip of the keyboard on my part, because now that samsarans are no longer bound necessarily to one specific world, their pact with Pharasma has changed slightly. Now, samsarans can be born on any world… and to any sapient species, though without homebrewing, these rare non-human samsarans have the same statistics as others of their kind, though with homebrew, well, that just opens up all sorts of new doors, doesn’t it?

Samsarans, unsurprisingly, appear to be humans (or members of their parent species) with pale skin and hair in shades of white, blue, or purple, as well as clear blood and seemingly pupilless eyes.

While there were once enclaves of samsarans that used divination to locate newly-reborn samsarans and bring them into the fold, such things are much more rare now in a far future where one’s already-rare species is spread out across the galaxy. As such, modern samsarans are more likely to simply adopt their parent culture, though samsaran culture still exists in the form of writings and recordings, both publicly available and hidden away that the young can seek out for guidance and a sense of cultural identity with the rest of their kind.

Of course, the advent of multimedia and VI means that this can also be rather disconcerting. Imagine if your past self created a VI or even AI simulacrum of themselves and hid it away for a future reincarnation. Imagine meeting someone that is both you and also not you and the same time. Probably would take a bit to get used to, though on the other hand, Vlogs and extensive digital memoirs from a past can help a young samsaran better connect with those memories, and possibly go about continuing the goals of their past self, which some samsarans do.

Samsarans bear the wisdom and cunning of multiple past lives, but their bodies are somewhat frail (probably all that lack of hemoglobin).

However, they are especially resilient to magical and supernatural effects that target their lifeforce directly, and they’re surprisingly good at bouncing back from injury and disease even if the initial infection tends to knock them on rears.

Their curious eyes also also surprisingly good at absorbing light in dark conditions, letting them see better in limited light.

Samsarans also have a bit of inherent magic, able to breach language barrier one-way, stabilize the dying, and share their memories with others.

Additionally, their memories from past lives include some practical skills as well, though the exact specifics vary between individuals, as their old souls latch onto different things from their past lives.

Much like the thyrs of yesterday’s entry, samsarans are well-equipped for a myriad of smart-guy classes and builds, with mystics being a natural fit due to their half-divine, half-occult schtick meshing well with samsarans theme-wise. However, technomancers, mechanics, biohackers, skill-based envoyed and operatives are also good picks. Precog and witchwarper also share some lovely themes with samsarans with their focus on possible paths in life and such. Meanwhile, like thyrs, they also struggle a bit with melee combat, though for different reasons, since it’s constitution they lack instead of strength. As such, combat-oriented samsarans prefer ranged soldiers, solarians, and evolutionists, while nanocytes and vanguards are a bit of a harder sell, albeit not impossible. Despite their frailty, samsarans can do a lot to overcome that weakness and be very effective no matter what class they choose to take.

And that does it for this week! Tune in Monday for another week of archetypes and character options!

#starfinder #race #samsaran #Alien Character Deck #Starfinder Enhanced

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quidfree · 1 month

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hey! so you’ve mentioned francis’ sexual traumas a few times and while they are brought up a little bit in the book i still can’t pinpoint his exact situation. could you talk more about your feelings on the matter?

tw: sexual trauma and generally bad childhoods

yeah, canon really doesn't give us much about the wild life and times of its cast but it does crucially tell us about his childhood stay in what was basically an institution. and francis himself tells richard outright that the kids there were coerced to fabricate their sordid sexual misconduct just to placate the adults. from what ik abt that type of place back then & the subpar parenting vibes olivia gives i don't doubt francis was exposed to very adult concepts of sexuality, relationships, and mental issues way too young.

the rest of it is just me riffing on backstory, but i imagine given the kind of culture and society he grows up in, not to mention the inherent shaming and confusion in that space associated with his being born of his sister-mom (in airquotes) who had a teen fling with a nobody and then whisked him chaotically around the globe while his grandparents raised them both, francis has subzero shot of going into any relationships with a healthy mindset. not to mention hes growing up definitively gay in the 70s. all of his relationships are clandestine. the only canonical one we see is with an ambiguously straight guy who only hooks up with him drunk and we later find out said guy turns very ugly when he's drunk. and we know francis maintains that relationship long after all we see of charles-francis is charles abusing him verbally while francis takes it.

if we're veering a little further from canon my 2 cents are that francis' early sexual history undoubtedly includes very dubious firsts with people who should not be sleeping with him, closeted teachers or older students etc. i don't imagine his formative experiences were good for his psyche given what he settles for later.

that's not to say every single encounter he's ever had was mired in tragedy. he is evidently genuinely flirtatious and refreshingly frank about it for the times when you think about the moves he makes on richard- i would optimistically venture that this shows he's had fun with his flings too. maybe even charles, before it all went south. who knows what his relationship with kim was like before his grandfather caught them. but as a rule given francis Does live in fear of being caught out by his surrogate parental unit and his anxiety / paranoia is generally exacerbated exponentially by the murders i don't think he has a great chance of having had any meaningful, long-term, open-your-heart connections, at least not post hampden. not because historical gayness dooms you to furtive dark rooms but because that's francis' canonical cross to bear, at least by close of canon.

#qui parle #qui repond #anon #tsh #francis abernathy #all the tsh charas are so sad guys. but francis' backstory is up there with the twins' for most fucked.#i just don't know if i think francis has ever had someone tell him they love him and not hurt him all the while

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bonefall · 1 year

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Bonefall Rewrite: Changed Mentorships

An ask from @halogenwarrior made me realize I don't have a central place for all the changed apprentice/mentorships in my rewrite! This will be an evolving list just like my renamings post, whenever an update is made, it will be added here.

Additionally, I'll explain some updated cultural concepts about mentorships here, too. Consider this a good introduction to Bonefall Rewrite apprentices and mentors!

The Social Purpose of this System

A mentor is like a social parent to their apprentice. They're tasked with making sure the apprentice can both hunt and fight, guiding them through their adolescence, and shaping them into an honorable member of the Clan. While not an official adoption, the apprentice will often grow closer to the mentor's family as a result.

Socially, this is expected to weave Clanmates closer together, and discourage cats from breaking into tight family groups. This is the reason why parents are usually not chosen to mentor their own children; though it's not forbidden. A savvy leader will also reward key allies with apprentices in the hopes of making more supporters.

Additional Restrictions

Mentor/Apprentice mateships are completely banned for obvious reasons. They will never happen.

A mentor must experience all four seasons on their own before getting an apprentice, meaning they have to be at least 2 years old.

That means that a cat who has a long apprenticeship won’t be eligible for mentorship until even later.

The List So Far (by arc)

Bonefall TPB

Onewhisker + Runningpaw

Morningflower + Whitepaw

Frostfur + Elderpaw

Stonefur + Heavypaw

Onestar no longer mentors Whitetail; his new apprentice is Runningbrook

This needed a fix because Onestar and Whitetail become mates later, and Onewhisker was too young at the time anyway.

Morningflower is the new mentor of Whitetail

She is also much older than Onewhisker, and not his sister. Morningflower is becoming WindClan’s Rosepetal, training LOTS of apprentices.

Ferncloud and Elderberry are mentored by Darkstripe and Frostfur

Elderkit is surviving, Dustpelt is too young to get an apprentice, and Ashfur is being shuffled to a later Brindleface litter. Frostfur is given Elderpaw to encourage her to return to warrior duties.

Stonefur mentored Heavystep, who watches his execution in Darkest Hour.

Heavystep’s mentor is getting swapped with Shadepelt’s. He has Heavystep, while she has Blackclaw.

Bonefall TNP

Iceheart + Mousepaw

??? + Ashpaw

Skyheart + Reedpaw

Mousewhisker’s mentor is Iceheart, formerly known as Scourge

Spiderleg was too young to have an apprentice, but will be surviving much longer so there’s plenty of time for him to get one of his own. Mousewhisker is DESPERATE to learn That Move but no, Iceheart does not teach it to him.

Ashfur has been aged down; his mentor is still undecided.

Dustpelt would have been a good pick, but he’s mentoring Squirrelpaw at this point in time. Still deciding this one.

Reedwhisker has a terrible apprenticeship with his aunt, Skyheart

His warriorship keeps getting delayed as she sets ridiculously high standards and generally makes his life difficult. All the while, he’s being bullied by Stonefur’s apprentice, Heavystep.

Bonefall Po3

Longtail + Jaypaw

Brackenfur + Hollypaw

Oakfur + Marshpaw

Jayfeather has warrior training; his mentor was Longtail

Longtail comes out of retirement to mentor Jay. He gets his full name, Jayfang, before choosing to train as a medcat. Jayfeather is an honor title.

Hollypaw is the prodigal apprentice of ThunderClan’s deputy, Brackenfur.

Not actually a ‘change’ but worth mentioning, because the dynamic has been updated.

Marshwing’s mentor was Oakfur

Marshwing is the kit that Brackenfur saves in TNP. Oakfur is ShadowClan’s Rosepetal, he’s an excellent teacher that has a lot of apprentices.

Bonefall OotS

Birchfall + Dovepaw

Brightheart + Ivypaw

Marshwing + Tigerpaw

Breezepelt + Furzepaw

Harespring + Boulderpaw

Dovewing’s father has been changed to Lionblaze; her mentor is Birchfall

Birchfall often fights with Lionblaze over how he seems to be trying to control his apprentice. Dovewing is closer to him than her own father, eventually naming a kit after him. Birchfall no longer trains in the Dark Forest.

Ivypool is being mentored by Brightheart

Brightheart needed an apprentice. Eventually, she bonds with Ivypool over intense survivor’s guilt when she accidentally kills Antpelt twice.

Tigerheart is being made younger, and her mentor is Marshwing

Being changed away from Oakfur, who makes jokes about how he’ll take that unruly girl if he doesn’t want her. Marshwing is the kitten that Brackenfur saved from an eagle in the mountains. Tigerpaw is an apprentice on the Beaver Quest with Dovepaw.

Breezepelt’s apprentice is Furzepaw, who he involves in the Dark Forest

Furzepaw is being swapped with Boulderpaw, it is now a plot point that Breezepelt involves his apprentice in the Dark Forest training and Harespring does not.

Harespring’s apprentice is Boulderpaw.

See above

Bonefall AVoS

Squirrelflight + Sparkpaw

Sparkpelt’s mentor is Squirrelflight, because she is now a Bramblestar x Jessie kitten.

After Jessie goes back to her twolegs after being mistreated by Bramblestar, Sparkpaw relies on Squirrelflight a lot for emotional support. They’re extremely close, to Bramblestar’s chagrin.

#Bonefall Rewrite #Too many to tag #Aaand here it is! I probably missed one or two but. Here we go #Expect this list to get added to over time #I'm glad to finally get this one out

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gothicprep · 10 months

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so, wife and i finally got around to seeing barbie. and neither of us were particularly big fans of it.

stuff i liked. i'll get that out of the way first. i like that it's a huge box office success when theaters have really needed that post-covid. the set design and costumes were just my kind of garish. the opening scene was funny, and you can always count on ryan gosling to give it his all whenever he's cast in anything. and the "patriarchy is when men and horses rule the world" joke made me giggle a bit. the horses in general were an amusing running gag.

and. uh. that's about it really.

i've complained about this before, not with barbie, but i'm not a fan of the "movies that are for children, but not really" thing. usually they're aimed at critics instead, and this is *sort of* that. but also not really. i'm actually not sure who this is for, other than mattel, i guess.

this reminded me a lot of another movie, actually – disney's enchanted. and you could make the argument that the similar premise is responding to the same thing enchanted was. 00s pop feminism that criticized disney princesses usually included barbie in the mix too. and since people liked the meta aspect of enchanted back in '07, we've ended up with the live action movies that exist to reassure parents in my age group that the rodent empire has heard your cries, and they're aware, so it's fine to bring your kids to this. they've changed and grown as a person if you're going off the mitt romney definition of that word at least. they've changed their stories to reflect that. kinda. the princesses are girlbosses and they don't need a man. please clap.

the problem with applying this formula to barbie is that, unlike characters from an existing story canon – many of which, to be honest, were read very uncharitably during that blip in the culture – barbie is more of a concept. the movie winks at how barbie the idea is basically just whatever people want to project onto it, but it kind of falls into the trap of pointing things out in lieu of making a point. and while i do think that gerwig did the best with this that she realistically could, movies like this aren't in a position where they can thread the needle. after all, they're giving you this IP for a reason.

my wife also pointed out that it muddied the waters a bit to try and grapple with this all in a comedy where all the funniest lines end up going to ryan gosling, simu liu, michael cera, and will ferrell. my counterpoint is that kate mackinnon and hari nef had some great moments, but she's onto something here.

it's really difficult for me to watch something like barbie and really look at it in a vacuum. even though it has a different look than the other IP projects we've begrudgingly come to expect, i feel like i can't separate it from this broader picture of, like, integrity laundering. i went into it with an open mind, but left frustrated with it. you can make an argument for a remake. i guess. but this really shamelessly felt like a commercial.

on the bright side, this mostly negative review won't take away from the fact that this has been a much needed boost for theater attendance. in the end, that's what matters the most to me right now, i think.

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fioras-resolve · 6 months

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last night i watched a play, my mom's production of aaron posner's "Stupid Fucking Bird." it's a really good production, if you're in the chicago area you should go see it. but it got me thinking a bit about the nature of theatrical productions and how different it is from the state of games.

like, okay. from what i understand from my parents telling me about this, here's how it works: the original production of Stupid Fucking Bird was in 2013, shortly after the play was written. since then, like many plays, the script has been licensed to dozens of productions, who will use the same script but put their own directorial spin on it. the same play may be done as a drama, a tragedy, or a comedy, and that ability to do that is part of the beauty of theatre.

these different productions are how a play stays alive, because unlike a lot of other art forms, plays are innately ephemeral. no showing is exactly the same, and once a production is done, it's over. mama's play is still in theaters, but the only way to experience yesterday's showing is to go back in time. but that sense of presence, of in-the-now, is what gives theatre, and performance generally, its character. we in the video game space tend to chafe against the concept of ephemeral art, and view it as a matter of preservation. i'm sympathetic to this! we shouldn't be letting art history be controlled by corporations who put profit above art. but there is aesthetic value in art being limited, and of-the-moment. it doesn't have to be artificial scarcity to make a quick buck. but that's a whole separate conversation in itself, and not what i wanna talk about here.

the real thing i'm interested in is this: we in the gamedev space don't really do "new productions" of old work as freely as theatre does. we do get remakes, remasters, and rereleases, but those are always either made in-house or at the strict behest of the original publisher. alternatively, the developer doesn't get the rights, and gets a cease and desist letter for it. there just isn't a culture of adaptation in games. nobody wants to hand off their work to somebody who puts their own spin on it. this is partially copyright culture, corporations very protective of their IP. but it's just as uncommon in indie spaces, and i suspect that's because there's a very real stigma against "copying somebody's work."

now, look, plagiarism sucks, and there's always going to be a debate over what specifically counts. but i'm not actually talking about that. i'm talking about the derision that the gaming community has to wearing its inspiration on its sleeve. we see this in the memes about indie rpg's inspired by EarthBound, in the way Paladins was framed as "Shitty Overwatch," and how Overwatch itself was framed as "Shitty TF2." gamers are very defensive about their favorite games, and to some, the most cringeworthy thing you can do as a dev is try to do what it's doing.

i don't have a solution to this problem, but i can be change i want to see, so, here. this is my gameography. you have permission to adapt or remake or reinterpret any of this as you like, as long as you ask first and give me a cut if you're gonna monetize it. i don't really monetize my shit usually, so it only seems fair. i'd love to see other devs do this, to see even big-name developers willing to open their work to adaptations. but there's also reasons we don't tend to do that, and maybe this'll be a failed experiment, whatever that means. i hope i've at least given you something to think about though. peace

#game design #gamedev

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