#bc of ALL OF HUMANITY believing in not his power but more his goodwill. how much he cares and is willing to give himself up for them | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

impashableimagines · 5 years

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yOOOO can u please bless us with mermaid!au headcanons???? with julian as the mermaid! i can't wait to see ur take on it bc ur ideas are always So Good :,)

Ok I want to finish this one before the end of Mermay so here we go y’all

I HC Julian as a black ghost knifefish variety merman (picture below for reference)

For a little context why I chose this interpretation, our lil buddy the ghost knifefish feeds on these creatures that are basically carnivorous, venomous leeches (but not really leeches), called bloodworms. They’re also nocturnal.

Although he is usually a deepsea merman, one night, our buddy mer!Julian finds himself drawn to the surface of the water by the glint of gold in the water illuminated by the moonlight, tossed over the side of what looks like a pirate ship on the surface

Of course, this is MC trying to cause as much fucking trouble as possible for their pirate companions while they’re asleep because why the fuck not, they’re mischievous AF

MC is on this ship travelling away from their homeland after having gone back to visit their teacher, Asra.

Julian is immediately captivated by MC, wants to bring them back with him to the depths and keep them forever yes he wants to possess them like a shiny object, and he maaay be thinking of having them as a snack, it probably isn’t healthy

MC doesn’t seem to notice Julian at first, but damn does Julian notice them

He thinks they’re the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, on land or sea, and they smell DIVINE.

At first it’s purely a physical attraction thing for him - they’re stunning and he’s thinking with his dick … cloaca … whatever fucking organs a fish has for reproduction … Genital pore? Sorry, I don’t know fish anatomy and google isn’t helping me much, but I digress.

But the more he observes MC, though, the more he stops seeing them as a potential snack, and starts to fall for them romantically?

MC throwing gold overboard, picking fights with pirates, swinging from the ship’s rope systems, chilling in the crow’s nest with a journal? Good shit, says Julian. And MC sassing the goddamn pirate captain? Well shit, he’s smitten.

During the daytime, Julian can’t go to the surface because the sun is harmful to him, and he dreads when the sun begins to rise because that’s when MC is most active and he’s MISSING OUT on that precious time

It’s all fun and games, Julian watching MC and MC pretending not to notice, until MC lets it be known they know Julian is there one night by fucking JUMPING OVERBOARD to see if the merman who’s been spying on them is friend or foe

Julian loses his shit - doesn’t know if he should laugh or panic, and he’s trying to make sure the little human doesn’t fucking die in the water because how should he know if humans can swim? This is literally the first human he’s ever actually seen, let alone met.

He swims over and scoops them up, taking them to shore.

“WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING YOU IDIOT?! YOU COULD HAVE DIED- CAN YOU HUMANS EVEN SWIM WITHOUT FINS?”

MC is cackling. “Of course I can swim, I just wanted to see if you were friendly or if you’d try to eat me or something, pretty fish man!”

Julian is stunned. MC just called him pretty, even though he’s a carnivorous spooky scary deep sea merman?? He’s fucking weirded out because normally the other mermaids are afraid of him

He’s never had anyone think he’s pretty before and he’s just shocked that a human pirate is calling him pretty when he could easily attack them and drink their blood in an instant

And he’s fighting off the urges and instinct to do exactly that because MC looks and smells delicious to him

He just wants to make them his, so he can claim them as his own and stop wanting to eat the one being who doesn’t seem to actually be terrified of him?

But he doesn’t want to scare them either with the idea of mating so he doesn’t try to initiate anything

UNTIL

After a few weeks, when they’re comfortable with each other MC decides to tease him

“Aw, is the big bad fishy gonna bite me?”

Of course he fucking bites them, that was basically a fucking invitation

MC is not fucking amused but they are slightly aroused under the annoyance

“Eat your goddamn bloodworms, not me, you dumbass. Unless there’s another way you want to eat me.”

Goddamn it guys I’m trying not to sexual innuendo the fuck out of this post but I keep walking right into it I’m sorry

There may or may not be a little vore/blood play going on here if people are into that but that’s a story for another post people can ask for if they want to hear it

Eventually Julian and MC are essentially romantically involved and Julian decides to see a magical sea deity and requests that MC be allowed to become a merbeing themself, so they can be with Julian forever.

Imagine this deity to basically be Ursula and Triton from the Little Mermaid combined as far as power levels go

The deity decides that they will transform MC, but only under the condition that Julian gives something up in exchange - his nocturnal vision - which means he would essentially be blind.

Now, Julian loves seeing MC. Their looks were the first thing he fell for, after all. Never seeing their face clearly again would devastate him, but so would being separated from them for over half of every day because of the sunlight.

So he agrees to the conditions, although MC protests that this is a fucking dumb idea and isn’t there a better way to go about this?

MC then decides that, to make sure Julian keeps his precious sight (or at least most of it), they’re going to offer something else.

Their proposition: Julian would lose sight in one eye, and MC would give up their ability to go on land, even if it meant never seeing their beloved teacher, Asra, ever again.

The deity, intrigued by MC’s willingness to sacrifice something they love for Julian, decides that they will not require any conditions, because MC’s courage, dedication to Julian, and love for Julian, who no merperson or mortal has ever even been friends with, let alone loved, is just astonishing to them.

So Julian and MC get to have their happy ending together, and in addition, the deity gifts them both the ability to shift between human and merperson forms as a show of goodwill toward this union between the mortal and the merman.

You best believe there are lots of merbabies in their future too, some wee cuties they’ll be

I’m sorry this is garbage but I tried

#julian devorak #the arcana game #the arcana #the arcana julian #mc #nb mc #fem mc #masc mc #arcana the game #asra alnazar #asra alzanar #the arcana asra #asra #asra the magician #julian x apprentice

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the-potter-analyst · 4 years

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Chapter 16 - The Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Sacred Text word of the day: Grace

Another word with multiple meanings oof. The hosts took a more spiritual approach to the theme, looking at how grace is given to characters mostly as something that’s outside of their power. But I read it as more of an act or state of being? Like grace can be dignity, elegance, or beauty, but it can also be acts of love, compassion, and generosity. I’ll just list the definitions of grace before my head hurts: elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action; a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment; favor or goodwill; mercy or clemency; the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God; the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them; a virtue or excellence of divine origin.

I guess one way to compare this difference in interpretation is in McGonagall. The hosts saw her as maintaining or protecting the grace that is Hogwarts by keeping it open and continuing the term like normal, because the school itself is a gift that allows the children of today with magical abilities to learn how to use magic. This privilege may have not been available to people before Hogwarts opened. And I saw McGonagall as embodying grace and dignity in running the school like always. Like handling the situation with grace.

I was going to talk about the whole “unmerited” thing, but that’s too much theological discussion than I want to get into lol. Instead I’ll talk about Lockhart. With my interpretation of grace, Lockhart throughout this chapter embodies gracelessness when he usually tries his best to be charming and look elegant. If McGonagall handles everything with grace, Lockhart is the exact opposite. He tries to look like he does, but in reality he’s basically a shit show. As soon as things don’t go right for him he just falls apart. The hosts talked about how receiving grace leads to gratitude which then becomes responsibility to honor that gift received and McGonagall embodies this. She has talent, which she uses to be the best teacher she can be. Lockhart on the other hand doesn’t honor his own grace: he’s handsome, has a big personality, has a talent in memory charms, but instead of using those gifts responsibly, he chooses to become famous off the backs of those who do the real work. I can’t believe he tried to give a spiel to Harry about how fame is hard work,,, when really all that effort is going into creating a fallacy for himself.

I think what sucked about being so young when the books and movies were coming out is that I didn’t get to appreciate B2 as being a mystery book. I watched the movie at the ripe age of 7 and later read the book, so I don’t remember what it was like to go through the story for the first time and try to piece together the clues before the final revelation. Thinking about it, the only clues that really could be pieced together is figuring out that the monster is a snake lol. Like that would be galaxy brain to realize Moaning Myrtle was the girl who died when the Chamber was last opened before Aragog mentioned she died in a bathroom, or to guess that Tom Riddle was Voldemort before meeting him in the Chamber.

Ok, big question time. If Myrtle immediately became a ghost and haunted Olive Hornby, why hadn’t anyone asked about how she died right after her death?? Like from her reaction to Harry asking (she was excited someone wanted to know something about her!) it seems like no one else took the time to do the same. And her death gives so many clues like that the entrance to the Chamber is probably in her bathroom. Also acromantulas don’t have large yellow eyes. Nor can they kill by sight only. And I don’t think Hagrid knows another language. Just,,, ugh. It shows how much both the Hogwarts administration and the Ministry didn’t care about the facts, only that it looked like they were doing something about it.

Speaking of the Chamber’s monster, I said that I’d talk more about basilisks in this chapter analysis lol. First of all, it’s interesting how a basilisk is born from a chicken egg (in some older stories, a basilisk has the front of a cockerel and the back of a reptile), yet a rooster’s crow is fatal to it. Like the very thing that helped create it is its undoing. The hosts had also suggested that it has something to do with the rooster’s crow being a sign of a new day and change, like the basilisk is the darkness and the rooster is the light. Which makes sense if the basilisk is compared to the conservative idea of blood purity, which pure-blood Slytherins tend to have and also Salazar Slytherin himself. The rooster would then be the progressive idea that all those with magical abilities are equal wizards. I’m still not sure why a basilisk would be a spider’s mortal enemy though. Maybe something happened in ancient times between the two that made the spider pass down this fear lol.

How rude is it that Percy made Ginny move so he could have her seat?? Like I understand he’s tired but there has to be a ton of other seats open at that huge table. And she finally built up the courage to tell someone about her experiences that year! It was her last desperate attempt to find help. I wonder if Ginny approached Ron bc she felt most comfortable confiding in him or if it just so happened that there was an open seat next to Ron. Maybe because they’re closest in age? Does she often confide in him? I can understand if Ginny and Ron are close since they’re only a year apart, Fred and George have each other to hang out with, Percy is Percy, and Charlie and Bill are so much older that they wouldn’t have been able to spend much time together.

It’s funny how certain things end up coming together in the book. Like if Dobby never tried to stop Harry from getting to Hogwarts by blocking the barrier to Platform 9 3/4, Ron would never have gotten the idea to take the flying car to Hogwarts. Then Ron would never have broken his wand and Lockhart would’ve Obliviated his and Harry’s memories. Though I guess they would’ve never have made it that far bc they would’ve died in the Forbidden Forest since the car was what rescued them. Sometimes things go wrong so something can go right for you :)

A long list of small things:

I can’t believe Hermione out of all people defiled a book by ripping a page off and writing in it. I guess it shows how important this was

Harry frantically trying to remember what he learned that year is such a mood lol

Again, how has Ron survived the entire year with a broken wand??

rip to Collin and Justin who’ve missed the majority of the school year, they have so much to catch up on

Is Harry able to make a greater story than “we wanted to see Hermione and tell her the Mandrakes are almost ready” or is this when he peaks

Kudos to Ron for figuring out that the Chamber entrance is in Myrtle’s bathroom. The movies really did him dirty 👏🏾Ron👏🏾is👏🏾smart👏🏾

The movies also take so much of his agency away ugh

How did McGonagall realize Ginny was taken

The teachers are so savage omg even Sprout and Flitwick joined in the roast Lockhart party

Ron really went this bitch empty. yeet. to Lockhart’s wand

Previous: Chapter 15 - Aragog

Next: Chapter 17 - The Heir of Slytherin

#hp #hp meta #hp analysis #chamber of secrets #cos meta #harry potter #ron weasley #hermione granger #minerva mcgonagall #gilderoy lockhart #moaning myrtle #ginny weasley #basilisk

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jageunyeoujari · 6 years

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i had a good convo w @gam-zeh-yaavor abt fma so i’m gonna repost (edited a bit) so there’s more clarification on my blog proper abt how i view fma’s stance on war & reparations

me: to start off, i want to remind again that fma is written by a japanese person who's also part ainu. the context there is crucial. jpn war criminals & emperor hirohito got off scott-free. jpn's continued refusal to acknowledge what they did to korea & those policy makers NOT addressing reparations is an enormous point of contention & source of intergenerational trauma.

arakawa is coming from that perspective & she also has a personal stake in this considering she's descended from indigenous peoples who the yamato japanese colonized. & fma does hold roy & the others accountable BY making them use their power to enact meaningful, widespread change. giving up their power is maybe a symbolic gesture but it's not a concrete act to make amends

& the thing is that individual jpn ppl HAVE made monetary reparations to kr survivors of wwii/colonization. & that's all fine & good but it hasn't solved the core issue, the real point of contention, the real source of intergenerational trauma which is the utter lack of real accountability from the ppl who enacted those horrors

& roy & the others are feared. my first post abt this has screencaps from the manga that says that the amestrian uniform is the only thing protecting them, that in times of peace, roy & the others are nothing but mass murderers

bradley & the homunculi are all killed. bradley was killed by scar, an ishvalan survivor. kimblee was killed. fma is clear in this that if ppl refuse to be held accountable, they do deserve to be punished which includes death

gzy: ahhhh. so, in this context, accountability is more a matter of honesty, integrity and goodwill than it is a matter of reparative measures? the thing for me I think is that if I were living in this world as a citizen of ishval - or indeed as a survivor of yamato japan colonisation - I think I would feel very fearful and reticent about the notion of the same war criminals retaining their power and authority

it's definitely better to see people acknowledge their failures and mistakes than not, and it's obviously important that the experience of the victims is acknowledged and respected by a society trying to heal

but like, remembering how albert speer gets to be a part of the UN, I get a pretty bad taste in my mouth thinking about how people who used their influence to do evil hurtful things are in a position to do it again if it's ever convenient for them

actually I have to retract that because it totally wasn't speer. but I recall some other nsdap officials receiving power in the following establishment and that feels busted somehow

it's like... the idea that you can just say sorry and then you get to keep running things feels wrong. the intention to enact reparative measures... is always good. we of course have a lot of "insider info" about the motivations of Roy and the others... but nobody else does. how can a world still so scarred trust the people that inflicted those scars ever again?

me: oh i totally get you! i think that fma differs from those ppl tho bc roy & the other soldiers enact a coup. they dedicated their lives to toppling a corrupt, genocidal government which i would say is the only thing that could be done w a government like that. & the manga also addresses this: roy & the others know perfectly well that ppl will not automatically trust them to run things. they will be put on trial. they're willing to face consequences for their past actions but still work to better conditions

miles & scar are also going to actively work in the new government too so it's not like roy & the others are going to be solely deciding what to do

i mean i hate general macarthur, may he burn in hell eternally, but if he worked to topple the us government? that'll be a hell of a lot more meaningful to me than washing his hands of the whole ordeal

even if he did do that, he'd still need to be put on trial & all that but i'd rather someone like him use the power he has than... not

gzy: that's a fair point. I suppose by virtue of opposing the existing establishment, they do make a powerful statement that they have disavowed the things they did and believed before

doing something, yknow. they didn't feel bad about it and sit on their hands and just not do war crimes. they were proactively resisting the institution which enacted a culture that normalised their obedience to evil commands

which is a hell of a lot better than anything actual war criminals seem to ever be doing. I suppose the notion of fma as a kind of wish fulfilment - a sort of "man, we live in a fucked up world, but people can choose to be better and do better" - is a meaningful, hopeful idea

and those are rare and valuable.

in the same way, ed's growth from a boy who just wanted things exactly like they were before into a man who knew that the stone was a comforting lie and the only way forward was to find a way to create better things in the present is the same story

me: exactly! i think that ppl call fma 'liberal' bc yes it is a kind of wish fulfillment but arakawa is a humanist & fma is rly all abt the strength of individual humans coming together & we can actively choose to make the world a better place. humans are not mere ants like father & the homunculi think we are. our mortality & ability to choose to do better & capacity for genuine love & connection is what makes humans powerful.

#uig.y.eon #1 #2 #3 #4 #fullmetal alchemist

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dontmindmedear · 7 years

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Of Mediators and Missionaries

Or something like that.

Okay some of you might have seen >> this << before. The following is roughly based on that.

First of all, imagine Oikawa in her situation/position. Long rasters, feather earrings, simple clothes, an uncommon instrument in their hands.

Now imagine this: The earrings are actual bird feathers and on top of them, Oikawa wears more multi-colored feathers entangled in his hair as well as necklaces with animal bones/fangs/claws around his neck, wrists and ankles. Bc like all the other people in his village, Oikawa is a born hunter. But the animal materials aren’t trophies. They are memorials, reminders of the lives they have taken to ensure their own. They take the parts with them in the believe that a part of the animal’s soul is still inside their remains and by taking them with them and cherishing them, presenting them to the public, a part of the animal will live on forever.

Of course there are far better hunters than Oikawa out there. Ushijima for example. He is so good, that he owns one of their special made wooden boxes where he stores the memorials he can’t wear. He always has it with him tho to ensure the goodwill of the spirits he carries with him. Not taking a part of the animal you killed with you or leaving it at home when you head out, is a bad omen that will bring you bad luck and misfortune.

Oikawa used to be very jealous of Ushijima when they were younger, bc he was so much better than him in hunting and everyone admired him and looked up to him. But however much Oikawa trained secretly, he just never seemed to beat UshiWaka. A part of him rationalised that it was bc he didn’t kill every being he saw. When he saw a lonesome bunny, he ignored it. When he saw a bird building a nest, he watched in the opposite direction. When he saw a deer with a fawn, he stepped on a branch. He knew that this was one of the reasons for the difference between Wakatoshi and himself, but Oikawa believed he could beat him even without killing with the slightest movement.

And then their 16th birthdays came around and as the days got shorter and nights got longer, when the sun lost strength, their village held one last feast before they would have to ration their food and everyone would have to ignore their individual role in their group to join the hunt. With the fields and plants frozen and the animals hiding there wasn’t much they could do anyway. But still, with that one last feast a big decision was made that would decide the rest of their life. Based on what they had shown in the recent years and how their character had developed, the mediator of their group, an old woman with a link to the gods, as well as her 5 apprentices, would conduct a ceremony to reveal everyone’s true vocation.

Giving their blood in bowls mixed with herbs and the bones of their most recent kills, the young members of their society watched as Ushijima’s bowl’s content was given to the flames of their bonfire. The flames darted out suddenly, reaching for the sky, then subsided, leaving a thick cloud behind in the shape of an eagle. An eagle was fast, had sharp eyes, good observational skills, watched careful from a distance first before falling from the sky in a deadly attack. Once you were in the talons of an eagle there was no escape for you. As such Ushijima was chosen to become one of their elite hunters, their only group that went hunting throughout the year without pause. Sometimes they were even gone for several weeks as they scouting their prey’s hunting grounds or travelled to other areas, not wanting to drive all of the potential quarry in their region away. It was the kind of work all of the younger generations dreamed to do as it was the only way to see something outside of their village and away from the familiar wilderness.

Then it was Oikawa’s turn. Praying to the gods that they might give him the same chance as Ushijima, Oikawa cut his hand and let the blood fall into the bowl. Then he stepped back, barely breathing, and waited for the gods to make their decision. Their mediator stepped forward and emptied his bowl into the fire. Just like in Ushijima’s case the flames darted out suddenly and high, reaching with greedy hands for the moon, and as they fell they left a giant cloud of smoke in their wake. In Oikawa’s case it was a tree. A symbol of slow, but constant, unstoppable growth. A connection throughout the centuries, giving life and strength to other beings and clearing their air, promoting more growth and an easier life. Trees were simbols of wisdom and eternity and while that didn’t make Oikawa immortal it made him something else. It made him into a mediator.

Frozen in shock, Oikawa stared at the dissolving clouds that had decided his future. Oikawa wouldn’t become an elite hunter like Ushijima, wouldn’t get the chance to see more of their world. Instead he would be forever bound to their home and their gods. He would learn to mix herbs to allow the transcending of earthly bounders, he would learn to play their instruments to please the gods, he would learn to create tinctures to guide the gods goodwill towards helping a soul in need, he would learn how to help their healers and how to keep their their fields protected by their gods blessing. He would sent the hunters off with blessings and requests of success. But he would never leave on his own.

Oikawa was more than simply disappointed, but knowing how much everyone looked up to their mediators, seeing the astounded pride in his parents eyes, he knew he couldn’t refuse such a fate. And so, keeping his frustration to himself, he smiled and accepted his fate. Even if he truly didn’t.

Years later, it’s the day of their old mediator’s funeral. Irihata had been chosen as her predecessors only minutes before her death and Oikawa was glad that it was him. There could have been made choices far worse. He still hadn’t fully come to love his new life, but he had learnt to deal with it, to deal with the bitterness he tasted whenever he wished Ushijima a good hunt had learnt to ignore the yearning tugging at his whole being whenever he came close to their borders during a winter hunt.

He hadn’t come to love it, but he had come to be fascinated by it. He hadn’t known how much more there was to being a mediator that what he had known of before. Mediatiors were Magicians. Not in the controlling the elements or creating new things with a simple spell way. But in a supernatural, spiritual way. Having learnt how to play their instruments during their ceremonies, Oikawa has come to experience what it meant to feel flooded with spiritual power. He was quick to understand that it wasn’t his own power but the energy the gods left when they were especially close, when they were watching him or the ongoing events through him. The gods had no interest in watching them 24/7. But they had their attention on them, had their minds open for their calls and pleas and when they were invited, they attended, even if not in person but through the link that bound them to the mediators.

Oikawa had always believed in the gods, but actually feeling them exists was something he could have never ever imagined. He was drawn to the feelings of infatuation he felt whenever they were close to the amusement they seemed to pulsate with when the fourteen year olds displayed their annual comedy play to remind their elders what and who they were working for, heard them whisper about their new generations development, leaving impressions of praise and disappointment, like parents who watched their children grow unable or unwilling to influence that growth as they wanted them to grow into their own person.

Oikawa hasn’t come to love his vocation. But he loved their gods.

But things started to change when their old mediator died.

The gods grief was the first thing Oikawa had felt. It was a suffocating feeling he had never felt before. The old mediator, his mentor, had told him that Oikawa had been closer to them than anybody else she had none of. In the phase of Oikawa’s education that was. He was still new to the gods guidance but he would grow and with the growth his connection to the gods would only grow stronger. Oikawa was unable to imagine something like that. The connection he felt to the gods was already strong as is and even if it got stronger he doubted he would ever have such a strong connection to them as his mentor had. Her connection to them was so strong Oikawa sometimes had doubts she was even human anymore. She was wiser and more empathic than anyone else and she could bring the gods blessing to concentrate on a bloody wound inflected by a bear within moments without even having murmured the plea yet, saving people that probably would have died if it was Oikawa to make the plea.

But with her death things changed. The gods grieved and their grief made it hard for Oikawa to breath, less to stop crying. Tears stained his lashes nonstop for days, more often caused by the gods heavy grief than his own. And then it suddenly stopped.

At first it was only one or two gods that disappeared from the weight of grieving gods. Nothing that was worrisome or similar. But then more and more disappeared and then, within only one week, Oikawa found himself disoriented as he was, for the very first time since his initiation as a mediator, left without the soft, muted guidance of the gods in the back of his mind.

Irritated and worried he started praying to the gods, asking them for a moment of attention, just a flickering to signal their wellbeing. But the link didn’t communicate any signs. SO Oikawa hurried to Irihata, asking if he knew what was going on, but he only found the other mediators in a confused panic similar to his own. Nobody knew what was going on or how to solve it, so they made up two teams. One to do research, the other to continue doing what they did, acting like nothing was wrong to keep a panic from happening even when the gods blessing seemed to have left them. Oikawa feared the link might have been cut and joined the research team to find the legends that spoke of how the initial link came to be. After days of searching and helping the others on their search, he finally found it. According to the legend, one of their own, a person with incredible spiritual power that allowed them to feel the gods unrestricted power when they were close, had travelled throughout the lands and visited them at home to pay them their respect. They stayed to learn from them and earned their blessing as well as their friendship. SO Even as they returned home, their friendship stayed, creating a deep bond between them. When the person was close to death the gods offered them an eternal life, but they refused, wishing instead for them to keep guiding his village, his home and they agreed. So they gave him the knowledge of the vocation ceremony and the chance to find a successor to their bond. That was how the mediators were created.

Oikawa figured that, if the legend was true, then that must mean the gods were still residing at their original places and thus could be found.

He went with his idea to Irihata, asking him to send someone out to find those places, whoever it might be. The others rejected his idea. It was just a legend probably made up, who knows if they even would still be there if it was. But Oikawa insisted it was at least a chance they had to trust in, for it was as good of an option as anything else at their point. And Irihata agreed.

Seeing as Oikawa had the highest raw potential among them, and came up with the idea, he gave the task to Oikawa himself. Use what hints you can find in the legend and find the mentioned places. Try to find them. Oikawa was as thrilled as shocked as he realised he was being sent on a mission to go past the areas even their hunters went to. But of course there was a restriction Oikawa had to follow. He had to keep to certain requirements, like tell nobody your goal or where you came from, but also, Oikawa had to choose people to join him. And at least one of them had to be an elite hunter. Oikawa insisted that he knew how to defend himself, but Irihata didn’t budge. Either he took someone with him that knew how to deal with areas unknown to him or Oikawa wouldn’t go at all. So Oikawa gave in.

He chose Mattsun with him, because Mattsun was one of his dearest friends, as well as very excellent in creating weapons. It was his chosen vocation, repairing old and creating new weapons and tools for daily usage and while Oikawa know Mattsun would love to leave the village with him, he was also certain that Mattsun was great in reacting in flexible ways to whatever they would have to face.

Additionally he decides on a healer friend of his and someone who deals with pelts and clothes, since they don’t know what to expect to find during their travels and might have few time to adjust. [As in their village doesn’t use money or similar so they wouldn’t be able to buy things. Since they don’t know about the concept of money though the clothes guy is important for them not to have to rely on unknown people who might no good intentions for them]. He also takes someone from the farming area with them. Oikawa himself knows which herbs and mushrooms to know for what but he’s got no ideas about which vegetables and fruits can be eaten or which grow in the wilderness on their own and he doesn’t want to make enemies by accidentally eating other people’s hard work without the right formalities.

The hunter of their group is decided by Irihata since he knows Oikawa’s stubborn. It’s Wakatoshi. Not to piss Oikawa off of course but bc he’s good and they are the same age so they are more familiar with each other. Also since they have opposing minds often times they might give room for more possibilities to act.

As they’re about to leave without telling anybody the real goal of their journey, they’re being followed by UshiWaka’s bff Tendou. Oikawa didn’t choose to take him with them for a reason, despite his talents, but Tendou is stubborn and hard to get rid off so Oikawa has to deal with it.

Since they live on an Island, they travel to the coast where they get a boat and some fishing rods from the fisher village there in exchange for some pelts and similar. Then they can finally start their journey.

During their travel they observe the people they see from where they are hiding in the woods and copy them to be less obvious, as in they change their clothes and hairstyle, but they still have difficulties. They ask for hints on the places they need to visit but people only tell them to try their luck in the city. So they go there.

As they’re in a city for the first time, they get lost and separated. That’s when Oikawa meets Iwaizumi, a mercenary/headhunter who’s there to hunt for a certain criminal. Oikawa accidentally hinders Iwaizumi as he tries to catch his target and they end up fighting. As Iwaizumi tries to ignore him to follow his target, Oikawa follows him since he doesn’t know anybody else. Eventually Oikawa even somehow manages to help Iwaizumi in catching the guy (mostly thanks to his hunting training) and Iwaizumi pay him late lunch as thanks. Iwa soon realises that Oikawa isn’t from there and starts to worry if he’ll be okay. He gives him a portion of the money he got for handing in his target and they separate ways only to meet again a bit later as Iwaizumi finds Oikawa, as well as some of his companions he found again, sleeping outside of the inn he stayed in cause Oikawa doesn’t know how to use that money. Against his better judgement, Iwaizumi helps them out again and shows them how to get rooms etc. Worried they’ll do something wrong and get him in trouble, since they know his name and face now and people saw them together, Iwaizumi stays with them throughout their stay in the city and teaches them stuff.

One of their group got lucky and became friends with a rich kid and therefore access to a library where they found the first hints for where to go to. When they ask Iwaizumi where they can find place XY, Iwaizumi responds he’ll lead them there since he’s got another target close to there. (He actually got paid by the rich kid to keep an eye on them and protect them as he intended to run away from home for a while now and the group fascinates him.)

The guy Iwaizumi is hunting is a thief who had stolen some weird stuff as well as expensive stuff, not necessarily the same, and people found it hard to find leads to his whereabouts or next place of attack. Showing the group drawings of the stolen objects, Oikawa wonders quietly why some of them look familiar to him but doesn’t say anything. Meanwhile Iwaizumi and Ushijima compare fighting styles. Since Iwa uses a longsword with some light armory, tho he also owns a shortsword that’s hanging on his hip and which he sometimes uses to fight with two swords, as well as a broadsword on his back that he inherited from his father, he has a more well-protected, if restricted, range and attack strength than Waka who uses knives, arrows, spears and traps, but Wakatoshi has trained since he was small and is used to hunting for days, so he’s used to fight under strenuous circumstances, has better stamina and higher flexibility in his movements while Iwa is restricted through the heavy weight his weaponry brings along. Both are trained in close combat without weapons but their styles differ. They usually fight in the evening or morning instead of single practice and they often gather a little crowd as the others in their groups ignore their tasks to watch them instead. (Oikawa is salty bc he too can fight like them but nobody lets him proof it cause “he might get hurt or destroy his shaman stuff”. Oikawa calls bullshit, but even as Iwa gives in, he still isn’t allowed to participate without sufficient handicap. He doesn’t let the others know he enjoys watching the matches just as much as participating himself. Especially when they go close combat without shirts. Oikawa thinks Iwa would look very good in the clothes they wear at home.)

The first holy place they visit is a place hidden between two mountains in a crevice that inhibits a number of rare animals. They find it in an awful condition. Some of the trees are knocked over, some areas are completely burnt. Oikawa does everything he knows to attract the god’s attention but finds nothing. He can feel a spiritual energy lingering in the air but it feels old and dusty as if the place had been left weeks ago. Roughly around the time of his mentor’s death.

When Oikawa’s close to a mental breakdown with the others in a similar situation of confusion and a lack of knowledge on what to do, it’s Iwaizumi who brings him back to the present with his mind set on another goal “searching for the other places in the legend and finding at least one god who can help them and explain”. It’s then that Oikawa decides Iwa has the right to know everything and they explain.

They keep travelling after this. To mountains, rivers, underearth lakes, caves hidden by waterfalls and many more. But they fail time and time again. And their desperation is mixed with the idea of an alternative life, where there are no gods, no vocation, no life bound to a single village. Oikawa is transitioning between depression and lust of travelling and the longer they travel the stronger Iwaizumi’s presence is anchored in his heart. He didn’t know feelings like his were possible towards a being that wasn’t godly if it wasn’t for his heart to skip a beat whenever Iwaizumi touched him or his lungs to forget to function when he told him he felt the same. Oikawa got to the point where he started to think maybe it’s fine, maybe there was a reason why the gods disappeared, why he had always been longing to leave their home. Maybe it was his fate to meet Iwaizumi. Ignoring the frustration and hopelessness he felt whenever they found a vacated god’s house, Oikawa got lost in those new warm and happy feelings he shared with Iwaizumi and the comfort their friends offered, just as torn as Oikawa was. And for a while they all allowed themselves to dream.

Until they succeeded. One early morning, the sun was just about to raise, they found themselves by a lake covered in mist as Oikawa played their traditional instruments, praying to their gods as with the passing of a single heartbeat everything fell silent and Oikawa froze as the almost forgotten overwhelming sensations of a godly presence filled his being. And then they saw. The mist moved, enlightened by fading moonlight and arising sunlight, the mist formed the shape of a person. A human person. And the person’s voice resounded over the lake, echoing in Oikawa’s head. The god told him they had been waiting for him, hiding from the one they called the “god collector”. The god was ashamed to admit they had to hide like a toddler to save themselves as they watched the other gods fail to resist their pride and lose before being sucked into the object the god collector had brought with them.

Confused by everything the god told them, the group didn’t know what to do. How was that all possible? They were gods, they were supernatural beings. It was impossible for mortals to do sth like that. And so the god explained.

They weren’t always gods. They used to be human. Until one day a meteor shower rained upon the earth, small reminders of a forgotten planet. They hid in the weirdest places and their energy urged the nature around them to grow in incredible, unnatural ways. Humans grew curious of what was going on and searched for the places. And they found them. But once they touched the fallen objects, the objects fused with them and they lost their human shape. They gained the ability to watch all of earth at once and the places that received their blessing where given the power to grow with supernatural speed. The gods were given the powers to have an awe-inducing positive influence on nature and its inhabitants, especially the are where they found their specific objects. But in return their soul was bound there. Humans arrived and found the objects they were bound to, but having fused with a human already the objects were nothing but mere shells and the finders took them with them as a reminder. That’s how the gods came to be. They didn’t know that those empty shells, if used right, had the ability to absorb a god’s presence, like a djinn stuck in a lamp. The god couldn’t explain properly how the person did it or how they found the gods, something about having the ability to feel it when the gods conversed with humanity, but the given information made Oikawa dizzy and he felt like fainting, the gods worried, panicked presence too much at once for him after having been alone in his head for such a long time. The god apologised for the troubles their own lack of knowledge brought to them and told them it was okay to do whatever they wished to do, no matter whether that meant helping the caught gods or ignoring them. It was their problem and they had no right to drag Oikawa and the rest into it. They humans promised to be careful, then they left.

They didn’t talk for a long while, until a drawing fell from Iwaizumi’s backpack and Oikawa recognised the drawing, one of the things the thief stole, as one of the objects the god had used to describe the items they and the other gods were caught in. And suddenly it all made sense. The reason why the thief’s targets seemed so random, why all the places they visited while following the thief’s trail, once the legend became too confusing to follow, were leading to godless shadows of their former glory.

Oikawa once more got the feeling his meeting with Iwaizumi was fate. But this time there were no romantic, giddy feelings connected to the thought.

Note:

Choose your own end

Choose your pairings

Choose Oikawa’s travel companions

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garden-ghoul · 7 years

Text

I can’t believe it’s not the Shibboleth of Fëanor

“starting early out of fear that another farcical thing will prevent me from reading the shibboleth”

Chris’ notes on the shibboleth begin by saying that he has left out a huge number of phonology notes, which I sort of resent although I wouldn’t have read them anyway. Look Chris, if someone has made it here they’re probably enough of a linguistics nerd that they could get SOMETHING out of those. Don’t be a wimp.

Wait, did the exiled Noldor all speak Sindarin while they were in Beleriand? Like all of them? Maybe this shibboleth essay will clarify what the difference actually is between Quenya and Sindarin--I was under the impression that the latter was a language specifically invented and spoken by the green elves in Ossiriand, although I don’t know whether I ever had a reason for thinking that. “In any case, it is impossible to believe that any of the Noldor ever became unfamiliar with the sound þ,” Tolkien assures us. He then goes on to imply that this is ONLY because the Vanyar and Teleri still remembered what þ was.

Anyway, let’s look at how it went down. Feanor was one of the chief linguistic loremasters (!) at the time. This guy is such an obnoxious polymath. He really does have a tiny hammer for the metaphors. Tolkien mentions that his mom Miriel has Very Good Enunciation and is also ridiculously good at embroidery. I’m not sure whether that second one will be relevant, but she is very adamant on continuing to use þ rather than s because that’s how it was when she was a kid. And she makes her whole family use þ too, at the very least when pronouncing her name (Þerinde, or needlewoman)

Feanor loved his mother dearly, though except in obstinacy their characters were widely different.

Ugh. I’m 100% sold on Feanor and Miriel now. This is the cutest shit. I also want to register how glad I am that elves have milk names. I’m wondering what culture Tolkien got that from, because he only really seemed to be into Germanic and Celtic cultures and I haven’t heard anything about that there? omg here’s an even better quote about them:

While she lived she did much with gentle counsel to soften and restrain Feanor. Her death was a lasting grief to him, and both directly and by its further consequences a main cause of his later disastrous influence on the history of the Noldor.

Word of the author says if Miriel had been around Feanor wouldn’t have done so much stupid shit. Should have! thought about what his mom would say! instead of killing hundreds of people at Alqualonde huh!!

Miriel cites the birth of Feanor as the cause of the weariness that made her want to be dead. She assures him that it’s because he’s just too great, but that’s still got to hurt. Having your mom publicly acknowledge that she invented death because she was so tired of you she wanted to die. Holy fuck!

The Valar are ultra dismayed by this, because they keep asking her when she’ll come back to her body and she keeps going “leave me alone!!” and Not Actually Wanting To Be Alive is the one and only disease they can’t heal! Also Finwe is depressed now. The Valar panic. While Finwe is just walking all over Aman because he’s too depressed to stay in one place he walks into Indis, a local(ish) Vanya, and realizes she has had a crush on him for centuries. The process of deciding that they want to get married is handwaved in 5 words, and they go ask the Valar if it’s actually okay. The Valar think leaving Finwe to mourn forever is cruel and letting him get married again is illegal. Y’all. who made the laws. Who made them? Was it you, Manwe?

Since this has nothing whatsoever to do with linguistics anyway I’m going to interject my own thing about the Athrabeth. Andreth made the point that if the fea and hroa aren’t united by love, the body is like a chain. Obviously Miriel’s fea and hroa are not united, and she perceives her son as a chain of duty keeping her on Arda! She has the depression, just like every human, but everyone is super confused by this because depression was supposed to be invented for humans a long time from now. That is--the Eldar were not supposed to be able to “get tired of things.” This is addressed by Andreth’s “grown-up children” comment; elf psychology is fundamentally different from human psychology. What this means is that Miriel invented being mentally ill, I guess. “Just try yoga!” everyone told her, but she insisted on staying dead. Truly a hero of our time.

While I was sidetracked, the Valar made a ruling that Miriel can never ever return to her body now, even if she gets un-depressed. This is another one of those bewildering Catholic things, I guess, where it seems more just to condemn someone to death than to allow a divorce. Or like, their godly DNA was just written too Catholic for them to be able to understand the concept. Anyway Feanor blames Indis for taking his mother away Forever, even though he should really be blaming Manwe, and instantiates a Grudge against her and her children.

Into the strife and confusion of loyalties in that time this seemingly trivial matter, the change of þ to s, was caught up to its embitterment, and to lasting detriment to the Quenya tongue. Had peace been maintained there can be no doubt that the advice of Feanor, with which all the other loremasters privately or openly agreed, would have prevailed. But an opinion in which he was certainly right was rejected because of the follies and evil deeds into which he was later led. He made it a personal matter: he and his sons adhered to þ, and they demanded that all those who were sincere in their support should do the same. Therefore those who resented his arrogance, and still more those whose support later turned to hatred, rejected his shibboleth.

This is really funny to me? Like he was such an asshole that everyone started using s just to spite him. Even Indis of the Vanyar (a þ people if there ever was one) started using s!! It’s like she was trying to aggravate him! No, actually, literally all the Noldor were using s at this point, and Indis just wanted Finwe to like her. When in Rome, et c. Feanor not only thought this was a personal slight toward his mother, he also thought it was a PLOT of the Valar, inspired by ‘fear of his powers’ to ‘oust him from leadership of the Noldor.’ Holy fuck, man, I don’t even know what to do with you. Nobody would care if you didn’t make such a big deal out of it. This is some curse of the Uchiha bullshit right here, he’s just making up reaþons to be mad bc of Loþt Love.

So Feanor tells all his kids that they are better than everyone elþe because they use þ. Now I have to wonder about Nerdanel and how that courtship went. Preþumably he told her she had to þtart uþing hiþ shibboleth or elþe they couldn’t get married.

Oh, look! A bit about Galadriel! She is considered the greatest of the Noldor, which is pretty great, and also understandable considering she is the only one who didn’t get herself killed for a stupid reason. She is the tallest person, like, ever and “a match for both the loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar.” Also her hair was so messy that the light of Telperion and Laurelin got caught in it, unfortunate. Feanor was so astonished by the idea of being able to catch the light of the Trees that he kept bothering her for “a tress” (isn’t that like, a lot of hair?). No sorry he must have asked for a treþþ.

From her earliest years she had a marvellous gift of insight into the minds of others, but judged them with mercy and understanding, and she withheld her goodwill from none save only Feanor.

She ended up following Feanor to Beleriand primarily so she could thwart him at every turn, I love her. She is also too proud to ever renounce her exile and return to Valinor... for like seven thousand years. By the end of the Third Age she was wise enough, finally, to go back. We jump back to when she was just a baby to note that even though her father Finarfin used þ since he hung out with the Teleri all the time and she was therefore raised in a þ household, Galadriel hated Feanor so much that she used s anyway.

After this there are some notes on names! Answers a question that always made me roll my eyes, “why does everyone’s names sound the same??” Elda kids were given a father name at birth that sounded like their dad’s name, and later were given a mother name that described their character because all moms are prophets. What the fuck. They might also get an after name that describes some characteristic or accomplishment, as well as potentially a self name if they just want something cooler (stares at Turin).

The 'true names' remained the first two, but in later song and history any of the four might become the name generally used and recognized. The true names were not however forgotten by the scribes and loremasters or the poets, and they might often be introduced without comment. To this difficulty - as it proved to those who in later days tried to use and adapt Elvish traditions of the First Age as a background to the legends of their own heroes of that time and their descendants - was added the alteration of the Quenya names of the Noldor, after their settlement in Beleriand and adoption of the Sindarin tongue.

I know this difficulty well, as a guy who has read some fanfiction. Introduced without comment indeed.

We ALSO get an answer to the Finwe/Olwe/Ingwe/Elwe question! That suffix derives from ewe, meaning person. So they were Hair Person, ??? Person, Top/Chief Person, and Star person. Except no those are just speculations, and probably the Eldar didn’t all have to have “meaningful” names, which I like. aaahahahaha also the reason they came up with Sindarin names for everyone is because they were Sensitive To Aesthetics and felt really weird saying a Quenya name when speaking Sindarin. Elves!!

It turns out we’ve been using Feanor’s Sindarin name this whole time! Partially Sindarinized. Whatever. Now I understand about Feanaro I guess. On to his half-siblings: Findis was just a portmanteau baby, UNFORTUNATE. It also turns out the Finwe just straight up named EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS SONS FINWE. And later added something when it became clear what they were good at; Feanor got kuru- (craft?), Fingolfin got nolo- (wisdom), and Finarfin got ara- (nobility, bc he was nice). The reason Feanor’s name sounds different from his half-siblings is that he Sindarinized his mother name and they their father names. Like of course he only wanted to be known by his mother name. THAT GUY.

No sorry I got this wrong, this is awful; Finwe (father name) Nolofinwe (mother name) --> Fin Golfin --> Fingolfin in Sindarin.

Fingolfin had prefixed the name Finwe to Nolofinwe before the Exiles reached Middle-earth. This was in pursuance of his claim to be the chieftain of all the Noldor after the death of Finwe, and so enraged Feanor that it was no doubt one of the reasons for his treachery in abandoning Fingolfin and stealing away with all the ships.

SCREAMS. THIS IS SO DUMB. FEANOR NEVER STOPS GETTING MAD ABOUT HOW PEOPLE PRONOUNCE WORDS. Finarfin only prefixed his name after his brother’s death meant that he was supposed to be the next king, so I guess there was a long period where you had Fingolfin and Arfin. All Fingolfin’s sons got -kano suffixes, meaning ‘minor commander,’ transliterated into Sindarin as -gon. And HERE we find the information that Fingon “wore his long dark hair in great plaits braided with gold.” And I feel Triumph, because I have discovered a valid origin for another fandom Thing I kind of thought was totally arbitrary. SO much is made by this fandom of one-sentence throwaways, but I guess that’s what you have to do when nine out of ten sentences are about linguistics.

There’s some stuff about Arafinwean names I don’t care about too much, except for Aegnor--this was his mother name, Aikanaro, meaning ‘fell fire.’ Partially because he had Fire In His Eyes (indicating he loved to fight) and also his hair was stiff and stood up on his head like fire. Holy shit I love this he has gone up the to-draw list by like 5 places.

Ooh and it says Turgon reestablished Quenya as Gondolin’s lingua franca, that’s just so Turgon.

Lastly (I hope) let’s take a look at some Curufinwean names. Recorded largely for my own future reference because I’m assuming the two people reading this already know. [Maedhros] Nelyafinwe (’the third Finwe’ since his father and grandfather were also named Finwe) Maitimo (’hottie’) Russandol (’copper-top’ for his red hair; grandpa Mahtan had the nickname ‘fox’). also notes that he wore a copper circlet. [Maglor] Kanafinwe (’strong-voiced Finwe’) Makalaure (’a metaphor about harps’) [Celegorm] Turkafinwe (’no one’s neck’s as incredibly thick as Finwe’) Tyelkormo/Tyelko (’hasty’) Curufin is just Kurufinwe, his dad’s own name bc he’s the favorite child and also pretty good at crafting I guess. Mother name is Atarinke (’little father,’ because his only characteristic is how much he is just like Feanor) [Caranthir] Morifinwe (’dark Finwe’ because he has black hair) Carnistir (’aww he’s blushing’) (don’t you mean Carniþtir?) [Amras] Pityafinwe (’little Finwe’ awww) Ambarussa (indicating that he and his twin also have red hair, which I am enormously smug about predicting, still) [Amrod] Telufinwe (’last Finwe’; when Feanor said NO MORE KIDS) Ambarto

So basically they all used their mother names except Curufin. Veeeery interesting.

The story is that Nerdanel named the twins BOTH the name Ambarussa and when Feanor begged her to at least give them different names (’look! I made minimum effort! you do it too!’) she said “I will change one of their names to Ambarto, by lottery.” Later she prophecies that one of them will not set foot on Middle Earth and he... names the dead twin with her extra name when he gets burned alive with the ships. Also of significance here, I think, is that Curufin is the one he recruited to help him burn the ships, because he only trusts himself. Fucked up.

#this one made me realize why I like e being pronounced as i more than I like actual i #it's because I get to add approximants! sorry I am a bad choir guy I love approximants #silm #this is a long one folks

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