#I am in fact physically in capable of talking about one without talking about the other

[dearladynightmare]

Good day my friends! Today I want to share with you my very well-considered theory about Hordaks “defect”. This idea really makes sense to me which is why I use it canonically for my comics (especially the next one). So, if you are interested in how I spent my nights, not able to sleep because of this head-canon, GO AHEAD! ;)

While watching the show I noticed some inconsistencies according to what Hordak said about his defect and how Horde Prime (HP) dealt with it. But what exactly do we know about his defect? Well, he told Entrapta that he was a clone of Horde Prime, that he had been his “top general” but he a had a defect in his cloning. So Prime declared him worthless and sent him to die to the front lines.

When I rewatched that episode I was confused. Horde Prime had a top general? Horde Prime himself chose a “worthless” clone to be his top general??? A clone who’s not even worth to have a name?? Later we found out that Prime does not distinguish between his clones. None of them was special in any way. Their only reason for existence was to serve HP. The clones also don't have fixed positions or tasks. You can follow this thesis well following Hordak. One time he stands at Prime's side, one time he is a guard in the corridors, one time he is a sentry on Etheria, ... It doesn’t matter to Prime - They doesn’t matter.

My first explanation was that Hordak just made the “top general” story up. A story he was telling himself to feel less worthless. An attempt to ascribe value to himself and in the eyes of Prime. And to give meaning to what he was doing on Etheria. It seemed simple – to simple. So, I thought what was if Hordak told the truth? And now hold on my friends!

Hordak wasn’t like the other clones. He had something which made him special – his defect. And I am not talking about his physical health problems which we were able to see in the show (I`ll come back to this later). I am talking about Hordaks ability of independent thinking and slight resilience against HPs mind control. Sounds weird but pls hear me out!

After Hordak returned to HP, his story could have ended. Prime wiped his mind and Hordak should have been like all the other clones. He should have been unable to remember who he was and his complete past on Etheria. But his story wasn’t over. From that time Hordak showed us that Primes mind control does not really work on him. And I have proof!

1. Prime is barely able to see Hordaks thoughts

Primes wasn’t able to see his thoughts right after their reunion. He seemed to wonder and came closer to touch Hordaks face. Then it worked. Later Hordak started to question everything, he was thinking about Entrapta, the first ones writing, She-Ra, the rebellion and was able to keep all those thoughts from the all knowing- all seeing Horde Prime, even if he was standing right next to him. Even if Hordak shouldn’t been able to remember any of those things in the first place.

2. Hordak remembers things without even trying

Before Hordak noticed that he had forgotten something he already remembered things without trying. For example when he met Catra on the corridor and called her by her actual name and not little sister like all the others.

3. Only Hordak was able to fight the mindcontrol

In the show we see various characters being controlled by Prime. But no one was able to resist as much as Hordak did (and he sometimes didn’t even try). Catra was the first to fall victim to the control. she could only defend herself when the chip in her neck got damaged, and even after that she was barely able to. Later, many other protagonists became victims, without the capability to defend themselves. In the end, even Micah was under the control and would have killed his own daughter if Glimmer wasn’t stronger than him. The mind control was stronger than his fatherly love and the fact that he was a mighty sorcerer!

Fact is, even if the controlled characters stood in front of the person they loved the most, they weren’t able to fight the control BUT Hordak (who only exists to obey Primes orders) found the lil first ones writing and went all like “ENTRAPTA! MY TINY WIFE!” ... Well kind ofxD

He also refused Primes orders when he met Entrapta back on Etheria again. He recognized her and wouldn't hurt her. He let her run off! And don't forget when Prime wanted him to get disposed of her. Prime ordered him personally to get rid of her, and he refused! BETTER he turned against him.

And tbh I don’t think theres a difference between a clone under mind control or an controlled Etherian. After all, the clones also had their own personalities, as we were able to see from Wrong Hordak.

And if all that is true, it is possible that Hordak really was a top general of Prime. Maybe HP recognized that Hordak is “smarter” than the others. Maybe he has used Hordaks feature at the beginning and gave him the post as top general. Maybe in form of a consultant? But we know Prime and we know that he wanted to control everything. And maybe he started to question whether he really wanted to grant Hordak this worth. He created a very own “security gap” and so he got rid of Hordak. Of course he didn't tell Hordak about the real reason why he wanted to get rid of him. He just told him that he was a defect! Hordak wasn't aware of what his actual defect was (that he was special) until he started to experience his body betraying him.

Which leads us to his obvious health problems! But what are they if they are not the original defect? Hordaks body turned out to be very weak. He made himself an amour to hold himself together (btw I think that’s very impressive since he’s „just“ a clone, it shows how smart he was!) because his body was betraying him. Well I noticed sth Wrong Hordak said and showed us. THE NUTRIENT-RICH AMNIOTIC FLUID. Remember? When he cooked together with Glimmer he said “True nourishment comes from the favor of Horde Prime, also from nutrient-rich amniotic fluid.“ After that, he showed off an ampoule of this green liquid stuff that we've seen often in the show. Soooo since I´m sure that HP has better things to do than share his rare food with his clones I think they also ate things like ration bars BUT this green liquid seems to be most important to Horde Primes species… He himself is treated with it and even a “simple and worthless clone” like Wrong Hordak is equipped with it. It´s a property he carries with him, so it must be important. Maybe important for their state of health??

If that’s true… and I think it is… Hordak has had a massive lack of an indispensable substance his species requires! And that over years since he has been parted from Prime! No wonder he was doing that horrible! This would explain why his state of health got worse over time and why he no longer had green eyes. His own technologies helped him for a long time but soon failed. If Entrapta had not been there, to make him a new suit he probably would have died or sth.

But even Entrapta's technologies could not entirely help him. At least not enough. Not until he returned to Prime, because Prime had no trouble healing Hordak. It was Prime's technologies that Hordak needed, so why did he throw Hordak out when his defect was only a thing that HP could easily cure? So the physical defect was just a concomitant symptom of years of neglect.

In the end there’s one question left: Why did Prime accept Hordak into his ranks again if my theory is right? Why would he take Hordak back if he was able to resist the mind control. Easy. Horde Prime is an arrogant and selfish dumbass. He was sure that after all that happened he must be the one Hordak loved the most. He decided to watch and test Hordak and his faith (when he asked him to kill Entrapta). He wanted to see him suffer. And he knew if Hordak wasn’t faithful he could easily get rid of him. But he decided to play that sick game… and he lost because Hordak chose to break the chain of abuse.

So that’s it. My theory about Hordak! Thank you so much for reading! I really hope you enjoy!💜

#hordak #entrapta #she ra entrapta #she ra netflix #she ra 2018 #horde #horde prime #theory #headcanon #hordaksdefect

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Thoughts on Last Twilight Ep. 5

Okay so a tell tale sign of a really good show for me is when I am rendered incapable of talking about it, which is why you’ve never seen a single analysis of I Told Sunset About You or I Promised You the Moon out of me, because if I think about that show too hard the bees return to my brain. And I’m having that problem with Last Twilight too where my chest feels absolutely bursting with feelings but I do not know that I am capable of writing anything about this show that is structured or coherent without prompting. So, here’s some incoherent ramblings I guess. 

First off, Aof is fucking brilliant and I am really desperately in love with the way that Mhok and Day just so beautifully complement each other/round each other out. I love that they have two completely disparate backgrounds and yet they can relate to one another so well. 

Mhok was literally imprisoned, and with the ankle monitor and very likely under some form of house arrest or curfew. Mhok walked through the world after his release from prison completely branded as a criminal, and unable to maintain his career because people always took him at face value. Day lost his career because of his blindness, and then willfully imprisoned himself in his own room because of how heavily he was grieving. 

Mhok knows what it is like to be looked at and judged, and I really loved earlier on in the show how confused he was at why Day would be bothered by that, presumably because he got used to being stared at himself. And I love that Mhok learned his lesson about that by trying to understand Day in a way no one has really taken the time to do for Mhok himself. I love that Mhok is able to take his own experiences of being stared at as a comparison for what it is like to not know if you are being looked at and judged. 

Rung lost her life, and that has fundamentally impacted Mhok and Mhok’s relationship to his sister. Similarly, Day lost (or at least thought he lost) the life he had which has fundamentally impacted himself and his relationship to Night. I don’t know that I have enough information yet to definitively declare how Rung’s death has impacted Mhok’s behavior and approach to life, but I do like to think that Mhok’s experience around Rung’s death, the fact he wasn’t there for her, the fact that he had to go through his first year of life without her imprisoned, may have been a contributing factor to how and why Mhok is so determined to get Day to live his life again. 

I don’t know, I was just thinking about Mhok’s suggestion that Day does his normal thing and goes to Gee’s game immediately following a conversation about Rung’s death and how he thought he would be able to make her False Rice again some day, just felt so clarifying to me as to how and why Mhok approaches Day the way he does. Because Day and Mhok both understand the meaning of “I thought I had more time” so well, for such fundamentally different reasons. 

gif by @casualavocados

I love that Mhok is starting to open up more to Day. Which, when you think about it, Mhok has been pretty private about his life despite knowing so much about Day’s life right out of the gate. I personally read this as a strong indicator for Mhok’s feelings for Day and how he is making a concerted effort to move from caretaker to lover. And there are so many fun layers to that relationship because their current relationship is not balanced. There is a bidirectional imbalance in the caretaker and client relationship. Mhok has power over Day’s daily life and if he wanted to he could have radically more control over Day’s autonomy. As Day’s caregiver, Mhok inherently has access to much more personal information about Day than Day would have for Mhok. Yet Day is still his employer, still his boss, working for Day is still what pays Mhok’s bills. So in order to sort of bridge that divide, Mhok needs to start working to shift their balance. Mhok already balances the physical caretaking elements of his relationship to Day rather well, and has let Day determine what he can do on his own and what he needs help with, so he isn’t stripping Day of his autonomy. 

If Mhok really wants a chance with Day, then the needs to reciprocate the personal information, and I love how smoothly everyone handled the scene. I think Sea did a phenomenal job with how he had Day react to Mhok’s story, as if some things started clicking in to place for him. Day and Mhok have never talked about Mhok’s background, at most Day has brushed aside the information about Mhok having assault charges. I don’t know yet that Day understands just how much Mhok is capable of relating to Day’s feelings and experiences, because he’s been so busy in the past few episodes focusing on how much Mhok is incapable of relating to Day’s feelings and experiences. 

I am not the first, nor will I be the last person to say that I loved the allusions to Day and Mhok’s relationships to their siblings. Once again there is some commonality between them there, in that their relationships are complex. We currently have a very limited view of Rung. As far as we know she was ambitious and hopeful, and then she hit a really bad low after her nail salon failed and ultimately completed suicide. We haven’t seen any indication from flashbacks or the like of Rung’s flaws, we haven’t actually seen her fail Mhok, or be heartless to Mhok. Yet Mhok agrees with Day’s initial comment that the hydrangeas means heartless. Because Mhok is still mad at Rung for leaving him, he is still stuck in his grief. We haven’t seen him put in any time or effort to process his own pain, instead Mhok is doing what grieving people do, and helping someone else instead. 

I am sure Rung was not a perfect person, I am hoping we get more flashbacks of her and get to see more of her flaws, more of the relationship she and Mhok actually had. I am hoping we get a change for Day to help Mhok navigate his own pain, just like Mhok has been helping Day. But it was certainly interesting to see the parallels between Day saying that Mhok has fallen for Night’s act, thinking him nice while Mhok has associated his sister with heartlessness. 

gif by @casualavocados

And I don’t know that I have the energy to get in to it right now in any further detail (hey look at me, trying to keep things short), but I do just want to acknowledge the fact that Mhok has really committed to giving Day as much of a sensory experience as he can. When Mhok took Day out on the practice date, he wore perfume so Day could smell him (and as an aside I love that Mhok puts effort in to making himself look good even though Day can’t see him). When Mhok took Day out on the walk to cheer him up, he brought him to a bridge on a public road, where there are sounds, and there is a fence that Day can feel; he brought him to a flower shop where Day can smell and feel the flowers and where there are bright colors that might register within Day’s limited vision. 

Mhok was constantly touching Day in so many different ways. Casual/platonic touch when he’s performing his duties as caregiver; quickly and playfully when he’s trying to get Day to chase him; heavily and intentionally when he’s both comforting Day and when he’s turning up the charm. One of my favorites is honestly the moment that Day lets his fingers curl around Mhok’s hand when Day switches to using August as a guide. 

Anyway, I love this show so much, it is quickly climbing the ranks to become one of my favorites of 2023.

#last twilight #last twilight meta #last twilight analysis #last twilight the series #mhok x day #jimmysea

[gabessquishytum]

For all the trans headcanons and au's I've seen, I don't think I've ever seen anyone talking about trans!Hob getting bottom surgery, so here I am to fix this

Hob was rather lucky in that it wasn't too difficult for him to pass, he was rather tall for when he was born (in the modern age he'd be considered average leaning short though). He was strong and made sure that no one ever questioned his gender, if they did, Hob would make sure that they'd regret it.

Hob was one of the first trans men to start T, obviously since he was immortal he was just like "what's the worst that can happen" maybe there was some trial and error involved in getting to a decent level of T, but eventually he manages to get his body to a point where he's happier with it than he had ever been.

Now he has wanted bottom surgery for a while, but he also did not want to go through with having to stay at a hospital. Just the odds of his immortality being discovered was just too high for him to take the risk. He had already been drowned once, and he's certain that the result of his secret being found out would only be worse in the modern age.

But then Morpheus escapes. He comes back and admits he's Hob's friend. He introduces himself to Hob as Morpheus and agrees to meet with Hob on a more regular basis. The more they meet up, the more Hob is falling for Morpheus. Eventually Hob decides to come out to Morpheus as trans, to which Morpheus blinks at him and is like "I know?"

Hob: You knew? Since when? How?

Morpheus: I thought it was well established that I know most things about most people

Hob: Okay... fair. So you see me as a man?

Morpheus: You have always been a man in your dreams

Hob, almost crying now because most of his life he's had to hide this fact about himself for his own safety and even when he doesn't have to hide, it always felt like that most people would question his identity: So you've always known? And you've never once questioned that I'm a man?

Morpheus: What was there to question? Dreams are just as real as the waking world, often they are more truthful than the waking world. You are a man in your dreams, why should I, who am all dreams. question that

Hob stares at Morpheus in a stunned silence for a few moments before he gives into the temptation to give him the biggest hug he's capable of.

Morpheus was not expecting that reaction, but it wasn't unwelcome, so he returns the hug as best he can, it's a bit awkward because Morpheus isn't used to physical contact, but he's doing his best to comfort his friend.

Morpheus: Did... did I say something wrong?

Hob with tears in his eyes: I love you

Maybe Morpheus freaks out after that, but somehow they get their shit together and start dating.

At some point Hob mentions that he really wants bottom surgery, but that he really doesn't want his immortality to be discovered and hospitals always make him really nervous. So Morpheus, probably after a dream in which Hob experiences all the joys of having a dick and gets to top without using a strap, promises that if Hob wants to go through with bottom surgery, that he'll be there every step of the way and make sure that his immortality is not discovered.

So immediately upon waking, Hob schedules an appointment with a doctor.

As promised, Morpheus is there with him through every tedious doctors appointment and through his boring and painful stay at the hospital after his operation is over. Luckily for Hob, since he's immortal, he heals much quicker than would be average, but he still needs help with lots of things in the weeks after his surgery. So Morpheus is there to make sure he eats and to help him with everything (Dream's siblings are watching in shock as Morpheus is happily waiting on Hob hand and foot and helping him in every way he can in his own quiet way, they've never seen him like this)(Desire has bets on how long this relationship will last, Death has cast her bet that this relationship will last much longer than any of his previous ones.)

Eventually they get to have sex in the waking world again. Morpheus gets to help Hob figure out what he likes again now that he has a dick. Hob is immensely pleased with the fact that he can now top without having to use a strap. Morpheus just loves watching Hob rediscover what he likes now that his body more accurately reflects himself.

Anyway, I just want to see more trans people who want bottom surgery in fics, I almost never see that and it's really a shame

is ���taken?

This is such a lovely little ficlet, thank you 🪐!! I always love it when Hob comes out the Dream in fics, and Dream always responds with such kindness. I firmly believe that Dream would always see Hob as a man from the very beginning, and would just innately be able to view him as he dreams/imagines/fantasises himself to be. In a way its more natural for Dream to look at Hob like that, than it is to see his physical "real" form.

I also love Hob’s phobia of hospitals here. It's natural for him to fear them as an immortal, but I think there's also subtext here about being queer (trans in particular) and dealing with medical situations. There's a really sweet allegory within Hob being initially too fearful to go and have the procedure but then being able to do it with Dream’s support. It's not just that Dream can keep the secret of his immortality safe, he will also protect and advocate for Hob while he's vulnerable. I'm very soft about that.

And of course Hob getting to have a dick is wonderful and delicious and it's so perfect that Dream is the one who gets to teach him how to use it. It's Hob’s favourite step in their journey together so far, and although he plans to be with Dream for thousands of years, he's sure that he'll always remember the moment in which he got to sheath himself in his lover for the first time. He can't wait to practise every day until he knows exactly what they both like best, and exactly how to make Dream come apart on his cock.

It's just the best thing in the world to wake up from a dream and know that his dick is still there - and he'll never stop thanking Dream, for making it all real.

#🪐 anon #the sandman #dreamling #nsft #trans hob

[crazyintheeast]

Why I believe that the Halo is powered by love

From the start we have seen that the Halo responds to strong emotions. Beatrice said it herself”The Halo is responding to your emotions” but the Halo’s greatest feats have always been connected to one thing. Love. We first saw it when Ava saved Beatrice. Ava didn’t just do her usual blast, she blew up the whole all while specifically targeting the shotgun pellets and letting them fall to the ground. I don’t know much about physics but I am pretty sure that any kinetic forces that can deflect bullets would turn every squishy humans into a Picasso painting so Ava unconsciously launched two pulses. One general around room and one hyper powerful micro burst aimed solely at the shotgun pellets.

And we saw how much this drained the Halo. Ava was actually paralyzed for a few minutes. Next we have a the iconic wall scene. They talked about Ava breaking through her pain but lets face it what made Ava capable was Beatrice love and assurance that she would always be there for her

This became even more noticeable in season 2. When a Wraith Demon went after Beatrice Ava used the Halo to outright destroy it. (all without so much as messing Beatrice’s hair). We have never seen a wraith demon destroyed in such a way. Then came of course the church fight where Ava launched one of the most powerful Halo pulses ever which once again didn’t touch Ava(unlike Michael who was launched in the air like a beautiful folding chair) and yet despite this the Halo still gave Ava enough power to fly Beatrice out of there

But the biggest proof came at the finale. Why you ask? Simple. Tarasks. Obviously Adriel knew about Tarask’s and had prepared for them. As we saw in the Church when Michael threw that trident thingy Adriel’s technology worked on Tarask’s and we can safely assume the same field that interfered with the Halo also interfered with the Tarask’s ability to teleport into our world. Why else would the Tarask’s do nothing while Adriel attacks their leader Reya? And despite the fact that Ava was heavily using the Halo and we know how this attracts them they still couldn’t brake through. Until Beatrice came to Ava’s side and then Halo actually managed to break through Adriel’s defensive measures(which again are power by who knows how many millions of prayers) and it brought not one but more then half a dozens Tarasks. Why because Ava’s love for Beatrice empowered the Halo to break through, they needed to protect Beatrice so they did what should have been impossible I firmly believe that the Halo is sentient and that like all sentient thing it craves love and the more love the Halo bearer the more power the Halo gives them and the harder it fights to keep them alive

#warrior nun #avatrice

[ro-botany]

On the Characteristics of the Risen, and the Character of their King

The Risen King... Finally, a concept which once only existed in whispers and a single cipher 0 card, has made it into a Fire Emblem video game! Just the mobile game, sure, but it counts. And the Fell Exalt Chrom unit is so fascinating to me that I have not only this, but at least two other meta posts in the pipeline about it. I am so normal about him.

To kick things off... let’s talk about exactly what Risen King Chrom is, and also how he’s doing mentally. (Badly. He’s doing very badly.)

---

Real quick, we have to get one snag out of the way: the mechanism by which a Risen is made.

Shadows of Valentia introduced us to a prototypical version of the Risen created by Forneus, known as Death Masks. They’re made by fitting a dead body with a mask containing insects known as thanatophages. The thanatophages prevent the body’s decay and assert physical control over them in a manner not unlike certain real world parasites that control the muscular movements of their hosts.

I’ve seen a handful of my colleagues (lol) assume there are modern Risen made the same way. BUT. The Risen which exist during the events of Awakening are explicitly NOT Death Masks. During the xenologue Death’s Embrace, Brady states that “In the future, our wounded often turned to Risen just as we were tryin' to heal 'em.” This has to mean that Grima is transforming the dead and dying remotely, using some kind of magic; and at the height of their power, they may be either passively creating or deliberately casting an area of effect that turns dead bodies automatically. There’s nothing to suggest any Risen are manually created with thanatophages, or that Grima is manifesting thanatophages for that purpose.

Alas, we cannot do insect body horror with RK Chrom while also staying true to canon. But moving on...

---

Fell Chrom is, to make an understatement, very unique among the Risen. And to discuss why he’s unique, we first have to define what’s typical.

Behaviourally, typical Risen don’t appear to have sentience outside of their competency in wielding weapons and their tendency to form loose hierarchies based on individual strength. They’re incredibly aggressive by nature; it’s like their only innate drive is to fight and kill humans. Most of them are not capable of speech, though the stronger Risen Chiefs can grind out single words or even short phrases, which are usually just related to wanting to kill things. When being actively controlled through dark magic, they appear capable of basic tactics, though whether that comes from them or the person controlling them is unclear.

There’s no doubt that Fell Chrom is a Risen. He’s certainly got the appearance, the purple miasma, and the vocal distortion for it. Not to mention the giant glowing fatal wound in his side. Man certainly isn't alive.

He’s evidently still subject to control via dark magic too, if the fact that he was forced to war against his own country is anything to go by.

Fell Chrom also has the strong aggressive drive typical of Risen. Nearly all of his dialogue in battle situations suggests this. In order of increasing intensity: There’s the turn action quote “Find me an enemy”, which depending on your mood can read as either resignation or as chomping at the bit. There’s hostile level up quotes like “You shall count yourself...among the dead” and “You would...block my path”. His special trigger quotes are yet worse. He yells “This is your fate”, “No resistance”, and “Useless effort” with a fury you don’t expect from Chrom—and for the fourth one, he just shouts “DEATH”. And his voice clips for attacking aren’t words or even anywhere in the realm of a regular human noise, they're just distorted, monstrous growling.

But unlike with typical Risen, aggression is not all RK Chrom is. He can walk around the Askran castle and be around others without constantly trying to attack people. And in fact, he’s aware of and bothered by how violent being Risen makes him. One of his status page quotes is begging someone to “back away!” in a panic, as though he’s afraid of hurting them. It’s possible the violent instincts Risen have mainly only come into play for him in battle situations, or possibly when he’s in a state of heightened emotion.

And while RK Chrom displays the kind of difficulty with speech you would expect of a Risen, with his slow halting pace and gravelly tone, he speaks in complete, coherent sentences and displays remarkable clarity about who he is and what’s happening around him. He’s no husk. Chrom's mind is intact.

That is massive. That is completely unique among Risen, and deeply, deeply horrifying. Because even though he can think, he is by no means in control.

---

If the Forging Bonds supports are anything to go by, Chrom did try to resist Grima, at least in the beginning. From C through to A he moves from disbelief to outright despair at the very prospect of warring against Ylisse. But by the S support—which necessarily takes place years after the others due to how far Grima’s campaign has progressed—he’s given up. So much of his dialogue is mourning the past, or repeating Grima's belief that everyone is doomed and nothing can change. He’s not fighting it anymore. He's resigned to his fate as Grima’s executioner.

And why wouldn’t he be? After the initial confusion from being resurrected passed, he was lucid. He was fully mentally present when he was murdering his allies and slaughtering his own people. And between the deep, fundamental drive to kill and the direct influence of Grima on his actions... There wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop himself. He couldn’t protect a thing.

Even now that he’s free of Grima’s influence in Askr, he doesn’t exactly do anything to avoid being an instrument of violence. Otherwise he wouldn’t be a playable unit. Everyone he’s ever cared about is dead, and he’s been nothing more than a monster and an instrument of violence for years. Why not fight. It’s the only thing he has left.

This Chrom is a deeply broken man. Angry and utterly hopeless. It’s no wonder after all he’s been through.

And yet... there’s still a spark there. For all his rigid insistence that Grima’s bleak outlook is the truth, his ally growth quote speaks volumes: “If this power were mine...back then...”

If fate is so immutable and hope is so pointless, why deal in what-ifs? Why wonder about what could have changed? And he’s still trying to protect people he cares about from himself; why else would he yell for others to “back away” when he feels he might attack them?

Through all the years of horror and the terrible curse of undeath... he’s still Chrom.

#fire emblem #chrom #risen king chrom #meta #not ME dropping depressing character analysis of the most traumatized version of chrom on his birthday. oops. #i've converted the big grima skull in plegia into a lecture hall and we're in there giving RKC blankets and talking about feelings #actually putting read mores on long posts? on this blog? its more likely than you think

[chicagosfinest2021]

Analysis about Wakanda Forever and the ShurixNamor ship (kinda long but worth it)

So we all know that a lot of the anti ShurixNamor folks are screaming “Y’ALL ARE DISGUSTING!! HE KILLED HER MOTHER! Y’ALL SHOULD BE ASHAMED!!”

And I can just really tell that most of the folks in that camp really didn’t pay attention to the details of the movie and the series of events that happened before the unfortunate demise of Queen Ramonda.

First off I personally didn’t even ship Shuri and Namor together after seeing the movie because nothing pisses me off like writers who insist that every time two people of the opposite sex share a vibe, have chemistry, etc, that that automatically means that those two people need to have an intimate/sexual/romantic relationship. I believe that it is 100% possible for two people to have chemistry and still keep their relationship platonic and that was what I originally felt about Namor and Shuri after the end of the movie.

At this point, I defend their ship as much as I defend the writer’s decision to NOT force them into a physically intimate relationship.

I don’t know how the other shippers feel but I for one am not trying to say that at the end of the Wakanda Forever, that I wanted to see Shuri and Namor fall madly in love and trip off into the sunset together, have little brown mer-babies, etc. In fact I would definitely disown the entire Black Panther franchise if they did that. No one is saying that Shuri should just completely ignore the legacy of her mother in favor of being “booed up” to the person who was involved with her demise. However here’s a couple of things I feel like a lot of folks missed in the movie (which is why you have to watch it more than just once):

-First of all, let’s pretend like events played out differently. Let’s say that Namor still introduces Shuri to his nation, explains his origin story to her, the vibes are still vibing, etc. I think 90% of us can agree that after having a dress made for her ( ie, showing respect to her royal status) and presenting her with his deceased mother’s jewelry that that was lowkey a proposal. Namor did not *want* smoke with Wakanda, he wanted an alliance, and he made that clear with how he treated Shuri before everything popped off. He didn't WANT chaos, but at the same time he TOLD THEM what he was capable of and what he was willing to do to protect his people.  I want the folks who are against them as a couple because of the death of Ramonda to consider the possibility that if Shuri had agreed to an alliance/political marriage/whatever at that point, he probably never would have showed up to Wakanda with his super soakers and extreme water balloons a-blazin’, and multiple lives could’ve been spared.

-Secondly (and stay with me on this one!), do not forget the fact that a lot of sh*t kicked off in the first place because Namor originally wanted Riri Williams because it was her thing-a-ma-bob that allowed the Americans to be able to detect the vibranium at the bottom of the ocean in the first place. During the fight scene in Boston after Okoye and Shuri picked up Riri, the Talokan army showed up to take *Riri* back. It was Shuri who demanded to be taken to Namor to talk him down/negotiate. Now remember that later on Shuri had told Namor to spare Riri and to keep *her* instead. Now at THAT juncture, the implication was that the two of them were going to try to compromise and meet somewhere in the middle so that Namor could ensure the continued safety and secrecy of his people without having to kill Riri or spill blood in general.

Now let’s cut back to what was going on in Wakanda. Ramonda gave Okoye ONE job before she took Shuri to Boston: bring my kid back with you. Unfortunately the General did not bring the princess back with her, so not only did Queen Ramonda basically have to fire her, but she had to go all the way to Ha-EE-Ti, to hit up Nakia like, “Girl, I just had to let the General go. I need you to do me a solid and find my kid or Imma knock all this sh*t over.”

*We’re almost at the end, hang on. . .*

So Nakia accepts this assignment, does what she does best, and figures out where Shuri is. The problem is that she doesn’t know what is actually going on between Shuri and Namor; the assumption is that Shuri is in danger, so her mind set is "Find Shuri and take no prisoners". Now while all this is happening and Namor is (probably) thinking that he and Shuri can work something out, Ramonda draws him back to the surface as a semi-distraction. Now while THAT is going on, Nakia shows up and in her efforts to save Shuri and Riri, she actually kills 2 Talokanil women in the process, snatches up the two geniuses, and disappears.

Now imagine you’re Namor in this situation: you just showed this princess the upmost respect, had a dress made for her, gave her the grand tour, told her about where you came from, what you’ve been through, you realized that you both have a lot in common, and you’ve basically offered to take over the world with her (more or less). And just when you think you have earned each other’s trust and respect, THIS happens. Two of your people are dead, both the princess and your original target are gone, and a line has been hella crossed for sure.

Are y’all really gonna tell me that he was just supposed to run back to his room, turn on some music, cry and write in his journal about it?? He already told the queen and the princess that he was about the smoke, did folks really think he was bluffing? And don’t forget, it was T’Challa who had basically revealed to the world about vibranium in the first place, and thereby opening Wakanda and the ocean floor to anyone seeking to pillage this priceless resource. (So yes, Wakanda is partially responsible for the predicament Namor found himself in in the first place.) So when he flooded/attacked Wakanda, we may not have liked it but he did not do anything that Wakanda would not have done if *they* had been in his situation.

And finally (and this is the one that’s really going to piss people off).

Yes, Ramonda drowned because of Namor's exploding water balloons, but. . .she probably would not have perished had she not sacrificed herself trying to save Riri (again, the person who Namor originally wanted in the first place).

Now again, to the people who say Namor x Shuri is an abomination because he caused her mother’s death. . .would you have felt any better if Ramonda had offered Riri to him in the first place? If she had said “You know what? I hate to do it, but I’m willing to sacrifice this girl in order to keep the crazy fishman off our back and to protect my daughter and my country”, would y’all have backed her play? Or condemned her? Because the same way Ramonda was somebody's mother, Riri is somebody's child.

Or if she had just let Riri drown in order to save herself, you’re telling me that would’ve sat well with you all? What if she *had* let Riri drown and was the only one who knew the truth (because no one else was there), how long do you think it would’ve taken before she told her daughter the truth? How do you think Shuri would have reacted?

My point is there are a couple of ways that scenario could’ve gone. Personally, I wish the writers hadn’t gone down that route at all, but at the end of the day, Ramonda died a noble death trying to save Riri, whom herself was unintentionally responsible for a lot of the sh*t that popped off. And even Riri admitted it after the fact, but I don’t see anyone coming for *her* though.

The bottomline is I think a lot of us can/do agree that Queen Ramonda should not have been written out the way she was at all, but folks are a long way away from trying to make Namor out to just be this ruthless, two-faced, cold-blooded killer. If you handed a “Congrats on doing the wrong things for the right reasons” award to Killmonger in the first BP movie, I don’t see how you wouldn't do the same for Namor. This isn’t even a “Because he looks sexy in his hoochie-daddy shorts and that makes him immune to criticism” argument, this is a “There is a 90% chance that his argument would hold up in a court of law and he would have to do community service and probation at best” situation. No one is saying we forgot how Queen Ramonda lost her life, we’re saying look at the broader picture.

And since I’m on a roll, I’m not saying Shuri and Namor *have* to get together in the future films, but based off his speech and actions (and scenes that were cut from the movie) Namor already felt something for Shuri, I wouldn’t even call it physical or romantic attraction even, but he saw something familiar in her, and from my experience that’s not something men will shake right away. Not to mention typically in both reality and mythology, when a powerful man is defeated/out-smarted by a woman. . .it doesn’t take long for the infatuation to set in LOL

Plus Shuri is literally the princess (or queen depending on your perspective)/Black Panther/head scientist of the most powerful nation in the world and now she’s seen HIS world. She may not be a demi-god but in Namor’s mind, she’s probably the closest thing he has to an equal. He caused chaos because he had been betrayed and did what he felt he had to do. He was called “the boy without love” but the love he had for his mother and for his people moved him to do whatever it took to keep them from having to surrender themselves and their vibranium to the colonizers. I’m not saying that his goals don’t need some fine tuning but he is the antagonist in the movie, not the villain.  Even *Shuri* finally figured it out in the end; she could've killed Namor but even while still grieving for her mother, she understood the bigger picture; killing him would've risked eternal war and cost more innocent lives. And I guarantee you by the time Namor went back to his lil cave to paint his fanart of his fight with Shuri, he realized the bigger picture too.

#black panther 2 #wakanda forever #shuri x namor #princess shuri #nashuri #seaprincess #shuramor #namuri #namor x shuri #tenoch huerta mejia #letitia wright #shuri udaku #queen shuri

[evolutionsvoid]

Yes, yes we all know what this species does! Its method of warding off predators is quite infamous, but there is more to this creature than that! The whole entry can't be about it, so lets try to keep it together!

The Bonnacon is a species of bovine that inhabits plains, grasslands and some savannas. They are about the same size as your domesticated cow, though a few physical features cause them to stand out (and I am not talking about that one). First off is their reddish brown fur, which is made even more striking with the fiery coloration of their skin and dewlap. These bright oranges are hard to miss, as this is not a species that cares about blending in! Another feature is the mane of brown hair that runs down their neck, almost similar to that of a horse's. And while we are looking at its head, the next thing to note is their horns. Compared to other bovines, these horns can seem a bit small. On top of that, they are curled so that no sharp points are exposed, and are positioned upon the head in such a way that they wouldn't do much when it comes to charging and ramming. Even if they were larger, the materials that makes up these horns is noticeably weaker than other bovine horns, making these horns bend under pressure. In truth, if a Bonnacon charged you, the real pain would be coming from this massive ungulate ramming into you, and not so much the pitiful horns. Yes, there are worse things they can do to you, but we aren't on that subject yet! 

Bonnacon travel in small herds, and spend a large portion of their days grazing. They feed upon a wide variety of vegetation, with very few plants exempt from their menu. One of the major notes of their diet is that they graze upon plants that are typically poisonous to most other herbivores. Other plant eaters avoid these particular shrubs or growths like the plague, while the Bonnacon munches upon them without a care in the world. From what we understand, their digestive system is capable of handling a variety of toxins, and uses particular chemicals found in nasty plants as fuel for something else (no, we aren't talking about that part yet). This gives this bovine a wider selection of plants to choose from when feeding, and it also means a food source free from competition. For the ecosystem, they play an important part in keeping these poisonous and noxious plants in check, preventing them from growing out of control due to zero grazing.

When mating season kicks in, the male Bonnacon's look to round up as many females as possible, though the competition between them is not as violent as other bovines. While you may expect them battering each other with their horns and resorting to violence, such fights rarely break out. I will remind you that their horns are pretty poor for battle, though they do have a purpose here. Apparently, these horns are good indicators of health and virility, so simply showing them off is enough to woo the ladies. When it comes to keeping away competing males, they raise their tails and show off the colorful markings on their rumps (Just the rumps! Nothing else yet). These too are representative of their health and strength, and other males can easily gauge if this is a fight they can win. Most of the time, these displays are enough to defuse the situation, with the lesser Bonnacon accepting that they could never win this battle. If it comes to fighting, it is done through awkward body battering and tail whips, more akin to a drunken shoving match than any legitimate brawl. This species isn't exactly known for the most dignified ways of warding off foes. 

And now that I have gone over the Bonnacon facts that everyone will skip over, it is time for the part all the readers came for. Lets all ask the question that will get us there: "Hey Chlora, how do Bonnacon ward off predators?" Good question, children! Well, the Bonnacon has a super secret weapon up its sleeve whenever a big mean carnivore comes to eat it! When the big bad wolf comes creeping up, the poor little Bonnacon lifts its tail up and fires off a wet blast of caustic fecal matter that will douse the land and predator in a brown burning shower of shit that would make any public outhouse blowout after a dinner of bad fish tacos look like a lazy day of beach reading! THERE! WE'RE AT THE POOP PART! ARE YOU HAPPY!? Now we get to talk about how the Bonnacon fights its battles with fiery turd farts! YIPPEE!

Now that I got that out of my system, indeed the Bonnacon weaponizes its own fecal matter. It seems that there is a combination of chemicals brought in from its diet mixed in with its own special intestinal secretions that create this effect. All this is infused into its waste, and it appears that the act of ejecting it from its bowels starts the reaction. When the feces is sprayed from its body, a reaction within kicks off which creates the rise in temperature and creation of caustic fluids. While this waste does not actually catch on fire, the high heat of it combined with its acidic coating certainly gives the feeling of being set aflame while it burns through your skin. Their "ejection" system is specially designed to release this waste with long distance and wide range. It is meant to either catch the predator within the burning cone of filth, or create a hazard so foul that any meat eater would think twice before pursuing. Typically this butt blast is fired off just before the Bonnacon flees, which some humorous folk have interpreted into this species launching itself to safety by the propulsion of its own fiery flatulence. Oh what a lark.

Obviously, ammunition for this kind of firepower is limited, and thus the Bonnacon must use it sparingly between meals. This is why they bear the bright orange and dark markings upon their rump, as they serve as a warning sign to potential predators. When threatened, they will raise their tails to fully show off these colors, as a "last chance" for their foe before they open fire. You may also notice that these behinds lack hair, and that is because they don't want their own feces getting caught in their fur. Would be quite the mess to get out! 

Outside of the endless crude jokes and comments one can mine from the Bonnacon's existence, they do actually have a place in the local culture. Due to their diet of nasty plants, they can be used to clear land that has been overgrown by noxious and dangerous weeds. Their hide has been found to make resilient leather, the kind that is resistant to caustic agents and damaging fluids. Their meat....well, most people avoid it. Due to their diet, it can contain some nasty stuff unless it is thoroughly cooked to a crisp. Even then, you won't find a lot of folk willing to have a taste once they learn what beast it comes from. I, for one, gave it a try when I found a reputable chef that was known for preparing it. It was...fine. Nothing to write home about, but it certainly didn't have the flavors most people would expect when coming from a Bonnacon. And of course, we can't ignore their feces, as that even has a use! It turns out, Bonnacon waste is actually a really good fertilizer, once you let it cool down and its fluids grow inert. But sometimes, that burning pile of poo has its uses! If you want to prepare a field or flower bed, and know it is loaded with wild seeds of weeds you don't want, then lay down a layer of fresh Bonnacon poop. The heat and acidity of it will bake out all the seeds and roots that are waiting down below, and then add nutrients once it has burned itself out. In fact, some species of plant have designed their seeds to only be spread and germinated by Bonnacon waste! So we've taken a note from these plants and use it to clear out our flower beds! Now your garden is ready for planting! It is a pretty clever way to do it, but just be ready to get a lot of complaints from your neighbors.        

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

-------------------------------------------------

"Bonnacon"

Ah the infamous Bonnacon! The ol' mammalian bombardier beetle! Had to show up sooner or later.

#bonnacon #monster #creature #cow #art #drawing

[hikari-ni-naritai]

Thoughts on fakes being more real than the real thing?

okay i finally am on my lunch break and have time to talk about this. sorry i did not mean to have audrey make you send me this ask but i do appreciate you doing so!

anyway just so that everyone reading is clear on this, the concept im discussing here is specifically a fake that is indistinguishable from the real thing. this isnt really a concept that can be applied to a physical thing, like if i made a fake rock that was chemically identical to a real rock, ive created a real rock. its more about intangible concepts.

when i was first introduced to this philosophical discussion, i was deeply, deeply religious, and i (perhaps unexpectedly) fell firmly into the 'the fake is worth more than the real' to explain the concept of original sin and christianity's belief that humans are inherently evil. the idea is that, if you have one person who is naturally good, and another person who is naturally evil but through concentrated effort becomes indistinguishable from a Good Person, the bad person is better because of their choice to be good despite their nature, whereas the good person simply does it without effort. i was always a very philosophical bitch, much to the chagrin of religious people in authority over me. needless to say i am no longer religious.

now, in my wisened age. i have taken a more reasonable stance. i do not believe there is any meaningful difference between a fake thing and a real thing. and theres a lot of things i apply this to! perhaps due to religious trauma, i still see myself as a fundamentally bad person. its hard to think of myself as good when im privy to my own thoughts, where im cruel and judgmental and lacking empathy. im sure others have similar thoughts, but i cant know anyone else's thoughts, so that doesnt do me any good. but if i treat people well and keep my darker side to myself, i am indiscernible from a good person. similarly, thanks to my upbringing im not really capable of accepting that things like positive reinforcement could actually work, or that there's a political system better than handing me personally unlimited power to kill politicians and rich people until better people are put in power, or the current ones stop doing evil shit out of terror. but regardless of how i feel about it, regardless of my severe misanthropy, i fake believing in positive reinforcement and less tyrannical forms of government. i support the things i know are good for people, even if i dont personally believe they are. and my outward support is the only thing that is really relevant, because most people arent reading my blog. the fact that its completely fake doesnt mean its worse.

and yknow, believing in this sort of thing is also good in that it kind of makes you immune to impostor syndrome. like oh, youre not a REAL artist because REAL artists like, idk, go to art school or whatever? well thats fine because being a fake artist is not really any different from being a real one! i bet even if you DONT believe this, and you're one of those people who believes theres some intrinsic value in the "real", you could pretty easily get away with faking it! and by faking a belief that theres no difference between the fake and the real, you can eventually come to believe it for real! or not. but it'll sure look like it!

#this is a really important concept to me

[justabeewithapen]

:0 if you have ideas for a maskless hero drawing then i want to see it! but if not then what would the others reactions be if they see him without the mask(considering TLQ didnt know that it was a mask i think the others would have the same idea except for contrarian)?

I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG!! I had these grand visions of drawing all of them, then that task was so daunting I kept pushing this back. I didn't draw everyone, but I did draw the most important one. Firstly, the list of people who knew Hero's helmet wasn't his face: Smitten - While a peaceful creature himself (unless righteous justice is needed) Smitten has seen the after-math of other employees from less kindly monsters. His first and only concern when seeing Hero was fixing that man's horrible haircut. No one knows how he learned to cut hair considering his head is a skull, but I don't think anyone is brave enough to ask. Cold - One of the less peaceful monsters, he's blown a few heads off employees before and has picked up on helmets because of how they shatter. He thinks they're more like some sort of artificial shell employees wear for protection like they do the nutcracker body, and they're not far off! Cold would mock Hero for willingly leaving his protective casing and then would be tackled by TLQ as he loads his shotgun Contrarian - Being a masked they obviously know how people work. If he ran into Hero without his helmet he wouldn't be too different. Assuming Hero lets them, they would be far more touchy-feely and grabby, and more of that 'blood' substance might leak from their face on instinct. They wouldn't convert him, but it would be more obvious the urge is there. Skeptic - While he can't see he has pieced together from the way Hero talks that he wears something over his face. Skeptic envisions it more like a carapace situation like bugs, physically apart of Hero and hiding the squishy undersides. If Hero allowed (he would but he would be very anxious) I think Skeptic would want to sniff and feel Hero's face with his own to get an idea of it. He would also probably suggest Hero get his hair preened by Cheated because he is very good at it. Stubborn - Stubborn has eaten a lot more employees than Hero would be comfortable knowing about. It doesn't make any difference to Stubborn, but he would make fun of Hero's "baby face" because he doesn't have any scars. Secondly, people who did not know the helmet came off: Broken - Broken is always very touchy-feely when interacting with Hero. Because his acid is so light Hero's suit is perfectly capable of resisting it for pretty long periods of time. The same does not apply to skin however. Broken would probably try and climb up Hero like it normally does, only to be startled out when Hero freaks out because their goop burns on skin. They would """"run"""" off to mope until Hero finds them to promise there aren't any hard feelings. Cheated - Like Stubborn he immediately comments on Hero's lack of scars. While startled to find out the helmet wasn't Hero's face, Cheated is pretty quick to accept that fact and move on. He would offer to preen Hero's hair and would actually be more comfortable around Hero. Having a face to read emotions off of makes him more comfortable, even though Hero normally has a very expressive voice. Hunted - Hunted already has fairly bad eyesight, so the only thing this changes for him is that it is slightly easier to separate Hero's head from the background of facilities. Normally Hunted stares at Hero's chest when they talk because his bright green suit is a good spot to focus on. The thought Hero also has an exoskeleton is easy to understand, but Hunted would be freaked out at the idea Hero is putting back on his old 'molts' instead of moving to new ones!! Do you want to be less protected squishy friend???? Opportunist - Similar to Hunted it is not hard for him to accept that Hero has an exoskeleton. He is less caught up on the removable aspect, but he is suddenly very interested in the helmet itself. There is no way he didn't try and steal it at least once... or twice. Paranoid - Very much freaked out and bothered that the helmet isn't his face. The first time Hero takes it off Paranoid has a breakdown trying to figure out why Hero is

[copperbadge]

Just in case you haven’t stumbled across this fact elsewhere, you should be aware that pharmacies are often out of adderall and it has nothing to do with the pandemic. Or, at least, it USUALLY has nothing to do with the pandemic.

My understand is that there are multiple and fluctuating reasons for this, all stemming from the fact that the drug is highly regulated, and—yes—all of them at the expense of the people who actually need the meds. That said, the most consistent explanation I’ve received from more than one pharmacist over the years is that they’re limited in the number they can actually stock at a time, and demand exceeds that quota.

Yes, this is rage inducing. It’s also been a problem since the early aughts and I don’t see it going away, though it’s improved somewhat.

I recommend talking to your pharmacist and finding out whether this is a consistent problem at your pharmacy specifically. It can also help to have your psychologist reach out to your pharmacy ahead of time and confirm the meds are available—if not, there may be a generic available that they can prescribe instead. You can also see whether it’s possible to get your prescription a few days early, just in case.

Yeah there are some yikesy stories in my comments about access to Adderall and the other stimulant-side drugs for ADHD. It does seem to be a combination of "can't stock much at once" and "can't refill your prescription for you until two days before it needs it" and "But so like...are you an addict?" It's the typical bar to entry that people with disabilities face getting medication -- which I was prepared for, given I know people who struggle to get their meds each month and I've handled a lot of RFM issues surrounding them as well. I was honestly braced to spend several days getting that initial prescription filled, I was shocked when it just...went through.

In multiple ways I'm fortunate -- I don't face physical access issues, and I've spent long enough without the meds that I'm capable of wrangling the prescription without having to be ON the prescription. Like, I was actually able to fairly easily call the pharmacy about the length of delay, and that seemed to spur them into locating at least sixty of the little blue fuckers. I am also a middle class white guy in my forties, so I don’t get profiled as drug-seeking. 

I've booked out my psych appointments so that I'll generally see him on day 32 of a 30 day prescription, and my diagnosis is mild enough that there are days where I feel the meds wearing off and go "Well, I'm ok without the second dose" so even my first 30-day supply lasted me 40 days. Next session I may speak to him about the automated mailed-to-home service that his clinic is partnered with and if that would simplify matters -- a genuine question given the recent scandals about some of those services overprescribing.

The most common thing I've heard -- here and from other people outside of tumblr -- is that a lot of people have convinced their prescriber that they need a slightly higher dose than they do, so they can get a 30-day supply of 20mg doses and split them, thus turning it into a 60-day supply of their actual dose which they can stockpile. Which is ripe for a satirical novel of some kind, because while none of the people I'm talking to are addicts, they're forced to behave like addicts in order to maintain a consistent supply of a necessary disability aid. I don't think I'm the one to write it -- at any rate, not yet -- but there's content in the idea of our cultural fear of addiction being so epic and hallucinatory that we actually force people into addictive behaviors because you can't exist as a disabled person within the letter of the law.

#sam has adhd #addiction

[i-need-of-a-hobby]

So we all know the theory that Gravity Falls, The Owl House and Amphibia take place in the same universe right?

its a pretty well know theory (even if you don't believe it) in all three fandoms but if you don't here's the gist of it:

so basically that theory is built off easter eggs, like willows dads having a book with Hop-Pops face on it

and references to the other shows like that entire Gravity Falls episode in Amphibia,

that imply that they’re taking place simultaneously, with gravity falls taking place in 2012 and TOH and amphibia taking place in 2019-2020 (without the covid the lucky bastards) with Camilla reading an article about a girl returning from a frog world in the season 2 finale of TOH

but that opens the door for a whole lot of inter-dimensional *shenanigans* and so many plot points i can and will argue reference and overlap with each other.

now theres the obvious similarities like how bills minions fit the description of beast demons from the owl house:

(ignore the circling its not my screenshot I found it on google)

and bill himself is on one of kings posters when he tries to teach Luz about demons:

Bill is also in the book that tells marcy about the calamity box:

a book I believe was written by ford since the cover says its by "Dr. P" (P-ines anyone?) and has eyes that look awfully familiar, which I think are a reference to either the cores eyes, the portal doors eye from toh, or Bills eye (and the fact that this eye symbol is so similar across shows feeds the theory that they're all in the same universe)

meaning the Bill is a semi-universal character/figure throughout the different realms

if the other realms (Bill's realm, the several Ford got trapped in, the Boiling Isles, and Amphibia) have access to each other, and Bill is as universal as he seems, he probably interacted with some citizens of those realms, and probably left a mark

now it's finally time for my personal take/add-in:

we never get an origin for the core 

or the newts relation to the core

we get an episode about Andrias's personal history and his individual relation to the core, and how he came to be the guy who manipulated and then stabbed a very vulnerable teenage girl, but it seems like the core has just been with the Leviathan lineage since at least before Andrias's dad (who's over a thousand years old since thats how old the flashback is)

so, what am I rambling about?

well, if bill, a dream demon, made his way to amphibia, the core might have been the newts attempt to artificially replicate his powers

NOW HEAR ME OUT: on top of being incredibly powerful once he’s released in gravity falls

he also has the power to go into other peoples minds and search their memories like he does to Stan in his very introduction

which is an awful lot like what the core tries to do, since Andrias says the core is the hive mind of a dozen of the greatest newt minds and when Darcy happens it has complete access to her memories

not to mention how when it talks to andrias what physically appears when it talks are it’s eyes, which is what changes on dipper and Blendin (time travel dude) when bill possess them

the amphibians (powered by the music box) were an incredibly advanced civilization capable of a lot of damage (as seen by the literal frobot army they created

so i don't think it would be crazy to say that when they (specifically the newts) saw what a being like Bill could do, they would try to replicate it.

Obviously, the core and Bills mind-jumping powers are not the same, which is a way I'd say the Amphibians failed: instead of popping in and out of peoples minds like Bill does, the core completely takes their minds, more like a parasite.

we don't know all the parameters since we know basically nothing about the other newts in the hive mind, other than that each mind shows up as an eye on the cores "head" before and after it possesses Marcy. and speaking of the girl, she has no control or consciousness (that we know of) while under the cores control.

but we do get one and a half-ish examples of people who are very aware of the cores presence in their mind (unlike Bill) but are physically controlling their own bodies (we think) (unlike Marcy) and those two are Andrias and his dad, who both communicate with the core more like it's just a very dangerous, intrusive thought.

so.... yeah...

idk how to end this but please reblog and tell me if you think im crazy or not-

#i swear im not insane #actually i cant make that promise #i need a hobby #hehe thats my username- #Bill Cipher #bill cipher being a bad bitch #gravity falls #gravity falls theory #the owl house #owl house theory #amphibia #amphibia theory #im bad at tags #gravity falls owl house amphibia all same universe theory #you might want to send help #my villain era is referencing different fandoms in a theory #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright #marcy wu #luz noceda #amity blight #hunter toh #flapjack #toh #ford pines

[natasha-in-space]

Okay so can you write about how it'd be like if yoosung was in a relationship with a male mc who is tall and very muscular (hes built like hulk) but is a very soft and gentle guy. Basically the definition of "gentle giant" and is extremely shy asf. He is also very clumsy and is a shit cook. I imagine when yoosung said that "please dont be afraid when u see me, im still the man who loves you" the mc felt the same. Like ofc yoosung knows hes a dude but he doesnt know how he looks.

Also i am thinking how it'd be like him introducing this dude he now is in a relationship with to his parents (i want to think the reaction is positive).

I just wanna imagine someone as petite as yoosung with a big guy

OUGH, anon, I LIVE for this kind of dynamic! You made me giggle and kick my legs with your ask.

While, yeah, I think Yoosung would be rather... surprised the first time they finally meet one another face to face, it's mostly just the natural reaction of unexpectedness, nothing negative. Yoosung simply had a bit of a softer image in mind, due to his MC's sweet and kind demeanor in chat and on the phone. You can't really help the fact that we naturally tend to assign certain characteristics to people we haven't met yet! He's definitely not dissatisfied, though. In fact, I think he'll find it rather adorable! It makes him feel a lot better to know that he wasn't the only one nervous about making a good first impression, and, in a way, this shared anxiety helps them both relax and laugh with each other after a while.

Yoosung will be looking up at this MC with stars in his eye and a huge smitten grin stretching his cheeks. And, once the initial surprise dissipates, he will end up asking MC plenty of questions, as well as offer some clumsy, but genuine compliments.

There's just something about a broadly built man that is apparently more attractive to him than he thought. Looks like there is some personal discovering to be made here! It's not solely based on appearance, though. (Although Yoosung definitely thinks about being picked up by his new boyfriend and being pampered without a care in the world). MC's soft and loving personality is also a huge focus of his affections. MC not threatening or off-putting to him in any way, and it is very easy for Yoosung to feel relaxed and open with him in even the most mundane of conversations.

His chest is filled with a small sense of pride as he talks to MC. What he did back at Mint Eye... he did it to protect MC and to prove to himself that he is capable of being the man he wants to be. Yoosung struggles with his masculinity at times, and, knowing that he managed to successfully protect MC, despite being on the smaller side... It makes him feel very good about himself. MC's direct mention of it in particular will make him giggle and rock on his heels in pride.

When it comes to the actual relationship between them, the dynamic is going to be rather endearing! I feel like Yoosung would be the more bold and outspoken one of the two of them. Yes, the 'Hey, he asked for no pickles!' type. It's adorable, really. Wherever MC is shy for any particular reason, Yoosung can be outgoing for both of them. It's really lovely to see. He'll be quick to slip into the conversation if he feels like MC needs some moral support, or he can be the one to call the shots full stop. MC doesn't have to worry about feeling awkward in public spaces with Yoosung there nearby. He got his boyfriend's back.

Subsequently, there will be a lot of physical affection between these two. It'll take them both some time to figure this out (as this is Yoosung's first real relationship), but, eventually, they both come to a mutual agreement that they actually quite enjoy the size difference they share with each other! MC never makes Yoosung feel as 'less of a man' for not being overly tall or muscular, and Yoosung makes it crystal clear that MC's kind and gentle heart is the most amazing thing about him. They are both completely at ease with each other, inside and out. So, when Yoosung admits to the fact that he'd like MC to carry him more often... It's the first step to many more similar instances to come.

Interestingly enough, I like to think of this MC as the little spoon of their relationship. It's certainly amusing to witness such a huge man nuzzle up into Yoosung's chest with a happy sigh, but it happens every day in their household. Meanwhile, Yoosung adores feeling his boyfriends strong arms circle around him, pulling him close to his chest, especially whenever he hugs him from behind in the morning, as he's preparing breakfast. (Too many meals were burnt due to him getting way too distracted by MC's comfy warmth and a desire to turn around and kiss him.).

It's a win-win situation!

In my opinion, Lisa will quickly make MC her favorite person. That kitty always finds a way for them to be together. She is always on his lap, happily purring away. And she always tries to sleep on him, despite his numerous attempts to gently put her down, since he's scared of accidentally hurting her in his sleep.

And, if this MC has a tendency to be clumsy? Yoosung will make an effort to catch him every time. And fail. The first time it happened, poor MC got so worried, he apologized to Yoosung for the entirety of that day. With time, Yoosung simply learns his boyfriend's body language well enough to see him about to stumble before it even happens. There won't be any fall incidents for them to fret about from then on.

Yoosung's mom is going to love MC. Mostly because he's such a softie. I'd like to imagine him always making an effort to help out Yoosung's mom with the chores or carrying around heavy things. Needless to say, she always hands him tons of homemade snacks whenever they come over. Yoosung is a bit flabbergasted at the way his mom coddles his boyfriend, but, hey, at least she definitely loves him! While Yoosung sister is going to tease her brother about MC being a 'big strong man'. It's all lighthearted and nothing ill-spirited, though. She sees how happy Yoosung is, and that's the most important thing in the world.

...In the end, she sleeps on his head.

#mystic messenger #mysmes #mysme #mm #yoosung kim #kim yoosung #mystic messenger yoosung #anon you made me so giddy about these two that i am lowkey contemplating making a cmc for yoosung based on this jftfhth #they are husbands your honor

[gynandromorph]

You’ve mentioned before that drake would be a far better god than jessie and would deal better with absolute power than most of your other characters, I find this incredibly interesting and I wondered if you could explain why a bit more?

yeah, sure. it's probably going to be a bit incomprehensible because it's 3 am right now (it is no longer 3 am but half of it was written at 3 am and i'm still stupid). drake's ocpd has compelled xem to feel obsessively invested in moral righteousness and to want an extreme amount of control over xyr environment. it's given xem a lot of incentive to think about what they would do differently, how they would make reality better, etc.

so, the main way that drake would be better than jessie as a god is because drake would care more about being a genuinely good god. xe is also not as impulsive or emotional as jessie; xe deliberates at length even for small interactions, and, while this can be debilitating in day-to-day life, if you were an omnipotent being totally exempt from the laws of time, this would not really be an issue. this quality also makes xem more capable of accurate insight and self-judgement.

i talked about shiloh and how as a god she would probably be a nightmarish sadist -- one might see her personality as similar to drake's because she's also more mellow and pattern-oriented. the difference between shiloh and drake (as well as jessie and drake) is that what drake finds gratifying is just worlds apart. drugs, sex, violence and power are things a lot of people find gratifying, but drake is someone who finds like... organizing books by size and color on the shelf gratifying. moving at a slower pace in general, unpredictable explosive experiences that feel exciting and interesting to the two lesbians feel overwhelming and unpleasant to xem. the avoidance of possible distress from possible mistakes is often a source of the gratification, so a lack of novelty wouldn't hit xem as hard, i think. basically being an ethical being WOULD BE what drake finds gratifying as a god because it's what xe finds gratifying already, which is a huge advantage. the fact that xyr desire for control is projected onto xyr environment is just a bonus -- since xe interprets the problems as coming from outside the house, xe's less likely to focus on inner desires for decision-making.

something drake has had to ponder more than many of my other characters is the fact that no one ever asks to be born, and most aren't entirely happy with what they're born with. i think it occurs to most people at some point that no one asks to be born, but drake has spent cumulative years ruminating on this. i find xyr take on godhood and how i conceptualize it interesting based on that even on its own, because drake wants a world where every single thing chooses to be born with an adequate amount of information to make the choice.

i've spent here or there thinking about how xe would try to go about doing this, and so far it's involved some kind of AI-like network which would approximate the entire lifespan of an individual without possessing a consciousness or emotional world of its own, then relay that in a chemical format. if the projected life is suitable for this hypothetical person and they'd most likely consent to living the life, the chemical info enters a matching receptor on a zygote and it progresses. this would happen several if not thousands of times during the process of producing a conscious being, i think. this is believable enough to me w/how much info dna itself can hold, and that wasn't designed with any intelligence. that's the best way i've come up with the chicken and the egg dilemma wrt conscious choice to be born thus far. the other component i've thought about is probably making life able to move about 4-dimensionally, essentially giving conscious beings the ability to time travel as a regular form of locomotion. i gotta imagine this isn't too big a deal when you can alter the laws of physics to your liking. i know that drake would also get rid of (nonconsensual) death not just by canceling it now, but reviving every single conscious creature that has ever died. oh, earth wouldn't support infinitely multiplying life? god can fix that. death is the only thing that makes life meaningful? no it doesn't. not in drake's world. meaning is a sensation in our heads subject to alterations, just like every emotion. some things might not want to live forever? some things might want to feel sadness, pain, anger, and suffering? well, it'd be immoral for drake to decide how they should feel by getting rid of these unpleasant emotions, so xe will give them the choice to die if they want to, and the choice to undie, probably handled by the same network that estimates if they want to be born - the choice to feel sad or opt out, the choice to feel pain or opt out, etc. to drake, this would not only resolve the "suffering gives life meaning" argument, but would also functionally prevent any given subject from forcing another subject to feel anything it doesn't want to. drake would yield a lot of power to xyr subjects, because the power differential between a god and its sims in a sandbox is inherently going to be an abuse of that power in exchanges. you could argue that xe would do well with absolute power because xe would make xyr power... Not absolute relatively quickly after some things were stabilized. given the idea that maybe they could not choose anything at all, like how a fictional character can't choose anything, i think that xe would resort to breaking up xyr infinite amount of choice into tiny pieces compartmentalized away from xem, like someone dissociating but intentionally, and putting that into the subjects instead. this would be an odd limitation, though, and would preclude omnipotence. i just think the decisions xe would make based on xyr sense of ethics would be neat because of how unyielding those moral "rules" are and other elements of xyr personality.

#GREAT question insane answer thank you

[atla-recluse]

About That One Moment in "Another Five More Short Graybles":

Content warning: A few references to abuse and abuser-victim dynamics, plus some images/artwork that some may find very disturbing or triggering.

Conclusion:

I truly believe that this moment, and maybe more-so what likely happens after it, are the moment that solidified Lemongrab 1's complete shift into tyranny and unlimited cruelty. When I say that, I'm not just talking about the toy and his anger over it. It's not and was never (just) about the toy (seriously, this dude could and would have snapped over anything).

It's about OG LG's increasingly intense need for control over everyone and everything and his ever-growing layer of extreme rage over...stuff from the past...that is always there. Taking is a bit further, it's actually about how LG viewed himself and his impulsive/compulsive behavior at that point.

Background:

So, a lot of people seemed to have thought/still think that LG is lacking in self-awareness, but I think this couldn't be further from the truth. LG is hyper-aware of himself and his actions. He knows there's something "wrong" with him. He (and those around him) just don't know what. So everyone in and out of universe find it easier to just be vague about the problem or not touch it at all.

I'll tell you what I think is wrong with him though: He's can't figure out how best to showcase empathy with others, or even fully decide if he truly wants to at all, so he typically just chooses not to.

Wait, what? I'm actually arguing that LG1 is/was capable of empathy, you ask? YES I am. Because he was. The moments were small, but they were there and were very significant to those who care. OG LG had what I'd call "limited" empathy as well as "optional" empathy. He wasn't the best with others' emotions at initial meetings but he could understand concepts like that of insult, bonding (but couldn't do it himself at first) and not wanting to die or get hurt. (I might finish a post that explains some examples in the near future.) He also chose who it was he would bestow his empathy upon for random and not-as-random reasons. In this sense, he's not that different from many of us. I also feel as though he could have had his sense of empathy increased and smoothed out with proper nurturing. But as we all know, that didn't happen.

(Also, he seems to be naturally more persnickity and "intense/passionate" than others, including LG2 even. At least when it comes to his beliefs and convictions. People irl who are like that can imagine, because of how we sometimes come across to others, even if we're trying to change.)

Conclusion Expansion (1):

We see throughout his arc, that LG1 increasingly worsened over time. Not solely though. For a blip of a period, he seemed to be improving, happy even. That period was of course when he was still close with LG2. Then, the fight happened.

It was so violent, even without showing us the gore. I'm actually a little shocked that there are people who think that scene is mainly or even only hilarious. It's terrifying to me whenever I see it, to the point where I often prefer to avoid it. That scene, to me, was yet another example of how much of an abuser LG1 has become, since his physical or emotional abandonment and/or since his creation. Is that obvious yet? LG1 was not just "lol random11!! hahaha craziiii!". He was insanely abusive. He was arguably abused himself, but that doesn't change the fact that he was an abuser, too. He even showed all the classic signs of an abuser as far back as "You Made Me" but, really, it was truly first shown in "Too Young".

Slight (Noteworthy) Sidetrack:

His brother (Which I think was meant to be seen as being to LG1 whatever you wanted to see him as, homophobes!) along with Lemonhope, got the worst of it and perfectly illustrate two different types of lives and mentalities of many abuse victims. One becomes, in a way, very self-centered and wants to escape no matter what, but stops thinking about what the rest of his family may be going through, also. The other wants to help others going through the same and won't leave them behind until the they have escaped on some level, even if it kills him (assuming he had the option to leave). And tell we don't know plenty of irl examples where other families also went through an older sibling or partner taking advantage of and mistreating a younger sibling or partner. (Don't think too hard about the LG's being "brother-lovers", alright? It's all symbolic, anyway.) Now a big question I and likely others have is this: Is he really "just like that?" Frankly, I think he partially or fully either inherited it or learned it from his experiences. Or someone else... But I digress. So yeah, I don't believe LG was just/solely born that way. Something about him changed sometime after he was born, I feel. But again, I can't quite say what because it was left ambiguous.

Conclusion Expansion (2):

LG has always had issues with his view of self and it causes him much pain. He doesn't know how to express the problem, so he basically just spazzes out. He seemed to have improved once his brother/partner came along, but in fact, this was only an illusion. LG never properly healed from his trauma or bad habits, because no one—not himself and certainly not others—worked with him to treat and eventually heal that trauma and reverse those bad habits. (It doesn't mean they didn't want to, though.) It was only a matter of time before he lost it on his brother and people over something petty. Two beings can never be exactly the same anyway, "twin" or not.

When he attacked his best friend for the first time and in such a gruesome manner... Well...ask yourself how that scene probably continued for the two of them? We actually saw the least scary part. Here's what I now headcanon as being the "right after":

(I'm not sure what the name of the artist who made this is. It's an amazing and very emotional piece, though.)

So with those awful images in mind, I think LG1 after devouring most of his own partner, may have paused for at least a moment, as LG2 managed to crawl away and look at him with such fear and hurt (perhaps looking like a reflection of himself) that LG1—if his self-awareness was on 100 that day—looked back at the mess he'd made of LG2's body and how their relationship would never be the same now, and decided "Haha wow...I AM a monsteerrrr!!!!". And from there, he decided to just lean into the persona completely. After all, what did he have to lose? What important figure in his life up to this point didn't see him that way, anyway? Now even the partner he once loved and who once loved him, did too. Might as well accept it and just solely act like what everyone already knows him to be. Which to LG means just act like his usual self, btw. Control freaks like him can only relax for so long...

It should also be noted that despite what we see LG1 do to LG2, that he doesn't completely devour him (why, we don't know) and that he gave him (likely created for him) a tool that would allow him to still move around and didn't give him a shock collar. So LG2 is still a cut above the others in LG1's mind, it seems, but that doesn't mean that things hadn't reached rock bottom for them. They just had further to go, is all. LG1 clearly no longer pedestalized LG2 anymore (and vice versa) and on some level likely blames LG2 for how he himself chose to react (pretty on-brand for both of them). Hence why, like some abusers, he seemed to now be withholding affection from LG2, wouldn't hear or accept LG2's own thoughts and opinions, (may have) starved him and why he pushed him down into and kept him in a subordinate position (something we once actually see him physically do to him at the dinner table).

And that, everybody, is why that scene in AFMSG is so significant; and imo, devastating.

Oh and here. Have another self-aware Lemongrab, far beyond post brother-attack:

"Looking for something? Well, you found me; Fat Lemongrab. - Original Lemongrab

This wild lemon man knew he was the monster/villain of the story at this point. 🍋 🥲

#Lemongrab #Lemongrab 1 #Lemongrab 2 #Adventure Time #Another Five More Short Graybles #AFMSG #Lemongrab analysis #Adventure Time analysis #episode analysis #abuse discussion #explaining abuse #abuser-victim dynamics #emotional neglect #implied neurodivergent character #neurodivergent abuser #neglect of neurodivergent character #misunderstood character #thematically underrated character #mentioned character: Lemonhope #implied mention: Princess Bubblegum

[momthesearemydinnerguests]

Re: My last reblog

IDK if reblogs were turned off or I've been blocked, so I'm responding here. I hope this doesn't come across as argumentative because i don't mean it to be. I'm just bad at tone. but I promise I genuinely want to have a discussion because i adore this fandom with all my heart.

@virginiaisforvampires Oh, don't get me wrong!! I am in no way trying to justify Armand in this scene. i 1000% agree that his "seduction" of Lestat in that scene is an act of incredible violence and cruelty. Armand DID try to rape Lestat, and Lestat absolutely should have wrecked his shit. I apologize if my wording made it seem like i was team Armand in this instance, because I absolutely am not. Lestat is 100% the victim in this instance. I'm a CSA survivor myself and I am deeply sorry if my wording implied that I was blaming Lestat. But I bring it up because 1) the obvious mirror in the show, and 2) it demonstrates how ridiculously powerful Lestat is even as a fledgling only a couple weeks/months old.

I also want to be clear that I am not saying the ep 5 scene happened in the books. It didn't. Like hands down. I don't even think that lestat is physically abusive in the books. I know it came across that way in my original response, and I apologize. i was in a rush and not separating my points out the best. I agree to an extent that In the Interview!book, Lestat and Louis do get into physical altercations and both parties are at fault. Hell, I'll even concede that in the physical altercations we see in the book, Louis is usually the aggressor (for example, when Louis almost kills Claudia, it is Louis who pins Lestat against the wall and rails at him). However, there is an inherent power imbalance in the Loustat relationship. Of course, i also FULLY believe that Lestat would do his best to hold back because he loves Louis with 100% of his being and wouldn't want to hurt him. But that doesn't mean that the imbalance isn't there. If Lestat's capable of doing that much damage to Armand - a vampire 200 years older than him who was also created by an ancient one - it's difficult to picture Louis and Lestat being evenly matched in a physical fight.

I also want to point out that reactive abuse is a very real thing... When Louis lashes out in the book, it's not without reason. And Lestat himself admits this, multiple times, throughout the books. When I say Lestat is abusive, I'm not talking about the physical violence. I'm talking about the way he targets people Louis cares about (Frenier, for example) - even if he has valid reasons (Frenier's plot to betray his family and leave his sister's with nothing), Louis is never made aware of these reasons and Lestat makes no attempts to explain. i'm talking about the fact that Lestat frequently projects his own trauma around being turned, and mocks Louis for his struggles with vampirism as a way of punishing himself. I'm talking about how he does to Claudia the exact thing he hated magnus for - turning her without her consent, condemning her to a life he didn't even want, without regard for what that transformation would mean for her. He denies them access to information, and even though he has good reasons for it (fear of marius's retribution, fear of the destruction of the vampire race, etc.), he's far from kind in the way he does so. In my experience, most abusers aren't sitting in their chair rubbing their hands together Bond villain style thinking of ways they can hurt you. Often they genuinely think that they are trying to make you stronger or to protect you from the world. it doesn't make their abuse any less real, it just makes it harder to see if for what it is.

As to @nalyra-dreaming's point about proving my own objection... I'm not objecting? My whole point there was that Armand is absolutely twisting the narrative. It's a thing he does all the time in the books. He will do anything to not feel alone, and that frequently involves tampering with memory and perception. The fact that the ep5 DV scene so closely mirrors his fights with Lestat in TVL is intentional. I absolutely believe that it could reasonably (and probably will) turn out that Armand is twisting the narrative and passing his own memories off as Louis's. While I personally don't like it for the reasons I stated , it fits with the narrative. But if it is a deception on Armand's part, the deception is effective precisely because Lestat is capable of such violence, even if it was never directed at Louis personally. After all, he's witnessed the violence lestat has directed at people less powerful than him (the priest in ep1, the tenor, their victims on murder night). I grew up in an abusive household, and even if it was never directed at me personally, I spent a lot of time waiting for the moment when the other shoe drops and it is directed at you. And Louis himself isn't immune to fits of excessive violence! If he himself struggles so hard to contain his rage, it makes sense he would fear Lestat doing the same. And if Lestat is capable of that level of violence, that means that it is also possible that it's not a deception. Rejecting the scene outright to me feels like turning a blind eye on that aspect.

Long story short, I agree that the DV scene in ep5 probably didn't go down the way Louis has presented in season 1, as much as I hope otherwise. I don't think that the story we've been presented so far is the WHOLE truth, but I don't see any reject it as a flat out lie. Even the books (at least the first five) I don't recall Lestat saying that Louis is a liar, but that Louis omits details and context, and/or misunderstands the situation. I do take issue with the idea that idea that Lestat isn't capable of that level of violence (not saying that's what y'all are doing, but I've seen a lot of that on my dash lately), and I do take issue with the statement that Lestat isn't abusive. The whole story is about a cycle of abuse (Marius+Santino to Armand, -> Armand+Magnus+Gabrielle to Lestat -> Lestat to Louis+Claudia) compounded by existing trauma, and the ways in which the characters struggle to break the cycle. And that's why it is so rewarding when they do succeed.

I personally don't want the scene retconned. I don't think it's necessary, and it would rub me the wrong way because of my own history with abuse and not being believed, or being told that I somehow deserved it. I don't think it takes away from Lestat's inherent goodness to have him fall so low in a moment of weakness. I don't think it changes the story either way. I'll also understand if they do, though, because it does fit with Armand's character. I don't understand the animosity I'm seeing between people who want it retconned and people who don't, because either way, it's all just speculation until season 2 actually aires. Both paths are capable of staying true to the characters and the story of the Vampire Chronicles.

#amc interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire #lestat de lioncourt #louis de pointe du lac #the vampire armand #iwtv opinions

[archoniluthradanar]

On Meeting a Vampire - Chapter Two

On meeting a Vampire : an Aro Volturi short story

PART TWO

So Aro has entrusted himself to a mute female who lives alone in the forest. He is alone and still too weak from a werewolf attack to take off on his own to hunt for the rest of the coven. Unfortunately his thirst forces him to break his own promise to himself not to harm his savior. He bites her, only to find her blood is not red and doesn't taste good. In fact, it makes him quite sick.

Chapter Two and Final Chapter

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Aro had never felt so sick, not in over three thousand years. I cannot feed from this woman, he thought with annoyance. He looked up at Don'ea, his expression one of disgust. "What have you done to me?"

Don'ea stood next to the bed and leaned over Aro as he lay writhing on his side. She reached down to rest her hand on his shoulder.

The agony Aro felt in his body slowly eased up until it had completely ceased. His head snapped around to stare up at the woman. "The pain is gone. Explain yourself!"

Don'ea pulled the collar of her woolen dress away from the bite mark Aro had left on her neck. After wiping away the purple smudge with a small rag, she showed him the wound that was slowly healing, the torn flesh visibly mending as her skin sealed itself.

Aro watched in amazement, his wide eyes never wavering from her neck. "You healed me, then you healed yourself. The power to repair physical damage. Fascinating."

Aro had never heard of anyone being capable of healing vampire physiology. It just wasn't possible. They could mend torn off body parts using venom as an adhesive, and minor flesh cracks would heal naturally in time. This gift would be an invaluable asset to the coven, if he could convince her to return with him to Volterra. But how, when she could not be changed without some discomfort to the vampire changing her. And even then, Aro wasn't sure if the change would take. Don'ea was nothing more than a mystery to him at the moment. He had to gather more information.

If only she could speak, he thought.

"I have no power to heal, Aro. I have the ability to strengthen a body, any physical body, into healing itself." The woman sat at the foot of the bed and watched the man she had been caring for, now free to talk with her. "I am called Don'ea." She then glared at Aro. "Why did you attack me?"

"You can speak! Why did you wait until now to say something?" Aro sat up, leaning against the headboard of the bed. He might be shocked that all this time this woman had been able to speak and had hidden that fact, but he was far too interested in her to let the opportunity pass. He had to know more.

Don'ea gave Aro an enigmatic smile, his violent transgression already forgiven. How much was she willing to share with him. As of this moment, she hadn't decided. She pulled the blanket away from Aro's legs, showing him that they too had been healed of the werewolf scratches and bites. "With the aid from my ability, you did that yourself."

Aro reached down in amazement as his hands ran over the pale skin, now smooth and devoid of even the slightest scars from the attack. He twisted his hand around, seeing it now functioned perfectly, the re-joined pieces of his arm good as new.

"Now that I can ask questions of you, tell me about yourself, Aro." She knew a few things from her sorting through his thoughts, but with so many memories of himself and others mingling within the same mind, it was difficult for her to tell which were his and which were those he had accumulated. She wondered how such a thing had not driven him mad. Don'ea, when reading thoughts, kept what she needed and excised the rest. Aro, apparently, kept every memory he had ever read.

"I'm a vampire, Don'ea. We immortals drink the blood of humans to survive. I was getting weak and needed sustenance. I truly didn't want to attack you. Even now, I'm going to have to hunt soon. Because of you, I'll be fit enough to do that. I hope you will forgive me."

Aro wanted her to know his remorse was real. "My coven was here to destroy a pack of werewolves. I got separated from my people and was tracked by one werewolf who managed to attack me before I killed it. I had to find assistance, hence my finding myself on your doorstep, for which I am grateful."

She nodded in understanding. Her home-made soup was not palatable to him. Even water wasn't drinkable. And when he finally attempted to take her blood, it wasn't the kind he could survive on. "I had no idea, Aro."

"How is it you can understand Italian?" he questioned, suddenly realizing they had been conversing in his long-time adopted language.

"Is that the language I'm speaking now, Italian?" Don'ea asked Aro. She knew he spoke many languages, but she didn't know what they were.

"You don't know?" Aro asked, a laugh in his voice, finding all this amusing.

"No. I can speak any language. I merely have to touch you, which I have been doing a lot. It's an immediate transference of knowledge from one being to another. " She smiled at Aro, who was still finding himself more impressed. She sat on the floor near the bed, after fetching a wet rag. Aro's shoes were stained red, she assumed it being the blood of his attacker. She attempted to clean them so that they would at least be wearable.

Aro watched her as she did her chore. "Tell me, my dear, you're not a witch or fae, are you?" the ancient vampire asked, a look of revulsion on his face.

Don'ea laughed. hearing his query. "No, Aro, nothing like that." She placed his shoes next to the bed. "You have improved faster than I anticipated. Soon, you will be able to leave."

Her voice suddenly seemed almost melancholy. He had heard that tone often enough with Marcus to recognize it. Would she miss him when he was gone?

Getting out of bed, Aro tested his legs, satisfied he was not in pain nor limping any longer. He walked the length of the cabin and back.

Don'ea smiled, clapping her hands. "You see, you're so much better." She tried to suppress a yawn. She suddenly felt the drain of the day's events. She headed to the kitchen to soak the soiled rag in soapy water and cleaned her hands.

Aro, on seeing the woman yawn, knew she was fatigued. "Please, take back your bed, Don'ea. I have no need of it. Vampires don't need to sleep."

Don'ea went to the small, curtained-off corner of the room that was her makeshift bathroom to take care of her personal needs and wash up. She slipped into her nightgown and returned to the outer room to find Aro waiting for her. She lay down on the bed, stretching out. She looked up at the dark-haired vampire, who placed the blanket he had been using over her body. "Thank you, Aro."

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Aro asked Don'ea, feeling somewhat bold and assuming her feelings for him were ones of attraction, said, "If I grow bored and choose to rest, may I lie next to you? No more attacks, I promise. I will be ever the gentleman."

It was an assumption both knew to be true in any case.

"You may share the bed with me, of course. It's more comfortable than the chair. And Aro, I'm not afraid of you. I never was." Don'ea turned on her side, slipping her hands beneath her pillow. She tried to hide a smile, which Aro noticed and questioned the reason for her humorous expression.

"Your pants. Now that your legs are healed, it looks funny to see you wearing such torn clothing. Too torn for me to repair."

"Well, I can wear them without your critique, my dear, or I can remove them," he replied with a smirk, although Aro hated not being properly dressed.

Don'ea said, "No!", perhaps a little too loudly.

Aro merely smiled and blew out the candle sitting on the small table by her bed, then headed for the door. "I'm going to step outside, Don'ea. I won't be gone long. I just want to see..."

"I know, Aro. Trust they will come back for you." She smiled at him, then closed her eyes.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

By morning, Don'ea turned onto her back and stretched, her arm hitting a body. She turned again and saw Aro lying on the bed, far enough away so as not to touch her. His eyes were seemingly a brighter red. She assumed he must have fed last night. She raised herself on one arm, and peered over at him. "No sign of your people?"

"No," he said, feeling uncertain as to where they might be and if they still lived. "I may be alone now, and I was never one suited to the nomadic existence."

"You're not alone, Aro. At least you don't have to be."

Aro turned his head to look at Don'ea, her expression one of kindness, more kindness than he had experienced from anyone in a long while. The emotion was all but completely foreign to him now, not having been kind to anyone in a very long time. He reached out to her and touched her face, the skin smooth and warm. He had thought to draw her into his world, and here she was doing that to him. Aro inched his body closer, close enough to feel her breath on his cool cheek. He leaned in to kiss her.

Don'ea had not kissed anyone in a very long time, her imposed solitude keeping her from such an opportunity. She felt her heart race at the feel of Aro's cold lips on hers. He had pulled back, but she protested with a sound, to which he responded with an even deeper kiss, pushing her onto her back.

Aro had not felt desire for anyone since Sulpicia had left him, declaring herself free of her long-term imprisonment. How had this happened? He had experienced delight in learning of Don'ea's gifts, his mind pondering the uses of such gifts. Now he found himself wanting not only Don'ea's gifts, but Don'ea herself.

Her arms reached up to entwine her hands within his silky hair. Then she froze, pulling herself from beneath Aro.

Rising off the bed, she left to wash up and dress. Silently, she prepared breakfast while Aro watched her in confusion from the bed, wondering if he had offended her in some way. He wondered why she had responded to him so passionately, then turned off her emotions to take care of a mere chore.

Don'ea ate quickly, then drank a cup of hot herbal tea. She contemplated a problem nagging at her thoughts. She could not love this creature in so short a time, could she? Had she and Aro heart-bonded in some way through their interactions? She had known it to happen, but not with a creature so different from herself.

After considering the issue while eating, Don'ea decided Aro had to know the truth. She felt he was entitled to know everything if they were going to integrate their lives together. She wasn't inclined to tell him herself. Instead, she sat beside him on the bed, and stretched her hand out to him. "Go ahead. Read me. Learn the truth, Aro di Volturi." He seemed to hesitate at first, but decided to do as she asked. She felt his hand take hers, then he was holding it between both of his.

Aro sighed as he opened his mind to her memories. His eyes suddenly opened as he sifted through her past. He became intrigued by the visions he saw of her childhood with whom he assumed to be her family. Images of her home flashed in his mind. Tall towers, glistening in the sunlight. People dressed in strange clothing walking the streets. He saw her conversations with others in a language he wasn't familiar with. He reached her youth and educational years.

Aro felt a certain jealousy when he envisioned further conversations, this time with men. Then he saw her work. She was in something that rose upward from the ground, and into the sky that changed from light to darkness. When he saw how she had come to be in this place through her eyes, her vessel crashing to the ground, his eyes went wide. It was all there. Who she was. What she was.

His mind reeling, he released her hand, and whispered, "No wonder your blood is inedible to me. You aren't human. You're not even from this planet."

Don'ea placed her hands in her lap and looked at Aro, her gaze on him intense. Slowly her hair began to change colour from reddish brown to purple. The eyes that bore into Aro's were now a blue so bright, they seemed to glow with pure energy. "This is my true appearance."

Aro stared at Don'ea. She still appeared human, but with obvious and not so obvious variations "You never cease to amaze me, my dear. You're even more beautiful, if that's possible." He rose from the bed, and turned to reach out to touch her cheek. His fingers moved to her hair, gently pulling up a strand, then letting it fall. He looked deeply into her eyes, examining them with his vampire vision. They looked normal except for their intense colour. "How old are you? How long have you been on Earth?"

Don'ea thought a moment. "I've been here on your world slightly over one thousand years. My age is more difficult to say, since our accounting of years is probably different than your accounting. Suffice to say, I'm at least 1500 years old."

This news pleased Aro immensely. She was long-lived just as he was. If she agreed to return with him to Volterra, he would not lose her in fifty short years.

"If you joined us, your gifts would make our coven the most powerful on the planet."

"My abilities are not gifts, Aro. All my people possess these powers. And I will not allow you to use them for your own purposes." Her expression darkened when she gave Aro that warning.

The door suddenly flew open to reveal three of the Volturi guard. Don'ea saw a dark blonde man alongside a man with dark skin waiting by the door, while a taller man entered the cottage.

"Master Aro, are you all right?" Felix asked, scanning the room, only seeing Aro and a woman.

"Yes, Felix. I am well, due to the care I received from this woman. Is everyone else safe? Are they here?"

"No, Master Aro. Masters Marcus and Caius felt it best to keep everyone home. They sent us back to find you."

Demetri smiled, glad to see Master Aro in one piece. "By the way, we routed the pack, Master."

Felix glared at Don'ea. "So who is this human? Shall we kill her?"

Don'ea held up a hand, palm forward in a defensive stance, as if waiting to see what the tall man did.

Aro raised his hand to restrain the protective killer instinct of his guard. "No, Felix. She took care of me when I could barely walk. Killing her would not be a proper thank you to her for her assistance. And feeding off her would be useless. Her blood is indigestible to our kind."

Santiago, Felix, and Demetri glanced at one another. "How is that even possible, Master Aro?" Demetri asked.

"You all will know soon enough," Aro replied. "And a truly fascinating story it is."

He held out his hand to Don'ea, who took it, letting herself be pulled closer to Aro. "My dear, these are three of our guards. Felix, Demetri, and Santiago. Gentlemen, this is Don'ea, the woman who found me and provided me with care. She never stopped believing you would came back for me." He looked at her, and lifted her hand to his lips, kissing it.

"You'll be returning home to Italy now," Don'ea said in a whisper.

"Yes, that's true, Don'ea. And what about you. Do you still hope your people will return here to find you?"

"It's been far too long," she replied with a smile, but when she looked up at Aro, her eyes could not hide the utter misery she felt inside. Crashing on this planet, trying to stay away from humans, building a home for herself here, only to have this inhuman creature arrive and capture her heart. She didn't want him to leave. She didn't want to be alone anymore.

As if he knew this, he lifted her chin with his cold fingertips, then leaned in to kiss her with cold lips. He made to her the same offer she made to him. "You don't have to be alone anymore, Don'ea. Come back to Volterra with me. Join us. It's true, your abilities would be a great asset to our coven. But I don't ask just for that alone." His red eyes questioned her.

She smiled at Aro. "No one can change me into a vampire because my body can't be dosed with your venom. And I'm safe from your kind feeding off me, since my blood is not compatible with your dietary needs." She wondered if he really cared for her, or merely saw her as someone to make use of.

He held her hands in his, her thoughts non-existent to his mind's probing. "Stop blocking me, dear one. Open your heart to me."

She nodded as she stared into his crimson eyes. She found them intriguing, beautiful even. "I have never met a vampire, although I have heard of the lore. Humans can be quite superstitious."

Aro gazed at the female standing before him. She appeared human, but was not human. And he found himself wanting her more and more.

"If you decide to accept me, my dear, you may return to Volterra with us. We'll give you a home and companionship. You may use your gifts to defend the coven, if you're willing. I won't ask any more of you than you're willing to give." He took her hands in his, kissing the palm of one. "Perhaps some day, you will consent to be my mate."

The guards were surprised at what they saw unfold before them. Aro had met a human with whom he had formed some attachment, and was now going to bring her home with them to Volterra.

Her eyes went wide at his words. This was unexpected. "Aro, will I fit in?" Her eyes were fixed on his, something shining there he would later come to understand.

"We are alike, you and I, even if we are different. We both live long lives. Neither of us can be harmed. It seems a perfect match to me. " His hand brushed over her cheek while she felt his emotions flood her heart. The connection was so strong, she knew even time could not break it.

Don'ea looked around the cabin.

Aro asked her, "If there's anything you wish to bring with you, if you agree, Felix will gather them." He took his cloak off the hook by the door and put it on. He took her cloak that also hung by the door and placed it around her shoulders.

"No, there's nothing here worth keeping. All right, I'll join you, Aro. Your home will be my home, your people my people. And you..."

She wasn't able to finish before Aro gathered her in her arms and kissed her. He breathed in her unusual scent, so inhuman and unique. "You will be mine, my dear. Alien as you are and unable to be changed, I think we can make it work." Aro slipped an arm around her waist, leading her from the cabin.

"Wait." Don'ea went back inside and going to the small table that sat beside her bed, picked up a shiny metal box and slipped it into her cape pocket. Then she rejoined Aro and his guards outside.

Aro picked Don'ea up in his arms. "It's faster this way," he said, grinning.

The pair, along with Felix, Santiago, and Demetri, headed for Volterra...for home.

A/N : I was going to call this tale "Aro and the Alien", but felt it would give the reveal away.

#the volturi #volturi fanfiction #aro volturi #Aro/OC #werewolf attacked aro