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sh1-n0bu · 6 months

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𝔫𝔬𝔟𝔲’𝔰 𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔨𝔱𝔬𝔟𝔢𝔯 𝔬𝔣 2023!

day 19: breeding with dan heng il from hsr

warnings: breeding, cock/strap traditions, creampie, oral, dacryphilia, dan heng il being in heat, some dargon anatomy so monsterfucking in a sense? shit gets messy

notes: gods so close to finishing kinktober. hang in there nobu!!!

being a vidyadhara, dan heng tends to have a few differences when it comes to anatomy and bodily structures.

for example, even in his human form, his fangs are sharper, bigger and more prominent. he hates having to yawn next to others due to that fact. he has a forked tongue in his imbibitor lunae form, living up to the words of being the descendent of scion. and of course, the most notable being the horns protruding on top of his skull and the glow of his teal eyes. and not to mention the tail that he tends to let out from time to time.

but more importantly, being a vidyadhara, dan heng tends to go into heat. for a whole week.

it’s an absolute torture and he despises his body every time his heat cycle hits. incredibly needy for physical affection, making his more primal animalistic parts and tendencies show as he thinks of you — his mate. but more importantly, he hates how easily his two cocks would slip out of his cloaca, wet, leaking pre all over his inner thighs as he whimpers into one of your shirts.

the first day was fine. he managed to go through it by constantly being surrounded by things that remind him of you or your scent. a seaside scented candle lit up, one of your shirts worn over a spare pillow that he holds close to himself. the first day without you went by okay.

it was starting from the second day when things started to go downhill. the ever so stoic guard of the express stopped coming out of his room. locking the door shut tight as he makes the others worry.

it was on the third day that he broke. slipping out of the databanks at midnight and to your empty room, the guard of the express couldn’t help but let out a mewl the moment he stepped inside. your scent was much more stronger here and that caused the heat in his abdomen to become painfully unbearable. dan heng could feel his vent opening up, his two cocks slowly slipping out and straining against his boxers at just your scent.

how fucking pathetic he was. all he could do was to lay in your bed as he hopes for you to return from your errand soon. the poor vidyadhara really needed you right now or else he felt like he was going fucking crazy.

it was on the early mornings of the third day that you returned. tired and in desperate need of your sweet lover’s cuddles and soothing words as he whispers into your ear of how much he loves you and how selfless you are for always accepting missions and commissions from others. yet the sight of you caused your libido to kick in full throttle rather than the thought of his sweet cuddles.

there on your bed, desperately fucking his cock into the tight clutch of his fist was your draconic lover. all bare and spread out on the bed. his other hand keeping one of your shirts over his mouth to keep smelling your intoxicating scent while trying to muffle his loud whimpers. what a sight to behold.

walking up to beside him, you push his bangs out of his face. his forehead already drenched in sweat and lips open with drool slipping down his chin with loud, needy whines. it only got worse when he made eye contact with you.

upon recognizing that you were back from his hazy, fucked up head, dan heng lets go of his red cock. instead his hand reached out, your shirt that was muffling his noises long discarded as he tugs you down on the bed.

“oomf—! dan heng!” you let out a loud groan of protest, having the strength to say his name in a scolding tone despite your exhausted state. without even daring to pay attention to your scolding tone, his clawed hand fumbles with the belt of your pants. in his heat induced state, he couldn’t even do a simple action as taking off your pants. how needy.

with a desperate whine and an angered growl, he finally unbuckles your belt. throwing it away to a corner of the room, dan heng doesn’t even bother to undo your pants properly. instead using his claws and tearing away your clothes. you would so scold him for that later.

once your strap sprung free and slapped his cheek, your needy draconic lover lets out a whimper. oh, you smelled even better in person. wasting no time, he takes your shaft into his hand. placing open mouthed slobbering kisses along your shaft, drool covered lips finally taking you inside his mouth without giving you a warning. he had completely forgotten of his dignity and pride as he sloppily sucks on your cock. drool slipping past his lips as he gags and chokes around your length. he really was a mess when in heat.

sucking on your cock, struggling to take it fully into his mouth, whimpering around your tip as he places slobbering kisses along your length. it didn’t take long before your hand fisted at his long hair, fucking your length completely into his mouth. the dragon only took and took everything you gave him with whines and muffled moans.

all it took for you to break was his slitted tongue to lick a stripe one of your prominent veins. coming deep inside his throat with a grunt and loud moan of his name, you watch with a curse as he swallows every last drop. pulling his mouth off of your length with a lewd pop! he licks his lips clean before opening his mouth for you to see that he swallowed every single drop.

“fuck.. you’re seriously gonna be the death of me, dan heng” you say, switching your positions and allowing your pretty dragon to be lying on the bed instead. in response, all he did was giggle deliriously, spreading his legs wide for you to show you his cute puckering hole.

“hurry up, [name]! i need you to fuck a baby in me ghuckk♡︎!” without wasting a moment, once your tip was inside his warm walls, you thrust the rest of your cock deep inside him, making him squeal as his toes curl. that seemed to have made your needy dragon shut up for a while.

placing his hands under his knees for him to keep himself open, you waste no time to get straight to your part of the work. holding his hips with a bruising grip, you waste no time to jackhammer into his needy hole. each time you pull and push yourself back in, it grazed his prostate, making dan heng choke on his loud moans each time. clawed hands digging into his legs to the point he could draw blood, his tail — an extra appendage that he keeps it hidden in fear of hitting someone — now out in the open, wrapping around your hips tightly.

dan heng hated being in heat and he hated his animalistic parts. but aeons, did he loved it when you fucked him open so good like this.

“shit—! so cute dan heng. you wanted me to fuck a baby in you? huh? you want me to fuck a cute baby inside you?” through your gritted teeth and harsh groans and the loud smacking of your hips meeting his, you could see dan heng briefly nod his head weakly. that’s no good. can’t have your needy dragon tap out so early.

with another loud grunt when your strap gets harder to move thanks to him clenching down on you so much, you did the one thing you know that gets him so loud and debauched. reaching a hand down, you gave a tug to his tail, making dan heng let out a loud shriek as he comes on his stomach unexpectedly.

“y-yes! yesyesyesyes! please! pu-gucckk! fuck fuckkkk [name]♡︎ please, fuck a baby in me! want your baby inside me♡︎ uannhg! w-want your baby♥︎” nodding eagerly, tripping over his words as his tail gets painfully tighter around your hips, his hole clenching down on you as his pretty teal eyes lets out fat globs of tears.

that thought made the end of his tail wag around happily despite the logical part of his brain telling him it was impossible. the logical part in his brain screaming at him that vidyadharas can’t reproduce. that vidyadharas are being who can’t get pregnant but that logical thinking part of his brain is thrown out the window when you fuck his hole open so good. strap stretching him out, fucking his walls open as you whisper absolute filth into his ear.

through hazy eyes and cotton filled brain, dan heng felt giddy at the prospect of getting properly bred by you. of having a child with you. a cute family of three, you and him with a child that’s half him and half you. that thought got him whimpering as he clenches down on your cock. when feeling the familiar warmth of your cum spilling deep inside him, painting his walls white, dan heng clings into you tightly with a croon.

but you had no intention to stop after just one round. even though you both knew that vidyadharas can’t reproduce, you’ll be damned if you at least don’t try hard enough.

flipping him on his stomach, you waste no time before plunging deep inside him. the feeling of being fucked into overstimulation had dan heng shaking like a leaf under you. but the weak thrust of his hips, desperately fucking himself back onto your length was a proof that he was long gone into his heat. mind filled with the thought of finally becoming bred by you properly.

and that made him giggle deliriously as his tail unconsciously tighten around your hips yet again.

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piratecaptainscaptainpirates · 22 days

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Okay, I wanna talk about Fun and Games and the Anne and Mary plot.

First thing: the whole setup with Anne and Mary is a very one-to-one reference to the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, as many have already pointed out, but unless you've seen the play you might miss just how clear the reference is - there are lots of direct, kinda subtle references, from Anne kissing Stede to Mary throwing an axe at Anne's clock, but the main plot of this episode is so heavily rooted in what happens in the play that it's very worth talking about. "Fun and Games" is the title of the first act of the play.

A brief synopsis of the play, if you've never seen it. It will sound very familiar. The setup is an older couple having a younger couple (who mirror them in many ways, down to occupation) over at their house. George and Martha, the older couple, have a relationship that at first seems normal but quickly becomes obviously dysfunctional. They're passive-aggressive with each other, have all these little games they play with each other with rules obvious only to them, and frequently get into heated arguments and try to embarrass each other in front of their guests. Nick and Honey, the younger couple, are revealed as the play goes on to have some issues between them that could very easily lead to their marriage going the same way as George and Martha's, just fun and games because they can't handle actually talking like adults and accepting each other as they are. When George and Martha are forced to stop playing little games with each other, the play concludes with an open ending, and we as the audience are left to wonder if George and Martha will be able to actually talk through their emotions and problems without the impuse to avoid them that they've been leaning on for years.

The name of the play is a reference to Virginia Woolf, who was an author very invested in earnest exploration of a character's inner thoughts and feelings - playwright Edward Albee says that the play's title can be read, really, as "who's afraid of living life without false illusions?" and when Martha says she's "afraid of Virginia Woolf," that's what she means. The characters in the play constantly play games and create little illusions to hide from their real feelings and what happened in reality because it's too scary for them to be honest with themselves and with each other.

Anne and Mary are a cautionary tale for Ed and Stede, but it's not a simple "if you quit piracy you're going to get bored with each other and regret it." The cautionary tale is "if you refuse to talk with each other, if you refuse to actually address the reality of the situations you're in together, if you allow yourselves to become so bitter with each other because you would rather pretend you can get by with fun and games instead of acting like adults in a relationship, that is when you'll end up like Anne and Mary." It's notable that Mary mocks Ed and Stede for acting like teenage boys and not having an "adult" relationship, because she and Anne approach their relationship very childishly, snipping with each other, trying to get a rise out of each other, and refusing to actually talk, and when Ed and Stede are having an open, earnest, heartfelt conversation, they laugh and mock them for it.

And I think a lot of analyses of this episode miss that Anne and Mary broke free from the fun and games cycle at the end of the episode. When Anne set their shop on fire, she's burning the illusions they've been living with, too - their version of George and Martha's game is trying to "kill" each other, so scared of that final mystery, which of them is going to keel over first, that they have to make it into a game. The episode is not saying that it was a mistake for Anne and Mary to quit piracy and settle down. It's saying that their problem is refusing to actually talk to each other and communicate like adults, and when Anne commits to Mary over their shop, this symbol of the life they've become so bitter about and all the games they play to talk around their feelings with each other, they share a hug and we get the sense that their relationship is on the mend.

This episode is extremely well-crafted. It references the play without becoming overly derivative, but the central themes remain strong. It's a cautionary tale for Ed and Stede, but it's not a basic one, and it comes back at the end of the season when Ed panics and runs away to live an illusion of a fisherman instead of communicating with his boyfriend. Ed and Stede are not becoming Anne and Mary when they settle down together - it's the opposite, they're committing to what they want and living a life without illusions.

#ofmd #our flag means death #fun and games is exceptional and i will tolerate no slander!! not in my house!! favorite episode!

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kithtaehyung · 2 years

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⬛️ WEBSITE MOCKUPS : RKIVE.ORG ⬛️

“When we went abroad, we stayed in our hotel rooms except when we were working. The only places I could go then were museums. The art galleries full of Monets or Van Goghs were always crowded, but when I visited one weekday morning and had them mostly to myself, I had a eureka moment—an artist who’d passed away 100 years ago was communicating directly with a boy from Korea. I was so envious. From then on, I began seeking out and learning about Korean painters.” — HAPPY NAMJOON DAY! ; 940912 ; CLICK FOR HQ. twt | ig

Note: rkive and gallery walk gifs may take a bit to load, and look best on desktop. Note 2: To learn more about all of the artwork and artists showcased, click below.

When The Year 2000 Comes (2019), by YANG HAEGUE, the avant-garde of Korean art. “She is an accomplished and international artist. She notably represented Korea at the Venice Biennale in 2009 and participated to the prestigious dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel in 2012. In her works, which flirt with conceptual art, she explores myths and stories, that touch on the universal. She appropriates them through sculptures, installations, performances, and video.”

From Point (1976), by LEE UFAN, Korean Zen Art. “He is a Korean artist known worldwide for his paintings depicting the mark of a brush whose color fades… Yet his practice goes far beyond that! He creates performances, sculptures and installations, which always question a certain “state of being.” He is influenced by Zen and Asian philosophy, but has also drawn heavily on Western thought. Among his favorite subjects: observing the intimate, conflicting or poetic relationship between natural and artificial elements.”

Brushstrokes-Diagram (2015), by SONG HYUN-SOOK, Korean and Western art. “With her, each brushstroke tells a story, a journey. She weaves links between Korean art and Western art. On the one hand, it expresses that almost meditative state of concentration that exists in the art of calligraphy. On the other hand, she uses tempera, a typically European oil painting technique, to create patterns that immerse the viewer in reality and the present moment.”

Drawing, Charcoal on paper, 65 x 50 cm (2014) and Issu de feu Charcoal on canvas, 100 x 81 cm, (2000), by LEE BAE, the Soulages of Korean Art. “A Korean abstract artist. Like Soulages, for whom black is a color, he explores the almost infinite possibilities of black. He sinks into the abyss of darkness. Until recently, he mainly used charred materials to paint his canvases. In doing so, he offered a powerful metaphor for the cycle of life.”

Écriture No.160523 (2016), by PARK SEO-BO, Korean abstraction. “One of the best known Korean artists. He is emblematic of the monochrome Dansaekhwa movement. A current that synthesizes the traditional Korean spirit and Western abstraction. In a way, he is very close to minimalist artists, choosing neutral tones to highlight components and fabrics.”

Mat 61 × 81 #19-17 (2019), by SUKI SEOKYEONG KANG, contemporary art. “Born in 1977, this Korean artist is one of the biggest names of the art market. Her work is mostly inspired by her own philosophical research and reflection on space and our place in it. She uses sculpture, installation, and performance to explore these ideas. Her works were presented, among others, in the Venice and Shanghai Biennales.”

Untitled (1966), by CHOI WOOK-KYUNG, the outcast. “Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) is an outcast in the history of contemporary Korean art. She is an abstract painter. But most Korean abstract painters shine in Dansaekhwa: the Korean monochrome. She, on the contrary, is mainly influenced by expressionism. Brutally, instinctively, aggressively, she throws the colors on the canvas. She seeks to immerse herself in the moment, and to create true, pure, expressive forms. Thus, it plays a capital role for the diversity of Korean abstract art.”

Thank you for your interest in these artists and this passion project! All of the website information (other than the artist bio on the Artist Spotlight page) is fictional. Happy Joonie Day 2022, and let’s continue to support him and all the fantastic Korean artists out there.

SRC: one, two, three

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a-dinosaur-a-day · 6 months

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Fossil Novembirb 5: It's Getting Hot In Here

Sandcoleus by @drawingwithdinosaurs

Global warming is nothing new for the planet, and even in the Cenozoic we've had our share of rapid warming events - the most notable one being the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). This event, taking place 56 million years ago, was the result of rapid carbon release from the North Atlantic Igneous Province - aka, a volcano exploded, released a bunch of greenhouse gases, and suddenly global temperatures jumped somewhere between 4 and 10 degrees Celsius (depending on location) in a very short period of time - sound familiar?

Given the obvious parallels to the current day, this event has been studied extensively, though only in a few spheres. We know that plants changed dramatically, with broad leafed plants spreading around the world and turning it into a global tropical forest, even at the polls - leading to interesting adaptations towards the strange light cycles at high latitudes. The world was wetter, and greener, and the change lead to the evolution of new herbivory methods in insects. Mammals got smaller, spread everywhere, and diversified. A mass extinction occurred in the oceans, with microorganisms seeing a larger drop in diversity than during the end-Cretaceous extinction. More calcified algae flourished in the more acidic waters.

But what happened to birds?

Anachronornis by @otussketching

Turns out, we're not quite sure. Bird fossils before the event are rare, and after are so diverged and varied that it's difficult to know what happened because of the event, and what happened before and just didn't fossilize. Luckily, scientists (... me) are on the case! And there were a few ecosystems that straddle the time around the event, such as the one for this post: the Willwood Formation.

This ecosystem in Wyoming takes place over the late Paleocene through the early Eocene, covering the entire PETM period. And while it showcases many different aspects of this transition, we're of course here for the birds! Not only was there Gastornis, because it was a ubiquitous presence in the Northern Hemisphere following the PETM, there were also many other weird early kinds of birds, all across the avian family tree.

Paracathartes by @drawingwithdinosaurs

Sandcoleus is one of the more notable tree birds from this ecosystem, being a relative of living mousebirds but in North America (rather than Africa, where they are found today). In fact, lots of different tree birds were present, indicating that the current dominance of Passeriformes - so called "perching birds" - was not always the case. In fact, Paracathartes was also present - our first Palaeognath, an early Lithornithid! - and it also may have been able to perch in the trees, and certainly seems to have been a decent flier.

There were also Geranoidids like Palaeophasianus and Paragrus, which were once thought of as pheasant-like and crane-like respectively, but may now actually be Palaeognaths - and some of the earliest known flightless ones to boot! That said, said, other than being long legged flightless birds, we know little about their ecologies - they may have been herbivorous, and as tropical forest dwellers, could have had similar lifestyles to the living cassowary.

Primoptynx by @otussketching

And, of course, there was also Anachronornis, the half-screamer-half-duck thing, showcasing how waterfowl were experimenting with a variety of different niches during this ecological explosion. And the large variety of new small mammals didn't go unnoticed either - while other early owls are known from Europe, Primoptynx was both the oldest and the biggest, probably thanks to all the new small mammals to eat! There were also possible ground raptors, similar to Bathornis, though they have not been named.

While there are many questions left to answer, it is clear that the PETM had a major effect like it did on everything else on the planet during that time - and the tropical ecologies that they evolved in during the early Eocene would have many implications, especially for where different clades live today!

Sources:

Houde, P., M. Dickson, D. Camarena. 2023. Basal Anseriformes from the Early Paleogene of North America and Europe. Diversity 15 (2): 233.

Mayr, 2022. Paleogene Fossil Birds, 2nd Edition. Springer Cham.

Mayr, 2017. Avian Evolution: The Fossil Record of Birds and its Paleobiological Significance (TOPA Topics in Paleobiology). Wiley Blackwell.

#fossil novembirb #novembirb #dinovember #dinosaurs #birds

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ohyeahben10 · 2 months

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Have you done headcanons for Appoplexians or Cerebrocrustaceans yet? If you haven’t done either, your pick, and if you’ve done both, you can instead share headcanons about your favorite alien species or the one you have the most thoughts about!

I haven’t posted about Cerebrocrustaceans specifically but I have talked about them before! Namely in my Vulpin headcanons as I like to imagine them being in the same planetary system! I’d love to talk about these crabs some more!

Intergalactically, Cerebrocrustaceans have a somewhat bad reputation. Not only can they be hard to work with, but because of how they drained their former planets Encephalonus I, Enceph. II, and Enceph. III of all life.

Them being hard to work stems from deeply instinctual territorial behaviors. Despite their highly advanced intelligence, Cerebrocrustaceans simply never evolved out of their primitive hostility to Any Threat to their Territory.

This being where the species’ rivalry with the Galvans stems from.

Additionally, Cerebrocrustaceans have a strong dislike of Planchaküles. Cerebrocrustaceans culture highly values order and dignity, while Planchaküles behave as absolute chaos goblins and achieve incredible mechanical advancements that easily rivals Cerebrocrustacean work.

Their territorial nature makes lab assistances a non-concept on Encephalonus IV.

When group collaboration is needed (such as the creation of the Cerebroian Currmary as discussed in the aforementioned Vulpin post) Cerebrocrustaceans will agree to meet in a neutral gathering space owned by none of the working Cerebrocrustaceans.

Planet hopping greatly encouraged adaptation in Cerebrocrustacean biology. Modern populations are observed to be more capable of operating on less food and more resistant to pressure changes.

On the topic of adaptation, there is very apparent differences between subsections of Cerebrocrustaceans. The most notable is some being aquatic and others being terrestrial. (This is can seen in examples such as Brainstorm requiring a breathing brace, while Dr. Psychobos does not.)

Aquatic Cerebrocrustaceans have built expansive underwater infrastructure that spans for miles on record. Their water built technology puts them on interplanetary interest.

Semiaquatic, air-breathing Cerebrocrustaceans typically live just above the water, enjoying the brackish and humid conditions.

Fully terrestrial variants seemingly instead push themselves as high above the water as they can manage, many apparently believing this to be proof of their higher advancements to their cousins.

There are five united societies on Encephalonus IV. Two of these are fully aquatic, two semiaquatic, and one fully terrestrial. When planet wide matters are up for discussion, representatives from each of these five nations meet on unowned territories and attempt to reach the most mutually beneficial agreement.

Cerebrocrustaceans do not care for their offspring. Eggs are laid and left. Newborns will hatch and fight for rugged survival until their brains have developed enough to join proper society.

There is no social concept of romance in Cerebrocrustacean culture. Reproduction exists as a part of a natural cycle, usually having little intimacy in it.

On this, there is a booming interest in hormonal adjustment practices that remove the urge to breed.

There is no mass recognized currency on Encephalonus IV. Accommodations (such as travel, lab spaces, high functioning homes, etc) are earned through having the Cerebrocrustacean’s intelligence being recognized. If your work is considered impressive and worthwhile, you will have access to ever increasing resources.

Many Cerebrocrustaceans will agree to off planet work with no financial compensation, believing the work will bolster their reputation on their homeworld.

Meanwhile, so to say “low class” Cerebrocrustaceans are limited to a conservative amount of resources to use. Caused by their society’s fear of draining their planet like they had in the past. Cerebrocrustaceans at the bottom of the bucket are expected to work their way up to higher recognition through success. However, there is history of Cerebrocrustaceans whose failures are well known enough that they are “unofficially” given even smaller access to resources.

There are some Cerebrocrustacean whose measurement of intelligence are less material and more philosophical. They are not well respected.

Hope this is acceptable anon!

#my asks #ben 10 #brainstorm #cerebrocrustacean #encephalonus IV #headcanon

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impatient14 · 9 months

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Anthony J. Crowley as Lucifer: A Meta of Facts, Fiction, and Everything in Between

The theory that Crowley is Lucifer is hotly defended and contested, with naysayers typically casting the archangel Raphael as Crowley's identity in heaven (@vroomvroomwee's Crowley is Lucifer is particularly good-read the replies and reblogs too!) However, despite Raphael's notably absence in Heaven and the matchmaking plot of S2 (Raphael is traditionally associated with love and marriage), I think there is far more evidence that suggests he was Lucifer, instead. Yes, I know Crowley refers to Lucifer as someone other than himself in S1, but I'll get to that and everything else below the cut.

Full disclosure, I stumbled into this analysis from a different angle. Originally, I was just posting a quick little thought I had about Crowley's role on Earth. TLDR version, Crowley could have been acting not only as an agent of Hell on Earth to tempt humans but specifically ordered to tempt Aziraphale to Fall, an order he almost immediately succeeds in doing but chooses not to report. Since S2 made it clear that Crowley did not reserve his mercy for Aziraphale alone (i.e., his sense of fairness is intrinsic and not a characteristic obtained through his love for Aziraphale), it would be reasonable to think Crowley maneuvered himself into being assigned Hell's agent on Earth specifically to protect Aziraphale from Hell. This would not only mean Crowley remembered him from the beginning, it would mean he had the kind of power to assign himself that role. (It would also mean Crowley has been lying to both Hell and Aziraphale this whole time- a detail that would support Agnes Nutter's prophecy that "He is not who he says he is.")

This idea, that Crowley not only refused to send Aziraphale to Hell but actively protected him from it, screams rebellion--a characteristic Lucifer is most known for. Sure, you could argue all the angels who fell were rebellious (note here that Raphael never fell), but Crowley is the only demon in Hell who continued to rebel after he fell, making his association with the characteristic as notable as Lucifer's. This will be important in a moment.

Let's start with some history/translation issues.

The difference between Lucifer, Satan, and the Devil.

The conflation of these three names is a Christian phenomenon thought to have occurred in the process of organizing a conglomeration of "lost gospels" from numerous Christian sects, each one with their own translations and traditions. In the original Hebrew, "Satan" is actually ha-satan ("the satan"), defined as a role rather than a name (specifically the role of testing one's faith). At some point in the translation process, "the" is dropped and the tempter is simply, "Satan." Satan, before being completely subsumed by Lucifer, was considered Lucifer's vessel on earth-a separate entity.

Now, "Lucifer" is Latin for Venus' morning appearance. The word was taken from the Greek words Φωσφόρος (Phosphorus), "light-bringer", and Ἑωσφόρος (Eosphorus ), "dawn-bringer." So how did Lucifer become synonymous with a fallen angel? Folklore and metaphor. I could go really deep here, but instead I'll just say the Sumerian myth about the goddess Inanna's ability to descend into other realms including the underworld and then rise again to heaven. This myth is based in the synodic cycle of the planet--you guessed it--Venus (more specifically Venus in retrograde). Jump to the Book of Isaiah when the king of Babylon is condemned, Isaiah refers to the king as "Lucifer:"

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! {14:13} For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: {14:14} I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. {14:15} Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. {14:16}

Thus, the "morning star" falling from heaven is a motif born out of a long list of myths and translations that get thrown in a pot together, stirred up, and then served according to disparate cultures and traditions. Some of those traditions combined "the satan" and "Lucifer" into Satan/Lucifer, some others kept "Satan" and "Lucifer" as two separate beings, with Lucifer ruling over Satan who acts as an agent of temptation on earth. (Sound familiar? Hold that thought!)

In contrast to "Satan" and "Lucifer," "The Devil" can be deterritorialized more simply. The title comes from a series of translations of Greek's διάβολος (diábolos), or "slanderer." Thus, how the Devil became synonymous with all things Satan, Lucifer, and Hell can be inferred via its etymology.

So, if in some traditions Satan's role is to tempt people's faith, that would mean Crowley is Satan, right? Under my thinking, yes and no.

In the Bible, "tempting" Eve simply meant asking why she hadn't eaten from the Tree of Knowledge and then telling her the truth about what would happen if did (i.e., she would not die as God claimed but would instead be granted the wisdom to know the difference between good and evil). This is important if you recall that "the satan" may act as an agent of hell, but it isn't inherently good or evil, it's there by God's design to test people. So in this way, sure. Crowley plays the role of "the satan." But in the Good Omen's universe, Satan is given definition as the King of Hell (aka Benedict Cumberbatch and a team of CGI wizards), while Lucifer is only mentioned once (I'm getting there, promise!). Given all the amalgamations we've just gone over, it isn't outside the realm of possibility that Gaimon and Pratchett switched their roles. If anything, it makes far more sense that "Lucifer" would become "Crowley" over "Satan." Lucifer was an angel not a deity, so he would become a demon, while the Satan of Good Omens is set up as a direct opponent to God.

But why does Crowley have to have been Lucifer? Couldn't he have been another fallen angel?

Sure. But it isn't a coincidence that Lucifer and Raphael aren't mentioned by name (except once, I know!). Crowley's physical characteristics are more inline with Lucifer's than Raphael's (according to literary tradition, i.e., Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno); he was the first one to say "let there be light;" rebellion is intrinsic to him (continuously rebelling against hell); he's androgynous (Lucifer as the masculine fallen angel and the feminine Venus); and he has many faces (which he shows off more in S1). Plus, Lucifer is said to have committed the sin of Pride, something Crowley demonstrated a lot of after he cranked the cosmos.

Also, S2 has made perfectly clear that Crowley is insanely powerful for a demon. (I'm convinced the huge power surge they investigate is not the miracle that hides Gabriel but is in fact the burst of energy Crowley produces when he's angry. It occurs at roughly the same time and in the same place. Narratively, it'd be just as easy to have the blackout occur another way, so Crowley's power surge must have another purpose.) In the book, the Narrator of Good Omens (God) says, "Crowley has something no other demons have, especially not Hastur--an imagination." Crowley is repeatedly singled out as being different than the other demons. He is able to read the report that is locked to everyone but the highest of authorities in Heaven.

So, now let's talk about that quote from S1: "I never asked to be a demon. I was just minding my own business one day and then... oh, lookie here, it's Lucifer and the guys!"

It's reasonable to assume Crowley is referring to himself saying "lookie here" after he was the subject of the first part of that sentence. But in actuality, the suggestion that Crowley was "minding his own business" would contradict him then going up to a group of people and initiating a conversation. Therefore, the ellipses (as they are designed to do) represent an absent thought. In this situation, the transition of the subject. In this moment, Crowley is recalling the moments before he fell, when he was minding his own business (while in the company of others) when someone singled out him the other rebels/questioners.

Taken another way, it's also entirely possible that Crowley is referring to himself in the third person as an outside viewer of the situation because, in point of fact, even if Crowley was Lucifer, Lucifer no longer exists according to Neil:

What does all this mean?

It means that even if Crowley was Lucifer, Lucifer doesn't exist because Good Omens takes place after the Fall. Now, this may put a little hiccup in the idea that Crowley can read the top secret files because he was an archangel, but I think it can be explained away via the ineffable plan. It is obvious that God still loves Crowley and shows him preferential treatment. It isn't outside the realm of possibility that she allowed him to keep certain parts of Lucifer as he Fell--especially if he was going to play the role as tempter on Earth. Clearly Crowley retained some of his angelic "goodness," which includes a unique moral code on Earth. Otherwise he'd be just like all the other demons. Crowley has to have enough good in him to appreciate humans, to be able to differentiate who should be tempted and how. He has to understand them in order to tempt them. This, I would argue, is the perfect punishment for an angel that questioned God's creation of man (but we know now he was just questioning the subsequent destruction of the universe he created). For daring to challenge her plan, God sends Lucifer (aka Crowley) to Earth to live among the humans he didn't value in Heaven. But, as we've seen, Crowley can still go up to heaven even when he's not in Aziraphale's body. Just like "morning star" Venus, Crowley can rise to the heavens, idle at the horizon, or fall into darkness. Even as "Crowley," Lucifer is still God's favorite.

So to go back up to where we started, it's possible that Hell ordered Crowley to tempt Aziraphale into falling, but God allowed Crowley to retain a sense of justice, and, perhaps more notability, his ability to love. I think Beelzebub and Gabriel's coupling is a sign that Heaven and Hell's hold on angels and demons weakens when they are confronted with human experiences, which would explain Crowley's very loose allegiance and Aziraphale's increasing discontent with Heaven. The difference between them is that Crowley--on some level--remembers what it's like to be an authority but not THE authority in Heaven, and he knows how fruitless Aziraphale's mission is. As the serpent, he has all this knowledge but Aziraphale is still very naïve, still devoted to the idea of "good" vs. "evil." He needs to see for himself that this dichotomy doesn't exist, even with him in charge. Once he's able to see this and understand what it means for his identity, I think we'll see the most elaborate "I Was Wrong" dance in history.

(Note: I didn't proofread this before posting, because I don't wanna. Now I'm going to devote a stupid amount of time trying to see if I can figure out what the damn J stands for.)

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #anthony crowley #crowley x aziraphale

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givemewallywestorgivemedeath · 2 years

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Zatanna just drove her house into the speedforce one time and I feel like we should talk about it.

Did they call it 'the speedforce'? No but I think it's important to remember that 'the speedforce' was a jokey placeholder name that the speedsters came up with and used so much that it accidentally stuck.

Zatanna and the rest of the cast of Justice League Dark travel to what they call 'the Heart of Chronos'. They describe this dimension as 'the source of all time for every universe'.

Now I ask of you, can there be two dimensions that are the source of all time for every universe? I'm going to go ahead and say no. My conclusion here is that there are just two very different names for the same place. There is the Star Wars joke name and there's the creepy magic name.

But hold on folks, that's not the only similarity.

See, people connected to the speedforce have to deal with the omnipresent threat of the Black Flash. This is an entity (or entities, plural, there's more than one) that seeks to usher speedsters to death. You could say that the Black Flash is a Speedster Grim Reaper. The Black Flash typically looks like a zombie Flash in an all black suit, has glowing red eyes, superspeed and if it touches a speedster the speedster will die (or sometimes turn into one). And not 'die' as in go into the speedforce, no, they will actually die. The Black Flash usually shows up to collect a speedster before they're supposed to die and, in some cases, goes after speedsters who have ripped the fabric of time one too many times. One notable way speedsters have escaped these so called Black Flashes is when Wally ran to the end of time and lured it outside of time itself. Death cannot exist without time and thus it stopped existing.

Now, Justice League Dark visited the Heart of Chronos (also called the center of time) because they'd accidentally ripped the fabric of time while time travelling and those rips were threatening to destroy the fabric of reality.

And what exactly was emerging from those rips in time? These guys:

Zatanna called them 'time gremlins'.

Now right away the similarities are stark. They are all black, they have glowing red eyes, they emerge from rips in time and go after the people who created those rips and they kill anyone they touch (but sometimes they corrupt people). But the really insane part? You wanna know how the magic guys briefly kept safe from them?? They stopped time. The 'time gremlins' couldn't operate without time.

The interesting part of this is that we don't have an origin story for the Black Flashes at all. We just know that sometimes the previous Black Flash infects a new speedster and corrupts them into the new Black Flash. But the Time Gremlins do have an origin story.

The are Pralaya's thoughts personified. Pralaya is the void basically. The opposite of everything and anything. "Call me the Darkness that proceeds the light of creation... Without the Nothing that I embody, the Everything that you so cherish, could never exist." Whenever time is ripped Pralaya is awoken and is able to access everything through the cracks in time. The time gremlins are sent out to usher everything back into darkness so that Pralaya can reset the cycle and begin creation anew.

And I honestly have got to say... this makes the Black Flash make a lot of sense. This makes everything make a lot of sense. Think about it, why would the speedforce send out a Grim Reaper to collect speedsters before they're supposed to die if they go into the speedforce when they die anyway? Doesn't it make more sense that the sentient entity that is the void is sending them out because her entire goal is to reset everything and having a bunch of immortal guys chilling within the speedforce kinda circumvents that. She's trying to get them before they get in there.

And why does the Black Flash look like a Flash and have superspeed? Because he's literally just a corrupted speedster being used to hunt down other speedsters.

The way that Pralaya calls the time gremlins 'thoughts' is just so similar to how the speedforce sometimes personifies 'thoughts'. If they are truly equals and opposites then it would make sense that they would be able to do vaguely similar things.

I've always wondered how the Gorillas in Gorilla City knew all about Barry becoming a Black Flash and how it'd affect everyone. And how the Cult of Cicada knew that the speedforce was the key to reversing death. Where did this lore even come from? But if the speedforce is actually codified into myth as 'the Heart of Chronos' then suddenly it makes a lot of sense why this is accessible information for cults.

Also look at how they show this corrupting black goop that turns people into the Black Flash in the Flash comics. It's the same thing. Wally calls it 'the death aspect of the speedforce', Thawne calls it 'the negative speedforce', but it really really just seems to be Pralaya's power.

#dc #the flash #kid flash #dc comics #zatanna #zatanna zatara #justice league dark #black flash #speedforce #theory #flash fam #flash family

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comicaurora · 2 years

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Is there a fan theory you’ve seen for Aurora or any other story that you really enjoy, regardless of whether or not it is/ was correct?

Ophelia was pregnant and/or Gertrude killed her

In Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Wasp's powers aren't just from Pym Particle technology - she's also secretly a mutant. There's subtle textual support for this if you look, it's just never brought up

Batman Beyond is specifically the alternate future that happens if Damian Wayne is never born. Disproven in the comics and as far as I know this is just my personal theory, but I like that it allows for the Beyond future without dooming Main Canon Bruce to a lonely and depressing old age sans batfam

Han Solo is slightly force-sensitive which is why he's so lucky and such a good shot, but he has no idea and would be very frustrated to learn that he's been subconsciously cheating

Rey is descended from Obi-Wan, probably through Satine (obviously not canon but I was solidly in this camp and maintain it would've been better than what they went with)

The Arkenstone is a Silmaril which is part of why everyone gets so weird about it

Everyone specifically calls the One Ring "precious" because it's a tiny fragment of sauron's soul and his original name meant something like "precious" or "beloved" and everyone it gets near subconsciously picks up on that residual vibe without knowing why or even realizing it's happening (I don't remember the details on this one but it was very cool)

Zion is just another layer of The Matrix

The hidden SOS signals in the BotW Divine Beast themes correspond to when each champion first called for help during the Calamity, and correspondingly, since Vah Medoh's SOS starts the latest of the four, we can deduce that Revali waited the longest to send out his distress call because he was too proud to admit he was outmatched. Bonus theory, the bullet-time feature is actually Link's special champion ability (like Mipha's healing, Revali's gale, etc) and thus exists diegetically in-story rather than just being a game mechanic

My personal BotW theory that'll be proven or disproven whenever BotW 2 comes out: the Triforce of Courage is notably absent from this incarnation of Link - because it's currently being used by that spooky green ghost arm to seal mummy-Ganon, and that ghost arm definitely belongs to a previous Link. This sealing is why Ganon's previously-ubiquitous mortal form is now only known in legend and he's just been farting out metaphysical calamities every few thousand years - some past Link used his part of the Triforce to lock Ganon down and stall the cycle of reincarnation. Bonus points if sealed-Ganon also has the triforce of power and they're just locked in a stalemate until BotW 2 begins and the spooky arm merges with Link. I have a lot of thoughts about this game and I NEED IT

my other BotW theory is that every time Link dies it's not a timeline-breaking game over - the local Koroks just lug him back to the shrine of resurrection and pop him back in for a few minutes to juice him up. the less silly version of this theory is just that the sheikah slate automatically warps him back to the shrine of resurrection when he goes down and then warps him back later, but I think it's funnier if a bunch of koroks crowdsurf him up the Great Plateau

#asks #not aurora

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lefresne · 1 year

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What I have never understood about Galahad is Why does he need to be Lancelot's son? Why does Galahad need to be born by Rape? And Why and HOW on earth can Elaine be the Grail Bearer and still commit an obvious sin?

(tw for issues related to rape)

Oh anon, this is one of the great mysteries of Arthuriana. Even more puzzling is the fact that by the end of the twelfth-century there already was a Grail hero: Perceval! In fact, early prose romances, building on Chrétien’s poem, will keep Perceval as Grail hero (ie. The Perlesvaus and the Didot-Perceval, an early prose cycle that includes a prehistory of the Grail, a prose Grail Quest, and a version of the Mort), but for some reason by the 1230s, a few significant developments have occurred: Lancelot’s lineage is ‘attached’ to Joseph of Arimathea’s and the name ‘Galahad’ is introduced for the first time. The best essay on the subject is Emmanuèle Baumgartner’s chapter in The Lancelot Grail Cycle: Text and Transformation, ‘From Lancelot to Galahad: The Stakes of Filiation’. Broadly, it argues that the introduction of the character of Galahad is answering to both narrative and textual issues: principally, how to reconcile widely divergent textual traditions that one ‘inherits’ in order to produce a single, coherent ‘cycle’. The medieval ‘cycle’ is itself responding to a desire for ‘total’ encyclopaedic knowledge of Arthurian history, and this desire for accumulating a frankly disorientating amount of textual material was in fact very characteristic of the period. As to why is has to be Lancelot specifically, it might just have to do with the fact that the prior textual sources establish him as the 'best' knight so it would have been prestigious to have him as a father. Unfortunately, within the ideological framework outlined in earlier Grail narratives (notably its emphasis on chastity), Lancelot must be ‘sacrificed’, punished, and violated in order for these disparate textual elements to ‘fit’. He cannot be the Grail hero because of his prior textual inheritance, the only ‘solution’ (and I am putting HUGE quotation marks here) is to fall back on a trope common the chivalric romance which is that narrative progresses along the same lines as heterosexual reproduction (which is itself a fantasy but that’s for another time YIKES). The character of Lancelot has to be ‘rewritten’ into Galahad (and this is a trope that is super prevalent throughout the PL and Vulgate Cycle, all Lancelot’s ancestors have the same names and seem to be like weird, uncanny echoes of each other). In other words, if you're thinking that the introduction of Galahad is incoherent, it's because it is - it's literally trying to make things that were not initially thought as fitting together, fit together through re-writing / over-writing.

I have the PDF of the chapter if you do not have institutional access, and I might be able to find a way to get it to you (hint hint nudge nudge).

As for Elaine’s final fate, she is deemed unworthy of continuing to bear the Grail, and retires to a convent, and then dies. She does, however, briefly voice her resentment towards her father as she considers herself ‘diminished’ now that she is no longer a virgin (yikes).

#asks #anon this is a HUGE QUESTION my dear #but I hope I can direct you towards more intelligent / more eloquent ppl than me #tw rape

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rowavolo · 3 months

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what’s your (group?)chat name(s) in obey me? as in luke and barbatos are “sweet tooth,” diavolo, lucifer, and barbatos are “the fantastic three,” etc. yes this is the tiniest detail of worldbuilding ever but my warrant is that i put too much thought into mine (and will go into detail if pressed)

- blue

WAIT I ACTUALLY. IVE DONE THIS.

i have decided on custom nicknames and icons for my s/i and like. most of the obey me characters (by which i mean like. the brothers and the primary dateables)

Here are my nicknames for them! (if you get the beel one youre my new best friend btw /silly)

And theirs for me!

Extra context, Octariians is my username on some video game things (though i have a few others i cycle through, i havent been consistent for yearsss) and i imagine simeon is like my grandma and just uses the last name to add a note about how he knows the person. He knows me because I'm friends with luke. and Barbatos names the people in his phone after their favourite kinds of tea if he likes them enough

Honestly I don't have anything off of the top of my head for group chat names. Though I can imagine me, beel and belphie being "the sleepy, the eepy and the hungry" or something dumb like that. theres an ongoing war over "the anti lucifer league" because when im in a good mood with him i keep changing it and satan and belphie get cross.

Though I'd imagine my gc with lucifer and diavolo is something really silly and cheesy but changes regularly based on the whims of dia and i (much to lucifers chagrin) . we love to come up with dumb nicknames too, especially ones related to notable groups of three. (i can totally see us being 'the starter trio' with dia as charmander, me as bulbasaur and luci as squirtle for like a really long time)

this is such a cool and fun ask, thank you so much!!!!. i absolutely live for the tiniest worldbuilding details you have no idea (glances nervously at the huge array of scattered headcanons i have about devils and angels and their mannerisms/differences) . Id love to hear some of yours if you're willing to share!! :D

#general barks #rowavolo #asks #blue anon #lore drops #lore #obey me

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rd0265667 · 4 months

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???’s Notebook

Master list

This is the content found in the notebook of a mystery person, who seems to be gathering information on the kingdom’s notable figures

Name:Kim Minji

Age:19

Position: General

Biology: Human

Strengths: Skilled in hand to hand combat, Armed combat, and a master tactician

Weaknesses: Too caring of soldiers, which has lead to giving up of strategic positions in favour of preserving life. Also, both Parents died in the war. Possible psychological warfare can be employed.

Profile: Initially a top student in the Royal Academy, Minji had to halt her education due to the Invasion from Qaetis. She has an inquisitive mind, which has served her well, as hours of reading War tactics and the art of war as a child has transformed her into a master tactician. This talent is rarely used however, as Qaetis attacks randomly and sporadically, making employing stratagems difficult. A war orphan, Minji seeks to save life more than take it, always protecting her soldiers and unwilling to take actions that put any soldiers in unnecessary danger, despite the strategic advantages it might provide

Name: Pham Hanni

Age: 19

Position: General

Biology: Human

Strengths: Master Marksmen, Adept Tactician, Expert in the Terrain around the Kingdom, as well as Astronomy

Weakness: Lacking in Close Quarters Combat, be it armed or unarmed. This can be easily exploited. Blitzing her with soldiers and taking her range away from her would be very useful in taking her down.

Profile: Not knowing her mother, Hanni was raised by her father in the Kingdom. A more mischievous person by nature, Hanni spent her childhood frolicking in the wilds, jungles and fields around the Kingdom, though she heeded her father's advice, staying clear of the Arctic Mountains. After a day of playing around, Hanni would climb to the roof of her house, gazing at the stars, and beginning to notice patterns in the Moon Cycles and Stars, she began to be able to forecast phenomenons such as the direction of the wind, the appearance of Fog. This makes Hanni a formidable foe together with Minji, and one well placed stratagem, with the appropriate knowledge of Heaven and Earth, could make their forces unbeatable.

Name: Danielle Marsh

Age: 18

Position: Queen

Biology: Human

Strengths: Charismatic, charming

Weakness: Frail and untrained in combat, can be easily taken down

Profile: Queen of the Kingdom, she is known for being kind to her subjects. While other rulers would increase taxes and provide less public services in order to spend money on the war, she is unlike other rulers. With her charm and extroverted nature, she has easily formed alliances with other kingdoms nearby, ensuring that no supply routes are cut, and her people can continue living despite the unrelenting attacks of Qaetis. However, she is still inexperienced, the early deaths of her parents forcing her to take the throne early

Name: Kang Haerin

Age: 17

Position: Priestess

Biology: Human(Though she seemingly possesses some psychic abilities)

Strengths: Has the power to influence minds and thoughts, seemingly through a psychic power

Weakness: Frail and untrained in combat, can be easily taken down

Profile: Priestess of the Kingdom, she wields a bell considered sacred amongst the people of the kingdom. Leads the people in worship of Bigarin, God of the Mountains. Also frequently leads her followers on relief missions, giving food and daily necessities to those in need of it in the city. She's well loved by the people, and is seen in the same regard and respect as the Queen. Other than that, her story is shrouded in mystery. Further checking required

Name: Lee Hyein

Age: 15

Position: Member of the Queen's guard

Biology: Unknown, but not human. Showing signs of superhuman strength

Strengths: Superhuman strength, enhanced reflexes

Weakness: Shows signs of exhaustion very easily, possible war of attrition could be exploited. Prone to tunnel vision, which can be exploited to bait her away from the Queen

Profile: A child of unknown origin, Hyein was found at the door steps of the kingdom by Danielle's mother, who took the child in. Shivering from the cold and starving, Hyein was nursed back to health by Danielle's mother. After, Hyein was free to leave, but to express her gratitude, Hyein pledged her service to the then King and Queen, who decided to train her to be the bodyguard of Danielle. Now, as a member of the Queen's guard, Hyein is a valuable member that has defended the Queen from many ambushes, showing glimpses of her superhuman strength in desperate times before being assisted by Minji and Hanni

Name: Darius

Age: 16

Position: General Minji’s Second in Command

Biology: Human

Strengths: Creative engineer, who creates innovative weapons and mechanisms. Also proficient with a rope dart and spears.

Weaknesses: Not as physically strong, possible to physically overwhelm him. Also, not particularly strategic

Profile: Not born of the Kingdom, Darius is the son of traders who had came to the Kingdom. On the way out, Darius' parents were attacked by bandits, and Darius barely managed to escape. With no one to turn to, Darius joined the army, serving under General Minji, rising to be her second in command. His use of the rope dart makes him a formidable opponent, especially if he gives chase. Other than that, he's an inventor, crafting unique weapons or any thing to give the soldiers a possible leg up

#fluff #rd0265667 #newjeans x reader #le sserafim #angst #new jeans kim minji fanfic #minji fanfic #kim minji fanfic #kim minji x reader #minji imagines #newjeans minji #kim minji #minji x reader #minji series #lesserafim #these tags don’t make sense anymore

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fearowkenya · 5 months

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Winds of Change

Chapter 3: When it Rains, it Pours

The gentle babbling of running water is dissonant in Ryo's ears as everyone slowly starts to regroup, making their way toward the middle of the central path, where—his breath hitches, sharp and cold against the inside of his throat—Shuuji is staring at the ground, head bowed and shoulders taut.

What happened in the waterway left its mark on everybody, and Ryo's doing his best to watch over his friends in the aftermath. Unfortunately, he doesn't have eyes in the back of his head, and neither does Shuuji.

ao3 link in the source, extended post-chapter commentary below! (:

i had a whole bunch of stupid temporary names for each section of every chapter during earlier stages of writing to help keep track of what order the segments were in. like i said on ao3, the working title for this chapter (the middle segment, specifically) was "The Gang Misplaces The Baby". Other notable ones were "be gay do crime hold egg" (ch1 pt1), "Get Punched Idiot" (ch1 pt2), and "EGG" (ch3 pt3).

ive been sitting on all my silly kunemon dialogue for WEEKS. im still not sure how i feel about it - on one hand, i kind of like it when you can only figure out what kunemon's saying through context, usually via ryo. but also i think it's really fun to explore what kunemon's voice sounds like in dialogue - if you translated all of kunemon's kews, would he speak the same way as jewelbeemon or banchoustingmon? it's hard to say, given that theres basically no time in-narrative save for the evolution event where banchoustingmon is center stage. that's part of why i think it's a shame that ultimate and mega stage evolutions are affinity-dependant rather than story-depedant. that said, i've heard that the development cycle for this game was BRUTAL, so i dont fault the devs for it. besides, it's kinda fun to try to figure out how to change ultimate and mega evo scenes so that they fit into a specific area of the story. i won't get into it now, but i have MANY thoughts on the subject.

i also have many thoughts about ryo. i know ive talked about this before, but he was the one to surprise me the most in truthful. i truly was caught off-guard at how much of ryo is hidden behind the walls he puts up at the very beginning. it's so delightful to me that this rough, foul-mouthed, prickly guy is arguably the most emotionally intelligent of the group. i bet he has no idea that his ability to read people is so impressive, and likely views his eye for detail is nothing out of the ordinary. i think these skills are both things that he started to hone at a young age, and now they're just second nature. although. i do think these skills completely go out the window when he's in distress.

also on the topic of ryo - i will die on the hill that he and saki have some kind of shared history. i dont think they go to the same school; there's a few references to saki probably being at the same one as takuma and minoru, and then at the amusement park in truthful, theres a bit of dialogue between minoru and ryo that suggests that the two of them go to different schools. so instead, i've mostly committed to the notion that they're …hmm… childhood "friends" is a strong word. probably closer to childhood "acquaintances". childhood "other kid i kept seeing over and over at the same place, and since theres no one else my age around here i dont have any other options". childhood "best available friend".

anyway, I think they were familiar with one another through their parents. it makes sense to me that one of saki's parents worked with ryo's mother or had some other kind of connection to her that faded after she died. or maybe ryo and saki ended up running into each other constantly while ryo's mother was in the hospital. in either scenario, a much younger saki and ryo would have been together frequently enough that they got to know each other pretty well as kids, then grew distant after their families' paths stopped crossing, not seeing each other again until the start of the camping trip. i think thats a decent reason for why ryo's not quite as temperamental with saki as he is with the others rightrightright at the beginning, and it would explain why he doesn't seem to mind her following him around and saying stuff like "idk what you'd do if i take my eyes off you" without him getting all that annoyed (relatively).

but yeah, this chapter was a LOT of fun for me to write. i really liked the idea of getting the immediate aftermath of the fight with wendimon from ryo's perspective. it was gonna be from shuuji's at first, but i think he would have been too caught up in shock and grief to be paying much attention to any of the others. ryo, on the other hand, is extremely observant and perceptive even though he's also pretty upset.

i had a great time writing shuuji listening in on kunemon and ryo's conversation. obviously i loved the duality of shuuji having no idea what kunemon is talking about while we the reader know that ryo gets whiplash between trying to cheer up a gloomy kunemon, exchanging stuff they've noticed about their friends, then being personally attacked about his feelings concerning a specific person (whose identity i hope was at least somewhat discernible without kunemon goggles). shuuji can understand the words ryo is saying just fine, but the information he learns catches him off-guard, and it occurs to him just how much distance there is between him and most of the group. this gave me a fun opportunity to think about what it's like to be shuuji at this specific part of the story - he's just had this horrible brush with death, and even though he's doing much better than he was before, he's at a point where he hasn't grown close with most of the others yet. we don't see much of shuuji having to build or rebuild his relationships with his peers immediately following the waterway - iirc the bulk of what we get is after those 10 days takuma was gone, and by then, the way he interacts with the others is much, much different.

i also really enjoyed getting a bit silly about the game mechanics in the last segment. finding random shit like plates of ribs and weird bananas isn't really addressed much beyond acknowledging that it was found. i think theres been SOME commentary about how the thing is weird, but to my knowledge, WHERE those weird things were found isn't acknowledged. nobody ever sits back like "hey so why the fuck did i find a pineapple inside of the piano" and i thought i could play with that a little!!

all right, thats gonna do it for this week. as you may have noticed, my ability to accurately gauge when i can post chapters is… hmm… questionable at best. i currently plan on posting chapter 4 on monday, but theres a small local con this weekend so i can't say for certain. my usual weekend chores will likely be pushed to monday unless im able to get them done tomorrow (highly unlikely), so we'll just have to wait and see!

thank you for reading, and as i said on ao3, im really really grateful for the comments ive gotten, even the ones in tags on tumblr. im always happy for more, and im so curious to know what stood out to people the most.

#digimon survive #digimon #ryo tominaga #tominaga ryo #shuuji kayama #kayama shuuji #kunemon

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agnol117 · 5 months

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i haven't thought of myself as my deadname since i was fifteen.

this wasn't intentional, but i don't think it was unintentional, either. i'd adopted the name "Agnol" online by then, taking a word i'd learned in french and chopping off letters until i was left with a word that was just sounds, and wasn't necessarily masculine (it's worth noting that "Agnol" is also the name of a superboss in Pokémon Colosseum, and that may have inspired me, but i don't recall ever reaching that boss). this wasn't really for trans reasons, not at the time. if you'd asked fifteen year old me about it, i probably wouldn't have had anything positive to say about being trans, if I had anything to say at all. but even then, there was a sort of sense in my mind that "deadname" was my body, while "Agnol" was me, in a way that was separate from my body.

in addition to all of this, i'd been playing as the girl in any game that let me since Dragon Warrior III on the gameboy color. truthfully, this came in waves, especially in Pokémon games -- i'd make a girl character, get embarassed about it, restart as the boy, get frustrated that that didn't "feel" right, restart as a girl, and repeat the cycle. eventually i just took to getting both versions, one to play "publically" at school as the boy, one to play on my own as the girl. and while all this was going on, i played around with names. i won't go through them all, but suffice it to say that it took me a while to settle on "jill," a name that feels right in a way i'm not going to get into here, and by the time i did i was pretty willing to actually acknowledge that i was, in fact, trans. i was also, by this time, thirty-one. it had been a rough decade and a half, and even then, i'd spent quite a lot of that time actively avoiding thinking about gender stuff.

all of this now brings us to Earthbound. there's gonna be pretty heavy spoilers here, and while it is a thirty year old game and most of what I've got to say has been kinda brough into the pop culture knowledge of Earthbound, this is your chance to turn back.

i'd been using "jill" as my name for characters when i could for about a year and a half when i got to my first playthrough of Earthbound. i'm not out in real life, because for reasons involving my health and safety, i can't be. so i was jill in games, in the places i could be. but, well, as much as i wished it didn't, that always felt like a character i was playing. and really, that's to be expected. much as i might wish i was, i'm not a pokémon trainer. even things like OneShot, where you as player are ostensibly a character in the story, didn't really feel like i was really "there." it didn't really feel like me.

Earthbound changed that.

at a certain point in Earthbound, you're prompted to enter your name. notably, the game specifies that it's asking for your name. you, the player. it verifies this later, but after that, you still have like four more dungeons to go through and a bunch of story shit happens and honestly i forgot it happened.

and then you get to Giygas.

i have a lot of feelings about this fight, but really, most of them aren't relevant here. the important part is how the fight ends. you reach a point where your characters cannot damage Giygas anymore. that's actually underselling it -- the fight reachs a point where you can't even understand what Giygas is doing to your characters anymore. it's become a meme at this point, but "You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas's attack!" is legitimately terrifying. you're not even fighting a clearly defined opponent anymore. you're fighting the background.

and Paula prays.

the game kind of obliquely hints at this, but having played Mother (which is, in retrospect, a truly tragic name for the series) previously and knowing that when you fought Giygas in that, you beat him by singing a lullaby at him until he has a mental breakdown and leaves (it's that kind of series), i kind of expected this. Paula prays, and as she does, various other characters in the game sense it, and they pray for you and add their strength to yours. and then, after praying a bunch of times and getting help from so many of your friends, your prayers stop working. Paula's call is absorbed by the darkness. but she tries one more time, and someone answers.

you.

the player.

the name you put in.

this was...moving. this touched me in a way that i struggle to find words for. i said in a previous post about this that after beating Earthbound, i had to go take a nap, and i wasn't kidding. it has been a week since i finished the game, and i'm still trying to process this. because they called out to me, and they did so using the name i've picked for myself. they needed me, and the me they needed is the me i've been trying to be for so long. for so long that when i first felt that longing, that feeling that i wasn't who everyone was telling me i was, i didn't have the words for it. i didn't know it was a thing i could feel. and Ness and his friends needed me. the person i want to be. the person i really am.

and my god, that just meant the world to me.

#jill plays games #earthbound #trans thoughts #trans #transfemme

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verminfang · 1 year

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Dnd character concept I want to play at some point (usually I have a million I just drone to friends about rather than post to tumblr but I feel like the concept is like, appealing to some of the mutuals), longish post because the concept behind it involves a lot of talking about what I feel the nature cleric class can be (as a fun opinion and deffo not prescriptive)

So often there’s a question about why play a Nature Cleric instead of a Druid (mechanics aside) and also about why the Nature Cleric gets features like Heavy Armor proficiency seemingly at odds with the whole nature vibe

My thoughts on this are to remember that rather than being representative and of channeling nature, a nature cleric is channeling the way in which humanoid civilizations (those that would be worshiping a god) interact with nature, as a resource or something to seek sanctuary from.

Mountains, Seas, Forests and Plains as seen by the miner, fisherman, woodsman, hunter or farmer who prays to their gods for safety and bounty.

If you look at the class features a Nature Cleric gets and see them as Civilization’s Taming of Nature as opposed to a Druids representation of the wild and natural it actually forms a pretty compelling argument:

As a class feature Nature Clerics have proficiency with and wear heavy armor, worked steel refined from the earth, unlike Druids who have a cultural taboo against it (there's potentially interesting stuff about fey fearing iron, there being fey themed druid subclasses and the idea of iron as a talisman as well here)

Their channel divinity is

The ability to magically charm and control plants and animals, at level 17 this is further expanded to give you the ability to command charmed creatures and notably named ‘Master of Nature’

The ability to charm and later command plants and animals through the invocation of your deity fits pretty well into the idea of domesticating and controlling nature, the humanoids dominion over it.

The other notable feature nature clerics get is

It’s the ability to protect you and your allies from the elements. It’s shelter. It’s ‘dampening’, reducing the power nature has over you. It’s civilization holding strong against whatever weather or natural disaster the natural world wants to throw at you.

So.. the ‘anti-nature nature cleric’..are they evil, some fern gully Hexxus motherfucker? I don’t think so. I truly think there’s nothing wrong with a character who venerates civilizations successes over nature. What does this character celebrate? Agriculture, domestication of animals, shelter, rebuilding from disaster, medicine saving those who’d simply die if they were left unattended in the wild, curing diseases.

The druid class and the realities of nature have been in a bit of a conversation. Disney druid who touts the harmony of nature in a very Disney way has seen some reactions in the form of the druid who is aware that nature is red in tooth and claw, accepts and celebrates it, death is all part of a glorious cycle, your spore druids and wildfire druids.

A nature cleric that goes one step further in that conversation, nature isn’t all bunnies and butterflies its disease, tidal waves and death, lets not accept it as whats natural lets actually try and do something about it. Build walls, grow food to provide for others, heal the sick and wounded. Death is natural? Clerics get revival spells I’m bringing my friend back.

So character concept:

Water Genasi Nature Cleric with this as their ethos, a cleric of Chauntea

Water Cleric as another add on to the theme of Civilization and Nature, connected to an element of the natural world that is also essential to humanoids, cities are built alongside it, the cradle of civilization etc.

top of the head PC name is Nile for obvious reasons.

I think the place I’d most like to use this PC is Tomb of Annihilation, the survival campaign module where you deal with the jungle, disease, apex predators and a curse that hurts those risen from the dead unnaturally.

#dnd #nature cleric #antinature nature cleric whose lawful good just feels really fun to me #in a stupid but wait it makes sense way #long post #this is the autism I often spare tumblr and only use to irradiate my friends in dms

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