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roleplay-abiogenesis2 · 1 year

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Hi hi Saru-mun!! For your Munday questions: what drew you to Cyno? How does Cyno fight, what kind of tactics does he employ? And as for you, what is something that you enjoy about your writing (and don't you wiggle out of answering!)?

//A sneak attack!! Always you!

This could turn into quite the essay, you know? Making me gush about my brainrot lord!

Let's see...

what drew you to Cyno?

The plain truth? It started with looks alone. As some regulars of my blog may have noticed, I have a slight fixation for silver haired characters. This is normally not enough to get me to take one as a muse though. What pushed me over the edge with Cyno was his Ancient Egypt theme in his character design. As a prehistory buff, I couldn't not be drawn by this choice. And Ancient Egypt just so happens to be my very favorite age in history, too. When I was a little kid, I had a vast collection of books and research material on the topic. It was possibly my second strongest fixation after dinosaurs.

Even better, he is a character with a role akin to that of a high priest. Religious characters have always been of great interest to me (-waves spasmodically at Sanzo, Hazel, mystic messenger muses-) because spiritualism has always fascinated me, even as an agnostic myself. There is something so morbidly interesting in the human mind and what brings us to trust into faith. Especially if you like history, it is undeniable what immense role religion and faith have played in the shaping of human society, encompassing military, warfare, medicine, education, architecture, and so much more. Many great good and evil things have happened in the name of gods without anything but our own beliefs that this was their will. It is such a great mystery that I can't help but dive into again and again, exploring what drives a believer's heart into action. Devotion, delusion, fear, dreams, idealism, morality... so many things, and they all go so deep into the human psyche!

And then there's the puns. I found out about this side of him after I had already picked him up as a muse, and it was just a welcome cherry on top because stupid jokes are just what I dish out as a second nature. Cyno opened a pandora's box by becoming my muse, really.

How does Cyno fight, what kind of tactics does he employ?

I will keep this one short and sweet (spoiler: this was a lie) because combat isn't my forte. Cyno is a melee fighter, brandishing a staff as his weapon of choice (you could equip him with spears in the game, but while I do embrace the canon that he knows how to fight with a spear, I feel the staff specifically would be his favorite). Trying to embrace his nature of Electro Vision wielder, I try to express his style as quick and straightforward. He aims for weak spots and charges head-on. Sneaky tactics are not his style, unless forced by lack of options.

As a personal choice, I write his style to be a bit gung-ho, with direct engaging to the front of his opponent without much regard for his own safety. He is nimble and agile, but definitely the type who puts all his bets on bringing down his enemy before he himself is... much like a thunderstrike striking to the ground to then lose all charge. My Cyno will walk out of a battle completely unscathed or severely injured, a convenient excuse to pay Gandharva Ville's residents a visit more often, I guess. Sorry, Tighnari.

This choice was made not only to match my terrible playstyle in the game, but also because I consider the cyclicality of life and death in his religion. As an arbiter of Hermanubis, Cyno has fully embraced death and does not fear it. This can only lead, as a consequence, to a very reckless and headstrong combat style.

Wow this wasn't short and sweet at all.

And as for you, what is something that you enjoy about your writing (and don't you wiggle out of answering!)?

This is a weird one to answer and I really wish I could wiggle out of answering it! I have lots of shortcomings in my writing, and I will never be done improving on any front, to be honest. As for things I think I can pat myself on the back about...? Hmmm.

I think I do a good job of writing realistic dialogue. This is a small issue I have with Tumblr, actually, so maybe it is something only I can truly appreciate and that others may find annoying. When I write my replies, I try to keep the dialogue flowing in a manner that feels realistic, including the way my muse transitions from one subject to the next. It is something I noticed is often ignored in Tumblr RP posts, with most people adopting a style where muses have 2 or sometimes even 3 different conversations in the same turn. I tried to adapt, but it felt always a bit jarring to me. So instead I try to cut off my posts where I feel my partner should have an opportunity to respond, interject, interrupt, react, or anything.

Like I said though, 90% of my RP partners do not do this quite as I do, so I don't think this is something I do better, as much as something I do differently. And maybe it is jarring to my partners while I like it, so, who knows if that's actually a good thing.

Other than that? I'm good at taking the initiative. Many people are shy to manipulate the scene and environment in a thread (a friend of mine actually told me it's because many think it threads dangerously into god modding), and when that happens, the scene becomes stale and doesn't progress. I pride myself to be able to take the reins and make things move along when my partner is more on the passive side. The downside of this is that sometimes I feel like I'm the one carrying the plot on their back and I miss that element of surprise from my partner that I do instead provide to them. So, there: I wish my partners were a bit less shy and not afraid to throw things at me! Make the weather change all of a sudden! Bring in a monster encounter! Cause an incident! Sweep me off my feet, I will never be angry at you for doing that. In fact, you may notice the threads I am most active on are those with partners who do provide me that thrill.

Hope you enjoy the novel that is this post, cause I'm not giving you a tl;dr xD thanks and love ya~

Saru-mun\\

#00j || that's what they said. [asked & answered]#ofhope #00A || Saru-mun is still alive! [OOC]

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remuseatsdeodorant · 3 years

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Adoring the new asides!

As an extremely logical person who deals with a lot of intrusive thoughts (and borderline delusions sometimes), the crew did a fantastic job at portraying the balance of these thoughts with logic.

How you sometimes still need to check to ensure the intrusive thought is wrong, even as your logic continues to repeat that there’s no way its true.

---

AND LOGAN FINALLY GETS MAD!! I hate that Remus of all characters tipped him over, when everyone else has ignored him so much. But I suppose it’s just because they’re such perfect counterparts.

This episode really pushed that Logan is being ignored because other important things keep happening. That Logan can acknowledge that Thomas’ newfound connection to Nico is important to Thomas’ health just as much as a clean apartment is, but is upset that his carefully planned.. plans are being pushed aside for spur of the moment decisions.

And finally solid confirmation of the orange side! Gonna be honest, I’m really hoping this is just Logan. That Logan comes in two parts, calm logic, and seething anger. As we have seen other side’s get angry, but none have shown the orange eyes like Logan did. It would fit thematically as well, given how often Logan pushes that he has no emotions. Almost like he’s (possibly subconciously) denying that he is a very emotional side. And that Patton (Logans direct opposite in roles) encompasses a lot of Thomas’ positive emotions.

I’m sure Im not the only one who can get really angry when going down a logical deep dive into something Im passionate about. In a lot of what I do, Logic and Anger are nearly hand in hand. And besides, when one is angry, they tend to think its a logical conclusion even when it may not be. Anger is an emotion that feels logically driven, even if its logic is flawed. So it wouldn’t be too shocking to see Logan be the orange side.

Alongside a connection like this bridging the gap between Romans dubbed “light and dark” sides. Where Virgil is one aspect (in name) in two spots depending on how one looks at him, it would be nice to see a side that is in both sides at once rather than Virgils grey area. Where logic is good, but can lead to anger which would be viewed as bad. A side that cant exactly be seen in a positive light (anger), being simultaneously one that is rarely seen in a bad one (Logic).

#sanders sides #logan sanders #remus sanders #Sanders sides spoilers #sanders sides theories #deodortalks #deodortheories

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extravalgant · 3 years

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the seven main schools (+ astral & shadow) as flowers

NOTE: i did not dive too deep into researching for this and most of the information i got for this post i got from this site . please dont come after me if i get a meaning wrong IM TRYING MY BEST!!! moving on

this is going to be a LONG POST so sit tight

myth - clematis (also known as traveller’s joy, old man’s beard)

i chose clematis mainly for its meaning: representing artifice, ingenuity and mental beauty. i think part of being a conjurer means that the world is only as big as you make it, and part of it is utilizing your imagination to its fullest extent. mental beauty and ingenuity go hand in hand with being creative, but artifice, in this flower symbolism, means to be cunning or be deceitful. i also think this comes from cyrus drake also being your teacher, which means he would teach in a style that would want you to exploit the weaknesses of the creatures that you summon (that being, calling their true name) in order for them to do your bidding.

“Myth dwells between Fire and Ice, for that is where the shadows lie, and Myths are the shadowy forms of thought made real.”

storm - gladiolus (also known as a sword lily)

urgh.... storm was such a hard school to choose a flower for @_@ according to the wizard101 site storm is also based on creativity, but since we already had that sort of meaning attached to myth, i decided to go with the next best thing which is that gladiolus represents strength, strong character, honor and moral integrity. i feel like it’s pretty well known fact that storm is a hitting school, and a pretty well known one at that - their reputation as a power school is pervasive through all wizarding circles. i feel like this is also where a diviner’s sense of pride comes from - being able to one-hit ko enemies and brandish your power proudly.

amazingly enough, the wizard101 site also addresses this, saying that, “the Storm School will train its student wizards to do a lot of damage. Storm Wizards have the ability to unleash high amounts of damage from an early level, which is good, but they place too much emphasis on power, and therefore suffer in terms of accuracy.”

placing too much emphasis on power... very interesting indeed

death - papaver (poppy)

death was ALSO a super hard school to pick a flower for. i debated between the dracula, the poppy, and the spider lily before deciding to settle with the poppy. I chose poppies in particular because “Poppies have long been used as a symbol of sleep, peace, and death: Sleep because the opium extracted from them is a sedative, and death because of the common blood-red color of the red poppy in particular.” source

I FEEL AS IF THE SPIDER LILY WOULD HAVE BEEN TOO EASY OF A CHOICE but i wanted to encompass all the meanings that death has and has been associated with. some people associate death with peace (at being in a “”better place””), and some people sometimes to describe it as “sleeping” to a younger audience with no death awareness. also heres a nice little excerpt from the w101 site: “Death is about ending and closure. All things pass eventually, and time cannot be held back forever. Wizards devoted to Death Magic, known as Necromancers, understand this fact about everything around them and strive to face it without fear.”

ice - magnolia

as soon as i saw this flower and its description it was PERFECT for ice. magnolias represent longevity and perseverance, due to the fact that magnolias are believed to have existed even at the beginning of time. the ice schools main theme is about persistance - which is to say, that if you’re patient and determined, you will collect the fruits of your labor in the end.

the school page even says this, noting that “The Ice School will train its student wizards to take high amounts of damage and survive.” To thaumaturges, it is simply about surviving to see the end of the battle, and that’s what their play style involves. both magnolias and thaumaturges have that in common : persist and survive.

fire - ixora (also known as jungle flame, flame of the woods)

it was also hard choosing a plant for fire, seeing as so many plants can be described as “passionate” in a symbolic sense. it was between this and orange tulips, but i felt that both the names “jungle flame” and “flame of the woods” both fit fire’s theme. that being said, ixora’s represent passion - the core of fire’s development and description. it is the “bright, burning flame of raw emotion sweeping over everything.” (w101)

fire wizards mainly utilize damage over time spells, which reminds me that a frog boiling in a pot will leap immediately out of the water if its too hot, but will stay until it dies if the water’s temperature reaches steadily. while fire’s general message are that it may consume everything it touches, and how pyromancers are quick to anger and tempestuous, fire plays the longer game by slow roasting their enemies until it is too late for them.

balance - cosmos

when i saw this flower and its meanings there was literally no chance any other flower could compare omg

balance is described as finding the equality of everything and harmony. they are described as broad-minded, taught to be considerate of all things, as well as their own place in the world they live in. cosmos, in this case, represent order, peace, modesty and harmony -- all things which are important to a balance wizard. balance thrives in the company of others, simply because it was made in mind to help others in the heat of battle. “The Balance School will train its student wizards to be effective in group play.” (w101)

however as a result, they may appear as stand-offish and impassive, unable to choose a side or make a choice. such is life when you’re raised to consider all factors of every choice you make - every decision feels heavy.

life - achillea (also known as yarrow)

named after the greek hero achilles, legends would say that his soldiers would treat their wounds with this. source

i chose achillea for life simply for the fact that it represents healing and protection, as well as it being used it being a versatile plant used to treat a variety of maladies or sicknesses - it’s been used as a medicinal plant for a long time across the world.

life embodies “the spirit, the force of awareness and existence. It is about constant growth and movement.” (w101). theurgists are described as having simple pleasures in life, in revelling in the idea of the living, breathing, planet around you. it utilizes the song of creation, using it to weave life where there was none previously. it definitely has powerful roots in the canon storyline - i just wish it was utilized more through its play style.

(astral) star - aster (also known as starwort, frost flower)

ok i dont have a deep meaning for this im sorry . i mainly chose aster simply because “aster” is derived from the Greek word “astron”, which means “star”, and because of the shape of its flowers. pretty simple reason but ill try my best to do it justice

however, aster is represented by patience and elegance -- star magic may be a lesser form of sun magic, simply because it is meant to power yourself rather than your spells. i think theres something inherently elegant about an aura wrapping itself around your figure, bending to the whim of your spells, as it both enhances your health or your spells.

(astral) sun - datura (also known as devil’s trumpet)

Datura symbolizes power and caution. It is a powerful and deadly plant, but also a major religious and cultural symbol.

i chose datura’s for sun because sun is all about power -- datura is highly poisonous and very dangerous to be around. the main deal of the sun school is that they use spells to make their own stronger - it has the “power to endure, power to persevere, and power to change”. we don’t get much of a canon explanation for how sun magic works outside of battles, but i imagine that you have to be careful with sun magic, because as we know - absolute power corrupts absolutely. aint that neat

(astral) moon - protea

protea’s represent ingenuity, diversity, transformation and courage. a big part of moon magic is that it is all about change. changing your spells, your body, your thoughts -- it is symbolized by the moon because it goes through many changes (the tides, the phases of the moon, etc).

i feel as if moon magic might be one of the harder magics to master out of all the astral schools - the transformation into something else may not come as easy as star auras, or that it simply may be too hard on the caster in question, having to change their physical appearances and battle tactics to fit into a new one.

shadow - rhododendron

rhododendron’s represent temptation, caution and danger.

despite how pretty it looks, the stems, leaves, and flowers can be poisonous to humans and pets if ingested. i feel as if that describes shadow perfectly -- the pleasant sight of these pretty flowers is enough to entice a person (wizard) forward, but you must be careful with how you handle this plant, or else you will end up facing dire consequences. (backlash)

shadow magic as a whole can be very tempting to those who seek it -- offering power that scales above others. but it is an advanced magic, and those who seek to play with it often end up paying the price with their lives (in this case, morganthe was crushed underneath the weight of power that shadow gave her). shadow can give you an upper hand, however, if used right -- and the wizard, for the most part, is using it right.

shadow is mainly a cautionary tale of not playing with higher, advanced, magics with the wrong intentions.

#wizard101 #w101 #girl how do i even tag this #i just like to play around with meta xd #also these are just some of my opinions please dont come at me #however if you disagree id love to see a post or explanation in the comments >:333 #i simply love... flower language and assigning symbolic meanings to plants and flowers #this took so long to type up . please look at it . the fruits of my labors #long post #LETS HOPE I DIDNT FORGET A SCHOOL OMG #if someone already did a post like this i will die straight up

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approximately12screamingcats · 5 years

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the hunger games re-read part 1

so the first time i read the hunger games i was...10? 11? somewhere in there. the last time i read them (before now) i was probably 13. i decided about a week or two ago i wanted to read them again, because it had been awhile and i knew i would get more and different things out of them now than then.

i just finished the first book, and i wanna share some of my thoughts, contrasting them to old ones and giving new ones

under the cut because it’s gonna be real long

katniss

i’d say the biggest difference in my last times reading these and now is my opinion on katniss. when i was younger i had the easy opinion that she was boring and annoyingly emotionless. but honestly that’s really not true, and i think it was in part influenced by her portrayal in the movies, which i always thought was good enough but could’ve been better, and i’d go so far to say now that her casting wasn’t great. but also, a movie in third person is very different from a book in first.

but really what i found, katniss is not emotionless, and she’s not boring. no, she’s still not what i would consider a favorite character of mine, i don’t love her, she’s not exactly my type of character that i love. but she’s interesting, and already a fascinating example of what hardship can do to a person. emotionless was such a wild impression to have of her, but i know i wasn’t the only one that thought that. i can say i definitely do not think that now.

she clearly says near the beginning of the book that she’s learned and taught herself to appear emotionless, so that she doesn’t betray her true feelings about the capitol and endanger herself or her family. but she isn’t emotionless at all. she feels very deeply, whether it’s ones she can identify like her love for prim, or ones she can’t, like her (growing) love for peeta.

the most marked thing about katniss is how her entire life has been driven by this need to survive. it encompasses everything she does, everything she has always done, and overshadows almost everything else. since she was eleven years old, she’s had to provide daily for her family, constantly watching out for starvation and arrest and death by wild animals. it’s no surprise she has no idea how to feel about things outside of that. she even says after the games she doesn’t know who she is when she doesn’t have to fight for food every day anymore. i haven’t gotten there yet, but i think that same theme comes back in the beginning of catching fire. her identity has been wrapped in this survival mode, and it’s twisted her into this person that has had to suppress any and all wants of things that could interfere with surviving. she’s not emotionless, she just quite literally has not had the time or energy to think about anything else and how to process it.

the romance

there’s a lot of opinions surrounding this romance. frankly, at the simplest levels, it’s part of the plot. the star crossed lovers of district 12. but yeah, of course there’s more than that. this is a little hard for me to evaluate without bringing up the other books, but tbh i’ll say what i think now with this one fresh in my mind and the others more distant, and see if it changes after catching fire and mockingjay.

anyway, since addressing the love triangle is unavoidable, i have always liked peeta and katniss as a couple more than gale and katniss. originally, i think at least 50% of why was simply because i liked peeta and i didn’t like gale. interestingly, that opinion still holds solid, but that’s not really why i like katniss and peeta better anymore.

katniss, already in book one, is not ambivalent to peeta and she certainly does not dislike him. honestly, i used to think it wasn’t until someway through catching fire that she began to really love him (romantically). but this read through made me realize she is already starting to in this book. it’s under the surface, and definitely doesn’t take hold until catching fire, but it’s there. their connection is emphasized and shown multiple times even before they get into the games. so many times it’s made apparent that she at least cares about him, but i’d say there’s beginnings for more than that.

the unfortunate thing is that being pushed into the whole love story thing for survival, and in front of everyone, is a really terrible environment for someone who barely understands her own emotions to be processing new ones. she’s worried about him dying, she’s incredibly hurt when she thinks he betrayed her for the careers (betrayal is a very strong word for her to choose here too, when she’s been pondering this whole time how one of them has to die). she very evidently wants him to live when she finds him by the stream. frankly, he was already dying, if she really didn’t care about him, she could have easily let him die without it even looking suspect to the audience. she’s not great at medical, which is shown a lot.

and i mean, how many times does she say she can’t bear the idea of being without him? of him dying? yes, usually these are either quick thoughts in a tense moment, or fraught with confusion or other musings, or paired in direct contrast with gale, but they’re there. she worries about it a lot. at the very end, when peeta realizes “it was all a sham for the audience” she even says she’s not sure if it was only fake, and that she misses him already.

to an extent, there’s bonding from trauma here, but i don’t think that’s an invalid manner of bonding? and it’s not just in and after the games that this shows either. it’s there a little bit from the start. she just has to get to know him.

i need to restrain myself from diving too deep into what’s coming here, but i’ll say this: as the books go on, obviously a lot more happens, but i really think one massive block in the way of katniss admitting to falling in love with peeta is the fact that it’s so blatant and open in front of the capitol. katniss hates the capitol, as does most everyone in the districts. but having her whole life on display like that, forcing her out of a decision, doesn’t mean she doesn’t love him, but it is very easy to see how that would make someone (especially a private person) want to withdraw away from that relationship. and katniss, having such a difficult time with her own emotions anyway since her live has been all about survival, doesn’t need that extra barrier on everything to muddle up her emotions and make it harder for her to tell what’s real or not real (lmao).

as for gale, cause i know some people think she clearly loves him, i can get into that more as i get back into the other two books. but from this one so far, and what i remember, a lot of the gale vs peeta stuff isn’t so much about a straight up romance love triangle, but more about what katniss’ life is vs what she wishes it could be. katniss presents herself as a cold and hard person, but she really isn’t like that. she loves soft things, she wants to live in peace, she loves rue and prim and got excited about giving a goat to her sister that she splurged on a ribbon for it. she sang with her father and only stopped when he died. she says she could never admit to her mother how much she needs her gentle touch. the life katniss is living, silent and stoic and always fighting in the woods, is not what she wants. gale, her friend that she definitely genuinely loves (platonically), is parallel to her life. the hunter, full of rage against the capitol, symbol to everything she’s known out of necessity, not want. peeta is calmer, gentler, a symbol to the life she wishes she could have. that’s why they eventually settle down in the epilogue. gale was never the romantic partner katniss needed.

but ive gone far past book one and i’ll get back into these analysis later when catching fire and mockingjay and the epilogue are fresher in my mind.

the rebellion

when i first read these books, my favorite parts were the action and peeta. but man. reading this through now, the story of this rebellion and the rising of people for their justice just screams through the page. and im not even to catching fire yet. it hit me when district 12 raised the salute to katniss, but it hit me even harder when rue died and when cato died. i mean...rue’s death. how katniss covers her in flowers. sings for the first time. drawing to light the utter inhumanity of what the capitol puts children through. but this part got to me specifically:

“I can’t stop looking at Rue, smaller than ever, a baby animal curled up in a nest of netting. I can’t bring myself to leave her like this. Past harm, but seeming utterly defenseless. To hate the boy from District 1, who also appears so vulnerable in death, seems inadequate. It’s the Capitol I hate, for doing this to all of us.”

i can almost hear the lament in that line, “it’s the capitol i hate, for doing this to all of us.” because that’s the truth. they throw up this show, driving them to competition, to hatred, but in the end, even the careers are victims of the capitol.

cato’s death too, for so many of the same reasons. i mean, it’s hard to read this and not feel outright repulsion at what hell the capitol is putting on these people. making the mutts, making them look like the tributes, and then the sheer agony of cato being eaten alive. when katniss and peeta decide to kill him, to relieve him of his misery, it again reveals the truth of things, behind the fancy gold curtain the capitol tries to put up in front of the games.

“It takes a few moments to find Cato in the dim light, in the blood. Then the raw hunk of meat that used to be my enemy makes a sound, and I know where his mouth is. And I think the word he’s trying to say is please.

Pity, not vengeance, sends my arrow flying into his skull.”

these parts are the first set up we get for what happens later. the games are awful enough, but seeing them so raw and unhindered, from the first hand account, you can’t look away.

i don’t know. i can’t put it into words yet, but it moves me immensely. just the story of a people oppressed for so long, revealing the horror and setting themselves free.

other small observations

i kinda wish i had read these books again when i was 16. because 16 sounded so old when i was 10-13, but now it seems young. i would have liked to read it knowing i was the same age as katniss, picturing how that really would be.

i also forgot cinna was not literally lenny kravitz.

i have not read a book this fast for recreation in years, and im LIVING.

#m #the hunger games #thg #thg reread #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #gale hawthorne

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