#the rule is meant to exist as a sort of. 'everyone thinks They Are Right. on every side. even if its wrong. so we have to outlaw it for

[isa-beenme]

Hello!! Do you think you could right a sort of enemies to lovers relationship with Azriel? Maybe where he and the reader get into a heated argument, and the bond snaps when the tension hits its peak? If this doesn’t inspire you, please don’t feel as though you have to accept my request! This is my first attempt at making a request, so I apologize if I did it incorrectly. Also, I wanted to note that your writing style is one of my favorites, and I hope you are proud of your work! That’s all, thank you for your time!!

THE SOOOOOOOOOONG

Listen to it please thank you

Loved your request, darling, it's actually much better when you send the whole story, I usually struggle when I try to think of a whole story alone (I swear I'm creative but it's hard to get things in your head out of nothing)

I try to be proud of my work as much as I can, thank you so much 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

THIS WORK was sooooooo fun to do, I swear at some moment while I was writing this I laughed at my own story, super cool

I thought: "I'm gonna make this super serious" amd ended up with this, which is much better

This Is Love

Your family always meant everything to you. Being Rhysand's cousin meant you would be inserted in everything he did. Being his second in command meant you would be involved in every plan. And being all of that meant you would be part of his Inner Circle, which automatically involved you in everything they did together. From training, to family dinner and trips around the Courts for the meetings, you did all together. And you loved it. Again, your family meant everything to you, and spending time with them was on your top list of favorite things to do. I mean, when a certain Shadowsinger wasn't completely involved.

Working with Azriel was always fine, perfectly fine, actually. Rhysand often paired you up together to work because everything fell into place with the two of you. Your mind always seemed to think like one. But that teamwork only made itself present when the topic was your position towards the court and your job. Outside that, you both were a mess. Training with him was a dread, from him pinpointing each - non-existent - mistake, to you lashing yourself on him each time he made you angry, it's been more than 250 years of both of you trying to win one another in the training. It never happened.

Family dinner was also horrible since both of you had very different visions in every single topic someone started, not just that, somehow, no matter how many times you and Azriel changed seats with someone, it doesn't take a week until you find yourselves seated next to each other again. On top of that, you and he possess the ability to winnow, yet, Rhysand always thought it was necessary for you to winnow together. No matter how many times you said it wasn't necessary, Rhys only ignored you, the necessity of traveling with him making you hate your life just a little bit more.

But if spending time with your family was on your top favorite things to do, game night with Azriel was on your top things to make yourself miserable. It was a common scene for the rest of the Inner Circle to see you and him screaming at each other at some point. Sometimes one of you thought the other was cheating. Sometimes you started saying the other was winning too many times and should be taken out of the game. Sometimes it was the complete opposite, "if you lose so much, maybe you should step back and stop occupying space". Tonight it wasn't different, your favorite fight was ready to start as Azriel explained the rules to the new game.

Besides the usual crackling tension between you and Azriel, this night seemed to be at its worst peak. For weeks now, both of you seemed to be on the edge with one another, even in work, your usual camaraderie was replaced with sharp remarks and piercing glares. Everyone around the table exchanged puzzled looks, uncertain of what exactly had caused this escalating feud.

Azriel couldn't understand why every word from you grated on his nerves, nor could you fathom why Azriel's mere presence felt suffocating. The build-up of unresolved emotions and unspoken desires had been simmering for days, and now, it was about to reach its boiling point.

The Night Court's game night had started off innocently enough with your usual truth or drink game, something to light up tension (or build it, in your and Azriel's case), but as the evening wore on, the tension between you and Azriel became palpable as the Shadowsinger tried to introduce a new idea to the table. It began with a harmless disagreement over the rules of a card game, but it quickly escalated into a heated argument once the match started.

Azriel's patience was wearing thin as you challenged every decision he made during the game, the cards he dropped and the ones he chose, everything seemed horrible in your eyes. The other way around too, your matches weren't valid, you couldn't pick certain cards and no, it wasn't your turn yet. His usually calm demeanor was now strained, and he couldn't help but feel irritated by your persistent need to question him.

-I don't understand why you always have to question everything I do - Azriel snapped at some point, his shadows flickering around him as a testament to his growing frustration.

-Maybe if you didn't act like you knew everything, I wouldn't have to. "Boo, I'm Azriel and I don't let people play the game because I invented it and none of you understand how to play it" - You quickly shot back, their voice laced with sarcasm

The room fell silent, and your friends exchanged uneasy glances, sensing the mounting tension between the two of you. But there was no going back now; the floodgates had opened, and all the pent-up emotions were rushing to the surface.

-I don't act like I know everything, and I don't talk like that - Azriel retorted, his voice tight with anger - I just wish you'd stop acting like you have all the answers! Sometimes it is okay to listen to help because, guess what? I indeed invented the game and there's no way of you learning how to play it, if you don't listen to the rules!

-Well, forgive me for not blindly following you like everyone else. I'm not afraid to question things when they don't make sense! - Your eyes narrowed, jaw clenching as you shot back.

-And I'm not afraid to take action instead of endlessly debating every damn decision! - Azriel's temper flared, his wings twitching in agitation.

-I think what you're really good at is fucking my life! - Your family gasped at your words, shocked by the intensity.

-It's just a payback for every headache you give me every time you breathe near me - They quickly turned their heads to Azriel, equally shocked by his response.

The words hung in the air, and for a moment, it seemed as if you were both about to explode. Your family exchanged worried glances, unsure of how to intervene in the escalating argument. But just as the situation reached its breaking point, a strange shift occurred. As Azriel locked eyes with you, an unexpected intensity replaced your anger. It was as if the universe itself had decided to step in, forcing you to confront the undeniable truth.

The room seemed to blur around you as you stood there, chests heaving from the heated exchange. The fight had reached its peak, and in that very moment, the mating bond snapped into place. The sudden connection was overwhelming, a rush of emotions and sensations that neither of you could comprehend. Your anger dissolved into confusion and shock as you felt an unexplainable pull towards each other.

Azriel's wings, once tense and defensive, now softened, as if beckoning every step you unknowingly took closer. Your guard came down as well, replaced by a mix of vulnerability and curiosity.

Your friends watched in astonishment as two adversaries stood there, seemingly lost in a world of their own. The room is filled with a charged silence, the kind that accompanies a revelation that changes everything. Even if none of them knew exactly what revelation was going on at that moment.

But as the realization set in, Rhysand and Feyre exchanged knowing smiles. It was no secret for them that you and Azriel had an underlying connection, a bond waiting to be acknowledged. They had witnessed the chemistry and unspoken feelings simmering between the two of you, and now, it seemed the universe had decided to intervene.

Your eyes met Azriel's once again, and this time, there was no irritation or hostility. Instead, there was an undeniable spark of understanding and attraction, a recognition of the emotions that you had been hiding from each other. Neither of you spoke a word, yet you communicated on a deeper level, the mating bond solidifying your connection at each passing second. It was as if all the walls you had built around your heart came crashing down, leaving you exposed and vulnerable to him.

As the reality of the mating bond settled in, your heart raced with confusion and fear. You couldn't understand why fate would choose someone you had built such animosity towards to be your mate. Feeling overwhelmed and unable to face the truth, you turned around and ran, needing time and space to process the whirlwind of emotions inside you.

Azriel, though taken aback and hurt by the sudden rejection, couldn't ignore the pull of the bond drawing him to you. With determination, he chased after your steps, his heart heavy with worry and longing. He caught up to you as you were getting closer to your room. Gently reaching out to touch your shoulder, you recoiled as if his touch burned.

-Please, let's talk - Azriel pleaded, his voice tinged with sadness - I never wanted to hurt you. The fights... They were a defense mechanism, a way to hide my own feelings and protect myself from the pain of loving someone who seemed to hate me. You started this, I just… Thought I should defend myself.

-But why you? Why did it have to be you? - You whispered, voice breaking with emotion. Azriel's eyes softened, and he took a step closer, his hand hovering near your face, yearning for the connection you both feared and desired.

-I wish I had an answer for that. All I know is that the bond doesn't choose who we love, it just binds us to our other half. And for some inexplicable reason, it chose us - He could see the pain in your eyes and knew that he needed to be honest, to show vulnerability despite his fears of rejection - The truth is, the more you fought me, the more I fell for you. Your fire, your strength, everything about you drew me in. But I was terrified of what it meant, so I pushed you away.

-I didn't know what to do with my feelings either - You admitted, opening a place in your heart that you swear to never look at again - I tried to convince myself that I hated you, but it only made things worse. Every fight, every argument, it was just a way to hide how much I… I wanted to be by your side. Everything was simple with them but you? You made me feel things and I didn't want it - Azriel's heart ached at your words, and he took a step closer, finally touching your cheek gently.

-We can figure this out together. I don't want to fight anymore. I want to be here for you, to understand you, and for you to understand me - Tears finally spilled from your eyes, as you looked into Azriel's soulful gaze, feeling the sincerity of his words.

-It won't be easy, but maybe we can try - You gave in, hugging him tightly, filling the void in your soul that you ignored for so long.

You and Azriel knew that you had a journey ahead, to step down from the fights and finally accept the truth that maybe, just maybe, you both were meant to be. Even in disagreement you found a way to each other. Although you would definitely keep your provocations going and Azriel would stay at your feet for anything you did, that was your way of loving and for the first time you were fine knowing what tomorrow would bring.

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

[Post-Credit Scene]

The Inner Circle sat around the table, looking perplexed and bewildered after the explosive game night that had just taken place. None of them could quite wrap their heads around what had unfolded. Nestha glanced at Cassjan, who raised an eyebrow, silently communicating his own confusion. Feyre and Rhysand seemed to be the only ones who understood the situation, but none of them made a move to say something as they kept talking to each other in their minds.

-So, did anyone understand what just happened? I mean, they are usually weird around each other but… This weird? It's worrying - The general scratched his head and finally gathered the courage to say something.

-Beats me. The brute is right. But I have to admit, seeing them argue like that is always quite entertaining. It's the only reason I've been coming for the past centuries, honestly - Amren replied with a snarl, eyes rolling as she threw her cards on the table.

-Oh, for sure! It was like watching a drama unfold right in front of us every week. But I can't believe they just bolted like that. Do you think they're okay? - Mor inquired, a mix of amusement and worry kicking in.

-If I had to bet I would say they are killing each other - Cassian said, playing with the deck of cards.

-Or fucking - Nestha chimed in with a laugh - I mean, when I didn't accept the mating bond with Cassian I acted exactly like them. If you don't understand the feeling you might as well hurt the person you hold those feelings for - Everyone seemed to agree as the bets started to grow around the table.

-Knowing those two, they probably needed some time alone to sort things out. Maybe it's an understanding finally kicking in - Rhysand leaned back in his chair, his eyes twinkling with mischief - The group exchanged curious glances, trying to understand their High Lord.

-Well, whatever it is, we can't say it was unimportant. That was probably the most explosive family game night we've ever had - Feyre couldn't help but add with a grin.

Just then, the door to the game room creaked open, and you walked in with Azriel by your side, hand in hand, with smiles on your faces. The Inner Circle's jaws dropped in disbelief as they took in the sight in front of them.

-What the...? How did you...? What? - Cassian sputtered, at a loss for words.

-You know, it's funny how things work out sometimes - Azriel looked around at their stunned faces and chuckled.

-Yeah, we had a little heart-to-heart and sorted some things out. Turns out, we had a lot of misunderstandings to clear up - You and Azriel smiled at each other, making the whole Inner Circle shocked.

-So, you two aren't going to be at each other's throats anymore? - Amren raised an eyebrow, a sly grin forming.

-Oh, we definitely will - You said when you looked back at them, your head finding its way to Azriel's shoulder.

-Just not today - He said and kissed you head, hearing some gasps from the table.

-Are we witnessing a truce? - Mor whispered to the General, who just shuddered, as confused as her.

-Let's just say we have a newfound understanding of each other - Azriel replied, you and him sharing a knowing look.

-Well, that's a relief! We were starting to wonder if you two were going to start a war right here in the Night Court - Feyre laughed, reaching out for her mate's hand.

-Glad to see you've made up. Just... maybe tone it down during future game nights? - Rhysand smiled after clearly speaking mind to mind with the Shadowsinger.

-Okay, so… the rules of the game? - Nestha questioned, her cards still secured in her hands.

-It doesn't matter right now, you can choose it - Az said, making everyone turn their eyes to him. Shock covered every face in the room. Never, in their lives, do they think Azriel would give up on something. They turned their eyes to you, expecting some remark.

-Yeah, you guys can keep going - A wave of gasps and terrorized looks were exchanged between your family - I think Az might be hungry, aren't you?

-I might be. Will you make me something? - He asked, getting so close to you that your noses almost touched.

-It will be my pleasure - You said before dragging him towards the kitchen, not even noticing the mouths of the Inner Circle opened.

-Uh uh, no. I prefer the war. Tell them to come back and fight again, I don't like the way things worked - Mor leaned back in her chair, disbelief covering her posture.

-You know what? I think this interaction was more scary than the Cauldron - Amren said, finally giving up her cards as she threw them on the table.

-Come on, it can't be that bad, right? - All of the older members looked at Nestha with scared faces, even Rhysand, who knew exactly what happened between the two of you - Okay, apparently it is.

-What do we do now? - Feyre finally asked after silence filled the room.

-We hope that this Court doesn't crumble down - That was all that Rhysand said as he began separating the cards again, a whole new game starting that night.

#spotify #acotar #azriel × reader #azriel #azriel shadowsinger #azriel/reader #azriel x oc #azriel x reader #azriel x female!reader

[visenyaism]

If the King Visenya Dance ends with Rhaenyra on the throne, who’s crowned after her? Just curious no worries if you haven’t thought about her?

Does Aegon IV still exist since Viserys was sent to Lys?

no i have a outline for this very silly conflict. buckle up under the readmore this is barely hinged and deeply unserious

so.

- Queen Rhaena (the lesbian) dies, names Saera as her successor at the last minute which no one wants to honor.

- Starts with Rhaenys on dragonstone, Baelon in KL, and Saera in Volantis headed to KL.

- Baelon still gets appendicitis and dies pretty early but everyone thinks it’s some kind of treachery.

- The war officially starts when Damon Targaryen runs into Corlys at Riverrun, trying to negotiate a betrothal between his daughter and some Muppet to back Rhaenys for the throne. fresh off of losing his father and currently consolidating support for his brother, Daemon wants someone to blame and kills Corlys.

- Daemon and Aegon (Viserys I) try to jump Rhaenys at Rook’s Rest, but she gets her way out of the trap and manages to take down Aegon’s dragon and severely injure him in the process. Aegon goes back to KL to rule and protect his daughter Rhaenyra, Daemon spends the rest of the time flying around the riverlands and lighting stuff on fire.

- while all of this is happening, there’s also an extended naval conflict between the Targannister faction, which exists, Viserra has a dragon(this is my mind palace i make the rules) and the Saera chaos faction. Two battles there:

1. combined Greyjoy/Triarchy chaos faction, almost successfully take Casterly Rock while Viserra is down by the gullet and little Jaeson (lol) tries to flee on his dragon at which point Saera’s daughter Aerea takes him down. However he just barely survives even though he loses his dragon, and the last man ended up killing Aerea, who is pinned down in enemy territory in the keep.

2. While trying to break the Triarchy blockade of the Gullet for her nephew who holds King’s Landing, Viserra and Saera have a dragon fight. Balerion is old and slow and unwieldy: takes a few scorpion bolts meant for Vermithor and goes down. Viserra and a severely injured Vermithor go down as well, some historians argue she was trying to save her drowning sister. Who knows.

- With both other factions, looking pretty bad, Rhaenys takes King’s Landing: Aegon (Viserys I) dies here, but his 10-year-old daughter Rhaenyra is able to see the city on her dragon. However, Syraxis very young at the time and takes a few hits which get infected and dies right after they makes it to the Eyrie.

- Daemon and Rhaenys kill each other over the gods eye on their parents’ dragons.

- Some variation of the storming of the dragonpit happens. Laenor and Laena successfully flee to Dragonstone, but Silverwing and Seasmoke do not :(

- No longer worried about being burned by Daemon. The Riverlands, Crownlands, and Stormlands forces are able to muster enough troops to actually get to Kings Landing and restore order.

- The war ends when they put Laenor on the throne. it ends with the wedding of Laenor and Rhaenyra to create some form of stability after everything.

- They have three kids “together.” Baela the Bdefiant, future mother of Daena Darksister, Jakey who dies in dorne with cregan stark, and Joffrey the religious freak.

- Laena stays in KL and later becomes master of coin.

- Saera’s son Viserys II is in Volantis and comes to King’s Landing with his wife Larra Rogare and their son Aegon to serve as Laenor and Jake and Joffrey’s hand after they extend an olive branch.

- The Targannister kids technically survived but lose their dragons so they’re just sort of like well you guys didn’t see any of that. we’re just lannisters now.

arc 2 of this absurd fire and blood revamp where everything is cringe in a way that’s specifically appeals to me complete

#asoiaf #king visenya au #i forgot about gael. well she’s just hanging out #also aerea has tessarion. ooos

[thepenultimateword]

Soulmates Prompt List

I hope it’s ok if I use the red string in some of these prompts. Since it’s cultural, I don’t want to appropriate it or anything; I’ve just read so many fun soulmates stories based around that concept lately that I thought it would be fun to write some prompts.

1. The red string will guide you to your soulmate when you are in close proximity (within a few miles) to them. Unfortunately, [A]’s leads them to a funeral. Fortunately, they’re a necromancer.

2. Pirate’s red string has always led them into the sea. They always figured that meant that they were “married” to their sea life. That is until one day the string goes tight and they are pulled overboard and find a merperson on the other end, desperately trying to bite the string free.

3. People don’t have just one soulmate. There are many potential soulmates depending on the path one follows. Villain has take advantage of this fact after realizing that their powers are strengthened with each soulmate’s soul they devour. They don’t care much for losses, much preferring their position as a ruler and almost god. That is until they until they meet Hero, the first soulmate they’ve ever cared to spare.

4. Soulmates know each other at first sight. It’s sort of ZING! Or a ZANG! Or something like that. [A] was always told they couldn’t miss it, but now [B] is looking at them like they were just electrocuted and [A]…felt nothing.

5. Thief sees the words mid-heist. The words they never told anyone but wrote on their arm at 13 during soulstice to be able to recognize their soulmate one day. However, even with proof, Detective seems to think Thief is making up another one of their deceptions to escape. Or maybe they’re just in deep deep denial.

6. [A] is cursed to remember and [B] is cursed to forget. They are Soulmates in every life but not always successful ones. Turns out [B] only regains their memories of past lives when [A] succeeds in making them fall in love with them once again. It’s a tiring thing, wooing their love in every life, but it’s more painful to be forgotten.

7. Fate has already chosen matches for each person, but that does not stop some people from trying to “steal” soulmates, ignoring the rules that forbid flirting with anyone not prearranged for them. In fact, quite a few people have started claiming that soulmates should be a choice, but can anyone really defy fate?

8. Soulmates appear in each other's dreams the night before they meet in person. After such a dream, [A] recognizes [B] immediately, and from the look on [B]'s face when they lock eyes, they recognize them right back. So why are they lying and claiming they've never seen [A] before?

9. People used to be born with predestined matches, a matching mark appearing somewhere on their skin upon first meeting. But one day it simply stopped, so humankind had to manufacture it themselves. Now, upon birth, every baby is implanted with a device--they are legally required to upload all personal data to the device's cloud throughout their life--to simulate such a mark, only to activate upon contact with a compatible match. The ways of spontaneous soulmates are now only a story of the past. [A] is fully invested in the technology, however, [B] doesn't believe humankind should have ever messed with the decisions of fate.

10. In a post-apocalyptic world, [A] expected their soulmate to be dead. Not that it mattered anymore. Almost everyone was dead. And love was not going to keep them alive. But when a thief sneaks into their safe house and tries to steal supplies, [A] tackles them to the ground, catching a glimpse of the soul mark on the thief's neck just as it fades. Their soulmate still exists. And the feelings that come with that knowledge are very confusing.

#creative writing #prompt #writing prompt #short prompt #prompt list #soulmates #soulmate fic #fiction #writeblr #writblr #soulmate au

[asouefanworkevent]

another fall is upon us! another woevember is coming!!

what is it?

woevember is an asoue fanwork event week, that will take place from november 12th through november 18th, 2023. last year there was a different group of characters each day, and this year, each day of the week is dedicated to a different location for a series of unfortunate events or all the wrong questions.

what do i do?

the prompts will be revealed now, so everyone has time to make something. between now and the week of november 12th, you’ll create fanworks about the prompts, and then post it on the corresponding day during november 12th - 18th!

don’t forget to tag this tumblr (asouefanworkevent) in the post so i can find it and reblog it, and tag the post with #woevember !

what do you mean by fanwork?

everything! fanfic and fanart are of course allowed, but woevember has always been meant to be an event that is as big or as little effort as you want! fanwork also means edits, gifs, analysis posts, headcanons!! your cosplay!! your photography!! your photosets!! your web weaving!! your super short fics!! your sketchiest drawings!! your most ramble-y half-fic idea posts!! your wip scenes!! you merely saying 'lemony snicket, though. am i right?????' (and you are. you're so right.) whatever you are moved to make from the prompts! i want people to be encouraged to and be able to create even something small that didn’t exist before for the snicketverse, and share it with other people!

are there any rules?

to keep the event open and comfortable for everyone, no explicit content. also, as always, sibling romance and age gaps will not be tolerated.

do i have to make something for every day?

only if you want to! feel free to just make something for one day if you want :) the point of having a different theme for each day is so some part of canon that you like comes up eventually, and you can at least make something for one of the days. or you get struck by an idea you might not have considered before! i want to get people thinking about all the intriguing people and places in asoue and atwq and the exciting different ways we can interpret and create from the same idea.

what are the prompts?

the description under each prompt is just some ideas to get your brain going -- feel free to take them in another direction too!

november 12th - olaf's mansion

to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the bad beginning! what becomes of the house post-canon? was it olaf's family home? what sort of nefarious, or, perhaps, completely innocent shenanigans have occurred here, pre-canon? does this house also have a secret passage somewhere?

november 13th - the baudelaire mansion

did beatrice and bertrand build the mansion? what sweet pre-canon moments have we missed with the baudelaire children and their parents? what visitors came there? do people still think the mansion remains are haunted post-canon? what sort of new home do the baudelaires make for themselves when they return to the city?

november 14th - the clusterous forest

the wild and lawless place. what was it before the water was removed? what sort of beach or shore was there? where did the water go? does it ever come back? what does lemony, or anyone else, find in there? does another train ever come through after the thistle of the valley? do the stain'd-by-the-sea crew ever go in to investigate it? what sort of rumors might be created about a place like the clusterous forest?

november 15th - the hotel denouement

the last safe place! is it vfd-owned, or denouement-owned? what happens down in the archives? are the archives ever found? what sort of firefighter or firestarter meetings have taken place here? what relationship might they have with the preludio hotel? what were the denouements up to at the hotel? what hotel, or what sort of home in general, might frank and ernest create for themselves post-canon, with dewey's absence?

november 16th - the masked ball

the duchess of winnipeg's masked balls have so much potential! what happened at that last one, where lemony tried to contact beatrice? when was that? what happened at past balls? what is the duchess's relationship with the parties? (whether the duchess is jacquelyn or r or jacquelyn is r's daughter is up to you, dear reader!) what costumes do they all pick! or is there even a different masked ball you might have in mind?

november 17th - the reptile room

to also celebrate the 24th anniversary of the reptile room! what becomes of this house post-canon? how did monty come to own the reptile room, where does his herpetology career fit into vfd? why was the quagmire mansion connected to it? how did jacques get there and find quigley? what other moments with the baudelaire children in the reptile room might we have missed -- or pre-canon moments with the baudelaire parents? do not forget about our beloved, the incredibly deadly viper!

november 18th - free space!

there's tons of other locations, too! prufrock prep, heimlich hospital, 667 dark avenue, paltryville, caligari carnival, the city, the punctilio, veblen hall, the orion observatory, the opera, the sewers, the hemlock tearoom and stationery shop, the museum of items, the museum of bad breakfast, the snicket mansion, the quagmire mansion, the island, the mortmain mountains, lucky smells lumbermill, wade academy, killdeer fields, anwhistle aquatics, the queequeg? or do you care not for locations! use the free space to write about the character or relationship or thought of your choosing!

if you have any questions about anything, feel free to drop me an ask or a message!

happy creating, and i hope to see lots of you november 12th-18th!! ✨

#asoue #a series of unfortunate events #atwq #all the wrong questions #lemony snicket #woevember #thought i would be posting this a little late but then i saw last year's post was on october 12th so lo and behold! #your mysterious moderator is AHEAD OF THE GAME! #someone called me that after wicked way exchange and it made me so thrilled. i AM your mysterious moderator. most of the time. #slightly worried that 'locations' are too vague or still just repeating last year but i am trying to spice it up! #while also trying to hit all options!

[baronessblixen]

Fictober 2023

All the stories in one place. A huge thank you to everyone for their support this month.

Day 1: Secret Spots - This is cotton candy-flavored fluff set after "Millennium": Mulder and Scully go to Mrs. Scully's house and find themselves all alone for a moment...

Day 2: Just in Case - This is angst/hurt/comfort with a dash of hopeful cheesiness. Starts off in Dod Kalm (yes, you read that right). Mulder decides to be brave in what he believes to be his last moments on earth.

Day 3: The Deepest Cut - Diana/IVF angst (with a soft ending): Scully is already upset about a colleague's pregnancy and then Diana shows up and makes things worse.

Day 4: Always Expect The Unexpected - Some soft, fluffy silliness today: Scully and Mulder see her mother out on a date with... A.D. Skinner?

Day 5: If I Were The King of The World - Fluffy-fluff set in Detour: We get to see a bit more of Scully singing to Mulder...

Day 6: In The Blink Of An Eye - Angst/Mulder in peril: Mulder happens to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time...

Day 7: Glimpses of October - Post-IWTB/Pre-Revival vignette: Mulder watches his son play in the fallen leaves. Or is he?

Day 8: A Very Queequeg Morning - Hurt/comfort AND humor after "Pusher": Mulder doesn't mind Scully showing up at his apartment after the case at all. Only problem: she's not alone.

Day 9: Talk Vanilla to Me - Rated M/banter/humor(?): Mulder can't sleep, but luckily, Scully is there to listen… and maybe more.

Day 10: Wishes - Fluff(?) post "Je Souhaite": Mulder wants to know what Scully's wishes would have been.

Day 11: Always Partners - Set in season 6, hurt/comfort, some angst: Kersh puts Scully on another case without Mulder and once again she gets hurt.

Day 12: The Easiest Choice - Fluff, rewrite of the last scene in "Existence": Mulder asks Scully what she's going to name the baby.

Day 13: Don't Forget The Cake - Fluff-ish, season 6: Diana throws Mulder a surprise birthday party. Chaos ensues.

Day 14: Preparation is Everything - Fluff, set after "Alone": With Mulder being unemployed, and Scully on maternity leave, they spend their time thinking about furniture, baby names, and all the ways their lives will change.

Day 15: Temporary Insanity - Angsty first kiss fill-in for "Paper Clip": What happened on that elevator ride?

Day 16: Mothers Always Know - Post-ep (sort of) for "Chimera", fluff: It's the Sunday morning after Mulder stayed over at Scully's and he has a somewhat awkward run-in with her mother.

Day 17: In Sickness And in Health - Hurt/comfort post-"Arcadia": They're on their way back home from The Falls at Arcadia when Scully gets sick.

Day 18: Beautiful In My Eyes - UST-filled post-ep fic: Mulder thinks Scully is the most beautiful person wherever she goes. She doesn't believe him so he tries to make her see it his way.

Day 19: It's Us Against The World - Angst, canon divergence for "Nothing Important Happened Today": No matter what Kersh said, Scully doesn't want Mulder to leave her and the baby. But what choice do they have?

Day 20: Shooting Stars - Mulder and Scully sharing a bed during two nights in The Rain King. After a first awkard night, what happens during the second one after the party ?

Day 21: No Longer Stuck In The Past - A different kind of post-episode fic for "The Unnatural": After his and Scully's baseball date, Mulder runs into Diana.

Day 22: Cookie Theft and Other Crimes - How the Ghosts Stole Christmas post-ep, hurt/comfort, angst, fluff - all the fixings: Bill Jr. runs into Mulder in the middle of the night and it goes as well as you might expect.

Day 23: You're Not Welcome Here - AU in which Diana didn't die and Mulder didn't leave after "Existence": Scully and William are waiting for Mulder when no other than Diana Fowley walks into the basement office.

Day 24: Rules Are Rules - Set in season 7, fluff: They're not supposed to share a room while on assignment. But aren't rules meant to be broken anyway?

Day 25: Another Banner Year - Set after "Our Town", before "Anasazi": Melissa shows up at her sister's apartment, demanding a few answers.

Day 26: I Saw Your Face In A Dream - AU where Mulder and Scully meet on karaoke night at a bar.

Day 27: Christmas With You By My Side - Sequel to day 22 "Cookie Theft And Other Crimes" but can be read as a stand-alone: What happens when Mulder wakes up with Scully in his arms?

Day 28: The Truth Is (Not) Found In A Glass of Whiskey - All Mulder wanted to do was drop off a report. Now he has to deal with a drunk Skinner.

Day 29: Glass Half Full - Sequel to "The Truth Is (Not) Found In A Glass of Whiskey": It's the morning after and Skinner wakes up with a hangover - and remembers way too much from the previous night.

Day 30: Feelings You Can't Hide - A post-ep for "Bad Blood" obviously. A jealous Mulder, an attempt at humor and the hint of angst may be found here.

Day 31: Trick or Treat - IVF arc, angsty fluff: They're supposed to go to the Gunmen's Halloween party, but there's something they need to make sure of first.

#fictober23 #my writing #my fic #xf fanfic #msr

[miixz]

Okay this will be rambly as it's been too long since I've tried to put my thoughts in a coherent meta sort of thing, but I've come to the conclusion I might like how the whipping is treated in erha.

(for anyone following the official english release, beware of spoilers ahead)

It was something that threw me off at first and made me doubt I'd ever really like Chu Wanning, I even compared him to Shen Jiu around that time, but looking back at it having read erha in its entirety I can look at it with a different perspective.

While I do like how having Chu Wanning whip Mo Ran so early on helps present him as the terrible teacher of Mo Ran's altered memories and deceive the reader, I think it's also an interesting side of him as a character that he did that in the first place. To me, it seems that Chu Wanning is one of the people who have bought into the myth of physical punishment which seems to exist in his society. It's not a belief shared by everyone, Mo Ran certainly doesn't buy into it, but it isn't a belief Chu Wanning seems to have taken from within himself or even one that he fully agrees with. 

There are rules on Sisheng Peak which include whipping as a punishment, we see this as the system Chu Wanning uses as a guideline to base his decisions on, not only for Mo Ran but himself as well. His punishments aren't chosen entirely on a whim. 

Chu Wanning looked up to shoot him a glare. The Jielü Elder shut up. “In accordance with the rules, the punishment for this transgression is two hundred strikes, three days of protracted kneeling in Yanluo Hall, and three months of confinement,” Chu Wanning stated. “I do not dispute the transgression, and I am prepared to receive the punishment.” Dumbfounded, the Jielü Elder glanced left and right, then curled his finger. The doors to the Discipline Court closed with a thud, leaving only the two of them standing face-to-face in the silence. “What is the meaning of this?” said Chu Wanning. “How do I say this… Yuheng Elder, it’s not like you don’t know—the rules may be rules, but they don’t really apply to you. The doors are closed; this stays between you and I. What say we just let it slide? If I actually strike you and the sect leader finds out, he’ll have my old hide.” Chu Wanning didn’t feel like wasting his breath, so he simply said, “I hold others to the rules, and I will hold myself to the same.”

Now, that doesn't excuse him, I wouldn't say that's what the story is trying to say and I'm not either. It's more that to me that's part of what makes it forgivable when to other characters it isn't.

There are characters like Madam Yu from MDZS who are clearly using that punishment excessively and unnecessarily, out of cruelty, which I can't forgive. Chu Wanning, however, I'd say is more misguided, which earns him a different approach.

Although he doesn't look remorseful when we first see him whip Mo Ran, we learn later that he was and tried to make up for it in his own awkward way. One of Chu Wanning's most defining traits is his immaturity (in my interpretation anyhow), he is a man that was raised not to be his own person and hasn't been living with others for all that long and it shows.

Huaizui seems to only have taught Chu Wanning shallowly, to the point of lying about the state of the world outside, because he was never meant to be his own person who has complex relationships with others. It makes sense though, why would he do that when Chu Wanning was only a vessel for someone else's soul?

So when it comes to making those difficult decisions, like how to discipline his disciples, he is sometimes lacking and refers to the guidelines that he has. With whipping being an acceptable punishment in his sect and his own issues with anger, I see how he arrived at that punishment at times.

It's an awful thing to do, but I like how it's a mistake that humanizes him and explores his upbringing and the places where he falls short.

And Chu Wanning himself knows, on some level, that this is the wrong way to go. That's why he feels guilty and makes Mo Ran wontons to apologize, but he lacks the ability to choose another course of action, most likely because he's never been taught how.

(And this is something that he does improve on somewhat throughout the book, especially in regards to how he treats Mo Ran, who challenges him to think about these difficult questions and to work on his emotions the most.)

In the end, I think Chu Wanning is someone who truly wants to be a good teacher and a good person that help others, which he does often achieve, but sometimes he is held back from that by his own shortcomings which themselves are connected with the ways in which he's been failed by others (especially those who were meant to care for him).

#erha #erha meta #erha spoilers #chu wanning

[kitkatopinions]

Regarding the nitpick about the lack of religion in RWBY. We know the worldbuilding leaves much to be desired. So I'm betting religion isn't present simply because the writers themselves are non religious and never bothered to address the subject. Which is stupid because George RR Martin created several religions to flesh out the world in Game of Thrones and he's a lapsed Catholic. Just goes to show how little the writers care about worldbuilding. The existence of the Brother Gods and the Great Tree invalidate pretty much all the faiths in Remnant yet nobody seems to care. That would be like IRL we find indisputable proof that one religion on Earth is the undeniable truth but everyone continues their lives exactly the same as if this mind blowing revelation doesn't affect them.

Yep!

it's easy enough to say "oh well religion does exist it's just that none of the mains follow a religion so it doesn't matter" but it is so bland and flat and disappointing! Like I'm not gonna pretend that I would find building multiple religions to be a particularly easy thing to do and I especially would find it hard to write characters undergoing a crisis of faith when they discover what's real... But world building is also just so much fun and it's so interesting so like? Why just hand wave it away?

There would be Salem worshippers and Salem would love that and use it and probably enforce worship among her followers. And there would be people who worshipped a vaguely Oz-ish figure and Oz would hate that. People would worship Oz and Salem together not knowing of their history (and again wouldn't have to call them by their real names or have a real understanding of them to do it.) People would have religions that sprung up on their own centered around the Grimm, people would have religions about how the world ended and when it might end again, some people Oz had trusted and told the whole truth to thousands of years ago could've prompted more worship of the brother gods, people would have religions that include the formation of the world as they know it - heck, the world of RWBY the very planet they're on is called REMNANT and there isn't some common religion about what it's a remnant of? The moon is busted up, people are always gonna be people, you think there wouldn't be some religious explanation people had for that? People have in the past just fucking gone to a completely different dimension where everything is nonsense and sentient teapots and great trees and getting transported to bridges that force you to come out of the closet - there's no way I'm believing that in thousands of years the only people it's ever happened to are Team RWBY+J and Neo through a set of very specific circumstances we know and also randomly two kids through Narnia means presumably because we don't get any other explanation - and the only thing that's ever come from that is a children's book. Kings existed, the main world powers are still called 'kingdoms' and I'm meant to believe that a 'divine right to rule' wasn't a part of that? Or more like it doesn't matter what I believe was and wasn't a part of royalty because none of it impacts or affects our main characters AT ALL.

It's just so mind boggling to me that this would be the case. It'd be like if Fire Emblem Three Houses actually had zero religious aspects, that's what it feels like. If it was just a game where people went to a combat school led by a thousands of years old person in a secret war with Those Who Slither In The Dark and people had Crests and Sothis was in Byleth's head talking to them and Arval was in Shez's head talking to them and they had the heroes relics weapons and the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and there were castles and churches and there were what looked like ruins of ancient castles or temples just like lying out in the woods, but like no single character that exists is even sort of religious and how different things might be connected to religions is never brought up and the characters never talked about any religion even existing past acknowleding that not a lot of people believed in any religion anymore. That's how weird it feels with RWBY. Like, the elements of 'this world definitely has religions and beliefs' are all freaking present in RWBY, there's no way to logically believe that religions just aren't present and have no effect on anything or any character, but then there's nothing there. It's so weird and I just do not understand how the RWBY writers could engage so little with the world and the story they made that such a crucial element of world building especially for the story they wanted to tell could just get so wholly passed over.

#rwde

[theslowesthnery]

lidrens:

no for real though. for every "morgott suffered so much" people forget that he, in fact, became the king of leyndell, and prolonged the very suffering he experienced for many others. he's on top of the order as much as everyone is concerned, of course not knowing his true face. the perfumers and their omenkillers exist under his rule, (likely) unacknowledged. albinaurics are in same sewers, people beneath the notice of the golden order and king. the misbegotten are kept as slaves, the omen held underground and in shackles even when outside. and all morgott does? upholds the status quo. mohgs methods are fucked, there's no doubt, but he tried to change things. he tried to find another way. carve a new life for himself AND others. not even only for miquella, but for those who would follow him. of course its debatable how… good? would be their new life with the blood stuff involved BUT HE TRIED. something morgott only saw as failure, even on his deathbed. to try and do something, as he tells the player. make it make sense. how is the guy who wanted a different life from the evil of the golden order the worse guy than the one who does everything in his power to keep things as they are?

yes, all of this exactly. and i want to repeat, i like morgott a ton!! but the way so many fans treat him as this innocent, sweet little bean who has only ever hurt or harmed himself, or alternatively as a gigachad who does what he feels is right (so do mohg, rykard, godrick, even the fucking dung eater - none of them are being evil for the lulz, they're all doing what they think is right) even when gets nothing in return, is so frustrating. and when it's paired up with the total unwillingness to understand or see anything good in mohg (with morgott, his trauma explains and excuses everything, meanwhile with mohg the same exact trauma explains and excuses nothing), it's like…do people know that characters are allowed to be shades of gray? that it's okay to like characters who are not 100% pure and good, who do questionable or even bad things? you don't have to flatten a character down to 100% Good Only to be allowed to like them.

krakenguard:

If ever I got to putting my thoughts down on paper -- bear in mind I AM waiting for the DLC and I do plan on going Morgott X Tarnished, I am sort of determined on giving Mohg some sort of happy ending. It might not be without it's trials and tribulations, but dammit, I want to see Mohg happy. It's just a matter of what kind of journey it'd be, as well as what kind of destination it would end up being. But I want to see him loved. Loved, and alived. Unlike Our Flag Means Death!

honestly, trials and tribulations i am ALL for - i love whump and hurt/comfort and angst, so i am all for my favourite characters going through a lot and suffering for their happy ending, and mohg has certainly done enough to perhaps warrant some suffering (i say with nothing but love) before he gets his redemption and/or happiness >:3c

(meanwhile i'm waiting the DLC with excitement but also dread, afraid that if they do touch upon mohg any further, they're just going to rub it in that actually yes, he was meant to be nothing but Pure Irredeemable Evil the whole time and has always been that way and i'm just a fucking moron for seeing anything deeper than that in his character *vibrates through the floor*)

#elden ring for blacklist

[duhragonball]

What do you think of the Saiyan's overall redesign in the DBS Broly Movie? Personally, I didn't like how they really stuck to that, "All Saiyans have black hair," thing. I thought the original King Vegeta and Saiyans surrounding him looked more interesting in DBZ. They even had a blonde guy when KV blew up those planets lmao (if only they knew)

I know the guy your talking about. He's from the flashback montage right before Vegeta dies.

Of course, his pal over there is rocking an SSJ4 Gingergeta look too, so this shot is pretty wild for a bunch of reasons. And then King Vegeta raises his hand and blows up three planets, including the one they're standing on, so I don't know what to make of that.

Anyway, as far as the hair color goes, the black-hair-only rule came from the scene where Vegeta disputes Trunks' claim to be a Saiyan, so the rule didn't exist back when DBZ Episode 86 was made. We can still interpret this in a few ways.

Vegeta was just stone cold wrong. I say this a lot, but it bears repeating: Most of what we know about Saiyans comes from Vegeta, but he's not an infallible source. There's bound to be things he doesn't know or couldn't know, and he probably still clings to a lot of propaganda fed to him in his youth.

The flashbacks aren't meant to be taken literally, and this could just be a coloring error in an otherwise consistent portrayal of the Saiyans.

The blonde guy could be a half-Saiyan like Trunks.

The blonde guy just likes to bleache his hair.

He's got some kind of medical condition that discolors his hair

Nonetheless, once Toriyama laid down the black hair rule, it appears to have been followed pretty closely, except...

Nion, one of the scientists in the nursery in DBS: Broly, has dark blue hair. Maybe indigo? You get the idea. I don't think this is a trick of the light, either, since King Vegeta's in this scene, and his hair looks black. Nion clearly has a different hair color.

At first, I wondered if this meant she wasn't a Saiyan. Nion doesn't appear to have a tail either, and her uniform is too form-fitting for her to stuff it inside her clothes like her robed co-workers. But by all accounts, she seems to be a Saiyan character, and it makes sense. She speaks rather hopefully of Broly possibly becoming the next Super Saiyan, and one of Frieza's bootlicks wouldn't be nearly so enthusiastic when speaking of such a thing.

So what's up with Nion? Well, it's probably the same story as that blonde guy from DBZ 86. She colors her hair, or she's got some alien ancestry, or maybe there's more to Saiyans than Vegeta knew. My guess is that the movie was trying to show that there's a particular fashion among Saiyan scientists. The men in this scene all had very short, more "conventional haircuts". They also wore long choir robes. Nion has a different look, but there's like nine other women in the nursery with the exact same style, suggesting that they all wear that look to signify their profession. So maybe the blue hair is part of that, or Nion picked it up while she was at space college or something.

So from a hair standpoint, I think they just kind of ended up back where they started. Pure-blooded Saiyans may all start with black hair, and most of them stay that way, but a few Saiyans seem to develop an interest in coloring their hair for cosmetic reasons.

No, the main change I noticed from the Broly movie was that most of the Saiyan uniforms we saw were black and/or blue, which is kind of a shame, because I liked the various colors used in DBZ. Bardock had his green and black armor, Fasha/Seripa had pink, Towa had Carolina Tarheel blue, and so on. The movie also did Paragus dirty, because Paragus looked like the fuckin' man in Movie 8, and his DBS looks were all a downgrade.

At least Gine got pink wristbands and sort of a dark teal outfit. That might be closer to green, but I can't tell. Anyway, I get it, they're uniforms. The whole point is that everyone looks the same. Still, I liked the idea that someone could requisition a hot pink and lime green armor and it was totally cool.

Ultimately, flashback scenes like these don't carry that much weight, since they're always susceptible to another retcon. One of these years, they'll do some "Andor"-style series about the Saiyan/Tuffle War, and we'll see a whole other depiction of Saiyans that will turn all of this on its ear, and I'll probably be coming up with some other rationale to make it all fit together.

Mostly, I'm just glad we got a peek into Saiyan culture beyond the front-line warriors in the DBZ flashbacks. Nion and her colleagues raise more questions than answers, but I'm still grateful for the questions. I think fans have postulated characters like Beetz and Gine for a long time, and the movie confirms that there was definitely more to Saiyan society than fighting.

#ask duhragonball #saiyans #gine #nion #bardock #vegeta #king vegeta #nappa

[oodlyenough]

4-2 turnabout corner

alright finished this case and i guess i'm doing case review posts now. i'm playing this for the first time so no spoilers for future stuff please:

this was pretty fun! and for the most part the problem-solving remained coherent, so that was nice. i feel like i never got any answers about the hit and run though...? i kept expecting it to be more relevant in the end and it just never was. i guess we had no time for that because we had to talk about trucy's panties for the three billionth time

but it was the first case with trucy and first real chance to see apollo do anything, and they're pretty fun. i like unsettling baby genius trucy. even if she totally stole my glory in court because i personally had also figured this out, catch up apollo, stop thinking like a normal person

apollo as the long-suffering straightman is more entertaining than i expected. the dynamic he has with the wrights is pretty funny, just like constantly ganged up on and bamboozled by their double act. poor apollo bawling after trucy fake kidnaps herself lmfao oh buddy

beanix cracks me up. it's so easy to wind apollo up and everyone does it with gusto. i think like 80% of what he says to apollo at any given time is a lie. it's a very funny dynamic to me lmao, "if anything i see you more as a BOTHER figure". i keep thinking of a text post i saw on here, i can't even remember if it was talking about AA specifically or just fandom in general, but talking about how fandom tends to ignore the existence of relationships besides "literal family" or "lovers", and ended with "normalize coworkers". anyway i think about "normalize coworkers" like every time apollo and phoenix interact.

the game is definitely inviting me to question his integrity at all times but the thing is i like phoenix more than anyone else in this game and it's not close, so...

i said it in other posts but adult ema rules!!! i love cranky sarcastic women. related to the point above, i really appreciate having her there as the other tie to the trilogy, and as someone who knew phoenix from before and is loyal to him. same girl same.

i also like klavier, he's fun. i'm curious to know what his deal is since it's not at all apparent why he's doing any of this to me, he doesn't seem to hold any grudge on kristoph's behalf. (what, he just likes law? a normal motivation? in my AA??? is that allowed)

on more negative notes:

i could really have done without an entire running gag for the entire case being about panties and panty snatching and especially a 15 year old telling me about her panties like every line of dialogue. i get that the "joke" is that it's meant to be weird and uncomfortable and apollo is uncomfortable. but like. christ lmao free me

the alcoholic phoenix jokes are not it for me, man! feels sleazy and uncomfortable and i know the game is never even going to like. treat it seriously. they can't even say the word wine. i can excuse weird cryptid phoenix who speaks in riddles and is generally kind of an asshole but i draw the line at "alcoholic single father". fuck off lmao.

in general, a lot of the stuff they're doing with phoenix here so far is, like, tolerable to me only inasmuch as i've been spoiled for it and i also can approach it as a sort of midpoint; i know most people don't like aa5+6, and my opinion may change a bit after i play them, but right now the idea of the series ending here, with washed out (alcoholic????) loser phoenix is so bleak and depressing, and falls into a lot of sequel media tropes i find tired. you often see franchises end their original run on a high note only to follow it up years later with a sequel that's like "but it was all for nought, everyone went their separate ways and Our Hero kind of sucks now". if i'd played this unspoiled in whatever year it was it came out i'd've been so pissed lmao

#oodly plays AA #ace attorney #aa4 #aa4 spoilers #turnabout corner

[beardedmrbean]

hey quick question look up jewish expulsions and massacres in all the countries immediately bordering Israel. Look up how many Jew live in Yemen. I support Palestinian freedom, safety, and their right to live - I currently support a two state solution because none of the people advocating for a one-state solution have convinced me that it would be best for any of the people involved. But I think pretty much everyone in the Knesset rn should be hanged for crimes against humanity. But you CANNOT pretend that if someone waved a magic wand and the IDF vanished along with other tools of oppression, that there isn't a problem with Hamas and their "kill all jews" charter (which they changed to look prettier only recently) along with other factions who would want to kill Jews either for revenge or for more power or just because of antisemitism.

I'm going to specify - I don't think there is any inherent Palestinian bloodlust or whatever crock of shit a lot of Zionists peddle. I think that Israeli control of the region clearly models what happens when you have one ethnic group in power over another - I think the human evil we see from Israelis committing atrocities against Palestinians is exactly what we would see if the situation reversed. I don't buy that Palestinians are uniquely savage OR uniquely peaceful. "They just want a land in which to live in peace, and they're willing to fight for it but once they have it there would be no reason for violence" perfectly describes Jews fleeing the Holocaust to try to settle Palestine, and we can see where that logic ends. The myth of a perfectly peaceful pre-Israel Palestine is also not actually the prettiest picture.

I will also clarify that I don't think that 2 ethnic groups can't coexist in one nation as a general rule. I just think that in a region shaped by violence for so long, and such extreme violence right up to now, it is much harder to do so. I think its human nature that when things are so violent, most people aren't going to spend energy making sure they're not being prejudicial, both because energy can be better spent either on survival or joy with your own community, and also because it often feels like your prejudice is keeping you safe, or is proven every time One Of Them attacks One Of You. There are plenty of ways they can try to bridge the gaps, but I don't think that "dissolve Israel immediately and completely" accomplishes any of that

Ya, they're gone from pretty much every MENA nation there is or at least at a handful of their previous population, forced expulsions will do that to your population.

As for the palestenian population, to some degree I think they were ok to stay in Israel as it formed they'd just need to accept Israeli citizenship, there's some issues like the Sheikh Jarrah thing from a few years back that kicked off a short war, Muslim family got evicted from a home they'd been squatting in since before the formation of the country of Israel, people that owned the property had the receipt and deed from when the Ottomans still existed.

Folks still called that stealing their home. I imagine a whole bunch of that happened early on, someone's family had purchased a home of some sort with plans to move there but politics and eventually a war got in the way of that and such.

I would love to see the palestenian types free from the various terror groups that keep starting wars and stealing all the resources meant to aid the standard every day person.

As for the multicultural thing, there's 2 million arabs living in Israel who owing to the fact that they're arabs never need to sign up for military service, where as most every single Jewish citizen does and generally speaking they get along well enough and are even friends.

And to address the ethnic issue

These guys mostly just have 'being Jewish' in common with each other, if they can go and fit in there should be easy enough for anyone that isn't of a mind to start trouble.

If the arabs that identify as palestenian want to stay balkanized that's fine, just stop trying to kill the people that want to live in peace.

(still love the story of the Kaifeng Jews, wild stuff and makes for a good read)

#anonymous

[distortedmoondisc]

(Reposting a small informal essay I wrote about this specific line of Vermilion back in july that got lost in my blog. Adding screenshots of my reblogs, which prompted me to write all of this, for context).

Hiiro, who was raised to devote his whole existence to one person and that all his value as an individual is tied to the successful filling of that role. And then someone, the voice of the song—probably Hiiro himself, since he's the one singing this specific line—telling him that "there's meaning you'll never grasp" living as his own, independent person....

And that's just.... I don't know. It feels just so melancholic, for some reason. A sort of existential melancholy. It's reminiscent as to when we're told that we'll probably never discover all the secrets of the ocean or all the secrets about outer space, that we'll never understand 100% a specific topic or matter of study because there's so much information about it, it isn't humanly possible to process it all in a single lifetime. "There is meaning you'll never be able to grasp, there are things you'll never be able to learn or to understand." And that just feels so unfair and distressing, for some reason.

So that makes me think about how the lyrics are implying that Hiiro—despite enjoying his new-found freedom of being Hiiro Amagi, the Leader of Alkaloid, and not Hiiro Amagi, servant of the monarch—he might never be able to fully understand or to enjoy the meaning of his new existence ("there's meaning you'll never be able to grasp"). Hiiro grew up thinking that the rules of his hometown are universal truths and that he must uphold them above everything else—so if the rules tell him that he must dedicate his whole life to serve his brother and that he doesn't have any value outside of that, who is he to deny it? Who is he to fight it? Who is he to interrupt the social norm and the peace of his society? He says it himself in the main story: rules are meant to keep the peace of the community, and peace can only be achieved if everyone does their part without complaining.

So Hiiro already had the meaning of his existence, up to that point, and he didn't need anything else. He was Rinne's servant, he was a member of his hometown, and he was given a mission: to bring his brother, the Monarch, back home to take the throne. It was very clear and simple — but then he met Alkaloid, and all of the idols of ES. He was exposed to the city, to the outside world, to countless different ways of thinking and ways of life. The MDM happened (including Rinne disowning him), and the meaning of his existence was broken. Hiiro is now free, but he's left without any guidance or absolute truths he can rely on a world so grand and contradicting that he can't even comprehend it, and that realistically, he never will.

So what can he do, with a problem of this scope?

What do you do, when all you thought was an absolute truth, actually is not? (and that in fact, absolute truths might not even exist to begin with?) When all the things you learned, the rights and the wrongs, differ from place to place, and from person to person? When you have been left to your own devices to figure out this new world you've been thrown into, that is so contradicting and confusing, all by yourself?

Is this the burden you have to carry, the price you have to pay, to be an independent, autonomous person? (Is this a process Rinne, his brother, also had to go through?)

But then, Mayoi's lyrics in come up, "With the suit of your soul—" and then the rest of Alkaloid sing together—"Persist in your belief."

And this is the part of the song where the existential melancholy gets turned upside down. Yes, Hiiro might never be able to fully grasp the meaning of this new life. Yes, he might never be able to fully understand the new world he's been thrown into, and he will have to struggle trying to navigate it on his own—but the lyrics are pushing him to keep moving forward despite of that. "With the new life you have been given, persist in your beliefs" it's an encouragement, a comforting line. It's Alkaloid (Tatsumi, Mayoi, and Aira) telling him that despite the world being confusing and contradicting and so so vast with multiple wrong and right answers—the best thing Hiiro can do is to be true to himself; to keep tackling adversity and life head on, to try to learn and to understand it as best as he can, and draw his own logical conclusions about it—not conclusions and answers given to him arbitrarily by someone else. And most importantly: that he isn't alone, that he has a group of people that will accompany him along the way, with varying degrees of knowledge about the world, that will complement and support him on his own journey.

And only then, Hiiro will live an autonomous life—and there will be meaning he will never be able to grasp, but that's okay. He isn't meant to, and that's fine.

#i think too much about how hiiro has grown ever since he's become independent from rinne #and also about how challenging his situation must be having to form his own conclusions about things by himself #and how alkaloid is by his side to support him and help him along the way.... #theyre a little family do not separate them #vermilion is an incredible song for multiple reasons but i wanted to talk about this specific part that makes me so mentally ill #hiiro amagi and alkaloid do things to my brain #i love them beyond belief #enstars alkaloid #enstars #ensemble stars #enstars vermilion #hiiro amagi #also ty tumblr for letting me write long post because i tried doing this in a twt thread and got tired midway #my post

[minzart]

Will's birthday jacket/union

11 of May of 2021- first time their oficial desing was made and posted here!

Background template isn't mine and can be found here I only edited the color

[Interview]

Will: All clean, now to move the furniture back- eh? Someone's at the door?

Idia: Morning...

Will: Idia? What are you doing here so early?

Idia: sigh* let's get this over with... I'm your gift-giver today, happy birthday and all that

Will: ... pfff did you came early just so you could avoid the party?

Idia: bingo! Now let me in I can feel people staring....

Will: great seven, come on in, you know that Ortho will insist you come anyway

Idia: butttt I would've already given you your present, soooo I tecnicaly don't need to show up anymore! Here

Will: ah... oh! A headphone... I forgot those existed haha

Idia: yeah Ortho told me you didn't had one, and you are more of the introverted type so... you know... one of our essential survival items just seemed fitting, fits my theme so no-one found it weird I bought another one

Will: ... it has background canceling noise?! How? it's so tiny!

Idia: eheh, I may have done some modifications, here, you can turn off and on that feature in this button, the wires where trash and I had some spares, and free time, so those will probably last way longer too, don't worry in binding it around it's very resistant

Will: you realy are amazing...

Idia: oh? Praising me prefect I'm honored

Will: I take back what I said. Your grin makes me wanna punch you

Idia: waah so cold and unfair to your gift-giver after all that trouble I had to be here instead of seding this by the mail and sending the questions by email, so mean~

Will: sarcastic ass

Idia: anyways gonna let me do my side quest or no?

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

Idia: so first question, if you could have a sibling, who would it be? You can't choose someone of your own dorm tho

Will: I literaly only have only one member and he's practically my little sibling already

Idia: rules are rules! And I don't make then, so who would it be?

Will: hm.... sibling... Ortho.

Idia: eh-?

Will: Yeah, Ortho, of everyone Ortho would be the least annoying one hopefully

Idia: pfff trying to get rich fast~ I can see your game, but you are right, Ortho is an amazing little brother... to me at least

Will: rich? Buddy if I wanted to get rich I would seduce Malleus, Leona, Vil or even you, easier that way, I already have trauma as it is I don't need your family's one on top of that. Besides you said someone to be my sibling, singular, so you are out of the question

Idia: pfff don't want me as your brother then?

Will: I probably can't be useful to you, and for more of an amazing brother that you are to Ortho I doubt it would be the same to me

Idia: oh? Full of assumptions aren't you?

Will: and you are gonna tell me I'm wrong? Magicless, unknowledgeable of the world and certainly know practically nothing compared to you, I wouldn't be usefull in anyform to you, to Ortho I at least could make an attempt but even for he I might not even be usefull

Idia: you know that siblings don't need to be usefull right? I care for Ortho not bc he's usefull to me, but bc he cares for me as well.

Will: If you had my luck I doubt you would be saying that with so certainty.

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

Idia: alright next question, since you weren't sorted in a dorm, what dorm do you think you would be in?

Will: ... that's a very specific question

Idia: sounds like someone made this with you in mind

Will: alright, alright, dorm...the shape of my soul or whatever... heartslabyul.

Idia: so fast, did you actualy thought about it?

Will: I don't mind following rules and don't feel like I stand out enough to be in the other ones

Idia: hehehe insulting heartslabyul's students now? How bold~

Will: don't twist my worlds Shroud, you know very well that that's not what I meant

Idia: funny, I thought you would say Diasomnia or Octavinelle... I can tecnicaly see you in Ignihyde too tho

Will: eh? Why?

Idia: Diasomnia since you are friends with Malleus, Octavinelle is a comun pick from what I heard, wich is fair I mean they have a fucking restaurant and Azul is more merciful to his students than to the other's

Will: Ignihyde?

Idia: .... I'm gonna be honest, I think you give yourself little credit, besides following rules or whatever you meant by that bc I remember you not caring a single bit about those, you are creative

Will: creative...?

Idia: yeah, Azul couldn't stop screaming in our matches at the club about how you and kingschoolar destroyed his hard work. It was a creative plan, clever could also be used to describe it, but that's not all that defines you, you tell stories very well, I have heard you and Grim talking around school and Ortho recorded one of your hangouts, you have a creative soul when you get in the right mood, one of the things my dorm is know to have, so yeah, Ignihyde sounds like it fits you too... tomeatleastImean-

Will: ... it's weird when you get honest

Idia: ahem. Anyways, now to the tradition!

Will: tradition? Is that! ... you bastard THAT'S WHY YOU CAME HERE AFTER ALL!

Idia: I have no idea what you mean~

Will: YOU SORE LOSER THIS IS BECAUSE I BEAT YOUR SCORE ISN'T IT?!

Idia: noooo It's tradition I swear! Any extra satisfaction I get from it is merely coincidence~

Will: I should have punched you after your overblot

#will yuu #twst #minzart #twisted wonderland #twst union birthday #i am so fucking pround of those 'sticker like' #minz doodles #twst birthday

[tshiwthibgilte]

@walstarterblog

Appearing in a new universe is disorienting, alarming, and scary. And Piter is the sort who sternly expects life to make sense and follow established physical rules! It rankles him to be forced to suppose that something 'magical' has happened to him. He spent his first few days here keeping to himself. He needed time to process it all, and he didn't suppose he was in any kind of mood another person would want to be around (a fair assessment).

Once the initial shock wore off, though, horror and disgust gave way to... wonder. Because this isn't just any alternative universe. It's an alternative Earth. Earth. Where it all started. The cradle of humankind. In a sense, he was snatched away from home; in another sense, he's never been home until this moment. How could he not be fascinated?

He didn't know his surname was Dutch. He didn't know there was ever such a place as Holland.

He supposedly has a job here, and he's been loosely in communication with his boss, building stories and reasons why he can't come back to work just yet. No, not today either. He decides that if he has a job, he must be damn good at it, and therefore hard to replace. He's always been this way about work, it wouldn't be different in another universe. So he keeps stringing the boss along, and for the moment it's working.

Today, Piter is visiting the Natural History Museum. He has always been emotional. Too emotional for a Mentat, and far too emotional in general, by Vladimir Harkonnen's standards. It's hard to stay composed as he walks from exhibit to exhibit, learning new things about his very species with every step.

Why isn't everyone in here? Why aren't more of, any of, the people who are here openly weeping? Look at all of this.

Before humanity was an empire that stretched across the galaxy, humanity was a funny kind of animal on a little blue marble. And look, look, people invented things and fought wars and loved each other and made art and all of that. It's all right here, behind the glass. And they did it all for the future, because they believed it was all building towards something, and it's only because of them that Piter is here and the world he's from exists. They did it all for him, and he never even saw it, and he didn't even turn out to be that good of a person, his society is not that good of a society, and look at all of this right here, the people who lived on Earth still made all of this stuff anyway and believed in a future anyway...

Someone asks him if he's okay. He turns to them (his eyes are fully blue, not right) and explains, "What? Oh, yes; thank you, you're too kind. I was just experiencing time on a scale my brain wasn't meant to process, for a moment there, I think. You know... museum vertigo, ha ha."

Privately, and wincing inwardly a little, he supposes 'museum vertigo' isn't really a thing. But in 20,000 years, it will be.

#wal: starter #let's goooo!

[emmys-grimoire]

Lesson 80 Story & Analysis

It’s finally over. I did not enjoy the ride. But it sure was a finale, I guess.

Sorry it took me so long to write this up, but I had other obligations and I just didn’t have the motivation. But now it’s done, and I get awhile to relax!

Story

We left off on another cliffhanger last time, after Simeon finally told the others what’s up with him as they clung to him in the middle of the conjured dark crevasse.

He’s right. This is the least opportune moment for this revelation, and so far the only opportunity Simeon has had to actually use his angelic powers! That’s just how relevant they were to this point. 

Regardless, they’re relevant now. Or would be if they existed. Since they don’t, they remain in trouble.

Beelzebub wants to help them, but apparently the wind is so strong that we can’t even see them. Lucifer transforms and steps in and blows them away from the approaching tornado with his four wings. Those must be some powerful gusts.

Mammon and Asmo get tossed into the tree and bushes respectively.

The dark crevasse seems to be getting bigger and it starts to uproot the fauna. A tree gets flung at us but we’re given three options to avoid it (I just used magic, which gave me Diavolo affection). We continue to try to move the gigantic treasure chest but it’s not budging. 

We can suggest opening it or plugging it: I chose the former because I’m not sure how the latter makes any sense, and Lucifer agrees with the plan. Satan asks how, because we don’t have a key. Diavolo has a revelation and tells us oh he has it. Satan goes “wait, what?” because he hasn’t truly figured it out yet.

But to be fair…

It is pretty weird. 

The chest is opened once Diavolo scans his eyeball and the magical energy spills out, blinding everyone. The dark crevasse eats it all up and vanishes. Mammon/Levi/Asmo are no longer invisible. Asmo immediately demands a mirror. No one has one on hand, so he insists on seeing his reflection through Beel’s eyes and crows over his appearance. Mammon asks Levi if he remembers his name, and Levi replies in the affirmative. Solomon inquires about Barbatos’s health, and Barbatos is now feeling fine.

The treasure chest is back to its tiny size. The crisis is over.

Mammon demands they have a talk. He demands an explanation from Simeon, and Satan demands one from Diavolo. If you think this is meant to be a serious moment, you’re wrong: the clown music is playing. Barbatos insists we go elsewhere before saying anything further.

We move things to the Demon Lord’s Castle. Mammon asks why Mephisto isn’t around, and Beelzebub reveals that he left. The brothers think he must be allergic to fun, passing up a chance to have a sleepover at Diavolo’s place, but Lucifer informs them that Diavolo is just being nice. Luke is there, and seems to be enjoying himself. He flushes when Beelzebub notes aloud just how happy he seems. There’s quite a bit of chit-chat before they finally get back to the actual conversation.

Diavolo explains himself first:

SURPRISE.

Mammon notes that what Diavolo did was against the rules, but like hell if he cares. Rules are for peasants.

Yeah, okay. It wasn’t subtle at all, but these are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

We passed our final trial, meaning we’re now a bonafide member of the mail sorting council.

Everyone congratulates and dogpiles us. Mammon gets upset when everyone starts hugging us because of course he does. Satan notes someone else now owes us an explanation. He proceeds to explain he is no longer a human. 

Mammon at first disbelieves him. Which I find odd because he was the first one to get suspicious and suggest the CR did something harmful to him. Simeon insists he wasn’t joking, Mammon already knows, and clarifies.

Apparently you can feel angel powers, I guess? Or at least demons can.

Luke is predictably confused. Asmo asks why, and Satan correctly deduces that it’s because he stole the Ring of Light.

... Right.

So the CR didn’t send him on a mission to delegate human-angel relations, Simeon just thought it’d be fun if he opened a cafe and take Luke with him under that pretense. This is all part of a journey of self-discovery.

Simeon took a lot of time to come to the conclusion that “everything happens for a reason”, with the implication that it must be a good reason. If you’re still convinced that this narrative is going to make the Celestial Realm and it’s angels the bad guys, I don’t think you’ve been paying attention...

Solomon asks Luke if he’s okay. This revelation must be tough on him, right? He must be very confused. Initially, he seems to be struggling, but you can reassure him that Simeon just still Simeon… apparently Simeon’s identity was the issue here, not his impromptu demotion for saving the three realms.

Simeon takes the opportunity to apologize to Raph, at least.

I feel bad for Raphael. Being a babysitter in his debut season. He ultimately takes it in stride, though.

Everything’s resolved because there wasn’t really much of a problem in the first place.

We continue to get pampered by Diavolo. We talk to Simeon in the garden. 

I guess insecurities usually aren’t rational or rooted in reality but this still feels like a cop-out. 

Luke got over it real quick. Apparently he’s fine with the Celestial Realm punishing Simeon, as long as he wasn’t transformed into an entirely different person. But why would he be?

This really shouldn’t be the central conflict. There’s no reason for them to reject Simeon just because he’s a human when they don’t reject any of the present humans.

But I digress. After we make out with Simeon we return to the castle and presumably have dinner. 

I insist on continuing to party and get whisked away to a romantic scene with Mammon in the guest room. I chose wrong, clearly.

Barbatos wakes us up in the morning. You can ask him for a good morning kiss and he complies. Okay lol.

Diavolo greets us in the ballroom. Luke is surprised that Lucifer isn’t up yet and Diavolo reminds us that Lucifer is not a morning demon. This baffles the angel because he doesn’t recall Lucifer ever being late or missing a meeting. 

Luke raves about how great the breakfast was, and asks Barbatos for the recipe for the pastries we ate. Barbatos agrees to teach him, and they go off to the kitchen, leaving us with Diavolo… who invites us to his room.

Once there, he congratulates us for making the student council.

I don’t think we’ve changed much in the school. Most of the student body still thinks the exchange program is dumb according to the survey we did. It’s an improvement from everyone hating it, but remember that most of the demon populace is afraid of Diavolo no matter how unjustified it may be.

He informs us that we’ll undergo a formal ceremony to make our induction official.

We wander outside to the lakeside gazebo and meet with the others, who are now awake and enjoying breakfast. 

We get a moment with Luke.

He just thanks us for being there for Simeon when he needed us. He believes if he was open-minded and nice, Simeon would have turned to him to help, too. He now has a mission to become an angel “worthy of respect”... he’s worthy of respect already. Everyone is. 

This is probably my least favorite part of the lesson because we know that the reason Simeon didn’t let Luke know was that he was afraid of making him sad, and I don’t think Luke is unjustified in being hurt about being kept in the dark when Simeon is his friend and his custodian. In addition to that, we accept this framing, and encourage him to be a better angel. His invalidates his own feelings and we help him do so.

This is a kid by the way.

I know he can be immature and was close-minded (though he’s started openly befriending demons this season), but damn. If we’re having a contest between the angels about who is the most honest and sincere, I’d put my money on him. Keep in mind that Raphael also never corrected Solomon’s lie to Simeon about Luke running away, too… and they never came clean to Simeon about it. All of this is pretty much just swept under the rug.

Satan takes us aside next. He warns us that things are about to get rough and to get ready… then we’re whisked off to the student council room. 

We finish our paperwork and run into Beel, Mephisto and 13 outside. Remember them? Thirteen wasn’t invited to the festivities I guess. Thirteen goes on about setting up another trap for Solomon. Mephisto points out that her trap isn’t going to work, and begins to explain why when she asks. Beelzebub notes how chummy they are now and they both deny it. I didn’t think it was a particularly friendly interaction, either, but okay.

Mephisto reminds us that we were on short-term exchange program like we were previously, along with Solomon, and the term should be ending shortly. Thirteen thinks it’ll be dull without us around, and corrects Beelzebub when he says he thought she was also on a short term. It’s her first term, so she’s there for a full-fledged year. 

Yes, so did I. Why do we have to return when we’ve just gotten the job?

It’s just a thing we do now. We go back to the House of Lamentation dining room and everyone starts despairing about our imminent but undoubtedly temporary departure. Why do we have to do this?

Asmo insists they stop wallowing and build us a memory box, so we don’t forget them in the like two weeks we’re gone.

Didn’t we do a variation of this last time? They gave use keepsakes so we can practice summoning them easier...

They all put in their mementos, and you get to choose yours.

Naturally I have no idea what any of these actually are until I choose.

I pick the sports festival because it’s the only arc in this season I liked in some capacity.

We reminiscence about the event, and about all the events connected to each of their mementos. Naturally, since I’m a hater, this has no effect on my black heart.

Lucifer isn’t around to put his in, so Asmo does it for him. It’s great being a Lucifer stan sometimes. It’s a letter. His brothers immediately want to open it, but Asmo tells them if it’s opened by anyone besides us they’ll be cursed. 

Here are all the mementos. Don’t think it’s worth individual screenshots.

We leave and go shopping. We run into the Purgatory crew. Raphael notes there’s a sale at the butcher’s shop, and Simeon comments on how familiar Raphael is with the Devildom now. We note that Simeon is back in his Celestial clothing.

I guess he prefers this set over his human clothes after all? Just didn’t feel comfortable wearing them before because he technically isn’t an angel any more.

… But you’re not an angel any more. Why are you still reporting to the Celestial Realm? You’re enrolled as a human now, right? You can do whatever you want. With Luke it makes sense but…

Ugh they’re undercutting the decision they’ve committed to already.

Honestly? Same.

I’ll be right back and I don’t have the memory of a goldfish. You really don’t have to worry.

The student council inauguration is tomorrow apparently. Simeon wishes us luck.

We fast forward. Lucifer’s smugly fussing over us. We can nab a smooch, and he steals a smooch from us in return. We continue to the ceremony in the colosseum.

Diavolo gives a speech.

HELP ME

Our actual choices:

I go the formal route because why not. They all think it must be because I’m nervous. Lucifer tells them to shut up and they go “YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!” The squabbling starts, but thankfully we just move on.

We get a transition to a bright cloudy sky and we’re getting a magic lesson from Solomon again. 

Okay so it was several weeks not just two but c’mon.

Cue credits. It’s finally over.

After the credits, we cut to the brothers mourning our absence and Simeon mother henning them. Diavolo, Barbatos, and Lucifer aren’t despairing because they seem to know we’re on our way. Sure enough, we teleport in and fall on top of them. Belphegor asks why we’re here, and Lucifer gives him the obvious answer: we now work there.

I’m sure glad I won’t get fined.

Yep.

They begin to fight over us. The end.

Analysis

They did manage to accomplish one thing I expected them to do: we now have a reason to remain in the Devildom indefinitely. Unfortunately, we’re just a secretary instead of a student. Simeon also has an opportunity to stick around longer, but I’m not sure what they’re gonna pull out of their asses to keep Raphael around after his first year is up. It may very well be just because the Celestial Realm is fine with just sending the same students over and over again. Beginning to think this format wasn’t a great choice.

We didn’t get any of the drama I was hoping for and expecting, but about three-fourths into this season it was obvious they’re not interested in that kind of thing. This season was a giant exercise in not making any effort to have any significant interpersonal or intrapersonal conflict. The closest we got was Lucifer and Satan fight arc part 4, and that was a flop in its own right. There are plenty of opportunities to make things more interesting: we could have learned more about the nobility with Mephisto, could have learned more about reapers with Thirteen, could have learned more about the Celestial Realm and the war with Raphael, could have finally had an opportunity for Luke to reflect on how the Celestial Realm doles out their punishments now that he finally acknowledges demons can be his friends, we could have actually learned *anything* about the school council assuming it’s something more significant than a school council (it’s probably not), and they didn’t have to put our decision-making on auto-pilot to justify our brilliance when we’ve been consistently given the opportunity to be a dumb ass up until this point… it’s not like there are not plenty of idiots on the student council already.

I know some fans are satisfied with how his arc concluded but I’m very disappointed. “He does everything for a reason, this is meant to be” is literally the least exciting answer/conclusion he could have come up with. It sounds like he’s not interested in actually regaining his angelhood (in spite of Lucifer’s reassurance earlier) and I’d argue it detracts from hints of rebellion and sass we got to see in Season 2. Now he’s just another pretty boy who luvs us, who is supposed to be a human now but still functions exactly the same way he did as an angel. He’s S1 Simeon again but now with heart eyes. Glad he’s happy, I guess, but I think his issue being he was afraid everyone wouldn’t still accept him as a human is also really dumb. If anything he’s *more* pliable to them now because he can’t smite them to oblivion if he ever gets angry. It feels very hollow.

I’ll save the rest of what I have to say about this lesson in the season review. That’s going to take some time: I’ll be settling in my new place and school is coming up. It just isn’t my highest priority now, but it is important to write it for the sake of this blog going forward.

#obey me #obey me! #obey me spoilers #obey me lesson 80 #obey me simeon #obey me lucifer #obey me diavolo #obey me mammon #obey me satan #obey me raphael #obey me luke #obey me solomon #commentary #analysis #obey me season 4

[ramble-bloo]

I have no idea if I've dropped this outside my brain or if it's another instance of me thinking so much about lore that I just think I've already shared it BUT

Pluto and Nova's story setting is basically retconned and no longer takes place in the distant future. It's still futuristic but it takes place on a man-made world. This is mainly so, BY SOME CHANCE, they could end up meeting my other OCs if I ever got around to doing a massive crossover thingy.

Basically, some decades ago during the first couple of UFO sightings and crashes, Earth realized there was indeed life in space. And in secret, humans worked with whatever aliens winded up on Earth to create a man-made planet that would serve as the dream utopia for human and aliens...as well as a lure to urge more outer space dwellers to land there and NOT Earth because it was getting harder and harder to lie to the public about their existence.

It was meant to follow the iconic vision of space travel you think of, with all the shine and perfection. The world we live on but better.

However, things rarely go to plan.

Due to the planet being man-made, it also became a dumping ground of sorts. Laws were difficult to reinforce like on Earth due to how complex the society had become with the influx of aliens and their own rules. Earth had begun to go through its own tensions, leading to attention drifting away from the planet.

Companies started to drop certain morals, shoving advertisements wherever they please leading to cities with skies filled with billboards and neon signs. Building regulations were just thrown out the window, leading to towers and clusters of buildings. There's a point there are even cities on top of cities.

The biggest development was technology and the heavy lean towards implementing it into living biology. What once was experimental became a widespread practice. Body modifications with tech ran rampant with some mods being completely harmless and just for aesthetic. Others, like merging the body with military grade weaponry became highly illegal. But with the Earth and alien governments being more focused on their home planets than the one they collaborated on together.

This led to the planet having to scrape together some kind of law enforcement to keep everyone in check.

Which is a lore dump for a different post.

BUT over the years things have settled down somewhat. Of course, this could simply be due to the lawbreakers becoming better at working in secret away from the public eye. Or the fact some are working alongside and even for law enforcement, leading to the lines of good and bad becoming blurred.

However, many residents are simply just residents trying to make it by. Some migrated to the planet during the dawn of its creation and have been there ever since, leading to generations that only know of Earth and their ancestor's planets through books and tv. Others recently landed on the planet with hopes of exploring a future.

While it wasn't a total lawless wasteland, it was far from the utopia dreamed of. However, it became the melting pot of the universe and still represents the unity of humans and aliens...

A unity that Earth continues to lie to it's own residents about due to them keeping the planet hidden from the public eye. Unless you got the right tech and know the exact coordinates, this all is just a conspiracy theory you may find on a long buried post, whose comments have been disabled, on a forum from a deleted user.

#cyberus #bondwidth