#this pretty much applies to all their incarnations

[chekensheppppp]

Cyrus and Cynthia's dynamic in a nutshell

(initially made and finished this back in 2021 when BDSP was announced but never got around to posting it because i'm stupid and lazy etc. I also feel like this has been done before but whatever lol.)

shitty omake under cut:

#cheken's nonsense #cheken scratch #this pretty much applies to all their incarnations #also i couldn't be bothered to draw giratina #i did these on my phone and i'm a tired fuck #anyway #galactic boss cyrus #galactic leader cyrus #cyrus #champion cynthia #cynthia pokemon #trainer dawn #pokemon diamond and pearl #pokemon platinum #y'all can count this as mizuhikishipping i don't mind

[lolishdes]

“Beauty and Pleasure Incarnate” Diluc x Reader

✧A/N: Just some Diluc Headcanons I have, be warned these are all nsfw, so just keep scrolling down if uninterested! Also if this blows up then I might make a part 2 since I still got some headcanons in mind hehe

I made reader as neutral as I can for the ladies, all of you deserve love from our gorgeous man. But reader can also be anyone you want! Never specified that reader is a cis woman so 👀

✧Warning/s: This is all pure filth let me tell you! Best to keep it a surprise and just read if for yourselves ;3 

Minors kindly don't interact!

Diluc is definitely a gentle and passionate lover, once he loves you there's nothing he won't do for you. And when it comes to your alone times in the evenings, he makes sure to give everything you desire. 

Diluc doesn't enjoy degrading you, bullying you a little? Sure. But he would much prefer to give you sweet compliments and praises –– praises that he knows that will rile you up. He has way too much respect for you to even degrade you, especially in an activity such as this. And when it comes to calling you names he loves calling you traditional pet names like beloved, sweetheart, my love, gorgeous, beautiful, and all that sappy stuff. If he's feeling a little more dirty he loves calling you his little minx or vixen. 

When it comes to sex he isn't in favor of outdoor or quickies, he wants a proper place for you two to explore one another's bodies. He thinks that it's only proper to do so, since such an intimate act should only be shared in a setting with absolute privacy. He lives for foreplay, in fact it's his favorite part. He wants to worship every single part of your body. Your beautiful body just does things to him, it's obvious considering the bulge forming down his pants.

Diluc knows you're weak to kisses, and those kisses vary from your lips, to your chest, or even on that swollen clit of yours. He’ll make sure to kiss every part you want him to, just use your words, okay? He’s pretty verbal too when making love to you, quite the opposite with how he usually acts. But you suppose it's because in such a moment both of you feel so vulnerable and connected that he doesn't mind letting his mind and mouth do some extra work. 

His dynamic is definitely the giver, or more specifically a service Dom. Acts of service is his love language and that still applies in the bedroom.

Eating you out makes him heat up until the tips of his toes, it's just so filthy with the sound of squelching and your hands roughly pulling on his red locks. But he doesn't mind, in fact it just turns him on even more, your desperation is so sexy to him and he wants nothing more than to make you feel good. To hell with his aching cock, your swollen cunny needs some loving! Also while eating you out he definitely palms himself through his boxers, just to ease some of that tension building up.

He finds that both of you enjoy a deep but slow pacing when it comes to thrusting. The action is just so overwhelming and less energy consuming really. 

Since this is such an intimate act, Diluc wants to see every single facial expression you make,  to see the beautiful lady that he has fallen in love with. Naturally he chooses missionary as his favorite position, but sometimes he wants to spice things up and fucks you in a mating press instead!

When finally putting it in he makes sure to rub himself on your clit first, just to stimulate you a little bit more. He goes slow while his hands are gripping your thighs. “Oh archons beloved– you feel so warm.” On the other hand you're gripping the sheets and breathless. “Luc please–” “Shh shh i've got you, come here.” He silences you with a deep kiss while his hips slowly thrust forward. 

Definitely loves to overstimulate you, to see tears of pure euphoric feeling of coming and the absolute torture as he starts thrusting inside you again. But he is not doing this to bully you, he just wants to make you feel so good!

After he gives you your last orgasm he expects to see your legs shaking, your form breathless and pure satisfaction. He swipes some strands of hair to your ear so that they won't tickle your face too much and after doing so he flops down beside you. He gives you a warm hug and press kisses on your shoulders.

Due to too much pleasure you try to move away from him, but you know better than to run, and he knows his beautiful lady is just a little overwhelmed! Don't worry, he’ll pin you back down with one hand on your waist and another above your hand, see now there's no way to escape!

“My dear are you alright? Oh don't come running off now, come back here, that's it, I just want to make you feel better.”  He presses a tender kiss on cheek as he looks at you lovingly. You on the other hand was completely disheveled, your hair was a mess, eyes completely cloudy and head all fuzzy. Without warning he thrusts slowly but deeply inside of you, a whine escapes as your back arches. 

“Look how beautiful you look right now, absolutely breathtaking. You don't mind if I break you a little more do you, my love?” He sounds so sweet, as if he isn't completely making your legs all shaky and weak. You try to use words however your mind was too consumed with pleasure, but thats okay! Diluc knows this and would gladly help you with your words.

“Don’t worry I’ll take care of you, just lay there and feel good alright?” He is so reassuring with his sweet words, makes you feel safe and loved and you adore that about him.

“You’re perfect.” 

#diluc x reader #genshin impact diluc #diluc ragnvindr #diluc ragnivindr x reader #diluc smut #genshin smut

[getvalentined]

I've never done a full breakdown of everything that happened to my version of Vincent while he was under the knife (although there is a partial breakdown from like 12 years ago on Ask Vincent Valentine), but @spinejackel tagged my recent Vincent doodle gushing about autopsy scar (Vincent Has a Y-Incision headcanon supremacy!) so I figured it was probably a good time. This is also probably the best method, since I can apply the right tags and trigger warnings to hopefully keep it from hitting the people who would be disturbed.

For anyone who doesn't know, figuring out the fucked up physiology of victims of science is like my entire jam. I think this is what happens when you let a chronically ill child watch Akira and the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA and most of the works of Masamune Shirow. All that before FF7 even existed. This means that the explanation under the cut may seem excessive, and this post is very long. I've been building it over over a quarter century, I don't think there's any avoiding it at this point.

Warnings for body horror, nonconsensual body modification, medical horror and torture. Basically, if there's anything you can think of related to becoming a victim of science under the rule of an unethical sci-fantasy oligarchy, it's probably in here to some degree. It's explained plainly and simply, in clinical but not visceral detail.

My headcanons for what Hojo did to Vincent are pretty specific, albeit not precisely comprehensive; 27 years later I still don't really have a particularly solid concept for how he turned Vincent into a shapeshifter, although at least we know it's not something entirely specific to Vincent—Hojo repeated that facet of the experiment in Azul, but not in any other SOLDIER operative even in DeepGround, implying that it's only possible if very specific physiological conditions are met. The minimal concept I do have involves a twisted application of the concept of incarnate summoning as it appears in FFXIII-2, but it's very vague and also not the topic of this post. Maybe later.

Regarding the Y-incision/autopsy scar, my headcanon is that once Hojo tweaked Vincent into being able to regenerate from any injury—an enhancement that is confirmed to be entirely Hojo's work in Dirge—the professor of course felt it necessary to run various tests quantify the usefulness of his handiwork. He did this first by inflicting various surface injuries, then by causing more extreme bodily trauma, which eventually culminated in Hojo removing the majority of Vincent's internal organs in order to measure how long it took them to grow back and, assuming they did grow back, how the new ones compared to Vincent's original parts.

To be able to observe this as closely as possible, Hojo kept Vincent's torso open for the entire process—which he repeated twice more in order to check the weight, size and structure of the newly-grown organs in comparison to the originals. This study proved that most of them did grow back, but the majority of them stopped developing much earlier than was appropriate for Vincent's age and size. The difference was consistent, Hojo just never figured out why most of them grew back smaller and less-developed.

The reason this happened is based the fact that most of the organs in the human trunk are used in digestion and other related processes, and Vincent's regeneration means he doesn't need to eat or drink anymore. His body only expended as much energy as was completely necessary to develop those organs to the point of being functional rather than normal, because they're not really necessary. Vincent is glad he still has them, though, because he does still occasionally eat (usually in social situations) and also he'd be really sad if he couldn't even have coffee.

Vincent's brain activity remained normal during the entire process, although that may have something to do with Hojo driving a bunch of fluid lines into his head and flooding the inside of his skull with mako to keep him awake the whole time even while deprived of oxygen. (Rebirth spoilers, but seeing the bit in the Nibelheim Protorelic questline where Hojo does something super similar to this, after this has been my headcanon for decades, was a trip.)

Two organs didn't grow back at all: Vincent's appendix and one kidney. This was also the result of efficient energy expenditure, as the human appendix isn't necessary for survival, and only one kidney is really required. (Each time Hojo removed the new kidney, the one that grew back would be on the opposite side, which bothered Hojo to no end.)

His lungs grew back a little larger, possibly because his skeletal structure never quite recovered after his first transformation into Galian—his arms and legs are noticeably too long for his body, although not to the point of looking impossible, and likewise his ribcage settled to breadth that would allow for larger lungs. He doesn't really need these anymore either, related to his brain being exposed to so much mako during the process that it can now operate without oxygen if necessary, but switching himself over from aerobic to anaerobic respiration is really unpleasant and Vincent tries to avoid it when he can.

His heart was pretty normal by the time Hojo was done with him, although his heartrate had dropped to like 20bpm even when elevated. Again, if respiration isn't necessary, there's not much reason for the system to be active. (By the time Lucrecia was done this had dropped to around 5bpm on average, although it's completely arrhythmic and jumps all over the place when he's not either particularly active or on the verge of a transformation.)

This was the experiment that left Vincent susceptible to degradation, which Hojo didn't realize until after finally closing him back up. Upon realizing that Vincent's body wasn't responding properly to a different test (a repetition of an earlier experiment related to the regeneration of external tissues and features), Hojo just kinda threw him in a tube to be disposed of at a later date, kinda like that scene in Arrested Development where there's that dead dove in a bag in the fridge. The incision healed at some point during the period that Lucrecia was working on him, but early enough in her work that the tissue couldn't flawlessly regenerate (like it does in the present), leaving him with one more gnarly scar on top of all the rest.

Vincent is self-conscious about all the physiological changes brought on by what was done to him, often to the point of loathing. His left arm is the worst—it rotted off while he was in the throes of degradation and grew back as something that he hesitates to call his arm—but Vincent hates that Y-incision scar almost as much. Some days they tie.

(It has come up in appropriately horrified conversation with Shalua that, considering how his regeneration works, Vincent could probably get rid of all the scars on his chest if he somehow peeled the skin off his torso in a single swath. He will not be doing that. Besides, it might grow back the wrong color/texture/etc, like his left arm. Not worth the risk, much less the suffering.)

Also I gotta finish off this entry with the extremely stupid headcanon reveal that Vincent's (honestly fairly impressive) dick was cut off during the first round of bodily trauma regeneration tests—and Hojo has never felt the sort of rage he experienced upon discovering that it grew back bigger than before. This occurred early enough in the experiments that Vincent was not awake for it, and thus has no idea how the fuck this happened, and does not want to talk about it ever thank you very much. I've never mentioned it in public anywhere because it is extremely stupid, but I hope someone out there finds it as funny a concept as I do.

#vincent valentine #headcanon warning #body horror tw #torture tw #medical torture tw #it's all described in scientific detail #not visceral at all #but it's still very much horror #so please be aware #and do not engage if you're not into that #fandom ramble

[flo55i]

Maxiel. 2k. Max as the Grim Reaper. Daniel as the lost soul he’s ferrying to Heaven. Because there are some things you shouldn’t have to do alone. tw: death but it’s as fluffy as I get, promise. And also possibly tw; blasphemy?

Daniel wakes up in the same clothes he died in.  He laughs at the irony of the phrase, ‘wouldn’t be caught dead in’, never believing it would apply to him. The only reason he wore the faded red track-pants out of the house was to collect the bins with. Now they look a deep purple colour in the dark swirly mist thing that the afterlife apparently has going for it.

Suddenly realising he’s dead, Daniel puts his hands in his pockets just to make sure he still has control of all his limbs and is distracted by the fact his phone isn’t in them. It makes sense. But like. He can’t remember the last time he was without it. It was definitely there when he— Quickly, Daniel pulls the elastic band around the waist of his pants back and checks his dick is still there. 

“Thank God.” He mutters to himself. 

“God? Like that idiot has got anything to do with this.” Says a curt and surly voice from behind him.

Daniel swivels and comes face to face with Death. Or at least he thinks it is. The long swirling black cloak and the huge scythe that is taller than he is, is a dead giveaway. Literally. Immediately Daniel’s first instinct is to run, but as soon as he takes off in one direction, there’s a snap of fingers and he’s right back where he started from. 

“Was that fun?” The guy says, scowling down at Daniel from where he landed at his feet. At the sarcasm, Daniel takes his hands off his head and dares to finally open his eyes. He thinks he’s more startled to find that Death has sneakers on than the fact that he’s still alive— Daniel places a hand on his chest, checking— still breathing. Whatever he is. He doesn’t know if he’s technically dead or is he in some kind of Limbo? He looks around. It looks like it could be the land in between heaven and hell. What with the dark clouds and the horizon of agonising nothingness and—

“I can do this all day you know.” The guy says, interrupting Daniel’s freak out by tapping his scythe impatiently on the ground. Then uncrossing his arm, muttering to himself he adds, “Not like I’m busy or anything.” 

Slowly getting to his feet and brushing off the mist still clinging to his bare chest, Daniel asks, “You’re not like, going to reap me and shit are you?”

Death rolls his eyes. “What is it that you think I am going to do? You are already dead!”

The hood falls back off his face as he raises his hands in exasperation and Daniel can see this guy is younger than him, and pretty much human too. At least he is from the outside. He doesn’t look very menacing. Especially with those pouty lips and bright blue eyes. Angel, yes. Evil, no. 

If he really is dead like this guy says, Daniel was kinda expecting a scary skeleton type-a-thing, like how they showed in movies and comic books and stuff. No soul, no eyes. This guy looks anything but evil incarnated, what with the way he’s just waving his scythe around all over the place like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Maybe Daniel got the defective grim reaper or something?

“I mean, I’m not telling you how to do your job or anything.” Daniel starts, trying to be nice. By the sounds of it, this guy has probably had a hard day already. Or Eternity. Whatever. “But like, isn’t this the part where you take my soul?”

“Trust me.” Death says, staring Daniel down pitifully. “I do not want your stupid soul.” 

“Oh.” Daniel doesn’t know whether to be offended or not so he just asks, “So what ARE you here to do then? ‘Cause I gotta tell ya dude, that scythe looks pretty ominous to me.” 

Though the response gets an eye roll, Daniel thinks he can see the barest hint of a smile underneath it. 

Coughing, he then states, all official like, “My name is Max and I am here because it is my duty to guide you into the afterlife.” 

Max holds out the arm not carrying the weapon in invitation and Daniel takes the hint and starts walking. There’s rocks and uneven terrain that he has to climb over and crouch through. There are no trees or birds, no life except whatever he and Max are considered right now. Daniel didn’t know what he was expecting, fire and brimstone? 

They come to a lake and at Max’s gentle look, Daniel moves silently forward. It’s cool and the water laps at his collarbones, coming up to his neck. His foot slips and Max grabs his arm, saving his head from going under. He shivers away from the freezing cold touch. The hands don’t linger, as if Max knows that they feel like having a corpse clinging to Daniel’s body. Body moving again, Daniel refrains from rubbing his arm and tries not to think of the water being made up of thousands of souls who didn’t make it across beneath him.

Suddenly, Daniel can’t stand the silence. He tries a joke. “Why did the chicken go to the seance?” 

“I do not know?” Max looks unsure. But more so at the fact that Daniel is actually talking to him about something so stupid and not because he doesn’t know the answer. He plays along though, finally asking, “Why did the chicken go to the seance?”

“To get to the other side.” Daniel replies with a grin. 

“That was terrible.” But Max is looking at least faintly amused again so Daniel doesn’t believe him. 

They’ve reached the opposite bank now and Daniel steps free from the water. He feels lighter, like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. Looking down, his pants aren’t even soaked. He doesn’t feel as cold either even though his skin is just as cold to the touch. It’s like he’s acclimatised and has simply gotten used to being here.

“So where are we going then?” He can’t help but ask. There’s nothing in front of them or beside them now, just a whole heap of swirling mist he can’t see anything through. “Up or down? Stairway to heaven or the Highway to hell?”

Max sighs. “Up.” 

“Yes! Woo hoo! Take that Mr Brown who thought I’d never get anywhere good!” Excited, Daniel starts singing. “And she’s buy-ying a stairway to—”

“If you sing one more word I will cut you down right here.” Max puts the blade right up against Daniel’s neck. 

“Chill dude. Relax.” Daniel tries to reassure whilst gently guiding the scythe away from his throat. It might not be able to kill him, but he doesn’t wanna spend the rest of eternity without a head either. Where was that nice guy with the smile from earlier? Daniel keeps talking, trying to find him again.

“So what’s it like then? Heaven?” He asks whilst drifting his fingers through the puffs of clouds at his hips. It disappears in seconds, like the water, without him feeling anything at all. 

“Is it Paradise like everyone says it is? Comfy digs, all I can eat? That sort of thing?” Daniel hopes the food is at least real. He can’t imagine not eating for the rest of eternity. “And are there hot angels flying around as far as the eye can see?” Daniel adds mostly to get a rise out of the one beside him. 

Max ignores him, long strides taking him slightly ahead. Daniel can feel that there’s some sort of frosty tension now, like Max is actually mad at him instead of just his usual surly and unpleasant self. 

“You know I always thought there’d be more trees and leaves around. More greenery.” Daniel muses out loud to himself since Max has gone quiet. “And like, I’m not going to be by myself up there, right? My family will be waiting, yeah? Cause that would suck, spending eternity alone and every—”

“I don’t know, ok!” Max shouts. Daniel stops when he does. 

“What?” He asks incredulously. “You’ve never been? Aren’t you an Angel? Isn’t that like, home base or whatever?” 

Max starts moving again and him not answering is answer enough for Daniel. “Is it a rule or something? No fraternising with the enemy or some shit?”

“I don’t—” Max starts, and Daniel is unnerved to see Death looking so startled. “I don’t remember.”

“How can you not remember?” Daniel snorts, struggling to keep up with Max’s pace. 

“I have been doing this for as long as I can remember. I don’t know what there was before.” Max whispers sullenly. “It is maybe punishment for something, I think, but I can’t be sure.”

Just as Daniel is about to ask what type of person is charged with leading him to heaven, Max holds the tip of his scythe up to point at something up ahead. They’ve reached the gates now. Actual pearly gates, not a hint of gold in sight. And they only open when Daniel approaches them after Max takes a step back. 

They creak charmingly, like a garden gate he barely remembers from childhood. There’s sunshine shining from somewhere beyond the clouds and it smells like summer rain and his grandmother’s chocolate chip cookies she would always have ready for him when he visited her. And Daniel knows everything that flashed before his eyes as the garbage truck hit him lies within— everything his Sunday school teacher taught him a life of good deeds has afforded him, but he just can’t seem to make himself take that final step. He hesitates. 

“Well?” Max asks impatiently. “What are you waiting for? Go!”

Daniel shuffles on his feet, only now realising he’s barefoot. The entire journey here, rocks and lakes and mountains of dirt and he hadn’t felt a thing. Max did that. Max got him here safely even though he clearly didn’t want to. “But what about you?” 

The question seems to stun Max, like no one has ever asked it before and it makes Daniel think that he has been fucking up his job all this time if the so called ‘virtuous people’ he’s been ferrying across Limbo to the afterlife don’t even have any human decency left to ask. 

“I suppose I will go and get the next idiot who cannot make it across on their own.” Max states bitterly. 

“By yourself?” Max looks away as he shrugs and Daniel can’t help but wonder what the crime was he supposedly committed that would warrant him to spend an eternity of torture having to watch as everyone else got their happily ever after and not him. “But for how long?”

Max is looking into the scythe now, like he can see all the answers to his past in its blade. Daniel can. Its shiny surface reflects the pearly gates and the Paradise beyond made up of everything he ever thought he could want in life. Family, friends, warmth, happiness…. But Daniel’s already had a crack at living that one. And it only ended up with him being sent here to Max.

“Don’t suppose you want any company, do you?” Daniel asks, half jokingly, half not, just to gauge Max’s reaction. He’s never believed in destiny or any shit like that, but who he is to turn down an actual Angel of God looking at him like he is the answer to all the mysteries and wonders in the universe. 

Holding out a hand, he takes the scythe from Max and suddenly Daniel is engulfed in a sea of black fabric. 

“Sweet.” He quips looking down at the same cloak as Max’s that’s now wrapped around him too. With the other hand not holding on to the scythe he holds it out to Max. “How’s about it then? We could call it a double team approach?”  

Looking back at the slightest glimpse of heaven he’s only ever been able to see, Max looks troubled. “Are you sure of this? I do not know if you can go back.” 

At the caution and care in those words, Daniel wonders who could have abandoned Max when he had obviously offered them to the last reaper. ‘Casue Daniel now knows that’s what must have happened. Max couldn’t ever be some heinous butcher or something like that. No one who has so much compassion and longing for human companionship could be capable of something so cruel as that.

“Well I ain’t no chicken.” Daniel laughs in reference to his own joke. “It ain’t all about getting to the other side, you know.” 

This time, the hand that grasps Daniel’s own is warm and full and together they glow a golden colour that makes him believe that this has always been a job better handled with two. 

“But you will not slow me down of course.” Max warns, still looking stunned at the glow. “I actually have a job to do and I can’t be holding your hand the whole time.”

And Daniel knows he’s bullshitting by how hard Max is still clinging to his hand but he lets it slide. After an eternity of dealing with ungrateful souls running and begging to have their lives back when he is only trying to offer them something so much better, Max has earned some faith of his own. 

“Then lead on, oh grimmest of reapers, you.” Daniel says and follows as Max leads them back the way they came.

Hands still tied by the souls that shine bright within, and by the burden of the scythe now shared between them, together they make the long journey back towards oblivion and beyond. 

#ficlet #inspired by all our sh*t work weeks #sorry wasn’t enough #friendly reminder you’re not alone #daniel ricciardo #max verstappen #f1 rpf #maxiel #tw: death #tw: blasphemy #fanficiton #maxiel fanfic #my fic

[redstringraven]

an excruciatingly long ramble about the '03 turtles and the enneagram 🐢 pt1

i’ve been working on this ‘project’ on/off for a year, and i need to get it out of my system. this is me posting the first part to force myself to stop fidgeting and hit the ground running.

i love the enneagram. i think it’s a useful tool not only for self-growth but also for character-writing and understanding. since 'typing' the boys, i've referred back to this tool while writing them or rewatching the series, and it's infuriating how much sense certain things start to make. to me, anyway!

as a heads up? this is going to be a big analysis over a series of posts. i have a lot to say fldjsfkl (i'm so sorry). i will try to keep it organized and understandable.

consider this the introductory post! posts will be linked below as i finish them. [ raph ], [ leo ], [ don ], [ mikey ]

some small disclaimers before we get started:

this is concerning the 2k3 incarnations of the boys only, and seasons 1-4 are given the most weight. 

i don’t take “”birth order”” into consideration. no one--not even them--knows the order they were born/hatched in. i won’t be referring to leo as ‘the oldest child’ nor mikey as ‘the youngest’, etc. when it comes to ‘filling a role’, sure, they do that just fine, but i tend to avoid referring to them in an actual birth order or approaching them from a birth order mindset. they step into roles rather than there being an established order. the 03 boys will frequently ‘switch roles’ depending on their circumstances and company.

these are also, obviously, my own thoughts/observations, and i’m not any sort of professional. I’ve just done reading and research and thinking. whether you agree or not is up to you, i’m not your mom, go--do whatever you want, it’s fine it’s good, i don’t care, blah blah blah, etc.

OKAY. an introduction and briefing:

we’ll start with some ground-work since the enneagram seems to be unfamiliar territory to a lot of folks i’ve spoken to. feel free to skip over the next two paragraphs if you’re already in the know. i’m not going to spend too long on it, but i feel like i need to spend some time or everything else that follows might get muddy.

while there were a few books i read in preparation for this, it was careless and neglectful of me not to mention the two i referenced and heavily pulled from in the more enneagram-focused sections of this project (the parts where the enneagram itself is explained rather than how it applies to the turtles) to aid in creating a baseline. i went into this excited to analyze and discuss the turtles specifically, but i should have treated both the sources and my own posting with more respect. i apologize for that massive oversight. i feel pretty damn stupid since i usually consider myself good at that sort of thing, but i'll continue trying to do better! the two books i referred from were:

the wisdom of the enneagram by don richard riso & russ hudson

the road back to you by ian morgan cron & suzanne stabile

and i recommend them if you have any interest in exploring the enneagram further!

the enneagram is a tool used to develop self-knowledge, self-understanding, and to grow beyond self-defeating aspects of our personalities, as well as improve the relationships with those around us and to grow in compassion.

one of my books uses colors to illustrate how the nine enneagram types work: there are an infinite number of variations of the color ‘red’, but they are all still variations of the same hue. similarly, there are an infinite number of ways a person may express their enneagram type. another thing to keep in mind: your number is not determined by how you behave, moreso why you behave. It’s less reliant on traits and focuses more on the motivation that drives you.

i also feel it’d be a breach in etiquette if i didn't say the enneagram should be used to type yourself, not others. these are fictional characters; please don’t go trying to type the people around you. don’t use it to justify your own questionable behavior, and please don't feel the need to adopt a more rigid personality if you see yourself in a type. again: this is a tool, not a rule book.

if you want my opinions immediately, and without further exploration or analysis, here they are:

Raph is an 8 and has a 7 wing Leo is a 1 and has a 2 wing Don is a 5 and has a 4 wing Mikey is a 7 and has a 6 wing

but if you want more details (including what the heck a ‘wing’ is), come along with me while i do some giant ass posts on the boys and how they align with their core numbers.

i'm especially excited to talk about "City at War" from the perspectives of an 8 and a 1, how mikey is a complicated combination of a lotta moving parts and almost stupidly self-aware, as well as "Same as it Never Was" and don's 5 and the fact this boy never talks about his goddamn horrors. like i warned: these are gonna be quite lengthy, but i’ll be breaking it up as neatly and in the most digestible way possible. as well as keep the meme-ing to a minimum. …but i make no promises.

stay tuned. i have an order i'm going in, and raph's up first.

#tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt raphael #tmnt leonardo #tmnt donatello #tmnt michelangelo #;hannah's meta #;tmnt #;tmnt enneagram #[ FORCES MYSELF TO POST THIS and slithers away ]

[rosencrypt]

RTD2 Trilogy is about (false) dichotomies

After Wild Blue Yonder I'm having Thoughts about Doctor Who.

Knowing the expression but not the song, I assumed the relevance was that the Doctor is all about exploring the open, unknown sky. Having now seen the episode and had a chat to my Beloved about Jungian dialectics, Persona's Shadow Selves etc., I'm appreciating the title choice much more.

This is a story all about inherent contradictions. The ship is at the end of the universe, but the universe is everything. The ship is both agoraphobic and claustrophobic. There's nothing beyond, but also Nothing beyond. There's a countdown to a bomb detonation, but that's a good thing, but also the Doctor is running to stop it, but also we want him to fail, but also we still don't want the ship to explode? It even extends to the viewer - we all know that Donna survives to feature in the next episode, but I've seen a lot of people (and in the moment I was one of them!) worried that she might actually die in that corridor.

And as the Doctor* says, humans are capable of believing two opposing ideas at the same time (can a superstition also be a fact?). Apply this to Wild Blue Yonder, the song. As humans we know that although it sounds jolly it's also a war propaganda song - it's both catchy and an explicit endorsement of horrific violence. To an adult who understands the reality, like Wilf or the Doctor, teaching children to sing the song is grotesque. The Not-Them however only mimic. They ask questions and can algorithmically regurgitate information, but they only take things at face value. They are children. War is a game, and they want to play! RTD may here be critiquing cycles of inherited conflict or possibly the glorification of violence in fiction (probably both), but he's definitely using the Not-Them as a mirror. If Nothing exists out there, then there is nothing but what we send. If we fill the nothing with e.g. songs about how jolly it is to soar with scouts ahead and bombers galore, we shouldn't be surprised when nothing flies to fight, guarding the nation's border. After all, Nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force.

Consider The Star Beast in this light. It's also all about things not being as they seem! The Meep vs the Wrarth Warriors, the controlled UNIT troops, Rose. Then we have less episode-specific concepts, like the DoctorDonna and Fourteen being both a wholly new incarnation and a return of Ten.

Probably here I should speculate about the final episode, but it's 1am and I should be in bed. Basically, Doctor Who is many things at once. It's good! It's bad! It has 60 years of continuity, including I'm pretty sure at least 3 previous appearances by Isaac Newton, but the only bits that count are the ones any given writer feels like acknowledging at the time. The TARDIS is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

In this way, these specials are much truer celebrations of the series than they at first appear. They're both anniversary stories, but they don't feel that way - more like beginning and midseason episodes from the Fourteen and Donna series we didn't get. They're so much bigger, and madder, and better. And what's more Doctor Who than that?

*And also Visser One in Visser! I KNEW I'd seen that emphasised in a SF thing recently, but it took hours for me to remember.

#THERE'S A LOT MORE I COULD SAY BUT IT IS BEDTIME NOW #POSSIBLY THIS IS A BIT TOO OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE ELSE TO MAKE A TEXT POST ABOUT BUT EH #DOCTOR WHO #ROSEBLOGGING

[strangestcase]

Honestly I hate how the fandom logic of "I like this villain but only bad people like villains and I know I am a good person therefore this villain isn't evil just misunderstood" has pervaded Jekyll and Hyde fanon on Tumblr.com because I believe a lot of (popular) fan versions of Hyde are beyond boring. They're not villains, just a nebulous "naughty", a man that has the aesthetic of evil but lacks the guts to enact it, the sort of person that calls their impulse to eat chips "intrusive thoughts".

The "not evil just misunderstood" route is VERY hard to apply to Mr. Hyde because, as a character, he IS evil, very evil, and impossible to misunderstand once his true nature is made evident- all he is is visible. He can't conceal his evil even if he tries.

That doesn't mean he can't be complex or sympathetic (and in my opinion he is both those things), but in the eyes of the fandom, complex and sympathetic = good person, or at least, non-evil person... so that makes Hyde go from a terrifyingly tangible incarnation of what happens when you repress the darkness and never work to fix it... to a """"chaos gremlin"""" that is violent but not too violent, murderous but not too bloody, weird but unlikeable, off-putting but not unpleasant.

I think that The Glass Scientists -a somewhat Tumblr popular adaptation that can be described as loose at best- poisoned the fanon well to a point by taking a clumsily executed "not evil just misunderstood" route with Hyde (...which I don't really get since in the concept art stage, Hyde was very much a straight up irredeemable villain, even if he also was a comedic relief character). The gothic literature fandom is, sadly, fond of its fandom groupthink. If this adaptation, which we collectively see as good (note the "see"; I personally don't think TGS is a good adaptation in part because of that very OOC depiction of Mr. Hyde), does this, then we can do it too!

Funnily enough, the fandom also likes murderous, irredeemable Hydes like the MazM version -a complete bastard that is implied to sexually assault a woman at some point- and the musical version -a complete bastard that EXPLICITLY sexually assaults, abuses, AND kills a woman-... but it can be explained away by a simple fact: MazM and musical Hyde are conventionally attractive. TGS Hyde, who was often hailed as the most accurate adaptation there could be back in the day, is also conventionally attractive (...but he wasn't in his concept art stage, in which, I reiterate, he was genuinely evil and frightening).

Compare and contrast with LXG movie Hyde, whose personality is a carbon copy from the original's, down to the speech patterns, but is hated across the fandom for not having a book accurate design (and for being ugly... like his book counterpart).

I feel like the fandom has fallen into the trap Jekyll would have wanted you to fall into: assuming that, because he's handsome, and "nice", he is without fault.

So, Hyde's evil is in character and a trait like any other if Hyde is handsome, but if he is ugly like he was in the book, or if the adaptation -wrongly- takes it one step further and gives him a facial difference (which I will agree, is pretty fucked up), then Hyde's evil is totally out of character and overblown and exaggerated and Not At All What He Was Like In The Book (in which, as we all know, he was just a misunderstood weird guy that just so happened to have bad vibes! everybody pity him!).

#long post #jekyll and hyde #the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #dr jekyll and mr hyde #jekyll and hyde weekly

[cilil]

I'm genuinely curious about the Yavanna/Melkor pairing. What inspired you to put these two together? Are there going to be more fics centered around the two of them in the future?

Admittedly it wasn't my idea at all. @demonscantgothere suggested the ship on the server a while ago and shared this gorgeous artwork by @ylieke that gave us a lot of thoughts and feelings.

I've been thinking about the pairing since then and the first thing that came to mind was the spring/summer vs. fall/winter dynamic. Yavanna is the Queen of the Earth and created the kelvar and olvar, she's Mommy Mother Nature if you will, while Melkor is responsible for the existence of snow and frost. In general, Yavanna is all about life and growing things, whereas Melkor introduced death, decay and natural disasters which at first glance just destroy and kill her creations, but are actually an important part of nature if you look at the big picture, one example being volcanoes and how they provide fertile soil.

It's similar to the light vs. darkness dynamic between Melkor and Varda and you could even draw parallels to Melkor and Nienna (evil vs. good, cruelty vs. mercy, wrath vs. patience, etc.). With Varda and Yavanna more so than with Nienna there's some inherent enmity and dislike which can lead to either opposites attract or an odd fascination with one another or at least spicy hate sex. I think you can apply this idea to all sorts of Melkor ships actually, he's an excellent foil to pretty much every Ainu (even Mairon - order vs. chaos, fire vs. ice) and probably at least a few Incarnates too (for example Fëanor, though in his case Melkor would hone in on their similarities).

Another interesting observation in regards to Melkor and Yavanna are the similarities between Melkor and Aulë - as we see in "Of Aulë and Yavanna", their relationship also has a certain element of friction and opposition to it. You could go as far as to say that Aulë is the more "agreeable", "chill" and "domestic" version of Melkor, the one you can settle down and have a decent marriage with, while Melkor is the one for hot (literally) and spicy hate sex. You could easily take Yavanna's canon marriage as "evidence" that she has a thing for men she can argue with...

So yeah, there certainly are some interesting things to explore with this ship and I'm definitely down to write more about them in the future. At least I can say that (as is the case with pretty much every ship involving Ainur) y'all are always welcome to give me prompts for them for drabble challenges/prompts lists/other events🖤

#cílil answers #melkor x yavanna #melkor #morgoth #yavanna #valar #ainur #silmarillion #ship meta #thoughts #headcanons #tolkien

[viperwhispered]

Alright I confess: I have been projecting my OC onto our conversations.

Seeing as you frequently reblog other people's ocs . . . meet Nikki Bhavsar, a 17-year-old genderfluid hindu warrior living as an 2nd generation immigrant in Canada.

Note: this image is not mine, I suck at drawing. It comes from a genderbend fanart of an indian anime character (source).

Context: they are not Yuu. Nikki's world is one where a bunch of timelines coexist as a sort of "single" timeline where each one corresponds to one religion. This means that all gods for all religions exist. When a new religion is created, a new timeline forms where the believers are sort of transfered to. Same applies to when someone converts. So long as the timelines don't contradict each other, they'll keep coexisting. But when a timeline contradicts the others, it'll only affect the people in it (ex: rapture will only affect Christians, everyone else is unaffected). Now because all gods are real, all other mythological beings are also real. Which leads to a bunch of demons, monsters, curses, etc. plauging hummanity. In comes the Necessary Evil: specialized priests/warriors chosen by their respective gods to destroy the evil worse than man. Because its such a stressful job, they're often given boons/powers/weapons and exemptions from certain sins to a certaine extent so they don't break down (including a special boon to increase mental fortitude). Gods themselves can't directly interefere too much because of risk that they might mess up the timelines.

Nikki is a warrior in the service of the Hindu gods and works very closely with the incarnations of Parvati, Shiva, and Vishnu. Their boons are listed in the Abilities section at the bottom of the profile above.

Now how do they play in with TWST? Simple, one Yuusona (3 total; this particular one is from a collab & belongs to @blanketorghost) is from Nikki's world and already had a portal open. When two more people showed up in TWST, Nikki was basically the case officer tasked with finding the new guys' home dimensions. In the process, they befriended all 3 yuus and frequently hung out with them.

Now CH4 comes along, Crowley is away and so are 2 of the yuus. Yuu#2 (mine this time) decides to call Nikki since they have interdimensional signal. So Nikki shows up alongside the Octavinelle parade and, curtesy of their years of killing manipulative demons, is instantly onto Jamil. Yadda yadda, overblot happens, yadda yadda, Jamil gets kicked into a wall.

Because Nikki, like the good person they are, can't keep out of other people's business, they become a big sister figure to Kalim on his harrowing journey to independance while holding Jamil back from being an overbearing mom.

Its these conflicts that lead to Jamil and Nikki bantering and eventually falling in love.

Now onto the unhinged obsession part: Nikki's healing factor is like Deadpool/Sukuna/Nezuko level speeds. Its almost impossible to kill them. Because of this, they often used their own body as a human shield and are very used to being physically brutalized. There's also a part of them that disagrees with being exempt from the sin of murder and lets themselves be hurt to deal with their guilt. Its also because they've been exposed to so much violence from such an early age (12 years) that they're extremely protective of friends, family, and Jamil especially. These people are their heart, Jamil being the biggest part. And anyone who dares hurt their heart must die.

I'm gonna preface by saying that Nikki is rarely genuinely angry. They'll be frustrated at enemies, dissapointed at reality, or annoyed with others, but never truly angry. Usually, they're pretty cheerful and very level headed. To really piss them off you have to a) be an irredemable scum of the Earth who regrets nothing or b) hurt their loved ones.

This isn't a blind rage either. Nikki's anger is cold, precise, and ruthlessly efficient. When dealing with enemies of hummanity, you have to kill them as quickly as possible while minimizing damage to their sorroundings. An angry Nikki uses these skills to the extreme. One moment you're laughing at a bloody bruised Jamil, the next you don't have a head. If they hate you in particular, they'll keep you alive and take the time to physically break you to the point you wish you died.

You have to understand that working so closely with gods and the supernatural tends to have certain effects. In particular, if you're not careful, you'll loose you're hummanity and become something else. More often than not, it is followed by suicidal behavior at the loss of human connections or completely withdrawing from everyone. Its why the Necessary Evil are pardonned for prioritizing their relations with their loved ones over their connections with the gods. While the gods may be their guiding light to salvation, their loved ones are the fuel that keeps them going.

If Nikki were to lose Jamil, their lover and other half, they wouldn't have much of a reason for living. No friends nor family could replace the hole it would leave. Jamil is one of the main reasons Nikki looks forward to creating a future.

Nikki is someone who dislikes violence and only uses it when strictly necessary. But if their opponent is someone who dares to lay their hand on Jamil, then all that hesitation goes out the window and there is nothing left but bloodlust.

Ngl the only thing stopping them from wiping the nobles of the Scalding Sands of the map in the fact they haven't done anything recently and Jamil said no. Not even Jamil's parents would be safe, oh no. They ever raise a hand against Jamil (still bitter over that falshback slap), they'll have a pretty noticable bruise on their wrist (be grateful Nikki was raised to be polite towards the inlaws.)

Oh boy. Suddenly Jamil is the less messed up one in the relationship, huh? Oof just the mess of being told by a higher being that your actions are justified while at the same time feeling guilty about it and “repenting” for it through pain. Oh dear. Totally a fine mindset that’s never going to lead any problems at all.

Love the progression from “Jamil gets kicked into a wall” → “Jamil, their lover and other half”. What a meet-cute story to reminisce about.

“One moment you're laughing at a bloody bruised Jamil, the next you don't have a head. If they hate you in particular, they'll keep you alive and take the time to physically break you to the point you wish you died.”

Your previous ask also got me contemplating this angle of if it would be a quick, decisive death, or drawn out if Jamil’s s/o (or Nikki in this case) were to be on a warpath as you described in that ask. Like with the darkside versions, I could see Jamil being the vindictive sort to draw things out and gloat in his victory (and even in his regular version tbh). Wasn’t sure how it would be for the s/o as you described them, but I guess this answers that question, too.

Folks better watch out - sure, Jamil can take of himself, but still.

Also ngl sure violence is not the answer but I sure would love for someone to visit some consequences upon the folks in Scalding Sands.

For the worldbuilding here, the idea of supernatural / religious events only affecting the believers is an interesting way of meshing together the potential contradictions in a world where all these different beliefs are manifestly real. Though I do wonder how it affects people to live in a world like that, if you have people of different faiths living side by side and seeing the very tangible effects each other's faiths have on them. Like, how would that affect things like conversion, personal faith, interreligious relations and all that 🤔

#twisted wonderland #jamil viper #jamil viper x oc #ner talks #chatting with folks #lex752 #now I am more of a self-shipper / reader-inserted so I don’t particularly seek out oc x canon #doesn’t mean it isn’t interesting to see what kind of things people come up with though #also if I have the right idea of how this works #I do wonder how would abrahamic religions with the insistence on only one real god fare in a world where evidently several deities #more tangibly affect the world 🤔

[denimbex1986]

'Doctor Who’s new bigeneration concept turns the franchise’s canon on its head. Here’s why that’s not such a bad thing.

A bigeneration is when a regenerating Time Lord splits into two people: their current and future incarnations. In “The Giggle,” this results in the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) existing independently of each other.

Following the special’s release, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies further revealed that the Fourteenth Doctor’s bigeneration applies to all his past selves, as well. “A whole timeline bigenerated,” he said, adding that these legacy Doctors were now roaming the “Doctor verse.”

So, in short: bigeneration has changed Doctor Who forever. But don’t worry – the positives ultimately far outweigh the negatives..

How bigeneration breaks Doctor Who canon

And there are some pretty big negatives to bigeneration’s introduction to Doctor Who lore.

For starters, bigeneration lowers the stakes involved with regeneration even further. We already know that the Doctor isn’t dying when he regenerates – heck, the Fourteenth Doctor points this out himself in “The Giggle” – but there’s at least some sense of sacrifice involved.

For the Doctor, it means letting go of his current identity. For us fans, it means bidding farewell not just to the current version of the character, but also to the actor who played them. With the Fourteenth Doctor still on the scene post-Fifteen’s arrival, much of this emotional weight is gone.

Sure, David Tennant is no longer Doctor Who’s headliner, and Davies insists the Fourteenth Doctor is “parked” for the foreseeable future. But the ease with which he could return makes his exit less real. This also applies to the Fourteenth Doctor’s bigenerated predecessors – if they’re effectively alive again, why bother mourning them?

All of this dovetails neatly with another downside of bigeneration: it overcomplicates things. The reason why regeneration works so well is because it’s so easy to grasp. When Time Lords (like the Doctor) are on death’s door, they’re rejuvenated with a different face and personality. Simple.

Now, we have to reckon with a bunch of new rules – and questions. What happens to the current incarnation if the past incarnation dies? Do the two incarnations ever merge? Only Davies knows for sure.

Bigeneration likewise makes the Doctor Who timeline – already a wibbly wobbly, timey wimey ball of inconsistencies – even harder to keep straight by splintering it into a multiverse. Multiverses can be fun (even Oscar-winning), however, as the recent decline of Marvel Studios’ MCU has shown, their increasing complexity can alienate viewers after a while.

Why bigeneration is good for Doctor Who

Yet for all these headaches and others like them, bigeneration is still a good thing for Doctor Who.

Most obviously, the concept rehabilitates both the Doctor and Doctor Who itself. By having the Fourteenth Doctor work through the emotional baggage of decades’ worth of storylines off-screen, bigeneration allows Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor to start fresh.

It’s a way of rebooting without actually rebooting. Of not erasing Doctor Who’s past, but rather shifting the focus to its future. That feels right for a show built around the idea of change – and certainly doesn’t hurt post-Disney deal franchise newbies from getting onboard, either.

Prospective Whovians aren’t the only ones to benefit from bigeneration’s introduction in “The Giggle;” franchise veterans should get something out of it, as well. Because there’s an upside to the “multiverse” of it all: Doctor Who continuity is now more flexible than ever.

Ordinarily, this is the kind of thing the hardcore faithful hate. After all, if Doctor Who lore isn’t fixed, why even have it at all? Yet as Davies recently observed, “loosening the rules” means long-time devotees can stop fretting over storylines they don’t like by relegating them to a different time stream, instead.

“It just relaxes the rules to say [The Doctor] is whatever you want him to be,” Davies said. It’s hard to argue with that – even if it does mean breaking Doctor Who canon.'

#Bi-generation #Doctor Who #60th Anniversary #Russell T. Davies #David Tennant #Ncuti Gatwa #The Giggle

[cookie-waffle]

Things I want in future Zelda games:

(this also applies for totk, but I know that some of these things are already confirmed to not be included)

- The ability to pet dogs

- A major character from a past game who isn’t apart of the commonly re-occurring cast to make a genuine comeback. Like Groose, Vaati, Saria, ya know. Old cherished major characters we haven’t seen in over a literal decade.

-Another game where you actually get to team up and interact with Zelda throughout the story. I really love when she has a more active role.

- A game where Link is a little kid again. I’d love to explore a map as big and gorgeous as it is in botw/totk as a 9-12 yr old wide-eyed kid.

-The ability to pet dogs

- I really want Nintendo to reuse that scrapped idea for a game with a modern setting where Link has an electric guitar and Ganondorf is a metalhead.

- A male gerudo who is just a normal gerudo and isn’t the literal antichrist.

-An incarnation of Ganondorf that actively fights his fate and is genuinely struggling to be a good leader despite the Demise Brainworms demanding he destroy everyone.

-Actual confirmation that Link is nonbinary (it’s pretty much all but confirmed at this point)

-The ability to pet dogs

-Writing that goes way more in-depth on the MASSIVE impacts that these adventures have on Link and Zelda’s mental health. Botw did sorta touch on it and I’m glad they did, but, I really wish so much of it wasn’t only on metagame text (Like Link having selective mutism due to severe anxiety for example)

- Cats. Please bring back the cats.

- Bring back the large themed-dungeons, but design them in a way that works with botw/totk’s climbing mechanics.

- Skyloft ruins. No, seriously. There are so many Zelda games where Link has to go up in the clouds and there is absolutely no trace of his old home. Or, at the very least, somehow tie the sky islands in totk to skyloft, even if the connection is as small as using the same kind of magic in order to stay in the sky.

- let me pet dog

- Link’s mannerisms and personality changing depending on how you act in the metagame. A lot of people argue over what kind of person he really is and I think this would just like, solve that. If you respond flatly to people, maybe he’s more serious. If you select a lot of dialogue options that are playful or have jokes, maybe he’ll laugh a bit more and be a bit more silly. I know Nintendo may never ever include anything like this, but I really enjoy the concept.

- I miss when there would sometimes be NPCs that were clearly based off of other Nintendo characters. Talon looks like Mario, Ingo looks like Luigi, and now I demand we have someone who looks like Wario. Actually, ya know what? Just straight up put Wario in the game. He has pointed ears and can pass as hylian. I demand Wario. WARIO!!!

-dog

#legend of zelda tears of the kingdom

[quiietjay]

i hate people who "think about the roman empire a lot"

I absolutely do not trust people who "think about the roman empire a lot" unless they think "oh wow ancient civilization cool" because if you know literally anything about the roman empire then you'd fucking know that maybe glorifying it is probably a fucking red flag. I am going to rant as to why the Roman Empire sucked and is ass and why it's fucked that people "think about it a lot." It's a long one.

My view on the roman empire primarily comes from my art history studies, but I'm pretty firm in the belief that since art is reflective of its period's culture, conflicts and views that you can relatively safely judge a culture by its art. and I know that morality is ultimately relative and subjective depending on culture and the time period, but honestly here I could give less of a shit especially when that same morality is being applied to modern day by a certain people.

The Romans' art, or what's left of it at least, is almost entirely comprised of art depicting the emperors or other high-ranking officials. Most art in the Roman Empire was propaganda for the emperor or erected in celebration of the conquest of peace arising from the conquering of other people. There is some Roman art that is more focused on the domestic side of things, but most Roman art, at least the art that mattered in the culture at large, was emperor propaganda.

"But Jay! The Romans had the strongest army in the world at the time! Not to mention their technological innovations that changed the world forever! It's no wonder they thought they were the best!" I strawman. They did invent the strongest concrete known to man, arches, aquifers, whatever, but the ancient Romans could have invented particle accelerators and I would not hate them any less. All that those were were excuses to beat down on the 'lesser' men. Oh look! I can irrigate more efficiently than you and i have plumbing! Surrender or die. And this is not even touching upon the blood sports. I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs for why the Colosseum is probably one of the more disgusting things to come out of human history, but I'll try to keep it short. I know about all the human sacrifices in other cultures like the Aztecs cutting the hearts out of young men alive and then throwing their bodies down their temple and whatever else you want to say. You could argue it's worse that the Colosseum's purpose. But the Aztecs? They thought that if they didn't do that then their god would end the entire fucking world. The Romans? They watched slaves kill each other and let people get mauled by lions for funsies. They executed prisoners in cruel and unusual ways. There was no ritualistic or religious connotation for it. They just wanted to watch people die for fun.

Back to art, comparing this to a different culture, most other cultures do not revere their leaders to tthe extent of being nauseating. The only other example that i can think of that enables this cult of personality to this degree were MAYBE the ancient Egyptians, they literally believed that the pharaoh was their god incarnate- they were born for the duty of king, and while their art focused much on the pharaohs and mythology, they did not have the same emphasis on the pharaoh as the Romans did their emperor, most art celebrating the pharaohs were commissioned by the kings themselves and usually used to decorate their tombs and there was no need to essentially dickride the pharaoh. Everyone already fucking knew the pharaoh was the one in charge. Even though the pharaoh was their god-king other art was allowed to exist.

Roman art is pretty, sure, but their art reveres conquest and tyranny. most statues were elevated in honor of conquering other cultures or to celebrate generals that did. The Greeks did marble statues first. Actually, speaking of the Greeks, the Roman pantheon (until SOMEONE made Christianity the main Roman religion (Constantine)) was just a copy of the Greek pantheon and replaced their names with what are now the names of our solar system's planets. They changed Zeus into Jupiter, Poseidon into Neptune, etc.. These guys just took Greek culture and forced it widescale and made everyone else have to deal with it.

To recap, Roman art is shallow, inherently imperialist, narcissistic bullshit. Even compared to other cultures they were fucking psychopaths. And to add insult to injury, they were unoriginal. And I'm going to explain why the FUCK all of this matters to me in modern day since obviously, the Ancient Romans are long-dead, their empire gone.

I can start out with what the definition of an "empire" is. Rome is arguably one of the first long-surviving Empires in human history, and even more arguably one of the most important ones in the world, yes, I'm saying in the world because the Roman Empire, even if just indirectly, has caused almost everyone on earth's lives to change drastically. The Romans were the ones who first came up with the concept of an "empire" and its meaning in its relation with the conquered. For a long time, the title of "empire" was tied directly to a country's relationship with ancient Rome. This is why the Holy Roman Empire existed as it did and why so many other states were eager to claim inheritance to the legacy of Rome.

We can see Rome's effects far and wide even in more modern history. Many fascist states took big inspiration from Rome (the Nazis, and Fascist Italy particularly.) The super cool idea of Gigantic Conquering Empire Chosen By God was so appetizing to the general western public that it's had attempted reenactments several times over.

People throughout history, and even nowadays, glorified the Roman Empire to such a degree that some consider it the peak of human history, ever. Even now it remains relevant unfortunately in our daily lives.

This allows me to finally get up to modern day and particularly the rise of neo nazis and marble statue pfps which is kind of what spurred this whole thing.

You know why all the trad marble statue pfps on twitter have the reputation that they do? Fascists and imperialists revere other fascist and imperialists. the people who think about the roman empire today (white men) admire the Roman Empire in unsavory ways, even if they don't know it. They admire the conquest, the slavery, the propaganda, the self-absorbedness of the Empire. They wish that modern day countries were more like the Roman Empire. They wish that war and conquest was glorified again (at least much more than it is now,) they want that narcissist propaganda art back.

They do not care for art any further than the aesthetic value and how it upholds their already-held beliefs, just like the Romans. All they care about is keeping the status quo and keeping a cult of personality intact and keeping everyone in line as much as possible. This is the exact same mindset that the Nazis had and what led to their demonization of modernist art and their "degenerate" art exhibitions, and what leads to fashy art mindsets now.

So with ALL of this, what I am ultimately saying about people who glorify the Roman Empire is that they are glorifying imperialism, narcissism, conquest, and war. What I am saying is that you should steer clear of men who think about the Roman Empire "a lot" because chances are that their views at least to some extent align with fascist and imperialist ideologies, IF they are not ignorant and think "man... big country.... strong....".

Run away if they know anything about the Roman Empire outside of the abridged synopsis of their history. RUN if their admiration of the Roman Empire is reflective of their view on art and how society, in general, should be run. Stop saying "x is my roman empire" because "x" is not the imperialist country you admire and wish to bring the philosophies from it to modern day.

If you've read this far, you might think that I'm reading too much into all of this, and you know what? you're probably right. But I've seen too many trads and fascists on the fucking internet not to see patterns where there are and my knowledge of Rome, its consequences, and what it means for modern day informs me NOT TO FUCK WITH PEOPLE WHO "THINK ABOUT THE ROMAN EMPIRE A LOT."

#rant post #personal rant #long rant #quiietjays thoughts

[haleigh-sloth]

Idk how to interpret Tenko/Tomura because I feel like it's being left ambiguous on purpose (it's also something he's confused about!) I think even if they changed Shigaraki's severe repression and dissociation into full blown DID... Tomura still needs to be saved! Like, based on vestige Tenko only having the eye scar that means if the DID interpretation is true, Tomura would have "split" during the incident and either way would have been the one dealing w/ AfO's manipulation and abuse.

Sigh..."Tomura still needs to be saved!"

Yes. Saving Tenko means saving Tomura. They're the same person. One does not exist without the other. I'm a little exhausted of that take honestly.

THEY. ARE. THE. SAME.

It's really not that ambiguous. Honestly. I've pointed out a multitude of times that the "inner child" is used a LOT in BNHA.

Boku no Baby Academia.

I have talked about how to interpret it quite a few times (Here, here, and here). You're welcome to give those a read. Here are a couple of other explanations NOT by me, but pretty much align with what I've been saying, and delve into much more detail on this "inner child" trope, which is undeniably what this is (Here and Here).

I'm trying to give you options anon, because the way you're approaching it is, imo, not going to get you anywhere or land you on any conclusion you like. You're coming at this as if Tomura is going to be left behind in the dust and not saved. (And I'll touch on the DID stuff at the end because that's not a good way to come at this either). And I will reiterate what I said here, in another post explaining the Tenko/Tomura situation: Does saving Touya mean leaving Dabi in the dust to rot? No. Yet, I don't see people saying that about him? Yet he also gets the "hurt inner child" symbolism used for him as well, but for some reason this take doesn't apply to him. It shouldn't! But it shouldn't apply to Tenko either.

I'm not trying to tell you what to interpret it as, do what you want, I can't stop you. But honestly there really isn't a lot of room LEFT for open interpretation. It's pretty obvious what Tenko/Tomura is. Tenko is symbolic of the entire person's being. He is who he is.

It's as simple as this: The reason the entire person, Tomura Shigaraki/Tenko Shimura, was not FULLY absorbed by AFO, is simply because the ENTIRE person is not completely full of hatred and rage. That tiny part of his mind/heart/soul however you wanna classify all of this, is being symbolized by Tenko. Because Tenko was the identity this person was born with, and represents the part of this person's life before AFO gaslit him into believing that he was this destruction incarnate and had no hope for a happy life, because, well, destruction incarnate who destroys everything he touches--including people he cares about (his family), as well as any chance he will ever have of being saved (destroying society). That's what Tomura/Tenko believes about himself, and until that belief is washed away through an outside influence, he can't be saved at all.

Now for your take on DID. I have a couple of issues with it but let's start with this:

"I think even if they changed Shigaraki's severe repression and dissociation into full blown DID... Tomura still needs to be saved! Like, based on vestige Tenko only having the eye scar that means if the DID interpretation is true, Tomura would have "split" during the incident and either way would have been the one dealing w/ AfO's manipulation and abuse."

I have a problem with this. This is implying that one part of Shigaraki is experiencing the abuse while the other is not. That is not even applicable to irl DID. When a person experiences trauma, it affects all aspects of a person. This sounds like you're saying there are two brains within this person and while one brain is taking a nap, the other is dealing with the abuse. One brain, one person, one experience.

The very fact that Tenko is being used to symbolize Shigaraki's heart is pretty clear cut proof showing that this isn't freaking DID lol. Tenko remains unaffected and continues to represent the part of Shigaraki that isn't full of hate, hence keeping him from fully disappearing into AFO, leaving there leeway for someone to pull the entire person OUT of this possession. If this were going to be a clinical representation of this disorder, one part of Shigaraki would not be shown to remain unaffected. The shut away identity in a person with DID IS affected, that part adjusts to the trauma just like the part of them that is front and center. It just doesn't work that way where one gets off scot free and the other takes the brunt.

This is the second issue that follows up on that--don't assign diagnostic labels and then interpret canon through that lens. Do not. You will not find answers, because this isn't a clinical study nor a clinical representation. Headcanons are fine and projecting is fine! Absolutely, project away. It's how we cope. But trying to analyze the material as if it were canon, when it's honestly not, is not going to land you anywhere. I will hand it over to Horikoshi for displaying mental illness and trauma really well through his characters, and especially familial trauma and the effects it leaves on the family members (Todorokis and Shimuras), but I'm not going to assume he's got an open DSM-V on his drawing desk.

Here's the other thing--this "split" has not been an ongoing obstacle for Shigaraki. This "split" hasn't been a part of his character's struggles with his identity and who he really is. That struggle lied with uncovering his memories, and that already happened. When he recovered his memories, he just recovered them. And then spiraled even more. He adjusted to the "new" information and kept going. He hasn't been dealing with a "split" the entire story, as if to show that he is dealing with a separate part of himself that he is fighting to bring out, or keep at bay. The "split" in identities only became a thing at ALL when the literal possession started happening. And there are LITERALLY TWO PEOPLE INSIDE. So again, yet another reason this is just...not a representation of DID. It's just not. Of course there are aspects of it there--absolutely. But those little aspects ONLY started manifesting when literally more than one whole person was occupying a body. During the war arc you see Shigaraki reflect on his memories multiple times, but he doesn't revert back to his 5 year old self.

5 year old Tenko is a representation--nothing more. There isn't a literal 5 year old sitting in the vestige with a physical body waiting to be pulled out. He just represents the very fact that he can still be saved from AFO, and saved from himself. It shows that there is a part of him that knows he isn't good for nothing but destruction, knows he didn't legit murder his family, knows he didn't want them to die, knows he wasn't born to just kill. Those beliefs are there buried deep down, they just need to be validated. Pulled out from the bottom of the ocean that is AFO's gaslighting and psychological torment inflicted on him.

So not to be rude, really, but I'm going to have to kindly reject your interpretation.

I genuinely don't know why people are looking for a way to explain away Tenko though? The reason is pretty clear and simple for why he's there. Why do people keep looking for ways to try to make it make sense that "saving Tenko means leaving Tomura behind?" Why, honestly I'm at a loss.

The only people I see who don't like the Tenko situation are the people who don't want the villains saved at all, and the people who want this fanon version of Shigaraki that doesn't exist so they can see him, like fight AFO off and take back his agency (that he never had to begin with honestly) and just carry the League off bridal style into the sunset. Idk tbh but the attempts at making the Tenko symbolism out to be this negative force in Shigaraki's arc are exhausting to read.

Not saying anon is doing that but....tbh idk why there are so many attempts at explaining Tenko away to be something he's not. He's not taking Tomura away from us either. Yeah idk where that comes from but it's a take floating around out there.

I'm fairly certain that we will see more 5 year old Tenko, and 5 year old Izuku, since we've seen them both on screen together already:

So I'm hoping that maybe all of this "Tomura won't be saved if Tenko is the one who is saved" bullshit dissipates when we finally follow up on this lol.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #anonymous #bnha asks #shigaraki tomura #shimura tenko #i hope this wasn't rude but i'm sure there are parts that are snippy #but i've literally explained my interpretation several times #hence the 4 linked posts #also i get bothered by people trying to diagnose characters based on their liking #and then interpreting them through that lens as if it's canon??? #don't do that guys #please #horikoshi is not a trained mental health professional--i'm led to assume #he just likes making his characters suffer like a lot #but yeah don't diagnose characters it's not going to get you anywhere when analyzing #i'm a licensed clinician and even i don't do this lmao

[zumpietoo]

Cracks Knuckles....

cuz I realiced something further, as I was watching Only Murders in the Building.....

As I pointed out recently, the BB's "goal" of "destroying" Cole isn't really what they want (and remains utterly inexplicable), they want him to grovel to PP, state he made the biggest mistake of his life, she's the most wonderfulest, admit to all kinds of things he didn't do, etc...

And the same with Beebs for Selena Gomez.

And clearly OBX dude for Madelyn Cline....

And pretend to be feminists, while disparaging/body shaming/belittling other wimmin, simply for being the nu lady of their object of obsession

And pretend to be pro-MH/always believe the victim, while disparaging other wimmin and using "crazy" as a pejorative....but insisting their girls' MH issues are cute and charming.

Ditto substance abuse.....it's adorbs when their peeps (and themselves) are blotto/wasted, a crime if somebody they dislike has a beer.

Oh and there's their obsession with $$$, while ignoring/seeking to twist anybody they dislike as being "poor" and thus, again, a criminal--but that isn't a factor, here....(or maybe only marginally).

Soooo.....this all again, got me wondering "well, WTF IS so great about Peepster, and why do you choose to self-insert as her/similar girls?"

And it hit me: once again, that weird "sad girl sisterhood", popped up. And.....it really does track.

Much in the same way Duan and Ciena continue to be inexplicably chummy/low key shun Ari, with a woman they met a handful of times, in Duan's case, in fact, kept cancelling on her-----and will never see again (and did nothing, ever for either), here we have the same wimmin, across the internet, feeling the same fandumb fealty.....

In fact, it couldn't track moar if it was literally designed that way:

There were, previously, no shortage of posters talking about their "anxiety" (I'd say it's MH issues that are a lot less pretty/trendy, myself) overtaking them, so they became obsessed with the possibility of Cole cheating on them PP, and even now, refuse to even consider anything else....

Because, again, they ally with her, because she's a pretty neurotic girl, so it puts a pretty face on something ugly, that they don't want to address. It's why they think her cult's fab, desperately insist she's vastly moar successful than she is, ignore/excuse how the documented unlikableness she routinely demonstrates.

It's why they think her getting with a rent-a-Walmart Cole, purely because he made fun of Cole in the most juvenile manner imaginable---and her "winning the break up", 3 years later and nope, is so amazingly fantastic....

It's why her gluten intolerance is a tragedy....it's why it's glorious for her to be snide, bourgeois, and mediocre, while belittling others for this.

It's why Cole's evvvollll incarnate for dumping her-----and why they keep pushing OMG!!! Cheater!!! Even tho, again: A) not a crime B) choosing to excuse HER and the rest of Hollywood for it.

IDK why it took me this long to see it, but it couldn't be moar obvious....I'm sure they'll insist "oh hahaha, she's crazy" (ableist and untrue) and then take a double dose of anti-depressants.....

And oh, on the "believe the victim"? Again, funny how that only applies when it works for them/convenient (otherwise, again, you're just a crazy loser)----but they, again, include somebody who clearly IS nuts (and very much not in a pretty way) and has, herself, repeatedly fully negated her claims----and even then, the claims she made literally translated to, "was 22 and didn't always revolve himself around me completely".....

But it explains why SHE has devotees in that too, because, again, spiraling hot mess of a girl, who got dumped, cuz asshole.

Which is what they are and why they self insert.

[stardew-obsessed-ora]

Random Dobson Headcanons because he's REAL TO ME AND THEREFORE IS REAL

I listed so so many headcanons for Dobson under the cut. They're all relatively silly, but I figured he deserved a bit of care and consideration given he's forcibly preoccupied one of my braincells. (especially since, you know, dobson exists in the void)

He looks to be in his early 20s to me, so I'm going to go on a whim and say he's very into popular internet culture. He's probably sent tacky, confusing memes to the work GC in an attempt to seem relatable before then going "um but none of you have actually met this weeks quota snort snort." On that note, Dobson has absolutely used common Gen-Z phrases to his older higher ups.

"Seriously, who exactly are they trying to rizz up on work time?"

"Sorry- what's a rizz?"

"Nevermind. I meant to say they were having inappropriate conversations during precious work hours."

I feel like Dobson is one of those people who uses a flip-phone unironically. He doesn't even have one of those pretty docomo flip phones, no. He has a bulky flip phone that he uses nearly constantly. In fact, he uses it so often, that he's certain he can type faster on a flip-phone keyboard than he can on a smartphone keyboard. (Spoiler: He can. It's terrifying to witness.)

I imagine he's a college student. He applied for Joja Corporations in order to help pay for his courses. It's a wonder he's able to joggle both middle-management work and course-work.

Dobson can practically live off of microwaveable pizzas, ramen, spaghetti, and a selection of other readily available foods. He doesn't really get tired of his diet. In fact, he gets offended at the sheer implication that his repetition is wrong.

He's so short. He's only about 5'2 or so. No, he doesn't give a shit about his height but if anyone brings it up he's going to make sure their work day is hell regardless of how little he cares. He definitely games on his free-time. It helps ease his nerves after a long day on that Joja grind. He's one of the worst motherfuckers to voice chat with because he's bound to scream in his mic at any given inconvenience. His rage is immense. He's a class-act Joja suck up. People thought Morris was bad? This dude would do absolutely anything for even an ounce of praise from the higher ups he works under. He wants a promotion, he wants to be able to brag to people more than he was already able to. He wants the satisfaction, the thrill, the feeling that he's doing something right. On that note, I genuinely feel like he's desperate for praise and approval from others. Something about him screams gifted kid burnout to me, and I feel as a result he's constantly looking for some form of praise from authority figures. He's still a total asshat though. Don't let this motherfucker fool you. He's chaos incarnate, and would burn your crops if it meant he'd be giving Joja the upperhand.

He is so prideful. He has so much pride for such a small man. It's hard to knock him from his pedestal, and he'll probably laugh at you or retort with an insult if you tried. But if you manage to, he has a bad habit of hiding his face with his hands and turning away. He doesn't want to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing him all frazzled.

He acts like he's high and mighty and untouchable, but could quite literally be folded like a piece of paper with a strong gust of wind. He's far more bark than he is bite, and thats for his own good.

His introduction scene mentioned how he found the citizens of Stardew Valley unfashionable, but if anyone told him he was unfashionable he'd be seething. As much as he hates admitting it, the most understanding he has of fashion comes from videos he sees. He has no clue how to coordinate an outfit, and doesn't actually care to. He finds he looks perfect in just about anything he puts on.

He'd never admit it, but he's actually quite sentimental over the little things he's given from people. He cherishes gifts, and would probably opt to bite someone before giving anything away that was given to him.

For some reason, this little man screams AroAce to me. I imagine the idea of receiving a bouquet somewhat scares him, and that he'd rather just be approached about being platonic partners than actually have to face any romantic confrontation. The thought of being asked on a non-platonic date admittedly scares him. He's never really experienced romantic attraction, and doesn't feel like he should bother himself with trying to venture into something like that or trying to understand it. (im aroace. i aroacified him with my super radical aroace beam.)

#sdv headcanons #sdv dobson #dobson sdv #dobson stardew valley #stardew valley #stardew valley dobson #look guys i did it dobson has been willed into existence

[transamorousnetwork]

The World Is So Much Better For Transgender People

Holy smokes. What I saw in December blew me away. I’m only publishing this now because I schedule posts eight weeks in advance. But it’s no less amazing. It’s a testament to the unfolding perfection of All That Is and how All That Is supports transgender people. Even when it looks like it doesn’t.

A long-time cisgender friend prompted this post. He’s a strong progressive cause ally, including supporting the transgender community. We’re kindred that way. That’s why I wasn’t surprised to get his text. But I was surprised by what he shared.

He shared a link to a video. My friend does this infrequently, but frequently enough that I don’t click on links he sends me right away. But with this one, I did. Because the thumbnail compelled me.

The video promotes a whiskey product. It’s one of the best cause marketing commercials I’ve seen. And I should know about cause marketing because in a previous incarnation, I worked in PR and Corporate Social Responsibility. Take a look:

A beautiful story beautifully told

The commercial begins with an elderly couple. While the husband sits in a chair, the wife wanders about the house on the phone. Unbeknownst to the wife, the husband has a predisposition for women’s make up. He goes into the bathroom, locks the door and tries practicing with lipstick…but his results frustrates him.

Several scenes indicate the man’s depth of interest. It’s almost as if the guy questions his interest in such a thing. Nonetheless, he ends up getting pretty good at applying makeup to his own face.

But then, during the holiday season, the extended family shows up for familial celebrations. Among the family members is 26-year-old “Alvaro”. Who we now understand as Alvaro’s grandfather, looks at his grandson and has a hunch. He invites the young person into the bathroom wherein the two have an intensely personal, intimate moment.

The two exit the bathroom and, to everyone’s astonishment, Alvaro is now “Ana”. The entire family is in tears and Ana is heartily welcomed.

The rest is amazing commercial history.

“Transgender”: Here to stay

Thirty-plus years ago when rap music wasn’t what it is today, the famous Quincy Jones produced a song called “Back on the Block”. Among samples he used in his production was a statement by Rev. Jessie Jackson. Towards the end of the song, which is a medley of various rap genre’s, Jackson is sampled saying:

“Now I would – I would contend that ah – The rappers – rap is here to stay”

Thirty years later, rap is still going strong. Jackson was right.

In the same way, we are seeing something similar with transgender people. So many successful transgender people now exist. Not only are they in entertainment, they also are in politics and business and mental health. They’re authors, speakers, teachers. They’re everywhere. 

And more are coming in to the world all the time.

It makes being a transgender person in the world much easier. More than ever, transgender people can find support in abundance. The fact that a major liquor brand is on board with transgender people is astonishing. Especially so as the ad J&B produced is in Spanish. The language of a culture that, in some places around the world still considers being gay a crime. And being trans something worse.

The world is so much better for transgender people. I only hope that more transgender people discover what my transgender clients discover. That is that the only thing keeping a transgender person these days from discovering and then living a joyful life are the stories such a person tells, which creates something different from the life they want.

The world is increasingly on the side of transgender people. Of course, it’s always been that way. But today it’s more so than ever. What a great time to be alive Transgender or Trans-attacted!

If you’re life isn’t going great and you want it to, I can help.

#transgender #transsexual #transamorousnetwork #transisbeautiful #transgirl #trans positivity #transgender women #transattracted #transattraction #transgender mtf #tgrils #tgirlsdoitbetter #trans #Youtube