#There are another two or so variants that I most post later with

[princesssarisa]

I'm now reading Heidi Ann Heiner's book Cinderella Tales From Around the World. Hopefully it will make me as knowledgable about those stories as that inescapable old post of mine has probably made people think I am.

The different Cinderella stories are arranged in geographical order. So far I've read all the variants from Egypt, Greece, and Italy, and I'm about to start reading the German versions.

For now, I'll share the most interesting points from the versions I've read so far:

*Not all versions of the tale feature a stepmother and stepsisters. The Egyptian variants don't have any parents in them at all. In the proto-Cinderella story of Rhodopis, the title character is just a Greek slave-turned-courtesan with no family, while the other Egyptian tale, The Magic Jar, just has three sisters living together. Meanwhile, the Greek versions usually give the heroine a loving mother and two cruel biological sisters, with no father. In the Italian versions, there's almost always a father, but it varies whether the wicked women are the heroine's stepmother and stepsisters, or her own mother and sisters, or just two sisters with no mother.

*Greek versions typically have the heroine living with her mother and two older sisters. The sisters murder their mother, then cook and eat her flesh, but the grieving heroine lays her mother's bones to rest in a place of honor. Forty days later, the bones turn into three beautiful dresses and other finery and riches for her.

*Italian versions tend to come in two variants.

***One variant uses the archetypal "heroine's father goes on a journey" scenario, much like the Grimms' Aschenputtel or Beauty and the Beast. When he asks his daughters/stepdaughters for gift requests, the sisters want clothes, but the heroine asks for something unusual (e.g. a bird or a tree sapling), or else she asks him just to greet someone for her (e.g. a fairy, or a far-away relative), and when he does, that person gives him a tiny gift for her. Either way, the gift he brings back is what produces her finery.

***In the other variant, the heroine's stepmother or mother sends her out every day to pasture an animal (a cow, a sheep, or a goat), along with an impossible amount of spinning, weaving, or sewing to do. The animal tells the girl to place her work on its horns, and when she does so, it's magically done. Eventually, the (step)mother finds out and has the animal killed, but the heroine saves either the animal's bones or a golden ball she finds inside its body, and from there she gets her finery.

***That said, a few Italian versions include a fairy godmother-like figure: a kind old woman or a fairy who meets the heroine when she's out in the pasture and gives her a magic wand.

*In Italian versions with a stepmother as the villain, she typically starts out as the heroine's teacher or governess. She treats her kindly then, and urges the girl to convince her father to marry her, which she does. But after the marriage she turns cruel. (Some Italian versions of Snow White also begin this way.)

*Another detail from the Italian versions: in the "father goes on a journey" variants, the heroine warns her father that if he forgets her request, then his ship or his horse won't be able to move either forward or backward. He forgets, and sure enough, his ship or his horse freezes in place until he remembers.

*In the Greek versions, the special event the heroine attends in her magic finery is typically a Sunday church service. Some Italian versions have her go to church too, while others have a royal ball or festival, as does Egypt's The Magic Jar.

*In The Magic Jar, the heroine loses a bracelet instead of a shoe. I wonder if Gioachino Rossini and Jacopo Feretti knew about that version when they replaced the slipper with a bracelet for the sake of "propriety" in the opera La Cenerentola?

*In nearly all these versions, the heroine already has her magic source of finery and knows what it can do before the ball/church. So at no point does she beg to go, or cry because she thinks she can't go. She just lets her (step)family leave, then magically dresses herself.

*In both Greek and Italian versions, there are typically three balls or church services. Each time the heroine leaves, the prince has his servants chase after her. But the cunning heroine throws gold coins or jewels behind her, and the servants scramble to pick them up, letting her escape. Sometimes instead, or when she runs out of riches, she throws sand in their eyes to blind them. In a few versions, she doesn't lose her shoe by accident, but throws it to distract the servants because she has nothing else left to throw.

*Very rarely in any of these versions do the heroine and her prince actively "fall in love." They're not described as dancing together the way they do in the familiar Perrault and Grimm versions. The prince just sees her and falls in love with her beauty, with no mention of whether she ever speaks to him or not.

*In all three of these cultures, some versions continue after the heroine's marriage in the vein of the Grimms' Brother and Sister. The (step)mother and (step)sisters turn the newlywed heroine into a bird, or throw her into a river when she's weak from childbirth, or find some other way to get rid of her. But somehow or other she comes back to her husband in the end.

*The fate of the (step)mother and (step)sisters varies. In some versions, namely the ones where they try to get rid of the heroine after her wedding, they're executed. In some Italian versions that have just one stepsister, the stepmother puts the heroine in a pot or a barrel and plans to fill it with boiling water to kill her, but somehow or other she escapes and the stepsister takes her place, so the stepmother accidentally boils her own daughter to death. But in others, they're just left with their envy, and in still others, the heroine forgives them and shares her wealth with them.

I'll share more about different countries' variants as I read them!

@adarkrainbow, @ariel-seagull-wings, @themousefromfantasyland

#cinderella #fairy tale #variations #egypt #greece #italy #cinderella tales from around the world #heidi ann heiner #tw: murder #tw: cannibalism #tw: violence

[revengemicrowave]

So continues my attempt to not be aaaaapanic by actually posting stuff haha and feed the Lukadrien tag, my true motive

Another older doodle when I was still figuring out Luka's hair, from Zombie!AU I have all the ideas but no time to do the comic for. Ahh, the endless struggle...

Premise (completely spoiled lol) under the cut. tw: body horror, parasites/bugs, usual zombie stuff, talk of mercy killing a bitten

On a particularly warm day in April, a sudden outbreak sweeps through Paris. People turn wildly aggressive, biting and killing others - who then get back up to do the same hours later. The dead are controlled by a parasite that pupates and hatches from the face of it's host into a stunning, shimmering purple moth. It's wings extend over the face, like when Shadowmoth controls the akumas.

When the host makes a kill, the moth detaches to lay eggs in the new body and die, leaving a shambling biter with other larvae (potentially) still to hatch. However, rarely some stay in rooted to the host brain and become more intelligent, more dangerous zombie variants (like the really mushroomy clickers in Last of Us).

Luka gets seperated from Juleka and Rose on a supply run into the city, the Liberty a safe haven on the water with a small community of other boats. Has a chance run in with Adrien's group when Adrien saves him from one of the first of the more dangerous variants. Everyone is strangers in this AU, besides Luka, Juleka and Rose (and Anarka!), and Adrien, Alya, Nino and Marinette. There are other survivors, but small main group. In the group, Kagami carries a bow and insists she doesn't view the infected as human anymore. Marinette is their medic, Nino is the defender and they're trying to find Alya (who is with Chloe, driving eachother insane). I was also considering Weyham or Max or someone, make it more of a mixed group. Luka is a very reluctant zombie slayer, which is what nearly gets him killed when he first meets Adrien. He has an axe because I'm hilarious. Juleka carries a baseball bat with nails and Rose a can of mace and bugspray (which ends up being suprisingly effective). Rose the alchemist surprise-making a flamethrower, please. So, Luka joins Adrien's group and tells them there's a safe place on the Liberty, but they need to get to it and signal from shore without drawing attention. Because of the cluster of survivors on the river, the banks of the Seine are swarming with zombies, but the moths won't go in the water.

A sneak-through a building goes wrong and Luka gets bit. Marinette patches him up despite his protest about using the supplies, because he 'still shouldn't be in pain'. Kagami reminds them what a bite means, but finally softens when he jokingly tells her to look after the kids (they bond as the two most emotionally mature). The group have to say goodbye, and still in denial and shock, Adrien offers to be the one to 'take care of it'.

At first, it's assumed the bite is what turns you, as no moths have hatched and the first people killed turned after 18-24hrs. Adrien has to come to terms with leaving the guy he's falling in love with in a locked room to turn into a monster, or put him out of his misery.

But Luka doesn't turn (come on as if I'd turn favourite bluebell into a zombie and do that to Adrien) and over summer the hoardes thin as the bodies start to rot. They just need to make it to winter.

#lukadrien #miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #adrien agreste

[inkdragonworks]

Hope you all had a nice Halloween! This was another quiet month for development. Started off finishing a round of updates to the cutscene editor, and importing it over to Fragaria Park for future use.

When I finally finished with that, I rounded off the final cutscene for Chapter 2, where Poppin and Jupa run into the main antagonists again. Came to the conclusion that one of them, Grab, needed a couple more poses.

I performed similar work with some NPCs, named Ruby and Topaz. They're miners you can talk to in Chapter 2. Something I really want to try doing with this game is having previous places update a little bit if you happen to backtrack through them, as a way to make it less boring and give a sense of time passing. For enemies this is a matter of swapping some in and out, but for NPCs, I'd like to update dialogue and portraits and such to reflect it.

Speaking of backtracking, I created a Tram that would take Poppin and Jupa around Snow Machinia... after they find a pass later on. Like the elevator it's meant to be a convenient way of getting around. I'm trying very hard to design the map so that navigation makes sense.

One other avenue of navigation, that I may have mentioned, are colored doors that zip you around the mountain. You can see one of them up above with the yellow door.

These doors are secret tunnels built by an underground race of robed cave dwellers (Jupa ends up calling them "Clock Twerps"). A route nearby has one of them running away and dropping the key to this door.

There's two other keys before this that allude to clock twerps dropping these keys and such, so I really hope the connection sticks. In other parts of the game there won't be so much emphasis on it, but you can presume one of these critters dropped a spare key. What they use them for and why they need them... you'll find out eventually!

And then I started on some enemies that are meant to populate the caves between future chapters/areas. This first one is Stalactmic, a bat with a microphone nose and speakers for ears. They shoot violent soundwaves that bounce around.

And then there's Mackerel The Knife, a lanky fish with sharp bones that it uses to attack prey. There's two variants: the one here that swims near the top of water, jumping out to attack. And then another you'd encounter while submerged underwater, that ends up spinning and bouncing around in place.

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

The theme last month was rounding out content for optional, post-chapter places, excluding the Tram which is a prominent part of Chapter 3.

Chapter 3 is pretty intimidating. Of the 7 chapters I have planned, while I don't know if it'll be the longest, it is the most varied in terms of locations. While it's nice to get a break from making rocks, I'm still not confident with tilesets and backgrounds and picking good colors for them.

I'm planning to keep picking at the Chapter 2 enemies and additional areas first this month. That *may* involve the return of Dr. Thurston, and finally giving you an idea of what his gameplay involves, but I may end up using momentum from enemy work to finish up the ones for Chapter 3, as well as completing Rickity's boss fight.

I didn't end up drawing as much as I wanted in October, and I have been thinking of finding a way to talk about Poppin and Jupa's world more, but I'm still on the fence. My current job is pushing us to get software certifications, so some of my time is dedicated to studying. I'd still like to keep pace with the game though; I never feel like I'm doing enough. Until then, thanks for reading.

#my stuff #my art #monthly updates #poppin #jupa #poppin and jupa pocket adventure #game dev #game blog #game updates #game design #metroidvania #pixel art

[ataleofcrowns]

Chapter 11 Progress [25/MAR]

Hey everyone, I hope your spring has started well 🌻

As for me, I have a lot of good news to share!! After a short writing break post CH10 release, I wrapped up some uni coursework, which freed up my schedule for the next several months. Starting from this week I'm full steam ahead on CH11, and have already written 13k words for it!!

That's way more than I estimated I would have for March, so I hope I'll make it close to 20k by the start of April. If I can keep this pace up for the next two months, then I'll be able to post CH11 by early June 🙏🏼

What you can expect from CH11

As you can probably tell from how differently CH10 ended depending on your LI, each LI route will have very different opening scenes as a result.

It also has additional, major varying scenes depending on if your Crown has a high romance or a low romance. The low variants for the romances haven't had major consequences so far, aside from some differences in how the relationship is progressing, but CH11 is where it gets REALLY real. 

I sincerely hope you'll consider having a separate low romance save for your Crown, because the differences between a low and high relationship in CH11 are going to be pretty huge.

Not irreversibly huge, mind you, but "this scene has a separate variable that will make the game remember whether your relationship was high or low at this point in time and how it all went down" in the future. Even if you switch to a high romance later on, your LI will still remember how your Crown handled this scene 👀

And don't worry, the choices regarding this scene will be VERY clear in terms of their effects on the romance. So if you want to intentionally craft a messy route that still leads to a good ending, or if you just want to go for a complete trainwreck of a romance, here's your chance lol.

First up: X's route!

In terms of specifics, I've written bits and pieces for each LI over my supposed writing break (lol), but since I've started working on CH11 in earnest, I've started off with X's route first.

This is because X's route has the most ANNOYING variants in it haha. The opening for X's route features the Imperial Court, which has to take a lot of player choices into account (Office of Law, Lady Naza, possible alliance with the royal historians).

It is a relatively short scene since the court meeting is very spontaneous, and players on other LI routes will also see the choices they made reflected in the Imperial Court on the main plot path. But it involves a lot of writing, especially since I have to write a low romance variant and a high romance variant for it 😭

On the upside, I'm practically done with it!! I'm hopeful I'll be able to move onto writing X's major romance scene tomorrow, then switch to another LI's opening scene by the end of next week. I'm thinking R next.

That was it for this update ✨

I'm posting further updates and CH11 previews on the Patreon for all tiers, as well as all sorts of fun extra LI/Crown snippets, so if you'd like more AToC content while you wait for CH11, consider pledging!!

As always, thanks so much for your patience and support 💖

#progress report #a tale of crowns #interactive fiction

[best-non-english-word-torunament]

What even is a language?

All tournament words will hava a short text about the language, but since I don't want to simplify until it's misinformation I need to open the can of worms on what a language really is. Join me, I promise the worms are interesting!

So, what makes two languages different from each other?

Think about it for a while. The first thing that comes to mind is probably that people who speak the same language can understand each other, while people who speak different languages can't. This criterion is called mutual intelligibility by linguists. This sounds easy enough, why is there so much post left?

Well, imagine two villages along a river, A and B. They speak slightly different from each other, but can understand each other. Same language, different dialects. Easy.

Now imagine there's a third village called C further up the river, closer to B than A where they speaking a third slightly different variant. The people in B and C understand each other, but speakers in A and C have a harder time and some can hardly understand each other at all. Do the people in A, B and C speak the same language? It would probably still count as one language since all of them mostly understand each other.

Let's make this more complicated! Imagine a village called D even further up the river. The same situation applies here, C and D speakers understand each other without problem, B and D speakers have a harder time and A and D speakers can't understand each other at all. How many languages are there now? Now imagine we add villages E, F, G etc and apply the same logic. Not so easy anymore

This situation is called a dialect continuum, where different dialects form a continuum so that people understand their neighbours but not all parts of the continuum. This is a common situation where linguists have to try and group languages together out of dialects based on which ones are the most similar.

Fun fact! This does not only happen on a village to village basis, but over larger regions. There is one hiding in plain sight right in the middle of Europe called the Continental West Germanic dialect continuum. There's more about it in the posts with German words, but in short: German is/was a few generation back two (or three) separate languages, the continuum also includes Dutch and "dialects" from Switzerland and Austria. Yet there is a Standard German based on one dialect. Anyway, on with the show.

Language exposure is another interesting worm in this can. Do people understand each other because their languages are similar enough or because they've learned another language? Imagine town X, where a language is spoken, and village Y outside the town. People from Y trade with X and often visit X, since it's a lot bigger. They understand people in X. People from X however, have no clue what people from Y are saying. This isn't mutual intelligibility since it only goes one way, but it will be relevant later on.

Using only mutual intelligibility gives us 6500 spoken languages in the world, as well as 200 signed ones.

This way of defining languages seems too complicated. Can't we just ask people what they speak instead?

Well, you can. This is another way of defining a language: What the people speaking it say is a language is a language. Easy.

On first look this seems reasonable. People know what their language is and will tell us where to draw the lines in the dialect continuum mess. This is the sociopolitical approach to language.

No. This approach intersects interestingly with the mutual intelligibility approach in that the number of languages suddenly skyrockets! There is no estimation, but people tend to call their own community a separate language from the neighbouring communities, even though they all understand each other.

Sometimes these peoples agree that they speak the same language if presented with the mutual intelligibility approach, there just aren't any words for the shared language. Then we can easily go ahead and call them dialects of a shared language.

But what if they just don't like each other and don't want to call what they're speaking the same language, even when they absolutely do? Or when there are political reasons for wanting to differentiate what their dialects, like connecting dialects to separare nation-states? Maybe these political divisions cause dialects to grow further apart, or different writing norms are implemented. Maybe it just happens as land is divided into countries with different policies and influences and a language community is split.

So if mutual intelligibility and people's own classifications don't match, should we just ignore the socio-political part? Often people agree that they speak the same language and let themselves be classified as such, but at other times it would work worse. The line between language and dialect is blurry and confusing.

Take the case of Swedish and Norwegian: I am Swedish and I can understand some Norwegian. It is also my understanding that people living along the border, particularly further north speak similarly and understand each other even better. Considering mutual intelligibility they could be considered the same language, especially some dialects. There is no animosity between Swedish and Norwegian (unlike Swedish and Danish, which might be considered in the same group except the differences are larger?). There are different spelling norms and probably different loan words/influences from countries that have been in contact with Sweden and Norway. Most important of all, it would still feel weird to call them the same language because of the nation-state connection and national identity.

Sometimes, this goes the other way around. Remember town X and village Y? What if the people in Y consider themselves speakers of X, while the people in X still can't understand them? Would it be the same language or not?

Another situation is the national state that really wants everyone to speak the same language. I have another example from Swedish, which is the former dialect Älvdalska (possibly anglisised as Övdalian?) which isn't mutually intelligible with Swedish. Still, for a long time it was considered a dialect anyway, but not anymore. It's its own language.

So what do we do?

Neither approach works on its own since things will get weird if we just pick one. The two big databases over language, ethnologue and glottolog, use a mix: It is mostly based on mutual intelligibility because that's more important for linguistics, but with some sociopolitics where it's reasonable. This leaves between 7100 (ethnologue) and 7700 languages (glottolog), both numbers including sign languages. See how the databases have vastly different numbers? Yeah.

Another fun fact: There are still languages previously unknown to linguists discovered every year. Some are dialects reclassified as languages and some are dying languages spoken only by older generations that were previously missed, as they aren't often spoken.

Anyways, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed discovering that everything is more complicated than you think. There will be more posts like this to come. Also, to have it in the post: this knowledge comes from me studying linguistics and being very excited about it

#best non english word tournament #linguistics fun fact time! #linguistics #please tell me you appreciated this bc I spent way too long writing it #just can't avoid sharing knowledge

[the-haunted-star]

The Marvels Deleted Scenes

The Marvels is a short film clocking in at 1 hour and 45 minutes. Such a brisk running time might lead one to believe that a lot of material was left on the cutting room floor. As with all films there's always stuff that's removed or changed during the editing process. However even with an overwhelming amount of marketing footage shown before the film's release and two early test screening leak descriptions, it appears The Marvels actually had its story and structure locked in pretty early on.

The trailers are often a good source for some bits of footage that didn't make the final cut but with The Marvels, there was very little that was shown in all the various previews that didn't make it into the final film. Once the Blu-ray/Disney+ material comes out we'll probably see more deleted scene evidence uncovered. For now here's what I've gathered together so far: (SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM)

The film's plot was leaked last year from an early rough cut test screening. Much of it proved to be very accurate. This summary was the first to report that Valkyrie would have a cameo in the film. This was true as Valkyrie appears aboard Carol's ship via the Bifrost to take the Skrull refugees to Earth after Dar-Benn attacks their sanctuary planet. According to the leaked summary there was originally another scene in which Valkyrie appeared. (I'm guessing here, but I'd assume this other scene most likely would have happened before the escorting of the Skrulls scene.) The leaked summary describes this scene as follows; at one point Kamala is alone on Carol's ship when Valkyrie calls. Valkyrie asks whom she's speaking to and where Carol is. Kamala responds, "I'm Ms. Marvel" and Valkyrie asks "She (Carol) got married again and didn't invite me AGAIN?" Kamala quickly clarifies the MISS part or her title. Valkyrie's line obviously foreshadowing the fact that would be revealed later in the film that Carol is married to Aladna's Prince Yan.

This early summary also described Dar-Benn as using her bangle to "power a weapon" which would steal the resources of the various planets. In the final film, there is no secondary weapon. Dar-Benn simply uses the bangle to both open up portals and extract the planet's resource. Due to the rough-cut state of the film shown in the test screening this could have been either a misinterpretation by the viewer or there actually was a separate weapon in that particular rough cut and they just decided to streamline things by having the bangle perform both tasks. Who knows. Based on this info I myself incorrectly predicted and assumed early on that the huge diamond-shaped ship might have been this "weapon" in the film. But it ended up being just Dar-Benn's Kree flagship of sorts.

Another test screening took place around June 2023 with a leaker corroborating on Reddit what was described in the first plot summary and adding a couple other details which had not been revealed up to that point. One being that the post credit scene would feature another variant of Monica's mother, Maria Rambeau and that Kate Bishop would make a cameo appearance. Both these details turned out to be true too but with one minor difference. This report described the film opening with Kamala recounting the film's events to a mystery person not revealed until the end. This person would turn out to be Kate Bishop. So while the scene with Kamala recruiting Kate still ended up at the end of the film, it appears that Marvel toyed with the idea of having the film's events being narrated retroactively, similar to how Iron Man 3 was Tony recounting his story to Bruce Banner.

As I stated earlier there wasn't much from the trailers that wasn't included in the film but there were a couple. One bit involved Monica during the initial round of location swapping. When Monica switches places while investigating the jump-point in orbit near Earth, she ends up on the barren planetoid where Carol was previously. In the film we see Monica crash onto the planetoid but don't see her get switched back to her original location. The teaser trailer shows a few seconds of Monica getting attacked by the same Kree soldiers Carol had just encountered on the barren planetoid. Monica attempts to use her powers to defend herself but switches again with Carol. You can see the insignia of Carol's suit begin to rematerialize before the trailer cuts away.

Another deleted scene that was described in the leaked plot summary involved Carol and Monica traveling to Hala where the Kree are celebrating the return of rain and water to their drought stricken planet. Carol has a crisis of conscience realizing that the "Annihilator" title the Kree labeled her with was accurate from their point of view. There's a brief shot from this scene shown in the theatrical trailer, with Monica and Carol standing in front of a rain soaked window with the Hala cityscape outside it. A line of dialogue from Monica plays over it, "You are not the only thing standing between this and the universe."

In recent interviews following the film's release, Iman Vellani has revealed details on some scenes that were either changed, shortened or cut altogether. From Yahoo:

Monica Rambeau was originally going to be christened with her codename, Photon during the climax of the film right before she repaired the tear in space-time. Vellani commented, "It was a cool moment, but I think they took it out for a good reason." The original scene had the Marvel trio using their powers together to repair the tear. "It wouldn't make sense tonally if Monica is about to sacrifice herself and we're like, 'But your code name!'"

The song/dance sequence on Aldna was originally longer. "The song itself was much longer, and so much fun. There was a beat where Carol starts singing before she dances with the prince - that was pretty funny. And there's a moment where Kamala starts singing, too." - This one isn't too surprising. The leaked summary even made a comment that the sequence went on for way too long in the test screening cut. This was a scene I thought would potentially be pretty cringey but didn't actually end up bugging me. Although a longer version of it most likely would have wore out its welcome pretty quickly.

Some other little beats that got scrapped from the theatrical cut included an early scene where Kamala switches places with Carol and ends up on her starship, not immediately realizing she's in the same domicile where her hero resides.

There was also a longer version of the final encounter with Kate Bishop. "Hailee and I had a really fun back and forth," "Tonally, it wouldn't have made sense if we kept joking about [the Young Avengers team], but we were having so much fun bouncing off each other."

Lastly, a few more cut tidbits via @CanWeGetSomeToast on X/Twitter:

Kamala wasn’t able to take off her bangle and was imprisoned/tortured by Dar-Benn.

Captain Marvel and Valkyrie were explicitly together in the past (cut quote: “we work better as friends”) but Disney are cowards.

Prince Yan was supposed to gift each of The Marvels with a new suit, right before gathering his army. Monica had her comic accurate wings at first, but it was too much for her so she tore them off.

Kamala’s new suit originally turned into a space-suit, which would’ve been used to join Carol and Monica to close the rip in space-time TOGETHER.

#the marvels #captain marvel #ms marvel #monica rambeau #photon #brie larson #iman vellani #teyonah parris #dar benn #zawe ashton #kate bishop #deleted scenes #hailee steinfeld #goose the flerken #goose the cat #marvel cinematic universe

[can-ya-guess-my-curent-obsession]

Hiya! If your still doing requests Could you do Murdoc x Fem girly reader headcannons

Reader is the complete opposite of Murdoc she is sweet to everyone, wears dresses likes pastel colours stuff like that. If that’s okay with you <3

Murdoc x Very fem pastel F! S/O

WRITERS NOTE: Hi! I honestly really like this request, I personally find any pastel style to be realy cool! But I do apologize I'm not good at gendered things- but I will try my very best! I hope you like the hc and that you have a wonderful day!

[ANOTHER NOTE: This is late again, life threw a wrench in my posting schedule again. Anyways have a lovely day, sorry for the delay!]

Edited: Nope

All art in this post is mine

TW: Curssing, Murdoc drinking, Murdocs childhood, Murdoc being a grouch, implied abuse?, spoilers for cracker Island, jealousy, insecurity, probably more but can't figure it right now- so just tell me any out standing ones I missed.

(Side thing: Murdocs shity behavior is not ok, it's toxic, I am not trying to indorse the shit he does!)

Characters:

/Gorillaz/

Murdoc(yay better murdoc drawing)

How???

Sorry HuH???

Just how???

You are the embodiment of a kind person... and Murdocs..... a satanic piece of shit gremlin with anger issues

So to say everyone- including Murdoc himself was quite surprised

The band won't let him live down the fact you two are so different

They tease him a lot, but other then that that band absolutely adores S/O

2D has straight up asked you why would you 'date 'an asshole like Murdoc', it was very blut though there was no ill will behind it

Murdoc will Call you the normal nick names such a 'dove, babe, love, ect..' but he will most likly call you a bit more sweet things- in private obviously, but this often happens if he's ih a more sensitive state-

Whether that be when he's drunk, high, hung over, ect... he'll just tend to be a bit loving- his voice is almost tender

And he'll use pet names like 'babydoll, sugar, cutie, my star, sweetie, the occasional babycake's', but Murdoc could use those in a very teasing way too if S/O is the kind of person who tends to get flustered

"*hic* ya'know, I'ma start... *hic* call'en ya cavity..." Murdoc said sluring his words

"What, why?"

"*drunken giggle* Cuz' yer so cute *hic* dat'cha rot my teeth... heh.."

S/O looks so different when standing next to Murdoc that some people find it concerning

When out in public with each other at night(ie. Murdoc draged you to a bar with him), there has been at least one case of someone coming up to you in concern for S/O's wellbeing, thinking Murdoc was some creep following S/O, or the every so often waitress or waitor asking if you are ok, when you and Mudz are out on a date

Murdoc gets really pissed when this happens, so S/O will have to call him down

With pastel and bright clothes you gonna want to not leave them around Murdocs room/Winnebago because that shit will be stained to high hell(even if you need a black light to see the stains), and those stains will never come out, so be reaaally careful

He doesn't really understand why you like pastel & bright clothes or makeup- but he definitely thinks you look good in it so he won't complain- as long as you don't try and put any of that on him(at least in public)-

Listen hun, Murdoc has a reputation to uphold!- Murdoc would often repeat variants of that

"SSSZZ-SSTOOWWWPPHhhu- *hmph* I have a reputation- and YOU-" Murdocs points an accusatory finger at S/O "-Fuck'in... leav'en damn stupid... neon fuk'en PINK lipstick marks.. on MY damn FACE... BEFORE A DAMN SHOW..isn't help'in..."

"Why'dya got'a go'in be so damn cute... yer stupid 'KinDNeSs' making me look... ugh nice..."

S/O when their in the later phases and later in the relationship- S/O definitely made Murdoc more nice but only really around S/O- don't get me wrong when S/O's gone Mudz still a complete ass

But he tends to be more chilled out, Murdy once he got close to S/O, he really wanted her to like him- but this isn't uncommon with Murdoc getting scared his shitty behavior is gonna scare a person he genuinely cares about away

He's in complete denial about going any for of soft, and he just ends up acting like a piss baby-

"Wha'dya mean I'm go'in soft!?!" Murdoc said pulling away from S/O

"Babe. You're wearing the *insert random pastel themed character* shirt I got you..."

"...I-...I had nut'en else to wear.." Murdoc tutned away with a huff

"You walk around shirtless and in your underwear all the time- what changed?"

"...ShutUp-!..."

Or

"..Damn face ache..." Mudz slammed the door with a a groan, clearly agitated

"You ok dear?"

Murdoc turned to you and pouted like a bitter old man "Face Ache said I was going soft!!! Can ya believe that fuck'en nob!"

He's overall very bitter and sour about going soft, so don't tease him to much unless you want his grumpy-ness to turn into full blown anger

Murdoc like to send S/O pictures of things that remind him of her/her style

This is most often pictures of clothes, but it can maybe be a pic of a stuffy or somthing, these items are often pointed out by Noodle or even 2D

But when 2D talks about/points out things that remained him of S/O Mudz will most likely get jealous... and I think we can geuss how it usually goes from there..

Speaking of jealousy

Due to how nice and kind of a person S/O is to everyone, and how insecure Murdoc can be- he can get jealous pretty easy depending on the situation

And no it's not a 'ohh ahh, he's protective and loving' jealousy- no he's an insecure angry goblin man- only getting petty and aggressive, just sit him down and have a talk, he just needs some reassurance

To add to S/O dressing up Murdy. Murdoc refuses to match outfits, he refuses to let you do his makeup... or take pictures of it to show it to people at least..

Like my last statement implies Murdoc has let her do his makeup before, S/O just can't take pictures to show it around to people- tho this doesn't mean you can't take pictures at all

Because you can and you do, S/O has so many pictures of Murdoc in a skirt, or a full face of makeup, etc... and there all adorable even if Murdoc is pissed in all of them

Murdoc refuses to match your style or do any of the dressing up thing in public, or let any of it go out into public. He is stubborn and this is a big boundary for him, so please respect this.

This doesn't just apply to appearances, but just his stuff in general, so no cute neon stickers on things, or cutesy decorations without his permission. Murdoc stands firm on his decision so don't push to much he will get really agitated, and it might lead to a fight- like I said his stubbornness is off the chart.

Murdoc teases S/O quite a bit especially at the beginning of the relationship, and especially if its in earlier phases-

It's how he copes with nice people, Murdy isn't use to people being nice

Murdoc grew up with assholes, he was raised to be an asshole, and he was raised in a way to basically see kindness to be a form of weakness.

So him being shown kindness from this goddess, in response he freaks out a bit and just get really teasy out of defense at first

And knowing him, he might say some upseting things. So S/O has to walk very carefully around early phase Mudz or just a bit early in the relationship

Murdocs sweetheart of a girlfriend is gonna have to break down some walls, and honestly this applys to all and any relationship with Mudz- theres always a few walls to get through

But with any initial kindness there will be some extra defense put up by Murdoc

(I wanna talk about phaze 7 Mudz specifically for a second, so like spoiler warning I guess? )

Murdoc is firm on the fact what he is wearing isn't a dress- we all know what I'm referring to!

That thing he wears in the Cracker Island music video.

He referres to it by whatever it's actually name is(again I don't know, I'll edit it when I figure it out) or he calls them PJ's. He has referred to it dress like but never a girly dress like somthing S/O would wear- and he gets pissy if anyone goes around calling it that. Though in the passed Murdoc has probably worn a dress before.

(Ok weird tangent over, back to just general Murdoc)

Despite hating it when S/O does his makeup or dressing him up- Murdoc does love picking her clothes out and has more then once done S/O's makeup- and he isn't the greatest at first but he does eventually learn how to apply eyeliner without impaling your eyes

Murdoc while is proud of his work- will not stop laughing at how she looks after he's done S/O's makeup

Murdoc 100% underestimates S/O, he thinks S/O is one of the most pure things ever and he wants to mess that up ;)

JK- I'm just joking... particularly...

Anyway!-

He just kinda sees S/O as a bit of a childish innocent person who's oblivious to the world- like how else could you be so happy?

If S/O really is that innocent than good luck, becuase that sure as hell isn't gonna 100% last if she wants to stay with this Satanist

But if you arn't as innocent well then it's quite a pleasant surprise to Murdoc

It's up to you to determine how you want Murdoc to figure out S/O's lack of innocence but here are some examples

1. Murdoc used a horribly raunchy and crapy pickup line on S/O and she retorted back with her own, this left Murdoc flustered and stunned before he played it off pretty well. Mudz jokes about this later on because he finds this situation funny

2. Murdoc whilst pissed said some unsavory things, and S/O responds in a way that shows she understood what he just said, and Murdoc depending on how bad what he said was would either laugh it off or he would immediately choke on his own spit, then awkwardly defend himself

3. Very similar 1 but Murdoc made a dirty or just inappropriate joke and S/O expressed they understood and Murdoc would just burst out laughing

Just a few ideas- but it's up to you

But once Murdy finds out, him being the dirty little man he is- he's gonna tease you about it. Mudz sometimes mockingly treats you like a kid- with all good intentions of course

Either way innocent or not S/O is just as appealing- just in different ways

"Dove... your cuteness juz made me throw up'en my mouth.."

#gorillaz x reader #murdoc x reader #murdoc niccals #murdoc niccals x reader

[brostateexam]

In other words, New York City — which in the first pandemic summer had been declared “dead forever” — was back! As long as you had not personally been ejected from your home, you might have even found it inspiring.

There was only one problem: None of it made any sense.

In late 2021 and early 2022, when demand for apartments was supposedly accelerating from trickle to geyser, New York was still besieged with COVID-related troubles. Return-to-office plans had been quashed by the Delta variant, then Omicron. Tourism was way down, and unemployment was twice the national rate. Crime was reportedly surging — people were getting shoved onto subway tracks — and outdoor dining had emboldened rats to live freely and openly among humans. Had all of the people who had presumably moved to escape these very concerns really come flooding back?

With every rise in the city’s median gross rents, my skepticism grew. I had lived happily in New York for more than two decades, through many disasters and rebounds, and I wanted to believe the story of its glorious post-COVID recovery. But why did it seem like all of the people telling it were also trying to lease me overpriced apartments?

I began to pick up faint dispatches from a distant, numbers-based reality, where a more plausible counternarrative was taking shape. “Manhattan Lost 6.9% of Its Population in 2021, the Most of Any Major U.S. County,” said a March 2022 headline. “NYC’s Population Plummeted During Peak COVID —  And It’s Still Likely Shrinking,” said another from a couple months later. According to these stories, New Yorkers hadn’t come flooding back at all. In fact, they were probably still leaking out.

If that was the case, then the city’s rental frenzy defied not just laws of supply and demand but also conservation of mass. All of the people who fled the city over the past three years should have left behind a surplus of empty, habitable apartments. What happened to them? And why is it so difficult and expensive to lease one now?

#long reads #*coronavirus

[koddyroddy]

Funhouse Speculation on DFF

I love horror, and I absolutely love guessing who the unknown killers could be in a horror story. Dead Friend Forever is perfect for this type of diversion!!!

I have to share my wild speculations on this wonderful little show, even if I'm proven wrong later (that's part of the fun). Heeheeheeheehee.

I'll start my speculations assuming there's only human killers (for now).

Who is a killer? My guess at the Episode 4 mark--

Jin!!!!!!

(plus Top for obvious reasons)

Hear me out!

We are one third of the way through the series, and there's so much more story to tell. Per horror film tropes--the first third we often get red herrings (that may or may not end up being true).

First, let's deal with the two most suspicious characters.

Phi and Tan: Are they the killers? Options:

Phi and Tan are the killers, perhaps as revenge for Non's death and/or they are working with Non.

Phi and Tan are red herrings to make people think they are the killers when they just aren't.

(Variant of #2) Phi and Tan are not the killers, but they were friends with Non and wanted to learn about what happened to him. Still not the killers.

Phi and Tan are red herrings at first but one or both end up being one of the killers as a reverse uno later in the show. In this situation, at some point in the show's middle third it will be revealed that they are not the killers in some "decisive" way. The reverse uno comes in the last third with the final twist revealing No, He (They) Is (Are) the Killers!

At this point, they're just too obvious, so I'm skeptical of them as the killers. That said, Tan seems the more suspicious of the two.

Next, Por: Is he a victim or one of the killers? Thoughts:

In many horror films, one of the killers often ends up "dead" earlier in the story only to reveal themselves to be very much alive at the story's climax. I mean Por did basically impale himself on that tree branch. I admit the stomach wounds seem real, so who knows. The thing I'm looking for now is whether or not his body gets moved to an out-of-way place. If they move the body, then the chances of him being a killer increases. After all, he'd be able to freely move about if no one is watching his body.

Question though--who exactly would be his primary target? Hmmm.

On to Tee and Fluke: Killers or the primary targets? Thoughts:

These two are breaking under the pressure! They both seem more likely to become killers in the mania of the situation than to be the original killers. Tee seems like a primary target, if he actually was Non's main bully, but I'm not 100% sold on that.

For Fluke, it's interesting that this entire situation seems almost designed to push his buttons. That said, if Por is one of the killers, then Fluke would be the obvious accomplice. Who would be their primary target?

Now, let's discuss Top: Top, Top, Top. Thoughts:

I think he's faking the crazy.

Consider this--Top when he gets off the bike outside the house:

He looks pretty clearheaded to me. What's unclear is the state of his shirt. Speaking of...

The shirt doesn't look as green in the first picture as it does in the second when he's come into the house and is starting to "seizure." Plus he doesn't have the traces of green vomit on his face in the first picture (which is easier to see when you watch the show as opposed to looking at my crappy screenshot).

As I said--he's totally faking it.

Of course, I'm currently speculating on the killers being wholly human. All the supernatural stuff I'll save for another post. At this point, he's "killed" Por, so the question really becomes Who Is His Accomplice? Por and Fluke? Seems a little unlikely, but you never know. Also, if he's the first killer revealed, then he's not the mastermind.

Regarding his primary targets--hold on that.

At last, we have Jin and White: Final boys or the ultimate masterminds? Thoughts:

What a juxtaposition these two make. Honestly, it's hard to tell which is more suspicious.

With White, as the story progresses, he seems more and more like the final boy. BUT! Why would the killers target him? He wasn't a part of the original group who knew Non. Often in horror, the final girl/boy is someone that the killer saves to the end because they are the primary target. Why would anyone target White?

That said, the main person I can think of is Top. In the first episode, there was that joke about Top joining Tee and White in a threesome. Is there tension there that has yet to be revealed? Is White Top's primary target for taking Tee?

To flip it, is Top helping White get revenge for his--I don't know--big brother Non? I could totally see that. Maybe it's White that Top wants, and so he's helping him exact revenge. It is Top's freakout that lead to Tee freaking out, after all. I like White as the final boy more than him being a killer, so the question is who is the second (or third killer?) and who is he targeting?

Then we come to Jin.

At the beginning, Jin had more markings of being the final boy, but over time, he's proven to not be that helpful. I have no memory of him contributing anything positive to their situation. With his dislocated shoulder, he's now turned into a damsel in distress. There's potential backstory per the show's trailer that Jin liked Non. Could he secretly be the one planning revenge?

Also, so much of his story seems to revolve around Phi, almost as if they're trajectory is separate from everyone else's. With so much more story to tell (two thirds of the show!), I wonder how they're return to the group will go.

With horror tropes in mind, Jin seems the least likely candidate, which is why he's the most suspicious to me right now. This is totally just gut feeling, with barely any logic around it. I fully admit it.

But wait, what about Non? I need more information. He could be the red herring.

...

I have many more thoughts as I speculate away, so I'll likely post further once I collect them. There's a lot to think about regarding the supernatural aspects (are we going to get a Blair Witch ending?) and the sexual dynamics (are we going to get a Captivity ending!?!?). Now that's a thought.

#dead friend forever #dff #dff the series #be on cloud

[austinramsaygames]

This is a repost as I've decided to separate my Battletech tournament musings into separate posts rather than one big thread.

Prev Next

I won another Alpha Strike tournament! This one was 350PV and Clan Invasion again.

I'll do another deep dive into how it went but for now here's 3 big moments.

First game was in an extremely dense city:

And I had the city side. For anything without jumpjets or VTOL movement the only way past the wall was the highway or a tunnel in the centre and my opponent only had two with JJs. The highlight here was taking out first a Marauder and then a Marauder IIC as they came over the wall on via the highway with a horrendous amount of Indirect Fire. This was what really clued me in to how good the massed IF was.

2. Second match was on a more open board but there was still lots of Line Of Sight blocking terrain:

This angle is actually pretty much what my side of the board was. I split my 3 biggest direct fire damage dealers (2 SRM Carriers and a Stalker) between the two firing lanes on either side of the centre mountain. While the side on the left with the SRM Carrier and Stalker was a bit too much firepower and deterred my opponent from taking that lane (useful in its own right), The lone SRM carrier on the right sat behind a tree and helped take out 2 Von Luckner tanks, an Atlas C (the variant I ran last tournament), and a Shadowhawk.

3. Last highlight is also from the second match. My two Cavalry VTOLs spent most of the match in the back lines of my opponent. At effectively TMM5 with a movement of 20" they easily broke LOS with most units they wanted to, and even when they didn't most attacks were hitting at around Target Number 9. So hits were rare and since they have *some* armor they could take a bit of scuffing.

Nothing in match 3 was of particular highlight, mostly because it was a bloody, knock down, drag out fight from the start.

The opponent destroyed 5 of my 12 while the two prior opponents only destroyed 2. I even lost both my SRM carriers in the first turn. This happened because the deployment of the scenario had us split our forces between opposite corners and place them within 12" of the corner, so there was only 24" between our forces from the jump.

Deep dive time!

SUCCESSES

Identify fire lanes and then control them with heavy direct fire units. It is my opinion that even the most terrain dense boards have firing lanes, it's just a matter of finding them. My goal was to set up my SRM Carriers along those and have the Stalker in one or the other. I had two of them every match, but the effectiveness varied greatly based on scenario and map layout. If they weren't actively firing at targets, they were at least denying those avenues of travel which broke up supporting fire and allowed my faster units to stay out of firing arcs.

The first match in the city had three firing lanes: one across my back line, and two on either side of my half of the board. I held the two side ones but due to the entrances into the city only being on my left because of the wall, that was the one firing lane that saw good use.

The second map was a pair of valleys that formed two lovely firing lanes that ran diagonally in parallel AND had tree cover at my end of them. I plopped the SRM Carriers behind the trees and bombarded anything that showed its face.

The third match was a dense jungle with the least obvious firing lanes, but they did exist along the board edges. I tried to take advantage of them but both SRM Carriers got destroyed in the first turn.

Doing the obvious thing first. I used the LRM Carriers and Heavy LRM Carriers as initiative sinks because a lot of the time it made the most sense to have the missile boats sit still since they didn't need Line Of Sight and didn't lose much TMM. This let me save my more reactive units for later.

I picked a strategy and leaned in. My initial goal with the list was to pack in at least 8 vehicles using what I had available to me. Turns out that a lot of those had missiles, so I made sure EVERYTHING had missiles and then packed in as many NARC beacons as I could. 19.5 Indirect Fire damage BEFORE NARCs is very useful!

Redundancy. While I had 5 pairs of identical units, they weren't run as pairs but as groups of 5. This meant that the tools my opponent needed to deal with them were usually on one side of the board, leaving the other set of 5 to operate with less concern. Additionally if one NARC beacon failed to hit, I usually had a back up to try again, and the same went for my Indirect Fire.

Winning Initiative. Obviously this was in no way a result of my skill, but taking advantage of it was. This is always really useful and luck was on my side for a good chunk of the tournament. It let me hold my VTOLs until the very end to break LOS with them but still have eyes on the enemy.

Using the Stiletto as a spotter. I brought the Stiletto to counter ECM with its own so that my NARCs didn't get suppressed, however, none of my opponents brought ECM so I needed another use for it. With its 16" speed and skill 5 it ended up being an excellent spotter that I didn't need to shoot with. Its TMM3, 4 armor, and taking advantage of cover also meant that I didn't have to worry too much about it if it was within an enemy's firing arc.

Giving the LRM Carriers and Heavy LRM Carriers skill 3. This let them effectively negate the penalty for Indirect Fire and since they sat still so often they were basically skill 2 for most of the tournament. So they were often hitting on 6s or 7sat medium range, and *only* 9s at long.

MISPLAYS

If there are no useful fire lanes, I needed to be more aggressive with the direct fire units. In the first match one of my SRM Carriers was watching a lane that didn't get much traffic due to the city board layout. I should have moved it up to the same lane as the other SRM Carrier but I was worried about needing it to defend my objective (the scenario was capture the flag with some twists). When something finally came for the objective, it was a fire moth that immediately went outside of its firing arc and the nearby Heavy LRM Carrier, which has a turret, had to deal with it.

Not having a good plan for enemies that rushed me. In match 1 there was a Fire Moth carrying a unit of Battle Armor and the pair basically wrecked one of my Ravens. I tried to deal with them using one of my VTOLs but their high TMM made them hard to hit and their speed meant they were often outside of anything else's firing.

In match 3 the scenario gave us deployment zones that made us split our forces between opposite corners with 12" deployment zones, so it was bloody from the first turn as even the relatively slow Kodiak of my opponent was already in medium range. All of his forces pushed in on me from 2 sides, so I largely stayed concealed using terrain and fairing arcs, and anything that he saw almost always got deleted under the withering Clan firepower. I managed to win the match but only in the last turn and by a single Victory Point.

In the prior tournament my Lyran force had two body guard units, an Axman and a Hatchetman (though mostly just the Axman), specifically for these kind of situations and this list didn't have an equivalent.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM LAST TOURNAMENT

Splitting up my heavy hitters. I had 5 units that did 5 or more damage at medium range: 2 SRM Carriers, 2 Heavy LRM Carriers, and a Stalker. I split the pairs across either side of my deployment zone to give me better coverage and it worked! It was especially effective if I took the time to advance the very slow (MV 4") Heavy LRM Carriers up enough so that they they had medium range for most of the board.

SURPRISES

No real MVPs. The foundation of my list was "take as many vehicles as is feasible" and, after looking at the minis I have, "take as many missile units as possible." This combined arms nature meant that there was generally a lot of redundancy in action so the workload got spread around. Everything was useful but not a star.

Relying on Indirect Fire forced me to focus fire. I generally aim to focus fire each turn, ideally on the same target as the previous turn, but IF really drives it home. Needing a spotter, preferably one that doesn't shoot, means I was dedicating points to a unit that wasn't doing any damage on their own but would facilitate the 16 IF damage from the 4 LRM Carriers. The Ravens and VTOLs also made decent back up spotters if I needed a second target, but I preferred to add their NARCs and damage respectively.

When my opponents played defensively it was to my advantage. When my opponents used LOS breaking cover, that gave me opportunities to isolate enemies with spotters outside of their firing arcs who were also cut off from their own supporting fire, but still vulnerable to my IF. Additionally, moving slowly meant that I was able to take more shots on these targets than if they had rushed me.

It was a great time and I'm super excited for the next tournament! Hopefully I'll get a chance to put the lessons from this tournament to use, though I don't know what I'll run to do that as I base my lists on whims. Last time it was mechs with MEL, this time it was vehicles with missiles, maybe I'll do C3 list next!

#battletech #battletech musings #alpha strike #battletech: alpha strike #miniature wargaming

[transgenderer]

ok so obviously very speculative but there does seem to be some genuine connection between midian/edom and yahweh, altho the nature of the connection is unclear (i mean. the bible does literally say god came from there several times). anyway i post this mostly cuz of this strange detail:

The connection of the Midianites to the Kenites is made somewhat conjecturally. "Jethro" is only one of many names the Torah and later books of the Tanakh ascribe to Moses' father-in-law. He is first called "Reuel" when he is introduced in Exodus 2:18, however for the remainder of the Book of Exodus he is only referred to as "Jethro". In both the Book of Numbers and the Book of Judges, Moses' father-in-law is called neither "Jethro" or "Reuel", but "Hobab". Several unsatisfactory attempts at harmonization have been made: that Hobab and Jethro are alternative names for the same person, that Jethro/Hobab is the son of Reuel, which requires that in Exodus 2:16 "father" (Hebrew: אָב‎ ʾāḇ) means "grandfather" (ʾāḇ can also mean "male ancestor") and in Exodus 2:18 "daughter" (Hebrew: בַּת‎ bat) means "granddaughter" (bat can also mean "female descendant"), that Hobab is actually the brother-in-law of Moses and the reading of "father-in-law" in the Book of Numbers and the Book of Judges are the result of a scribal error (the Hebrew words for "brother-in-law" and "father-in-law" are spelled the same — חתן‎ — but pronounced differently, ḵātān vs. ḵōtēn, respectively), or that the name "Reuel" was simply inserted into Exodus 2 by a scribe for whatever reason. Proponents of the Kenite hypothesis explain the discrepancy as follows: since clan names and place names have a much better chance of survival in the collective memory than personal names, the most probable, if partial, solution is that "Reuel" is the name of the clan or lineage to which Hobab belonged. In the Book of Genesis, "Reuel" is listed as one of the sons of Esau[23] — i.e. as an Edomite tribe — and is also the name attached to a group of confederate clans.[24] In the same lists, a clan known as Ithran is also mentioned. Later, in the Second Book of Samuel and the First Book of Chronicles, two Ishmaelite (Arabian) names, Jithra[25] and Jether,[26] are mentioned. Ithran, Jithra, and Jether are all considered variants of the name Jithro — that is, Jethro. Because of this, William F. Albright asserted that the father-in-law and Midianite priest was indeed Jethro, and that Hobab was Moses’ brother-in-law, a member of the Reuel clan, and a metalsmith by profession.[27]

the bible is so weird! another great detail:

The Hebrew term "אשדת‎" is a hapax legomenon, it does not occur anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible, or anywhere else in the entire corpus of the Hebrew language throughout history. Jewish scholars explained this puzzling word by deeming it an esoteric compound of the Hebrew words ʾeš (fire) and dāṯ (law), thus yielding "fierly Law". However, proponents of the Kenite hypothesis instead claim that the word is not a compound at all, but a deliberate alteration of the word "אשרת‎", a variation of the name Asherah, the goddess who was worshipped as Yahweh's consort in the early centuries of the Israelite kingdoms. Taking a step further, they postulate that the reference of "holy myriads" (mērīḇəḇōṯ qōḏeš) is actually an alteration of the place-name "Meribath-Kadesh" (mərīḇaṯ qāḏēš), which is placed in the vicinity of Paran by Numbers 13:26. Thus, "He appeared from Mount Paran and came with some of the holy myriads; from His right hand was a fiery Law for them." becomes the equally coherent "He appeared from Mount Paran and came to Meribath-Kadesh; from His right hand was his Asherah." Furthermore, tablets from Kuntillet Ajrud blesses its recipient "by Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah" — connecting the Tanakh verses linking Yahweh to Teman and his consort Asherah. Therefore, it is concluded that the point of departure for Yahweh's triumphal going forth, and therefore his original residence among his devotees, is that part of Edom (Seir, Teman) which lay west of the Arabah. According to the biblical texts, this was the country of the Kenites.

[princesssarisa]

My Cinderella Tales From Around the World recap has gone out of order, because I forgot to make this post earlier today. I typed it out this morning, but I was so eager to move on to the English tales and read Geoffrey of Monmouth's King Leir that I forgot to change "Save draft" to "Post now."

The next Love Like Salt tales in Cinderella Tales from Around the World are from Belgium, France, Spain, and Portugal.

*The Belgian versions are very Cinderella-like for the most part. After being banished, the princess becomes a scullery maid in another castle, and she's often given a demeaning nickname, like "Slut-Sweeps-the-Oven" (Vuiltji-Vaegt-den-Oven – the English translation uses "slut" in the old-fashioned sense of "a dirty woman"), "Little Dirty-Skin" (Vuilvelleken), or "Ash-Blower" (Asschepoester), which is a Flemish version of the typical Dutch name for Cinderella.

**She also typically loses a shoe, or in the case of Slut-Sweeps-the-Oven, a shoe, a glove, and a ring, one item at each ball. Although oddly, in that particular tale, when each of those objects fit her, the prince and his mother still don't realize that she was the beautiful lady – just that she has remarkably pretty feet and hands for a dirty servant girl. But one day, some time after the third ball, she hears the queen give her son permission to marry the lady if he should find her, then offers to "fetch her," goes out, and comes back in her finery. Most other versions just follow Cinderella and have her marry the prince as soon as the shoe fits her.

**The older sisters' typical responses to the king's "How much do you love me?" are "as the pupils of my eyes," "as the sun," or "as my life." One version uses "bread" and "wine" like the Italian variants, though.

**One version combines the love tests with the archetypal "father goes on a journey and asks for gift requests" scenario. The king asks each daughter to chose a gift for him to bring back based on how much she loves him. The eldest asks for a golden spinning wheel, because her father is as precious as gold, the second asks for a silver gown because her father is as precious as silver, and the youngest asks for a lump of salt because her father is as precious as salt.

**One version even uses the recurring theme of the disguised princess being beaten and later alluding to it at the ball – a common feature of Cinderellas and Donkeyskins not seen in any other Love Like Salt so far – but the perpetrator is the prince's mother, not the prince himself.

**As implied above, the princess in these versions tends to be merely banished by her father, not ordered killed, and allowed to take her elegant dresses and jewels with her, which she hides in a hollow tree or other secret place until the balls.

**Two versions have her finery provided by a magical old woman, however: one who gives her a magic box to hide in a hollow tree, which will give her finery when she requests it (although the magic only lasts until midnight), and one more in the vein of Cinderella's fairy godmother, who turns a mousetrap into a coach, mice into horses, and matchsticks into footmen, then breathes on the princess's rags to turn them into finery.

*In two Belgian versions, however, the heroine doesn't go through a Cinderella story or get married. Instead, in one version, another king simply takes her in out of kindness, then invites her father to a feast with no salt some time later, while in another, she comes back to her own father's court disguised as a page boy and teaches the king his lesson by instructing the cook not to salt the food at a feast.

*The French versions strongly resemble either Cinderella or Donkeyskin too, as well as more strongly resembling King Lear in some cases than any other versions so far.

**In The Turkey Girl, the king doesn't just ask "How much do you love me?" but like Lear, divides his kingdom among his daughters based on their love. The older two both claim to love him "more than anything in the world," and when the youngest says "like salt," he orders her killed. But a devoted servant – a figure who's a bit like a cross between Shakespeare's Kent and the Fool – secretly disguises her as a peasant girl and finds work for her at another castle. Soon afterward, the elder daughters turn their father out, and the faithful servant finds a small farm where the two of them live. Meanwhile, the princess goes through a Cinderella story, attending three balls, fleeing at midnight, losing a shoe, etc. After she forgives her father, the prince's family overthrows the wicked sisters and restores the old king to his throne, and the servant is rewarded.

**In Marie the King's Daughter, the heroine doesn't claim to love her father like salt, but instead, more like Cordelia, claims to love him just as much as she "ought to love such a father." After being banished, she dresses in a donkey skin and becomes a goatherd. One day out in the fields she secretly puts on an elegant gown she's kept hidden, and a prince happens by, sees her, and falls in love. When she notices him she runs off, losing a shoe, and he finds her Cinderella-style. She then learns that her brother and sister (a rare difference from the usual two sisters) have dethroned their father and locked him in a dungeon, where he's gone mad. Marie insists that her prince wage war to overthrow her siblings, which he does, and Marie nurses the king back to health and sanity. Only then does she marry the prince.

**The third French version is The Dirty Shepherdess (La Pouilleuse), found in Andrew Lang's The Green Fairy Book. Here there are only two daughters, one who loves their father "as the apple of my eye" and one who loves him "as salt." After being banished, she dirties herself because no housewife would employ a servant girl who was too pretty (their husbands might have roving eyes, after all), and then finds work as a shepherdess. From there it plays out like Perrault's Donkeyskin: the prince sees her in her beautiful gown in the woods, falls ill, and asks for bread baked by the shepherdess, and she drops a ring into the dough, which fits only her. In the end her father comes to the wedding already knowing her identity and regretting having banished her, so they joyfully reunite before she uses the saltless meal to teach him what she meant.

*The book includes one variant from Spain, Xuanón del Cortezón, or "Johnny of the Bark." The princess claims to love her father "as bread loves salt," so a servant is ordered to kill her but lets her go. She disguises herself as boy and becomes a turkey herd, but when she's alone in the fields she changes into her own gowns, and one day the prince sees her. He claims to be sick and asks for "Xuanón the turkey boy" to bring him broth, and when "Xuanón" obeys, the prince admits he knows her true gender and proposes marriage. When her father comes to the wedding, he's served a loaf of bread made without any salt, and when he realizes his mistake and his daughter reveals her identity, he instantly dies of joy.

*In the one variant from Portugal, the two older sisters claim to love their father "better than the light of the sun" and "better than myself," while the youngest loves him "as food loves salt." After her banishment, she goes to work as a cook at another palace, but only cooks alone, wearing her own elegant clothes as she does so. One day she drops ring into a pie, the prince tries it on every lady of the court, and finds that it fits only her. She doesn't reveal her identity right away, but from then on the prince spies on her, and finally sees her in her princess gown. For their wedding, she insists on cooking the feast herself, and of course she invites her father and puts no salt in his food, leading to their reunion.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @adarkrainbow, @themousefromfantasyland

#cinderella #love like salt #fairy tale #variations #cinderella tales from around the world #heidi ann heiner #belgium #france #spain #portugal #tw: abuse #tw: murder

[kingofthewilderwest]

Hi, in the HTTYD episode "Tone Deaf", you had mentioned that Smotlouts song was a ripoff of a similar song (repetitive melody with increasing pitch). What is the artist/song title of the song that Snotlout was imitating? I remember hearing this on a radio station and have been unable to identify it. Thank you.

Hey there! I'm stoked about this because you're sneaking into my passion for folk music! Be prepared to get 500% more information than you needed! ;)

For starters, I'm glad good search engines exist to refind what you were referencing. In this 2016 post about Tone Death, I commented Hiccup's song started melodically similarly to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," while later elements of the song sounded familiar, but I was unable to place it. I'm still unable to place it, though it sounds like another old-fashioned band tune.

Since you mentioned a repetitive melody with increasing pitch and that matches When Johnny Comes Marching Home, I'm assuming that's what you were thinking about!

I don't mind that RTTE 'used' When Johnny Comes Marching Home. It wouldn't be a ripoff in my book. It makes music in RTTE boringly unoriginal, but composers closely mirror songs (especially folk songs) constantly, and a composer would know that, if he modeled something off a famous melody like When Johnny Comes Marching Home, it'd be noticed.

I'm not going to assume knowledge or nationality here, though I know many folks online will be well-acquainted with the song. So I'll start by saying there's no artist particular to it. There's technically not even one concrete title since it's a folk song from the United States Civil War, and as with all folk songs, that means variation, variation, variation. As a child, I learned it as The Ants Go Marching One by One! There's another children's variation, The Animals Went in Two by Two.

I have to nerd out and blab on the song since your ask gives me the excuse!

Irish-born immigrant Patrick Gilmore, one of the most well-known bandleaders of his time, is said to have composed When Johnny Comes Marching Home, with lyrics, in 1863 while serving the Union in the US Civil War. It was published on September 26 under the pseudonym Louis Lambert. The song became popular with both Unionists and Confederates, as it sang about the desire to see soldiers return home. However, Gilmore acknowledged he'd adapted an older melody. Where this older melody came from, though, isn't clear-cut.

The best claims I've seen point out the tune was published in July 1863 as Johnny Fill Up the Bowl, arranged by J. Durnal. Well, where did Durnal arrange it from? I've read Johnny Fill Up the Bowl was a popular drinking song with soldiers. But that's not the origin point, either.

There's a branch of this folk tune that's Irish, Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye, published contemporarily to When Johnny Comes Marching Home. (Hmhmhmhm Gilmore was Irish.) This publication was in 1867 by Joseph B. Geoghegan. I read that was originally under a different melody, though I couldn't find a scan of the sheet music to verify that with my own two eyes.

Tracing the song back further isn't as certain. Folklorists have pointed out melodic similarities to John Anderson, My Jo. That came from Robert Burns circa 1789, but even he was placing lyrics to an earlier melody. His poem was a polite change from bawdy lyrics that existed previously - a song running back to at least 1630. There are tons of variant titles to John Anderson, My Jo, and there are reportedly about forty variations to the tune (everywhere from Sweden... to Wales... to the USA's Johnny).

Going further back then that, there's less consensus. One scholar has suggested a connection to The Three Ravens, which was first referenced in print in 1611, but would be even older than that. Another song that's been proposed is I Am the Duke of Norfolk or Paul's Steeple, first put to print in 1651, but possibly arising from an event that occurred in 1561. Presumably a ballad arose within a week of a fire that burned down a steeple at Old Saint Paul's in London.

Of course, if you listen to something like Paul's Steeple, it's quite different from Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye - but that's the nature of centuries-long folk song evolution, where new sounds, shifting melodies, different lyrics, and more spawn across generations. It's like languages... Old English ain't intelligible to today's English, but there's a direct chain of evolution linking back.

As an American, I can say When Johnny Comes Marching Home is one of the most ubiquitous folk melodies around me. Its references typically retain military connotations -- to give one example, in Guns N' Roses's Civil War.

If you heard it recently on the radio, that's heckin' cool! I know that this song keeps appearing and reappearing in pop culture in different iterations. I'm so removed from pop culture I have no idea what you might've heard that's recent. Maybe now that you know it's citing When Johnny Comes Marching Home helps! Best of luck finding what you heard.

#long post #analysis #my analysis #music analysis #music #httyd #How to Train Your Dragon #rtte #Race to the Edge #Tone Death #DreamWorks Dragons #ask #ask me #graupel1 #putting a few of the links I looked at here so people know I wasn't B.S.ing this

[cinnamonsikwate]

Talokanil Clothing, Part Two

thank you to everyone who engaged with this post!

seeing more bts footage plus reading interviews and doing my own research has had me reevaluating some of my earlier assumptions, so here's a part two!

i've been sitting on the idea that the talokan plant is like a coconut (aka the tree of life in the tropics) equivalent to the talokanil for a while, but i wasn't sure if there was enough canon or real historical equivalent evidence to support this.

this post suggests that early talokanil clothing was made of the talokan plant's fibers. initially i was unsure about this bc i thought it was some kind of succulent, but then i came across this post suggesting it's a type of agave & suddenly everything made sense!

this gets long, but hear me out: agave is endemic to the americas and its variants hold historical and cultural importance in central america (pre-hispanic up to present). it takes a long time to mature, the exact length varying from species to species (hence the moniker century plant), and flowers and seeds only once before dying (radding 2012, 84-115). parts of the agave are edible, but its two most prominent uses are for fibers and alcohol production. two agave cultigens, A. fourcroydes (henequen) and A. sisalana (sisal) are known fiber producers, and are both native to the yucatán (trejo-torres, gann, and christenhusz 2018, 366-379).

another variant, A. americana aka maguey (although it seems the term maguey is can be used to refer to other agave species), also produces fibers that can be used for woven and non-woven textiles and even paper (hulle, kadole, and katkar 2015, 64-75), and is a species of agave that can be used to produce the alcoholic drink mezcal. A. tequilana is the sole agave species used to produce tequila (which i believe can be technically called a type of mezcal). both mezcal & tequila are distilled from the fermented, roasted "hearts" of the agave. the method to distill mezcal (and later, tequila) was introduced during the colonial era, likely by indigenous filipinos who arrived via the manila-acapulco galleon trade (walton 1977, 113-132).

pulque is the pre-colonial equivalent of mezcal/tequila, made from the fermented agave sap (many species can be used). its consumption was highly regulated & associated with religious rituals (escalante et al. 2016). described as a white, slightly viscous liquid, pulque does somewhat call to mind the liquid the shaman made from the talokan plant, although the latter was, of course, blue. this is a side note, but a mural in cholula, puebla, mexico, depicts a gathering of people purportedly drinking pulque. the production team may have taken some inspiration from this as well for the flashback scenes.

the goddess mayahuel is associated with maguey & pulque, as well as femininity & fertility (guzmán 2016). (i'm a bit confused bc wiki says she's aztec, but escalante et al. & guzmán don't give a specific indication. her name though is nahuatl-derived.)

so anyway! we have a wonder plant with cultural and religious significance that can provide both food and clothing, and may even be used in construction (including in composites)! it makes so much sense that the talokan plant is a type of agave, albeit of course one with properties that no irl species has.

i've read several hannah beachler interviews but i haven't come across one where she talks about whether or not there was more of the talokan plant. the rest of this post hinges on the assumption that the talokanil are actively cultivating the plant, or something similar (which i'll be referring to as talokanil agave from now on), so if later canon lore proves me wrong — well, i'll cross that bridge when i get there lol.

for additional context, since i'm only here to speculate on the materials used in-universe, this twitter thread here provides a breakdown as to the accuracy of the clothing styles of the talokanil vis-à-vis pre-colonial maya.

now that's done, let's get to the actual speculation:

i'm inclined to retract my previous assertion that coconut coir was used in the warriors' uniforms; instead, what i took to be coconut coir is probably talokanil agave. (although they could probably still use coconut if they really wanted to!)

when i wrote the first post, i didn't realize how many outfit changes k'uk'ulkan goes through during the talokan scenes, but from what i can tell of the textures, they could all very well be made of talokanil agave or even just regular maguey. while cotton was more associated with elites over maguey in irl pre-colonial mesoamerica (tremain 2020, 1-11), i haven't seen anything yet that would indicate that nobility wouldn't wear maguey.

i'd thought namora's ceremonial dress would be heavy but we see it in action in mabel's ig post and it's actually very light! iris van herpen, the designer, has said in an ig post that the cape feathers are made of silver-lined silk organza. underwater, the effect is something like seagrass or kelp moving with the currents, which is very pretty. when i look up silk in mesoamerica, many of the sites are, strangely, associated with the church of the latter-day saints, but one textile-focused website at least indicates that widespread silk production began and flourished during the colonial era, so i think we can rule out actual silk as the in-universe material for the dress. maybe very high quality cotton or talokanil agave (especially for the silver lining. unless it's vibranium!).

we also see one of namora's surface outfits used underwater in a bts clip from mabel, one which i thought would be too heavy to wear in the water. i mean, i guess, technically, you can wear anything you want underwater, but comfort is a different matter. in my previous post, i'd said i'd thought this particular dress and the others she and the handmaidens wore were made out of some kind of barkcloth, but, surprise, again, it's probably talokanil agave or regular maguey (agave sisal is resistant to seawater).

the twitter thread i mentioned above has some insights into attuma's ceremonial outfit, including that he's wearing a jaguar pelt. the talokanil could very well have some kind of coming-of-age ceremony where they go to the surface for the first time to hunt. or attuma could just be an adrenaline junkie lol. hammerhead sharks, jaguars — it's all the same to him. as for the rest of the outfit, i'm gonna say different grades of talokanil agave bc why not!

at different points in the film, namora and shuri both wear body jewelry primarily made of jade. iris van herpen has said that shuri's also has pearls and Spondylus shell beads (the orangey-pink ones). namora's doesn't appear to contain Spondylus but perhaps other precious stones (maybe obsidian?). that might indicate some kind of difference in status, or some kind of oblique reference to namora being a warrior, since obsidian was often used for weapons (saunders 2001, 220-236).

shuri's second talokan outfit has feathers on the back, reminiscent of the tail plumes of the resplendent quetzal (yes, as in the bird associated with quetzalcoatl, the aztec equivalent of kukulcan. this man is never beating the egocentric allegations 💀). however, the color is wrong. resplendent quetzals have primarily green plumage & only the males sport the iconic tail feathers. moreover, resplendent quetzals live in the highland rainforests, not the coastal areas. so i'm not sure if this means that the feathers are from a different bird species altogether, or, like namora's headdress, they are not actually feathers but fish fins. i haven't found a high-res enough photo of the outfit so i still can't be sure.

the rest of the outfit appears to be a mix of fabrics, heavier on top and lighter on the bottom. i'm intrigued that the bottom half is pants, because we haven't seen any talokanil wear anything similar. could this be a leftover from the cut scenes where shuri & riri were supposed to work on something for k'uk'ulkan, & this is an outfit she came up with herself? they might have given her the fabric & told her to go to town, which could explain why the design looks very different from what we've seen of talokanil fashion. i think riri also gets a different outfit but i can't find good photos of it.

now her scenes were cut from the final version of the film, but one of the talokanil extras posted some intriguing bts footage. her character was supposed to a scientist (likely from the cut scenes with shuri & riri). she's not blue & isn't wearing face/gill masks, suggesting her parts take place underwater.

her outfit is pretty unconventional compared to namora's or the handmaidens'. she appears to be wearing more plant life (probably some sort of kelp & seagrass, among other species i don't recognize), but the main body of her outfit looks strangely artificial. i'm not sure if this is intentional or if her final appearance was meant to be tweaked with cgi (the mesh underneath is throwing me off). i would like to say her outfit is probably mostly made of talokanil vibranium, but i'm not sure if that would be realistic in-universe (would that mean she is of high status? another relative of k'uk'ulkan perhaps? or does jade still mean more to the talokanil than vibranium, therefore her use of it doesn't necessarily indicate status?). in any case, she's the only talokanil we're aware of who eschews traditional clothing styles.

additional bts footage from jewelianna ramos-ortiz (the scientist) also show other talokanil who are dressed differently from the regular warriors we see. they aren't blue either, but we do see that they have on red body paint (which we have not seen other talokanil use). google scholar is being reticent but as far as i can tell, body paint in pre-colonial mesoamerica, when not in a funerary context, was associated with ceremonies or festivals. the latter likely used organic compounds such as cochineal or achoite (that's achuete/atsuete for us filipinos), while the former employed the toxic cinnabar (source). with the talokanil, it could really go either way; we don't know if they're as immune to toxins as they are to stab wounds. i'm not sure about the seawater resistance of either type of pigment though.

interestingly, they appear to be wearing the leaves of surface plants (none of which i recognize, unfortunately, even after some googling of native yucatán flora). their different manner of dress may indicate the nature of their role in talokanil society, though as to what that role is remains to be seen.

one funny implication though of practically everyone in talokan wearing talokanil agave is that shuri could've just taken anyone's clothes to re-create the heart-shaped herb, including the ones she was given 💀 but the talokanil still could've cultivated the plant in the past centuries such that the variant they use for clothing differs quite a bit from the original so it wouldn't work as well. like maybe they have a "drink this to save your life. for emergencies only" cultigen & a "for everyday life" cultigen lol.

aaaaand that's it! if you're still reading this, thank you! this was a fun research exercise, although i probably still missed a lot. this was practically a whole damn research paper lmao. let me know your thoughts!

#black panther: wakanda forever #bpwf #wakanda forever #namor #namora #attuma #shuri #riri williams #talokan #i needed to get exorcise this from my brain #calemonsito notes #long post #mcu namor #mcu namora #mcu attuma #mcu k'uk'ulkan #mcu shuri #mcu riri williams #sorry the tone is all over the place my brain couldn't decide if it was writing meta or a scholarly article lmao #'i needed to get exorcise this from my brain'??? lmao sorry i was half-asleep when i posted this

[sanctum-stinker]

SU🅱️REME TIME. 

Cannot express the joy I feel in reading some of the tags you fellows leave. I wish I could reply to every single one of them with my gratitude, but unfortunately I don’t know how.

This is a post explaining 838 lore! There is literally too much text from what I have so far, so I’ll break the 838 involvement into two parts: Lore/Backstory and Involvement in the actual re-write. Yet again, most of what’s written here is only thought out for my own enjoyment and is never mentioned in the actual re-write.

This post will explain how 838 Stephen varies from 616 and the others, the change in the timeline because of this variation, the forming of the Illuminati and Supreme’s downfall and how that leads into the plot, as well as details of various supporting characters like Christine, Tony (Yep. He’s here because I said so) and Mordo.

I apologize for any spelling errors. I cannot proof read when there is more than three words on screen.

TIME TO GO TO FLAVORTOWN!

838 Stephen lore.

In this Universe, Stephen sought Kamar-Taj to try and bring Donna back. He was still in his early days of being a Doctor, and learns of Kamar-Taj through Jonathan Pangborn. After seeing him walk as if his spine was not snapped clean in two, Stephen’s curiosity led him to questioning John and leading him to Kathmandu.

This means that he became a sorcerer at a younger age and making him the youngest Strange out of the four main variants (Sinister is oldest, then defender, 616 Stephen and then 838).

As a result of his premature arrival Kaecilius was still a Master of Kamar-Taj and finds Stephen’s motives in learning magic to mirror his (death of loved one/s) and attempts to become his mentor, but Tao assigns Mordo to him instead.

Kaecilius is angered that Tao is allowing another student to be led blindly into joining the league of sorcerers and attempts to pull Stephen onto his side with his Zealots. Stephen agrees with his cause, believing this was the way to get Donna back and joins the zealots for a short period of time, learning of Dormammu and the dark dimension.

Later on Kaecilius and the zealots overthrow Tao, and Stephen is forced to betray Kaecilius to fulfill his Hippocratic oath. Tao sees the good in Stephen and gives him the title of Sorcerer supreme before she dies.

Stephen was not ready to have the title, and thus he is assigned Wong, who aids him as a sort of mentor, ally and bodyguard to ensure he is led on the right path.

Stephen, Wong and Mordo put a stop to Kaecilus’ operations, but Mordo, enraged that Tao would so impulsively gave the title to Stephen, leaves Kamar-Taj.

A short break before we get into the 838 lore that’s directly important to the plot. This break is bought to you by….

Wong’s new physical form!

He looks like that because I like comic Wong and he deserves the world. Benedict Wong is a god I will worship forever till death, but comic Wong is my uncle. Because of the pre-existing lore with the Peters looking different I thought it would be reasonable to have this Wong be different too. Stephen also has a couple of Variants which differ from the uniquely molded alien shape of Benedict Cumberbatch. My variant from universe 001 is Vincent Price to pay respects to the likeness they pulled from the actor in the comics.

ANYWHO, BACK TO IT!

The forming of ‘The Illuminati’

Because 838 Stephen was Sorcerer Supreme earlier, the world was introduced to the sorcerer’s and mystic order a lot earlier, as Stephen’s personality won’t allow him to work from the shadows.

As a result he helped in the ‘Battle of New York’ (naturally since he lives in the sanctum), and became acquainted with the Avengers.

After the battle ended Tony, who became paranoid of out of the world threats, created ‘The Illuminati’, a secret group of people who could handle these threats with their differing abilities.

Now, I haven’t exactly pinned who is a part of the group and why, and it doesn’t really matter as only Tony needs to exist for the re-write plot, but so far I have Reed Richards, Tony Stark (a variant inspired by Superior Ironman), Professor X and Bruce Banner/Hulk.

Tony still creates Ultron, though the details of all that I haven’t bothered to come up with. All that matters is that Vision exists now. [^^>] Also Wanda is there. Yeah.

Infinity War / Endgame

Timeskip to Infinity War because this is where shit goes DOWN.

Thanos has come for the stones on earth, and the black order were sent as a warning. When The Avengers failed, The Illuminati banded together as planned and manage to deal with the order, leading to Thanos’ direct involvement.

Stephen attempts to use the book of Vishanti to find an answer to the crisis, but only finds tactics which involved sacrificing half the universe, or extremely dubious methods.

Naturally he turns to ✨Dark magic✨ instead. Because he, at one point, was a zealot, 838 Stephen is more drawn to the Dark Dimension as he knows the raw power it offers.

He devises a plan with Wong, telling him that he would create a pact with Dormammu, selling a small portion of his soul for a sum of power. After Thanos is dealt with, Wong will use the book of Vishanti to remove the darkness from him and hopefully restore his soul by breaking the pact. Wong, knowing Stephen will only turn to worse methods if he refused, agrees to this plan and leaves to find the book which the two built a waypoint to.

Stephen makes the pact successfully, arrives at the battle at the last minute, and absolutely obliterates the shit out of that grape.

Unfortunately the use of such raw power weakens his physical and spiritual bodies, meaning the energies he absorbed from Dormammu become volatile and uncontrollable. He, ironically, becomes the threat as bursts of dark magic explode out of him as he tries to contain it somehow.

Seeing the damage Stephen was causing, and thinking there to be no other way out, Tony kills Stephen. He does it swiftly, shooting him through the heart with a repulser blast.

Wong, who had retrieved the book of Vishanti, arrives to see Stephen hit the ground and draw his last breath.

The Illuminati take Stephen’s body, as a shocked Wong is unable to move. Believing it was the best thing to do they cover up Stephen’s outburst, creating a fabricated story of sacrifice to save his honor and public image.

The Illuminati disband after their conflicting opinions on Tony’s actions.

Kamar-Taj Post Endgame

Mordo, much like 616 Mordo, that’s begun a moral mission to wipe out the sorcerers. Believing the finite supply of earth’s magic is I rightfully being wasted on people who don’t deserve to wield it, he begins picking off previous students of Kamar-Taj, slowly working up his power and gaining a reputation for his actions.

Wong has taken up the duty as the Master of the New York Sanctum, but spends a lot of time at Kamar-Taj fortifying and ensuring the waypoint to the book of Vishanti is not opened by anyone else.

With the Sorcerer Supreme gone, many insist Wong take the mantle, but he refuses out of guilt (and a healthy dose of self depreciation). The mantle remains open.

Mordo, after years of collecting magic and slaying (yass) sorcerers, returns to Kamar-Taj after Stephen’s death to take the position of Sorcerer Supreme. He shows his strength by battling the forces of Kamar-Taj and overthrowing the battalions. Wong and the masters immediately have Kamar-Taj evacuated, as they know battle would be futile. They scatter to temples and safe houses around the world, leaving Mordo free to take the title of Sorcerer Supreme. He finds no use in staying at Kamar-Taj and moves into the New York Sanctum.

Wong remains at Kamar-Taj after collecting what he could from the (formerly his own) Sanctum. He protects the waypoint he and Stephen created knowing now more than ever that people would likely come looking for it.

This all happens a couple weeks after Stephen’s death/murder, so Wong is unable to contact the Illuminati or move against them. He doubts he could make a difference regardless, and hides in Kamar-Taj afraid of what the outside world is doing to Stephen’s reputation.

Christine

Because Stephen stopped being a doctor at a younger age he never really reached the peak of his arrogance because he never really became powerful enough. Thus his relationship with Christine went a lot better.

The Ancient One also teaches him to overcome his grief and guilt regarding Donna (much like 616 being taught to overcome his disability), as that’s the conflict that lead him to Kamar-Taj. Because he accepted that part of his life he was more open to letting people in and facing his fears of being loved or loving, thus he continues his relationship with Christine.

Even after becoming a sorcerer he keeps in touch with her, and the two remain in good terms. She is, of course, his emergency nurse when shit hits the fan.

After he becomes Sorcerer Supreme he teaches her some of the basics of magic in hopes it could help her to protect herself in the possibility that his mystic life put her in danger. He teaches her most about the relics, as some of them can be used regardless of wether you have magic knowledge or not

They were engaged at the time of his death.

One of the members of the Illuminati (maybe Reed?) tells her about the true story as to what happened to Stephen, believing it was morally wrong for her to think Stephen simply sacrificed himself. She feels betrayed that Stephen would turn to Dark magic so quickly despite being so against it, and is left conflicted about her feelings towards him. She cuts everything off and buries herself in her work.

Wong is too overwhelmed with the pressures at Kamar-Taj, and then the overthrowing of the mystic order to talk to her, and is too scared to leave Kamar-Taj, as well as being afraid of compromising Christine and getting her killed.

Christine contacts Tony, and starts developing tech based around the relics Stephen had given her to potentially stop another mystically dangerous event such as Stephen’s outburst from happening again. This includes holding chambers, magic absorbing handcuffs and restraints and other paraphernalia.

She comes in contact with Mordo who admires what she’s doing and allows her to use some of the more ‘useless’ relics around the New York Sanctum. She makes him a sword (which isn’t used in the re-write but appears in the og movie), and cements herself in Mordo’s good books, as he knows he can use this to continue his mission which Christine is not aware about.

She later branches out into Multiversal studies, and that’s where we find her when she appears in the re-write!

Wanda and Vision

Because Stephen killed Thanos Vision is still alive! Thus Wandavision never occurs and Wanda is doing very well.

They got married!!

Vision and Wanda are still both Avengers, and work with the variants of whoever I decide is a part of the Avengers in 838 (if I ever do), but prioritize a normal life and time together over missions.

Vision becomes aware of 616 Wanda’s dreamwalking because of his abilities with the soulstone, and is confused as to what could be happening to his wife.

Vision, not just 838 but as a concept, is a much bigger thing in my re-write. He was the soul reason why WandaVision happened, and I feel should be Wanda’s driving motivation. The children are not real, and even if they were they only exist because of Vision, thus he should be the priority.

Bits and bobs

Because Tony is alive, and half the universe didn’t disappear, 838 is far more technologically advanced than 616.

Every Sorcerer after becoming a Master of the Mystic arts gets a metallic armor piece to symbolize their ranking.

838 is a lot more experienced with magic just existing because there isn’t as big of an effort to hide the sorcerers after Stephen’s debut in the Battle of New York.

Wong 💚

Thought it was interesting to have Tony kill 838 Stephen, because it’s a vice versa to 616 and offers our Stephen a look into a possible universe where HE was the one that died. Again, his guilt regarding Infinity war/ Endgame is a huge thing in this so I thought it would be fun to add some flavor with this.

Also, wether Tony is an RDJ Tony or not is undecided. Obviously it doesn’t matter because it’s never going to be made into a movie where actual critics will blast me for disrespectfully recasting RDJ after Tony’s death, but sometimes I like to think it through as if I really am a director (and the whole team). I think that the existence of a multiverse leads to a widow where we can look at different aspects of a character that couldn’t be shown in a linear storyline, so that’s how I (unnecessarily) justify the existence of this Tony variant.

Although his suit is inspired by Superior Ironman, Tony is in no way as malicious or evil as he is. He’s only inspired by him, he isn’t the character directly. He may have some of the qualities, but nowhere near enough to be considered evil or even bad.

Well, that hurt my head to write out. I hope it doesn’t hurt yours when you read it!

Asks are always welcome, as well as pointing out any plot holes you may see. The rewrite is all planned out solely by me, and thus I know I would’ve overlooked some parts that may be glaringly obvious, so please shout them at me!

If you read through all of that, first of all “wow”, second of all thank you *firmly shakes your hand*.

Thanks for your time! Laters!

#doctor strange #stephen strange #karl mordo #wong #wongrange #wongstrange #palmerstrange #doctor strange multiverse of madness #multiverse of madness #momstinkycut

[nonuggetshere]

do the variants have official names or do we get to think of one?

So that greatly depends on how much has changed from the main, canon timeline. If it's like, "everything's the same but Flower's kids are born earlier in the story" or "Everything's the same except y happens instead of x", or any other small deviations stay under the "Fragile as a Flower" umbrella. These tiny branches just kind of...loosely cling to the main, canon timeline.

Most of the main, big variants are already named, save for I think two?

Here are all of the current main branches, aside from the main canon, with rough descriptions of them (the two unnamed ones are at the top, so you don't have to scroll too much);

Unnamed variant nr 1

A young fire ant named Bullet Redwood is made a knight and joins the pale court. He's the youngest son of the ant queen of an ant colony residing near Hallownest (a fan-made tribe, if you will) and was given to them as a knight as part of the peace treaty, so he's immediately filled in on the vessel plan. Not liking how the Pure Vessel is treated, he refuses to treat them like an object and instead treats them kindly, like a fellow human on the same level as him.

Whole Flower was treated kindly by the knights and their parents, nobody ever treated them like their equal before, which intrigues them. This kindness, his charming personality and good looks makes them ever so slowly start crushing on him.

At some point, Bullet finds out about their sentience (the way how it happens isn't ironed out yet) and the two of them actually become friends. Flower's feelings to him only grow and it quickly spirals into the two of them falling head over heels for one another.

They start dating in secret, even being bold enough to sneak around the palace itself to meet.

It's got two variants. One, Pale King finds out they're sentient after he walks in ok these two being Very Fruity. Two, the two of them run away together.

Unnamed idea nr 2 (working title is Wyrm Instincts)

A young wyrm crashes near Hallownest on his travels and sets up a temporary den. They had long ago shed their bigger form similarly to PK, after getting into a battle and nearly dying.

Pale King is very agitated by a rival wyrm's presence near his territory and tries repeatedly to drive out the youngling, but he's not as young as he once was and the little cunt's faster and more agile than he is. He sends the Pure Vessel to patrol the borders after they've proven themself in being able to beat the young wyrm in battle, she eventually leaves and he thinks nothing much of it.

Until months later, the Pure Vessel doesn't show up to training on time and when he goes to check on them he finds them curled up next to a newborn wyrmling.

Naturally furious, he wants to set off to find that young wyrm, only for Flower to out their sentience when they stand in his way.

He still goes to find her, only to be handed yet another baby and basically told "yeah life's a bitch out here, I can't take care of them, good luck though lol". So he returns to Hallownest with one more grandbaby and hands them over to Flower before immediately going to brainstorm a new idea on how to stop the infection.

Flower still wants to help and preferably be sealed, but after he refuses they come to an agreement that Flower could take over his kingly duties while he fully focuses on his work. White Lady takes care of the kids.

But because literally everybody under the sun despises Flower for deceiving them their job is anything but easy and they're incredibly stressed and this close 👌 to having a breakdown.

Pale Knight

Flower runs away from Hallownest sometime after the reveal of their sentience. They got fed up with their treatment post-reveal and ditch everything, accompanied by their lovers, friends, some of Lummis' family and Hornet. They eventually stumble onto some other vessels who join them on their travels.

Since they are a god, they inadvertently gain a small following of their own. They gain a reputation for helping people in need and generally being a kind God, which leads to people wanting to worship them, much to Flower's dismay. They eventually accept their role as a God and allow some people, mostly ones who need help and don't have anywhere else to go, to join them. They eventually accept the role of this new small group's leader.

They're a nomadic group, travelling from settlement to settlement, and Flower eventually becomes known as the Pale Knight, a young God known for helping those in need. The rumours of them do eventually reach Hallownest, but Pale King doesn't think much of it, just another young pale higher being making a name for themself, he assumed.

They eventually deal with The Radiance (she's the god of dreams, they don't exactly need to be in Hallownest to reach her) and Ghost ascends into godhood in the process as well.

Eventually, they return to Hallownest, to help their father after they heard the old king is dying of void poisoning.

Wayward Royals

I posted plenty about this one, but to summarise; the royal couple leaves with a small entourage and with Pure Vessel to another kingdom for a political meeting. Their trip goes badly when they get ambushed, separated from their entourage and in the process of saving their father, Flower outs themself as not being hollow.

After they're turned around and get completely lost, the three of them spend a whole year and a half trying to get back to Hallownest, and form an actual parent-child bond along the way.

Sealed Flower

Flower never panics during the knighting and the sealing goes as planned. Hornet delivers the letter they wrote for their partners to them and then tries to tell Pale King the truth as planned, but he refuses to listen.

Has two variants, one where they kill Radiance, ascend as a God and break themself out after five years (and as they reached out to the Lord of Shades for help, they have a weird Venom-like thing going on with that guy now).

And the other variant, where it roughly follows canon game timeline of the Embrace The Void ending except Broken Vessel and Greenpath Vessel are alive and well and help Ghost, and so are all five of the great knights and the Pale King (the latter is trapped in the dream realm in his palace).

Numb Flower

Instead of trying to appease their parents over and over again, instead of eventually growing resentful and angry towards them, Flower just... Gives up. They embrace the role of the servant, and stop seeing the two as their parents, and keep a strictly professional relationship with them. Shortly after that, the two realise the error of their ways, but it's a bit too late for that at that point.

Flower actually requests to move to the servant quarters, and when they're denied they get the help of the few guards and staff they got friendly with and move there anyway. Pale King storms in the next day to argue with them about it, and inadvertently spills the fact that they are his child in front of the staff.

Grimm's Dirge

Flower is the child of Grimm and the Pale King, a result of the nightmare God's brief fling with the royal couple of Hallownest. He was going to hand Flower and their twin over to PK and WL, only to find out about the vessel plan and immediately change his mind, deciding to raise the twins on his own.

Flower's town eventually dies after the two snuck out into one of the many fallen kingdoms they've visited and Grimm doesn't take it well. Following their death, Flower becomes very reclusive and these issues drag on well into their adulthood. Despite being very talented in many ways, they've never performed with the rest of the troupe thanks to their debilitating social anxiety.

Meanwhile in Hallownest, the Pure Vessel - Ghost - is found out to not be hollow. They leave with their sister Hornet to find a different solution to the infection, and track down Grimm to ask for help. While he refuses his help, Flower heard their conversation, realises they're family and later that day sneaks out to find them and offer their help instead. Their younger sibling, Scorch (Grimmchild), also tags along.

Grimm, who's become overprotective over Flower following their twin's death, does not take it well.

Haven't ironed out the ending yet but I think it'd be funny if Flower stops Radiance from killing Ghost and she just halts everything in the sheer bewilderment of her brother having a child with the wyrm.

Everything's Alright

Pale King and the Radiance manage to work out an alliance early into the problem, so the whole infection bullshit doesn't happen. Flower and their siblings get to live normal, un-voided lives. Mostly focuses on family drama because Pale King Is Not A Good Parent. Radiance and Grimm are their cool/weird aunt and uncle.

Survivors

Classic FaaF except includes all of my friend's (@bluethepearldiver ) many, many vessel ocs. Is its own separate AU because balancing this many characters regularly got way too overwhelming. They still exist in the classic FaaF timeline, they all just become Norel's victims and die to his experiments.

This AU has its own sub-AUs:

Hollow Squad - All 30+ vessels make their way to the top. Pale King changes his plans from sealing the Radiance to murdering her with his own little army of babies. Flower/The Hollow Knight was picked as the best of them and specifically trained to be their leader, with Blue's oc Bitter as the backup/second-in-command.

Hollow Not Squad - After being taken from the Abyss, Flower comes back crying and scratching at the door. They're found there by the king, and after realising they're not hollow he ventures down into the abyss to find any other surviving vessels that might be down there.

Can You Hear Me?

A year or two before the sealing, another vessel is found when the Pale King travels to another kingdom to discuss an alliance and finds his daughter as the queen consort. Afterwards, he decides to search for any other surviving vessels, finding more and more of his children. Each of then not hollow, and each of them acting weird around the Pure Vessel. Eventually, that leads to him suspecting them of not being hollow either.

It eventually gets out that his suspicions were connect, when they finally find Ghost and the two are just too excited to be reunited for Flower to stop themself from breaking the persona they've built up for themself.

Named after what PK says to them when he tries to talk to them to see if they are hollow or not.

It also comes with the Survivors variant, where a lot more vessels are alive.

Found Out Early

A few variations of scenarios where Flower is found out to not be hollow early in life, either as a kid, pre-teen or teen. They get to live a fairly normal life.

The following are more of a setting-switch AUs, but roughly follow the main FaaF timeline, with some obvious changes to fit the setting:

Demon AU

Radiance is an angel, Pale King is literally the devil, and Flower is the antichrist created to destroy the winged menace plaguing the mortals and Pale King's people. After being found out to not be hollow they run away to Earth where they meet Petunia and Lummis.

Dragon AU

Medieval setting where the higher beings are dragons. Pale King and Radiance fight over their "hoards" aka kingdoms. Everything else stays roughly the same.

Modern AU

Normal, modern Earth setting except gods still exist and live like Just Some Guys because I find that entertaining. Hallownest once existed and Pale King and Radiance warred over it, but it's far in the past now and neither of them gives a fuck anymore.

Has two variants; One where the vessel plan was involved in their war over Hallownest but now PV and their siblings just get to live normal lives. And one where that plan never existed and PK and WL just have normal children, except the eldest two were born premature and sick and after one of them died Pale King went and made a deal with his old pal Shade Lord to save the last one, which means Flower gets to be made of void still and their twin is a shade now.

PK is part of the HOA

#asks #thylacines can talk #faaf au #wayward royals au #pale knight au #swaled flower au #grimm's dirge au #numb flower au #demon au #dragon au #modern au #jesus christ theres so many #survivors au #cyhm au #hollow squad au #hollow not squad au #WHY IS THERE SO MANY