#maybe even an option to suggest they're looking for a way to use their connection to him to USURP him? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

concoctionboy · 1 year

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Still exploring the chambers under the mysterious tower east of @kingwizard's castle Lofiathan, and at @smg34-shipper's suggestion I just went through the door with the sound of running water on the other side. Here's a map of this floor so far; I just entered the room on the upper left:

Okay, there's one thing about this room that seems important enough that I should maybe mention it up top: there is somebody in it. But they're facing away from me and I don't think they know I'm here, so I don't think there's a need to panic just yet.

Anyway, this room at first glance looks like a natural cave, except that at second glance it's all artificial and all the stalagmites and stalactites are just made of masonwork and carved to look like stalagmites and stalactites, which seems like a lot of effort to go to for not much reason. Okay, that's kind of mean; it actually does look kind of neat. It's pretty obvious where the sound of running water is coming from; there are several connected pools of water of varying sizes in the room, and right next to the door I came in through is a waterfall coming from the floor above. Near the other side of the room there's also a kind of a whirlpool I guess where water is falling down to the level below.

And there's a person sitting in a pool in the middle of the room. The water is up to their waist. Like I said, they have their back to me, but at least from the back they look human, except that their skin is purple and their hair is kind of a metallic blue. I can move pretty quietly, and with all the noise the waterfall is making I could probably get closer to them without them noticing me as long as they don't happen to turn around. I might be able to get right up behind them without them noticing me, but that's risky.

Actually, I haven't seen them move at all yet. Maybe it's not a living person; maybe it's just a statue. Although the skeleton in the skull room wasn't moving at first either, and look what happened there.

Anyway, besides the pools and the purple person other significant features in the room include a shelf with a bunch of bottles on it against the outer wall, and some pegs on the inner wall. I'd guess the pegs are for people to hang their clothes on when they're using the pools, except there's nothing hanging on them right now, so I don't know where the clothes are of the person currently in the pool. (They're not wearing anything from the waist up at least, though from here I can't tell for sure if they're wearing anything below the waterline.) Neither the pegs nor the bottles are directly in the eyeline of the person in the pool, though if I get close to either of them there's a chance they might notice me in their peripheral vision.

There's a wooden door on the opposite wall, but the person in the pool is facing that way so unless they're asleep or something I don't think there's any way I could get to it without being seen. I guess I could make a break for it and hope to get to it before they react, or maybe I could just… collapse myself into a thin layer of liquid and gradually seep across the floor and hope they don't notice that. But both of those options seem like they would be really risky. I could also exit the room through the whirlpool, I guess. Again, there's a chance the person in the pool might see me in their peripheral vision, but even if they do I don't think they could follow me that way, though I guess there's a danger they might raise the alarm.

(Actually, come to think of it, since I've already been seen by the skeleton, maybe the alarm's already been raised and it might be about time to cut this exploration short and go back to Lofiathan. Then again, I guess if there'd been a general alarm raised this person probably wouldn't just be sitting calmly in the pool like that, so maybe there's not too much danger yet.)

So, any suggestions as to what I should do next?

Retreat back into the northern room before I'm noticed

Take a closer look at the waterfall

Stealthily approach the person in the pool to get a closer look

Call out to the person in the pool and hope they're friendly (I mean, this seems really risky, but at this point almost anything I could do in this room seems risky)

Examine the pegs (and hope I'm not noticed)

Examine the bottles (and hope I'm not noticed)

Make a break for the wooden door

Seep slowly toward the wooden door

Dive into the whirlpool

Something else?

#wizardposting #wizard posting #potionposting #potion posting #exploration #map #slimeposting

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leggerefiore · 5 months

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Cyrus meeting his subordinates ancestors would be really funny

I kinda wrote that in my Cyrus in Hisui fic! I mostly think they're like infatuated with him (it's genetic or something). At least, I feel like Arezu would probably start getting a crush on him like Mars clearly has. They are pretty similar minus the whole. being evil kinda thing with Mars. Here's some general thoughts.

Arezu thinks he seems like a cool guy with a mysterious aura and desperately, so desperately, wants to style his hair. (He says no.) He probably honestly thinks she's just Mars and gets confused why she's acting like she doesn't know him. Unfortunately, due to her seeing Dialga as a god, she probably isn't as susceptible to being initiated into Team Galactic. That doesn't mean it's impossible, however. Adaman would probably have to stop her. One cult to the next, it seems.

Coin is... different. She and Saturn obviously share certain traits with being overconfident and a bit easily annoyed, but they are pretty far from each other. Coin probably immediately dislikes Cyrus because he looks like Cyllene and thinks he seems full of himself. Yet, much like her descendant, she might be swayed by his grander ideals and not being some kind of "goody-two shoes" as she called Irida. Though, just like Saturn, she probably won't know the full extent of what it entails. She definitely ends up a bit enamoured with him as Saturn was in that, though.

Whoever Jupiter's ancestor might be is truly a mystery. One option may be Melli due to a connect with sort of similar hair and a favouritism towards Skuntank, but another is her being descended from a female Security Corps member due to how much their design seemingly favours her own. Whoever they are, they probably instantly are drawn to him for his strange feeling of authority. Maybe their suggestion for a new, perfect world interests them. Of course, it's hard to say with no idea of who it could be.

Charon's ancestor... Choy... Well, he clearly doesn't really have any of the similar drive to make a name for himself or take over Galsctic, but he probably would find Cyrus interesting nonetheless. A strange person with strange ideals and an eerie similarity to the Captain of the Survey Corps. He's a shopkeeper with little reason to focus too much on him, however. Though, he does note how Cyrus stares at him curiously without saying anything. Choy wonders what he's thinking. He will probably never know. They don't really click since Charon and Cyrus don't really click and only did because Charon wanted to use Cyrus.

Not a subordinate, but Volo and Cyrus are water and oil towards each other. No matter how similar their plans ultimately are and how they parallel one another, they ultimately despise each other. Volo thinks Cyrus's plans are dumb. Removing spirit? This guy has issues that he won't allow him to get in his way. Cyrus dislikes Volo because of his already distaste towards Cynthia and then even more when he finds out Volo intends to do what he does. Do not put them in a room together. They will kill each other.

#cyrus.ima #pokemon.ima

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willel · 5 months

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WillEl + Henry's Connections

A week or so ago I ran a poll to see how other people felt about Will's connection to all this. Here are the results:

Seems like most of you are on the same page as me. For a while the "it was planned before the gate opened" was winning and that kinda surprised me. The result is still pretty close too.

With the release of the play, it gave me more thoughts about this. I won't be going into detail about the play but if you're still avoiding any details about it, you can skip this post.

Generally, the play revealed to us that this Upside Down thing has been going on for a while. Not just that, but the Mind Flayer has been playing a long game with Henry as his main pawn.

I'm not really sure what they're intending to say about Henry's involvement in all this, but I personally view it this way: The Mind Flayer heavily influenced Henry's mind leading up to him killing his family. There was a turning point where he could've overcome the Mind Flayer, but he gave into the urges and hasn't looked back since. Right now, Henry and the Mind Flayer are of one mind and body. Maybe that will change in the future, but as Vecna, I think this is pretty obvious.

That leads me to El's place in all this. We're told in the play that he, in a round about way, is the source of the rest of the kid's powers. His blood in particular is special and by injecting pregnant women with it, they will also gain power.

I'm on the fence about this as well, as I still believe powers can exist out in the wild, just nothing as ridiculously strong as Henry, El, or the rest of the children.

Anyway, Henry saw something in El that I guess he didn't see in the rest of the children. It brings me to wonder, was it Henry that saw something in El, or was it the Mind Flayer?

My idea is that: Henry and the Mind Flayer had entirely different goals but El was key to both of them. In El, Henry saw her potential and wished for her companionship to "reshape" the world to their liking. Was it her potential power? Was it her status as an outcast like him? Was it her creativity that couldn't be stifled by the sterile environment? (we haven't seen too much of El's art but I'm convinced she's a crafty gal)

In El, the Mind Flayer could maybe detect her sleeping power to tear holes between the realms. This is key to the Mind Flayer taking over our world and killing everyone after all.

Whether El lived or died, Henry and the Mind Flayer needed her and they eventually got what they wanted. A way to open the gates. A way to destroy/reshape the world to their liking.

And so, this brings me to Will. How does Will fit in all this? There are so many questions surrounding his kidnapping and possession so let's revisit them again one by one.

Pre-gate opening 1979: So here's the thing. Leading up to El opening the gate in 1983, I feel like we're lead to believe Henry (and the Mind Flayer) were completely cut off from the real world. No scanning or peeking in or anything. Just trapped in an alternate dimension. Eternal solitude. Enough to drive a mad man even madder.

Then when El accidentally opened the mother gate in 1983, I feel as though Hawkins changed forever. Even after the gate closed, I think the Mind Flayer and Henry could now see into the real world whether a gate was open or not. The ending of season 2 with the Mind Flayer overlooking Hawkins Middle School seems to support this.

HOWEVER, the play suggests the Mind Flayer could always peer into the real world and influence people. Specifically, despite there being no open gates, "possessed" Henry did not die and could be influenced and controlled from the other side.

So, this makes both the top poll options potentially true.

Maybe before the mother gate opened in 1983, the Mind Flayer already knew about Will and was waiting for a chance to kidnap him? The question would be WHY though?

The second option is Will wasn't in the picture until after the mother gate opened and he either became a target right as he left the Wheeler's home or right when he met the demogorgon face to face in the street. The question would still be WHY though.

My guess as to why? I believe leading up to Will's kidnapping, El was still the desired target. They had one gate open sure, but that would be suboptimal for a whole army. El's power to open gates was even more critical to obtain now that they could physically reach her again.

But it's not a good idea to pull all your eggs in one basket right? Maybe like Henry way back in 1950 something, Will as a person made an excellent puppet? His personality, his disposition, his emotional history and social outcastiness made him a perfect Henry sympathizer.

By that I don't mean Will is a Henry fan, but more that due to their similarities, someone like Will would be easy for someone like Henry to project onto. Possibly literally.

But that can't be it, right? We saw in season 3 that the Mind Flayer could pretty much possess and use anyone he wanted? I mean, he killed all those people to make the Meat Flesher but he didn't HAVE to do that. Or did he? Can only some people handle being possessed by the Mind Flayer? Is there some kind of special fortitude needed to make one a viable host?

The show writers have hinted out and outright stated that Will will play a big role next season, but if Will was nothing but a host, then why would that be?

There must be something about Will that puts as big of a target on his back as El. There must be something deeper in that brain of his that has Vecna and the Mind Flayer still chasing after him all these years later.

They're on the verge of winning and have a whole army ready to go... but for some reason Will is near the center of this conflict and may play a big role in this?

So yes. Those are my thoughts on the matter. Feel free to chime in if you like.

To summarize, I think El is/was their ideal candidate to help destroy/take over the world, but El is a sweet bean despite all the hardship she went through. Henry and the Mind Flayer created their own worst enemy.

Will is like their secondary candidate or something. They've either done something to him or still need him for something and that something is the big secret of all this. If they needed El to open the gate, then they needed Will for something else and who knows that that "something else" is.

#stranger things #will byers #el hopper #willel #henry creel #theory

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28whitepeonies · 11 months

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Xander's dad had a friend who was a photographer and he ran a blog called Philly Chats. It was partly about Philly in general but he would also post a lot about Harry and Xander. He posted photos of them together, or Harry out and about in Philly, and sightings. He had an instagram page too and answered fans on it. He never said that they were in a relationship but imo he talked in a way that suggested they were like mentioning romantic dates, sleepovers, meeting parents, sharing clothes, jewelry etc. He wasn't the only one who did this because there were several others connected to Xander who also pushed the Xarry thing including his brother Max. So that is what made me think it was fan service because for what other reason would they do that? Unless they were looking for attention from Harry's fans and went about it in a creative way lol. I understand why Brad wiped his IG but not why most of his instastories are about Harry. Like clockwork, he posts a pic at a location and then we get pics the next day of Harry having been there. So now fans have connected the dots that Harry is everywhere Brad is. Other things like sharing clothes. The yacht pics of them in Australia. The backstage Brits pic where Brad was beside Harry but the rest of his team were at the back. The matching tattoos which the media brings up. Fan vids of Harry with Brad in the background, fan accounts of meeting Harry and Brad being there too. Pap pics, sneaky fan pics. I really doubt Harry and Brad are together all the time so why do they make it seem like it? Again, I don't think they're in a relationship but I thought maybe it was to keep fans speculating. But I 100% agree with you that they panicked when the tabloids picked it up. After that we didn't see Brad for like a week. But now we're seeing him again and the media does tend to post fan chatter. So I'm curious how they're going to manage this lol. Maybe they'll have Brad post a pic with a girlfriend, it's probably the only way. Sorry this is so long but am interested in your thoughts!

Okay I think maybe the issue here is just a fundamental difference in how we look at celebs and relationships.

My starting point generally when it comes to friends/family of celebs is this - people share about all sorts of parts of their lives and that might include their famous friends. I’m not sure how useful it is to get into specifics but let’s imagine that I was right and Brad doesn’t want to share his personal life now that he is under more fan scrutiny but he does like to share bits of his life on social media, especially if he’s doing a job that’s interesting/fun/prolific - why would there have to be a wider agenda? Maybe staff on LOT are encouraged to post about the tour also? I’ve worked in jobs where a social media presence has been encouraged and in jobs where it’s highly restricted.

Some of this I just don’t agree with also, like the matching tattoos thing I think is a bit mad to try and make work, sharing clothes like don’t you share clothes with your friends? My pal was here for the weekend and wore my hoodie out for the day, we’re not dating.

You said you really doubt that Harry and Brad are together all the time, but I don’t think that’s up for debate here bc I agree, I do think that they’re together a lot while Harry is on tour. There could be many reasons for it - I do think him being someone Harry enjoys being around or is doing his job is a valid enough option.

I’m also not familiar enough with the Philly chats content to comment on how things were framed, you can defo send me some if you have it, but I’m pretty confident in what my position will be.

I think Philly Chats was maybe trying to raise its profile by maximising the connections he had. I also think it’s a bit of a stretch to think that Xanders dad’s friend who runs a public blog would be posting about his friends son’s famous boyfriend or would even know about any relationship they had beyond ‘they know eachother’.

I’m not sure I think they need to do anything else just now - I think the bradrry rumours have died down a bit. I also don’t think it’s likely at all that Brad having a girlfriend would be related to this, the issue is not Brad but speculation about Harry’s sexuality - the obvious response would be for Harry to continue to perform heterosexuality.

#anon #I could be wrong about any of this #I could definitely be wrong about Harry and Brads relationship #but I think it’s far more likely fans are overemphasing a lot of this

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firstginger · 2 years

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hi there! if you are still doing daemon form finding, i wonder if you could help me? i've taken the test so many times and somehow it feels as if it never fully encompasses me, you know? perhaps a lack of self-awareness could also be at fault, ha. i’m a intj, 8w9 & slytherin. on the aura quiz, crimson. deeply passionate, intuitive, really love forming connections and am incredibly good at understanding others (which if kind of funny considering it in no ways apply to me), but a bit ferocious.

ooo an INTJ 8, no wonder you're having difficulty finding a form! very take charge, independent, and ambitious, you're definitely going to be looking at something perceptive and ferocious.

i feel like i've been suggesting birds of prey a lot, but i do think they'd be an apt pick for you. species that match the INTJ's ingenuity and drive for efficiency would be most fitting, maybe along the lines of falcons? falcons are decisive, assertive, and capable; they can be shrewd and cutthroat, and they process things in a detail-oriented and logical fashion. they have high standards for their projects as well as others and they don't sugarcoat things — they know how to get what they want, so while i do think they are capable of being intuitive considering how loyal they are, they are likely pretty critical and honest most of the time. i've been picking through the falco genus and there's quite a few options. kestrels and hobbies seem like they would fit you really well, though i was really drawn to the sooty falcon for you as it displays some strong inventiveness and cooperative in its hunting. the aplomado falcon is also an incredibly admirable bird and frequently used for hunting if you're someone who really prides yourself on your intensity and observational skills.

aside from falcons, large owls might actually be a pretty good fit for you, ones that are apex predators. the snowy owl, great-horned owl, and eurasian eagle-owl are great starting places. the owl form is going to be more enduring and privately confident than the falcon, perhaps more defensive than straight up assertive. this isn't to say they aren't extremely hardy, ambitious, and determined people. they also have a high sense of loyalty to both their loved ones and their routines and will tend to be less adaptable and spontaneous. they'd also be less cooperative as well, though still quite intuitive and inclined to follow a pattern once they suss out all the options and find something that works for them. the powerful owl is also a pretty cool form that's a little more bold and purposeful.

heading into mammals, my first thought was a territorial bear species like the polar bear. they're internal and hardy, though also known to be a rather inquisitive and playful animal. while independent and preferring not to be tied down, they're socially aware and the types of people happy with just one or two close friendships that endure over their lifetime. the polar bear's unique biome makes this form exceptionally inventive, efficient, and competitive. it therefore follows that the polar bear soul is going to be similar: shrewd and ruthless when it comes to taking up space and achieving their needs. one caveat is that bear forms tend to be more on the unambitious and lazy side; even for the polar bear, they're going to live according to their own schedule and tend to have an inconsistent work ethic. you i also might consider a more urban wild cat like the cougar, who would be an exceptionally confident and adaptable individual. very driven and perceptive, though as a wild cat tends to be pretty self-focused and guarded.

and finally i wonder if you'd gravitate at all towards reptiles? reptiles are pretty much the classic INTJ 8/9 for me, especially crocodilians. they're actually fairly tolerant socially, and while not the most affectionate, they tend to be loosely loyal and surround themselves with people they know have similar values or at the very least don't irritate them. reptile forms are going to be highly, highly perceptive. they may come across as less individualistic, but it's mainly because they prefer to assess situations before they take action. they're cunning and capable of being manipulative; crocodilians in particular are very assertive, though they're logical people and careful about expending their energy. off the cuff, the american alligator seems like it could fit you. socially they're pretty chill and tolerant, even loyal with those they've come to appreciate, though they very readily will communicate their thoughts and boundaries to others. they're extremely passionate at heart, even if they tend to have more of an inexpressive, unapproachable reputation — they like being able to succeed in any environment, and while their work ethic is more of the "slow and steady" kind of style, they're highly persistent and inventive. the nile crocodile could also work if you're more ambitious and determined, as well as willing to be cooperative. caimans are also a great option as they're independent but highly intuitive, respectful, and observant.

hope this helps! :)

#form finding #daemonism #hdm

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dreamingdixon · 1 year

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Hello, I know this is a bit of a weird ask and you absolutely don’t need to answer under any means but I’ve been really struggling with some writers block, so I thought I’d send an ask just for the sake of it! I really adore your writing and you’re so so creative so I thought you’d be one of the best people to ask.

I’m basically doing a fic/book (only for myself at the moment but I might consider posting it) which follows the TWD episodes/seasons somewhat as they are, but with an added OC who becomes a romantic but turbulent “thing” with Daryl in late season 2/early season 3. I have been really struggling with the infamous Daryl and Beth scenes when they're on their on the run, and I could just use some unbiased advice! I don't know whether to rewrite it to have it be a time for OC and Daryl to bond by themselves, maybe become official, whether it should be Daryl, Beth and OC somehow or whether it should just be Daryl and Beth still? I still want Beth's death to impact Daryl in some way, but l'm trying to figure out how to do that without those scenes being there, so that I can instead use them to solidify Daryl and OCs relationship situation. You absolutely don't have to answer, but I've been suffering from such heavy writers block due to this, so I thought I'd ask considering you have an amazing talent for writing and I love your blog. xx

Hey anon!

Thank you sm for thinking of me and bringing your question to me, that's literally such a compliment that you think I'd be able to help - I'm grateful!!

You have so many options here it's insane, so here are my thoughts:

I'd personally probably write Beth out of it for that time, have her escape w some of the others for OC to have time with Daryl like you suggested, it's such a good time for them to get to know each other, form a connection and you could really bring some deep conversations to light by a blazing fire, maybe even some healing depending on what their relationship is like. Maybe they fight because of the stress and the loss they're both feeling. Maybe Daryl's worried about Beth (she's young and he's not sure if she got out, or who with) or another character, and OC and Daryl only take shelter for a night or two before heading out again to search for lost friends, and during this time they get to understand each other better and take care of one another. Maybe your OC loses someone close during the fall, and Daryl's as caring as he can be during this time, despite still being fairly rough around the edges during S2/S3.

There's also so many options to keep Beth there - maybe Beth gets hurt as the three of you escape, and you and Daryl take it in turns to look after her, and it's so hard because it's a reminder of how dangerous this world is and how unpredictable everything is, that you find comfort in each other in between shifts of taking care of a sick Beth. You're so exhausted from running around, looking for supplies that one night you end up in his arms by the fire because you're so tired and you can't do it anymore, but he reminds you that you can, that you're keeping Beth alive and he admires you for it. Maybe OC got hurt, and it's how Daryl realises there's some affection growing for you, but he doesn't quite realize it yet, he doesn't understand why seeing you hurting makes him ache.

I realize I probably haven't helped you actually narrow down an idea here, and I'm so sorry! Hopefully there's some sort of plot here that stands out, or gets an idea into your mind. The fun thing about what you're doing, is that you can truly do whatever you want with it! Stretch out the timeline if you need to, add a character, add a death, re-write it so someone doesn't die, add a whole new character to the group etc! You could add extra content to their prison or farm era, showing some additional time spent between them to add depth to their relationship, to add to the impact it has on Daryl when she does die.

You're literally so welcome to message me off-anon and I'd help you brainstorm a bit more too if you'd like, or just narrow something down. Writers block is such a pain and I completely understand, I've been staring at the same page of my current story for two weeks just waiting for it to write itself, big yikes

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tarot-and-stuff · 7 months

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Hi (⁠•⁠‿⁠•⁠). Can I have a general love reading for the last couple of months of this year? -MG♑. Thank u. I think your cards look cool.

Hi! Thank you! I went ahead and used a new tarot deck that I just got for my birthday (cause I wanted to mess around with it a bit more lol). If there's a certain deck that you want me to use, feel free to let me know (if you ever want another reading).

Tarot

I figured I'd do a 3-card spread (plus the bottom card) for this with the main 3 each representing a month (October, November, & December - I figured it wasn't worth including the remainder of September since the month is almost over) and the bottom representing overall for the rest of the year.

The first card to come out was the 10 of Sea, which is basically the 10 of Cups in this deck. This suggests things going well with you and people around you. You may be spending time with family and/close friends in October.

The second card to come out was the 8 of Earth, which is basically the 8 of Pentacles in this deck. This is associated with routine and improving your skills in an area. I feel like this suggests that you'll be focused mainly on finances (or growing on a certain skill) during November. You might be busier at this time with work since holidays and all that, maybe even a seasonal job or something. With this being focused on love, maybe you could meet someone at work, but I feel like it basically says that you'll be preoccupied with other things during November.

The third card to come out was the Sea Tom, which is basically the Knight of Cups in this deck. This card can be associated with a Prince Charming type individual/someone who is romantic and they can be creative. I feel like you may meet this person towards the end of December.

Under the deck was the 4 of Sea, which is basically the 4 of Cups in this deck. This card suggests that you're generally disinterested in the options that are available to you. With this being the overall for the rest of the year, I feel like that Knight of Cups person shows up when the year is almost over.

Oracle

The first oracle card to fall out was New Love - A New Person Has Stirred Your Romantic Interests. I feel like this refers to that Sea Tom/Knight Of Cups. Basically though, someone manages to catch your attention and break you out of the 4 of Cups/Sea place that you're at.

The second card to fall out was Attraction - You Attract Romantic Love By Enjoying This Moment Fully. This card fell out with New Love. Basically, by feeling joy/positive emotions that helps draw in positive relationship vibes.

The third card to fall out was Children - Your Love Life Is Being Affected By Children. I feel like this card could be interpreted a few ways. The first being that this new person has a child (or children). You could have a child (or children), but I don't really get that impression. The other option being that the subject of children/wanting children could play a role (like one of you wants to have children in the future and the other doesn't). I personally feel like the most likely one is them having a child.

From the top of the deck you got Romantic Feelings - Your Feelings Are Real And Worth Exploring. Basically, I feel like this is encouragement for you to explore this connection with this Knight of Cups person, since it does seem like you will have feelings for them. This doesn't necessarily mean that they're 'the one', but it does seem like they have potential.

Pic

#mg #mg♑#anonymous #tarot reading #mystical cats tarot #romance angels oracle deck #10 of cups #8 of pentacles #knight of cups #4 of cups

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darlingpwease · 10 months

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(・・ ) ? Is that what you think?? 🤨🤨 Oh does it now?? /t a h,, I'd die again hhfksj It's weird cuz usually, the first few times I flirt back,, but I'm only used to it as something that happens rarely and stops after going back and forth a few times,, I'm not used to this kinda stuff often, so I now hide :'// I'm tormenting you?! Are you sure it's not the other way around?? So I'm not one then? Cool, I'm glad we're on the same page when the gaslighting is not included <33

Please lay off the blood diet really quick <//33 We can really talk this out!! Oh?? Hehe well I hope that those battles are intriguing~~☆ (,,¬ ¬ ,,)

Oh it is, is it?? I think it's both, honestly lol

I am proud to say that not only am I not a biorobot, but I humor does give intimacy too, so it seems to be very good and they can stay <33 /t

I know ice cream cake..? A waffle cake actually doesn't sound/look too bad, tbh.. same with napoleon cake, they don't look super sweet but to be fair, I could be completely off lol If it makes you feel any better, me too but thats besides the point <33

Because maybe thats what's happening?? 🤨🤨 I am innocent Dove :(( Maybe, but we will never know~ My favorite painting is "Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast" :DD I first saw it in art class a few years ago, and I just fell in love with it right away <33

/┬┴┬┴┤ (x_├┬┴┬ [Crime Scene because you KILLED ME AGAIN]

/Maybe, but that's for me to know 😌 However please be nice, at least sometimes <33 /t /j

-panna cotta

'uwu owo nooooo it's not like that!!!' of course, waffle cake, I'm sure that everyone is watching you tremble like a wet puppy with huge frightened eyes and thinking "oh my God, open the window let him breathe in, he doesn't seem to be breathing" /t /j /nsrs yes... so I will continue to use it<333 oh? are you suggesting I stop praising you?... I'm afraid you can't stand the constant teasing and bullying, so we'll work with you as you are~ *very dramatic gasp* see!!! even now you're still doing it!!! you dismiss my words and accuse me!!! you're doing it again!!! /t /j see? you're being playful again when you tease me; such a tsundere<3333 good good as you say in the end no tsundere will say that he is a tsundere especially as oblivious and tense as you~ /t

I know I'm going to regret saying this given your usual reactions but ??? my sweetest, but how can I give up the blood diet when I have such a blush-cheeked cutie like you next to me? tempter~... no one blames a spider or a mantis when they do what they have to<333... CHOMP- we can't; the peace will never be an option if it can't offer a benefit more than the opportunity to eat you >;333 /t /hj /affectionate oh hush, the gallery is quiet, the audience is watching and enjoying while the more eloquent ones are performing <3 /t /nsrs hehehe,,, cutie pie, cutie<33333 come here this innocent dove will kiss you—

of course; I would even say that it came before the onset. think about it: maybe if you hadn't decided to lie, the mosquitoes wouldn't have bitten you so actively, but your personality from the future has already committed a misdemeanor for which you are being punished today~ ... I guessed. after all, you're just a tired little bun<333

oh, wow!!! maybe one day we'll be close!!! I mean, close enough; after all, the fact that we have common writebabies, common jokes (only about you though /t /affectionate) and the fact that you and I have already reached hundreds of posts on one of the blogs together does not mean that we are close!!! /t /hj /pos actually

mmm? what do you mean "completely off"? that they're too sweet for you?... at first I sincerely wanted to answer, but now I realized that I want to make sure that I understand you before continuing, in case you manage to catch me, it would be disappointing to hunt you just so that I myself become prey shshhsshs /t /hj ... it's so good when a family has common interests and issues that concern all parties, I've heard it helps to DEEPEN the connection and become CLOSER /t /hj /apparently I'm really irresistible~ hehehe mwah♡

... I'm a dove... why do you call yourself a dove... are you faking an identity? are you trying to trick me? are you a criminal? that's it, that's it! we found a reason to stop making you innocent! now come with me, it will be fun for me, I guarantee<3333 no no we'll find out very soon >;333 mmm~ it looks very beautiful, but a little sad, especially with people who have to fight the storm. what is your favorite detail in the picture? waves? light? the forest? people?

/ It's okay, it's okay, I'm good at resurrecting people, so we'll do it ten more times and then we'll buy you a big enough closet<3333 mwah♡♡♡ /ht /affectionate

/ .. you don't have to sound like a cross between humility and pride, pamna. come on again, you sound too calm considering your usual reactions /t /j /nsrs but I'm nice! my honeypies will agree with me that I'm nice and pretty enough, so sometimes I'm like<3333 /t

#[📂] — voice from under the bed #❖.my jewelry #✮.panna cotta <3

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myuncleslettersfromthewa · 1 year

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Tips For Choosing The Best Hotels For Your Travelling

It is essential to research the hotel you want to stay at when you travel to a new city or country. Based on your budget and the features people are looking for in hotels There are a variety of options to choose from. A quality hotel can make your trip more fun, but a bad one can make it a nightmare.

Many people looking for a hotel know "what are the criteria of a good hotel?" In this post we'll explain how you can pick a hotel using some easy and simple guidelines. While selecting the right hotel is crucial, the most essential among all is to ensure that you are safe from data online when using public Wi-Fi.

10 suggestions to help you pick the most suitable hotel

Check Hotel Reviews:

What can I do to choose the ideal hotel for my travels? Reading reviews from other guests is an excellent way to get a feel for the hotel. TripAdvisor is a fantastic source since it lets users to see other reviews about their stay at a hotel.

Think about Your Needs:

What kind of person do you consider yourself? Are you in search of an extravagant hotel or something that is more budget-friendly? Are you looking for special facilities like a fitness center or pool? You can narrow your options by determining what you're looking for.

It's more crucial than ever before for all hotels to provide free WiFi to guests. Not only it is practical to guests, it's also a necessity in many cases.

A lot of business travelers rely on Wi-Fi to conduct their personal and professional lives even when they are away from home. With the rise of mobile phones and other devices users use Wi-Fi in hotels for their social media and online connections.

Public Wi-Fi can be dangerous as hackers are able to easily access it. For this reason, you should try it out and use a safe VPN for Apple iPhone and Android. A VPN is also known as a Virtual Private Network, is an encrypted private network that and redirects Internet traffic through public servers. A VPN can be used to access restricted websites as well as secure your browsing from the scrutiny of WiFi networks that are accessible to everyone.

VeePN VPN is highly recommended for travelers due to its advanced security features. VeePN is also easy to use and provides the opportunity for a trial period at no cost as well.

Location:

youtube

When selecting a hotel, location is a key factor to consider. When you are booking the hotel, make sure it is in a convenient area.

Amenities:

When choosing a hotel amenities are an important consideration. Be sure to check if the hotel offers an exercise center or spa for those with special needs.

Budget:

Hotels can range widely in cost, which is why it is important to set an idea of budget prior to starting your search. Knowing what they're willing to spend will enable them to narrow their options and find a place that fits within their budget. Four people can expect to spend about $100 for a night's accommodation in Scottsdale Arizona. If you reserve your hotel in advance, maybe you can catch off season discounts and book at less.

Parking:

When you're looking for a hotel make sure to check out the parking conditions ahead of time. Check if there's the possibility of paying for parking, and if so, how much. Request information about the location and size of the parking space.

It is important to make sure that it is big enough to hold their vehicle and that it is located close to the hotel , so they don't have to carry their luggage a long distance.

Customer Services

It is crucial to evaluate the level of customer service when you are choosing a hotel. A good hotel will have polite and knowledgeable staff who are willing to go beyond the call of duty to make your stay comfortable.

Compare prices:

If you're looking for the most suitable hotel for your trip be sure to compare prices. A lot of resorts offer discounts when you book your stay prior to departure, making it important to shop around.

Keep in mind that not all choices are created equal. Make sure to read reviews and compare amenities before making your final decision.

Optional Meals:

If you are planning to spend many hours at the hotel, having access to good food can be the key to success. There will be several resorts that have their own restaurants, which could be more expensive however they provide excellent food.

Some hotels provide meals plans that permit you to make a prepayment for certain meals. If you intend to eat a majority of your meals at the hotel, this can be an excellent way of saving money. Make sure you research available dining options prior to you make your reservation for your hotel.

Room Size:

One of the most important aspects to take into consideration is the room's size. It is important to ensure that you have enough space for your possessions, and that you feel at ease in the room.

These tips will help ensure that you find the ideal hotel for your visit. Be aware of the the location, read reviews and compare rates. Take into consideration your budget and needs to determine the best place to stay. To safeguard yourself ensure that you are using the VPN. With a little research, you can have pleasant and relaxing time on your next trip.

#Best Hotels For Your Travelling #Travelling #Travel #Youtube

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nooramoontarot · 3 years

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𝓟𝓲𝓬𝓴 𝓪 𝓹𝓲𝓵𝓮 : 𝓦𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓭𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓷𝓮𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓻 𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓷𝓸𝔀?🌙

🍄 helloooo my lovelies!🤍 This reading will be about any messages that you need to know right now. Please take what resonates and leave what doesn't. This is my first pick a pile reading so any feedback or suggestions for future pick a pile readings are welcome! 🍄

DISCLAIMER

my readings are for entertainment purposes only. Therefore, they DO NOT replace any professional legal/financial advise and medical advice/diagnosis. Therefore, you are responsible for any decision as a result. Also use your discernment and judgment when receiving the reading and use that to take what resonates. Remember, you have free will and can change and chose what happens therefore nothing is set in stone in these readings if you don't want it to. I will do my very best to give an honest reading therefore, I do please ask you to keep an open mind when receiving the reading. Thank you

decks used:

- neo tarot deck- Jerico Mandybur

- rebel oracle deck

-moonology oracle deck - Yasmin Boland

- the sacred self- care oracle deck- Jill Pyle

- the answer is simple oracle deck- Sonia Choquette

Take a few deep breaths in and pick a pileeee trust your intuition🌙

Pile 1 🌙

- 4 of pentacles, 6 of pentacles, page of wands, strength reversed bottom deck

- give more, eat your fucking vegetables/ eat some shit made by Mother Nature, balance spirituality and practicality/full moon in pisces, deep breathing, clear the space,

pile 1 it's time to start more energy into yourself. I see here that you may have been working hard towards something like a project, but you need to balance out your energy. I feel like you need a well deserved break lovely as I see that working hard has maybe made feel a bit heavier or you may feel that if you continue to work work work and not put energy into yourself aswell, you may become burnt out. I see here that the reason you work so hard may be because you are trying your hardest to build stability and have that structure. You may feel that if you slow down right now, you may be unstable. But don't worry love, you will get that stability that you crave even if you take time out for yourself. The key thing here is balance. Maybe make a schedule and make sure to plan in some time for yourself where you can just relax and ground yourself. I just got the intuitive message of carnelian. So maybe getting this stone or working on your sacral chakra can help ground yourself a bit more. Tapping into your creative energy can help also. The main theme here is to balance spirituality and practicality.

additional messages: eating vegetables, deep breathing, clean your space, drink tea, eat vegetables

signs: dominantly earth- Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn and a bit of fire- Aires, Leo, Sagittarius, also maybe a bit of Cancer and Gemini, Mars energy

Pile 2 🌜

- queen of cups, king of wands, 2 of wands reversed, 8 of pentacles bottom deck

- oracle cards: reach out, it's not everybody's fault-it's yours/ you are a grown ass adult stop blaming others for your shit, nothing is yet set in stone/mutable moon, abundance planning.

whewww pile 2 your energy is overwhelming. As I shuffling the cards, my throat immediately started feeling tight like when you're trying to hold in tears. So straight away there is a strong message of the need of communication. What I'm getting here is that you may be wanting to reconcile with someone. There's a strong energy here of needing to right some wrongs and honestly this energy can come from either your person or you. I'm getting a sense here that someone has messed up in the past and has really hurt someone by their actions. But I see that the person who messed up is really trying hard to fix their mistakes. They want to take action in gaining forgiveness from the other person as they've finally learnt how to deal with their emotions. I see that this person has really working on inner alignment here. But the thing is I see the other person who got hurt being quite cautious and not rushing into forgiving the person who messed up. This may come across as there would be no hope in reaching closure and forgiveness. The person who is owed forgiveness has every right to accept or reject the peace offering and they may need time to think it through. I see that the main way that this can be sorted out is through communication and listening and ACKNOWLEDGING each others feelings. If you are the person who is wronged, know that your emotions and feelings are valid. Go with what your intuition tells you and whatever decision you make is valid, but I do see that the person who wronged you has changed and has true intentions in bringing closure. So if you want to give them a chance. For those of you who are the ones who messed up, I see that you have really grown from the situation but you MUST give the other person time and space to process their emotions. All in all, the overall message is that communication will definitely help to bring closure to this situation love.

additional messages: active listening, time, healing

signs: strong fire energy- Aires, Leo, Sagittarius and some water energy CANCER, Pisces, Scorpio. A bit of mutable energy too.

Pile 3 🌕

- the emperor, 5 of cups reversed, 6 of wands, the sun bottom deck

- oracle cards: Spread the light, be fucking grateful/shit could be so much worse, it's time to release negativity/ full moon in scorpio, connect with fire

oh pile 3 I just want to say I am so so so PROUD OF YOU!!!! I see that you have been working really hard on letting go of things that are no longer serving you. I see that you've been really releasing negative aspects of your life and I see you really becoming the best version of yourself! look at you! I get the sense that you HEAVILY protected by your spiritual team and I get a sense of pride coming from them. They're really proud of you and the work that you've been doing. Just carry on working through your fears and releasing negativity/negative thoughts and being more in the energy of light. I see that through this work you have found a new sense of security within yourself. You're becoming so stable that when adversities come your way, you're very much in that energy of "bring it on". You know within yourself that you have the strength to pull through which is so amazing my love like wow. I get such a strong sense of victory in your inner journey and just lots of light and joy. Remember to keep being grateful and thankful. There's really not much else to say here just keep being the amazing being that you are!

additional messages: bonfire with friends, laughter, being more social, HYDRATE, eating vegetables.

Signs: LEO,CAPRICORN, water signs- Cancer, Pisces, Scorpio, Aries, Sagittarius, Virgo/ Mercury energy.

Pile 4 🌝

- 8 of wands reversed, 7 of swords, 7 of cups reversed, 8 of swords bottom deck

- oracle cards: let go and flow, some good shit is about to happen/don't let your issues fuck it up, bring love into the situation, write a gratitude list.

pile 4 I see here that you may have been waiting for a few manifestations/things to come in for a VERY long time and all of a sudden, all these options/manifestations have come through and you are struggling to manage them. If you are not already in this energy you may be in the energy in the future, but I get that most of you are already in this energy. I see that what has brought all these manifestations in for you, is that you have worked on your self-limitng beliefs and negative thoughts. You have opened up to new perspectives and have acted strategically in working towards your goals. Now that you have all these options, the best way to manage them is by continuing to act strategically but with your intuition. Use your intuition to select through these options and it will guide you and help mamange you. I'm also getting the message from your spiritual team saying " we're here too!" so call on them if you need more help. Enjoy your abundance and be grateful for what has come in for you and what will come in for you in the future. You are worthy of everything that has/will come in for you so don't feel guilty about having them! Be in the present moment of gratitude and you'll be a magnet to gaining more abundance. go you!

additional messages: celebration, champagne, master manifestor, "cheers!"

signs: air energy- Gemini, Libra, Aquarius,Scorpio or some water element,Aires, Saturn/Venus energy/placements.

thank you so much for tuning into this reading! I really hope that it has resonated and I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day! 🤍🤍🤍

Love and light,

N 🌙

#tarotblr #tarot reading #tarotdaily #tarotonline #black tarot readers #tarot #tarot witch #divination #tarot community #oracle cards #tarot deck #pick a card #pick a pile #taroteverydamnday #intuition

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cienie-isengardu · 3 years

Note

Not only do I not regret asking you to "RELEASE THE RAMBLES!", I'm sending you requests for more. Below is a list of questions that I asked @bihansthot , and enjoyed their answers, but because you are so thorough, and answer in such depth, I'm re-asking them to you.

Brace yourself, it's a list. I didnt have time to sort thru them, I just copied and pasted, so if any are questions you already answered before, please feel free to include the links.

"LET US BEGIN!"

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

In the spirit of potential future writing, I'm trying to find a building that would make a good substitution for Lin Kuei temple.

I've tried looking up ancient Chinese military barracks/forts, and have found some stuff, but is all exterior. Anyone know of any locations (or several I can cobble together) that would make good inspiration fodder?

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

So, uhm, religion? What's the Lin Kuei's take on that one? I know they are aware of Gods, they team up with/ encounter Raiden all the time, and have literally worked for/against Shinook, so I know they recognize higher powers... but I guess the question is, do they care?

Do they have a religion, or spiritual practice that resembles religion? Or do they have a more practical approach "gods exist, but we just consider them very strong people"?

Which segues into... do they recognize and participate in holidays, or things like birthdays? Or are all their celebrations work related (I.E. successful missions or levels of combat mastery)?

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

Food. What foods do they normally eat? What foods do they like? What foods don't they like? What foods do they absolutely love so much they'll stop what they're doing to get it?

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

If you had to match the Lin Kuei with a dynasty, what one would it be? (I know the 2021 movie has the opening in the Ming dynasty, so the Lin Kuei is at least that old, but given that movie Bi Han hasn't aged in 400 years, and was taken is a child, its probably much older) (and also know the game probably cherry picked random Chinese things it liked).

What do you think the Lin Kuei's view on artistic culture (probably not the right word) is? I know they are heavily militaristic, but in the game, Kuai Liang offers Hanzo tea and he properly prepares it the Japanese way, that says they have something of an education other than just related to fighting?

Lastly, in the movie, everything Bi Han does is "for the Lin Kuei", but the Lin Kuei is on Earth (assumedly), and he is working for a guy who wants to enslave Earth, so what do you think the deal is?

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

Question about the Cryomancers. I know the game lore says that they are supposed to be rare, but I also know that the Lin Kuei have had at least 5 (grandpa, papa, older, and younger Sub Zero, and Frost). 4 of which are part of 3 generations that inherited it even with mixed blood (I'm assuming Mama Sub Zero wasn't Cryomancer since they left her alone).

That's a lot of generations in a row for a rare trait... So do you think the Cryomancers as a group have figured out they're being hunted and have chosen to live in hiding?

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

Lin Kuei society question? I like writing so I also like world building and I think about these things.

Is Lin Kuei society ever covered? I know there is a Grandmaster, a handful master assassins (Sub Zero's, Sektor, Cyrax, etc) and the movies always have a bunch canon fodder lesser assassins.

And they live in the very isolated Lin Kuei Palace/Temple in Arktika (or wherever it used to be)

But is Lin Kuei (we'll call it "village") ever covered? Do they have willing servants, kidnapped slaves, or a mix of both? Are there women (non fighter women, I know there's Frost) or do they employ strictly male help? If there are women, what's their role, and are there children born there? What about Elderly? What about resources, is everything (from food, clothes, weapons, and the raw materials to create them) grown or manufactured on sight by skilled laborers or do they import/interact with the outside world? How vicious or civil is this society, could you be killed for looking at Sektor wrong or do they value your services to a degree? What's the degree? This is obviously a combat culture, but is everyone expected to know martial arts of some variety, is it optional, or do they prohibit it among the servants/slaves? How strict are they on things like clothing, food, alcohol, drugs, "luxuries", or pleasures? Money? If they interact with the world do they recognize and use $$ currency, commodity currency, or a mixture? Internally are the Lin Kuei payed or just provided for? What about illness or injury, if you're not a master and it a serious injury/illness are you taken care of or do they just give you a quick death?

Etc. That's all the questions I can think of, but please feel free to answer questions I didn't ask, if you think of anything else.

Thank you for this wonderful list to talk about! I’m gonna split the answer into smaller parts, for better focusing on each aspect but also so I don’t feel bad for keeping you waiting for ages, lol. For now let’s focus on asks about the religion!

So good questions! I do think they have some spiritual practice(s) because in martial arts the state of a mind is as important as the physical body and religion is one of many ways to shape someone’s mindset from a young age. I do, however, think that Lin Kuei does not worship the gods. They are aware that the gods exist (with Raiden as the thorn in the side) and may even respect their supernatural powers and battle skills but it never has stopped Lin Kuei from desecrating holy places, murdering people and stealing stuff for the best price. So, it seems to me that whatever religion the members of the clan follow, by nature it is rooted in nontheism.

Of course, there is also a chance that Lin Kuei worships some forgotten deity or deities (as a remnant of their ancient connections with Outworld / realms conquered and destroyed by Shao Kahn?) or may even practice ancestor worship which seems like a good way to uphold a widely understood tradition that plays an important role in the discussed community.

The closest thing to religious practice was seen in Mortal Kombat X, when Sub-Zero and his warriors seemed to pray together before statue of god / deity / ancestor / legendary warrior / personalized thing they value the most (sadly, my knowledge about Asian religious practices or faiths is very limited so I don’t have idea if the statue is supposed to represent any real god/religious symbol).

At the same time, it could be just a bluff since Grandmaster was aware of Cage’s team infiltrating the Lin Kuei territory and used this moment to lure them into a trap. Additionally, Mortal Kombat X comics presented once Kuai Liang sitting before the same statue albeit in a completely different (devoid of reverence?) position.

Of course, if we take into account Mortal Kombat Armageddon, the game states that Lin Kuei Temple placed in Arctika was actually once the Temple of Delia (the great sorceress & wife of god Argus) that at some point get abandoned and re-used by Sub-Zero’s clan.

(In the background, we can see a statue of Delia that Lin Kuei does not worship but did not remove for whatever reason. Mixing both old and new games, we can only wonder if MKX!statue is also the remnant of someone else's faith/religion?)

Beside that, Kuai Liang was pretty vocal about Lin Kuei not worshipping the Elder Gods, what was seen in MK11’s intro dialogue with Cetrion

Sub-Zero: The Lin Kuei do not worship the Elder Gods.

Cetrion: We seek gratitude, not worship.

Sub-Zero: I see no distinction.

and personally did not have any reason to pray to the goddess:

Sub-Zero: Why should I pray to you?

Cetrion: Why does a bird flap its wings?

Sub-Zero: I asked a simple question.

In all fairness, in MK11 Kuai Liang seems the most passive-aggressive toward the Elder God while Frost is focused on her ambitions and Noob!Bi-Han just wants to be left alone when bothered by Cetrion. Similar thing happens toward Raiden. Despite gratitude for saving him, Kuai Liang does not spare the god criticism (can’t serve both Elder Gods and Earthrealm, isn’t fit for his role of protector) and in MKX outright says he does not fear divine beings:

Raiden: Sub-Zero...

Sub-Zero: I fear no gods, Raiden.

Raiden': That's why you shall lose.

Surprisingly, Kuai Liang’s interaction with MK11!Fujin sounds less accusing than with Raiden and Cetrion and it is connected closely to their ties with Bi-Han. And maybe Kuai Liang did seek in the past Fujin and other elements to make a peace with them, like he planned to do so in Mortal Kombat 4 Limited comics?

"I came here to make peace with the gods of the elements that you fought [...]"

Anyway, the accusingly behaviour toward Raiden and Cetrion could be just Kuai Liang’s personal dislike for gods and serious authority issues, which makes sense considering how much he suffered because of their meddling and conflicts.

But honestly?

The available examples of Lin Kuei attitude toward gods, demigods and supernatural beings suggest how little the warriors - especially cryomancers - care for them.

Like, we have Bi-Han in Mythologies, who asked Quan Chi about details of mission:

Sub-Zero: If it's so precious, why don't you get it yourself?

Quan Chi: I cannot enter the temple until the four elements within its walls have been defeated. And I am not on the best of terms with the gods of your realm... especially your god of thunder.

Sub-Zero: Tell me about these elements.

Quan Chi outright said he and earthrealm gods weren’t friends and Bi-Han, reading between the lines, could get the idea that he may end on bad terms with Thunder God. Yet he was interested only in elements (lesser gods than protector of realm?) guarding the temple.

Then Bi-Han beat down four demigods and met a displeased Raiden after Quan Chi got the Shinnok Amulet. His reaction? No fear, like meeting an angry god was a normal occurrence.

Rayden: Do you realize what you've done??

Sub-Zero: I was just earning my living.

Rayden: Your clan's ignorance and greed will cost this entire realm. You must now set things straight.

Sub-Zero: Quan Chi could simply be a lunatic sorcerer. I've never heard of an elder god named Shinnok or of a place called the Netherrealm.

Rayden: Well, you'd better start believing in both, because you're going to the Netherrealm and you're going to bring the amulet back. We must act quickly. I have no dominion in the Netherrealm... You are reality's only hope.

Sub-Zero: I'll do it, Thunder God... but only because I have no choice.

And once he came back from Netherrealm, where he was fixing what he messed up in the first place on Raiden’s order, his abrasive attitude did not change much:

Sub-Zero: Here... the amulet.

Rayden: Impressive, Sub-Zero. Perhaps you will reconcile your reckless past after all.

Sub-Zero: That's it? Not even a thank you?

Of course, to some degree Raiden’s words did have an impact on Bi-Han but even the god’s warning about his soul tainted with evil did not stop him from coming back to Lin Kuei. Bi-Han’s attitude and/or approach to gods seems to change somehow once he was reborn as Noob, but that is a different matter for different times.

Anyway, Mythologies!Bi-Han and MK11!Noob act less aggressive toward gods than Kuai Liang. But then we have Sub-Zero from from the MK novel by Jeff Rovin, who not only is not afraid of gods but outright insult them:

“Wait! Be warned, Shang Tsung. He is cursed!”

“Cursed? By whom?”

Ruthay wailed, “By the immortal Yu.”

Shang Tsung felt cold spiders crawl up his spine. “The demigod Yu?”

“Yes… he who is said to dwell in the underground caverns of Horse Ear Mountain… which is sacred to the goddess Kuan Lin. He who protects the canals… and the tunnels… and looks after all who use them, human and animal.”

“What did our brash friend do to Yu?”

“He… killed a man,” said Ruthay.

“What man?”

“A toll-taker… one who had given up a life of crime… one who had been a partner of the man… you… seek.”

“And how did that crime come to the attention of the spirit of Yu?” Shang Tsung asked.

“The man was killed… slowly disemboweled with a sword… while accomplices forced his wife and his son to look on! After his murder… the man’s remains… were dumped into a canal!”

Shang Tsung raised an eyebrow. “Is that all? I was expecting something truly terrible!”

“It was!” Ruthay shrieked. “When he disposed of the body… in that way … he profaned one of the sacred waterways… of Yu!”

Shang Tsung smiled now. “Then he is definitely the man I want,” he said. “Anyone who is impudent enough to insult a demigod won’t be afraid to attack a member of the White Lotus Society, or the gods who watch after them. I will send Hamachi, Ruthay. When he nears his goal, see through his eyes and guide him!”

Book!Sub-Zero was impudent enough to insult a demigod which is why he was one of Shang Tsung’s favorites. And to be clear - book!Sub-Zero did not regret insulting the demigod at all. Even more! He found humor in it!:

He dwelt in a cave two hundred feet up the face of a cliff by the sea. The mouth of his home was barely wide enough to accommodate a slender adult, and was accessible only by climbing the sheer wall of rock, a feat that was impossible for most adults and daunting even to the few arachnids and marsupials that tried it.

Maybe some of them were even sent by Yu, he thought with a smirk, little assassins who would chastise me for having spilled blood in his precious canal.

The less abrasive attitude toward gods was shown by Cyrax, who talked a bit with Raiden over Bi-Han’s remains. He wasn’t outright antagonistic but wasn’t overall respectful either. He talked with Thunder God like he would talk with any other human being that wasn’t actually Scorpion. Frankly, from the named Lin Kuei only MK9!Smoke actually addressed Raiden in respectful manner, with proper bow and the name of lord

albeit did he do so because he respects the divine beings or just out of gratitude for saving him, hard to tell for sure.

So yeah, it seems like no matter what kind of timeline or age or medium of the story, Lin Kuei does not fear gods nor pray to them. And the clan has a long history of dealing with Raiden, so the Lin Kuei had first-hand experiences with supernatural beings. Somehow, cryomancers are the most impudent warriors when it comes to dealing with or criticizing the gods.

Interestingly, as much as Lin Kuei warriors don’t care for gods, most of the known to us named characters believe to have - and to care - for their own souls. Sektor and MK11!Frost embraced the Cyber Lin Kuei idea but Kuai Liang, Cyrax and Smoke were opposed to C.I. project out for concern for their souls among other things. Even Bi-Han, to some degree became concerned about his soul after trip to Netherrealm.

Believing in souls is usually a sign of belief in the afterlife, albeit after all of them went through (the change into cyborgs, death and change into Revenants) this is less a matter of faith (religion) and more first-hand experiences. And let's not forget that regularly dealing over the centuries with Shang Tsung who steals people's souls on a daily basis makes it really hard to not believe spirits are real.

Also, an interesting matter of Lin Kuei practices that could have a religious/spiritual ground and/or be an example of ancestor worship is the clan’s funeral rites. I don’t think we actually saw any Lin Kuei to bury their own (especially after warrior’s failure?) and for sure MK9!Cyrax and Sektor did not bother to take care of Bi-Han’s remains. However the sources provide examples of Lin Kuei keeping corpses, most likely of their own leaders or warriors.

And so, we could see human remains:

put in two coffins on each side of statue

hidden / kept in a block of ice(?) in chamber of Fallen Lin Kuei in which Frost’s frozen body was also laid, but on the altar

Cyrax’s cyber body was kept and guarded by Sub-Zero (and this is like the only thing that Kuai Liang and Cyber Sektor so far agreed on)

and even Cyber Sektor’s remains, even if just for pragmatic reasons, are kept in what seems to be respectful manner:

It could be just Kuai Liang’s good nature to honor fallen of his clan (I’m still not sure if Lin Kuei Palace is the new place for Sub-Zero’s clan or the ancient hideout) but even in MK Conquest TV series, after Grandmaster was killed by then-currently-Sub-Zero, there was the farewell ceremony with clothes on display (cause there was not much left of body after freezing and shattering) while new leader gave the speech promising to punish the guilty.

Which makes me think that Lin Kuei did honor their fallen warriors (especially those exceptional, deserving). Such custom and apparently common belief in soul could also support the ancestor worship - both as some ancient, mythical ancestor(s) connecting warriors into one clan (family) and tradition to follow in the footsteps of forefathers (Bi-Han taking place of his father [old timeline] or grandfather [current timeline] or Kuai Liang taking Bi-Han’s place as Sub-Zero).

My general conclusion about Lin Kuei is that its members believe in souls, have respect and use of spiritual matters (meditation?) and maybe ancestor worship. Whatever the religious / spiritual practices they have over the centuries, it is not something they will share, as the Lin Kuei by nature are secretive people who keep personal things mostly for themselves. The people that joined the clan (Cyrax and Smoke) maybe kept their old, eventual religious beliefs but overall, Lin Kuei warriors did not fear, care for nor pray to gods. They may respect god (Raiden, Fujin) as a person but not because of their divine nature. And even that would not stop them from criticizing said god. Which is pretty much how Kuai Liang and Raiden’s relationship looks like. Grandmaster is grateful to Thunder God for saving him but he won’t blindly follow his authority.

(Kuai Liang has serious authority issues, hasn't he?)

As for holidays, I can’t really see Lin Kuei to follow any specific religious (theistic) special day cause they don’t care much for gods in the first place. Unless they worked undercover and needed to act as normal human beings, religious holidays would mean nothing to them. The warriors may however celebrate their mission success, combat mastery or promotion between themselves or in secret, I think. Like, Lin Kuei did forbid friendship because it was considered warrior’s flaw yet we know some members either were blood-related (Kuai Liang, Bi-Han, previous Sub-Zero - father or grandfather, depending on which timeline is correct) or considered each other a family (Kuai Liang and Tomas Vrbada) and most named characters worked in duos so they have both opportunity and knowledge about each other to celebrate important matters. If they managed to remember anything from previous life, that is. Because from ancient to at least Great Kung Lao’s times most(?) adepts were kidnapped from biological families at a really young age (something around 6 years old). And Mythologies: Sub-Zero takes that even further:

Its warriors are chosen at birth to be raised apart from the workings of day to day civilization and are stripped of their former lives. Only the clan knows their existence. Each of them posses certain skills and abilities that set them apart from normal men. These abilities are passed on from generation to generation and honed throughout the experiences of life.

So, celebrating birthdays doesn’t sound like happening much, unless those with family around could allow themselves such luxury. The clan may however celebrate the day of becoming a fully trained and sworn warrior? Or the fallen warriors? Who knows.

Also, something worth thinking about: in Mortal Kombat Conquest TV series, when the Grandmaster presented newly appointed Sub-Zero to the rest of the clan, he “celebrated” the cryomancer's first official performance as the execution of two men who failed their mission. So, yeah, celebration of something special in (old) Lin Kuei does not necessarily mean anything nice.

(The next part of answer most likely will be focused either on food or architecture / origin of Lin Kuei. Let's hope I will get it written sooner than later)

<><> EDIT <><>

RELIGION <> ORIGINS / ARCHITECTURE <> FOOD <> FOR THE LIN KUEI <> ART <> CRYOMANCERS <> LIN KUEI SOCIETY <> MONEY & MATERIAL GOODS

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gendercensus · 3 years

Text

On plural inclusivity and "plural they"

In the Gender Census feedback box and elsewhere I have frequently been asked:

to make the annual Gender Census survey more inclusive of plural participants, and

to add "plural they" to the checkbox pronouns list alongside "singular they" in order to be inclusive of plural participants.

It's a rambling topic, so I'll address them in sections in that order.

INCLUSIVITY RE: PLURAL PARTICIPANTS

I've been inviting plural people to take part in a short survey about the Gender Census, asking questions that help me get a feel for the issues involved and asking about whether people feel included in the survey (and why or why not). At the time of writing there have been 139 responses, I will leave it open for ongoing feedback, and I'm unlikely to be publishing the spreadsheet of results in full because the responses are off-topic and very personal. However, I will refer to some individual responses as well as my personal experience discussing inclusion with plural systems.

Here's a graph based on the responses so far:

I'm asking for direct feedback about this issue because over the past few years plural folks have been one of the more consistently vocal groups in the feedback box of the survey and elsewhere, which would usually be fine, but I've been finding it very overwhelming and confusing. I think that's because the advice/demands/questions have been unusually inconsistent, often to the point of being in direct opposition to each other, and the result is that I have no idea what to do.

Before now, most plural people have understood that it's quite a nuanced issue. When asked I would explain that if they felt that filling it in once for the whole system made more sense they should do that, and if individual system members felt strongly that they should participate alone then they could do so.

This year it got to the point where I had to make a decision and write unambiguous, easy-to-follow guidance about how plural people should fill in the survey, because I had one system submitting dozens of responses and giving the exact same three points of feedback, paraphrased, over and over - making it look like many unconnected people felt strongly about these particular issues, when in reality it was all this one system. I decided that, to be as fair as possible, plural people should fill in the survey once per body.

When I posted about the "once per body" policy on social media I received very little direct feedback, which leaves me in the position of not knowing whether that's because I did it right and you have no complaints or because you've all jumped ship! The statistics and comments from the plural feedback survey are very helpful in this regard:

It seems that plural participants, on the whole, are fairly understanding about it all, often supportive, and are still able to participate. ("Unknown" and "no strong feelings" together are a much higher proportion than I expected.) Some positive feedback included appreciation for the ability to select as many gender identities and pronouns as one wants. Common arguments against the policy include feeling that system members are not treated as people in their own right, which is understandable; the Gender Census is designed to present practicable data about nonbinary people for use within a system that assigns one identity per body, socially and bureaucratically. A "once per body" policy makes sense when prioritising nonbinary people, but adds to the list of crap that only plural people have to struggle through when they're not the main focus of the research.

I was surprised that only a couple of people pointed out that some systems have amnesia between members, and so some systems may participate more than once per body unintentionally. (I understand that this is unavoidable, and I certainly wouldn't be upset about it. Sometimes non-plural people participate more than once by accident, too! On the scale we're talking about, I'm unlikely to even notice it happening.)

Back when I first started to get requests to make the Gender Census more plural-inclusive, my first move was to ask people what exactly they felt excluded by. Responses to this have been continuously nebulous, to the extent that I don't think I have ever made any design changes to the annual survey at all as a result. I also asked what they would do to improve the survey and help them to feel included, but this has yielded very few viable ideas for how to move forward, just because so many of the ideas that people suggest are mutually exclusive.

As an example, I spoke to one member of a system who expressed, understandably, that their experience of themselves as plural inextricably affected their experience of their gender(s), and after some discussion they concluded that the two were so intertwined that it made the most sense for it to be included in the identity question, e.g. a checkbox called "plural" alongside nonbinary, genderqueer, trans, etc. I explained that I don't arbitrarily add things to the checkbox list, but it would be counted if it was typed into a textbox underneath, and if it went over 1% I would consider adding it to the checkbox list. They became increasingly angry. The only way this situation would make sense for them moving forward was if I added "plural" as an identity checkbox option immediately. Conversely, just a couple of weeks previously I had spoken with a member of a system who was very vocally distressed at the idea of plurality being conflated with gender, and wanted to make sure that I never added "plural" as an identity checkbox option.

As another example, in the plural feedback survey when I asked people how they felt about the "once per body" policy, a member of one system was against it and said "it feels like this policy doesn’t recognize us as separate people", but a member of another system was in favour and said "we're encouraged by our therapist to think of ourselves as dissociated parts of a whole. So we're all one person, just not directly connected like a singlet [non-plural person] would be. From that perspective, it makes sense to keep us as one person in the gender census, no matter how many genders we have." It's not possible to reconcile these two perspectives.

From the very beginning up until now, the unifying theme for feedback from plural people and their allies is "please be more inclusive of plural people." That's a really good start! After that it becomes a plate of tangled spaghetti.

Here are some themes I've managed to tease out, and my thoughts.

"Each system's alter should be able to participate in the survey individually if they want to." Some systems have literally hundreds of alters, and several systems have acknowledged in the feedback survey that this is probably both impractical for many plural people and unfair on singlets.

"We're okay with taking part once for all of us in the system, but we're just checking all the boxes that apply to at least one of us, and some of those are explicitly disliked by at least one of us. This is uncomfortable." I think that's... probably okay, actually. Other subcategories of participants whose identities fluctuate that strongly (e.g. a genderfluid person who is sometimes very male and sometimes extremely not male) or whose pronouns are context-dependent are also in this predicament. Participants often express a desire to rank their identity terms by importance, accuracy, fluctuation or frequency. The survey aims to collect broad and fuzzy data about a very large group of people, to monitor trends and let people know what language we're comfortable with on the whole. This survey just isn't looking for that kind of nuance.

"We're okay with taking part in the survey once for everyone in the system, but there should be a way to separate out responses about different alters within that one response." It's literally impossible to program the survey to have infinite subsections for each alter, but if it were possible, what would I do with the data? I think the most likely approach would be combining into a list of identities etc. "per body". The participant would feel better for being able to enter different words for different alters, but it would be more work for them, and it would be more work for me to process responses from plural people just to have them be counted like those from non-plural people.

"There should be a 'plural' checkbox in the identity list so that we can express that our gender is influenced by our plurality." I consider adding terms to the identity checkbox list when they're typed into the textboxes by over 1% of participants. There are some situations where I'll make an exception to that rule, but it's unusual and this isn't one of them. Whether you enter a term using a checkbox or a textbox makes no difference to how well-represented you are in the results.

Maybe just a question that asks if you're plural, with a checkbox? What would this checkbox do? Plurality is beyond the scope of the survey, along with things like height and eye colour. It would allow curious people to analyse the responses using plurality as a variable, but I wouldn't include it in any analysis in an annual Gender Census report.

That last one is particularly interesting, because it's what I actually did in the supplementary survey. I wasn't 100% sure in advance whether or not I would need that information for the singular vs. plural they issue, so I included an "I am/we are plural" checkbox just to be on the safe side. As far as I could tell, the survey was no more or less materially inclusive than the annual Gender Census survey. There were a couple of interesting patterns to report in the statistics, but the main things I noticed were:

Feedback saying that the survey wasn't inclusive of plural people was non-existent.

Several people thanked me in the feedback box for making the survey plural-inclusive.

Several people promoted the survey on social media by using its plural-inclusivity as a selling point.

Again, the supplementary survey didn't take a different approach. There was no particular difference in language, there was no indication that whether or not you're plural would be integral to the reporting of the results or even used at all, the only difference was the existence of a checkbox that let participants declare their plurality.

That's all it took to cause a complete U-turn in feedback. A checkbox that doesn't relate to gender or connect to any of the other questions in any way, and isn't particularly statistically useful based on the supplementary survey. It doesn't make the survey more inclusive, it just acknowledges that some participants are plural, and gives them a way to declare it.

Whether or not participants are plural is beyond the scope of the Gender Census, which aims to collect broad data about how we as nonbinary and otherwise genderly-interesting people want the world to see and describe us. It just doesn't make sense to include questions about plurality in future surveys. But I'm honestly amazed and a little confused, because until the "once per body" policy was added it seems that there wasn't actually anything about the Gender Census that prevented plural people from participating, at least not more than anyone else whose genders change significantly over time.

SHOULD "PLURAL THEY" BE ADDED TO THE CHECKBOX PRONOUN LIST?

This is something that participants often ask me to do in order to make the survey more plural-inclusive, so I decided to seriously consider it.

The first draft of the supplementary survey asked over 1,000 participants about this issue, but I had to scrap those responses and then redesign and restart it because, even though dictionaries are fairly clear on what exactly "singular they" is, a lot of survey participants who are not dictionaries seemed to be in disagreement (or confusion) about what singular they and plural they actually are. I have been unable to find any academic or reference articles online using the phrase "plural they" at all.

Here are some of the things people have told me recently:

"Singular they" is when you use "they" with singular verbs, e.g. they is a teacher.

I can't say that I use "singular they" pronouns because I always say "they are". "They is" just sounds wrong to me.

"Plural they" is when you use "singular they" pronouns to refer to a system/someone who is plural.

"Singular they" and "plural they" are grammatically identical except for the name.

"Singular they" and "plural they" are functionally the same and should be combined into one option called "they" in the annual survey.

Let's start by stating what we do know for sure.

THEY VS. SINGULAR THEY

For the record, "singular they" is defined by its purpose and context, not the specific words used.

Wiktionary says:

they (third-person, nominative case, usually plural, sometimes singular, objective case them, possessive their, possessive noun theirs, reflexive themselves, or, singular, themself)

It then goes on to specify three use-cases:

third-person plural, referring to two or more people

third-person singular, referring to one person

"indefinite pronoun" - people; some people; people in general; someone, excluding the speaker. E.g. "they didn’t have computers in the old days."

So we've got "they" (groups), "singular they" (individuals), and "indefinite they" (an "other" that is ambiguous in number).

Again, I have never found anything academic or, er, dictionarical (lexicographical?) that calls any of the forms "plural they", so my first job is to find out whether what Gender Census participants are calling "plural they" is the same as what the dictionary just calls "they", which is defined as the set used to refer to two or more people. For the purposes of this article I will call it regular "they".

WHICH WORDS MAKE UP SINGULAR THEY?

Even though most dictionaries will state which words make up singular they, and it's usually they/them/their/theirs/themself, if you change individual words within the set or even around the set it is still called "singular they" if it is used to refer to only one person. This might happen due to regional or cultural variations. So whether you say "they is a writer" or "they are a writer", whether you say "themself" or "themselves", if you're talking about only one person, it's still singular they.

In the annual survey, singular they is consistently chosen in the checkbox pronoun options by the most participants, usually more than twice as popular as the next most popular option. (I use the dictionary-provided set, and I've checked it's still the most commonly used in several polls and surveys along the way.) In the annual survey, singular they is presented as:

singular they - they/them/their/theirs/themself (e.g. "they are a writer")

WHICH WORDS MAKE UP PLURAL THEY?

I had never heard of "plural they" before people started asking me to add it to the checkbox list in the feedback box of the annual Gender Census survey, but it seemed clear from the name that it is meant to be contrasted with singular they, and I wondered if perhaps everyone else had been calling regular "they" (for referring to two or more people) "plural they" this entire time and I just hadn't noticed.

It was specifically presented to me by participants as a pronoun that a plural system could claim, and that a plural system might prefer over singular they. This tallied with my initial assumption that "plural they" may just be regular "they" referring to groups, since a system is a body containing two or more distinct individuals, so if they wanted to be referred to as a group then singular they would be inappropriate and regular "they" would fit.

I went to the pronouns spreadsheet of the 2021 Gender Census, and took every pronoun set that was named and copied it into a new spreadsheet. I ran a query to list all sets that contained both the words "plural" and "they" in the name field. There were 71 results, out of ~44,500 total responses. I ran another query to find out what these people were entering in the reflexive field, and here's what I got:

themselves - 61 (85.9%)

theirselves - 3

them - 2

themself - 2

themself (plural) - 2

theirself - 1

So I think it's safe to say that the set that people are calling "plural they" uses "themselves" as the reflexive, which is consistent with dictionaries' reporting of regular "they".

I conclude that most people do mean regular "they" when they refer to "plural they". "Plural they" seems to be they/them when used to refer to two or more people, including the plural reflexive "themselves".

As in "singular they", if you change individual words within the set or even around the set it is still called regular "they" if it is used to refer to two or more people. This might happen due to regional or cultural variations. So whether you say "they is writers" or "they are writers", whether you say "themself" or "themselves", if you're talking about two or more people, it's still regular "they" (or plural they).

IS PLURAL THEY GETTING SMUSHED INTO ANOTHER PRONOUN/GROUP?

I recently explored the (apparently unintentional) overlap of Spivak (e/em) and Elverson (ey/em). In case you've not read it, here's a brief overview: I found that it might be that Elverson (not on the checkbox list) is many times more popular than Spivak (on the checkbox list), even though it isn't being written into the pronouns textboxes often enough for it to reach the 1% threshold. Since the two sets are identical except for that one letter in the subject form, it is very likely that many of the people who use Elverson (ey/em) pronouns are choosing the Spivak checkbox option in the annual survey because they don't realise the spelling is different, or they think that they are minor spelling variants of the same set. I concluded that in order to get a fair count of both sets I will need to list both in the checkbox options next year, even though Elverson hasn't been typed in by over 1% of participants yet.

It's possible that the same thing is happening with singular and plural they. I ran a couple of Twitter polls, asking people whose pronouns are they/them which set they prefer, and presented answers like this:

a) Singular they, referring to only 1 person: they are themSELF

b) Singular they, referring to only 1 person: they are themSELVES

c) Plural they, referring to 2+ people: they are themSELVES

Here's the results, with 927 usable responses:

The results of this poll are really useful, because it allowed people to choose between singular and plural they AND themself and themselves, in combination. We can see that of the people who call their pronouns "singular they" (referring to only one person), the majority prefer "themself" as the reflexive, but a respectable proportion prefer singular they with "themselves", even when presented with the option of "plural they" (referring to two or more people).

(I have a policy of providing the most popular word choices in checkboxes, so I will continue to provide a they/them checkbox option that says "singular they - they/them/their/theirs/themself", but since singular they is consistently the most popular pronoun this is something I like to keep checking in on.)

If we apply these proportions to the 2021 Gender Census responses and imagine that everyone whose pronouns are they/them chose "singular they - they/them/their/theirs/themself" regardless of how accurate that is, this would mean that 3.7% of all respondents would check a "plural they" box, which is well above the 1% threshold for adding something to the checkbox list. Why not add it to the list, the way I'll also be adding Elverson to the list? This graph may help:

I generally consider it unwise to make big decisions based on Twitter polls, because the sample is much smaller and more biased than a standalone survey. Twitter requires membership, Twitter membership is skewed younger, and younger members are more likely to use Twitter often and see polls when they appear.

However, even I can't deny that there is a very clear mandate here for Elverson to be added to the checkbox list. When given a straight choice between the Spivak, Elverson, both, and neither/something else, participants were over six times more likely to choose Elverson over Spivak. (For context, Spivak got 4.3% in the 2021 Gender Census as a checkbox option.) Even if this poll were somehow put to the entire Gender Census participant group, it's hard to imagine a scenario where the results shift enough that Elverson gets a lower percentage than Spivak.

4.7% of a smaller sample of younger Twitter members just isn't enough to push me to add something to the checkbox options. I really hope that everyone whose pronouns are "plural they" takes the time to type it into next year's survey as a pronoun distinct from "singular they", so that if they do end up being over 1% of participants I can add "plural they" to the checkbox options.

IN CONCLUSION

As far as I can tell, the Gender Census doesn't particularly exclude plural participants. Systems are still able to take part, so it is at least as inclusive as any other survey of a similar nature, maybe even more so thanks to the ability to choose multiple gender identities and pronouns "per body".

There isn't sufficient evidence to support adding "plural they" to the list of checkbox pronouns at this time, and systems can be represented in results by typing any plural-inclusive terms and pronouns that are not on checkbox lists into some of the many textboxes provided, as any other participant would be expected to do.

The "once per body" participation policy is uncomfortable for a significant number of plural people. However, due to the intensely varied experiences of plural people, any policy on that issue that I impose would make some plural people uncomfortable - and it turns out that I chose the "side" that plural people are more likely to agree with. The survey isn't intending to collect or convey the more nuanced information that plural people (and others) have said that they would like to provide.

A separate question that specifically asks participants whether they're plural makes systems feel seen and acknowledged, but is beyond the scope of the project and doesn't add value to the data or analysis.

So, I will not be making any changes to the Gender Census at this time, based on the information I've gathered so far. However, I welcome further feedback in the plural participants' feedback form, which will remain open, anonymous and private.

Edit: Follow-up.

#plurality #multiplicity #meta #FAQ #plural they #pronouns

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badfauxmance · 3 years

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People has been asking for over a year what Sebastian is gaining from this rs if it's a pr rs. Well maybe the answer is in these blinds...

I mean there's been cheating rumors for years (some said he cheated on Margo too while he was in China for Marvel promo), his longest rs lasted 2 years, he's been officially single for some years si maybe his team wanted to shut up the cheating rumors and create for him the image of a serious guy. They needed someone desperate for fame and willing to follow him around the world like a lost puppy. I'm pretty sure Esmeralda and Jon suggested Alejandra who looked like the best choice. She's plenty of free time since she usually works 3 days a year. Probably Covid messed things up but that's my theory.

There really is a lot to unpack about this. We actually kind of talked about why we think this BS started in the first place, including why Sebastian is involved in this at all. I'll use a cut if anyone wants to read a more thorough explanation of why we have the opinions I'm about to express. I'd like to remind everyone this is JUST OUR OPINION. We don't have actual knowledge of anything, but we're just making educated guesses.

The blinds don't really mean anything. We suspect it's either angry fans sending those in or possibly the teams (particularly Team Ale) sending them in.

Hollywood has a general tendency not to care about cheating. In fact just yesterday I made a comment about how just about every celebrity has been accused of cheating on their partners before. A celebrity's team won't bother covering up their client was cheating unless there's a serious reason for them to do so. Otherwise it's something that doesn't matter to anyone other than the directly affected parties.

CAA probably agreed to arrange for Alejandra to do it because she's a rich girl with money to help pay for this. She's also conveniently unemployed and willing to travel around to follow him like some groupie. And yeah other speculators we talk to are pretty sure Esmeralda (and to a degree Jon) have a big part in this. Esmeralda has connections in Hollywood. Only reason why they'd have him seen with a non-entity Spanish actriz and not an American actress who more people would be familiar with. Probably no one else is better option than Alejandra at that point in time.

COVID did mess things up. That's probably why some of their behavior in this PR trainwreck appears to be a mulligan of what they did last year. It would explain why he celebrated his birthday with mostly acquaintances and people doesn't know in Spain rather than with his actual friends for example.

Blinds are anonymously published and the purveyors have disclaimers making it clear they're just the messenger. They don't claim what they're posting is the truth or factual statements. Which is a convenient way to cover their asses so celebrities can't sue them for libel or defamation. Since literally anyone can send in a blind, it could run the gamut from totally true insider scoops to complete and utter bullshit someone pulled out of their ass. Also who is the source of the blinds? Again assuming the purveyor didn't write it themselves, the blind could come from anyone with any sort of motivation for doing so. Not reliable sources of info.

Rumors about a celebrity cheating is as common as rumors they are secretly gay is. It's so common it's really barely worth talking about. It's just rumors and there's no proof. Also Hollywood doesn't ultimately care. The only time they'd care is if the (alleged) affair would seriously ruin someone's reputation enough they would lose their career. However this is the 21st century. It's rare anyone gets blacklisted because of that. If anything we could picture an affair as being a convenient way to get people to gossip and bring ATTENTION to a celebrity if they haven't been talked much about before hand.

Even if Sebastian's team was trying to cover something up by having him seen with a girlfriend (even if no one knows who the hell she is), it would be covering up something else and not cheating. What exactly, got no clues at this point. At least not something that isn't merely speculation and rumor.

#sebastian stan #alejandra onieva #when can we stop talking about this clownery?#when is this whole mess going to stop finally?#when will this trainwreck stop?

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alice-angel12x · 3 years

Text

Cherry Blossom wedding PT.2

"So Darx took over the school to force Y/n into marriage with him," Riddle summarized.

"What?!" Everyone gasped.

"What so scary about Darx?" Jack asked.

"Darx is currently the most powerful wizard, and he didn't get that title though fair or clean means," Vil explained.

"And as of late he's been looking for a suitable bride," Lilia added suddenly, " I'm familiar with him cause at first he's been taking many fae brides, some I've known personally. Then they disappear suddenly, and Darx simply moves on to the next."

"S-so were dealing with a possible murder," Kalim stuttered in fear.

"Well nobody has ever shown up, and there is no evidence that he killed them. So all those sad souls are still considered missing," Azul clarified.

"We have to rescue her!" Inir and Ortho shouted.

"Ummm," Everyone backed away.

"What?" Inir gasped.

"Why? Please help us!" Ortho begged.

"Look we all like Y/n and we don't want anything bad to happen to her, but we also don't want to be the ones who die pissing off Darx," Ace said.

"while Idia always avoids me yet he only asks for me when he's troubled, that's too easy," Vil added.

" It's your "brother"'s problem. Solve it on your own," Leona sighed.

Inir began to tear up and cry out loud.

"Don't worry Inir, If they won't help then I'll do something," Ortho said to his crying friend.

"Hey, hey. You can't do anything just by yourself," Kalim gasped.

"Stimulating patterns to take back Idia Shroud and Y/n Ebonywood. Requirements: Least time of operation...the simulation has been completed successfully. We will now operate the plan. Charging magic energy. Aiming for Night Raven College's main school grounds," Ortho said as he readied his attack, "Magic beam firing in 5... 4... 3... 2..."

" PLEASE STOOOOOP!" Crowley shouted, "Do you want to make our legendary school turn into ruins!? Magic beams are prohibited!

"Since everybody won't help us, I had to do it," Ortho glared.

" ...everyone. Is it okay to decline that easily? If you abandon Shroud and Y/n just like this..," Crowley scolded.

"What should I say? It'll be pointless even if we fought back..," Ace sighed.

"Ah! There they are! Night Raven College's students!" Crowley said pretending to be a news reporter.

" Wh-what is it so suddenly," Ace gasped.

"I'm a reporter from TBC News! You're a student from Night Raven College, right!?" Crowley continued.

" Eh? Y-Yeah, I am but... wait, close, too close! Headmaster, you're too close!" Ace stuttered

"Is it true that it's possessed by ghosts? Please answer the question! It'll be featured by tomorrow morning, so let me take some pictures too. Click-click!" Crowley acted.

"Ugh, the flash is too bright!" Ace groaned.

"I heard a student was abducted? And you abandoned her?"

"I-I have different dorms from the kidnapped person! I don't know anything!" Ace tried to argue.

"You left him because you weren't close to him? I can't believe you! I need to compile a special feature... Shocking! The dark side of the prestigious school!"

" Whoa, I said stop it! Don't point the camera here!" Ace shouted.

"Click click click! Click-click! Click!"

"STOP IT! Ace shouted again.

"And so if Y/n doesn't come back, you'll be pressed by the mass and be interviewed no matter morning or noon. I don't want to see my students getting tired like that, or Shroud getting even more stress on top of his possible trauma. Since I'm kind," Crowley warned.

" If you don't cooperate, I'll hack the news channel and put it on the news. I'll write in big marks "The Student Who Abandoned Their Friend" and air it!" Ortho threatened.

"I think the one who would be troubled the most if there's a scandal on the school is you, the school's responsible person, the headmaster," Riddle stated.

"But, it would trouble me. My mother would cry if she saw that news," Deuce sighed.

" Gossips will affect my image as an entertainer. I don't want it," Vil stated.

" It seems that we have to help then," Lilia smiled, " I can't have things like...Malleus, the next king of the Valley of Thorns couldn't save a human to be spread around, and he does hold Y/n in a special place in his heart."

" Yes. As you said, Lilia-sama!!" Sebek shouted.

"Then, everyone! Let's save Shroud and Y/n from Darx together!" Crowley cheered, "Ah〜〜〜〜 I'm happy that I only have nice students〜〜〜."

" Let's think of a way to save my brother and Y/n together!" Ortho cheered.

"First of all, why don't we talk to Darx," Kalim suggested.

" What a magnificent thought, you are Golden. Though I don't think he would let go of a beautiful maiden like Y/n so easily. If I were in his shoes I certainly wouldn't," Rook smiled.

" In the end, we just have to get him back by force, don't you think?" Leona stated.

"We all ended up here because we can't do that. Did you forget?" Vil said.

"Yes. We can't "defeat" the ghosts in a face to face battle. They're troublesome as an opponent. Let's avoid a battle with them." Crowley said.

"You know from what I've heard Darx is a narcissistic wizard and happily excepts challenges from anyone," Riddle stated.

"True, a Fae friend of mine challenged Darx to save his lover, but he disappeared along with her," Lilia added.

"Maybe Sam has something useful in his shop," Inir suggested.

So it was off to the school shop and Mr.Sam. Who surprisingly had had something that could maybe help with Darx. A pure white crystal that can undo any spell of a specific caster.

"That was something I did have, but those darn ghosts came by and raided my shop and getting away with lots of my stuff," Sam sighed.

"What they took the crystal too?!" Crowley gasped.

"Yep, but I'll give you advice instead. Darx specializes in summoning and capture Magic," Sam explained, " That is probably why Y/n and Shroud hasn't come back to us yet."

"So I guess the only option is to beat him at a match in hopes to win both student's freedom," Crowley sighed, " Alright those I call, step forward, you will be the first to challenge group to challenge Darx,"

" Trey Clover, Jack Howl, Jade Leech, Floyd Leech, Kingscholar, Schoenheit, and Zigvolt," Crowley called.

"I was so troubled getting chased by ghosts, so this is where you all evacuated," Trey smiled.

" I'm glad we could gather," Jade greeted.

"Headmaster. What are you going to do with we seven?" Vil asked.

"You are all strong with your unique magic, so maybe you can outfox Darx, or maybe you could all challenge him together," Crowley suggested.

"W-what why can't I go? I feel like I'm abandoning my duties as a dorm leader if I let Trey, the vice dorm leader to challenge this mission," Riddle asked.

"What sad you can't be Y/n's knight in shining warmer," Ace teased.

"N-No that not it at all," Riddle denied.

"We don't know what Darx is capable of, and Riddle you heavily rely on your unique magic and we cannot afford to lose you so soon," Crowley explained.

"I'll have the CCTV's footage be connected so we can watch you from the sidelines," Ortho smiled.

"Vil will surely win not only is he beautiful, but he is also strong too. Don't you think so, Epel-Kun?" Rook smiled.

"Eh! I-I guess," Epel stuttered.

-----------

(Cafetaria — Wedding Ceremony)

"*chuckle* What a beautiful day today, and not so powerful without this pendant protecting you," Darx smiled as he grabbed Y/n's chin.

"Keep this out of her reach," Drax ordered a troll servent.

Y/n simply glared at the man, he had placed a magic seal on to keep her in place and to prevent her from using her magic. Y/n dressed to the nines in a beautiful wedding dress that Drax's troll servants put her in.

As Y/n stood in her frozen spot she noticed that all the short troll servants looked at her with sorrow and pity as they stood next to her. Drax had seven troll servants and an army of ghosts. Drax was still ordering his ghost and monster servants around trying to get the ceremony ready. Y/n sighed as she looked over at the front row seating area to see Idia struggling at his bindings that tied him to his seat. A similar seal was cast on him too.

"SOMEONE SAVE US—-!!!" Idia cried out.

" I suddenly got surrounded by ghosts, got roped and tied up... and now I have to watch a friend get forced into marrying some brute?" Idia said in fear, " A brute that might kill her soon."

"Not fish, how about beef served at the wedding?" Drax said as a troll servant stepped up with her tray of food.

Drax chuckled as he took a fork full of beef all the while the strolls stood nervously and uncomfortable in front of him. Drax growled in disappointment that the food tasted cheap and knocked the plated out of the hands of the troll and dropping food onto his servant.

"Soon I'll have a new wife, and hopefully you won't disappoint me," Drax said simply as he looked over to Y/n, who only glared at him.

Idia wanted to hurl at that sentence as side glared at his kidnapper. Suddenly a ghost rushed over to Darx with some urgent news. Apparently, some NRC students came to challenge him for "His bride's hand". Drax laughed as he ordered the ghosts to let them in.

"You hear that Y/n, Were going to be saved," Idia smiled in relief at his friend.

Soon the seven students quickly barged through the door demanding to challenge Darx in magical combat.

"So you all think you can take what is soon to be mine," Darx laughed.

"The marriage hasn't happened yet, so Y/n doesn't belong to anyone," Leona growled.

"And a rude brute like you doesn't deserve a lady like Y/n," Jack added.

"Plus forcing women into marriage is a disgusting trait," Vil glared.

"So you're her friends I'm assuming," Darx said simply in a bored tone, " Look dear all your friends have come to watch our marriage.

The boys looked up the alter to see a beautifully dressed Y/n staring at them with a relieved smile on her face at the sight of them. The boys could feel their hearts flutter in their chests at the sight of here. Oh, and there was Idia in the front row.

"Darx we challenge you to a Magic duel, If we win You will set our friends free," Trey said in a serious tone.

"hahaha, I can't wait to squeeze the lights out of him," Floyd laughed.

"Challenge excepted," Darx smirked.

_____

#riddle rosehearts #twst wonderland #twst x reader #twisted wonderland x you #twisted wonderland lilia #twisted wonderland riddle #twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland #idia shroud #ghost marriage #epel felmier #trey clover

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outoftimewriting · 4 years

Text

Imagine (Son of Hades! Percy; Godswapped! Big Three's kids) Mark of Athena Pt. 2 AU (4/7) or (9/12)

So yeah it got... big. I wasn't expecting it - but sure! Here it comes part 2 of 3 of 5! Check the masterpost before reading - it's essential for the understanding. And read the warnings before proceeding. Enjoy and leave reviews and suggestions :))

Hazel, Leo, Frank, and Perseus go back to the Argo II, to find Piper trying to wrangle the Cornucopia into not just dropping mountains of food.

Perseus tries to help - and between him and Jason, who is the son of a fertility god after all - they manage to get a picnic - which, great because it's already evening and they're all hungry teenagers.

That's when they discover that's Jason's birthday - the 23 of July, coincidentally, Neptunalia - and begin to swarm him. It's shocking that he never had a birthday party - or birthday cake. The Romans don't care about it - their prowess in the training fields is what marks them as children or men.

Perseus - who was kidnapped in mid-November, months after his birthday - is internally shocked - but can do nothing about it.

He doesn't think he could give anything useful to Jason in such short notice - so Perseus promises to, after this all ends, take him to see something new - perhaps Cairo? He is sure Carter would be happy to see him.

Ah, yes. The Kanes - one of his only adventures in between those two big prophecies. He went - with Nico of all people - to help the Egyptian sorcerers - and almost ended up possessed by Sadie's god boyfriend's mother. Overall, a bizarre experience.

And he never wants to share a body with Neftis again. It's weird, it's bizarre, he doesn't like it, he gets body disphoria - no.

Even though the Egyptian Underworld is really cool - there are a lot of snakes down there. And a lot of space - which is weird, because Hades also takes a lot of space. Are these hells in different dimensions?

That's not even counting the time he and Thalia mind-wiped a Titan - with Lethe's water of all things. He left Bob/Iapetus under Persephone's care - and then promptly disappeared. Not literally - Perseus just had no time for the titan, and it's something he regrets deeply.

Maybe after this all ends, he can go visit Bob and the Kanes. Maybe it's time the pantheons are no longer apart.

Perseus knows that all pantheons eventually cross - Isis is as Greek as she is Egyptian - but they don't talk about it. They pretend their Isis and the greek one are different - while the goddess has so many aspects she might as well be a thousand different deities.

Is there a Hindi pantheon? A Polynesian one? Is Amaterasu real? The Orixás? Quetzalcóatl? The Nordics? Are the Celtics aspects of the Norse? What about the Welsh? How many Underworlds exist? If any worshiped god appears - does God with a capital G exists? Perseus is going to find out. But now he has more pressing issues right now.

Leo doesn't want to discuss Nemesis, but, after singing happy birthday to a very embarrassed Jason (who is probably pondering the implications of Perseus' offer - Leo is pretty sure the guy isn't asking his bestie in a date, but who is he to shatter his buddy's delusions?), Perseus corners him.

He doesn't know what to do about the price - he isn't sure of much. Perseus promises that nothing will harm him under his watch. It's weird - Nobody ever cared about Leo before. Perseus hugs him - the first time he starts a hug himself - and Leo feels like, maybe, that's what having a family feels like.

He wonders if Charles Beckendorf was for Perseus what Perseus is trying to be for him - he wonders if Percy is doing this out of guilt. Leo can't complain - the arms feel warm around him.

Percy and he return to the party, to see Piper in a panic. She asked Katoptris for a way to Nico - under Hazel's prompting - and it showed her a vision of Nova Roma organizing the army to invade Camp Half-Blood - Reyna is stalling them, but not for long. She prays for Perseus to come back - she can't do this with no allies.

The reason for it is apparently the abduction and coercion of two of their praetors, their General and a Centurion - enough to start a war. Perseus could shadow travel back - but it would take at least a week to come and go - and they do not have a week. Any Iris Messaging would be useless - they would think he controlled by Piper.

So they go to sleep, hands tied. Doesn't Octavian see they have bigger fish to fry? Lady Terra, Gaea, is out there - planning to destroy everything. He might as well be on league with her.

Perseus sleeps and has another one of his prophetic dreams. It's a giant - one he doesn't recognize - explaining to Ephialtes why do they need Perseus.

Apparently, to wake up Gaea, they need a mortal son of the Earth and a mortal daughter of the Sea. Daughters of the sea are easy to find - all children of Aphrodite are technically from the sea - but children of the Earth can only be children of Hades or Pluto.

And she tried other options - they tried to sacrifice a son of Demeter and a daughter of Venus Victrix - but it wasn't enough. The power in their blood was too diluted, their connection to life only enough to give Gaea this bare level of awareness that she uses to torture them. To wake up completely, she would need Perseus' blood - Perseus' and Piper's - the strongest daughter of Aphrodite alive.

Gaea voice taunts him from somewhere, telling him to not worry - she took the girl who loves him forever, that Annabeth and Malcolm will no longer be a problem.

The vision changes and shows a spiral staircase near the forum, and Perseus can hear their voices screaming - but he knows there's the place they need to go if they want to find Nico. He is not scared - he went through worse. Perseus has no time to dwell in Gaea's taunts - it's probably just her messing with his mind again.

He wakes up and tells his dreams to Jason. They decide they should go - and take Piper and Hazel - the more involved with this side quest of theirs - with them.

Jason goes first - he breathes underwater, and looking at the giant well, Perseus is almost regretting coming. When he comes back, he tells them he had found something, which turns out to be a Nymphaeum.

The nymph Hagno - who Perseus mentally calls old Hag - and others - the nine nymphs that watched over Zeus with Gaea when he was born - appear and flood the chamber with evil water - they say it's payment - the gods' own them. Perseus can see where Zeus' entitlement comes from.

He starts to panic - he shouldn't have come. He hates water - he is going to drown here, under this muddy water that looks way to much like the muskeg for his liking. Hazel is trying to calm him - with no success because she starts panicking too - she is a child of the sky, after all.

The nymphs begin to drain the three of their power, stealing Jason's control over water, Perseus' control over the earth, Hazel's control over electricity, and Piper's beauty in order to be young again.

Perseus is so tired that he keeps paying for the gods' debts, that he keeps giving and repairing their mistakes - that these people keep throwing their grudges unto them. He just wants to let go - die, finally, but they will just throw their problems to new innocent people.

Because Perseus is innocent. They all are - they are children! This can't keep happening, the gods can't keep throwing their shit onto them! And there's no stopping it - he thought last time he solved everything, but alas, he can't solve every little squabble the gods start.

He helped the demigods and minor gods. And then there are nymphs, dryads, satyrs, fauns, centaurs, spirits, personifications, titans, children of titans, primordials, rivers, monsters. An array of immortal beings who would keep on asking, keep on holding eternal grudges that demigods would pay for.

There is no number of wishes that could ever solve this. They would have to reform the whole Olympus - to be the ones making the decisions. To be the ones to stop sending twelve-year-olds in harrowing death missions.

Maybe, this time, Perseus should become a god. Maybe if he is the one judging, he might be able to help. He might be able to stop the gods from doing stupid decisions that only prejudice their kids.

But what if he can't? What if he becomes one of them? Is he prepared to lose everyone he cares about? He was always a loner - but is he able to leave everyone behind? His friends? His mother?

While Perseus wallows in his own panic and misery, Piper comes up with the idea to funnel all their positive thoughts into the Cornucopia, which releases the positive emotions as clean water. It's lucky they have Hazel and Jason - because Perseus is in a very dark place right now.

As the three release almost all their power into the Cornucopia, the nymphs become young again and spare them, as the power they gave them as a gift, and they restore the four back to full strength, as well as telling them the location of Otis and Ephialtes.

Perseus doesn't take this as an apology. He doesn't think it's enough - the nymphs tortured them for their own sake and act as if it's a favor that they restored them - and he has a grudge.

They took from them - and didn't give anything back. A little bit of information and the powers that are already theirs? The hags steal their powers and give them back - and think this is mercy?

Perseus is going to show them what mercy is like. As soon as they are out of the Nymphaeum, the earth trembles - he makes the whole thing collapse into an opening in the earth. He is sending all of them directly to Hades - they took from him and had the gall to tell him to be grateful.

The others in his group look at him worriedly, like he is going to kill them next. Perseus is okay with that - it's not the first time someone hates him because of what he can do. He tells himself it doesn't hurt.

It's a lie.

They go back to the ship. The sun is rising - Hazel gives the others the bare bones of the story, leaving out the part where Perseus freaked out and killed ten nymphs out of rage.

No one asks why they are so tense - why Perseus stormed to the training arena and didn't left since, why Jason doesn't make eye contact with anyone else, why Piper went to her room in silence.

Jason goes to talk with Perseus later - Percy doesn't want to talk. They spar twice before the son of Hades' relents and cries - he didn't want to kill anyone, he just wanted someone to pay.

Jason tells him no one hates him. That those nymphs were monsters - empty platitudes. Perseus says how much he hates drowning - Jason shares how much darkness scares him sometimes.

Piper comes in halfway and lays down on the floor with them, and shares how it's still hard for her to feel like herself - to look at her body and see a girl. How she hopes one day to have the right parts, to be able to wear what she likes and don't feel like a boy.

Leo is the next to wander in - "Are we sharing traumatic life stories?" - and tells them how much he still feels dumb, inferior to those around him - the way his fire always damned him. Frank comes next - him and the peril of ever dying, the crippling anxiety of a piece of wood.

Will is the last to join in. Will tells them about being the responsible one - how it was hard when Lee lost his arm, when Michael died and he was only thirteen.

He tells them how Lee got depression after Michael died and the one-armed boy couldn't help, couldn't save his brother. Will tells them about how he fears for his twelve siblings - how he is the youngest acting counselor because his only older brother doesn't leave his bed anymore.

They just lay there on the floor, together. Until Hazel appears - she had a vision. Nico has no more time. They thought they had some hours more to mindstorm - but alas, it's time.

Not everyone can go - it's a rescue mission, a stealth one at that. And Leo needs time to steer the ship towards the giants. So Perseus, Jason, and Hazel go after her little brother - and Frank, Leo, Piper, and Will will meet them there.

The trio finds the cage - suspended meters over the air. Hazel uses her powers over energy to bring it down - the metal is so overcharged that is simple for her, while Jason battle the two giant eagles with a mini hurricane.

Hazel frees her brother - who is barely breathing - and it seems too easy. The giants appear - and while they cannot kill Perseus, their onslaught against the other two is immediate.

Perseus fights against Ephialtes while Jason battles Otis. Hazel stands guard over her frère's prone body - no one is taking any more family from her.

It's a sight to go down in the myths - Jason is fighting with his sword - Undisonos - against Otis. His chest keeps emitting a sound - the siren song - which keeps distracting the giant, while they strike against one another.

Perseus is not doing worse - stone spikes appear every time Ephialtes tries to stab him - shadows curl around the giant's throat, strangling it.

Ephialtes taunts Perseus - says Annabeth and Malcolm are already lost, already gone. That this is his legacy - causing the death of his friends. It only serves to push him further.

In the midst of the battle, a hydra appears - and Perseus has no qualms in spearing each of its heads with a stone spike, before burning them with hellish fire, draining his powers to kill Ephialtes before the giant destroys him.

Hazel gets caught in the earth trembling - and passes out by Nico, who has no forces to defend her. It's Jason who ends up defending both of them, after a well-localized jab into Otis sternum.

It's not enough - they start to reform immediately, seeing the lack of a god's help. Perseus - who is sustaining himself into the wall and can feel at least four broken ribs and a twisted ankle - rages. He doesn't stop when Dionysus appears.

Dionysus is not Bacchus - he isn't a mindless drunk. But he is a selfish bastard - and says he will only help if they entertain him enough.

Perseus wants to scream, didn't they entertain the gods enough?! Didn't he die enough for them, for their cushioned, easy lives?! Didn't he do enough?! He lost all his teenage years - his whole life - to keep their asses safe, from Hyperion, Kronos, mythical monsters, his own friends.

Jason and Perseus agree to fight together this time and charge the two - both of them at the same time, both equally about to drop down - but rage fuel both of them.

Perseus is drawing strength from the earth below - the same earth that reforms the giants again and again - while Jason pulls force from the river behind them.

Jason blasts the giants with a wave that can only be compared to a small tsunami causing the fake mountain the two were holding to fall on Ephialtes.

Otis charges the two and Perseus trembles the earth, throwing him into the lake, and the two slash at him - Perseus with his ax, Jason with his sword. Jason then uses the water to keep the dust from reforming.

It's like fighting with an extension of themselves - where Perseus fails to block, Jason appears - when Jason misses a step, Perseus is there to cover him. The earth starts to shake - stronger this time - and they know they are doing this together.

Ephialtes then escapes from the fake mountain and charges the two, but they are keeping up. It's difficult, however - Perseus is drained to the point of exhaustion, and Jason is only going because of the water behind him.

A misstep and Ephialtes almost takes Jason's head off. Perseus is only safe because Gaea needs him - for her sacrifice, for her everything.

But the Argo II appears overhead and blasts the giant with Greek Fire from the cannons. Leo is whooping from the balustrade with sunglasses perched at his nose - Perseus can faintly hear "Fireworks" from Katy Perry blasting from inside the ship, and wonders if he has already lost any of his remaining sanity.

Dionysus considers that the show was entertaining enough, and finishes both giants with his Thyrsus, claiming the victory to himself. Perseus resists the urge to punch him - he is getting way better at this.

Before he leaves, he confirms Ephialtes words - Annabeth and Malcolm will be lost to the weaver - and tells them where to find them.

Back on board, Nico - under the care of Will, who can barely touch the over-energized guy - tells them he was captured by the twin giants as he looked for the Doors of Death.

He tells them he never found the other side - for he could not go into Tartarus - but the earthly side - close to where he was captured - was in the House of Hades - heavily protected by monsters.

Perseus thinks that only he will be able to go into Tartarus - they have to close the Doors both ways, after all. But there's no returning - and no way for him to survive down there.

Will this be his legacy? Dying in an Underworld wasteland, alone? Nico looks at him and must catch what he is thinking, because when everybody leaves the infirmary, Nico holds his wrist.

"Don't do it, Percy-..." He coughs "Please don't do anything stupid. I can't lose you."

"How could I?" Perseus answers "You carrying all the stupid with you. How could you think it was okay to just-..."

"Promise me, Percy" Nico interrupts, as seriously as he can. "I know I did a lot, and you probably hate me..."

"I don't hate you, Di Angelo" Perseus sighs. "I promise you - you'll never lose me okay? I didn't come all this way to save your ass for nothing."

And he leaves, still uncertain. Is it worth it? Could they find a better way? Or does he need to die - over and over again? Were the Fates mad the first prophecy didn't take him?

Annabeth tricks Arachne - and is tricked back by her own hubris against her brother, who keeps telling her to shut up, taunting the already defeated monster - who ends up opening the hole into Tartarus.

They blast a hole into a parking lot - just in time to rescue the children of Athena, who partially already rescued themselves.

"Hey, Wise Girl"

"Hey, Corpse Breath"

Everyone works together to load the statue into the ship. This time, there's two children of Athena. This time, there are ten people in the ship. This time, Nico has never walked into Tartarus.

But in somethings, history never changes: Arachne attaches a thread to Annabeth's weak leg. She tries to bring the child of Athena to the pit with her. But Perseus - who is just behind her - is quicker.

Perseus uses the shadows - with the last of his reserves - to pull Annabeth back, cutting the thread linking her to the pit with his ax. Annabeth is safe - one of her hands holds to the ladder.

But Perseus is not.

He flickers - like a ghost. These were the last of his energies, and he topples backward, into the Pit. A hand holds on to him - Nico. He tries to fly them out - but he is still too weak.

It's time.

"It was always supposed to be that way, wasn't it?"

Nico holds on in despair - he can feel hands holding his calves, trying to push them back - But Perseus is muscular and tall, and there's no one to help.

"No, no, Percy, don't you dare to let go, don't you dare!"

It was always his destiny - the one who sacrifices himself for everyone else. Nico thinks that, if Perseus doesn't ask for his own peace this time, he might ask on his behalf.

"Someone needs to close it from the other side. I am the only one who can."

There's a smile upon his lips - resigned to his fate. There are tears on Nico's eyes. The hand slips.

"You promised!"

He can hear Annabeth screaming, trying to get to them. The floor is too slippery. Nico feels Perseus slipping - the boy flickers again, like a ghost.

"Di Angelo, please"

A figurine of Zeus. A pavilion full of spartoi. Grover telling him stories. A white cell in Olympus. Green eyes flashing black. An invincible demigod against a thousand monsters.

"No, no, I won't fail you, not again!"

A greek with no memories in a toga, a fist punching his face, the warmth of a hug, walking through ruins, his capture.

"Nico, let me go."

Nico's mistakes pilling up, adoration swelling in his chest like a thousand suns. Maybe that's what love feels like.

"No!"

The hand keeps slipping, the Pit pulling him in, and Perseus flickers again - his hand can barely hold on to his ax.

"I see you on the other side"

He falls.

Alone.

Silence. There's a scream caught on Nico's throat - he won't be able to recall the next minutes. Somehow he takes Annabeth back to the ship. He doesn't remember climbing the ladder.

He thinks he wants to jump after him - but restrains himself - it was not the time to play the martyr.

They ask about Perseus, but neither of them can speak - their voices are gone. The parking lot collapse.

Jason keeps asking - if Perseus has shadow travelled, if he called for Blackjack, if he got lost.

"He is gone"

Nico finally answers, because he can't take the questions anymore. They don't understand.

"Gone? Gone where?" Asks Leo, still confused.

"He fell" It's Annabeth, in shock, who replies "He... He fell in the Pit. To save me. Percy fell. He... he's gone. He is in the Pit. Oh, oh my gods Percy is in Tartarus. It's all my fault I can't - I can't, he is gone, gone!"

She starts crying copiously. Malcolm holds her - he is the only one able to do so. Jason falls onto his knees, lost to the world. Piper sits beside him in shock. Will goes overboard and vomits - he looks like he is about to pass out.

Frank supports Hazel as the girl starts crying, trying to breathe and finding no air. Leo sits - there's tears in his eyes, but a determined look in his face. He looks at Nico, as if prompting him.

"He asked us to meet him on the other side." It's everything he needs to say. No one stops crying - but everyone is startled into motion.

"Festus, raise the sails. We've got a brother to save."

They are going to the House of Hades.

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