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greensun · 9 months

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THE BIG QSMPSTUCK LOREDUMP AKA: I finally get to do all the lorebabble I wanted to do.

EDIT (11/1/2023): THIS VERSION IS NOW OUT OF DATE AND DOES NOT INCLUDE THE PEOPLE IN THE ICE CUBES. I AM CURRENTLY REWORKING PARTS OF THIS BUT MOST SHOULD STAY THE SAME FOR THE NEW POSTS SANS BAGHERA, KAMETO, AND DANTDM'S CLASSPECTS! LOOK FORWARD TO UPDATED POSTS IN THE FUTURE.

SOME NOTES: 1. I have a very specific version of qsmpstuck going on with my art I make that I made with a group of friends (thanks Slimercord!) 2. There are other people who made other classpects and takes on QSMP characters that are more character based, mine is not that case, it looks at how QSMP as a whole would work as a full sburb session, and balancing how many people would be on each aspect or class to carry that motif of Homestuck's balancing/equal duality theme. This means I am looking at and using Classpects as a narrative & plot device, not necessarily a personality test like how someone would classpect a real person (This is how the Extended Zodiac works, and why I choose to ignore it for character classpecting. It works great for classpecting real life people though, so by all means you can use the EZ for you and your friends!). 3. AND WITH THAT! It means two people per aspect and and class, with the exception of space and time having three people, and knights and heirs having three people. 4. FAIR WARNING: IF YOU HAVE NEVER READ HOMESTUCK, THERE IS LOTS OF DEATH IN IT, WITH LOTS OF RESURRECTIONS. I WILL BE DISCUSSING DEATH IN A VERY JOKING MANNER HERE! 5. For posterity in case things change in the future: This post was made August 2nd 2023, after the French were added, and right before the Election arc finished. I'm sure if I came back to this after QSMP is over my classpecting would be different. (Updated August 20, 2023)

I'll add this again at the bottom but if you want more of my notes and thought processes or just more qsmpstuck in general here's the link to my tag for all qsmpstuck on this blog, and here's the link to all qsmpstuck on my regular mcyt blog. (my regular blog includes other people's qsmpstuck takes & reblogs however! But every classpect analysis I reblogged in there w/ an anonymous ask sent to the OP was me on anon lol)

HERE WE GO! The big ol google doc sheet I had to make for this. Every note on that godtier order list is how we decided the character would godtier, and we still aren't even technically done! I have so much information built up for this AU I am not sure I could include all of it in this post.

CLASSPECTS

Anyway, in terms of classpects, the way we went about deciding was 1. Finding symbolic meanings we felt fit the characters best 2. If the classpect was funny and had a fun double entendre to the character 3. If we really struggled, we went and picked up Dahni Witch of Light's classpect analyses and found which class fit a character best within an aspect we had a vague idea of. I find Dahni's analyses to be the best at classpecting non-homestuck characters with, because they give enough leeway in interpretation and are somewhat broad, while still applying as a fictional character's story arc, rather than solely a personality test. We also basically ignored most classpect's assigned "role" concept thingy, they were too nebulous in meaning to help much, with the only ones we kept being Sylphs are the passive creation class with Maids as the active creation class, and then Bards are passive destruction, Princes are active destruction.

AND NOW BACK TO THE CUBES YOU CARE ABOUT: As stated before, we did lay it out so we (mostly) only had two per aspect and class, to get that true fan session balancing spirit. Space/time and knight/heir are the only ones with three members. Here's how the outfits look!

My favorites here & their reasonings are: - Etoiles: Sylph of Blood - We all agreed him getting a classpect that is at least somewhat silly would be fitting, but all immediately came to the conclusion that he would hands down be a blood player. From his love of fighting, and the way he goes about befriending everyone he meets to help them, he's just so blood player. To balance out our initial silly classpecting idea, we made him a Sylph! It fits, like, really well! He creates friendship, he helps people, like. What more could you want from a classpect for him. - Mariana: Maid of Doom - I sent these two asks to this other person about this and liked their reasonings lol. - Spreen: Prince of Breath - Look I'm a Spreengirl I think he would play a great active destruction class and he takes away other's freedom (in minecraft). He kills people. He's just so Prince to me. It's really funny. - BBH: Knight of Life - Do you know how funny it is to take a guy who's whole thing is that he's like entirely black and red themed and put him in the burlap sack outfit. Also Knight & Space player frog breeding combo. He's working with Foolish on those frogs. - Foolish: Page of Space - This guy is the ultimate builder of all time ever. He was hands down the easiest to look at and go Oh he is THE space player here. - Fit: Prince of Space - Y'know 2b2t and hacked clients and griefing people? Prince of Space. Plus since he's a space player, soooo - Philza: Knight of Rage - Another great Space & Knight combo. This guy is such a hater on QSMP (positive) he doubts easily distrusts whenever necessary. Such a rage player. - Missa: Bard of Time - Missa is really failgirl I know quite a few people haven't like... watched much of his MC stuff. However you should check out when he had to be placed in a box to fish by himself so he wouldn't die a third time in Minecraft Extremo. He's a perfect Bard, and then he does music. Great set up for a Time player. Wouldn't want it any other way. - Antoine: Seer of Void - truly. Truly. A guy I looked at for two minutes and immediately knew what classpect he needed. That scene where he just like lightly questioned Cellbit after he escaped the federation and it made Cellbit so nervous he started just saying things that made him look way more nervous than necessary? Core Antoine moment for me. The fact he has a basement filled with so much writing on every candidate? The fact he hides his true face so much? We don't even know what's going on there? Void Player. Seer. So fitting it's beautiful to me. - Felps: Maid of Breath - Look, breath is THE aspect of freedom and doing what you want at your own pace. I think I would be committing a cardinal sin if I DIDN'T make Felps a breath player. - Tazercraft: Witch of Doom & Page of Time - They get to do a fucked up glitch timeloop. With these two classpects they can literally do whatever they want forever. Witch of Doom is a classpect that you give to a character if you know they can rip everything to shreds, have fun doing it, but wouldn't (usually) use it to actively hurt people out of true malice (for no reason) (a witch can DEFINITELY respond negatively if push comes to shove). Page of Time is so funny as a classpect also. Just like... Look up what the Page godtier outfit looks like. You'll see what I mean... And why Pac is a page. - Rubius: Waste of Breath - This classpect sounds really mean, sorry. I promise I like Rubius. He's supposed to be a stand in for what the Hussie author insert was in Homestuck, opposing Doc Scratch and fighting him. Hussie was a Waste of Space, I wanted to keep the pun with waste here. Breath worked the best. The federation has a Lord of Blood ability to counter him. Neither of these two count for the main classpect total.

One day I might post a copy of the google sheet and link it for more in-depth reasonings for every character, but like... almost everyone had reasonings like this where we spent waaay too long analyzing everyone LMAO. This is getting long as is, so I'll cut off classpecting here.

DREAMING MOONS

I am about to say something that will make people either really mad or really happy. There is no canon true definition of what assigns you a dreaming moon in Homestuck's text. The only thing we can glean from canon about which moon you get is that Prospit humans make their bed in the morning, and Derse humans don't. Needless to say, this doesn't help when you want to individually give each person a dreaming moon, but it IS great news for me: it makes assigning dreaming moons based on dividing the cast in half really, really easy. That is how it worked for the troll session, it was cut in half with teams, and then assigned based on red team vs blue team. So that is what I did here. All of the English speakers were given Prospit, and all of the Hispanic side were given Derse. This has lore relevance. We'll get back to it in a moment.

Also for note, the Federation is Prospit, with Dersite carapacians being a more nebulous identity against the Federation. Hispanic side was given Derse because they just seem more like Derse guys. Plus the whole Time on Derse/Space on Prospit theme going on in original HS canon is something I kinda wanted to go along with.

Quackity was given dual dreamer, with one of his dreamselves being ElQuackity, hence why he isn't listed. To balance this, we had to make another dual dreamer, and figured handing it to Kameto, who basically is permanently lost in the void, would be a good balance.

The French and Brazilian sessions were assigned using the "well this character would make sense here" method.

Server/Client Orders & Session Chains

If anyone needs a brief refresher, a client is the person you get into a sburb session, and a server is the person gets you into the session. Everyone is a client and a server to someone different. (tl;dr John was Rose's client, Rose was John's Server.) THAT BEING SAID! It means the loop for sessions close once you're all connected to both a client and a server. There are three separate sessions here, and one of them is a mobius double reacharound.

For clarity, the arrows mean: Client <- Server

The Original session, the mobius double reacharound, is the Spanish-English session. The order is

Quackity <- Mariana <- Spreen <- Roier <- Missa <- Vegetta <- Maxo <- Luzu (<- BBH)

BBH <- Foolish <- Slimecicle <- Jaiden <- DanTDM <- Fit <- Philza <- Wilbur (<- Quackity)

Because of the nature of a Mobius Double Reacharound, it means BBH and Quackity enter the session first, by technicality. The first person in a session is also the person who does the ectobiology. Unlike the troll session which only had Karkat as the ectobiologist, if Q!Quackity were the sole ectobiologist, no clones would be made and everyone would be stuck in a paradox, so I think it's funnier if BBH and Q had to work together on Ectobiology. I find their dynamic hilarious. Anyway, Luzu and Wilbur had to be the last in their respective chains, because no one else would be able to enter.

The next chain is the Brazilian closed Session, which is

Forever <- Mike <- Pac <- Felps <- Cellbit (<- Forever)

As previously mentioned, Pac e Mike (uou uou) have very good classpects to make up for the fact they have no space player. I'll come back to this.

The final chain is the French closed session. It goes

Baghera <- Antoine <- Etoiles <- AyPierre <- Kameto (<- Baghera)

They have balanced moons! They have a space player! They have a seer even! Both light and void! However, in missing a time player, they are forever doomed to fail the session.

LANDS OF PLANETS AND PARTNERS

Now I can finally explain actual lore. My apologies for making you read about 1000 words before this.

The Hispanic-English session is glitched. There is not a planet for each person. They have to share planets with a person from the opposite dreaming moon, generating lands that are a combination of two different aspects entirely. The planetary pairings for this prime session are the same pairings used for the initial egg pairings.

I really love designing lands for Sburb AUs it's my favorite thing in the world. The first one is the Land of Acid and Alcohol, Slimecicle (Heir of Heart) and Mariana's (Maid of Doom) land. Its oceans are acid and gasoline, and then covered in bottles that are a Russian roulette of alcoholic beverages, and then Molotov cocktails! The second is the Land of Steam and Dreams, Roier (Witch of Blood) and Jaiden's (Seer of Hope) land. It's filled with buildings built in an industrial revolution style architecture, playing on how people could believe in social mobility and "making it" in that time period, while also being reliant on heavy metallic machinery! I have a lot of fun conceptualizing lands.

The session's glitches don't stop at the planetary pairings on their own however, and it continues when Luzu attempts to enter the session. The session glitches from him being BBH's client, where it refuses to match pairings if they're connected directly, as the game would be unable to generate the gates above each player's house, it would simply loop back to connecting with the same Land. Luzu ends up being paired onto Quackity's land because of this, because the Game still detects him as having a dreamself on the opposite moon, even if he technically has both.

This causes BBH and Wilbur's land to glitch, and they end up paired together (as a bit of a nod back to how BBH and Wilbur were initially intended to be paired, before admins just made a new egg for Wilbur). We'll get back to this in a bit.

Some other lands from the AH session I enjoy are - The Land of Lush Forests and Iridescent Lakes, also known as LOLFAIL, BBH and Wilbur's land, which is a double Life player land, so the oceans are filled with gemstones and the land is covered in the most dense forest imaginable. It has the most difficult underlings spawn on it compared to any other land in the Anglo-Hispanic session. - The Land of Frogs and Typhoons, Spreen and Fit's land, which every space player is guaranteed frogs as part of their land, combined with Spreen being a breath player, it is a constant hurricane with frogs in it. They do not work on trying to calm the storm. They just start killing the frogs. There are so many frogs. The frogs are constantly flying at anyone who enters the land. Fit's slogan is FTF. Thank you to crow qsmp-yaoi for saying this idea because it truly brings me to tears every time I think about them being hit by those frogs flying at Mach 10. - The Land of Synapses and Static, Maxo and DanTDM's land. It's a darkened land, caused by Maxo's void, and then covered in a blanket of constant fog so thick a lighthouse can barely cut through it. The land also has mimicking noises to make familiar sounds to any player that steps on it, caused by Dan's Mind. It is an overbearingly lonely land. One where you understand what it truly feels like to be alone. One where you can lose someone as soon as you take your eyes off of them. Maxo last saw Dan on this land. No one else has seen him since.

I'm going to stop myself here, but I might come back and draw some more Land illustrations for these, haha.

Denizeggs

With the planetary partners, you might have seen this coming. Each planet in the combined session is missing a Denizen. Instead, what each player finds at the heart of the land is a little egg they need to help raise. They all find eggs at different points, however. Some people find their egg before they godtier, some find them afterward.

All of the eggs correspond to the land of their respective parents, however Luzu joins into the session too late to ever meet Tilin, second to last of the chain, she's already dead by that point.

And then the final major glitch in starting this session, when Wilbur joins as the final member of the chain, and enters, the only land open is BBH's land. Due to the nature of Sburb already knowing how things would end, it was always going to be this way, and there was no other option on who's planet he would join. The game glitches again, and detecting a second Prospit player, spawns in a new Denizen: Tallulah.

The eggs generally follow how they were in QSMP proper. Some of them die early. Some of them don't. Juanaflippa is as tragic as she is in canon. Two dads who are just bad at raising a child and it would have never worked out. Slime still kills Tilin by accident. Spreen doesn't care about Ramon, ditched him etc you know how it goes. The eggs are partially a planet quest too, so it's best if the eggs do live here.

Also in the glitches with this, there's a lack of consorts on any of the combined planets. There are a few, but not really as common as canon proper would have.

BRAZIL! 🇧🇷

The Brazil Session is a closed session between the five Brazilians. One of the requirements to complete Sburb is that you need a Space player (required to have forge in order to complete the final genesis frog & launch it into creating a new universe) and a Time player (required to keep the session in the proper timeline). The Brazilians have a time player (Pac), so they're halfway there!

There's some hiccups along the way. Mostly just Cellbit accidentally killing Felps and having to sprite him so Mike could make him a robot body to live in, but same old same old etc. Pac and Mike also kill each other by accident, but some other stuff happens there.

They still don't have the main aspect to actually continue the session, realize this, and also have a guy with one of the most conceptually powerful classpects to exist in terms of being able to glitch a game and save everyone. They manage to contact the primary session, reaching out to two grieving parents who are desperate to do anything to revive their daughter, one of whom is also a very powerful Doom player.

Brazilian Lands (brief edition)! - Land of Vultures and Culture, Forever's land, is a Hope land based around having Forever work to help save consorts who are hiding beneath intense structures and live in very isolate communities from each other. There's also massive megafauna in the skies that are always trying to kill them. - Land of Electronics and Experiments, Mike's land, is a pretty typical doom land, based around Chume labs, and has a constant lightning storm overhead - Land of Dancefloors and Dollhouses, Pac's land, is a combination of a land quest he has to get through, and a typical time land. All time lands have a clockwork or a music theme, I think him having a hot pink land that's massive amounts of dollhouse rooms attached to each other he has to make it through is just a fun concept. - Land of Cloud and Sky, Felps's world, is just a land with everything high in the sky. His whole quest is about him harnessing his ability to go with the flow to connect his consorts together. This is hard when he's sprited himself after dying upon entering due to Cellbit fucking up and accidentally killing him, and living in a robot body built by Mike. Aradia style. - Land of Searchlight and Bone, Cellbit's world, is a giant panopticon style prison. With so many bones, both decorating the prison, and filling the prison cells. His final moment is when he gets to the office of the panopticon, and it is his quest bed. He has a whole ordeal over it.

RICARLYSON! So these guys have regular consorts and Denizens, Richarlyson spawns in the heart of Skaia, and gives the quest for the other five guys to raise him.

Pac (Page of Time) has the ability to manipulate time as he wants once he realizes his abilities. Mike (Witch of Doom) can rip a hole in the universe so big it saves all of the players and sets them smack in the middle of another session, especially a previously contacted session with the connection being a Maid of Doom. With a time player land as well, they get a scratch construct on the Land of Dancefloors and Dollhouses, setting up their ability to scratch their session and set loose a whole new universe where theirs once stood.

French

The French session has probably the most normal planets of everything going on here, what really starts their journey going awry is that they have no time player.

Antoine, being a Seer of Void, can see something is going wrong. He makes contact with people outside of their session in an attempt to restore things to balance. He goes off into the veil and contacts the horrorterrors, and sets up a connection between two Doom players who seem they both desperately need it.

While he's doing that, the rest of the French proceed to have the most normal Sburb session out of anyone. Etoiles is having a great time on his planet. Aypierre gets a genesis tadpole. Kameto has two backup lives.

French Planets (Brief Edition) - Land of Apples and Airplanes, Baghera's land! It's probably the nicest land of anyone's. There are many jokes about how she doesn't get why everyone keeps complaining about their lands being horrible until she reaches theirs. - Land of Sham and Soil, Antoine's land, it's a dark land with tall dirt towers that make it impossible to see where you step. You'd need to be someone who could find where you're going in the pitch dark to even survive here. - Land of Bonds and Breakouts, Etoiles's land, is a land of a giant maze dungeon labyrinth. It's a nightmare for everyone but him. He loves it. - Land of Bogs and Frogs, AyPierre's land, is a land with frogs in a very thick swamp. I'll be honest i Just need to cook on this one some more. - Land of Hidden Leaves and War, Kameto's land, is a Naruto joke.

POMME! Is like Richas she's in the middle of Skaia. An easter egg if you will.

The French session is brought into the primary session when Antoine manages to contact with everyone else fully, rather than quietly watch from the outside. Etoiles and Baghera lose their original selves, and are their dreamselves when the universes collide in, and were unable to godtier, due to not knowing about the quest slabs.

GODTIERING! & the rest of the chronological story

THIS is the order of the godtiers from the beginning of the Spanish-English session. Anyone in the other sessions who godtier before their universe collide event has a red numeral to keep them distinct. I feel pretty strongly almost everyone would godtier here, they're all characters based on gamers. Sburb au works exceptionally well when you know everyone's gaming style.

Also, yeah I have notes listed on each godtier order for how each person dies. Like it's that detailed atp.

Spreen has the highest kill count out of everyone on purpose. I think he'd be down to cut his friends down knowing they'd be revived immortal afterward. As well as, the federation is Prospit in this scenario, they want everyone to godtier. I think him playing to what they want out of him feels his style. Anyway, he sprites his own dreamself due to ElQuackity messing with timeloops. To make his living player self trust him, Spreensprite convinces him to godtier Roier first. It is himself he's talking to, after all. Roier becomes the first godtier in any universe, and not out of his own volition. After seeing it really did work with Roier, Spreen godtiers himself. He gets li'l bear ears ala Jade getting doggy ears with her dreamself sprited, he threw in a Rubius cubito to his kernelsprite first. I like the bear ears I'm biased .3. q!Spreen being really fun in a Sburb concept is why I got hooked on this au after all.

After the first lore is repeated, BBH godtiers himself by decapitating himself with a sendificator to fuck with Foolish. He's kinda bitter about getting beige clothes. He befriends the midnight crew at least. This is before he has Dapper. He finds out about godtiering from Roier by accident and then is like. Oh I have the BEST idea.

Vegetta is killed by Spreen by request, wanting to be stronger to protect Leo, and then Spreen godtiers Missa in order to use his time powers on Derse to throw his dreamself at the kernelsprite, locking the time loop. Anyway, Missa is essentially locked in a tower on Derse's moon after this, now permanently in his Dreamself's body, who hadn't awoken prior. Fit realizes people are walking around in weird clothes, hears about it vaguely from BBH, sends a text to Spreen who'd been ghosting him, and goes like. Hey man. Wanna kill me? And gets his first reply in months.

Phil is attacked by an overpowered monster and almost dies, and Missa manages to get the message to Fit that this is happening through time shenanigans, and Fit manages to get him to his questbed before he fully dies and loses his dreamself. Phil is not happy about this and could not be angrier. He doesn't blame Fit though it's like a self anger thing.

THE BRAZILIAN CASCADE HAPPENS! PEOPLE DIE. By which I mean Slimecicle and Mariana work together to try to help the Brazilians into the session in a bid at saving Juanaflippa, hoping one of them have the ability to revive her. Slimecicle is murdered in the crypts of Prospit by Quackity in a duel, where he cuts off Quackity's arm in exchange for Quackity cutting down his life. Truly one of those luck moments where Charlie dies on his questslab. Mariana is murdered at the same time by Spreen, who is now fully working under orders from the Federation.

Pre-cascade, Pac and Mike both godtier, because they stumble into a stable timeloop, by Mike accidentally glitching Pac's questslab into throwing it at him and killing him. He godtiers with this. Now, as a fully godtiered page of time, they make it to Mike's questbed, and godtier!Mike nudges Pac's slab at Past!Mike to pick up and throw when fucking around with powers.

Felps godtiers in the cascade along with Mariana and Slimecicle, they leave behind Derse and its moon, and they both get destroyed. Where his body sleeping on the quest slab godtiers. Aradia style. Except... as a Maid of Breath, his robot sprite body doesn't explode. He just sort of... exists in both. When one falls asleep the other wakes up. The rest of the Brazilian session just assumes the Cascade fucked with his robot body's energy sources. He kind of just figures each side is a weird dream he keeps having.

Cellbit is staunchly anti-godtier, while Forever wants someone he trusts to godtier him. Cellbit refuses to godtier Forever, and causes a major fight between them. Then Spreen murders Cellbit into his godtier under orders from the Federation, which is preceded by a long Scooby-doo-esque chase, where BBH sees them both, and decides to follow. BBH is a fully godtiered Knight of Life here, he has resurrection powers for other players, and Spreen is functionally immortal as well. BBH 100% catches up to him after he kills Cellbit, and proceeds to put Spreen in a torment nexus of dying and undeath. Thus ends the Killing Spree(n).

AND THEN THE FRENCH CASCADE HAPPENS! The final session connects, and Baghera sacrifices herself to make it happen. After they make it in, they learn about Quest slabs, and there's a whole thing with Etoiles dramatically getting her to her questslab before she fully dies. Etoiles then proceeds to go kill himself on the questslab immediately after. Felps is also hanging out with the French, they found him hanging out in the void and take him with them. They lose Kameto in the void however, nobody's really sure where he went.

Pre-French Cascade, Antoine is the only French player to godtier, and no one will explain how it happened. It seems like no one really knows, but Etoiles keeps saying more fantastical descriptions every time someone asks. He's never taken his seer hood off of his face.

Back in the order of the godtiers, Forever befriends Baghera, and eventually her and Etoiles and Cellbit help him godtier. It's a whole event. Richas is having a blast.

Bobby dies, and Jaiden decides to godtier in order to get into the Federation's good graces, as well as out of guilt of feeling that if she were stronger and godtiered she could have saved him. Roier godtiers her.

AyPierre is godtiered in a tragic accident with one of his many machines. Etoiles helps pull him to his quest bed. He's a Thief of Space he has fun with it.

Foolish is the second to last person to godtier, and he is godtiered by Pomme by accident. He wanted his godtier to be as cool as possible, and somehow managed to not godtier by this point. It's just very him. He's down with the page pants.

Quackity is the final member to godtier. BBH kills ElQ at one end of the universe with the aid of Maximus. Slimecicle kills the regular QQ in one final duel.

At the end of the universe, the only people left alive and able to contact the rest of the sessions to never godtier are Wilbur and Maxo.

DanTDM disappears on the Land of Synapses and Static, never to be seen again, along with Turnip following soon after.

Luzu finds a glitch and is absorbed by it not long after he enters.

Nobody is really sure if Kameto godtiered or not.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

We're currently working on figuring out sprites for everyone, so hey! I might come back and add an update on that, but this post is so long my computer is lagging. I have a gaming laptop. It shouldn't be doing that. Here's some stuff on the sprites we do have + some misc notes.

Cellbit's flashlightkind is like how Kanaya's lipstick works. It's a chainsaw.

Spreen has Spreensprite, BBH has Skeppysprite, Missa has a sprite that is a mysterious skull sprited twice called Skullskullsprite, and Roier has his dog with a spiderman called Dogmansprite, and Jaiden has Arisprite, who's Miku & Ari combined :D (thanks icarus!)

It is 5 am as I finish typing this and queue it. I think I started typing this at 5 pm yesterday. Feel free to comment any thoughts you have or play around in this au! Also feel free to @ me if you do, either on my main mcyt blog (@etoilesbienne), or here!

qsmpstuck tag on my art blog / qsmpstuck tag on my regular mcyt talk blog

#qsmp #qsmpstuck #qsmp au #qsmp homestuck au #mcytstuck

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grainjew · 2 months

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Nikaposting Pt 1: Crypto-Religion

This is the first of a series of posts about Nika & associated religious practice in the One Piece world. As I write and post the rest of the series, I’ll add links to this header.

Pt 2: Symbology & Syncretism | Pt 3: Joyboy was Shandian | Pt 4: Sun God Tropes

Enormous credit to @oriigami for being my discussion partner through all of this and having a substantial influence on the final product. Check out our ao3 series Joyful for a narrative rather than analytical take on the Nika tradition, and definitely go read her OP blog @kaizokuou-ni-naru for meta and translation fun facts.

The Nika Cult is a Crypto-Religion

Terminology note: I will be using cult in these posts in the sense of “cult of worship,” rather than in the modern pejorative sense. Additionally, I tend to use “tradition” rather than “religion” as a general term, because “religion” is a messy and difficult to define concept, while “tradition” is much more inclusive of traditional practices, folk beliefs, and cults of worship that may not be considered religions by Western scholarship.

Raise your hand if you saw Kuma’s church and Bible, concluded “oh, the Nika stuff is basically One Piece Christianity,” and moved on with your life.

It’s an easy assumption to make, and for all I know authorial intent may well stop there. I’m not Oda. I’ll never be able to guess what goes on behind those fish eyes of his. But a second look at the worldbuilding around both Nika and Christianity in One Piece brought me to a very different conclusion: that the Nika cult is a crypto-religion and is, in Kuma’s case, using the outward appearance of Christianity as camouflage.

First of all: We have ample evidence that Christianity (or some variation of it- I’m fascinated by the implied existence of such things as One Piece Jerusalem and the One Piece Council of Nicea) does exist in the One Piece world, and is both fairly widespread and quite legal. Flevance was pretty explicitly Catholic (Law went to church as a kid), Miss Monday and Mother Carmel masqueraded as nuns to imply harmlessness, many if not most of the graves shown in the series are crosses, whatever Usopp was on about with that exorcism equipment, and, yes, Kuma’s church and Bible.

Even mentioning the Nika cult, on the other hand, is grounds for the government to assassinate you with extreme prejudice.

A crypto-religion is what happens when a religion is suppressed to the point that its practice is grounds for exile, torture, and/or execution: Some people will convert. Some people will flee into exile. Some people will die. And some people will outwardly adopt the dominant religion, but will continue to practice their own traditions in secret; ie, they’ll create a crypto-religion.

One of the more famous examples of this is the post-Spanish Inquisition crypto-Jews of Spain and Portugal, who converted to Christianity in public but kept what Jewish traditions and rituals they could in private. To this day, descendants of these conversos whose families have been Catholic for centuries are discovering that their family tradition of lighting two candles on Friday or not eating pork on Saturday are in fact the legacy of a violently suppressed heritage. There are countless other examples of crypto-religions throughout history, both among Jews (my own personal field of knowledge) and among other traditions (for an example that would be known to Oda, the crypto-Christians of Japan).

There’s no way the Nika cult could have survived except in cryptic form. If it ever had physical infrastructure in the form of temples or pilgrimage sites, the government would have sought them out and demolished them long ago if they were not adequately disguised, especially in World Government member states like the Sorbet Kingdom. Likewise, anyone foolish enough to speak publicly about Nika will be summarily assassinated.

In fact, I have doubts that the Nika cult ever existed outside cryptic form, at least in a significant or long-lasting manner. It was specifically introduced as a slave tradition, likely nigh-exclusively oral, practiced in secret either from its inception—if Nika was a figure created by slaves, including the buccaneers—or for a very long time—if it was the cultural or ethnic tradition of the buccaneers, which spread from enslaved buccaneers to non-buccaneer slaves because Nika was a figure that resonated with them. I tend the favor the second option, but either has merit.

As @oriigami said when we were talking about this, Kuma has a church. Kuma has a bible. Kuma worships a god about whom absolutely nothing is written except in the oldest texts.

Additionally, I’ll expand on this more in pt 2 of this series, but the pendant Kuma leaves for Bonney, a large circular sapphire surrounded by eight smaller circular sapphires, matches the circular symbol inset into the crosses of his church. Bonney immediately identifies the pendant as a sun even though it really doesn’t look like one, and it can be surmised therefore that it’s a Nika amulet, and the sun with disconnected rays a Nika symbol. Following this read, and especially because this symbol occurs across the world in other contexts (see pt 2 for my thoughts on that), its presence in the church is a very careful bit of architectural sleight of hand on the part of whichever of Kuma’s ancestors built the place- echoing a very common practice of real-world crypto-religion adherents to mark the true nature of their allegiances and houses of worship in ways only those in the know might recognize.

And on a storytelling level, Kuma’s entire presence in the narrative and in the world has been a tragic saga of appearing to be one way until he’s revealed, again and again, to be the opposite. It makes thematic sense for him to be fooling the world about his faith as well!

#nikaposting #sun god nika #gear 5 #opmeta #bartholomew kuma #meta tag #zephflix original #if i hadn't dropped out of college i'd be a religious studies major and this tag is how you know

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writingquestionsanswered · 8 months

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so I want to start writing but I don’t know where and how to start writing. Any tips??

Where (and How) to Start Writing

1 - Start by filling your "creative well."

Writers are storytellers, but you can't tell stories if you have no stories to tell. That's why it's so important to fill your "creative well" by becoming an observer of life and consuming the stories unfolding around you. My guide to Filling Your Creative Well will help you with that.

2 - Learn about the different types of writing.

"Writing" doesn't just mean being a novelist. You could write fan-fiction, short stories, plays, poetry, screenplays, songs... you can journal, write a memoir, write non-fiction, write children's books, blog, become a journalist, or write op-eds. You can be a copy writer, technical writer, ghost writer, biographer, critic, essayist... Where and how you start depends on what type of writer you want to be. You can research the type of writing that interests you to learn the best way to start.

3 - Journal or do some writing prompts.

Regardless of the type of writer you want to be, a great way to start is by doing some daily journaling and/or doing writing prompts. Both options will help you practice things like sentence structure, description, grammar, and punctuation. You can find all sorts of free writing prompt resources right here on tumblr, as well as all over the internet, and there are also some great writing prompt books out there. Or, you may choose instead to journal about your day, your thoughts and feelings, or random subjects that pop into your head.

4 - Learn how stories generally work.

If you want to write fiction--whether that's fan-fiction, short stories, or long fiction like novellas and novels, it's important to learn how stories generally work. I say "generally" because there are many different kinds of stories and exactly how stories work can vary across time and place. However, there are a lot of general basics that tend to apply to modern popular stories. You can learn about those here: Beginning a New Story Guide: Starting a New (Long Fiction) Story How to Move a Story Forward

You might also find the following posts to be helpful: Want to Write but Can’t Come Up with a Plot It’s Never Too Late to Become a Writer Where to Go from Initial Book Idea

And finally, you can take a look through my master list of posts for additional help. :)

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

Learn more about WQA

See my ask policies

Visit my Master List of Top Posts

Go to ko-fi.com/wqa to buy me coffee or see my commissions

#writing tips #writing help #writing advice #wqaadvice

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goldensunset · 5 months

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💎 lokiss

🔁 traumaadcaelum Follow

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💎 lokiss

i think a snickers would’ve fixed baldr tbh

🙅 traumaadcaelum Follow

hi! can you NOT make jokes about the worst massacre that’s happened here in centuries?? my girlfriend was murdered that day but i guess people like you just love taking advantage of tragedies for funny internet clout. i hope you lose your heart in another world.

💎 lokiss

she baldr on my dr until i bald

#get off my post i literally lost someone too

479 notes

💐 my-other-car-is-a-keyblade-glider

my missing brother, brani, is finally back!!!! i’ve been so so worried for forever. thank you everyone who prayed with me 🙏

#he is acting a little weird though if i’m being honest #freya speaks

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🌸 dandelioneater

🔁 the-fourteenth-original-darkness

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🍎 valkyrie-of-dreams Follow

sometimes i feel like my taste in men is bad and then i remember there are multiple secret societies entirely dedicated to thirsting after master brain

🔑 its-kee-not-kai

you ever see a post that just looks like someone swinging a keyblade at a flappy bugs nest

#kingdom hearts grant me the serenity to not look at the notes #courage to not look at the notes #and wisdom to not look at the notes

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🌕 tardyfleetfoot

Asking for a friend what do you do when a cable car stops in midair and starts shaking and swaying on the wire while you’re in there up there way high above the ground? Time sensitive question asking for a friend.

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🌚 the-fourteenth-original-darkness

🔁 my-other-car-is-a-keyblade-glider

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🧜🏻‍♀️ ieatchesspieces Follow

let’s explore the nearby abandoned towns together!

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🔑its-kee-not-kai

🔁 master-odin-retire-challenge

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💍 ladyofsilver-fountains Follow

it’s really awful how people are acting like it’s illegal to have a sense of humor anymore. even in the wake of tragedy, humans have always been humans. plus it’s been almost a year now. life goes on, you know?

👢master-odin-retire-challenge

the context for this post is op lost their job and reputation because they laughed at the funeral of a little girl named vör when the person giving the eulogy couldn’t be bothered to learn how to pronounce her name correctly. please for the love of light stop blindly reblogging things like this.

#oh ewww i hate people

239 notes

🌘 xehanerd

to the anon who just sent that long-winded ask: my blog is my space. if you don’t like what i post then move on.

#xe.post #delete later

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🌘 xehanerd

🔁 dajokerofscala Follow

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🌗 balancewillprevail Follow

It drives me insane whenever people frame it like Baldr 'succumbing to darkness' and going crazy was inevitable. Sure, darkness played a part in that tragedy, but it completely overlooks the reality of how Master Odin failed to take care of that child at every step of the way. The boy was lost in grief, and the adult who was supposed to take care of him shoved him in an asylum-like room alone? Are we really going to leave that part out in favor of pushing the narrative that people prone to darkness are simply evil at heart? He could have lived a happy life being himself if he had been supported and nurtured. It didn’t have to be this way.

🌕 tardyfleetfoot

Right? We could have saved him from his darkness! He was our friend….

🌗 balancewillprevail Follow

That’s… not at all what I was saying, but I suppose a stupid comment like this is to be expected from somebody with ‘darkness dni’ in their bio. Thanks for trying.

🐓 everyoneshutupplease Follow

‘darkness played a part in that tragedy’ not you sugarcoating what happened for the sake of pushing YOUR narrative that the thing that’s been killing people since the dawn of time can possibly be anything but toxic. how many people have to die before people like you get in touch with reality???

🌗 balancewillprevail Follow

Sounds about right from someone who went through the Scala Ad Caelum public school system. Have you ever tried reading a book other than what was assigned for class? Please check your natural-light privilege and ignorance. Thanks.

🪐 fenrir-fanatic

look out lads we got another conspiracy theorist ‘homeschool your kids’ dork lmao

🌗 balancewillprevail Follow

And do you read anything other than sigurd x reader fanfiction, based on the first seven posts on your blog?

📈 whats-your-favorite-staircase-to-heaven Follow

the notes on this post were so toxic staff just axed ‘em

#sent to me #thank you joker

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#unreality #less than 24 hours later here’s the dr one lol #kingdom hearts #khdr #kingdom hearts dark road #dark road #mine: kh

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dr4kenlvr · 2 years

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𝐓𝐎𝐊𝐘𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐕. 𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐒 + 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐊𝐈𝐒𝐒 <𝟑

feat. mikey sano, draken, baji keisuke, chifuyu matsuno, mitsuya takashi x gn!reader - fluff (1.1k+)

nana's note/cw: i just think having your first kiss with draken would be like getting a glimpse of heaven but idk that's just my opinion—cw: plot-based manga spoilers in chifuyu's, mentions of eating in baji's! enjoy my loves hehehe <3

part 2 here!! ^^

credit for the prompts to op with this post! (except for mikey's! i made that one hehe) edit: seems the post got deleted? however prompts still belong to that blog!

MIKEY + "well if you keep doing that, i don't need anymore sweets."

mikey grumbles at the empty fridge cabinet, which he designated to store all his treats. chowing down the final bite of his last taiyaki, mikey turns to you with a pout. "i thought i told emma to get me some more the other day," he says with an adorably angry expression. you giggle at his fuss, stepping forward to wipe a crumb off the corner of his mouth. he looked so cute like this; messy hair, oversized pajamas, and soft pink lips just begging you for attention. mikey lets you touch him as you please, smiling at you playfully as he leans his back against the counter. you rest a palm on his cheek, and he nuzzles himself into your hand. then, you throw all doubt out the window to lean in slowly, and kiss him—a kiss so hesistant, careful and soft, that mikey needs to guide his hand up your neck to push you further onto him. as you indulge yourself in mikey's lips, you decide he tastes like strawberry cream and smile to yourself pleasantly. when you two release for air, mikey whispers against your lips: "well if you keep doing that, i don't need anymore sweets."

DRAKEN + "do that again."

the cushion of your couch sinks under the weight of your boyfriend's body. draken lays on his back, with his head resting on your lap, eyes shutting immediately. he had a long day at the shop, and you were determined to give him a relaxful night ahead. undoing his braid, you ran your fingers through his blonde locks tenderly, earning you a blissful groan from the man below you. his hand slowly reaches back and grips your thigh with a grateful squeeze, before sliding down to rest on your knee. your entire body flushes, you never ceased to react from his touches. continuing your ministration on his head, you carry your wispy touches to his face; running your fingers gently over his forehead, cheeks, nose and lips. draken doesn't make a single noise or move at all—not even when he feels you lean down over him, and your lips hovering above his own. you kiss him, and feel his body’s slight tense of shock, before he melts against you like putty in your arms. despite it being the first time, you two move in perfect unison. you pull back for air, but it's not long before draken grabs you by the sides of your face, and tells you to "do that again."—and how could you say no?

BAJI + "you're the best first kiss i've ever had.. not that i have much to compare to."

"oh man, that smells fucking good!" baji cheers, mixing up the yakisoba noodles in the two bowls for you and him. you hum in agreement, feeling your stomach growl at the thought of devouring it all. "you always make packaged food look so delicious, kei’." you tease, giggling at his half-assed glare. his jutted pout looked so adorable, you couldn't help but hug him from behind and squeeze his torso lightly, much to his (also, half-assed) protests. as your boyfriend continues his preparations, you admire just how handsome he was. the sun's afternoon glow through the open window kissed him gracefully, allowing you to stare at the sharp contours and highlights of his face. he had his hair tied up just the way you liked it, and you felt the strings at your heart pull when he looked down at you. "what's u—?" he starts, but you push up on your feet to meet your lips with his', and—although quick—it was perfect. internally, it felt like you had finally untied the strings that made your heart ache so dearly around him. you couldn't help but feel a little nervous at his shocked expression, before it softens into a lovesick grin. "you're the best first kiss i've ever had.. not that i have much to compare to." he says, chuckling at his words but reconfirming them when he leans down for another peck. and another.

CHIFUYU + "...oh god, can we try that again?"

the doorbell rang, signalling that chifuyu's huge order had finally arrived to his front step: 25 boxes of the gang's 'thousand winters' tees. you, who had nothing else to do this afternoon, offered your help—to which your boyfriend graciously accepted with an estatic grin. for the past hour, the two of you have been carrying in box after box (with well-needed breaks; you guys didn't expect this to be as tiring as it was), until each one was properly stacked atop one another—except for one. as you bent down to carry it off with the rest, chifuyu spun around holding the shirt with a blissful grin at his purchase, only to trip his foot against the side and fall face forward towards you. "c-chifuyu!" you scram to catch his body, until you feel the impact of his lips smush against your's. chifuyu's eyes widen at the situation, before he pushes himself off of you and begins profusely apologizing. "oh my god-shit! i'm so sorry, i didn't mean it!" he spills, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the taste of your lip balm and decides fuck it: "...oh god, can we try that again?" you laugh, and nod, before leaning into give him a coordinated second kiss.

MITSUYA + "we can take things slow."

mitsuya shuts the door to mana and luna's room with a quiet click, "they're fast asleep, love." he whispers to you and you smile with a nod. the two of you then make your way down the steps of his home, being sure to not be so loud. the clock reads 9:38 PM and you begin to set up a random film while mitsuya took care of the snacks and drinks. making his way over to your little set up, mitsuya grins at the fluffy blankets and excessive amounts of pillows you've gathered. with no plans to sleep in his bedroom, you and mitsuya got comfortable against one another—his left arm wrapped around your shoulder with a big bowl of popcorn on your lap, and pressed play. now 40 minutes in, your focus shifts from the characters on-screen to the constant feeling of mitsuya's palms on your hips. you still at every slight movement of his fingers, and your heartbeat pounds in sync with his breathing behind you—it seems mitsuya's focus is not on the movie, either. you crane your head behind you, gasping when you meet his face only mere inches from your own. his eyes flicker to your lips, and you find yourself mirroring his action. he leans in ever so slowly, lips grazing against yours when he mutters, "we can take things slow, okay?" you nod once, barely registering his words when your desires take over and push yourself onto him. mitsuya smiles into the kiss, hands roaming and only spreading more warmth around you and the now-forgotten film.

taglist: @dai-tsukki-desu @kazuhoya@gwynsapphire@sscarchiyo@reiners-milkbiddies@smileyswifeyy @bontensimp-blog (send me an ask or dm to be added!)

reblogs and comments are very appreciated ^^

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findmeabowloftrash-blog · 7 months

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okay so. I am very very recently into The Property of Hate. I am caught up, and rereading bits and parts, while attempting to find blogs that still actively talk about/post about it. I'm quite new, so there's a good chance I have just missed it, but these are some things I have noticed/wondered that I haven't seen talked about.

1) Theory: The eyes on (the top half of) the butterfly's wings are RGB's eyes. Reasoning: In "Iris," on pages 455 and 456, we see the butterfly glare at RGB while asking if he cares who they (the butterfly) once was, and he says no. It then cuts him, and we get a brief flashback of, presumably, human RGB telling someone (whoever the butterfly used to be? Or his reflection, perhaps?) that he hates them, with the same glare. This is also, I believe, the only time we ever see his eyes in a flashback. Further, the butterfly is widely believed to be Hate, and it would make sense that his own hatred (of this other person? of himself?) is what "blinded" him. ESPECIALLY if it blinded him to his own potential. More on that later.

2) Observation: Negative seems to wear actual spats, as opposed to having them be part of his shoes. Relevance: Mod once said in answer to an ask about RGB's suspenders that nothing about him is genuine, it's only meant to appear that way, and cited his not-actually-spats as one example. If Negative does indeed wear real spats, does that make at least part of him more "genuine" than RGB?

3) Theory(?): Negative means no harm to Hero, and in fact cares a great deal about her. Reasoning: He's clearly intelligent, not just violent toward whatever is closest, because in his first appearance he protects Hero, rather than going after her himself. If the Fears were no match for him, why waste time fighting them if he wanted to hurt her? She would have been the weakest target, not the Fears. Then, in the desert, after creating the giant rose to protect himself and Hero, once he looks up and notices her, the eye on his screen looks teary, like it's watering up. (Pg 355) And wouldn't you cry if a child you wanted to protect came back into a deadly storm for you? In addition, I saw a post somewhere reasoning that the House of Lead belongs to Negative, and in that post the OP theorized that Negative wanted Hero to tell RGB about him. If he were antagonistic, or had literally any ill will toward Hero, that wouldn't make any sense.

Miscellaneous thoughts and rambling:

RGB calls himself "an unreliable narrator at best" during the same conversation/monologue/story he says that he is a failure, that the only thing he ever does is fail. ("After all, I died, didn't I?" -pg 472) And it seems that way, based on his history with heroes, sure. He fails pretty much all of his goals in the story (even ones like "don't get attached"). But if we go based on a number of meta things, we can easily reason that that isn't true, and he is, in fact, an unreliable narrator of his own life. For one, he was almost certainly an actor or entertainer of some sort. That in and of itself is a form of success. But beyond that, we have Mod's "The Face of Television" art, which implies he was VERY successful. There is also the "I was in Brooklyn when I found out" art of Dial looking at obituaries in the newspaper. Why would the obituary of a failed British actor be in an American newspaper? He had to have been someone well-known. Finally, on page 433, all the way to the left, among the static, you can see, "-reaking news tonight --as famed --tertainer". All of this heavily points toward RGB being, not a failure, but instead highly successful when he was human. Rather, I think the "failure" part comes from how he viewed himself. Unable to look in the mirror, to stand himself at all, to think of himself as anything more than a projection-- empty, hollow. And isn't that exactly how he ended up? I think that he played into Hate's hand because he did, in fact, have hatred-- but it wasn't the kind she could use against others directly, because he doesn't hate others; He hates himself. He hates himself so strongly that, even after selling his memories, he still truly believes that he is, at his very core, a failure.

Maybe Negative is the part of him that believes in himself??

Also:

I never see anyone talk about the recurring shapes/symbols in RGB's flashbacks/dreams. I'm mentally calling them: Box (or possibly Casket), Hands, Iron, Teardrop, Rectangles. They appear on pages 335 and 456, at least. Possibly others. Really really curious what they represent.

Anyway I'm sure I'm missing a lot of well-known fandom stuff but. I just needed to put my thoughts together and dump them into a public space.

#Tpoh #tpoh rgb #the property of hate #tpoh negative #Tpoh theories #Trashseeker talks #I'll come back and edit this when it's not 2:28am

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sasheneskywalker · 6 months

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batfamily fic recs which are told through unusual formatting

a hat fashioned from tin foil by discowing (ameliafromafairytale) nightwang @karakurachou – 8 hours ago jason todd is alive and faked his death so he could become robin: a conspiracy theory thread

Batfam conspiracy theories meet social media.

T | No Archive Warnings Apply | No Relationships

occam's razor by BeatriceEagle r/SolveIt • Posted by u/Phalangefier 3 days ago

It's the fifth anniversary of Jason Todd's death

Today is the fifth anniversary of the day that Jason Todd and Sheila Haywood were murdered, so I thought I would post a write-up unifying all of the information that we have on the case. There have been a lot of posts about Jason over the years, but this case is so weird and has so many branches to it, I don’t think that anyone’s ever compiled all of them in one place.

T | No Archive Warnings Apply | Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

Send to All by kerosceene I, _______________, hereby acknowledge that this form represents my wishes should I contract phytoaphrodisiac-induced delirium (hereafter referred to as “PAID”) during engagements with or while apprehending Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley (“Poison Ivy”).

The bats have a sex pollen release form. Because of course they do.

T | No Archive Warnings Apply | Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon & Dick Grayson, Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne

Batman Hits the Red Hood with His Batarang by redboard (Ink) Batman hears whispers of a new crime lord in Gotham, trailing blood and carnage in his wake. The Red Hood is skilled and ruthless, and quickly seizes control of the drug trade, seemingly for his own ends.

Red Hood, after years of planning, your moment has finally arrived. Why have you come?

An "Under the Red Hood"-themed tabletop game, for one or two players. You will need colored dice (or a dice roller), your imagination, and, optionally, a friend who has as many feelings about Jason Todd as you do.

(Yes, I'm serious. This is not a bit.)

T | No Archive Warnings Apply | Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne

#Justice4Gotham by Havendance So, uh, Hi. I’m still alive. I didn’t die of the clench (barely). I’m kind of sorry for disappearing on you for so long but life just got really busy and I didn’t really have time to chase after Batman and Robin anymore. I’m not sure how many of you guys still check this blog, but if you are out there, I’ve got a big favor to ask you all.

On June 27th at 7:03pm, Gotham City was hit by the worst earthquake the east coast has seen in, like, ever. And now we could really use your help.

[Or: When you run out of things you can do, there’s always yelling at the world from the blog you made when you were ten.]

T | No Archive Warnings Apply | No Relationships

Night Blogger by AnonDude There's a blogger catching the internet's attention with a long, insane, and twisted tale. The problem is, he seems to persist under the impression that he's just a random anonymous blogger looking for advice on his relationship. That's all.

QuillsNFrills: I like your first entry! But I'm a little unsure as to what genre you're aiming for here; it seems a little confused and all over the place. It's clear you want it to be something more lurking under the guise of a simple relationship blog, but is that…mystery? Thriller? A dark romance? Sci-fi/fantasy/magic (with the…whatever is going on with BF's head)? I'm also kind of wondering if I'm reading right that maybe there are hints this isn't a reliable narrator? Maybe that will continue…eyes. Anyway, keep up the good work! – April 15, 2023 –

BlueberryPancakes: this […] only continued to get MORE wild, and despite the "clearing up"…I still don't know whether to believe […] it's supposed to be an obvious red herring and this is all an Experience^tm, or whether this is really OP's life. – April 17, 2023 –

M | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings | Tim Drake/Jason Todd

#dc #dc comics #batman #batfamily #bruce wayne #dick grayson #barbara gordon #jason todd #tim drake #stephanie brown #fanfiction #fanfic #fic recs #fic rec #fanfic recs #fanfic rec

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putschki1969 · 8 months

Note

Do you think fictionjunction could do the ending or opening for the new madoka movie? I feel like since kalafina doesn't exist anymore, the more logical option to me is fictionjunction, Keiko is still there after all :( I would love so much if they get at least an insert song or something like that, it would give them huge exposure as a band, I feel like I'm the only one but I wish FJ could be like the continuation of kalafina in some way T_T

Hello there!

This feels like such a throw-back to 2021 when "Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Walpurgisnacht – Rising" was first announced. I made a post about it here =>

Everyone was super hyped and hoped that this would be Kalafina's best chance for a reunion. I think they even trended on Twitter for a while thanks to everyone's speculations. Who would have thought that it would take the creators another two years to get to a point where they could finally make some proper announcements and reveal a tentative release date. However, we still don't know who is going to be in charge of the OP/ED...*sighs* Just a couple of days after I had made the above post, I received an ask about whether or not I thought that Kalafina would be involved in the project.

Not much has changed about my opinion since then. As long as Wakana is with Space Craft, I don't see a reunion happening so it is very unlikely that Kalafina will be singing any of the tie-ins. As for other options, I still feel like a solo gig for Hikaru (maybe as FictionJunction feat. Hikaru?) would be the best idea. This way, the work is paying tribute to the original Kalafina songs but there's no weird sense of replacement. And let's be real here, no one needs a proper breakthrough more than Hikaru. I hope that she will eventually be able to sign up with Highway Star. In her current state as freelance artist, I'm afraid the Madoka Magica creators won't even consider hiring her (connection to YK notwithstanding). Having the support of a solid agency could probably restore some of the credit she has undoubtedly lost as artist during the last year.

Re: FictionJunction => Maybe it's just me but I am not particularly eager to see FictionJunction or even Hikaru and Keiko be in charge of a song because it would feel like they are trying too hard to be Kalafina 2.0. Yeah sure, Joelle or LINO can take up Wakana's role but for me, Kalafina is not Kalafina without Wakana.

I see your point of course and for many this option would probably be better than nothing but I wonder if huge exposure for FictionJunction is even something Yuki Kajiura would want...I don't think it has ever been her goal to gain mainstream success with her FictionJunction project. But who knows...

#kalafina #reply #wakana #keiko #hikaru #mahou shoujo madoka magica #puella magi madoka magica #madoka magica #magia #kimi no gin no niwa #hikari furu

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ndvenvs3000w23 · 4 months

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Blog 1: Current Relationship with Nature

Hey everyone! I'm currently attending my fourth year at the University of Guelph. I am majoring in Environmental Sciences and minoring in Ecology, and I've loved every minute of it. I am also a co-op student which has allowed me to work in multiple different environments and positions, majority of which have involved a large amount of field work.

In regards to the prompt for this week's post, I've always greatly enjoyed being outdoors and immersed in nature. From camping and hiking in the summer months to skiing and snowshoeing in the winter alongside my family, nature has always been a major part of my life. I've always had a strong passion for the environmental sciences, which is why I decided to pursue it in my post-secondary education. I think a lot of this passion was strongly tied to how often my family involved me in the outdoor activities I mentioned above, and I think it helped to gain an appreciation for nature that I feel many people nowadays do not have.

My first big camping trip was when I was 10 months old where my parents and I visited 4 Ontario provincial parks along our long road trip to Thunder Bay. These included Craigleigh, Windy Lake, Agawa Bay (aka. Lake Superior Provincial Park), and Kakabecka falls. Since then, I have visited and camped at 28 Ontario provincial parks, and 4 national parks in Canada. Of these, my favourites have been Algonquin Park, Bruce Peninsula National Park, Grundy Lake, and Grasslands National Park (SK). It's safe to say that camping is a big part of my life and it has also had a major role in shaping my current relationship with nature. I have greatly enjoyed partaking in hikes and kayaking trips across the lakes during these, and it's always such a breathtaking experience (literally and figuratively). I love the views that the hikes provide, and I always spend a long amount of time taking everything in, and how beautiful nature can be. Often, the views can make you feel small, which is very humbling experience that makes you appreciate nature and, in my experience, creates a sense of responsibility to protect it. My many kayaking trips have provided similar experiences, and I love the many different plants and animals I encounter on these journeys.

Throughout my co-op experiences, I have been able to pursue a position that with a large focus on field work. My favourite has been this past summer which I spent in Indian Head, Saskatchewan working with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in their Agroecosystems section. Saskatchewan was one of the best experiences of my entire life, and I am so grateful to the people who made the trip, and the job, possible. While I was out there, I got to know the 6 other students I was working with and formed strong bonds with them which I will always cherish. I also had the opportunity to explore this province through my field work as well as outside this work and was able to appreciate the different geography and flaura and fauna of the area. It was during the trip out to my placement that allowed me to finally achieve my goal of visiting all 10 provinces of Canada as my last three I needed to visit were Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. I was able to take some time off during my work term to visit Jasper, Alberta, and it was such a beautiful and almost otherworldly experience seeing and experiencing the quiet of the mountains. On my journey back to Ontario, I was also able to stop by Lake Michigan to complete my other goal of visiting all 5 Great Lakes. My next goal is to visit all 3 Territories. Overall, this past summer was one of my favourites, and it deepened my already strong relationship to/appreciation for nature, and I would highly recommend and encourage similar experiences of other people, especially co-op students.

I could likely fill a whole book an my relationship with nature, most of which would consist of my favourite stories and memories of my "adventures", but this post is getting a little long (lol). To answer the question "who offered me 'a sense of place'," I would say my parents who allowed me to visit the many places I have been to. I have so much love and appreciation for both my parents and the experiences they provided for me, and I hope that one day I can do the same for my children. Without them and their passion for camping and exploring what all of Canada has to offer, I would likely not have developed the appreciation for nature that I currently have. Overall, my main takeaway message from this would be that being out and present with nature is an important part of a persons' life, and I strongly advocate for more people to allow themselves time to take a walk in the woods, or even just a regular hiking/walking trail in their city to be able to be present and appreciate nature.

Enjoy some photos I've taken of my travels this summer below :)

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grainjew · 2 months

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Nikaposting Pt 2: Symbology & Syncretism

This is the second of a series of posts about Nika & associated religious practice in the One Piece world. As I write and post the rest of the series, I’ll add links to this header.

Pt 1: Crypto-Religion | Pt 3: Joyboy was Shandian | Pt 4: Sun God Tropes

So About That Sun Symbol (and all those sun gods)

Context note: This post assumes you’ve read pt 1. If you haven’t, the TLDR is that the Nika cult is best categorized as a crypto-religion and may not ever have existed outside of a cryptic and oral form.

There’s a lot of sun gods in One Piece. And there’s a lot of appearances of that sun symbol we discussed briefly in pt 1, with the disconnected rays. This post will cover that symbol, the survival of non-Kuma Nika cult branches, and the proliferation of sun gods across the One Piece world.

The sun symbol can be found everywhere, in what seems at first to be a wildly disparate collection of places. There are a number of borderline cases, so I’ll be defining the “Nika sun symbol” as being any symbol with a central circle, disconnected rays, and four- or eight-fold radial symmetry. This leaves us the below list (images of the majority of these instances can be found in this very helpful post):

The Kuma-Bonney/Buccaneer version found in his church and on the amulet he left for her (8 circular rays) ; this is our basic template for the symbol

The Alabasta national symbol (8 droplet-shaped rays; the droplets seem to be drawn at various different orientations depending on the panel)

The Kozuki crest (8 circular rays in the center of a bird in the center of another circle also there’s some sprouts or something)

The Shandian crest (8 circular rays inside a larger circle, also the central circle contains the kanji for kami/god)

The Sun Pirates’ mark (4 more traditional flaring rays; the rays seem to be drawn inconsistently, especially in the anime)

There’s also Ace’s dagger, which has the basic template version, but one can assume he bought that thing in Alabasta or something like that.

From this we can conclude that the sun with disconnected rays is not exclusively a Nika symbol- in fact I would be surprised if it was, because of how prominently it was displayed in Kuma’s church (see the discussion in pt 1). However, Alabasta, Shandora, and Wano are all poneglyph countries, and were all involved in some way or another in [incomprehensible void century muttering]. I would be extremely unsurprised if the sun with disconnected rays wasn’t a more widely-spread popular symbol among [void century muttering] countries back then, which was adopted by Nika worshippers as their secret symbol around that time and simultaneously retained in more benign form by certain nations as an element of their national symbology.

(Sidenote: If you were unaware, Oda snagged this symbol from a castle in his hometown and clearly just seems to enjoy drawing it. However that doesn’t matter to us in meta analysis land. We continue.)

The Nika cult absolutely survived outside Kuma’s family: at the very least, among slaves on Mariejois. There’s a very high chance Fisher Tiger heard Nika stories while enslaved- the compositional similarity of the Sun Pirates’ mark to the base Nika symbol, Jinbe’s pissed off refusal to answer any of Who’s-Who’s questions, Fisher Tiger’s own status as a warrior of liberation, and of course, the Sun Pirates’ name and the importance of the sun to the residents of Fishman Island all point in this direction.

The proliferation of the Nika sun symbol across the world also points, to me, to at least pockets of the Nika cult potentially surviving in cryptic form across the world, like Kuma’s family did, with various levels of conscious awareness about what their rituals and symbols actually mean and what secret seditious knowledge they’re actually carrying.

However! All that said! Not all sun gods are Nikas- At least, not completely.

Upon their arrival at Egghead Island, Dorry and Broggy identified Luffy as the Sun God. However, I contend that Nika was not originally Elbaf’s sun god.

In expository Nika dialogue, Nika is specifically cited as a god of slaves (& as an ethnic or cultural god of the buccaneer people), and the giants as far as we know are (1), not a traditionally enslaved people nor particularly easy to enslave, (2), are based on Vikings & have their own pantheon which includes a god of war, & (3), while I can absolutely see how a tradition of a prolonged fast > feast festival would have evolved around a Nika figure, it does still feel a little strange. That’s supposed to be a Luffy-alike!

Besides this, the Shandian pantheon also includes a sun god, and I think it’s reasonable to assume that the sun god in question existed prior to any awakened user of the Nika fruit running around causing issues (although, more on my thoughts about Joyboy and Shandora in pt 3). Human sacrifice traditions also feel about as odd for a Luffy figure as fasting does, and while obviously Luffy, Joyboy, and Nika aren’t the same person, with the way One Piece’s narrative conventions work they’re probably quite similar.

Solar deities are the lynchpins of many if not most traditions in the real world. Sun’s a very notable noticable thing that follows a set course across the sky and brings light and life! And especially in One Piece, where the sun is also a critical thematic element and motif, I would be surprised if the majority of One Piece cultures hadn’t developed their own sun gods at some point or other.

So, all that said, why were Dorry and Broggy calling Luffy Sun God? Syncretism.

Not every god has a mythical zoan or the things would be wildly more common- only gods and figures with, as @oriigami put it while we were talking about this, a particularly potent wish attached to them. Even fewer gods have awakened mythical zoan users around. So when an awakened user of a sun god’s mythical zoan is running around (and particularly, a sun god with an incredibly potent wish attached, because Nika is a god of liberation as well as the sun, and it’s a god that people wish they could be and emulate as a matter of course), it’s easy to fold them into your mythology as your sun god. Tradition is very malleable! He’s the sun, even if he’s not exactly how you traditionally pictured it.

Traditions are very good at working with what they get, and at the moment what they get is a smiling, laughing pirate captain and liberator of slaves. What could be better?

#nikaposting #sun god nika #gear 5 #opmeta #meta tag #zephflix original #if i hadn't dropped out of college i'd be a religious studies major and this tag is how you know

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