Cozy Moments Cannot Be Muzzled

Catholic. Female. A fangirl of many, many things. I'm bad at being concise, but I do like talking to people (especially about Nerd Stuff). Main exports: Fic, headcanons/meta, and other medium-to-long textposts, with a side business in niche memes.

[the-quasar-hero]

You can tell a lot about a person by entering their mind palace and encountering their greatest fears and darkest hopes in a labyrinth reflective of their subconscious thoughts.

[tacit-semantics]

Who’s winning. No nuance.

Beowulf

Goku

Remaining time: 2 days 21 hours

[animate-mush]

My immediate instinct is Beowulf because I stan, and I know next to nothing about DragonBall, but let's think this through

iirc Goku is a very loose Monkey adaptation, yeah? So Trickster type? And I think he's dead for a hot second in there so he is in principle defeasible. That's important.

Beowulf is also in principle defeasible that's a pretty significant thing about him - BUT it's also important that nothing less than a Dragon is worthy of taking him down and he does kill it

Beowulf's thing is physical strength. He'll arm wrestle anybody he'll armwrestle your mom. BUT on account of that he's no good at weapons. That guy is always breaking swords he's just too strong for them. I think it's safe to say his Power Level is also over 9000 (I don't. I don't actually know what that means).

Okay so if it's a wrestling match I wanna say Beowulf cuz that's like. His whole thing. And I've seen pictures of Goku and he looks ripped so I think it would be a good match, no clear shut out - but if I'm remembering correctly about him being a Monkey expy then a direct head to head is never going to be his best approach. So again, and Dragonballers please correct me, I think in a direct bare handed mano-a-mano, Beowulf takes it.

My instinct is that Goku wins if it's funny though

In other contests of skill I would bet that Beowulf is the better swimmer, but Goku is better with weapons of all kinds. I suspect that Goku is probably trickier and could probably outsmart Beowulf if necessary - not that Beowulf is dumb, he's plenty politically savvy, but he's straightforward, not cunning. Is Goku cunning? Moreso than Beowulf I'd guess? I think in a matter of Honor Beowulf is more likely to press on and die while Goku is more likely to cut and run, but I suspect both of them are prone to Making Bad Decisions.

And both of them are in the grip of strong narrative determinism, so as you say, it will depend heavily on the Story being told

[incomingalbatross]

So! Goku despite borrowing a bunch of things from the Monkey King is NOT a Trickster. He is Pure Strength Fighting Guy. And Dragonball also keeps breaking the upper end of its powerscaling systems and having to keep inventing new ones, which is why we end up with things like "can Goku beat Superman."

HOWEVER. This poll does not specify when in Dragonball canon we are plucking him from. And also Goku does die... a lot. And then get wished back to life so he can go beat the guy who killed him, usually, iirc.

So my answer is "Beowulf the first time, Goku the second." Beowulf for short answer.

[sedesapostolica]

Which seat would you take?

[ghostintheclawmachine]

As someone who collects a LOT of physical media but doesn’t make a lot of money, I want to share the rule that keeps my wallet from crying out in despair every time I enter a store. I don’t remember who I got this from, but thank you whoever you are because it has been a game-changer when it comes to building a large collection without breaking the bank.

The $1 per hour rule. It’s exactly what it says on the tin. If I’m purchasing physical media, I consider it good value if I can expect to get at least one hour of enjoyment for every dollar I spend on it.

I don’t remember what I spent on BG3, but I know it was a good deal because I’ve logged 600 hours in it. Hades II costs $30, and I was more than happy to pay that because I know I’ll play it for at least 30 hours. When I add books to my library, I almost exclusively buy used books that cost under $5 because 5 hours is a good average estimate for how long it takes me to finish a novel.

Will there be a treat you splurge on every now and then? Of course, but $1 per hour is a good standard to stick to if you want to responsibly build a dragon's hoard of physical media.

[incomingalbatross]

ohhhhhhh hm something on the contrast between Stratt being willing to do absolutely whatever it takes for the abstract mathematical mass of humanity - to the extent of killing the one person she's maybe grown to care for most in all this disaster - VERSUS Grace ONLY being stong enough to save the abstract mathematical mass of Eridians because it means saving the one person he's grown to care for most in this disaster

[kyoukorpse]

Someone to be brave for.

excerpt is from chapter 29 of the novel.

[ image IDs in ALT text ]

[sweetteaanddragons]

City Between AU I Will Never Write

I just finished my City Between reread, and I am now fascinated by this idea:

Shortly before book one, North needs something from Zero. Maybe in this AU the kidnapping attempts on Sarah have escalated more quickly; maybe someone else makes a play for her. Regardless, she needs Zero's help and she's suspicious of Upper Management, so she offers him the same flash drive of information in trade that she eventually offers him in canon.

He wants information on his mother, so he accepts.

Unlike in canon, this transaction goes smoothly. He doesn't free Sarah from her contract, but he protects her from the current threat, and she still has some time before her deadline. He gets the flash drive and looks at it immediately.

. . . and promptly discovers some things about his half sister and her descendants.

I don't think we ever got a full picture of exactly what was on that flash drive, just what conclusions it eventually led Zero to, so let's be generous here.

He finds out his sister married and had descendants. He finds out their names. He finds out his sister's daughter died of natural causes at a respectable age for a human.

He finds out her granddaughter did not.

That she was, in fact, one of the peripheral victims he's been largely ignoring in the case he's investigating.

And he finds, in the file, that the granddaughter had a daughter of her own. A daughter that the police file records frustratingly few traces of.

A daughter that might be missing. Might be dead.

Zero would never have dreamed of approaching any of his sister's descendants. He knew all too well what happened to humans he got close to.

He could never have approached her granddaughter. But investigating her murder . . .

Well, he had already assigned himself that string of murders anyway. It's not like he can do her any harm now, and maybe he can at least avenge her.

And the child the police report refuses to name - maybe he can avenge her too.

(Maybe he can find her. It's too risky to put himself in her life, but if she's been kidnapped, surely she'd be better off if he looked for her -)

He goes to the house to investigate. There's something odd there. He's not sure what yet.

A few days later, another of the murders occur across the road, JinYeong finally catches up to him, and Athelas shows up to investigate.

JinYeong questions nothing. Athelas notices that Zero had already purchased the house.

Athelas is not suspicious, exactly, for obvious reasons, though for form's sake, he does remind Zero that he's entirely at his service, and if Zero would rather they not investigate this particular murder too closely - A poor joke, my lord, of course.

And Athelas is quite genuinely poking his nose around to see why Zero was already here and why Athelas failed to notice it.

Zero . . . trusts Athelas. He can probably trust him with this. If the child is dead, he can certainly trust Athelas with this; it's only if the child is alive -

If the last remnant of his sister is alive, and through Athelas his father learns of it -

No. He just needs to pick enough fights to drive the others off without making them too suspicious so that he can investigate the house and its strangeness in peace -

There's a child hiding in the kitchen cupboard. A teenager, she informs him hotly.

JinYeong and Athelas have already seen.

. . . That doesn't mean they have to know. No one has to know.

Athelas certainly can't know, and yet he clearly suspects something -

Pet knows why she's panicking about this situation, but she's entirely unclear about why the giant man with the sword is.

(I don't know that it would change much about the overall plot for Zero to know Pet's his (great-great-) niece from the beginning, but it would certainly change some emotional beats . . . and probably complicate things between Zero, Athelas, and JinYeong, given the already complicated tangle of trust and mistrust between them at the beginning of the series.

[panharmonium]

"Then - is there a possibility [Simon] might be dead?" For some reason, the Bonemaster looked really worried. "I suppose so," said Elfwyn. "And this idiot boy left him alone with no one to take care of him?" The Bonemaster's voice climbed angrily. "His wife is taking care of him." "His wife? Simon has a wife?" "Yes," said Elfwyn. "Ridiculous. Wizards don't have wives." "Why not?" said Elfwyn, probably to stem the flow of questions. "For many reasons, my dear. I suppose one reason is because wives and children make such lovely hostages. Is it too much to hope that there are children?" "I don't know," said Elfwyn. "No children," said Jinx. Revealing that was probably safe enough. Who knew what the Bonemaster would have done with Simon's children, if they'd existed?

if they'd existed

sage blackwood is so so good at writing "children perceiving adults through children's eyes/not picking up on things that the reader understands clearly." this is the passage of all time. the conversation here is just:

bonemaster: does simon have any children i can kidnap? simon's child (currently kidnapped): no

jinx...i know you can't see the Feelings Clouds right now but i need you to understand that YOU ARE THE CHILD

[panharmonium]

[thatsbelievable]

[incomingalbatross]

City Between question I was musing on recently I was hoping you might be willing to share your thoughts on (and this might be answered by the text, but if so, I missed it).

We know Zero eventually found out about his biological relationship to Pet. He doesn't seem to have shared this information with anyone prior to his conversation with Pet about it, and if I remember correctly, he finds out not long before everything blows up regarding Athelas/the big heirling fight to the death/his dad's death.

If Zero had found out earlier - Athelas still in the picture, Zero's dad still very much alive and a distant threat - do you think he would have:

(a) tried to hide the information from Athelas because even though he trusted Athelas wouldn't use it against him on purpose, Zero's dad might still accidentally find out through him

(b) trusted Athelas to hide the information/assumed his dad already knew/assumed this didn't up the threat his dad already posed to Pet

(c) something else?

Ooh good question!

My short answer is I feel like he would hide it from Athelas on general principles of "my father shouldn't know anything and telling Athelas is unfortunately always a security risk." Or even more generalized paranoia. ...Or possibly that he doesn't know what to do with this information himself so he's avoiding dealing with it.

LONG ANSWER: I went down a Citation Rabbit Hole for fun. :P

I think Zero finds it all out somewhere in book 7 - it's a little complicated because some of this info clearly came from North's USB, but I don't think all of it did?

This is book 7, chapter 6, when they're on their way to talk to Marazul about investigating Heirling murders. Pet has already given her USB to Marazul, so it's possible he's already cracked it and passed information on to Zero - but it's definitely well before he tells Pet he's cracked it. And it's here in chapter 6 that we get:

Pet is afraid this is a Romance Conversation and dodges it, but I'm fairly sure this is Zero bringing up their familial link for the first time.

***

In book 7, chapter 11, Marazul shows Pet the copy he made of the USB's contents, and gives her the decrypted USB itself - however, she doesn't look at either of these before she realizes Marazul double-crossed her, and gets up to leave. She meets Zero on her way out and gives him the USB. (...Incidentally, how were Marazul and Zero planning to play that? Or did Zero show up earlier than Marazul wanted him to? ...Was Zero planning to tell Pet about the double-cross, or simply unwilling to work at hiding it?)

***

NOTABLY, at the end of book 7, Pet notices that the copy of her great-grandmother's license has disappeared from her room. She hasn't mentioned it since chapter 2, so it's hard to say how long it's been gone.

***

In book 8, chapter 3, Pet figures out that Zero has been to the library to look at the USB's contents while she and Athelas were doing Memory Things.

It's... possible this is the first time he's looked at it? But also entirely possible he looked at it at Marazul's before taking it home. And, again, Marazul might have inspected the contents himself and passed some things on early!

But either way, Pet doesn't bring it up again until book 8, chapter 4, when she finally gets Zero to very obliquely talk about its contents (in exchange for a promise to kill his dad!).

So what we can get from this I think is

North was, for whatever reason (pure leverage?) digging up everything she could find on Anne I's life/family in the human world and the "connected elements" of Anne II's life and her descendants.

(I am reading "Only had things that concerned my mother's life before she came to live Behind" as meaning "those were the only things directly about my mother." I am also reading the bit about "confirming elsewhere" as "I know of my own knowledge that my mother wasn't alone, because I had my sister," and the birth record as being a Behind birth record of some sort. I may be wrong! But I think it mostly checks out?)

Zero has followed this information, combined with the copy of his sister's license that he found in Pet's possession, to work out his relationship to Pet.

Zero also thinks that Pet already knows all of this, somehow, from the evidence of said license.

***

We get confirmation of this last point in book 9, chapter 8, when Pet finds out everything.

***

SO. In canon, I think Zero found his sister's license first; almost talked to Pet about it but cooperated when she dodged the conversation; got the USB from Marazul and figured out everything else; and then, operating under the assumption that Pet already knew everything and wanted it to be a secret, just Said Nothing. Which puts opsec secondary to "respecting her privacy" on his list of priorities, I guess...

(...aaauuugh was he just assuming she didn't want to be related to him. that sounds like Zero. ZERO STOP THAT.)

ANYWAY. If he'd found out significantly earlier - and if he didn't have reason to think she also knew - I'm not sure what he'd do with it! But I'm inclined to think he'd just have sat on the information, because it is potentially Dangerous To Her and it is DEFINITELY emotionally charged for him and he would prefer to just. not open that box. leave it shut. Incorporate it into his own treatment of her but not tell anybody else.

[hold-fast-to-hope]

City Between fans! Having seen several conversations about tracking details of CB characters, and having noticed that there is as of yet no centralized place in which to do this... I have started work on (gulp) a City Between wiki! https://city-between.fandom.com/wiki/City_Between_Wiki

I've also included Worlds Behind and Shattered World! I don't think you will need an account to work on it. Be warned it is Very Rough right now (I've put in hardly any content, just the bare-bones structure), but hopefully it will get better as we all go along!

Ways you can help out:

Pictures. Having an image to go with each page helps take a wiki to the next level, I've noticed. If you send me a link to fanart you'd be willing to use for the purpose (or a link to any official images that would be all right for us to use on the wiki), that would be Amazing. I would put in an image credit saying what the source is. (You can also put it in yourself! Or I would be pleased to help you)

Article content. I know there are some people who have already been compiling info lists on various characters/worldbuilding elements; if you are one of these sorts of people and would consider copying over your work to the wiki, it would be super helpful!

General advice. I have never done anything with wikis or websites before and would be very grateful.

So excited to work on this with you!! I think it could be super useful for fans in the future!

[bountyhuntergirl]

phm spoilers!! 🪐 please don't flop, please don't flop 😭🪕

[incomingalbatross]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[adestroy]

The first time I watched ‘The Devil in the Dark’ I was like, no notes. Great episode. The second time, however…

[incomingalbatross]

I don't think we've talked enough about Knife Uncle scene yet actually.

Athelas' brain really just TURNS OFF ENTIRELY the second he hears "Knife uncle!" Physical and situational awareness canceled, there is Only Harrow.

[sisterdragonwithfeathers]

The fact that it’s someone screaming for him instead of screaming about something he’s doing to them

The fact that what Harrow’s asking for is his presence and comfort, not just his protection and violence

The fact that it really is him Harrow’s asking for, not some friendly persona he’s put on, not a lie or a glamour or a trick. Harrow has been suicide baited by Athelas. He’s seen Athelas evicerate monsters and people alike. He knows what he’s got up his sleeves.

And he still wants his Knife Uncle.

[incomingalbatross]

YEAHHHHHH 😭😭😭😭😭

He KNOWS HIM and he is still screaming for HIM to come and comfort him!! Athelas is his protection from the Nightmares, even after Harrow has seen him be one himself!

There is NOTHING that can stop Athelas from coming to him after that.

[incomingalbatross]

I got a "You're so good with kids" type compliment the other day and A) that's very nice to hear, I like it <3 But also B) I am playing with the four-year-old in the room because it's a straightforward and rewarding type of interaction! It's not like it's a selfless act or hard work or anything. I just think kids are FUN.

[questions-about-blorbos]

Which of these best describes your Blorbo?

A disciplined, unreadable person who unravels when someone looks too closely

The one who says “I’m fine” and gets worse in increasingly concerning ways

Has committed atrocities (emotionally). Will do it again

A walking bad decision wrapped in a beautiful, intimidating exterior

Control freak held together by routine, silence, and a fragile thread of sanity

Just a little guy. (Highly dangerous, potentially a god)

A tired professional who is 5 minutes away from a public breakdown

A pathetic wet wipe of a man who needs to be put in a soup can and shaken

The designated team mom/dad who is fueled purely by spite and caffeine

Looks like they have everything under control. They absolutely do not

Built like a weapon. Functions like a tragedy

Emotionally constipated. The feelings are there. Deep, deep down.

Voting ended on10h

Every poll on this blog is about fictional characters only. This request was sent to us and we made a poll in response to it. Send any Blorbo-related question you want to our inbox and we’ll make a poll on which people can vote with their own Blorbos in minds