#those..aren't really foundations either..!i think

[melaninfury]

ASTROLOGY OBSERVATIONS III

hehe welcome back guys! Enjoy 😌

Tip Jar | Paid Services Masterlist | Patreon (Up and updating) | Donations of support to $MELANINFURY

👽 Sun conjunct Neptune has a hard time at some point defining who they are in their daily and social environments. They mould themselves quite a bit to the things that they fantasize, dream of, feel and subconscious experiences. It usually makes someone a people pleaser, other times it shows that not many people who aren't matching or as spiritually conscious simply can't see you or perceive through their own projections. Having this conjunct mercury can create a people pleaser liar lol, not everyone but I digress.

👽 Saturn is a key but your mercury is the key of how to control, stabilize and grow you intellect. Its your mind and also your thought process that lead you to take action.

👽 I don't know why everyone doesn't understand that your Nodes show the direction your meant to head but you point rulers (MC,DC,IC,AC) tell you how to direct that life purpose in shown by the north node. Of course take all things including house and placement of both into consideration.

👽Jupiter Retrograde shows someone who is more worldly and logical than spiritually based. Not that spirituality doesn’t apply or have importance but it’s a lesson here that has to be learned through expansion and eye opening experiences. Even bring too spiritual or using ideology/spirituality to explain the world or hate. The reflection of the spiritual world shows up less in flow here. It’s more of a river stream that you learn to meditate by to understand.

👽 2nd house placements do serve themselves well when they focus on stability but when stability becomes your only sense of foundation or self esteem (2nd house), I notice they suffer an almost isolated sense of superiority. I without true growth you'll be surrounded by success and jewels but empty.

👽 Your moon is where your "womb" lies in the chart. The moon is your creative hub for sure but the state of your moon in a chart can make or break your ability to grow as a person. A moon that is afflicted by other planets without remedy creates stagnancy and blockages.

👽If you want to change your appearance, follow your Venus ruler to see how to expand your style and attraction. Venus is a reflection of the goddess Aphrodite in many ways. It can also show how your beauty will affect others.

Example: Venus in scorpio with Pluto in sag - Express your beauty through highlighting your legs, could be dresses and try bold red, orange and dark toned colors. A play on elegance and sexual expression can play up attraction here. Think of a nice satin silk fitted red dress paired with an open collar bone and back combo. Show skin but cover yourself down to the feet. Yes I just styled you - your welcome.

👽 Libra Moons are really good at networking and reading peoples wants and needs, while Virgo moons are good at reading peoples and observing their next move.

👽Take the asteroid that reflects your career if applicable and compare it with your MC persona chart and your natal as well. your bound to see a fated correlation if your meant to be drawn in that direction.

One of my clients wants to be a singer and work in the music industry. Their MC persona chart, MC person a chart, Fama persona chart and the name asteroid to her artist name - all have the same North node, Saturn and Angles. Each ruler also is at a fame degree 😂 Can't make this shit up.

👽If your truly gonna make it in the music industry as a prominent figure your chart will show 3 things. Creative drive/transmutation - either your are creative or you thrive in a creative environment, Your lucky and your path brings gifts or nudges towards the music industry, An audience/ recognition in some way - we all want to be seen but this is about the business and with creative and production comes consumption. Research those things and it will lead you to your journey to success and what that really means for you.

👽What to heal + How to grow = Chiron & Saturn

👽Clients always get surprised by how much I can tell them with thei chart. Ancestry is one of the most interesting parts they figure out about astrology. You get karma and generation inheritance from your lineage in astrology. I can see the mother and father wound usually right away with the Sun and Moon.

👽Mony asteroid shows ways your money comes to you and leave you. That asteroids conjuncts through transit open opportunity for material manifestation.

👽8th housers unity = always being taken care of or gifted something in some way from someone.

👽Manifest through Venus - Saturn. Use venus as the attractor and saturn as the foundation.

Venus in scorpio with Saturn in Gemini - Find multiple ways to make money, establish business, Find sponsors and Use beauty to attract customers, Let your aesthetic be a selling point, Network with high class people and customers, Flirt and charm.

👽Venus trine Uranus has a particular gift of liking or participating an quirky hobby. One they like to share with their community. Sometime this is a habit or a more kinkier form of expression. Can be a self serving aspect. Can also be interested in a certain type of person - bad boys, nerds or hyper masculine people.

*interesting manifestation of likes ANIME, BDSM, DARK HUMOR, COSPLAY, Etc.

👽Saturn in water signs especially pisces can be prone to depression and bouts of emotional stagnancy. Its important to refresh and tend to one mental state more closely. I would always recommend these people to have regular spiritual meditation and purging/reset baths. Shadow work is essential.

👽Saturn in Aries can be incredibly selfish because their ways are way to stubborn and drilling. When they feel trapped or challenged they tend to try and reestablish their authority or "boundaries". I notice these Saturns act with a lot of ego in the face of conflict. Almost like I'm correct why are you so wrong type of people.

👽Pisces Mars....One to many times have I learned how passive aggressive these mars can get. Especially when they bottle up the truth of how they feel waiting for you to reveal your emotions leaving a mess and chaos. Always randomly outbursting because you never say what needs to be said in the beginning...not all the time but 👀.

👽9th house placements most of the time are meant to be restricted or oppressed a bit by their upbringing and environment in order to really teach them what values and beliefs they truly have within themselves. This could be as simple as experiencing bullying that awakens your true potential in a skill or talent. Even conformity from people who don't understand or agree with your beliefs and expansion, which ultimately causes isolation that can lead to radical self-acceptance.

👽 Your parents and family can be your downfall. One to many clients with 4th house, cancer and Saturn placements that afflict their Sun, Moon, Rising - this is a key indicator of inherited generational trauma. While this can manifest in the chart in many ways. I notice these placements have emotional wounds from childhood rooted in ancestors/family members.

©️ All Rights Reserved @melaninfury, ASTROSPIRITUALWORKS

[kivaember]

i have already done a little ramble about this before i believe, but i was sitting in work and had more thoughts about Gabriel and how gender works for angels in Ultrakill, and came to the interesting realisation that no matter what Gabriel is sex wise (female, male, intersex or nothing at all), he will always view himself as a man just because, from his point of view, it is something that would be considered as absolute as anything God decreed.

to explain: angels are 'it' unless they are high ranked, to which they are then 'he/him'. Gabriel, created to be the Will of God, would have been born into a high rank. From the day he was born, he would have known that a) he loved God b) he represented His will and c) he was a man because of this honour bestowed upon him. It's something baked into the very foundation of an angel's identity: you are high-ranked, so you are he/him, no matter what.

(and this does bring up the other interesting thought of, so when humans become angels (and they do as the Virtue terminal entry states), does that mean human women have to surrender their pronouns or what when they become angels? Are they exempted from the it/he rules? Or does Heaven steal their she/her pronouns and they just have to deal with it? A separate post to muse upon I guess)

Gabriel would have no frame of reference to think otherwise either. Like, in human society you're exposed to the fact that, yeah, there are other genders, I have opportunities to explore those other genders, I can try it out, etc... but Gabriel would never have that. He is Gabriel, the Will of God, he/him. Like. That's it. That's how it's been since he was born thousands of years ago and what Father intended for him. So this is what he is. Only time that would ever change was when, y'know, V1 kicked his ass and the Council pulled their bullshit (and stole his he/him pronouns), but that was reducing Gabriel to 'it'.

And I was thinking like, man, it'd be wild that it would never ever cross Gabriel's mind to ever consider female pronouns because it has been hammered so deep into his bone marrow that he is a man, until he fucks up and then he doesn't even have that, he is just 'it', a genderless entity that must toil to regain the privilege of being a man again. Like he'd have to untangle himself entirely from Heaven and probably go on a several years sabbatical stabbing pins into a V1 plushie or standing on a beach staring into the ocean to realise that, hey, maybe his options aren't just it/him? If he always felt like a square peg in a round hole, maybe he can try something different? He's already killed the Council so why not throw aside millennia of certainty and try out she/her for a bit?

All that rambling to say that while i am very partial to trans man Gabriel, there is just something very interesting about a Gabriel whose sense of self has been cast in iron from the moment he was born, right down to his gender, and the conflict over that comes from him actually realising that there is an option and doing some soul searching despite it feeling like blasphemy, as God told him who he was and now Gabriel is doubting even that.

Angels don't really have the freedom of self like humans do, so Gabriel's conflict with who he is comes from an entirely different direction as it would with a human. It is more that him denying he is a man would mean denying God's view of him, and the complicated situation where as a representative of God's Will, Gabriel would also feel compelled to be "masculine" to match "Father". It'd just be very difficult for him to overcome that, I feel.

Kinda similar to a machine breaking past its programming really. You could make the argument that angels are just organic machines: built for a purpose, with no leniancy for them to act outside of their set programming... i am connecting more dots between Gabriel and V1. I am connecting them...

[mentooristudio]

"Why you feel you're breaking apart while trying to heal."

|| Status | Website | Ko-fi | YouTube || Collective Pattern Analysis: The Foundations of Healing

This analysis is based on the archived reading titled: "A Soothing Heart Healing (Channeled) Message"

We often approach healing with a specific goal in mind: we want the pain to cease. And we're often willing to do whatever it takes to make it stop, but we sabotage ourselves - and the healing process - because we want it to be a quick fix.

On this collective pattern analysis I'm going to break down why the healing process we need rarely looks like the healing process we want.

The screenshot are the piles from the archived reading; If you read that one, you can pick the same pile for an in-depth breakdown.

The desire for a quick fix is a natural human reaction to feeling pain. There's varying ways this can manifest, but it usually shows up in two ways: we either want a version of peace that looks like a return to the familiar, or a rapid shift that leads us to a better place.

The truth is we're constantly trying to escape challenging situations, because these trigger difficult emotions we don't feel ready, or capable, to deal with (yet). We then get stuck in loops of reliving the pain and running away from it.

From a systemic perspective, this push and pull pattern is actually us delaying our psyche's attempt to reorganize itself. Like when we accidentally scratch a scab because it was itching too bad to resist.

The good news is:

Continue reading below the cut.

"Every time you scratch the wound is a new opportunity to heal it."

We perceive these through negative lenses. The automatic thought that comes up for most of us is: "Everything is going wrong in my life."

In the tarot community they are referred to as "tower moments", when they get too intense it's the infamous "dark night of the soul."

Essentially this is the moment in our lives when outdated identity structures are asking to be demolished to make room for a more aligned version of the self.

Now let's take a closer look at the patterns from each pile:

Pile 1 - Daily commute

On the archived reading we established that you might be caught up in chaotic circumstances, but determined to solve whatever is causing them. Your heart desires freedom, and at the core this desire is to be free from the chaos.

Analyzing this pile further, it's clear that this is an identity pattern - you felt so hopeless about your circumstances for so long, it just became part of who you are.

You may label yourself as someone who has bad luck. Maybe call yourself a fighter, or a dreamer.

But the thing about labels is that they're containers of our reality; if you think yourself a fighter, reality will keep giving you things to fight. If you are a dreamer, you'll keep on dreaming without ever doing something to bring those dreams into reality.

To shift an identity pattern we need to go through a rebirth.

This is why healing feels like breaking apart - because that is what is happening. The identity that kept you safe, even if it was built on pain, is being dismantled. A part of you is dying, so another part can be born, and this is the natural cycle of life.

The confusion you feel isn't a sign that something is going wrong, it's a sign that something is finally moving - you just can't see or name it yet.

From personal experience I can assure you two things: It'll never be a quick fix, and it'll always be confusing as hell.

When we arrive at this point in our lives - and believe me, all of us go through this at least once - we want the healing to be as easy as taking a bath. In reality, we need to shed the old skin completely, and, since we aren't snakes, this is a long and uncomfortable process.

It is as if we are completely baked in mud, and to be really clean we need to scrub all of it really hard. Maybe stay soaking in soap for a few minutes to make it easier.

We know in the end our skin will be raw and sensitive from all the scrubbing, that's why we hesitate and try to buy time.

I'll close this pile sharing the knowledge that healing the sensitive skin happens a lot faster than getting clean from the mud.

Sometimes healing feels disheartening because we're forced to face the truths we have swallowed for so long.

For further reflection I'll ask you this:

Are you hiding behind labels because they genuinely still resonate with who you want to be...

Or because you're afraid if you let them go you'll lose who you are?

Pile 2 - First Home

The archived reading told us right away that this is a relational pattern; we went over how you might have lost yourself in people pleasing, childhood memories around Halloween being of significance, and father wounds; but also how the loving presence of a maternal figure was your anchor.

The contrast of the two energies in that reading are giving me the picture of a cosmic clash. Healing. That is healing. That is what healing feels like sometimes; being torn apart by forces beyond our control.

This is especially true for relational patterns, because they were never just about you. They were built inside a system; for many of us that system was our family. But any dynamic, or set of roles that were handed to you before you were self-aware enough to choose, crystalizes into a relational pattern.

When you begin to heal, you're not just changing yourself, you're pulling a thread that runs through everything and everyone that shaped you. The resistance you feel isn't a lack of self-awareness though, it's the weight of the whole system pushing back.

The system, like our ego, is designed to keep us safe, but there comes a moment when the walls that meant to protect us becomes a prison.

Healing here is the heart's desire for this pile. Healing here means freedom; and to be free you need to tear down the cage, even if it's golden and covered in velvet.

To quote the archived reading directly:

"You want to alchemize the pain into strength, and start a new chapter in your life. One where the old wounds do not interfere with your choices and day-to-day life. I believe you are conscious of this desire, even if you feel a bit lost on the source of those wounds."

This pile's original reading reassures us that tower moments are a necessary part of life, they're a means to an end - the end we desire, not the end to all things.

Right now healing may feel like dying, but one day it'll be the most beautiful feeling you have ever experienced. Because healing is the purest form of self-love, dear. When you choose to heal, despite all hardships that come with it, you're choosing to love yourself unconditionally.

And to close this pile I'll leave you with this reflection:

Are you choosing yourself, or are you still trying to please someone else?

Your first home is yourself.

Pile 3 — One-time Vacation

In the archived reading we talked about de-cluttering; not only physically, but mentally, and emotionally. If you chose this pile you are/were in a process of releasing whatever no longer serves your highest good.

Releasing often feels like loss, and loss almost never feels like progress.

Here we have a recurring pattern that manifests as your soul longing for connection. With this longing we often look for external connection to fill the void, but what we are actually missing is the connection with ourselves.

Healing is processing trauma - and trauma, despite what most people think, doesn't need to be earth-shattering.

Any experience that dysregulates our nervous system and goes unprocessed is traumatic in its own right. Because trauma is not what happened to you, is how your body reacted.

When we don't find our way back to a sense of safety, and don't integrate the experience in a healthy way, it stays in the body as unfinished business.

We process trauma in layers, because it happened in layers, and was internalized in layers. Putting in a very simple way, this is what happens to us during a traumatic event:

intense external stimuli -> nervous system goes into fight or flight -> internal emotional world is shaken -> internal mental world tries to rationalize experience -> experience is processed rationally so we can make sense of our emotions -> nervous system finds it's way back into safety -> external stimuli is now known to our nervous system and no longer felt as intense.

Enduring a traumatic event doesn't necessarily means you've been traumatized by it. Traumatization only occurs when the trauma is internalized - meaning we integrate the experience in an unhealthy way.

This pile was a lot more technical, but I felt the need to explain this process. Some of you might be too hard on yourselves for needing more alone time, or you label yourself as lazy because you feel tired all the time or are feeling more tired than usual.

Trust your body, listen to it; it's speaking to you, telling you what yours needs are in that moment. This is also part of healing. And healing isn't linear, just because yesterday you were on top of the world doesn't mean today you'll be there too.

To close this reading I'll share part of the channeled message in the original reading:

"Slowly but surely clarity comes in ways unexpected. You feel the need to learn how to swim, but know you only need to float. [...] No one knows what it took to get you here, and no one needs to know; The lesson and understanding belong to you, there's no need to apologize or explain yourself."

Give yourself some grace to find closure, you're releasing what was never yours to carry.

I appreciate you.

— Much love, Liliana from Mentoori Studio.

[darklinaforever]

You hate Byler, Wenclair, Chaggie, Swanqueen, Korrasami, Rhaenicent, Lokius, and Gelphie, and you prefer heterosexual ships to them. Just admit you're homophobic, we all know it.

I ship Gelphie. So what the hell ? Oh, and Fiyeraba (who, yes, I admit I prefer without any problem) isn't a heterosexual ship. It's a ship with bisexual characters (or pan for Fiyero).

A man and a woman in a relationship is not necessarily a heterosexual couple.

I don't hate Chaggie, I just find the relationship generally poorly written, which is simply the factual truth. And even Charlastor / Radiobelle isn't a heterosexual ship ! Charlie is bisexual and Alastor is asexual. Both characters are part of the queer community.

Rhaenicent is a complete joke. It's poorly written and romanticizes a toxic and deeply problematic relationship to an absurd degree. It's also a form of misplaced queerbaiting. Daemyra in the show are also a bisexual characters. They aren't heterosexual like in the book. And even preferring book Daemyra to a sapphic ship, whether it's Rhaenicent or for the book Laenyra (a relationship of which there is no romantic and sexual evidence, except for the misplaced suspicions of maesters pro greens and against Rhaenyra and the Blacks team), I don't see what the problem is. I simply prefer the established canonical romance, which I find very well-written. I don't see why I should necessarily prefer the sapphic ship.

Lokius is purely fanfiction ; I don't see the harm in preferring the canonical romance, especially between, again, two damn bisexual characters, Sylvie & Loki (Sylki). And besides, they're characters who can take on any appearance they want ! So they are literally potentially gender fluid ?

It's crazy how much you're erasing bisexual characters and relationships. At this point, I might even accuse you of biphobia.

Also, I don't like TLOK, which means I don't particularly like any of the romances in it. None of them are well done, not just Korrasami.

I won't even mention Byler here. That ship is purely fanon, and the extreme fans of that ship are unbearable. And yes, I prefer Mileven. And no, I know what you're thinking, Mileven isn't a couple that fits social norms just because they're heterosexual. They're literally people rejected and harassed for their differences. A form of outcast. And again, There is nothing wrong with preferring the canonical couple to the fanon couple, under the pretext that it is a heterosexual ship.

The same goes for Wenclair, a fanon ship with no real foundation and unbearable fans. And I say this even though I used to like Wenclair (as a pure fanon ship, despite my preference for Wyler), but the fandom is just too unbearable. And Wyler, once again, while heterosexual (although Wednesday could fall into a particular spectrum of sexuality depending on the interpretation), is a relationship between two outcasts, clearly outside the norm.

Mileven and Wyler aren't really ships that fit into social norms.

And I don't hate Swanqueen. I can even see perfectly well what people like about it. I just don't feel it. And yes, Emma & Killian (CaptainSwan) are both heterosexual. So what ? Is it a crime to again prefer the canon romance to the fanon one ? I even recommended Agatha & Rio (Agathario) for those who liked Swanqueen. Because I love that ship.

By the way, here's a playlist of all the queer ships I like (even fanon) :

🏳️‍🌈

We need to put an end to this myth that not liking one or more LGBTQ+ couples makes you a homophobe. I don't accept just anything. I don't have different opinions about heterosexual couples, and I won't have any different opinions about LGBTQ+ couples either.

Grow up a little.

[kusin-tisdag]

How to take screenshots and edit (when it's just not your thing)

Alright-y!

So, I have over the years learned how to use reshade and to edit my pictures. I am really not a natural on these things, so this is very much to help others who are as aesthetically challenged as I am. I have to have certain "rules" to follow, because I can rarely just see if a picture will turn out well or not.

We all need to realize where I started. We're talking using FRAPS to take screenshots and then running holy colours batman! to get some sort of effect.

Now, I'm not one to buy fancy stuff and to pirate certain programs isn't really my thing either. So we mend and make do!

Also, I am by far very good at taking screenshots and edit, but I have learned things and hope that it might be useful for someone!

A word on light

One thing I've learned is to work with is light. Where the light is is where the focus will go. This doesn't mean that a person has to be in the spotlight, but if they aren't - try to make that a more conscious choice. I am no pro at this, but I have to say that some of my favorite screenshots are where the light is just good. It focuses the eye or it just give a vibe.

(and yes, for some reason all of my faves are of Agnes, which is a bit annoying since Amanda is my fav-character, lol)

This is also where reLight comes in handy. Yes, it's behind a paywall but there are ways that you will have to figure out yourself.

Great tutorial here on reLight by @pictureamoebae! (if you want to really understand reshade, do check out their tumblr. So many helpful tips and tricks!)

Posing

Posing is fun! I don't fully story-tell with my sims, most of it is gameplay. But I do like to pose for family pictures or to enhance something that is going on.

What you need is Andrew's Pose Player and Teleport Any Sim or Wicked Whims.

Now, I haven't figured out how to use WW for children and younger to pose, so I use both. And I like @ts4-poses to find poses. Eventually, you'll find your favorite creators and can follow them directly.

Angles and vibes

Here's a trick. Work with angles. I am a master of pictures with zero vibe, just a face. Those can be ok, and sometimes that's what you have - but try to angle your shot a little.

Or add clutter, focus on that and let something out of focus happen in the background.

Or just go higher, take the screenshot from above.

Or don't focus on your sim at all, focus on something else that adds to the story/post.

Take the screenshot

The light is good, the angle great, the poses are in place and now, we need to take the actual screenshots.

I am a huge fan of reshade, I use version 4.9.1 because that works for me and the presets I use. No need to update reshade unless it becomes too old.

It can be really difficult to to find a preset that you like. I mostly use birdie by @monasims, tawhay by @windslar and paperbacks by @literalite. But I have tried many.

I like this youtube-tutorial on how to make your own preset, which also helps if you wish to modify one that you've downloaded. I do always recommend learning how to use ADOF and CinematicDOF to help focus the image on what you want to capture. I also strongly recommend @pictureamoebae's Foundation.

To take pictures, use the tab-key to leave the UI behind and use Q and E to go down/up in your game and then the mouse to angle. I use print-screen to take my screenshot, but that's something you set up when installing reshade so that's different for everyone.

And now you have your screenshot and it's time to open an editing program. Cheap as I am, I open GIMP.

Let's edit!

I don't use many steps. Since I can't use fancy photoshop actions I have to make all the steps by myself and well - I am human and therefor lazy.

Resize and start to think of a post

First things first. I cut my pictures to work for the tumblr ratio. I actually don't resize them smaller anymore - because when I change layout on my tumblr I just feel as if it messes it up. Now, I don't have a huge screen and my screenshots aren't massive, so it's not necessary either.

My images will be 1017x1017, 1525 x 1017 or 678 x 1017.

Once this is done, I also try to look at how they will go together. If I want a post of just squares I need to have an even number of images. Sometimes I want a landscape image as a sort of heading, or one in the middle with squares around it. It depends on what I want to convey.

This is by no means something that comes natural to me - I am aesthetically challenged after all. Sometimes, I just have 5 images and have to make do.

Resized

Topaz Clean

Yup, it's awesome. No, it doesn't come with GIMP. Yes, there are ways to work around this. You will have to find those ways on your own.

But I have to say, it does makes wonder for the images. I have completely stolen @sojutrait 's settings because I really like her style and therefor - I copy. I have added a bit more sharpening, but otherwise it's completely hers.

Topaz Clean:ed

Curves

Curves my beloved! I use curves for two things! Take out the yellow (aka increase the blue) and to brighten/darken the image!

I do sometimes matte the image too and here's a good tutorial for GIMP users on how to use curves in GIMP (for a matte look)

Less yellow/more blue

Brighten the brights (but I did not brighten the darker parts)

Layers, curves and increase the light where needed

Now, remember that we need light? Sometimes, a screenshot just doesn't have the right light. So I duplicate the layer, use the free marking tool around what I wish was brighter and put that on a new layer.

Then I use curves to lighten the layer with what I want to brighten and to make darker the layer with what I want to put less focus on (here's an ok youtube video on the subject).

Below, you can see the effect on my images.

Sharpen

Pretty basic. I subtly sharpen the image again. Even if I use the sharpening in topaz clean I do like to add an extra touch before it's time to save and move on.

So sharp!

PSD and UI

I do like to use psd's now and then. I mainly use @windslar's psd-collections and @deathbypufferfish's Build-a-Sim Icon Pack.

It's mostly to help give some info about the post or when my sims age up and I want to show their traits.

I do use the UI-info sometimes. If I do, I go into Game Options in the game > Accessibility > UI-scale and just drag that up a bit. Then I copy/paste that part onto the image I'm using.

Done!

That's pretty much it. Thing is, to post good edits you have to actually take good screenshots. As annoying as it is, it's like cooking: it all comes down to the ingredients. I hate cooking Yes, editing does help but I think my main journey has been to learn to take better screenshots from the start.

The picture below is from resized to done.

Hope this might help someone! I will probably learn more and more as I continue to post, but this is where I am so far in my journey!

[permian-tropos]

oh wow yet another revision of the hades 2 ending we really needed more of those

I HAVE OPINIONS OKAY.

I've spent the last few days thinking about ways one might rewrite the ending. I started off trying to keep things relatively close to the game's existing structure, so you wouldn't have too many new assets and an equivalent amount of writing as went into canon, but tbh I got carried away so maybe this is a ridiculous far-fetched idea after all.

Early game is pretty much exactly the same story and progression. The only changes I would make would be that when Chronos appears to taunt you outside Erebus and to yeet you into Asphodel, those encounters emphasize an ideological discourse happening between him and Mel. She can tell he's a vengeful, bitter creature, but his criticisms of the gods do start to rattle her the more she interacts with characters on the route down like Arachne, Narcissus, and Echo. Eg. Chronos loves to comment on Arachne's dresses, but what if he knows more about her story and uses it as an example of the gods' cruelty? And when Chronos throws you into a memory of Asphodel, he's making a point about how the old Underworld was pretty horrible to most shades, and enforced this eternal class divide. It's not like he's completely benevolent himself, he's still a ruthless character in other ways, but the nagging uncertainty is enough to bother Melinoë, laying a bit more of a foundation for a moral dilemma.

Midgame, after you unlock the path up to the mountain, you have other characters to challenge Melinoë's worldview, like Icarus being another mortal punished for hubris when he was just a boy relishing freedom for the first time, and Heracles and Prometheus. And through Prometheus, Dora as well. Don't forget Dora.

And okay I'm sorry to anyone who likes Eris but I would either totally rewrite her to be less grating and whiny and to have become zealously committed to Chronos's cause because she believes Strife is important to social progress (aka conflict theory), that he's actually kind of a maturing influence on her that gives her a sense of purpose—or replace her boss fight with a new character who is part of Chronos's forces. My partner offered the idea of Marsyas, the satyr who was skinned alive by Apollo for challenging him to a music contest. Works as a parallel to Arachne, and this way we get some interaction with the satyr faction, whom we might end up talking with more on Olympus, in the Party Room.

By the time Melinoë has started crafting a spell to make Chronos killable, she has run into a lot of people who are pulling her in the direction of seeing this war in shades of gray, rather than black and white. The gods send their boons with haughty comments about cruelly punishing the mortals who rose up against them alongside Chronos. The undead fighting you in the Rift of Thessaly may have come from all the drowned cities and towns caused by Poseidon's earthquake. And so on.

It might start to dawn on Melinoë that Chronos's legions aren't slavishly loyal to him. They resurrected him, so they could mount their campaign against the gods with a powerful force on their side: Time itself.

But Time is overly obsessed with the past, with his vanity and his vindictiveness. He's not the best leader of these forces, and is prone to the arrogance he condemns in the gods. One of his worst decisions, which even his own legions are starting to question, is unleashing Typhon, a literal world-killer of a monster. When you meet the satyrs in Dionysus's rave, they're scared of Typhon and it's driving them to party away their worries. We start to hear, then experience for ourselves, that Typhon is more powerful than Chronos. He is an embodiment of Apocalypse. How can Chronos promise a Golden Age after letting him loose? When Melinoë challenges Chronos on this, he insists he has it all under control. He's literally Time, one of the primordial forces of the universe. The problem with Time, though, is that it cannot be stopped, and charges forth blindly in one direction.

Melinoë is still working on that Dissolution of Time spell, and something she might hear from characters like Hecate and Medea is that powerful curses affect the caster as well as the target. And something she comes to realize (maybe Moros, being the embodiment of Doom, is the one who figures this out first) is that when she casts it, it makes her vulnerable to being permanently killed too. Equal exchange. She's like "I'll be fine, I know how to Return to Shadow, I can get out of any situation before I die" but everyone close to her is getting scared about what could happen. She's a determined little Living Weapon though, and the Olympians seem to prefer to take a back seat and let her risk her immortality to end the war for them.

In a final confrontation with Chronos after the curse is cast, Melinoë strikes him down, and he is weakened enough for Hades, Persephone, and Zagreus to be freed from their timeless prisons. Zagreus can still be the one to question whether murdering their grandfather is the best option, but Melinoë has been struggling with the goal for a long time now. She's distraught, she wants to finish her lifelong purpose, but she and Peepaw have a surprisingly strong bond through all their ideological arguments. He's been supportive, in a way, in her anger at the gods on behalf of her friends.

Then she receives a sudden message that Typhon has returned to Olympus even more powerful than ever before. Zeus and Hera have decided they're going to use that alluded-to weapon of mass destruction to stop him. Basically like dropping a fucking nuke on this guy. There's a chance it won't even work. It will definitely devastate the mortal world. Melinoë balks at killing Chronos and rushes up to the mountaintop instead. It's probably not a full run, maybe you're continuing on with the boons you gained on the run to Tartarus and getting a really accelerated path through the surface regions. Mel is racing against the clock to kill Typhon first, before the big nuke.

The Typhon fight, though, is literally impossible. His health is infinite. It's a scripted defeat. And when Melinoë is struck down, she tries to return to shadow and Typhon's giant hand grabs her out of the teleport animation.

He's about to devour her. She cursed herself with mortality to try to kill Chronos, and now she really could die.

And then Time catches up with her. The final run being this terrifying race against the clock? How could he not have been hot on her heels? Hades, Persephone, and Zagreus barely had a moment to try to subdue the Titan after breaking out of the prison he held them in. He's absolutely frantic, demanding they let him follow Melinoë. He's never been shown mercy by family before. She's already kind of become his favorite through their rivalry, but this is the tipping point. He's not going to let this monster he unleashed on the world kill his granddaughter.

But we've already established that Typhon is stronger than Chronos and out of control, and has reached his full apocalyptic potential by now. Even though Chronos unleashes his worst upon the Father of All Monsters, the battle ends in a draw.

Typhon kills Chronos. Perhaps, for extra irony, swallows him, and Chronos strikes the killing blow on him from within before Time literally disintegrates.

Melinoë returns to shadow and finds the Crossroads in a state of terrifying stillness. Like the sprint up the mountain, this is a temporary remix of a familiar area with everything feeling wrong and horrible. Maybe even worse than being frozen, everyone seems like they're unraveling. Being unmade.

At this point, Melinoë finds Chaos themself, who reveals to her that the universe really could end. And a new one will be born. (I believe there's dialogue from the original Hades that could be referenced here). That's what the End of Time means. But Melinoë, distraught, insists that their world was not beyond saving. It wasn't too stuck in cycles of violence and vengeance and oppression. Chronos wouldn't have sacrificed himself for such an outcome. He must have been giving her a last chance to save everything.

She finds her way to her tent. There's a strange container that has been sitting in the corner gathering dust for a long time. And there's light coming from it, faint. The only thing left in this warped Crossroads that still seems to truly exist.

And she knows what it is, because she's unlocked Dora's memories in order to progress. It's Prometheus's last gift to humanity. It's Hope, stashed away at the bottom of the jar after Dora let out all the evils into the world.

This is all she can take as her weapon. Hope lights her way down another shortened, dark, and distorted version of the route to Tartarus. We've now seen all main areas of the game in this state of Wrongness. I had a thought that maybe Echo is the last one lingering who is not gone, because of what she represents. But anyway, it's not a long sequence. Just builds the tension even further.

Melinoë's goal is to return to the mirror of Night and use that spell she knows, to traverse outside of normal Time. I think the conversations she has with Zagreus in this version of the story do help her create the Dissolution of Time spell, but the mirror's final importance really is here, when she uses it to find Chronos himself, in his own past. Could be the same way Zagreus found him, trying to reconstitute himself in the depths of Tartarus. She introduces herself to Chronos and says the end of all things is upon them if he doesn't help her.

He's in full villain mode at first, but he realizes how dire the situation is when she shows him Hope. He's already recruited Prometheus to his cause, who gave him a cryptic little prophesy about someone coming bearing Hope, and Melinoë is absolutely desperate, so he relents and decides to trust her.

I could figure out a way for Chronos raising Melinoë in an alternate timeline to still be included since it is very cute. So maybe he promises to grown Melinoë to reach out to her family instead of just attacking the House of Hades once he's revived. By doing this, by changing the past, they create this little bubble of possibility that is temporarily safe from the End of Time, and so when Melinoë wakes up from using the mirror, that alternate version of Chronos who raised her, Father Time, is alive and is waiting for her, which means there is still Time to save everyone.

Melinoë doesn't exactly remember the other timeline, but it's sort of reabsorbed into her. There is a faint feeling of it being part of her now. Father Time explains that he too needs to be put back together from all the scattered possibilities. Melinoë understands that she has to be the one to do it, because she is partially responsible for what happened. And this IS the basic foundation for the postgame content. Collecting all those Z-Sands from dueling alternate Chronoses is helping to rebuild Father Time. He accepts that he's at fault for a lot of this too and deserves the asskicking as part of being brought back into the world. Meanwhile, it also helps to kill Typhon over and over in all these other possible worlds, since he was the one who devoured Time. Time's essence was digested into his being across all of existence (you can even use the Entropy drop from him to signify that).

With Melinoë vowing to become Chronos's Time Keeper, with them putting an end to the cycle of vengeance, the End of Time has been averted. Even though she hasn't put him back together yet, he can draw strength from the future where he has been fully restored, to let Time freely flow. Hades, Persephone, and Zagreus are all in the House with lingering memories of the alternate timeline with Grandpa, like a fading dream. Typhon has fallen from Olympus and there's no need to use the nuke. The war is over.

And then from there, the postgame is not really that different from canon, except that Melinoë refuses to let the world be brought back with the same old status quo. She's got some leverage as the one who is keeping Time flowing freely, and she is more directly involved in the postgame storyline with the Fates.

Despite being adversaries, and despite both doing things that brought the world to the brink of annihilation, Chronos and Melinoë were both kind of right about the other being wrong. It isn't the gods who are victorious here. Change itself is. Mortals unleashed this conflict in the first place by resurrecting Chronos, and they did this because the world needed to change, and it struggled against that change to the point of almost destroying itself, but at the brink, it remembered Hope, and believed in a future. Everyone, from mortals to gods to Titans to witches to shades to satyrs to monsters, is a little bit responsible for it all, and "it all" was both terrible and important. With this understanding, they can begin to rebuild and heal.

(NOT) THE END

Also Hecate is still Melinoë because that's such a good twist and I fuckign called it but I don't have time to rewrite how that fits around this story so just assume that it does.

[cozylittleartblog]

OMG i loved the novel tags on your mk2k art i'm so glad another person out there thinks michael is Coping big time

oh he is coping so hard it makes him look stupid. i mean it's Obvious. I mean it is layers upon layers of coping and trying to convince himself there is no way he is in this situation. somehow the biggest thing he would be in denial about is the gay part, not even the car part. couldn't tell you if that's from how human he sees his partner or further cope in line with "is it really gay if he's not really a man, either?"

he likes women, obviously he's not gay. you can't like women and men. pssh. i mean maybe sometimes he stares at guys too long and gets a little hot at the collar, but that's just... admiration, right? envy? envious of Guys Bein' Doods? -- and nothing that happened between him and the guys in 'nam counted. that doesn't count. anything that's happened when he was drunk also doesn't count. and even STILL, you can't like women and cars and sports and be gay, right? nahhh. (<- bullshitting himself) and like... kitt is his buddy! that's his partner! they're obviously so close because they've gone through a lot together and almost died NUMEROUS times. and even besides all of THAT, everyone's... everyone's a little gay. there's no way they aren't. so what if kitt has him feeling certain kinds of ways on long drives or when he's in the motel by himself at night? clearly he just needs to find a girl to fool around with. duh. of Course. ... and yeah whatever kitt's a car people will think that's insane but kitt is also a person. he is so strongly a person, a unique sentient personality. is it so wrong for someone to love, or to want to love someone, even if they look strange to other people? is that a crime? ... anyway michael's slut activities increase x300 the entire time he's trying to convince himself he's not gay, which starts with him unable to have the one he wants most so he copes by having everyone else instead, which THEN also broadly overlaps with when he starts fooling around with his car. which he only convinces himself isn't really gay because arguably, kitt isn't a man or a woman. and surely he's just going through some kind of... Something, if he's feeling the things he does as often as he does towards who he does. clearly it's just stress pushed to the breaking point. michael getting those stupid fluttery feelings when kitt acts defensive and protective of him in the presence of girls or other cars doesn't mean anything. it doesn't. normal flattery and nothing more. (<- cope harder, gayboy)

and don't!! even get me started!! on his self worth issues!! even after he figures out and accepts his feelings, there's a whole other mess to untangle called "does michael deserve to have a life outside of the foundation". is he allowed to love kitt when he faces death every day and the risk of breaking his heart? is he allowed to love kitt when that might mean losing him one day to a field accident bonnie can't fix? too many people come after him and the people he loves for him to love ever again. is kitt a safe person for him since he's nearly indestructible and faces the same challenges he does? or is kitt the worst possible person for him to love when kitt faces death and peril nearly as much as michael does? will they be at this until they die, will FLAG ever allow them a normal retirement? does he even have a right to ask for one now that wilton has saved his life, a life he lives out every day in service to that man's dream, let alone after what happened with Stevie? is he a human man or is he an idea?

chat those two legitimately make me insane.

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 832: The final voice

Pag 1

1: Rushaaaa

2: Prepare yourself

3: The only time when that will really be recognized...

4: Yuuto-san!!

Shinkai-san!!

Gooo!!

Pag 2

1: You don't appreciate us

2: Why is a second year becoming the ace, Manami

I know that ace has always been a third year

How would you explain this to our old senpai?

3: Well, the team will be stronger

That's... Bashi-san said it...

It's not about doing something tricky, it's about building a pyramid, and only with a third year at the top the foundation can be stable

4: Well, it's Yuuto, so I think he can do it

5: That's not what we mean

Aren't you playing favorites? You got rose-colored glasses

6: When a new first year join and sees that a second year is the ace, what will he even think of us third year!? That'll settle a bad example!!

The other guys definitely won't be okay with this either!!

7: And also that guy, when he first joined, he had a horrible attitude

He fought even with Ashikiba-san

If he becomes the ace he'll be even more arrogant

Pag 3

1: The whole club will collapse

2: Is that so

4: You know that, Yuuto

It's a matter of Hakogaku's history

We can't overthrown it in our generation, can we?

5: It's not about your strength

That's right, we're talking about order and hierarchy

6: You yourself should tell Manami that you're withdrawing

What?

7: Just like your older brother, who withdrew from the Inter High

Pag 4

1: And?

2: Well you told me up until that point

3: Didn't you say anything to that?

Huh... well....

4: No no no, I would have complained

I mean, those kind of people are the ones who take practice easy

And they're only care about their own ranking? And also, could they not speak so causally about my brother? I mean

5: But then the conversation would had taken too long and we'd have had less time to practice... so I just said “I'll think about it”....

Pag 5

1: Buah!!

Ouuch!! Huh1?

2: Yuuto, that's right!! That's good!!

Huh!? Huh!? Ah!? What!? That hurt!!

3: What's important it's effort, faith, and results. No need for pretense

5: You've really grown, haven't you?

Huh!?

Alright, from now on you'll have to swallow whatever people say about you

Huh!? Swallow?

6: Instead of fighting with them, come tell me

7: I'll take everything!! Guah!!

Bashi-san...

9: You'll only be accepted once you win the Inter High

10: Yes!!

Pag 6

2: I'll do that now!!

Pag 7

1: 40m left until the Inter High's first day's finish line!!

Pag 8

1: Sharuaaaa!!

My legs hurt!!My whole body is aching

2: But I' absolutely

3: won't lower my head!!

Pag 9

1: Ooooo

2: I'll deliver it!! This jersey!!

3: It's not easy!! I know that!!

4: I know this harshness!!

Pag 10

1: 30m left!!

Here...

Pag 11

1: Kyoto is....

4: Kyofushi is being swallowed by the other three who were running behind him!!

Kyotoo!!

Pag 12

1: The four of them are side by side!!

2: But...

Kyoto has been running in the lead until now, his strength will be...

Pag 13

2: Now...

4: He's falling... behind

Pag 14

1: The first...

2: oneee

3: The first one, the first one, the first one, the first one, the first one, the first one, the first one, the first one, the first one

4: I'll make her happy

I'll make my mother happy by passing under the goal gate first

I'll make her happy, I'll make her happy

5: I will

6: And

Pag 15

1: Once I make her happy

2: It's thanks to you, Akira

3: It's thanks to me

6: Definitely!!

Pag 16

1: Definitely!!

2: That's why, I

I-

Dammit... dammit...

3: Dammit, at this pace-

I'll be the first one

The first one

4: I'll be the first one

5: Dammit

Pag 17

1: -lp... me....

2: Someone help me!!

Pag 19

1: Akira, you always greet your teeth and work so hard

You're incredible

2: Really

3: But, you see, sometimes

4: You have a hard time, don't you? Like right now

Pag 20

1: Even if you're saying “help me”

2: And you rely on someone

Pag 21

5: Don't give up, Akira

Pag 22

2: Kyoto came back to life!!

Waaa

All four of them are charging in!!

20m left!!

3: This is....

Pag 23

1: This is.....

2: This is what you mean by “relying”?