Devoid Dusk

And that the war goddess mount leader and the nonbinary sect leader are lesbians and dating. Neither of them are the main character and their relationship isn't important to the plot. I just thought it would be a fun fact to share.

Also there's a transmasc mount leader who gave himself the name "Dòng" which means "pillar, beam" and a transfem mount leader who gave herself the name "Xiùyīng" meaning "luxuriant flower" (yes they made their names dick and pussy jokes)

These details are not at all important to the plot of the story I'm writing (beyond it being about acceptance, recovery, family, and learning to forgive yourself). But these characters would be incredibly different from how I plan them to be without these details about their identities, and I'm putting it out there now so that when I get it published people will know if censorship gets in the way of me making it known directly in the text.

okay so. fortinbras doesn't have a lot of lines and his entry on the spreadsheet is. sparse (he only uses second person pronouns THREE times in the entire play) but a4s4, we get a conversation between fortinbras and his captain. and here's the neat thing

fortinbras uses "you" for his captain, a subordinate to him. now. could this be plural? possibly. but, i think it's interesting to consider if it were for formality reasons, because in this situation, fortinbras referring to a subordinate like this would show a sort of solidarity between the two. not only are the two close, fortinbras is respectful to his captain! he would have been perfectly within his right to thou him but nope! you!

Unsure if this is helpful but:

When I was studying it, we looked at Fortinbras as a soldier rather than a member of royalty even though he is a royal (implied bc he's the son of Old Fortinbras right?). He's constantly associated with militant imagery, from Act 1 Scene 1 with the references to Fortinbras' valour to Act 5 Scene 2 where he orders 'a soldier's burial' for Hamlet.

+ unrelated to Fortinbras specifically:

The unification of classes in Hamlet's speech such as 'a king may go through the stomach of a beggar' and the Gravedigger's scene where the gravedigger acknowledges the superiority of a 'gentlewoman' as Ophelia is able to get the 'Christian burial' that lower classes would be denied regarding her implied suicide.

Imo, Shakespeare presents the corruption of Denmark stemming from a lack of class conciousness (if read from a marxist perspective). Fortinbras, as a symbol of the future, ends the '[rot] in the state of Denmark' which includes the respect he gives in the formal 'you'.

https://youtu.be/93wE-2E0b4Q

you know this one: https://youtu.be/YMcGLQ-RZ44

So I could logically propose an AU where:

The system (RIP Bingzu) trying to rationalize SQH's identity as the god of this world so that it would fit into plot of Pidw edits SQH's backstory to make him a god freshly banished from the heavens aka making him a fresh first gen heavily demon.

In theory doing this world work great in elevating the plot.

The original SQH was a minor villain that had a poultry excuse of a motive and virtually no back story to speak of. Him being a heavenly demon and ex god would make him more complex and it would be more satisfying when he was defeated later on.

He would be cursed with the same mark that heavily demons have but little different. Instead of it being on the forehead it would cover his entire torso the design gets thicker and more intricate near his head.

(The color they were would depend on what color palette you head cannon him as having.)

In reality though instead of changing the plot all that much it just serves as a means for SQH is a BAMF aura farming moments, Moshang moments of all flavors, an incredible complicated relationship with LBH if he were to ever learn of this, so on and so forth.

The idea of MBJ catching a glips of his loyal beloved servant while in the mist of changing or taking a bath only to see a giant zuiyin covering his entire body make my brain very happy.

Imagine all those beautiful complicated feelings (all of which eventually boil down into an intense yearning) he would feel in that moment.

Deciding not to let his body age at all and stay young, unlike the palace master

Meets Su Xian and clocks her as Binghe's mother immediately because this kind of beauty could only belong to Binghe's parents. Still sends her off to keep an eye on Tianglang-Jun.

He discovers their relationship and is pleased by it, she has his full blessing without even knowing it.

Su Xian falls pregnant and Old Palace Yuan wonders what ends up happening to her and wishes he could save her.

Because its Shen Yuan, he isn't trying to start a random war for no reason. Doesn't set a trap for Tianglang-Jun.

When Su Xian gives birth, still giving her baby a cradle seal, Shen Yuan realizes he done fucked up somewhere

But that's okay! Look at his new grandson! He got to name him Su Binghe! Because Old Palace Yuan definitely thinks of his disciples as his children me thinks. Because I said so.

Shang Qinghua pays a visit to Huan Hua because um. Hey. That plot point hasn't happened? And sees this handsome young man in the place of what should have been The Old Palace Master, and is still called that despite his appearance.

Walks right up to him. "Proud immortal demon way!" Waving his hands to get his attention

Queue them going into a private room and having a screaming match.

Something something they end up together in secret because CumPlane for the win! But they can't be open about it because Shang Qinghua is a Ciang Qiong Peak Lord and Shen Yuan is the Huan Hua Sect Leader.

Shen Yuan eventually accidentally meets Tianglang-Jun, and the two somehow end up having a half heated half amused discussion about novels by the time Su Xian finds them with little Su Binghe on her hip. She can't help but be amused seeing her father figure ranting off about how this and that plot doesn't make sense and her partner egging him on.

The plot for the story is now about how the beloved son of the head disciple of Huan Hua was outted as a half-demon during an immortal alliance conference and falls into the abyss (possibly by accident this time around) and how he slowly discovers that actually the demon realm and the human realm can totally live in peace, how he discovers his father has secretly been the heavenly demon emperor Tianglang-Jun.

Then he discovers that Old Palace Master knew the entire time, and works with his grandfather, and surprisingly Peak Lord Shang Qinghua?, to bring the realms together through trade

Interviewer: Victor, I have one for you. Apollo 8 had a memorable Christmas Eve reading from Genesis. Do you have a message you'd like to share from space about Easter Sunday?

Victor Glover: You know, I don't have anything prepared... I, I um, I'm glad you brought that up though. I think these observances are important and as we are so far from Earth and looking [back] at the beauty of creation, I think the... for me one of the important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing, and you know, when I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us, who[we're?] created... it's, you have this amazing place, this spaceship. You guys are talking to us because we're in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you're on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos. [I think] maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we're doing is special, but we're the same distance from you, and I'm trying to tell you, just trust me, you are special. In all of this emptiness, this is a whole bunch of nothingness, this thing we call the universe, you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. I think as we go into Easter Sunday thinking about, you know, all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are who we are, and that we are the same thing and that we've got to get through this together.

We know vaccines painful, and by comparing horses at rest with horses getting vaccinated, we've been able to determine how they express pain visually. By looking at horses with disorders like colic, broken bones, wounds, and so on, we can determine their facial expressions during more severe pain.

At zookeeper school we were drilled through the pain faces of the most common lab animals and livestock. Nowadays I believe this has become a routine lesson in all animal related fields, but the general public still doesn't know that this is a thing that exists.

Here are all the pain face/grimace scales I've been able to find. Please study them if you interact with any of these animals on a regular basis:

'Not What You Saw' [2024-ongoing] by Keerthana Kunnath

Shot across beaches, fields, and village edges in Kerala, India,

watch it

A) This piece is not Tchaikovsky, it’s called Ricochet (Ping Pong Concerto) by Andy Akiho

B) Tchaikovsky has some unconventional percussion in the 1812 Overture, but it explicitly calls for an actual literal battery of cannons. It’s often creatively replaced by conductors because not all performance halls and/or educational establishments condone the use of an actual literal battery of cannons.