…hey Harry Potter fans, we’re all in agreement that Dumbledore brought the Philosopher’s Stone to Hogwarts in Harry’s first year as a test to see whether Voldemort was paying attention and what sort of state he was in, now that Dumbledore’s chosen champion was old enough to hold a wand, right?
Like, Harry learns what magic is and it’s time to start moving towards the full and final destruction of Tom Riddle Junior, so Dumbledore has a chat with his long-time alchemy friend who’s been keeping this thing safe for literally six centuries straight, and ‘borrows’ the easiest source of immortality he can find as bait for a trap to lure Voldemort out into the open so Dumbledore can get the lay of the land to prep for the next seven years. This is canon, right?
Yes, this is canon. In none of the other books is the climactic array of trials set up as a video-game dungeon perfectly tailored to the skillsets of three specific children. Hermione and Ron are drafted into this war quickly.
Draco gets so much shit for trying to kill Dumbledore but honestly who wouldn’t
look it’s a well known matter of fact that each and every single boy in homestuck is a weenie baby when it comes down to it
open your eyes people! they’re all weenies! your fave could never and i know it hurts but you just need to accept and understand that they absolutely have not and never will match even a fourth of the tenacity literally any other homestuck girl has in their right pinkies alone
“Not even Dirk?” is what I’d ask if I didn’t know better.
dirk “im going to dissipate into a cloud of pixels due to my sheer manpain” strider is one of the biggest weenies of them all
Sollux is the closest. Literally kills himself twice to save everyone. I don’t know if fucking off into eternity after that counts as weenieing up, but every guy is at least second best to this weenie-ass nerd.
This young girl uses “los,” “las” and the gender-neutral “les” — watch her explain why. —from REMEZCLA on twitter.
to all the cowards who whine “how will i explain it to my kids??” i say: how about you shut up and let your kids explain it to you.
Guys, you don’t understand, this isn’t the same thing as people complaining about “they” in English! This is a huge deal in Spanish. Spanish-speakers are much less forgiving of new colloquialisms or loan words from other languages (god forbid you say “slide” for a slideshow instead of “diapositiva”; you’ll get burned at the stake). To explain, I have to give a bit of background:
There is a very old organisation called LaReal Academia Española (the Spanish Royal Academy or RAE) whose sole job has been to maintain strict grammar and language rules for the entire Spanish-speaking world. Whenever someone is unsure of a word or rule, it is very common to consult la RAE, but it’s a much bigger deal than just Googling something on Dictionary.com or Webster’s in English-speaking countries. You know those old-people minion Facebook memes people like making fun of? There are some for RAE-approved grammar and language. I’m completely serious. I’ve had Spanish literature professors fucking email RAE officials when teaching some obscure grammar rule to make sure they’re up to date with RAE standards. I’ve had them scold students or dropping points for using a new or loan word in class because “it’s not RAE-recognised”. It’s the biggest deal.
Even if a word is widely understood and used, there are people who refuse to recognise it because “La RAE” doesn’t either. La RAE’s word is law for many Spanish-speakers, and it very rarely adds or changes words. They would never dream of adding “selfie” or “muggle” to the dictionary the way it has happened in English.
Spanish is a gendered language, so it’s hard to make things gender neutral without drastically changing centuries-old language rules. For example, the Spanish word for child is “niño” for masculine and “niña” for feminine. The correct gender-neutral way according to la RAE is “niño”, but lots of people use the “@“ symbol in the place of the gendered vowel to make it more inclusive, giving you “niñ@“. And RAE-thumpers get pissed about it. It’s impossible to make something widely recognised without RAE approval, which sucks because the people who manage RAE are a bunch of stubborn and elitist old people. To be fair, using “@“ is a bit cumbersome and only good for written works, and it’s always been a struggle to find a spoken gender-neutral equivalent. That’s where this sweet girl’s solution comes in.
Using a neutral vowel “e” instead of the gendered vowels “a” and “o” is an incredibly elegant solution to this problem! It’s easy to say and it’s easy to write. But for the average Spanish-speaker to accept “les” instead of “los” or “las” is a huge feat we’re undertaking. Standing up to her teacher, who most likely adheres to RAE rules and regulations, is a huge deal. These rules are centuries old and haven’t changed that much this whole time. What she’s suggesting is making a lot of people irrationally mad.
It’s not like in English where people whine about “they”, and yet you can pull up hundreds of examples of it in older literature. This has never been done in Spanish before. And it’s gonna take a lot more work to make this a thing in such a tightly-regulated language as Spanish.
Anyway, I had quite a chunk before (I encourage you to check that out if you haven’t), so I’ll work from that.
Interests/Traits
Interests of Mind players include law, justice, facades, dragons, and sensory engagement. A Sylph of Mind probably wouldn’t be a high profile lawyer, but they might work with smaller civil cases or help gather information as a secretary or assistant. If they’re in student court, they’re not the one making dramatic pronouncements. They’re the one going ‘please guys can we stay on topic’. Perhaps they’re the judge.
They likely have a strong sense of morality and how things ‘should’ go. While they may not be outspoken about it, they try to encourage people to do the right thing. If they’re friendly with a Blood player, they might be into encouraging social justice/progress in subtle but well-meaning ways.
They may cultivate a personality that encourages other people to be more open about how they really feel, and they may try to use that persona to encourage people down the right paths. (Meddle meddle, nag nag. They may be good at it too, since they have a tendency to understand their friends’ mindsets.) They’re supportive and friendly, but people talking to them feel like they’re being guided in certain directions. The Sylph might also be interested in a variety of sensory experiences, depending on their interests and affiliations. Perhaps they like pottery because of the feel of the clay under their fingers, or they take cooking classes. They probably know the importance of smell as a memory tool – maybe they’re into aromatherapy. Whenever they want to talk to someone, they light candles with soothing scents in an attempt to manipulate them.
In a fantasy setting they are probably in charge of raising young dragons. 🙂
Game Powers
Mind doesn’t always have flashy powers. A Sylph of Mind who is more active and less morally inclined might be able to change people’s minds with the power of their thoughts. They might be able to aid people who have mind or brain related issues, helping people with disorders or even damage done to them during the game. (There was a theory going around that all of Jake’s head injuries had done a number on him. Maybe a Sylph of Mind could help.) Probably more of it would be guiding people down the right paths of choices and decisions through conversation, shared information, and counseling. I’m not sure any of their actions would have really obvious fancy game effects, but they would tend to guide situations toward conclusions where the guilty received punishment and everything turned out ok. It might be a good idea to put them with the session’s Time player so they can make sure everyone chooses right.
Arc/Development
An overly active Sylph of Mind might try to force people to agree with them and act the way they want to, either through bullying or use of their powers. An overly passive one might feel trapped, knowing that certain decisions will have bad consequences but not feeling brave enough to speak up. Or maybe they’re burdened by the knowledge that certain decisions need to be made, even if they don’t like them or think they’re right.
The journey of a Mind player seems to be one of perception. How you see others, how you see the world, how you see yourself. A Mind player needs to understand who they are and what they want. They need to make peace with the fact that sometimes life isn’t fair and won’t go the way you want, but you need to be able to keep going anyway. A Sylph of Mind must understand that injustice happens. Sometimes they can fight it and overcome it. Sometimes it is better not to try.
just moving along like everyone else 