terabient

Been thinking about Casra I and Casra II's history a lot lately. The absence of canonical appearances Casra I and sparse statements regarding both characters in-game and in supplemental material means there's a LOT of room to ~go wild~ with speculation and headcanons, and making up stuff based on a few lines of text is my #1 favorite thing to do in fandom! So here’s is my personal timeline for pre-PSO2 Lucasra. please clap

Warnings: underage relationship, psychological manipulation, Luther at his absolute worst

( Timeline from Casra II’s conception to AP 220 )

Many thanks if you made it this far! But also: SORRY, I can’t stop yelling about these two (individually AND together) so here’s some Additional Thoughts on pre-PSO2 Lucasra that don’t fit neatly into the timeline format:

• Since the successors of the Three Heroes take on their predecessor’s name...it’s possible that Casra II has a different birth name. At the same time, I can absolutely see Casra I and Luther having zero originality and just name him Casra II anyway, especially since his “purpose” is set and I doubt Casra II was known to anyone outside Void Apparatus before his placement on the Council (meaning there’s no need to hide the fact that he’s intended to be Casra I’s successor). Also I just find it hard to refer to Casra II as anything besides Casra, lol.


• Thematically, I think of Lucasra as a bleak inversion/corruption of Luther’s relationship with Hariette. In EP5 Luther understands he has a duty to raise and care for Hariette, and is actually capable of choosing her safety at the cost of his own. Oracle Luther has completely lost these qualities and can only see people as tools to be used. At most he views his creations as extensions of himself or symbols of his brilliance—not individuals with their own wills. So whenever there’s a question on how Luther would treat Casra in a given situation I think “well the exact opposite of how he would treat Hariette.” Gotta live up to the “Fallen” and “Loser” titles, after all.


• I had some thoughts about Luther taking an interest in Casra’s Draconian research because it potentially offers an alternate path to omniscience through “completing” Terr’yiotr or Kasheena, but it’s not something I’ve fully fleshed out yet. 🫠

Bluesky, one of the million twitter clones that popped up after the elon musk buyout, removed their invitation sign-up requirement, so naturally i signed up because trying out new social media sites while being intensely asocial is one of my hobbies now. it's alright i guess; i'm mostly lurking for the most part.

you can also embed bsky posts so i figured why not make a lil' post of Fun Things I Have Found There?

I found out legendary weirdposter of very Old Twitter utilitylimb is back, transitioned, married, and part of a 3 person indie game studio putting out an rpg where you can fuck bears and a whole bunch of other, more abstract entities? I think that's what it's about.

gently setting expectations so no one gets surprised that our game is about a bunch of transsexual misfits doing murders in a wasteland. if you thought it was weird to fuck the bear in bg3 our paths must diverge here.

— nattie winters (utilitylimb) May 8, 2024 at 4:17 PM

anyways great to know they're having a good time!

PSO2 stuff:

Artist Noise (who I vaguely remember meeting once when NPC meetups were still A Thing) had an art request thread and drew my current hyperfixation Varuna ^_^ He is very adorable and has little hearts in his eyes! I love it ♥

Here he is! owo~~
Thank you for requesting Varuna and for joining this event! ♪(´▽｀)

[image or embed]

— Noise💜🖊 (noisebun) Apr 27, 2024 at 4:54 PM

on the other end of the fanart spectrum, i finally got the guts to commission some pin-up style artwork of my husbando from the lovely ThanatosRequiem, who does incredibly hot art of androgynous elfin characters; if you're looking for an artist i HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Varuna for janejana Thank you for allowing the opportunity to draw this character! 👉👈

#art #digitalart #pso2 #varuna

[image or embed]

— Thanatos 🌹 (thanatosrequiem) Apr 26, 2024 at 9:06 PM

that's all for now. i have decided to leave "best skeets about the kendrick/drake beef" for another entry

Varuna coaxes Luther out of Cuento Castle to spend a relaxing afternoon in the snow. ❄️ 💞



snowball fight!!!

Credits

Luther, video capture, screenshots: zetchi
Varuna, screenshots: terabient

title: Golden Wings & Hairy Toes, Todd McLeish

started: 6/??/23

ended: 1/15/24

thoughts: A thorough overview of fourteen endangered species in New England, this book goes into great detail on the history and behavior of each species, the conservation efforts being taken to preserve the species and the challenges they face, and a prediction on how they may fare in the future. (For reference, this was published in 2007, and with the exception of one case I don't know how badly the climate change in the past 17 years has affected the species in this book.)

It's a great book for lovers of Cool Animal Facts (and plant and bug facts), though I did find the highly detailed passages regarding trapping and tagging a bit dry and repetitive (there's not too many ways to tag birds or fish). I did come away with some ~NEW FAVORITE CREATURES~ after reading, which I will gush about below.

Sandplain Gerardia: A wildflower that grows in transitional grasslands that grow in the aftermath of wildfires; with wildfires and their destructive impact greatly reduced in the past century, the Sandplain Gerardia is mostly confined to historic cemeteries where constant mowing creates the clear and sunny landscape they need to survive. This also keeps them safe from being trampled, as they're very small and delicate.

American Burying Beetle: The largest carrion beetle in New England, its preferred carcass for reproduction is something around the size and weight of the long-extinct passenger pigeon. While they don't specifically need a passenger pigeon carcass they don't choose anything smaller, and suburban sprawl has made carrion in general much less available. Conservationists pretty much just scatter quail chick carcasses for the beetles to use.

Also a beetle pair can bury a carcass in a single night! Apparently they just get under the carcass and dig down and by the time the sun comes up they're several feet underground. They'll also carry a carcass if the soil's not suitable for breeding--they have to go very deep to keep ants and flies from finding it. :o

Karner Blue Butterfly: A tiny blue butterfly that can only reproduce in areas with abundant wild lupine, a flower that primarily grows in pine barrens--another transitional habitat dependent on relatively frequent wildfires. In addition to only reproducing on a single flower species, the Karner Blue butterfly only lives for a few weeks and can't fly very far in that period, so it's extremely difficult for them to discover new areas to reproduce.

The area of conservation for the Karner Blue is within driving distance for me and open to the public--it's been so successful that the conservationists have stopped breeding the butterflies in captivity and moved on to other endangered species of butterflies and moths. I also got to see why Karner Blue butterflies don't travel very far: they are atrocious fliers. Like, I've seen puffins fly, and it's clear those little chunky birds need to work very hard to just get off the ground but the Karner Blues are so...helpless? Like they don't know how their wings work?? They fly in little messy circles for a full minute just to reach a flower a foot away. One landed on me (yes, very magical) and I had to wait almost 10 minutes for it to find its way somewhere else--I tried walking away from it to help it out, but that just seemed to make it harder for the poor lil' guy. Anyway I love these itty bitty butterflies that don't know how to use their wings, really hope they continue to thrive in the dollop of pine barren habitat behind the local airport.

quotes that I remembered for reasons unknown: "One lynx in particular, L18, was caught regularly, and it may have learned that the trap contained a free meal with only the minor inconvenience of being enclosed for a short time."

"Natural history essayist Stephen Jay Gould referred to Nabakov as a scientific "stick-in-the-mud," in part for dismissing the idea that genetics could be used to distinguish among insect species. Instead, Nabakov relied on the microscopic comparison of butterfly genitalia to identify species, which was the more traditional method at the time."

A big old messy Casruna...headcanon? Musing? Thoughts on how they’d interact in specific scenarios? This is basically a rambling conversation I have with myself every now and then, as I try to work through a zillion AU fics that will never be finished.

( fashion is endgame )

I finished one thing I intended to finish but I hate it so much in its current state that I can't bring myself to post it. RIP in pieces me

Consoling myself with the fact that I can just, you know, keep working on things through the rest of the year, or however long it takes to lose interest finish. I don't have to abandon writing something just because I didn't finish it in an arbitrary period of time, or hate the first (or second or third) draft of a particular bit.

I also work fewer days this month, which theoretically should help with the whole "too tired to think creatively" problem I've been experiencing, but I also host Thanksgiving now so...I'm already going to have to earmark a lot of that time for prepping the house for guests. so idk maybe nothing will be done in November either.

since i never actually said what i was doing for October writing-wise, here's my plan: write at least a scene for as many previously mentioned story concepts as i can, and at the end of the month, post them even if i loathe it. (This is because I always loathe my own writing and will decide not to share anything with anyone, so y'know, trying to get over that.) Since i don't really have the motivation to finish things i figured "at least i can finish scenes, right?"

Turns out the answer is "maybe, probably not tho" at least for now. I'm also not sure when I'll be able to squeeze in more writing time in the days remaining this month, so it's quite possible things will end as they did last October, with nothing to show. :')

( vague venting )

I know it's common to associate songs with characters and ships but I've not done that personally for a long time. A lot of it comes down to the fact that my musical tastes tend towards light and cheerful dance pop while my fictional preferences are sad gay morally grey pretty boys getting in terrible relationships, which isn't the most natural fit for fanmix things.

BUT!!! yesterday I was listening to a kpop ballad, Red Velvet's One of these Nights and when it got to this verse I screamed internally because OMG IT'S LUTHERUNA. THESE ARE THE FEELINGS THIS SHIP IS MEANT TO EVOKE!! An all too brief moment of joy in incalculably long lives, the significance of which is not fully grasped until long after is it gone... 😭 I had a moment for sure.

In the same time span, just for a minute
In the same space, stay for a minute
In that short moment, everything
Stops for us, in that moment
Why did we not know that was a miracle?

( Full lyrics + music video under the cut, along with some song history, if you would like to wallow in the feels with me :') )

I've wanted to do some general character/pairing analysis lately--to go over the emotions, conflicts, and themes I see as central to understanding them--so idk maybe you'll see some more "image songs" posted about my faves while I plug away at kinkfic. or not! i really shouldn't keep making work for myself like this ;p

Not actually an AU this time--it's an "after EP6" idea, one that serves as the set up for an eventual "Varuna & Hariette on Halpha" fic and also my crackship you're welcome :)

( 'I will let my actions speak to my devotion:' Repentance )

getting started early on the costume swap ideas 👀

9/23 edit: Some elaboration on the concept, and formatting changes

( Prince Regent Varuna La Shiec )