@anxiousapplepie / anxiousapplepie.tumblr.com
Pinned
*sticks a pin of all my ISAT Role!Swap teams on the notice board* There! This pinned post now exists, it'll be functional, and when I eventually come up with AU names besides "The Housemaiden!Siffrin AU" or "Traveler!Isabeau's AU" I'll organize it more. Check the #ISAT Role!Swap AU tag for an unfiltered stream of content, or #my art if you want to just look at the stuff I've drawn!
Hi, I've been a little busy, but I was struck by a sudden wave of inspiration that landed squarely on @anxiousapplepie 's Rose knights story. I've been enjoying it a lot for a while now, and I always planned to do this, but the inspiration to do it has hit me just now, lol.
Anyway, meet Myraid, Desire, and Tatsuo! Their actually OCs from my own stuff, but I routinely like to toss them around different worlds and adapt them into it! These three are my favorite little guys~
Now that's basically the summary of it. Under the cut-off, I'm about to fly off into a large ramble about each of them.
Myraid is a shaded red rose that grew up in a wild rose community until they eventually decided to get even more wild by leaving their community on a journey of re-self discovery! In which they have a clone and adopt, pick up a very confused coloured dragon/green rose. :3
Along the way they've been working on how much they can improve their magic as they travel, they refuse to settle for middling magic and when their not out exploring particularly dangerous areas, their trying to improve their stats as much as possible.
At first glance, Myraid seems to be a very typical red rose, they always appear passionate about what their doing, and are clearly devoted(obsessed) to desiree and Tatsuo. But that's just what they want you to think, ever since they first became a red rose, they've put a lot of effort into being an over the top, passionate, red rose (because the truth of the matter is, they haven't really felt all that passionate about anything theyve done in their life), it's almost hard to believe desiree is their clone since their so much more subdued than Myraid to the point their already gaining a completely diffrent colour.
This behavior has no consequences whatsoever. What? Doodle on the ref sheet, you say? Why, I dont know how that got there! :)
Next up, Desiree, the teeny tiny clone of Myraid. Their still quite young, but their already forming a very different identity to Myraid. But for now their being dragged around by their overzealous parent, they mostly don't mind all that much, but they do become way more bothered when Myraid decides to pick up Tatsuo. They were perfectly fine when it was just the two of them, they cannot believe their stringing along someone else.
As you can see, Desiree has chosen to speed run as many colours as they can in a short time period, going from gaining their first colour of shaded red to almost immediately picking up black! Going so fast the white hasn't even had a chance to fade away! (Eventually once the white does go away, they'll end up being multicolored with both red and black.) Which is also the case with their stats, Desiree's current stats are the ones with decimals and the brackets are their stats after they transition colours fully.
Finally, Tatsuo, our little coloured dragon/green rose. Why both? That's because Tatsuo can't decide if they want to be more rose than dragon or more dragon than rose. They feel pressured to choose a side, but every time they feel like their ready to commit to being one or the other, their hit in the face with another realization that makes them fall back into uncertainty. Maybe they'll learn that they don't have to choose... Eventually.
Before Myraid and Desiree came along, Tatsuo was a drifter, exploring different rose and dragon settlements to learn more about them and the many different lifestyles of the races. They were hoping that if they could learn all they could, that maybe, just maybe they'd find something that felt right...
Throughout their time studying the two races and finally planning on maybe settling down as more of a dragon than rose, they get swept up by Myraid and Desiree, making them back pedal once more! How fun!
As you might have noticed, despite placing numbers by the stats for healing magic and power share their crossed out. This is because Tatsuo basically can't really use them (for healing magic I crossed it out as their healing is basically nonexistent by rose standard healing and probably about normal healing for dragons?) I was really interested in playing around with the coloued dragon/green rose's being able to have a mix of the abilities, which was really really hard to figure out how to balance, but it was fun to play with!
Well! That was even more than I first expected, I kinda went a little crazy with it! I didn't expect my original idea for the characters to change so quickly. They each basically went through two iterations before I decided on this one for all of them!
Close ups
Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people. [...] By mid-1927, the new denaturing formulas included some notable poisons—kerosene and brucine (a plant alkaloid closely related to strychnine), gasoline, benzene, cadmium, iodine, zinc, mercury salts, nicotine, ether, formaldehyde, chloroform, camphor, carbolic acid, quinine, and acetone. The Treasury Department also demanded more methyl alcohol be added—up to 10 percent of total product. It was the last that proved most deadly. The results were immediate, starting with that horrific holiday body count in the closing days of 1926. Public health officials responded with shock. “The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol,” New York City medical examiner Charles Norris said at a hastily organized press conference. “[Y]et it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible.” His department issued warnings to citizens, detailing the dangers in whiskey circulating in the city: “[P]ractically all the liquor that is sold in New York today is toxic,” read one 1928 alert. He publicized every death by alcohol poisoning. He assigned his toxicologist, Alexander Gettler, to analyze confiscated whiskey for poisons—that long list of toxic materials I cited came in part from studies done by the New York City medical examiner’s office. Norris also condemned the federal program for its disproportionate effect on the country’s poorest residents. Wealthy people, he pointed out, could afford the best whiskey available. Most of those sickened and dying were those “who cannot afford expensive protection and deal in low grade stuff.” And the numbers were not trivial. In 1926, in New York City, 1,200 were sickened by poisonous alcohol; 400 died. The following year, deaths climbed to 700. These numbers were repeated in cities around the country as public-health officials nationwide joined in the angry clamor. Furious anti-Prohibition legislators pushed for a halt in the use of lethal chemistry. “Only one possessing the instincts of a wild beast would desire to kill or make blind the man who takes a drink of liquor, even if he purchased it from one violating the Prohibition statutes,” proclaimed Sen. James Reed of Missouri.
This isn't particularly relevant to anything specific. I just wanted to remind everyone this is something the US government did.
oh, i clicked on the article to see if this book was mentioned, and hey its DEBORAH BLUME!! aka the author of the book I was just about to reccomend about this Exact Thing:
if this article is interesting to you, i highly reccomend this book. It doesn't just discuss prohibition of course, but it goes even more in depth on this stuff.
I would also reccomend her newer book...
this one is about the history of food safety in the united states, and I cannot emphasize enough how disgusting some of this is. wanna find out what embalmed milk is? wanna learn about how much random bullshit from sawdust to coconut shells to dust was put into spices? wanna learn about all the ways food was left to rot and be sold before the FDA? wanna learn how HARD food manufacturers fought regulation, for their right to not be inspected and put borax and formaldehyde and unlabeled ingredients in their products? read this book!
this book takes its name from the IRL poison squad, which was a bunch of healthy young men who were purposefully fed common food additives like borax to see if they were as safe as manufacturers claimed.
This, of course, is also not at all relevant to current events or to claims that deregulation is unneeded because companies will self regulate. nope. not at all.
As someone recently diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, one thing that’s been helping me grapple with the intense shame I have over all my “wasted potential” is accepting that potential doesn’t exist and never did.
This sounds so harsh, but please bare with me.
I procrastinated a lot growing up. I still procrastinate today, but less so. And yet, I got good grades. I could write an A+ paper that “knocked [my professor]’s socks off” in the hour before class and print it with sweat running down my face.
I was so used to hearing from teachers and family that if I just didn’t procrastinate and worked all the time, I could do anything! I had all this potential I wasn’t living up to!
And that’s true, as far as it goes, but that’s like saying if Usain Bolt just kept going he could be the fastest marathon runner in the world. Why does he stop at the end of the race??
If ANYONE could make their top speed/most productive setting the one they used all the time, anyone could do anything. But you can’t. Your top speed is not a speed you’re able to sustain.
Now, I’ve found that I do need to work on not procrastinating. Not because the product is better, even, but because it’s better for my mental health and physical health to not have a full, sweating, panicked breakdown over every task even if the task itself turns out excellently. It’s a shitty way to live! You feel bad ALL the time! And I don’t deserve to live like that anymore.
So all of this to say, I’m not wasting a ton of potential. I don’t have an ocean of productivity and accomplishments inside of me that I could easily, effortlessly access if I just sat down 8 hours a day and worked. There’s no fucking way. That’s not real. It’s an illusion. It’s fine not to live up to an illusion.
And if you have ADHD, I mean this from the bottom of my heart: you do not have limitless potential confounded by your laziness. You have the good potential of a good person, and you can access it with practice and work, but do not accept the story that you are choosing not to be all that you are or can be. You are just a human person.
“Some years ago, I was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. Traffic was barely moving. The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated—with one another; with the rainy, sleety weather; with the world itself. Two men barked at each other about a shove that might or might not have been intentional. A pregnant woman got on, and nobody offered her a seat. Rage was in the air; no mercy would be found here.
But as the bus approached Seventh Avenue, the driver got on the intercom. “Folks,” he said, “I know you’ve had a rough day and you’re frustrated. I can’t do anything about the weather or traffic, but here’s what I can do. As each one of you gets off the bus, I will reach out my hand to you. As you walk by, drop your troubles into the palm of my hand, okay? Don’t take your problems home to your families tonight—just leave ‘em with me. My route goes right by the Hudson River, and when I drive by there later, I’ll open the window and throw your troubles in the water. Sound good?”
It was as if a spell had lifted. Everyone burst out laughing. Faces gleamed with surprised delight. People who’d been pretending for the past hour not to notice each other’s existence were suddenly grinning at each other like, is this guy serious?
Oh, he was serious.
At the next stop—just as promised—the driver reached out his hand, palm up, and waited. One by one, all the exiting commuters placed their hand just above his and mimed the gesture of dropping something into his palm. Some people laughed as they did this, some teared up—but everyone did it. The driver repeated the same lovely ritual at the next stop, too. And the next. All the way to the river.
We live in a hard world, my friends. Sometimes it’s extra difficult to be a human being. Sometimes you have a bad day. Sometimes you have a bad day that lasts for several years. You struggle and fail. You lose jobs, money, friends, faith, and love. You witness horrible events unfolding in the news, and you become fearful and withdrawn. There are times when everything seems cloaked in darkness. You long for the light but don’t know where to find it.
But what if you are the light? What if you’re the very agent of illumination that a dark situation begs for?
That’s what this bus driver taught me—that anyone can be the light, at any moment. This guy wasn’t some big power player. He wasn’t a spiritual leader. He wasn’t some media-savvy “influencer.” He was a bus driver—one of society’s most invisible workers. But he possessed real power, and he used it beautifully for our benefit.
When life feels especially grim, or when I feel particularly powerless in the face of the world’s troubles, I think of this man and ask myself, What can I do, right now, to be the light? Of course, I can’t personally end all wars, or solve global warming, or transform vexing people into entirely different creatures. I definitely can’t control traffic. But I do have some influence on everyone I brush up against, even if we never speak or learn each other’s name. How we behave matters because within human society everything is contagious—sadness and anger, yes, but also patience and generosity. Which means we all have more influence than we realize.
No matter who you are, or where you are, or how mundane or tough your situation may seem, I believe you can illuminate your world. In fact, I believe this is the only way the world will ever be illuminated—one bright act of grace at a time, all the way to the river.“
–Elizabeth Gilbert
I think it’s time this got another airing.
What I was taught growing up: Wild edible plants and animals were just so naturally abundant that the indigenous people of my area, namely western Washington state, didn't have to develop agriculture and could just easily forage/hunt for all their needs.
The first pebble in what would become a landslide: Native peoples practiced intentional fire, which kept the trees from growing over the camas praire.
The next: PNW native peoples intentionally planted and cultivated forest gardens, and we can still see the increase in biodiversity where these gardens were today.
The next: We have an oak prairie savanna ecosystem that was intentionally maintained via intentional fire (which they were banned from doing for like, 100 years and we're just now starting to do again), and this ecosystem is disappearing as Douglas firs spread, invasive species take over, and land is turned into European-style agricultural systems.
The Land Slide: Actually, the native peoples had a complex agricultural and food processing system that allowed them to meet all their needs throughout the year, including storing food for the long, wet, dark winter. They collected a wide variety of plant foods (along with the salmon, deer, and other animals they hunted), from seaweeds to roots to berries, and they also managed these food systems via not only burning, but pruning, weeding, planting, digging/tilling, selectively harvesting root crops so that smaller ones were left behind to grow and the biggest were left to reseed, and careful harvesting at particular times for each species that both ensured their perennial (!) crops would continue thriving and that harvest occurred at the best time for the best quality food. American settlers were willfully ignorant of the complex agricultural system, because being thus allowed them to claim the land wasn't being used. Native peoples were actively managing the ecosystem to produce their food, in a sustainable manner that increased biodiversity, thus benefiting not only themselves but other species as well.
So that's cool. If you want to read more, I suggest "Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America" by Nancy J. Turner
I spotted a reply to one of my posts:
And my knee-jerk response was "no, you should hear my friends talk about their lives--"
And it made me remember something.
Back in high school, my IB class did a lock-in-- where the group of students gets locked into one part of the school overnight on a weekend-- and after junk food and video games lost their appeal, we got to talking.
Only I didn't really know anything about almost any of them. They were all friendly enough, but I kept to myself for the most part, so we didn't have much to talk about once standard small talk ran out.
So I asked one of the other people sitting with me: "what's your story?"
Your life story.
And he told me. Sixteen years or so condensed into maybe a half hour. And it was the most fascinating life I could have imagined: the places he'd been, the things he'd done, the experiences that defined him. It boggled my mind.
When he finished and turned the question around to me, I thought mine sounded really boring in comparison, but he listened open-mouthed to the entire thing. Other kids were gathering around us by now, listening in. And when I finished mine, I turned to another one of them and asked the question to them.
And just like before, my mind was blown. A completely different life, completely different focal points, defining experiences, goals the likes of which were deserving of an anime. And the same happened with the next person we asked, and the next.
By the time each one of us had finished telling their story, it was time to go home for the morning. The video games had been abandoned hours ago. None of us had slept. We were too caught up in each other's lives.
All of which is to say:
Thank you. I do lead a very interesting life.
So do you.
It's seriously one of the biggest pieces of advice I think I can give to anyone: listen to the stories of strangers.
Or friends. Or anyone. Learn about other people.
Heya Rose Soldier!!!!!!!! I am back with my OC, once named Sylvia, now named Kuki!!! A digital drawing which doesent look bad!! And also some thinghies i came up with i guess.
1) She is a Wild Rose and is friends (kinda) with Bristly - I just feel like this little ball of sunshine would annoy Bristly into being her friend ;D
2) She doesen't like fighting much, and would very much rather bake cookies (she jokingly calls them Kukies) and sweets for all her friends!!
3) She moved in the city after a while because she wanted to pursuit her dream of opening a bakery! Which she probably did!!!
In honour of April the first, do roses know of April fools and would Lapis pull fools day pranks on anyone?
yea! The Roses do have an April Fools equivalent in RK! But it's more like a holiday inspired by the Spider's culture and unnecessary love of tricking everybody
If Lapis was gonna prank any of her teammates tho, she'd be legally obliged to recruit Rodgeric as her prank partner >:3
so, uh. i know a really cool yt channel that does sword fighting which could be good for getting reference images for the RK gang and was wondering if you would want the name of it? (sorry if this is incoherent its 1 am)
yes please I need all the help with fighting references I can get and I am very interested please and thank you!
Hi, sorry, it’s me again! I started designing those OCs I was talking about in another ask I sent, and it just opened the floodgates for some ideas and questions.
And because I'm obsessed with meticilous research when I create ocs, I literally scoured through all the rose knights posts again and noticed just how little we know about green roses/coloured dragons, which got me really curious.
Anyway, onto the question. How do colours work with the green roses/coloured dragons? Is it like a mix of either color system, does it depend on how/what they identify themselves as/ how they were raised? Or do they change as they grow up like normal, or is it based on something completely different? How do changing colours work if that's even possible for them? I noticed that they can have multiple colours, but that's about all the hints I've managed to find out, lol
Also on a related note about dragons, their colour and magic is decided by how many close relationships they form, so like roses can change colour do they also change colour in response to losing/gaining those relationships? or do they have to form/lack those relationships early in life, and then no matter their change in relationships in the future, they stay that colour?
I understand if these questions might be too spoiler-y to answer, but I figured I'd ask anyway!
This question is less spoilery? but getting into hybrid magic is not a "one size fits all" kinda deal so it's going to be challenging to answer/pos (also you doing your RK homework makes me very pleased!)
Okay. Before we get in deep, let's do a recap of magic before we do the remix:
A Rose's color is influenced by their perception of self, and what they want to express the most to others. A Dragon's color is effected by their relationships with others.
As a result, Roses are typically born with white hair, gaining colors later in life when they mature and figure out how they want to express themselves. And Dragons are usually born with green hair, gaining deeper or paler colors when they develop more meaningful relationships... or when they start cutting off everyone from their life or feel alone.
So how does magic work for the Green Roses and Colored Dragons? Short answer: It depends on the individual! Longer answer: It depends what kind of color their magic naturally wants to be (eg green, one color that isn't green, or the whole color spectrum Roses have), and what "influences" their magic to change color (personal identity or relationships with others)
For example, some hybrids get lighter colored hair when they've got good relationships with a lot of people, and they'll get darker hair when they feel more isolated or have less friends. Other hybrids become lighter/darker depending how they perceive themselves (eg childish and immature for pastel colors, and serious or mature for darker colors).
Some Green Roses are... well, born green! just like a typical Dragon would be! But usually a Green Rose is born white, growing into their green colors when their magic figures out HOW it's going to reflect the soul - aka the "Rose" way with personal identity or the "Dragon" way with connections to others. And some Colored Dragons are born white or with a color other than Green! And the way their color changes is either the Rose way or the Dragon way too.
Of course some Green Roses/Colored Dragon magic is incredibly mixed up and confused... so sometimes it's impossible to figure out what is effecting a hybrid's color >:3c Only time, self-reflection and trial and error can help a character figure out what's causing their hair to change color.
