#I believe if I put in the effort I can fully get rid of my restrictive ed

[philsmeatylegss]

Me whenever I remember I cannot remember a time in which I didn’t have disordered anxiety😂😂😂😂

[elysiumblue]

Pick a card - Loki's advice on how to improve your life 😬

I'm finally back to this blog. Shit happens in my life, so I took some time to deal with it, and I failed, so I walked away from the situation, which not only allows me to take care of myself but also gives me time to take care of you with some general readings. I feel Loki wants to provide you with some advice to improve your life this time.

As this is a general reading, please remember to take what resonates and leave the rest behind. If one pile doesn't sound right to you, you can pick another one, or more than one pile if you feel called to.

Also, this is just a tarot reading giving you some advice that can help with your situation. You're the one that has the control over your life.

👇🏻 Pick a color that you feel drawn to 👇🏻

(It may be a coincidence, but the randomly generated colors this time match the box of the tarot deck I am using for this reading, which is The Somnia Tarot by Nicolas Bruno 🥴)

And find the corresponding reading for you below!

Pile 1

I see that you may be dealing with tough situations that make you feel extremely isolated right now, or just left one recently. It can be tough family situations that leave you no choice but to be independent from them, or an extremely toxic workplace where you are being bullied. I don’t want to go into details of the situations because it's a general reading, and I also don't want to trigger people. You know what is going on if this pile is resonating with you.

Now, you see nothing good in the past situation, or the one you're dealing with right now that makes you feel you're stuck. All you want to do is fast forward to the future to see what the future can offer you. Loki admires that you have the clarity to see that the situation is indeed shitty, and have the honesty to admit it. Loki will be with you, offering you support in getting rid of the situation. However, Loki also wants you to be more grounded.

For some of you, I see that you're betting a lot on your partner, or a very trusted individual, to take care of you, and to create moments of joy in the future. Loki thinks that it's great for you to enjoy your life with someone you love, but at the same time, he wants you to be cautious and make sure that you're not building your whole life around them. Loneliness is caused by not having someone that knows you, and you have to take time to understand yourself, instead of spending all the time and energy orbiting that person. Their company can give you comfort, but it is never enough to fill the void inside you, if you're not putting effort into fixing the hole in you.

For another part of you, Loki wants to remind you to take time to discover yourself, instead of merely reacting to situations. For example, it's great that you have the idea to leave your toxic family. However, it shouldn't be your sole purpose of existence. You have so much potential, so much more than just the victim of the circumstances. You can develop hobbies, find your philosophy of life, create a network of people that can support your future, and more... You may not be able to see what you can do with yourself right now, but just believing in the potential itself is good enough to open yourself to receive more blessings from life. Otherwise, being too focused on the negative stuff will cause you to attract more negativity into your life, as the universe feels that all you want is more problems to solve.

Overall, Loki's message to this pile is to ground yourself and regain control over your life so you can be the main character in your own life. You are the only one that is able to build strength within yourself. Everyone else in your life is just capable of providing you with the assistance you need. Stop indulging in what others have the potential to do with you, what others are doing to you, or what you can do for others. It will burden you to a point that it can break you down. You can never fully control what others do. All you can do is focus on yourself.

Start acknowledging that you are strong, and it is just as important as any other person in your life. The past was screwed, and the future is never guaranteed, unless you have a clear enough idea yourself. Take time to think about what you truly want to happen in your life. Loki wants to remind you again that you are more than things that happened to you, so it is time to let things happen in your life for your own enjoyment.

Pile 2

First, I feel that someone who's reading this pile is actually considering if you should start working with Loki or not, and you may be looking at this reading to see if Loki is vibing with you. Loki wants you to take this reading as a sign that he wants to work with you.

I see that you are losing hope for life, because it seems that everything that has happened to you is terrible, and it feels like it will continue spiraling. For this pile, I see betrayal, and a fight with someone you care about. It may be a group with a really immature, aggressive leader, with mindless people that can do nothing better than following the leader like an NPC. The vibe I've got from it is a very stereotypical high school mean girl/boy bully type, like you have to please the "boss" or you get no friends at school, but it can also just be an indicator showing me how immature those people are. I also get a vibe of being stuck in a religious group, that has ideas you just cannot agree with, or even harmful for your mental health or sense of identity. Although you feel that what they've done to you is wrong, you don't want to leave them as they mean a lot to you. For example, your whole family, and even the whole community, is following that religion. Letting them know what you actually think, feels like a social suicide.

Loki acknowledges the suffering you are going through right now, and he agrees that those people have done you wrong. He wants to remind you to stop making excuses for those people, because it's a fact that they've done you wrong, and you're hurt by them. Also, Loki sees no reason why you have to limit yourself, or mold your thoughts for the sake of others, because theirs are not better than yours. To be honest, theirs are probably worse than you.

You're being put to a community that does not match your frequency, and it sucks. Still, it's a test to see if you're brave enough to be honest to yourself and support your own decisions, or waste time to become one of the NPCs following random rules. Loki suggests you leave that group, but in a peaceful way. It can be slowly disengaging from the group, fading away from their life, or just straight up stop showing up, because sometimes, people care less about you than you think, as they don't really care about you at all.

Loki ensures that you will find a better friend group that will be supportive of you and does not intend to hurt you if you start being honest to yourself and your own feelings, because there's a saying that your energy will match the energy of people who surround you, and vice versa. I can see that they may even have the potential to be your lifelong friends or even partners. For those who want to get rid of your existing religious group, Loki invites you to work with him. Loki ensures that he will help you bring better people to your life, as well as helping you to restore honesty to your life. He will make things better in your life.

There may be lonely times that you have to face if you start distancing yourself from the group. However, Loki wants to remind you that he is always here for you to go through the tough times. All you have to do is ask for him to be with you. He also wants to remind you that you are always surrounded by your spirit team, that are constantly protecting you and guiding you to a better path. Use the period of silence to stay tuned to them, review what you want in your life, and ask for their blessings.

Pile 3

For this pile, I feel that you are always the one who takes responsibility and leads others. You can see value in doing so, and you really want to continue guiding others to the better path. However, recently, I feel that you have a feeling that you cannot keep doing this anymore. It can be that the value of the team or company you work for doesn't match your vision anymore, or finding out that people are actually not appreciative of your efforts, or it can just be the stress and effort you have to bear is too much for you to keep doing this.

You question if quitting this position is the best option. It can be you worrying if you can get better pay from elsewhere if it's a job you're thinking of quitting. It can also be you worrying if it's too selfish for you to take care of your own feelings, sacrificing the potential of others staying on a better path. If this is the case, Loki wants to tell you that what you think is the best thing for others, may not be the most suitable thing for them. Some people just lack the energy to stay in a better place, and it's not your responsibility that they're not good enough. Attempting to go through others’ lessons for them, is the worst thing you can do, because not only will they not learn anything from it, now you have to bear the "karma" of screwing up their own lesson. If you don't believe in karma, then I still want to remind you that it's a waste of time and energy to try to make someone become a better person, when they don't have the intention to do so. If you're not the "fated one" to serve them the lesson, then you just cannot do it, no matter how much you care for them, and how much time you spend on them. Also, spoiling them will lead them to keep asking more from you, which probably explains why they're not appreciative of your efforts.

Loki wants to remind you that you're not born to just nurture others. You have to nurture yourself as well. Ironically, if you start taking care of yourself and caring less about how or what others are doing, it helps you to achieve your goal of being a better leader and taking care of others faster. It's because you've been blessed with a great vision that provides you with the charisma and leadership skills to be a leader. What you're worrying about right now is limiting your vision, and it's time to release yourself from it. As soon as the fog is cleared, you will see a new path that leads you to your destination.

[graboidmilk]

Being annoying about the Escape

(Sorry for the poor audio I didn't realize I was recording through my headset)

Pessimistic Yapper's opinion under the cut

Lazy. It felt lazy, and noncommitted.

I am not going to sit here and act like video games are easy to make- they are OBJECTIVELY not. They take time, effort, dedication, and care- but those facts do not make it impossible to see that what exists could be better, and should be better.

Here's the thing: this would not bother me nearly as much if it wasn't meant to be what it was. We, as reagents, just fucking escaped a Murkoff facility.

You know, the big boys with their big cocks and guns out ? Those guys ? The guys that will hunt you down and skin your wife and children for so much as blinking at a document that THEY forgot to put away ?

We just ran off into the sun and now we're chilling.

I don't care that it's short or that it's easy- I care that it makes no sense.

"You're gonna get dumped into the one place so ungodly awful that Murkoff doesn't protect or monitor it." To put it bluntly, I don't believe you. That sounds like such an unbelievable cop out- you really expect me to believe that THE Murkoff corporation is willing to carry out these absolutely egregious human experiments like they're the cock of the walk, but they won't guard their literal EVIDENCE DUMP ? Bullshit- no self-respecting capitalist pig would let such incriminating affirmations go unmonitored.

There should have been GUARDS GALORE all the way to that fucking dump. We should've had to FIGHT to get onto that garbage truck- which, how the fuck DID we get there directly from the trial shuttle ? How the fuck did Amelia do that without anyone noticing when security was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT WITHOUT A DOUBT IN MY HEART on red alert ?

We should've escaped through an Amelia-provided opening in an existing trial, we should've had to struggle our way into that garbage truck, we should've had to FIGHT to get into that final dump area with Henrietta, the one area I genuinely believe can be realistically claimed to be unmonitored.

Because the trash itself doesn't need to be monitored, only the surroundings, but they couldn't even do that.

And ah, Henrietta. My one beautiful love in this entire experience- yet, so unbelievably underutilized it just sullied her. She deserved more than that bullshit- and I don't just mean her treatment in-game. I mean her treatment BY the game.

You mean to tell me that this poor woman has been mentioned time and time again, survived a direct assault by a Prime Asset that left her presumed dead, survived off of flesh and trash just for a hope to see her love again, and she does like a bar and a half of health ? And she's slow as shit ? And she's barely even a threat and instead is more of a glorified last minute lore-equivalent to dangling keys in front of a child ?

I don't know what exactly I wanted them to do with Henrietta- I don't. I don't want to get rid of her, but if that's all they were going to use her for, then it might be better off, because she- AS A PLOT DEVICE- deserved better.

And then actually leaving: I don't mind it, really, as a concept- but then we're back to the problem of how the FUCK did Murkoff just LET THIS HAPPEN ? If the level itself were harder I could excuse it. If we SAW Murkoff do fucking ANYTHING to stop us, I could accept it, but we don't. No, we run off into the sun- and sure, maybe we 'never really escape Murkoff,' but that's not good enough for me.

I fully anticipated Amelia to be waiting at the end of the tunnel, Murkoff staff in toe. I FULLY expected Amelia to be a plant- but not by Easterman. I expected her to be sent by Wernicke. I wanted Amelia to be a plant to prove that the trials in their current state were not working. I wanted it to be Murkoff proving a point, and it's that Easterman needed to do better, because not only do reagents want to escape, but they've now proven that they can.

But nope ! Not quite.

Then, you can see me in the video put together pieces to an imaginary puzzle- Radio towers. Arizona desert. Sullivan Knoth confirmed to have already been released and having started Temple Gate. I wanted, more than fucking anything, to see a giant, all-encompassing flash, to know that something, fucking something, would make all of this make sense.

Like of course, little rat, you can escape this experiment- but we have another waiting for you outside.

But that's not what we got, either. We got to run into the sun like we're happy, like that's good enough, and it's not. Not for me, anyways.

I love everything about Outlast- every fucking game- but god, they just... idk. They just really dropped the ball on this one for me.

[wake-me-up-inside-imagines]

OMG hi I love your writing sooo much. I kinda have 2 requests if you don't mind, there both for Charlie. One would be like the ABC thing (idk what there called 😭) the other maybe like reader is pregnant. I feel like Charlie would go ballistic and like crazy protective.

Awe thank you so much, and dw, I can do both! I did the pregnancy one for this post since it took less time, but once I get around to writing the abc one, I'll definitely tag you in it so you can see when it's out! I hope you enjoy!

Yandere mafia boss when reader is pregnant

Afab reader because you know, pregnancy, but no pronouns are used so technically gn! reader.

Warnings: Technically yandere character but he doesn't really do anything yandere-esc here besides be overprotective, pregnancy, the vague idea of abortion is mentioned, somewhat abusive parent mention (not reader or Charlie dw), mentions of vomiting.

Also-the idea of a Charlie having sex with a kidnapped darling makes me feel gross, so for the sake of my sanity, reader is with willingly with Charlie, he's just kind of yandere for different reasons.

Divider credit goes to @kyejiz

-Charlie wasn't planning on having kids, he really wasn't. His childhood was fucked up enough, courtesy of his father being the previous leader of his mafia, and he really had no desire to put a different child through that, no matter how aware he is of his shortcomings. So he always tries to be careful when getting intimate with you, just to be on the safe side.

-But no precaution is 100% affective, and eventually, you end up beating the odds and becoming pregnant.

-When you tell Charlie, he's...stunned, to say the least. How could this have happened? You two were so careful, how did you still end up pregnant? Holy shit, what were you gonna do? Did you want to keep it? How could he possibly be a father? Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit-

-He tries to appear calm and collected, keeping a brave, stoic face on, but from the way he's clasping his hands, and the way his leg's bouncing up and down rapidly, you can tell he's freaking out. You can't blame him, especially with his job, but his nervousness is starting to make you nervous. What if he's upset? What if he wants you to get rid of it? Will the kid ever have a normal childhood? What are you going to do?

-He's fully prepared to ask you what you want to do about it, but before he can, you whisper out that you want to keep it, and he feels a strange rush of relief flood his system. he's not sure why, keeping the kid will be much more difficult than simply getting rid of it, and besides, how could he possibly be a good father when he's never had a good example of one, or when his job is...well, what it is?

-Still, as soon as the initial shock is over, he's over the moon. He's gonna have a kid! He's gonna have a kid with you! He's gonna have a kid with you now! He can't believe it!

-His immediate reaction is to pick you up (gently) and twirl you around, smiling uncontrollably as your new life together flashes through his brain. He can worry about his job and all the little things later, for now, he just wants to celebrate this new milestone with you, and only you.

-Immediately begins preparations for the kid. he's buying everything you two could possibly need in bulk, regardless of how soon you'll need it. A crib, clothes, toys, diapers, blankets, anything that comes to mind, he'll buy. He'd rather be overprepared than underprepared, and besides, he's practically rolling in money, so spending too much isn't really a concern for him. Only the best for his child!

-On top of preparing, he becomes 10x more protective of you. It doesn't matter how early you are in your pregnancy, or how capable you normally are, he is not letting you do anything, no matter how low-effort the task is. He's following you around the house, helicoptering around you every second he can, picking things up for you, cleaning literally any sort of mess or disturbance you've made regardless of how capable you are, anything that could possibly be considered taxing on you is no longer something you're able to do. He doesn't mean to stress you out, that's the opposite of what he wants, he's just super nervous about your wellbeing throughout your pregnancy.

-Nobody's allowed to touch you besides him. Nobody. Not that they could before, but especially so now. On the rare occasion you're out of the house, he's always by your side, glaring at anyone who dares stare at you for too long.

-Speaking of his protectiveness, he's amping up the house's security as much as possible, if he hasn't done so already. He refuses to let anything bad happen to you in general, but he double refuses to let anything happen to you while you're pregnant, or to the kid once it's born. He's a powerful man, and with the job he has, he knows what attention he attracts and what his enemies are capable of. He can't let them hurt you or the kid, he can't even risk them knowing he has a kid. If he lost either of you...he wouldn't be able to cope.

-His fears are exactly why he doesn't let anyone besides your personal bodyguards know you're pregnant. Even them knowing stresses him out, but he still has a job to do, and leaving the house is inevitable, no matter how much he tries to put going out off. He just has to trust that the bodyguards will take care of you while he's gone, but he'll definitely be stressing when he has to leave you behind for a bit.

-He can't keep his hands off of you, even before the bump starts showing. He's constantly holding your stomach, cuddling up to you, picking you up and carrying you around, any form of physical touch he'll be doing regularly. If you're stressed and need him to back off he will, but he'll be very twitchy while parting for you.

-Lord help you when your bump does show, his hands are gonna find a new home on your stomach. He loves the feeling of your child kicking at your stomach, it calms him down whenever he has doubts about having a kid. It makes him feel like everything will turn out alright.

-He refuses to be like his father, he refuses. His dad wasn't necessarily unloving, but he was a mafia boss, and Charlie was meant to be an heir, so most of Charlie's childhood was stripped from him in preparation for his future career. Instead of being able to play with kids his own age, he trained to fight, to kill, to do business. He was taught to trust no one, to never show his emotions to a living soul, and to utilize his anger for furthering business. Pair all of that with his parent's constant fighting, and boom, ruined childhood.

-So needless to say, he's scared. He loves the kid already, and he's sure he always will, but what if love isn't enough to make him a good parent? What if he still ends up being hard on the kid, just like his dad was on him? He doesn't want to shove this life onto an innocent child, especially his child, but what if he does? How could he be a good father when violence is all he's ever known?

-You'll have to reassure him a lot during your pregnancy, even if he never explicitly tells you his fears. It's kind of obvious based on all the parenting books he's bought, or all the blogs he's scanned giving advice on how to be a loving dad. Sources he'd normally never turn to, but right now, he's desperate. He just needs you to remind him that it'll be ok, that the thought he's putting into all this is enough proof that he'll be a good father.

-He's the best comfort you have when pregnancy symptoms start to kick in. Pregnancy cravings? he's got everything you could possibly want stocked in your ridiculously large kitchen. Morning sickness? He's up with you, holding your hair back as you do what you have to. Sore? he's massaging whichever part of your body needs soothing. Tired/grumpy? He's doing whatever you need, no matter how stupid or ridiculous your requests may be. You're carrying his child after all, it's the least he could do.

-Pampers you to high heaven. Whatever you want, you'll get, no matter how expensive. It doesn't even have to be something you need for your pregnancy specifically, literally anything you want he's providing. Your happiness has always been key to him, and he's not about to let you feel unloved or neglected during your pregnancy.

-He won't ever tell you this, but it pains him to see how uncomfortable you are at moments. He's less ballistic about it than he would be if it was literally anything else causing you distress because he knows that this is natural and just how pregnancy works, but he's still very on edge, especially when you're showing visible signs of being uncomfortable. He abhors seeing you in pain, even when he knows he can't help you the way he feels he needs to. He doesn't want to make you feel bad about yourself though, so he'll keep his worries to himself, watching over you carefully as you go through your day to day life.

-Once moving around becomes more difficult for you, he'll do whatever he can to get you from place to place without letting you strain yourself. This usually ends with him carrying you around himself, but on the off chance he can't or you won't let him, he'll try to bring whatever you need closer to you, so you don't have to walk as far. It can seem a little overbearing, but he means well.

-He's constantly chattering about your kid, what they'll be like, how they'll turn out, what they'll be interested in, the big moments he can't wait for, all that good stuff. He'll love the kid no matter how they turn out (for the most part), but he still enjoys speculating with you.

-He's so excited to be a dad, and he's especially excited to be a parent alongside you!

-...Let's just hope he doesn't pass out when the baby comes, he's desensitized to a lot but childbirth isn't really something he's seen a lot of (or at all).

Hope you enjoyed!

[stonesense]

wait harker what is your beef with halsin? /gen

so on my first attempt at starting the game, i played a tiefling druid, which was quite an experience as i had no idea the first conflict i was about to walk into was between tieflings and druids. i found talking to kagha very upsetting for my character; it was obvious this was a place my character would normally feel at home, were it not for the bigotry that had taken root. the first thing kagha said to my character, after she was finished hurling fantasy slurs at and threatening a tiefling child who was crying apologies and begging to go back to her parents, was to dismiss my character as a druid on account of their race: “the treefather’s words spoken with a devil’s forked tongue”. if you read what’s on the table next to kagha, there’s a diatribe against tieflings, saying their allegiance is to the hells and implying they should all be sent back there. i also played a failed save where kagha was responsible for the little tiefling girl’s death and her only immediate reaction was to cover it up, and also where i foolishly attacked her and she commanded a full attack against the tieflings where i came back into the hollow to see dozens slaughtered and the rest desperately trying to defend themselves. so i was fully aware that kagha posed an existential threat to this entire group of innocent refugees with whom i shared common ground

(i swear all this context is necessary)

after all this, obviously i was glad to discover there was a quest to investigate kagha. i felt my character’s faith in their druid beliefs was pretty shaken, and they would be hugely pleased to displace kagha, search out the rightful leader of the grove, and see justice done and balance restored. i put some quite considerable effort into investigating kagha, stealing from her chest (and boy is stealth not my strong suit) and trekking all the way down the map to the bog to discover the truth. i was pleased to learn she was some kind of evil druid. she was an anomaly. all i needed was to get rid of her, and everything would be fine again. but i made a crucial mistake: i decided to rescue halsin first, thinking everything would be much easier if i had the true, good leader of the grove at my side before i started making accusations. after all, my character still wanted to believe in the druids, and had not felt like she would be trusted in the grove herself. it was a natural choice.

and halsin... just demoted kagha to novice?

like. that’s it. he didn’t even make her leave the grove that had been willing to support her in all this. kagha was willing to kill a tiefling child. she was willing to kill all the tieflings. if you show up before you go to rescue halsin, she’s willing to attack her own people. you can even tell halsin she was involved with these evil shadow druids, and he has almost nothing to say about it. and right after that, he had the nerve to say to my druid character that in another time they would have been a welcome addition to the grove, as if it wasn’t very clear how unwelcome people like them were, as if they would be willing to be the one exception. kagha wasn’t the only one who’d gone along with it or spat the word devil. then halsin wants to join me and leave the grove to deal with his own guilt, while bringing in some stranger to resolve the grove’s problems and restore its “purity”, as if any druids seem trustworthy neutral parties right now, and as if kagha and her influence wouldn’t still be right there, just as unchecked in his absence. and he got mad at me for the extremely minor questioning of that which the game let me do!

i absolutely do not expect anyone to share these opinions as they originate from an extremely specific experience of the game lmao. in fact, different players being able to have very different opinions based on how you experienced the game is one of my favourite parts of bg3 so far. but personally i don’t seem to be able to shake this opinion despite now playing as a different character—this current one having found out that he personally taught kagha??—and i... don’t think i’m being that irrational. i don’t like him and if i get an opportunity to drop him from my camp i will take it

[doubleddenden]

I did the thing where I commemorate a finished playthrough of a fan game or romhack i enjoyed by making a team shot and a trainer card. This is for Pokemon Orange, the Pokemon Crystal romhack that gives a pretty awesome experience of traveling the Orange Islands. I did a full review of it, but it was super fun and I love the team I made.

As for my trainer sprite, it's basically just a slight edit of my other GBC style sprite looks like. It's hard to tell, but I removed the sleeves, added a headband (i'm into headbands lately), and edited the vest a bit. The in game character of Indigo wears mostly purples and such, so I wanted to reflect that with a mostly purple, black, and white scheme. Working with only 4 colors is certainly interesting, but fun!

The rest of these sprites actually come from the game- although! I will say! I had to get creative to use these how I wanted since I couldn't just extract the sprites like I usually do. The devs (after getting their blessing) actually suggested just snipping them out, so I had to go through some effort to get them out of my phone emulator screen shots, figure out the workarounds to getting rid of the artifacting, resizing it to appropriate size, had to use both MS Paint AND Paint.Net to get the desired result, but overall I think I got them to work decently. I increased the saturation juuuust a tad, because doing so somehow decreased it a bit, but otherwise these sprites come directly from the game itself. The Orange Island variants and newer sprites for older Pokemon/sprites for *newer* pokemon look phenomenal, and I really dig how they look.

Then the pass- I actually made most of that from scratch in MS paint. The one bit I had trouble with were the badges, which had similar trouble the Pokemon sprites did trying to get them sized appropriately, so I had to do some hijinks and ended up essentially making smaller versions of them myself at the size I wanted using a screen shot from the game as reference. I'm not 100% happy with how those turned out, but I really like the rest of it. This is probably one of my smaller and simpler trainer passes, but it's still one of my favs. Some day I'd love to figure out how to get these printed out and put in some kind of plastic casing so I can actually turn them into sort of a keychain accessory, because that's how I picture them working.

The cards on the pass ended up being my HOF team

Anyway, here's what I've used.

Charkoal/Charizard: My starter. Had a lot of diffulties at first, and was actually a bit of a red headed step child until he finally fully evolved, THEN he became the ace that barely lost. In fact, he almost swept the champion if it weren't for Dragonite's Dragon Tail. I definitely imagine riding this guy everywhere in the sky. I almost picked Squirtle, but there's a reason I opted not to. Named after my favorite one I kept from Leaf Green.

Villo/Vileplume, OI variant (same type): The first Pokemon I caught, I believe? I think this is the first time I've actually used a Vileplume, and Villo did pretty damn good. Bulky and hits pretty decently, too, and kept right up. He actually was *VITAL* to beating Red *both* times.

Lilzuli/Lapras: Early on, you actually get a gift Lapras, much like how Ash catches one really early on in the anime. Tracey actually rescues this one and gifts it to you, already knowing Surf as well before even the first badge. It actually had a bit of a rough start, but eventually it started keeping up with the rest of the gang pretty easily. You need Surf to get around all the islands right from the get go, and Lilzuli also ended up becoming my default diver, waterfaller, and whirlpooler, so she was basically my default travel baby.

Chu Chu/Alolan Raichu: Chu Chu has always been a bit of a heavy hitter, and actually carried for the majority of the game. I imagine she and Charkoal are rivals in a sense, because they were neck and neck in levels. She's basically swept a good chunk of the really important battles, and we'd have lost without her. As a Pikachu, it was almost a Pinkan Pokemon, but it evolved out of it.

Rocko/Rockruff: Honorable mention because I felt really guilty boxing him. He was a good boy that bit a lot of people. I love him lol

CANT BELEV/Butterfree OI variant: I didn't expect to use Cant Belev for so long (named Cant Belev as a joke on "I can't believe it's not Butter"), but he actually was pretty good for most of the game, up until right before the third badge. I knew I wasn't planning to keep it for too long because then I'd have 2 major rock type weaknesses with it and Charkoal, but I wasn't expecting to struggle so much once I boxed it either. He really did very well, and I always wish we could have a Buddy slot just for the friends I don't want to deposit like this.

Rock Candy/Crystal *STEELIX*: Yes, this is the Crystal Onix, but you can immediately evolve it to a Steelix if you have a correct item. It has a unique typing of Crystal- pretty simple: weak to fire, resists water, no stab moves. Definitely one of the bulkier guys, but not as heavy of a hitter as I expected. Still, I love it for the novelty of having it, and if Lilzuli was my water ride, then Rock Candy was my land based HM bro.

Smoke/Umbreon, PINKAN variety: The last addition to the party, and it actually did a fair bit of work as an Eevee. In game, you can come across Pinkan Island and the Pinkan berries that make Pinkan Pokemon pink. Normally I'm not a huge fan of the pink palettes, I love the novelty but I'd take the originals over the pinkan variants any day- BUT I'm actually really okay with Pinkan Umbreon for keeping the mostly black look with some Pink highlights, which I imagine are mostly in the rings and maybe the eyes, so this is my Pinkan Pokemon of the game. Smoke actually pulled some insane wins and survived some insane battles, even with some type disadvantages going against it. I imagine going forward, this was my "out of the ball" walking buddy.

Anyways that's my guys. Thank you to the Orange Devs for being cool and making a fun game. Since I can't transfer the Pokemon officially, this is how I like to keep the Pokemon I've caught in my memories. This was such a wonderful experience, and I hope your next projects are even better!

[werrrrrd]

CHARLES XAVIER X READER/OC pt.1

SUMMARY: May is a Mutant. She wishes she wasnt. She has the ability to control blood and after showing signs of aggression and poor control of her powers, her parents put her through treatment at an institution run by Doctor Shmidt. After going through horrendous things at the mutation corrective institution, she is forced to stay with Shaw, the man who put her through those things in the first place. Working with Shaw she explores the many things her powers allow her to do in mostly uncomfortable ways. She runs into Charles Xavier while his team tries to capture and detain Shaw and they have a stand off between the mutants on both sides. Charles and May have an immediate connection that neither can explain and try reason with themselves while also trying to find a way to be near each other. Despite the things that May has experienced and the punishment she will receive if she is caught, all she wants to do is help Charles. With so much happening, May isnt sure how this is going to work or if she can build up the courage to completely severe connections from Shaw to be with Charles

WARNINGS: shock therapy, manipulation, death, suicide, surgery is mentioned including an undetailed description, slight malnutrition, forcive murder, abuse of authority, blood, lots of blood since this is like her power, anger issues, aggression, mentions of murder as well as the actual murder, mind reading, OC is not very kind to herself, let me know if you notice any others. No sexual assault but definitely Shaw being creepy.

AN: First off, this story is VERY loosely based on x men first class and the happenings in that movie. I really don't regard what happens in the actual story line or the accuracy of setting or characters just because I felt like focusing on the romance plot line between May and Charles. I'm guessing you already know what the movie's plot is and you don't want to read another story that just follows along those exact lines. I hope that this doesn't bother anyone. Second, this story has a very long prologue. I wanted to give the character more backstory so that she could be better explained and her behaviors and tendencies made more sense to y'all. I hope that this does not discourage you from reading cause she's pretty cool. Of course you could skip the prologues and read the part where she actually interacts with Charles if you'd like but the prologue helps enrich the story so I hope you do read it. My OCs name is May but of course you could read it as a reader insert if you like, I didn't really describe her too much so this wouldn't be too hard to do. I honestly didn't put too much effort into writing it because I wanted to get it all out before I lost motivation. If you notice spell issues or parts that don't make sense feel free to let me know but most likely I will not be doing anything about it. Bear with me, there are plot points that don't really connect but please ignore because like I said if i don't get this out like RIGHT NOW, I will lose interest and ill have this whole thing that doesn't have an ending and that makes me sad. ANNEEYYWAYYS Tehe! Please enjoy

PROLOGUE I

I grew up in a home that didn't blame me for my mutation. It wasn't my fault that I was the way I was. My parents loved me but that doesn't mean they fully accepted who I was. They said that there was a perfectly good girl just waiting to be cured of my mutation. I fully believed the same. I was sick and the only thing that would make me better was to get rid of the mutation. They didn't really try any treatments until I began losing control. Whenever my sisters would tease me about my mutation I could feel the fury growing. Soon enough I couldn't take it anymore and would use my abilities to make them stop talking. The first time I ever did it my oldest sister Maxine was poking and prodding me

"Mom wishes you were normal, she's embarrassed because you're a freak," she whispered in my ear while we sat together eating breakfast. She was young and didn't really mean it. But I was young and I didn't know that yet.

 In the middle of her next sentence she felt her jaw clamp shut and her voice stop suddenly. Something she had not done herself. Full of fear she burst into tears and ran to my mother. I used my powers to keep her mouth shut but they must have understood what was happening. Soon my mom came into the room with my sister behind her. My mom raised her hand and slapped me, tears springing to my eyes.

"You know better! If you let your disease control you then you will never be fixed!!" She screamed at me. "Now let your sister speak." She pulled Max up towards me. Her eyes were wide and scared but she also looked satisfied. She had pushed me to do what would get me in trouble.

 Serves her right. I thought, my anger still prominent. Hot tears left my eyes as I let her move her mouth again. It fell open and she whimpered and put her hands on her jaw 

"That hurt!" She cried and then pushed my back against the dinner table, before going to my mother who wrapped her arms defensively around Max. 

"Your deformity is hurting your family," my mother said to me. I could feel my face heat up in embarrassment and I ran to my room crying, wishing I was normal like the rest of my sisters. 

After that and a couple other instances where I couldn't control my temper my parents enrolled me in experimental mutation elimination programs. This is where I met Shaw, or Doctor Schmidt. And where I met Louise. 

My parents dropped me off at the White hospital looking building that was only one floor but seemed to wind around like a maze on the inside. I said a quick goodbye to my sisters before they rushed me into the care of the doctors and scientists there. They seemed a little relieved to be rid of me but I told myself that it wasn't true.

"Meet Louise, your roommate. Please let me know if you need anything at all, girls." The woman left the room, shutting the door carefully. 

"Hey, call me Lou," she said, holding out her hand. 

"May," I took her hand "nice to meet you" 

"What's your mutation?" She asked as I walked to set my bag down on the small wooden chair in the corner of the room. 

"Oh umm, I can control blood in a few different ways." I said 

"Like what?" She said, I explained to her that I could control people's body's by moving the blood inside them.

"Wow, promise you'll never use that on me. That's an ugly mutation." She told me 

"I know. I won't."

"Not as ugly as mine." She pointed to her face. It was littered with thick black stripes which I saw were on her hands and arms as well. 

"What can you do?" I asked carefully 

"Watch," she said. I looked around nervously. We weren't supposed to show our mutations to anyone. Or use them at all. But I watched as she bent and twisted into the most beautiful red and orange tiger I had ever seen. Her black stripes matched the ones that were on her human form. I blinked and in just a moment she had already changed back. 

"Wow," I whispered. 

"My mom thought I had been eaten by a tiger when she first saw me like that. It was only after she called animal control that I had changed back. Back then I hadn't started showing my stripes, kinda like baby tigers don't. Anyways after they got dark my mom couldn't hide my mutation anymore. We've tried a hundred different treatments to get rid of it."

"Nothing worked?" I asked 

"Nothing." She said. In her eyes I could see the exhaustion. "my mom doesn't even look at me anymore, my dad left the moment my stripes showed." 

I swallowed. "Maybe this time it'll work and we can be normal." I said. 

"I hope so." She whispered hopefully. 

Soon after this me and Lou became like sisters. She understood me. She never teased me for my mutation even though we both wanted to cure ourselves of them. We laughed till our ribs hurt in bed while everyone else slept. For the first week we only got to know the scientists and doctors working there. Shaw being the head of planning, I didn't see him much back then. The scientists were mostly nice to us. It seemed they wanted to help us just as much as we wanted to be fixed.

After that we began shock treatments. 

"May, please put your hands flat out on the table in front of you." I heard through the intercom. I did so avoiding the wires and straps that were attached to my body and temples. A man sat in front of me with his hands flat on the table like mine. He stared at me in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. 

"Jared, begin" the voice said.

The man across from me began tapping his pointer finger on the metal desk. 

"May, all we need you to do is use your mutation to stop his fingers."

"What?" I asked "I thought I wasn't supposed to use it" confusion fizzled in my head and I looked at the mirror to my right. 

"Please may, all you need to do is use your mutation and we will use the shocks to train it out of your body."

"Will it hurt?" I was scared. 

"..." There was a long pause before "if we want it to work, then it must." 

I took a deep breath before looking back at the man in front of me, his eyes were full of hatred. 

"Please begin." The voice insisted. 

I took another breath before using my hands to stop the blood in his hands. Fear flashes in his eyes as his fingers stop tapping. He glanced between me and his fingers. His fingers twitching slightly as he tried to resist my control.

Suddenly a jolting shock shook me out of my focus. Pain shot through me like a wave. I squirmed in my chair and my hips lifted from the seat to try and get the shock out of me. I whimpered loudly and my eyes screwed shut. It lasted only a few seconds though.

When it stopped I looked up panting at the man in front of me. His face was turned into a sick smile and his finger was tapping again. 

The voice returned, "Please go again."

[charles-leclerc-official]

I was talking to my psych teacher about biases in experiments and the importance of planning procedures around them when I started telling them about what I'd noticed in journalism and stuff and I finally put words to the thoughts I'd been having:

Biases are inherent to people, like people will be biased it's not something we can change, people can make efforts to be objective but I feel that some amount of bias will always seep through, which is fine! But what I find really really annoying is when people claim to be unbiased and then VERY CLEARLY have biases, which again is pretty common if not annoying, but the thing that pisses me off is when these people expect their audiences to believe that their very biased opinions are fact instead of what they actually are

Like I know its a lot to expect from people nowadays to be able to critically process things without letting their personal feelings cloud any information but it's still irritating

Like I myself am biased towards things but I don't pretend my opinions are anything but opinions unless there's factual data to prove my point

I really appreciate your blog because even when your analysis is pretty fucking filled with actual solid data to back you up your still pretty clear that you have preferences, and that's something I rlly respect

I used to have problems bc I used to take everything too seriously and if I saw even one negative thing someone said I'd start spiralling and internalising shit, like the f1 fandom doom posting would have honest to god actually affected my mental health, but I worked and am still working on it and I regret getting into sports a little but I've loved it soo much for so long I'm like ill just cope fuck it

Blogs like yours and brakeboosted and umm ackshually on twt are super lovely and I really appreciate all you guys so much

Anyways sorry for ranting I just have a lot of feelings about this stuff

Hi, yes I completely agree. One of the reasons for the name of this blog is to hold myself accountable for bias, and also to advertise to anyone who comes upon it exactly where my bias lands. My frustration with the clear bias under the guise of objective reporting in F1 is one of the reasons for this blog to begin with. Got very tired of the way Ferrari and Charles were being reported on. But also just to have a source where is bias is clear and people can choose to take it or leave it. If that makes sense.

I can't get rid of bias, it's a sport we all have favorites. What I can do is try to be aware of it as much as possible and be open about that fact. I do go to a lot of trouble to make sure I am being fair, I always look at what the other perspective is, what the other driver and their fans are saying, how they are interpreting things(naturally through their own bias as well)

I like the facts and data because I can't really lie. Especially with the raw data. I can't make Charles look faster if he wasn't faster etc. It helps ground my own opinions as well to see if what I think I saw is actually reflected in data.

Biases are normal to have, and I think it's important and healthy to reflect on them, try to be aware of the ones we have and take it into account when presenting information and sharing perspectives and opinions. I am naturally always going to be inclined to give Charles the benefit of the doubt. I try to see if that is warranted and see what the other side is saying and if they have a point.

And this issue goes beyond F1. Journalists for other areas often have clear bias but try to present themselves as neutral. It's frustrating and isn't helpful. I'm just doing what I want journalists to do, just come out and admit your bias and we can go from there. It's healthier and more informative that way. It's not possible to have a fully objective opinion with no preferences one way or another. So to combat that I try to make my stance clear. Sometimes I think I could do better, so it's an area I am always working on.

Thank you anon, this is a good topic to bring up and a good thing for people to think about when reading reports and the like.

[vampirejuno]

if you have the time and brainpower i would love to hear more abt ander ("ander"?) bc that's such a fun premise. idk if it's "fun" in the canon of the story per se but [insert eyes emoji bc i'm on desktop rn]

Hehehehehehe yesssss >:]

So! I refer to them as "og ander" and "ander" (or Mira, if talking about pre-transition) respectively. Story takes place in a pre-industrial but slightly post-medieval feudal country (unnamed for now lol). The twins are from an important noble family, but, while they're respected, they're not always treated as well as other noble kids because their mother is a non-white foreigner. Mira is a bit more visibly mixed than her brother, but otherwise they look almost identical (despite my art skills).

Now, their mother comes from a matrilineal society where women raise their daughters and leave the sons to the fathers, so she raises Mira according to her customs, and og Ander is raised by their father to be a Good Son and Heir. But the twins are still very close, and every once in a while escape for a day out in nature, usually to the river.

It's kind of implied that they were both trans from the start as they liked to switch clothes as little kids and could pass for each other, until their father caught them doing it. Og Ander later on thinks of it as their souls getting mixed up before they were born. It's a bit easier for Mira at the start because her mother's culture involves martial arts and hunting, something that helps Mira feel more masculine in her father's society. Og Ander however, well..... He saw masculinity as a performance and a duty he had to keep up, until one day when they're about 12 it just wears him out and he can't keep doing it anymore.

So naturally og Ander fakes his death by "drowning" in their river and runs off to be a witch. Mira fully believes he actually died. In their country, there's a folk/religious custom to honor the dead: when a loved one dies, you take on a responsibility over something that was important to that person in life. It can be as small as always feeding their favorite birds or as big as taking their child into your own care, which is where the name of this custom - "taking a ward" - comes from.

Anyways, Mira takes a ward for og Ander - to be a Good Son and Heir, as their father was left without one, until another boy is born to her parents. Mind, nobody outside of the family (except their childhood friend) knows it was og Ander who died cos they looked so similar, so with some effort Mira can pass for her brother well enough. Needles to say neither of her parents is happy about this, but as a religious custom it has to be honored.

So Mira becomes Ander and effectively loses his relationship with both mother and father - the first because he (gonna use he from here on) gave up being a woman and sons aren't important, and the second because his dad's a cunt who cares about Legacy and the Family Name, which isn't a very promising prospect if your heir is "secretly a girl" (and also extremely dyslexic! This will be important), and your Shitty Wife can't birth another son :/

So father sends Ander off to join a special military order dedicated to a specific saint, as is common for young noblemen (this particular one requires members to vow to never speak a lie, so Ander quickly learns to speak indirectly and twist literal truths to adhere to that vow while still keeping his secrets). In the meantime father gets rid of his wife (sends her away, pretends she disappeared and must've died). He then marries Ander's childhood friend (Rika, which btw means river in ukrainian if you put the stress on the other syllable :3). Ander hears about it and comes home.

This is where the important dyslexia comes in. Ander's dad told him he'd inherit everything once he can read out what's written on the family heirloom sword. Ander tried for years to learn, to no avail, and never even found out that the inscription was in a dead language that no one alive remembers. So anyway Ander takes the sword and runs his father through and then fucks off with Rika. Those two have such a weird thing going on but that's a whole separate post

Anyways that's my brief summary of his backstory hehe thank u very much for asking <333 I also have. A little prologue I wrote abt the day og Ander drowns. It's not long and I can post it if anyone wishes to read it 👀

[mihai-florescu]

Do you agree with me that we should get rid of "death of the author" and that we should introduce "death of the audience" instead?

"Oooh but how will other people interpret this-" I don't know! I don't care! I wanna know what goes on inside the brain of the person who actually put their time and effort and soul into this. Not five million other people who Did Not Create the Thing.

(Sorry if this is weird but you feel like the most qualified person i know to have an opinion on this)

Disclaimer, im big on believing 2 things coexist at the same time about everything. My mood swings put me in black and white thinking often, but when i can think clearly from both perspectives im still a contrarian and have counter points for my counter points. Im gonna word vomit an answer, im not good at ordering my thoughts but i hope its fine still.

Oh brother i used to go on rants about this (authorial intent, media consumption, fandom culture etc) all of last semester and it's what ultimately led to me giving up on my degree and serious art altogether... i'll attach a few i found in my archive i think are relevant if youre curious beep meep meow. I was writing these posts at the same time as my thesis paper which was more hopeful and aiming to reframe what we consider escapism, but in the end by the finale (last assessment) the hatred won in my heart and i couldnt make a visual project with an audience in mind. I made something, but it was more like a rant with visuals and absolutely failed the "whats the future of this project?" question. Must it have a future for an audience? Its job was to be a confession and a respite, for my own expression. I dont want an audience, im too much of a misanthropic hater and possessive mother to let others see or interpret my ideas. I know it's selfish and counterproductive but i cant help it. You sending this ask made me laugh since it was so relevant to my struggles this year. Id love to break out of this cycle and mindset but i always go back here to these beliefs.

Anyway... i do think the sensible truth is somewhere in the middle. Reader's interpretation is essential for works to gain life in the world and to outlive their authors, and i revere stories for the ability to touch people's hearts and make them learn things about themselves as well as other's way of thinking (reading is a process of interpretation and contemplation afterall isnt it? Well, active reading at least. Citation to my written thesis). But im not a fan of fandom lens interpretations that so often flatten stories.

I think for our shared stories of interest authorial intent is particularly fun to think about. Commercial works made to sell gacha games but which do have heart and profound messages theyre trying to convey. But also made with an audience in mind. I havent been able to formulate any particularly riveting conclusions, but i would love to know if anyone has focused on such topics. Everything deserves analysis and attempts at understanding... and i find authorial intent an invaluable insight that can never be cast aside. Works gain lives of their own after theyre set free into the world, but they dont spawn fully formed from thin air ready for "consumption"...

Uuu im trying to decide if i should link to you a story about storytelling i wrote and illustrated in a day, and a video about humanity and the power of imagination as salvation and damnation... if i say "i'll share them, but only if you erase from your mind that i wrote them" it'd be hypocritical after everything i just spilled out. But too much knowledge about the author is scary too... not for the audience as much as the author himself. It's the audience who has the final laugh of judgement and interpretation... but it's scary to let others into your mind, to see things you spent time and energy on? I wish i could channel my death of the audience defiance into proudly sharing works without caring who sees them rather than deciding nothing is worth making anymore since im so mistrustful. Alas! Maybe one day i'll stop being a self absorbed, self sabotaging prey animal

[blizziedoodles]

🌾🌺🌸 and I feel super bad but I doNOT remember his name...Blizzie's boyfriend! The blue guy with the camo pants, I've drawn him before

🌾 What would your OC be like if they were evil. Or if they’re already evil what would they be like as the good guy?

"You know, these questions seem to have something in common, and I don't know if I like the thought of that. I'd like to say that I'm a pretty good person, and honestly I don't want to know what I'd be like if I was evil. So...pass?" So Kezador is the white knight who isn't trying to be a white knight, if that makes sense. He's put a lot of time and effort into creating a place that is safe and secure, where people can live without fear, judgement, etc. I think the logical next step is that if he was evil, he would be very overbearing. The society he created would be very dystopian in that you'd be punished or kicked out for even minor infractions, you'd constantly have to watch what you say around him. As a villain, he would essentially create a police state, even though his FULL INTENTION would have been to create a place of safety and security. He would become paranoid and lash out at perceived wrongs, and since it's his society, his refuge camp, HE would be the one to make the rules, break them when he decided the cause was great enough, and over all become a terrible dictator of sorts. Side note: It's super easy to slip into this sort of mindset if you believe yourself to be a good person. Because if you believe that you're a good person and you're doing the right thing, you can start to feel like you're above reproach, that you can't be doing wrong because that wasn't what you intended to happen. And well...yeah.

🌺 In what situation would your OC be pushed to commit an act of violence? Would they go as far to kill someone if they had to? How would this affect them and their relationships with others?

Kezador had a bit of training from an old veteran who acted as his father figure for a while, so he's good in a fight and knows how to wield multiple weapons at least moderately well. Kezador will fight if the need arises. He prefers to defend rather than go on the offensive. If you don't count self defense as violence, then under normal circumstances, he would never commit an act of violence. However. There are a significant number of people that mean more to Kezador than his own life, and if any of them was killed or murdered (there is a difference), I think that would spark him to...attempt several acts of violence against the culprit. Kezador would kill if it was absolutely necessary. He would not like it and he would try everything in his power not to do it, but when push comes to shove, he would make the call and take the shot. Anyone who knows him well would know that this was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do and they would be there for him. Obviously there would be people who couldn't see him the same way again, but when it all came down to it, the people who matter the most would understand.

🌸 What would your OC do if they were given god-like powers or the ability to change anything about the world for a whole day?

"I would want to use my powers to get rid of evil. There are so many people living in fear all the time. I would want to make it so they didn't have to look over their shoulders at night. I would want to make it so people can live happily and safely. I would also probably try to get rid of diseases and illnesses, and that is...a little selfish on my part because I would 100% get rid of my own diabetes." I'd also like to pop in here and say that of course Kezador would have fully good intentions, but since he is 16 his idea of evil is not as nuanced as it could be. He would want to help as many people as possible, but because he thinks certain things qualify as evil that..shouldn't, he would ultimately cause a lot of problems with those powers. It's just a matter of trying to do the right thing, but not thinking about it from every angle, like when you ask for a wish from a genie and they get you with a loophole.

[serafiel-jacobs]

Expect the unexpected (Fanfic)

New chapter from my main series 🩷

Eugéne was reading the newspaper, she had already read the main headline and was just scrolling to see what else she could find,

… the Stalker formerly known as Parrot has finally been apprehended, as it’s known, this stalker was the partner of the great Stalker Alidoro who unfortunately was murdered by Parrot although for now, the reason is still unknown. Since he refuses to explain his motives.

He is being detained and his trial will….

The sound of the bell of her shop opening was heard, she looked up to see that Pinocchio had entered.

“Hi Eugéne! I have something to show you” Pinocchio was holding a sword in his hand, the sword he had found on the underground of Hotel Krat, he had finally found time to show it to her.

He handed her the weapon, and she analyzed it carefully, very carefully, she was silent while analyzing every detail.

“This was made in the 1500s, I can tell by how it was welded, although by those standards it’s a little different, the handle has the same materials even if it’s not a traditional handle, but the sword is made of something completely unusual for the era, or any era really, it’s made of Damascus steel to find one of these is so rare”

Eugéne was completely entranced by the weapon, “Someone made this with a lot of care, these details are so unique, it must have taken months to build this”

Pinocchio can see that Eugéne has a big smile on her face, she seems to be in love with that sword.

“Do you want to keep it here with you?” Pinocchio smiled, “I still have some of my other weapons at home and if I ever need it, I can just ask you”

Pinocchio only kept very few of the weapons he found since they were taking up too much space at home, so he sold most of them, the extra cash was good to buy a few things for himself without the need for his allowance money, although he did give the dragon sword to Eugéne as a gift, she loved it. He remembered when he was organizing what to keep and what to get rid of.

“Son, why do you have an umbrella with the rest of your weapons?” His father looked confused, even more confused when he explained how greatly it works.

“You know, you could also have used it back then to not get wet” Geppetto had seen his son come back to Hotel Krat completely covered wet due to the rain. But as we know, Pinocchio tends to not take the best care of his clothes.

As for his legion arms, Pinocchio kept all of them, eventually, he did find more calibers here and there and managed to fully upgrade them all.

“Hopefully it’s not much to ask but yeah I would love to add this to my collection” She makes weapons but also collects them, she has a special place in the back of her shop and has them displayed.

They were casually talking for a few minutes when Pinocchio noticed the newspaper, Eugéne could tell he was reading the main headline.

“It’s crazy, right? I can’t believe a serial killer is running around, and they still haven’t caught them” Eugéne knows better than to trust the Krat’s police but at least when it came to something like this they should put in the effort, the killer is leaving the bodies in exposed places and leaving messages, at least that should give them a hint, “For some reason, Krat has been feeling a little more unsafe lately”

“Well, yesterday someone tried to steal flowers from me” Pinocchio recounted what had happened.

“Seriously, trying to steal flowers? The nerve of some people” Eugéne sighed, “You know the other day I went outside my home for five minutes, just for a trip to the store and back, and on my way back someone tried grabbing my bag”

“What?!” Pinocchio couldn't believe it.

“Don’t worry, everything was fine, everything happened so fast but a stalker was walking nearby and that seemed to scare them, they stopped as soon as they saw the stalker”

“You got really lucky but be a little more careful next time” Gemini was also worried, if this happened so close to her home, he couldn’t imagine if she were to take a long walk somewhere else.

“I guess I had a little guardian Angel following me” She smiled, it made her feel safe that someone or something could be watching over her.

“What mask were they wearing?” Pinocchio is curious, he doesn’t want to be a stalker but he does like and find interesting what they do.

“It was a mastiff dog mask, or at least I think that’s what it was, I’m more of a cat person” Eugéne has more experience and knowledge when it comes to cats rather than dogs, “I saw that they were a man since he stared at me for at least a minute before leaving”

She found it a little odd but in a way, all stalkers are a little weird and she was extremely grateful for the help. She almost wanted to ask where he got that sword, Eugéne was sure that it was a sword from the east.

“I wonder if someone has a cricket mask” Gemini has never seen someone having bug masks.

“Who knows Gemini, there are so many stalkers out there, maybe one of them is a fan of crickets” Eugéne touched Gemini’s little head with her finger, giving him gentle headpats.

“Pinocchio why don’t you learn a few things from her instead of shaking me each time you get mad?”

Pinocchio smiled at Gemini quickly trying to grab him with his hand but Gemini jumped away to Eugéne’s shoulder.

“I knew you were going to do that you brat” Gemini chirped.

They were having a great time, Eugéne closed her shop for an hour each day as her break, at it was time for that, so she decided that it would be a good idea if both of them went together to have a little snack.

They saw an interesting shop that sold pastries and sweets, and each one of them ordered the same one, eclairs with orange flavor, apparently, it had a fun secret ingredient and they wanted to try it out, it seemed fun, Pinocchio ate his first, too excited to try it, as he ate it, he felt a crunchy sound, it was odd but it must be some sort of edible decoration so he swallowed it. Once he was done eating, he felt a little odd.

“Pinocchio you shouldn’t eat food so fast,” Gemini said, now back im his cage.

“No, this is different, I know how to explain but I feel weird” Pinocchio doesn’t know how to explain it, “Almost as if I have felt this way before but…”

“Mmm” Eugéne had a bad feeling about this, so she cut in half her pastry and a little rock came from inside.

A disruption crystal.

Needless to say, the three of them were completely panicking, Pinocchio had swallowed it whole and every minute he passed was vital.

Eugéne grabbed Pinocchio’s shoulders, “Pinocchio listen to me, take this”

She handed Pinocchio something that looked like a pocket watch, but it was more of a strange necklace.

“At the union, all workers are given this, I don’t work there anymore but thank God I kept mine, it can send you to a special stargazer that’s inside the premises”

It’s a stargazer that’s just outside the factory, it’s given to all workers in case of an emergency.

“Quick, go and find your father” Eugéne knows how to work in the most stressful of situations, she knows how to keep her composure, it’s a skill that takes time to develop when working on hard labor like this, even more so when in your profession mistakes can have big consequences.

Pinocchio nodded and activated the device, Eugéne had no choice but to return to her shop, she was worried sick but she needed to keep calm, she believed in Geppetto’s skills.

—-

He entered the building, he got yelled at for entering but he didn’t care, he remembered where his father’s office was but unfortunately, he wasn’t there, he was panicking even more, he was starting to feel worse now, he grabbed his bag and pulled a small bottle from the inside a Purification Ampoule, thankfully he always carries one just in case but that’s not going to stop it as long as that stone is inside his body.

After asking around frantically he knew where his father was and rushed to get there, it was a testing room, and Pinocchio opened the door with force almost breaking it.

“Father!”

“Geppetto your puppet son can’t be here” Conrad was there and he didn’t look happy, but truthfully he never looks happy unless he is taunting others.

Pinocchio rushed to his father’s side, he was talking too fast to explain but Geppetto managed to understand, his face becoming pale. He grabbed Pinocchio’s hand and dragged him out of there.

“This is an emergency, I’m borrowing one of the rooms for this!” Geppetto shouted at his coworkers and took his son to another room that’s used for testing, rooms like this have everything he needs.

He told Pinocchio to take off his shirt and to lie down on the table.

“Sorry son but this is going to hurt” Geppetto was apologetic but he couldn't sugarcoat this.

Geppetto put on some gloves and opened Pinocchio’s chest cavity, his heart was exposed as well as his other organs, Geppetto was nervous because of the unique situation his son was in. He looked at Pinocchio’s stomach, his living organ just like all the others, mixed with the mechanical parts. But God answered his prayers because the stone wasn’t inside Pinocchio’s stomach, but rather stuck on a gear next to it, he doesn’t know how that works but he isn’t going to question this good luck he had.

He grabbed some tweezers and pulled out the crystal, Pinocchio giving out a cry of pain; Geppetto set it aside somewhere else, on the other end of the room as being near it was still dangerous for Pinocchio. The thing being inside ended up disrupting the flow of some of the mechanisms and Geppetto could tell that the human part of his son’s body was trying to compensate for the problem.

Geppetto took a deep breath and repaired him just as he did when his son was in his original state, he concentrated as to not think about the organs and blood around him, as long as he didn’t touch them it should be fine, the task was hard, but he went into autopilot, not touching even an inch of his living body.

Pinocchio was quiet, trying not to cry in pain, it did hurt a lot and he started to feel exhausted, slowly the pain started to go away, he closed his eyes and ended up falling asleep.

Geppetto was already done with the inside, but he did fix some small details that had nothing to do with the issue, nothing really that important in the grand scheme of things but he is a perfectionist and his son deserves the best care. After closing Pinocchio he took a sigh of relief and left him resting for a moment.

He turned to look at the cricket “Gemini keep an eye on him will you?”

Geppetto grabbed the crystal and put it inside a container, he made his way towards the door, he was going to have to dispose of it, and he was also going to have to find the other members of the board and explain why he had to leave with his son, It would be easy if Venigni was here but he is attending to his other job matters so he isn’t at the union today.

He opened the door, looks like Geppetto didn’t have to look for any of them, as all the other members of the board and even other coworkers were just outside the door, badly acting as if they weren’t trying to overhear how he was fixing up his son.

Really? They can’t even try to be a little more discreet?

Geppetto was so done with this “Excuse me but, I’m going to have to leave work early”

“It’s okay Geppetto don’t worry about it” One of the men said, “You know if you need any help regarding your son-“

“Thank you very much but he is my son and I will treat him himself” Geppetto stared intensely at the man for a few seconds and he took the hint, all the others took the hint as well.

“Would you mind giving me that Crystal Geppetto?” The subdirector of the union said, “I need to check how that store got their hands on it, they aren’t supposed to be available for the public”

That’s right, they are used in many things related to labor, the crystals are for testing certain types of resistances and even communication systems, as well as testing puppet endurance. They are important and lately, there has been a shortage of disruption crystals.

“And it’s not harmful to humans but I’m still sure that’s a health violation”

Geppetto is glad that he can count on the subdirector for his help, their work relationship is always purely professional but the subdirector of the union is a nice man.

Even if he is nosey just like all the other ones, at least knowing these people are dying to know how his son was built and how they envy his skills makes him feel a little proud of himself, at least it distracts him from the stress for a moment.

He didn’t want to wake up Pinocchio but he had to, his son can’t be resting here. So they both went back home, and as they left they could hear the others talking.

“He can eat? How is that possible?”

“The puppet was crying too, I wonder what Geppetto did so that could happen”

“Did anyone manage to overhear what tools Geppetto was using? That could give us a hint”

“I think I heard some sort of clock? What part would need that?”

“Not sure what springs he is using but they definitely don't sound like any of the ones we use here”

“Hey, if we are all here then who is in the other testing room?”

While father and son were leaving they started hearing one of the emergency alarms, Geppetto rolled his eyes, officially that was not his problem.

——-

Pinocchio was okay, just in his bed resting, falling asleep again, first Geppetto called Eugéne to tell her that Pinocchio was okay, she was so relieved, next he called Antonia since as his mother she should know this happened.

“That was a big scare, but thankfully everything was solved without much issue,” Antonia said from the other line.

“Yes, I’m happy everything was solved” Replied Geppetto.

There was a pause, no one talking for a few seconds.

“Geppetto are you okay?”

“No”

She figured that it must be the case, Pinocchio being in danger kept happening more often and it was obvious how stressed he was while hearing him on the other line. Maybe one would assume that considering all the danger Pinocchio has gone through Geppetto would have gotten used to it by now, but that’s not the case, no one ever wants to see their child in danger.

At this point is also believable that the universe must have something against poor Pinocchio considering his bad luck.

“Antonia I know that he is going to be okay but now I feel like an even worse father, I was sending him to do all those dangerous things before and-”

“Geppetto stop it, this was an accident and no one could have seen this coming” Antonia takes a brief pause, “And as I told you before, I am your shoulder to cry on but you know what we talked about last time”

“I know, I know, the appointment is already set for the day after tomorrow, I was going to tell Pinocchio about this today but then this happened” Geppetto also wonders if he should ask the doctor for medical advice on Pinocchio's human health.

“You can still tell him, just when he wakes up” Antonia was trying to reassure him.

“Can you please come I think I need your support because honestly, I’m too stressed right now”

Before Antonia could say something Geppetto spoke up first.

Geppetto was a little embarrassed “And because… I’m bad at explaining”

Antonia smiled. “I’ll be there soon”

——

“So that’s how you got electrocuted”

They were making small talk while waiting for Pinocchio to wake up.

“But Polendina is supposed to be waterproof how did that happen?” Geppetto knows that it doesn’t make sense for that to occur.

Antonia just blushes, “Well we were sort of experimenting and-

“You know what? Never mind I don’t want to know”

“Hey you are the one that brought up this topic first by mentioning-“

The sound of Pinocchio opening the door of his room was heard, and both of them immediately stopped talking about that.

“Son, how are you feeling?” Geppetto asked sweetly.

“Better” Pinocchio said in a drowsy voice, still sleepy.

When Pinocchio noticed that his mother was there he smiled, probably thinking that she came to spoil him because he wasn’t feeling well. Not entirely untrue since she is planning to do that but first they need to have this conversation.

“Pinocchio in two days you and your father are going to see a doctor” Antonia began to speak, “Just to see how you are doing”

“Oh, okay” Pinocchio was still smiling.

“Son this is a special kind of doctor” Geppetto paused for a moment, hopefully, he could explain well this time, “You know how you have gone through a lot of hardships right?”

“Um… yes?” Pinocchio knew this was going somewhere.

“And I know that you have a hard time talking about it and prefer to write down your feelings but just this time maybe it can help you,” His father said.

Both of them explained why he was going and why his father was going as well.

Antonia smiled at Pinocchio “Dear you don’t have to keep going if you don’t want to, no one is forcing you, but it doesn’t hurt to see if it helps at least once”

Pinocchio nodded, it looked like he understood well, Geppetto was glad he asked Antonia for help. He doesn’t know what his deal with explaining is, he explains perfectly well other things like when he teaches him about math, history, literature, etc.

Pinocchio put his two index fingers together “Can we go see my pony?”

It was only 3 pm so they still had plenty of time to go and have a visit and Pinocchio should have a good reward for what he went through today.

[azureoctahedron]

I want to take this, and push this one step further because I'm sure people aren't going to catch the nuances here. And it's going to be really easy to dogpile on this and say "10000% restorative, get rid of punitive!"

I'm going to be the Debbie Downer, and say both ideologies need to co-exist together. The more tools in your box, the wider range of options you have in dealing with a Problem.

But this requires full understanding of what each does, and where they might come up short.

Sometimes you're going to need to just take out the guy at the top - because they're a symbol as much as they're y'know, the guy at the top. Because they've gotten there through Very NotGood means and need to be stopped from harming more people, and you want to send a message to others thinking about doing the same to Not Do That.

Other times, you're going to need to attack the system and beliefs that put him there so you can prevent a repeat. You're going to need to take out the guy at the top because he's a Fucking Asshole, but you need to take down the system as well because that was how he got there. So you need the longer-term restorative approach because then enough people will learn what happened, and do better next time.

But for true long-term lasting change...punitive isn't going to work. You absolutely need the restorative justice option. You need people willing to see where they went wrong, and to change their ways, and then teach that lesson they learned to the next generation. You're going to need people to change sides and help you out from the knowledge of why going the way they did is a bad idea.

You can try to throw out punitive justice, and you can try to go fully to restorative justice...but restorative justice takes time. It takes effort. It takes teaching. It takes having something set up to keep working on these people.

Some crises are not going to have the patience for you to do that.

This is what I believe the OP means in case some of you missed that part.

Some situations call for using restorative justice for the correct message, and sometimes there will be so many moving pieces that you have to use punitive for the short-term, and get the setup for the long-term restoration going.

Have more tools in your toolbox, but understand them completely. Don't automatically discount one or the other, but look at what best fits your situation, and recognize that there's always more than one right way to fix a mess.

Also, media absolutely needs more takes on restorative justice. To reflect what I said above, you can't push people to use a tool they don't understand. That's going to make a worse situation. You have to be willing to take the risk and show that there are more options than only punitive justice.

Steven Universe I think went in the right track in not having the Diamonds die, but instead learn from their mistakes. That was so core to the show's messaging I think it actually works.

(My personal take as to why it went wrong in people's heads is that the heel-face-turn went too fast, and didn't seem to fully fit the Diamonds' misdeeds. I have a whole rant somewhere in the past about how the redemption arc has to fit the crime, or it feels like a handwave. This is my take on SU's approach. It wasn't wrong, it was in how quickly they wrapped that whole thing up. Had they gotten a longer runway for it and a little more time to offset the cognitive whiplash, it probably would've landed better.)

Star Trek in particular does a good job of pushing the more restorative justice aspects with almost all the Enemy Races. Klingons became allies, the Borg got humanized as unwilling drones forced into the Collective, even the Romulans ended up being a key part in fighting the Dominion, and so on.

Hell even Star Wars took a swing at it with Luke choosing to willingly face the Emperor to bring Vader back to the light. He still died, but he at least died a redeemed man who laid down his life for his son's survival. I think that's actually one of the better restorative approaches shown, because Luke actively looked for an alternative to the punitive method.

Babylon 5 had a restorative approach in ending the Vorlon-Shadow War by just sending both offending races (who were destroying planets left and right by that point) off to beyond the Rim. Sure it felt a bit pat (the network forced them into it basically by threatening to cancel the show), but they took the risk to do a full after-War season to show the fallout.

Even the Expanse takes a shot at showing both punitive and restorative approaches - showing both their successes and failures. But I like that it ended on a restorative approach - one of the warmongers causing trouble was dead, but one of the mainstay characters who started a warmonger went slowly but surely in a completely 100% different direction by the end. (Avasarala despised Belters to the point of torturing them in the beginning, but negotiates with and willingly helps them by the end).

The more often media actually approaches restorative justice and shows how well it can work for situations, I think the more kids will grow up and start using it as another approach to justice than only punishment.

Sometimes I think about how and why some people had such a *bad* reaction to the end of Steven Universe, specifically in regards to the Diamonds living.

Even though they no longer are causing harm to others and are able to actually undo some of their previous harm by living, some folks reacted as though this ending was somehow morally suspect. Morally bankrupt, even.

And I think it might be because so many of us were raised on a very specific kind of kids media trope:

They all fall to their deaths.

Disney loves chucking their bad guys off cliffs. And it makes sense- in a moral framework where villains *must* be punished (regardless of whether their death will actually prevent further harm or not), but killing of any kind is morally bad for the hero, the narrative must find a way to kill the villain without the protagonists doing a murder.

It's a moral assumption that a person can *deserve* to die, that it is cosmically just for them to die, that them dying is evidence that the story itself is morally good and correct. Scar *deserves* to die, but it would be bad for Simba to kill him. So....cliff.

Steven Universe, whatever else it's faults, took at step back and said "but if killing people is bad, then people dying is bad", and instead of dropping White Diamond off a cliff, asked "what would actual *restorative*, not punitive, justice look like? What would actual reparations mean here? If the goal is to heal, not just to punish, how do we handle those who have done harm?" And then did that.

Which I think is interesting, and that there was pushback against it is interesting.

It also reminds me of the folks who get very weird about Aang not killing Ozai at the end of Avatar. And like, Ozai still gets chucked in prison, so it doesn't even push back on our cultural ideas of punitive justice *that much.* and still, I've seen people get real mad that the child monk who is the last survivor of a genocide that wiped out his entire pacifist culture didn't do a murder.

[ckret2]

I'm curious about Ford's thoughts on the situation! Is he scared, angry? Does he really believe Bill is as powerless as he says he is? How does he feel about Bill being around his family and other people in town?

So at the end of April I got this question paired with another question about Ford's reaction to having human Bill around, I answered the other question, went "I'll answer this one soon," and then it got buried in my inbox lmao BUT I'M ANSWERING IT NOW!

(Here's the other half of this question I already answered! I also talk a bit about Ford's thoughts on Bill being around here and here so I'll try not to rehash stuff I've already said too much!)

Yeah, "scared" and "angry" are probably the top two emotions Ford's feeling when he thinks about Bill being back.

He's scared that if he does the wrong thing, Bill's human body will crack open and Bill will escape again, and the world will end, and this time they won't be able to stop Bill because they've already used up all the clever tricks they had the last time they tried to stop him. He's scared that Bill will find some slick way to worm himself into somebody else's mind—that he'll talk Soos into doing something innocent-seeming with devastating consequences, or that he'll get into the kids' heads (emotionally or literally) the way he got into Ford's head and turn them against the family, or that he'll secretly make contact with somebody on the outside and fast talk them into being his accomplice when they don't know what he is.

And he's furious that Bill's here, furious that he's NOT DEAD, furious that after trying every murder tactic Ford could think of from every angle imaginable he STILL hasn't gotten rid of this damn triangle. And furious that he's in Ford's life again, in ALL their lives—and that he's acting NORMAL. Like a NORMAL PERSON. He eats and sleeps and watches TV and complains about what's on TV and plays board games and tries to wheedle Ford into playing board games and acts like a person, instead of the monster Ford knows he is. Ford's mad that Bill is both a monster AND a person and he's mad that he has to see Bill being a person and he's mad that Bill has an opportunity to live like a person, waiting here on death row. He feels irrational. He's mad that he feels irrational.

(He's mad that he kind of wants to play board games—with the version of Bill he was fooled into thinking existed thirty years ago, the version that was Ford's "friend," and he's mad that Bill still CAN put on the "friend" mask and DOES put on the "friend" mask even though Ford knows it's all lies.)

Not long into Bill's captivity, Ford's decided he's pretty sure Bill won't hurt people—because right now, it's more useful for Bill to use people than harm people. He's not going to fight his way free, but he could scheme his way free. So, at the moment, he isn't worried for his family's physical safety—but he IS worried about what the things Bill could say to them, what he could persuade them, what he might talk them into. He's less concerned about Stan than the kids. And letting Bill fully loose in the town, to start making up his own story and identity to the townspeople, could be devastating. Ford canNOT let that happen.

(It's already happening. Trying to keep Bill's influence contained feels like trying to squeeze a handful of sand. Ford wishes they could just lock Bill in a tiny room with no contact with the outside world until Ford figures out a way to kill him for good—but Ford really does believe Bill when he says he'd just kill himself in that scenario, and Ford won't risk 50/50 odds that Human Bill dying would mean the return of Triangle Bill. So what can he do?)

He doesn't believe for a second that Bill is totally powerless. Not even Bill is making a strong effort to convince Ford that he's totally helpless; one second he'll say with a wink and a nudge "I'd try to tell you I don't have any powers left, but even if it's true you won't believe me, will you?" and then the next second he'll casually do a minor magic feat. The problem is, Ford doesn't know WHAT Bill can and can't do. He's trying to mentally divide Bill's skills into separate categories—what things could he only do because he was an energy being in the mindscape? He probably can't do those now. What magic spells did Bill teach Ford to do decades ago? He can probably still do those as a human—etc.

But these are just educated guesses. Even after thirty years of trying to learn more about Bill, Ford still doesn't know enough about him to list what all his powers were, where they came from, and which he might still have access to as a human. 

This is all Ford knows for sure: WHATEVER powers Bill currently has, they're not enough to let him kill the Pines and escape Gravity Falls—or he would have done so already.

[alcinadimitrescuwu]

Welcome to the Family, Boy (Alcina x Fem!Reader Fanfic)

First thank you all for your support for my first Dimitrescu fanfic. I truly appreciate it and all the support this community has given me on. Let's go on to the next one, shall we?

Premise: After a long and stressful week, your wife Alcina wants to help you let off some steam. However, your amorous activities are cut short by an unexpected surprise.

Warning: blood. There are some steamy scenes in here but nothing explicit, so it's mostly safe for work.

As you climb the stairs to your bedroom, you heave a great sigh. It’s been a long and stressful week. Daniela had caused a small fire in the wine cellar basement by knocking over a lantern when she had gotten a little too eager for a feeding. It was eventually put out, but the corpse was burned in the process. Alcina had been furious at the waste of resources. It had taken a full day to get rid of the ash, but the basement was clean. Well, as clean as it could be. Aside from the wine cellar, Alcina didn’t seem to care much about cleaning up the basement. Well, it was over now. Now you just couldn’t wait to curl up next to your wife and get a good sleep.

You arrive at your doorway and hear Maria Callas singing “Casta Diva” from within. You smile. Your mutual love for opera was one of the first things you discussed as you were courting. Before you reach your hand to knock at the door, you hear Alcina call, “Is that you iubirea mea?”

“Yes, dear,” you reply. You stretch your arms behind your head. “Oh, I just can’t wait to get into bed-” Your voice cuts off as you see what your wife is wearing. She is wearing a black peignoir and as she stands up, she casts it off to reveal a black and red lingerie set.

She smiles wickedly. “I can’t wait to get into bed with you either.”

You don’t move. You can only stare. Her scarlet lips match the exact shade of the lingerie. Without any sleeves, you see her muscular arms and you blush as you recall what those arms feel like wrapped around you. Her legs are on full display as well with a red stocking clipped to a garter. They reach up to your shoulders and you have spent many a time nestled in them with your head on her lap. You open your mouth to reply but find nothing coming out.

Alcina pouts and puts one hand behind her on the bed. “Come, pet,” she purrs, beckoning you with a red fingernail. “You’re not going to stand there all day, are you?”

You don’t say anything. You cross the space between you and your wife in three steps and launch yourself over into her waiting arms. The scent of her perfume is overwhelming and you breathe it in. You close your eyes and kiss her chin, her laugh lines and finally her lips. She laughs through the kiss and holds your head between her hands. “Well, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“Don’t talk,” you rasp, your voice full of desire.

She smiles. “All right, draga mea. No talking then.” She kisses you deeply and you weave your hands through her locks.

She picks you up and carries you across the room, kissing all the while until you reach the wall. You lean your head on the wall behind you and wrap your legs around her waist. “I’ve needed this, my love,” you whisper against her lips.

Ding dong!

You hear the doorbell resound through the castle. You break the kiss and fix her with a quizzical expression. “Were you expecting anyone?” you ask.

She shakes her head quickly. “No. Could be a solicitor. Could be a vampire hunter coming to put a stake in all our hearts.” Her golden eyes are glazed over with desire. “Right now I couldn’t care less at the moment.” She nuzzles your neck and you sigh. She breaks away and looks at you, an unasked question in her eyes. She’s hungry. You nod your consent and she pulls away your nightgown to bear your neck and shoulders. She pulls you close and bites your neck and feeds on the blood pooling around your neck. You feel her neck working against your chest as she drinks. You take pleasure in every gasp and moan she makes. You feel pleasantly light-headed by the time she pulls away with a satisfied sigh.

Ding dong!

Alcina groans and bares her teeth in anger. “It’s getting too late for this!”

You caress her jaw. “Dear, maybe we should answer it. It could be an emergency.”

She shakes her head impatiently. “It’s probably some snot-nosed kid playing a prank.” She lifts your chin with a finger and gives you a seductive grin. “Don’t focus on it right now, pet. Right now is about you and me.”

“You’re probably right-” She stops the rest of your sentence with a rough kiss, opening your mouth with her tongue. Her hand travels up your leg and her hand making contact against your bare leg gives you a pleasant chill. Her hand rests on your thigh and she pushes you up against the wall again while using her nimble fingers to unhook your garter.

Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong!

Alcina gives a frustrated growl. “Damn it to hell!”

“Darling,” you say gently petting her arm as a signal to set you down. “If it were kids, they’d be bored and have gone home by now. I’m going to check who it is.”

Your wife crosses her arms and gives an adorable pout. “Fine. Do what you want.”

You adjust your nightgown and wipe any leftover blood and lipstick off your neck. As you walk to the door, Alcina gently puts your dressing gown around your shoulders. You catch her hand and give it a kiss. “I’ll be with you shortly. I just need to get dressed.”

You smile at her. “Very well, darling.” As you turn to leave the door, Alcina catches your shoulder and whispers huskily, “And after we get back, we will most certainly get back the lost time that nuisance has stolen from us.”

You blush furiously and kiss her goodbye. As you walk down the stairs, you hear the doorbell ring again. Once, twice, three times. “Yeah yeah, I’m coming. I’m coming.” You grasp the brass handles and with a great effort manage to open the doors wide. You’re jealous of Alcina in moments like these. She could open the doors with such ease that you forget that each door weighed hundreds of pounds.

You are surprised to see Heisenberg holding something wrapped in cloth. You can’t help but smile when you see Heisenberg. Heisenberg and Alcina may be like oil and water, but the two of you liked each other almost instantly. He told you once that “anyone who could put up with that bitch for more than 20 seconds must be a good person. And you have to put up with her for life!”

Heisenberg returns your smile. “Hi, hon.”

“Hi Karl. How about you come in and warm up with a nice cup of tea?” You stand aside to allow him in. “Come on. It’s freezing out there.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, honey, but I really can’t stay long. Is your ball and chain around? This question concerns her too.”

“Heisenberg,” you hear your wife’s drawl. You both look to see her descending the stairs. There is no evidence of your amorous activities as she has on a fresh coat of lipstick, is fully dressed and her hair is pinned perfectly in place under her hat. “To what do I owe this rather unpleasant surprise?”

Heisenberg clenches his teeth. “Believe me, I wouldn’t come here unless it was an emergency.”

“Then what is it?” Alcina asks as she puts her left hand on your shoulder. You reach up to cover it with your own. “Out with it, and be on your way. Some of us would rather be in bed right now.”

Heisenberg notes your kiss-swollen lips and a hickey already starting to form on your neck. “Yes, I suppose some of us rather would.”

Alcina’s eyes flash and she grits her teeth. “Heisenberg, I swear-”

Heisenberg puts up a placating hand while he holds the bundle with his other. “Ok, ok. I’ll cut to the chase then. Sheesh, do you have any sense of humor?” He unwraps the bundle to reveal a mewling French bulldog. It can’t be more than a couple weeks old.

As you place your hand on your heart Heisenberg continues. “I found him outside of his house. Whole damned family was slaughtered. He needs a place to stay. I thought this might be the best place for him.”

You look at your wife with pleading eyes, but she gives a sharp, “No.”

“Darling-”

“No.” She glares at Heisenberg. “Why can’t you take him in? Maybe it would be an opportunity for you to learn some responsibility for once in your cursed existence.”

You see Heisenberg roll his eyes behind his sunglasses. “Yes, and I’d be responsible for him being torn apart by Lycans. I’m not taking him in. It’s not safe for him there.”

You take your wife’s hand in yours. “Darling, please reconsider. We can’t turn the poor thing away. Besides, our daughters would love having a d-”

She immediately puts a hand over your mouth. “Don’t say it,” she warns, looking furtively around the foyer.

“What?” you ask against her hand. “Dog?”

Almost immediately your daughters, Bela, Cassandra and Daniela materialize from their fly shrouds. They zero in on the dog and Cassandra takes him out of Heisenberg’s hands and the other two crowd around her and begin cooing to it, and letting it sniff and lick their fingers.

Alcina covers her face with her hands. “Now you’ve done it, love.”

The girls look up from their ministrations to the dog and as one rush over to your wife, carrying the dog over with them. They begin speaking up all at once. “Mother, please can we keep him?” “Mother, look how cute he is!” “Mother, Cassandra’s been hogging the dog all this time and it’s my turn to hold him!”

“Enough!” Alcina’s voice booms around the foyer. She puts two fingers in the space between her perfectly sculpted eyebrows. She sighs aloud. “God, I need a smoke.” She turns to her daughters and with a long suffering sigh says, “Fine. We’ll keep the little mongrel.”

All three daughters erupt into cheers and you can’t help but smile indulgently at them. Daniela runs over and throws her arms around your neck in jubilation. “Maman, did you hear that? We get to have a dog finally!”

“Yes, dearest, I did hear that.” You drop a kiss on her head and she scampers over to take the dog which Cassandra begrudgingly hands to her.

Heisenberg grins and reaches in his pocket. “I have some food and a water bottle for him,” he says, handing you the aforementioned items. “The Duke should have some more, but that’s all I have right now.”

“Thank you Karl,” you say, reaching over to scratch the dog behind his ears. “We’ll take good care of it, won’t we girls?”

“Yes, Maman!” they all answer in unison.

“I’ll be off then!” Heisenberg turns to leave but not before shouting over his shoulder, “And I think he should fit in pretty nicely around here, especially since the Lady of the House is such a bi-”

In an instant, Alcina has him off the ground and has her claws extended only a few inches from his neck. “Heisenberg, did you want to finish that sentence?” she asks sweetly.

You can’t help but laugh. “Let him down, my love. It’s not worth getting so riled up this late at night”

“Fine,” she says and sets him down not too gently. He brushes himself off and glares at Alcina for the rough landing. She just flashes a smile and you notice that only her middle finger is extended in claw form. You look at your daughters, but they are too busy with the dog to notice the obscene hand gesture.

“All right, this time I’m really off.” he says, turning around and walking towards the castle gates.

“Girls, what do you say?” you prompt.

“Thank you, Uncle Karl!” they chorus. Bela snatches the dog and runs upstairs, vanishing in her bug shroud. The girls run after her, Daniela yelling down the hall, “No fair! I wasn’t finished with him yet!”

Alcina closes the doors and leans against them, sighing. “I just hope this wasn’t a mistake.”

You take her hand and kiss it. “Nothing we can do about it now, my love. Come on, let’s go to bed. It’s getting late.” The two of you hold hands and once you arrive at your shared bedroom, Alcina immediately locks the door, pulls you close and fixes you with a wolfish grin. “Now where were we, draga mea?”

“I thought you said you wanted to smoke first?” You laugh and wrap your arms around her neck.

“Ah, iubirea mea,” she say picking you up again and giving you a sloppy kiss. “Cigarettes always taste better after sex.”

You kiss her as you unbutton her dress and she puts her hand in the same spot on your thigh as before, this time successfully unhooking your garter. You bite her lip playfully and she gives a little growl of pleasure.

The moment is interrupted by a knock on the door and you hear Daniela’s voice, “Mother? Maman? The dog peed all over the carpet in Bela’s room!”

“Only because you led him there!” you hear Bela retort.

Alcina leans her forehead against yours and starts swearing in Romanian. You give her a kiss and pat her hand before you see to your daughters.

[arcane-ish]

Okay, maybe I’m just a big dumb-dumb, but when I was watching the dinner scene particularly this dialogue about Vander I was like screaming.

Like my thinking was “She knows!!! She has known the entire time!!” With the basic idea being that she knew what she did but she’s been hiding that knowledge inside from him. 

Which says so much about just how smart Jinx is and how much aware and there is a lot more complexity there is rather than just “he took her and she drank the kool-aid and believed everything he said” (I mean there are plenty of other lines that suggest this, that she had her own opinions independent of what he said, but this happens to be another one)

I have always read the “tackling” scene as that Powder was fully aware of the danger he posed and that was kind of a last ditch effort to save her own life, to try to reel him in with pity (of course more in a spontaneous way, not in a “I have this fully figured out calculated plan”) (Though I guess theoretically it is possible that she didn’t know at that point who he was? because they hadn’t really met and when she was outside preparing her bomb maybe he just wasn’t really in view)

So, basiaclly that scene got me super excited. 

But then I got to thinking ... did Powder actually see Vander get stabbed? 

In the sequence, the explosion happens, Powder gets blown from the building 

After that Vander has a brief fight against the Shimmer dude (during this Vi is screaming) and gets stabbed by Silco.

Then Vander chocking Silco but collapses to his wounds, Silco throws him off the mini bridge. Vander hears Silco saying to his goon to find the girl (I presume he means Vi because he heard he screaming? I don’t think it makes sense in the sequence of events that Silco was aware that the monkey bomb meant Powder was present) Also Shimmer goon immediately goes into the room where Vi is. Vander takes Shimmer to get up again. Vander attacks and presumably kills Shimmer dude. He is then turn between going after Silco or rescuing Vi. 

He grabs Vi and jumps off the building. Vander delievers his dying words to Vi, Vi grieves over Vander. (sidenote: somebody should do a gifset of all the “dying words” from characters, Vander to Vi, Marcus to Cait, Silco to Jinx and any others I might have forgotten) 

At this point Powder shows up and seems to have missed what exactly went down (in theory it is possible that she was faking it). 

I think the cinematography suggests that Powder sees the consequences of her actions only here? [ETA: and the Script to Scene video suggests that she only realizes what happened at least in regards to her “family” members here]

In the tv sequence this about 5 and a half minutes if you go from her being thrown to her showing up (you can maybe subtract some of that for slowmo/dream sequences). 

Even if Powder came back earlier than when we see her again, Silco stabbing Vander in the back was fairly early in the sequence of events, about 2 and a half minutes in. 

Anyway, made me wonder, if maybe it wasn’t “Powder came back, saw a lot more than she let on and was just pretending she missed the chaos” what is the alternative?  (it is noteworthy that the bridge is visible from the outside because Powder sees Vi on the bridge as Vi faces down Silco’s goons earlier)

And then it dawned to me, what if it is simpler... what it Silco just flat out told her about “that time when I stabbed Vander in the back”? Because thinking about it, that seems like the kind of thing Silco would do. 

Like I wouldn’t put it past him that he would just take Jinx to the scene of the crime and go “And this is where I finally rid myself of Vander and got over my trauma!”, complete with reinactment! (just like he is sort of reinacting his trauma when he takes her to the river) 

It’s interesting if he would similarly have talked openly about how he originally planned to stab her. And I definitely wouldn’t put it past Sevika to drop a “man, I wish he had stabbed you that night like he was originally going to” type line. 

Similarly, i don’t think that it’s that strange that Powder noticed even back then. Silco approaches her, knife in hand, blade still bloody from Vander’s blood. 

I love the detail that when he kneels down to talk to her, he hides the blade behind his back. 

When she tackles him the knife very audibly clatters to the ground next to him. 

Anyway, thoughts? Did Powder come back earlier and flat out see Silco stab Vander? Or did she find out about it from Sevika or just whispers in the street? Or did Silco just flat out tell her? 

TLDR: How did Jinx know that Silco stabbed Vander in the back? Did Silco openly tell her that or did she find out some other way? Was Silco aware she had that knowledge or did she conceal that from him?