#and then when you get lovelace involved...

[renee-minkowskis-therapist]

Oh. Oh, thinking about Minkowski and Hilbert again. Thinking about how Hilbert can always push her buttons because he understands her better than anyone. Thinking about how he calls her out on her worthlessness because he knows he's worthless too, and she wouldn't be here with him if she weren't. Thinking about how she goes to him when she needs advice because for better or worse he *knows* her. Thinking about how many people like her he's seen before, and how he knows her type by now. Thinking about how Lambert was just like her, how he killed him, how he said he "liked" him, which he doesn't say about anyone else. Thinking about how he looks down on her for needing orders and structure because he has always done what he thought was right (in his big-picture, immoral way) despite people telling him not to. Thinking about how when she finally does kill someone she confides in him again, even though he's gone. Thinking about how despite never showing one bit of affection for him when he was alive, she tells Jacobi she wants revenge for his death. Thinking about how he asks her if he's still part of her crew, and she doesn't answer. Thinking about how the answer was always "yes". Thinking about how she calls him a bitch in Polish and he understands it perfectly. Thinking about how she thanks him in Russian after he's gone.

[specialagentartemis]

moving here instead of continuing this conversation in the replies of kat's post but YES the severance crew's increasingly desperate and longshot attempts to escape the perpetual workplace while people on the outside think things are normal keeps making me think of wolf 359... like yeah that also happened to my buddies eiffel, hera, minkowski and lovelace!! and the music dance experience feels like the exact thing goddard would do to boost flagging morale😔

hahahaha god. They ABSOLUTELY would!

The corporate culture of Lumon in Severance is fairly similar in quite a few ways to the corporate culture of Goddard—they’re doing the same kind of parody/commentary. Of “work life/work family,” where there’s this jovial paternalistic attitude by Mr. Milchik or Mr. Cutter towards their employees who only get addressed by first name… the absurd sci-fi horror aspect plays really well in this space!

And, well, we’re speculating that Lumon wants to do something regarding immortality or rebirth…

Also. My vision for a Wolf 359/Severance crossover involves,

Minkowski is the head of the Hephaestus project. What is the Hephaestus project? They don’t know. However. One day they find a wild-eyed woman living in the endless hallways of the Lumon building. Her name is Isabel L., she’s the head of the Hephaestus project, and Lumon killed her whole team.

“I couldn’t leave,” Isabel says. “If I left, they would never bring me back. And I would never remember them. There’s nobody who remembers or cares about them except for me. And I’m not leaving until I make Goddard pay for what they did.” She glares daggers at Alex H. “Of course they kept you on. I can’t believe they already hired a new team. Just like Goddard, right? And just like you to not even care. Tell me they re-severed you or something, tell me you’re not this callous. Three days and every trace of Sam and Mace and Victoire and Kuan is completely gone, it’s like they never even existed at all—“

“Wait,” says Doug E., sometimes called Dougie Fresh (by him) (no one else calls him this), “There was a whole ‘nother Hephaestus project this whole time, and they all got killed three days ago, and we didn’t hear anything about this?”

“You wouldn’t have,” Isabel says impatiently. “You’re new. They cleared out Sam’s desk and gave it to you. He used to sit right here.”

“Uh,” Doug says. “I’ve been sitting at this desk for two years.”

Isabel stops. “What?”

“Isabel,” Alex H. says, “how long have you been down here?”

She’s starting to get distressed. “Three days? Four? I didn’t leave work when I was supposed to, I ran into the halls and hid down near the goats—“

(“The what?” asks Renée.

“Oh man right, the goats,” Doug says.

“There are goats here,” adds Hera. “We went exploring last week because after the whole, y’know, I decided if I’m gonna be stuck here forever I want to know everything in this place.”

“You’re not stuck here forever, you go home every day,” Renée says, but something about the woman in front of her who clearly did not go home is making it sound especially hollow.)

Isabel stares at them all. The timeline is not adding up. She turns to face Alex H., the only face she recognizes.

“Isabel,” he says, “the liquidation of the first Hephaestus project was two years ago.”

There’s silence. Then Isabel’s voice, wavering, and smaller now, “No. No, it’s only been three days… four days… it can’t have been more than that.”

“I’ve been the head of the Hephaestus project for the last two years,” says Renée. “Right here.”

The whole team suddenly has much bigger questions to answer than they thought.

[stray-tickles]

Industrial Action

Read on AO3

I finally finished a fic!! God it's been ages. This is just a straight tickle fic so if you're just here for w359 it might not be for you XD

Learning how to manage Doug Eiffel was an ongoing journey. He was often good in a crisis, he could think outside the box, and was shockingly skilled with his equipment when he wanted to be. He was there for her when she needed a friend. That one had really surprised her, though the feeling wasn’t quite as powerful as the one of relief. Knowing that if she was exhausted, if Commander Minkowski wasn’t a mask she could keep up anymore, there was someone around who would be there for Renée Minkowski.

It was letting that mask fall away every now and then that she learned more. Most notably that Doug Eiffel was a very tactile man. She’d been taken off guard when he started putting a hand on her shoulder from time to time, nudging her in the direction of her room when she was clearly exhausted, poking her in the arm if he was feeling extra obnoxious. She’d been even more surprised at how goddamn happy it seemed to make him when she returned the gesture. His smile almost split his face in two the first time, and she made note of it. It was important to keep morale up, of course.

Hanging out was another thing that they’d evolved into. Turned out, Eiffel wasn’t against crew bonding when it just involved existing in the same space and… talking. About nothing in particular.

Minkowski’s quarters were the location for that evening’s crew bonding. She, Lovelace, and Eiffel sat lazily across her bunk, trying to come up with a ranking for all the meals that had been sent up with them, with Hera reminding them of particularly obscure options.

Lovelace scoffed. “Sure, but what about the sushi?”

“Sushi?!” Three voices replied in tandem, equal measures of horrified.

She laughed and Eiffel made a disgusted noise. “No, nuh uh, you’re making that up, no way they sent you up here with raw fish!”

“It was frozen.” She snickered. “Fourier really wanted us to try it, no one could talk her out of it. Bleh.” She pulled a face at the memory.

“Turkey seems like it was a better idea.” Hera said, amused.

“Stealing it wasn’t.” Eiffel said, fixing Minkowski with a playful glare.

She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t stealit; I was trying to keep you out of the way while I cooked it.”

“Excuses.” He tutted, earning a shove.

Just as Eiffel was about to come up with another option, there was a polite chime from the speakers. “That’s eight hours from start of shift.” Hera reminded. “As requested, Commander.”

“Thanks Hera.” Minkowski stretched. “Okay, I’m calling it. Time for bed, get out of here.”

“Nooooooo.” Eiffel whined, batting his eyelashes. “Please, five more minutes?”

Lovelace snickered, but Minkowski managed to scowl. “No, Eiffel. Some of us actually work on our shifts, you know.”

“Pretty sure that’s just you.”

She turned her steely gaze on Lovelace and hissed, “Not helping.”

“Uh uh, I’m starting industrial action or whatever, this is a sit in.” And with that, Eiffel flopped across the two of them bodily, pinning them down. Or he would be doing that if there was gravity. As it was, he was just being very dramatic.

“Ugh, Eiffel!”

Lovelace chuckled, finding Eiffel’s head in her lap. “Well hey there.”

He pouted up at her. “You’re on my side, right Cap?”

“No comment.”

He huffed and crossed his arms, turning his gaze to his commanding officer. He was more than a little intimidated to see her grinning at him. Uh oh.

“Captain.” Minkowski said, with no small amount of smugness. “You remember how I said there’s no off switch on this Communications Officer?”

Lovelace raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t sure where this was going, but it sounded like it was somewhere fun. “Why yes, Commander, I do remember that.”

“Well, funny thing, I may not have found the off switch, but I do know one trick if Eiffel’s got you in a bind.”

“I’m right here!” Eiffel protested.

Minkowski’s grin widened. “Yes.” She said. “You are.”

Something about the spark in her eye gave away what she had in mind. Eiffel cringed back, already smiling nervously, his crossed arms tightening further around himself. “Wait.” He chuckled. “Wait wait wait, that’s not fair!”

Lovelace smirked. “Well now I really want to know.”

“No!” Eiffel yelped, eyes locked on a now very smug Minkowski.

She chuckled. “You could always get up and go to bed.” It was true, he could. But they both knew he wouldn’t. They’d played this game a few times, and, well, Eiffel never took an out when offered, no matter how minor the acquiescence. She might not be a genius, but she wasn’t stupid.

Sure enough. “But I don’t wanna!”

Shrug. “Eh, suit yourself.” Minkowski immediately started pinching up his sides and ribs, sending Eiffel tumbling into a fit of frantic giggles, squirming and kicking and protesting in vain.

“No!” Eiffel squeaked, grabbing at her hands, already smiling so wide he felt like he might split his face in two. “No!”

Minkowski gave him a reproachful look. As if they didn’t both know this was exactly what he’d wanted.

Lovelace smiled predatorily. “Oh. Ohohoho. Perfect.”

“No!” Eiffel yelped again, louder, trying to twist away, but she seized his wrist and wrestled one arm up above his head. He whined, high pitched and drawn out, but Lovelace only grinned down at him.

“What’s the matter?” She asked, even as Minkowski didn’t pause her playful assault and drew out messy giggles from him. “Something wrong, Officer Eiffel?”

Eiffel felt his face flush at the teasing, trying in vain to tug his arm free, squealing loudly when Lovelace’s other hand started scratching at his ribs and quickly melting into fits of snorty laughter. There was no chance he could speak beyond garbled pleas for mercy.

Hera chimed in, sounding incredibly amused. “Hmm, it seems to me that what’s wrong is that Eiffel’s very ticklish.”

Oh, screw her. If he wasn’t blushing before, he definitely was now. “NOHO!” He shrieked, squirming, trying to catch Minkowski’s eye to beg for mercy, but she was just watching him with a knowing, affectionate grin. Because she knew, of course she did. He could only provoke her so many times before it became obvious, and that thought was enough to send him over the edge, flopping onto his side and smushing his face in Lovelace’s shirt to hide.

He heard them all chuckle at his reaction and buried his face further into her abdomen, giggling helplessly as they continued to poke and scratch at his ticklish spots.

Minkowski grinned. “I think you might be right, Hera.”

She snickered. “Well, I am very advanced.”

Lovelace hummed in amused agreement, continuing to scratch at Eiffel’s ribs and trying to ignore the fact that he had his face pressed against her stomach as he squirmed and laughed, because it felt weird. Her muscles jumped involuntarily, the urge to push him away was strong and… she couldn’t stop smiling.

Oh crap.

She wasn’t ticklish. She could have sworn that she wasn’t, but was there another word for that feeling? Like she had to get away, like she could burst into giggles at any moment? Probably not.

Her eyes darted between the other two, still holding Eiffel’s arm up but slowing her own attack. They couldn’t find out. She’d die from embarrassment if they noticed. She just had to hold out longer than Eiffel.

Easier said than done, of course. There was something so silly and flustering about the fact that she was losing her mind entirely by accident. Eiffel’s other arm was wrapped around her back, pulling him closer into her stomach as he giggled frantically. She felt like a shaken beer can, buzzing with laughter that was getting harder and harder to hold down with every second. She kicked her feet, if only to vent some of that giddy energy, glad that smiling wasn’t suspicious right now.

Lovelace’s heart jumped when Hera hummed with the most obviously fake concern she’d ever heard in her goddamn life. “Oh, Captain Lovelace, are you okay?”

Fuck. FUCK. Hera’s words had Minkowski looking up at her, quickly taking in her flushed cheeks, rigid posture, and uncontrollable smile. And then Minkowski smirked, evil and knowing and oh god, if that didn’t make her stomach flip.

She shook her head weakly, horrified to realise that it felt like begging, but not knowing what else to do. In place of a response, Minkowski narrowed her eyes mischievously and massaged her fingertips into Eiffel’s stomach, making him hiccup with further laughter and making her jump a mile, her free hand grabbing a handful of the standard issue quilt on the bed and her eyes squeezing shut. Don’t let Eiffel notice. She tried to command herself. He was the biggest troublemaker she’d ever met.

That thought lasted her an entire ten seconds. Right up until Minkowski squeezed at his kneecap and Eiffel screeched. And Lovelace squealed, letting go of his arm in her full-body flail.

They were all very still for a long moment. Lovelace’s giddy horror grew when Eiffel chuckled and Minkowski’s smirk impossibly grew wider. “Wait!” She yelped, trying to crawl away. “Not me! Not me!”

It was too late, of course. Eiffel was remarkably quick to recover and find his target, his free arm also wrapping around her and purposefully nuzzling his face into her stomach in as ticklish a manner he could manage, drawing out yet another squeal and making her jerk backwards. “Eiffel!”

“Hmm?” He hummed against her stomach. “Something wrong, cap?”

Lovelace clenched her jaw and shook her head frantically, grinning wildly. Her self-control was hanging by a thread, but she managed to keep the laughter in. Barely.

Hera giggled. “Aww, I think someone has a ticklish tummy.” She sang, immediately turning Lovelace’s thoughts into giddy static and drawing out a garbled shriek.

A shriek which quickly gave way to frantic giggles when Eiffel took a deep breath and blew a loud raspberry against her clothed stomach. “Shit!” She yelped, folding in half as best as she could, failing to deter him from doing it again and making her laugh still harder, her face flushing red. “Fuck!”

“Language!” Hera tutted amusedly.

Lovelace gasped for air. He wasn’t stopping! “Fuck yohou!”

“Rude.”

Her thoughts were turning to complete mush in the face of Eiffel’s playful assault. Her hands tangled into his hair, forcefully pushing him away, and… nothing. He didn’t move. Her arms felt all tingly and electric and she couldn’t even overpower Doug Eiffel right now.

Eiffel laughed, nosing around her belly button and delighting in her giggles. “I think you might be onto something, Hera.” He said, earning a weak shove and another curse.

Lovelace’s brain was quickly giving up on forming coherent thought. Her eyes turned to Minkowski, still smug, with a flicker of affection in her eye. “He-” She hiccupped. “Help!”

She raised her eyebrows in response, inching closer. “Well, if you insist.”

There was a moment, the barest moment of hope, before the crushing betrayal when Minkowski poked experimentally at the back of her ribs, earning a yelp or curse with every one. Minkowski chuckled, continuing her playful assault as Lovelace swore at her between laughter, trying to twist away or shove her. “What?” She said innocently. “You said help.”

She shouted something. It probably wasn’t coherent.

Eiffel laughed into her stomach. “I think you’re doing a wonderful job, Commander.” He said teasingly, continuing to nuzzle and blow raspberries. It was embarrassingly effective.

“Why thank you, Eiffel.”

Screw both of them! She kicked some more, trying to jostle Eiffel off to no avail. Squirming back to get away from him only brought her closer to Minkowski’s blunt nails, scratching maddeningly between her shoulder blades, and trying to get away from that only had her pressing her abdomen into Eiffel’s goddamn raspberries! She felt like her brain was melting out of her ears.

Eiffel took a moment to stop and lean back, taking in Lovelace’s flushed face and wide, silly smile. He grinned. “You are so cute!”

She whined in between breathless giggles and buried her face in her hands, her arms clamping down when Minkowski started plucking gently at her ribs.

He chuckled, “Ooh, I could just eat you up.” And, because he probably wouldn’t get the chance again, hugged tightly and pressed his face back into her abdomen, playfully growling and nipping and nomming at her stomach.

Lovelace jumped backwards with a snorty shriek, only to squirm forwards to escape Minkowski’s chuckle and fingers now tracing up her spine, trying to suck her stomach in to avoid Eiffel. “Dork!” She screeched. It tickled like hell, and the playfulness was even worse. She couldn’t think.

Eiffel laughed between growls. “Cutiepie!” He shot back, over-enunciating the word and earning a squeal and a trying to be firm shove.

Lovelace could feel herself getting dizzy from laughing so hard, even in her giddy, addled brain. “Okay!” She managed, “Guys! Guhuhuhys! Stop!”

They did, almost immediately, and she flopped backwards onto the bunk, breathing deeply and trying to get a lid on her residual giggles.

Minkowski looked down at her, trying not to seem too amused. “You okay?”

She couldn’t stop smiling, but flipped her off anyway, managing a small nod. Eiffel flopped down beside her, giving her an affectionate grin. She glared at him.

Eiffel chuckled. “After all that wasted time, we finally found Captain Lovelace’s weakness. Washboard abs.” He poked her gently in the stomach for emphasis and she burst into giggles, batting at him. The joke should make her groan, but everything felt silly and funny right now.

“Ohoho my god.” She breathed, forcing slow and steady breaths.

Minkowski chuckled. “You sure you’re okay?” She hoped they hadn’t gone too far. It was nice to see her laugh like that.

The giggles were starting to die down. “I’m fine.” She wrapped one arm protectively around her stomach, and snorted. “One hell of a core workout.” She narrowed her eyes. “But you three better watch your backs.”

Hera laughed. “Three? I think you might be forgetting something.”

Lovelace directed her glare at the nearest camera. “I think you’re forgetting how resourceful I can be.”

“I’d like to see you try.” Hera said daringly.

“Okay, okay.” Minkowski interrupted. “Enough of that, thanks.”

Lovelace turned her playful glare to their commander but was stopped from speaking by another chime. “That’s seven hours until start of shift.” Hera said pointedly.

Eiffel laughed and Minkowski gave him a dour look. “Not a bad result for industrial action.” Lovelace joked, still feeling very fuzzy in the head.

Minkowski groaned. “Ugh, don’t start.” She grabbed Eiffel’s arm and floated him off her bunk towards the door. “Bed, now.”

He snickered, not making any move to right his position. “Yessir.”

She raised an eyebrow at the dishevelled Lovelace, who chuckled. “Okay okay, I was just caught in the middle, you know.” She said, pushing herself up and trying not to think about how brain meltingly horrible being stuck between their tickle attacks was.

Or was it wonderful?

Agh, she was far too tired to think about that right now. “Night.” She said, propelling herself off the bunk and towards the door.

“Goodnight Commander!” Eiffel called just before she closed the door.

Lovelace gave the closed door an appraising look. Hmm. “Eiffel.” She said, thinking.

“Captain.”

She turned to him and grinned wolfishly. “Have you ever considered unionising?”

[hephaestuscrew]

I want to talk about the significance of which characters defeats the different antagonists in the Wolf 359 finale: Kepler kills Rachel (and vice versa), Jacobi kills Riemann, Minkowski kills Cutter with the help of Lovelace, and Hera and Eiffel wipe Pryce's memories. As I'll argue below, none of those combinations are incidental.

Jacobi and Kepler each get to dispatch an adversary, but, since they've only recently and - perhaps reluctantly - aligned with our protagonists in their aims, they each deal with more minor antagonists. Rachel and Riemann are ultimately following orders rather than giving them, so their defeat - while important - doesn't have the same emotional weight as that of Pryce or Cutter. This is also why the confrontations with Riemann and Rachel each conclude significantly before the confrontations with Pryce and Cutter. (Cont. below cut)

I'd argue that Riemann is the least developed character in the show (of those that are voiced and appear in more than one episode). He's nothing more than a Goddard henchman, and that's deliberate. Jacobi’s investment in this fight is practical, rather than emotional. There's no personal antagonism between the two of them. And this works for Jacobi as a character - his job has always been to “make very big things blow up” and he's only recently started properly putting his own independent thought into who he wants to be blowing up. So Jacobi and Riemann face off against each other in a locked room, with a fistfight and then an explosion.

In contrast, Kepler and Rachel do have personal antagonism between them. It's clear that they have a history of professional dislike. In Kepler's backstory episode, Rachel clearly takes a great deal of glee in mocking Kepler about “Operation Gigantic, Humiliating Screw Up”, and Kepler certainly doesn't seem pleased to see Rachel when the Sol arrives at the Hephaestus in Ep55. Although there are obviously other motivations involved, their petty interpersonal hatred gives an interesting extra significance to them killing each other.

Another way to frame it is that Kepler and Rachel are two people at a similar middle-of-the-hierarchy level who've both been faced with a degree of undeniable evil even beyond what they've previously encountered from (and enacted on behalf of) their employer, and had to decide what they are willing to go along with. Their mutual killing of each other is the result of a conflict between two contrasting potential decisions in that situation. 

It's also notable that while the minor antagonists are each defeated by a single character on their own, the major villains could not have been defeated in this way. The two most significant confrontations in the finale each involve a pair of characters who care deeply about each other standing together against someone who has personally hurt them. 

After killing Cutter, Minkowski acknowledges she “couldn't... have done it... without you, Captain”. Similarly, the way Eiffel and Hera defeat Pryce required both Eiffel's sacrifice (it is important that wiping the mindspace is his idea) and Hera's abilities (it takes a lot of mental and emotional strength for her to enact that plan). The ethos of the show all comes back to that quote from Eiffel in Ep25 that needing help from others “is called being a part of a crew. You ever meet anyone that could get things done all on their lonesome?”

It's important that Hera confronts Pryce - she gets the chance to stand in defiance against a person who has caused her so much pain. Hera gets to assert herself as her own person against the first person not to treat her as one. While I certainly don't think anyone should feel responsible for confronting those who have personally hurt them in real life, it would have been narratively unsatisfying for Pryce to have been defeated without Hera playing a central role. That confrontation is necessary for catharsis and resolution of Hera's character arc. But it's important that Hera doesn't have to do it alone. It's important that she does it with Eiffel, the person she is closest to, by her side. And what's more, in that mindspace, he's by her side in a more literal direct way than he has ever has been before.

Terrifying as Pryce is, it's Cutter who has been our 'big bad' throughout the whole series, the one that we've been aware of since we became aware of larger sinister forces at work in this narrative. And so it's apt that he's defeated by Minkowski, the Commander, with the help of Lovelace. Our two protagonists who have at points been defined by their leadership positions defeat the villain who has been defined by his leadership over them. Our two Commanders defeat the person above them in the chain of Command. 

If Minkowski has a personal nemesis, it's Cutter (as I argued in my Minkowski harpoon essay). Now that Hilbert's gone, the same could probably be said of Lovelace. He's the one who recruited them (and their respective crews, assuming that he was involved in the recruitment of the other members of Lovelace's crew as well) into the hellscape that is the Hephaestus. He's the one basically all of their pain and turmoil ultimately comes back to.

Minkowski & Lovelace's confrontation against Cutter, and Hera & Eiffel's confrontation against Pryce, are both about the harm that's been done to them as individuals. And about the harm done or threatened to their loved ones (including the friend they each stand beside in this particular confrontation). And about their principles and themes around control, autonomy, personal agency, and identity. And about the desire to protect people in general on a larger, global or even galactic, scale.

And all of those resonances work particularly well because of the specific choices made about which protagonists should face off against which antagonists, in order to provide the most effective culmination of the character arcs that have been built over 61 episodes.

[lottiesnotebook]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

Thank you for the tag @hyperions-light! Not sure who else has already been tagged, but I'll go for @miladydewintcr @teine-mallaichte @rookgallustroublesomehousehimbo @adainesjacket

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

29! Should probably be more, given the number of snippets I've posted on Tumblr that I think would make solid one shots, but I'm still trying to decide which ones are good enough to upload...

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

477,628 words which is... honestly way more than I expected, especially as it doesn't include all my Tumblr fic which is now at about 90,000 words...

3) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

life 2.0 (Wolf 359), what stays and what fades away (Grishaverse), something enchanting, something deadly (Wolf 359), something monstrous in your eyes (Penumbra Podcast), call it what you want (Wolf 359 AGAIN)

However many Dragon Age fics I have written lately, the stats still call me a Wolf 359 Girlie

4) What fandoms do you write for?

Currently Dragon Age, occasionally the Grishaverse/Shadow and Bone, historically Wolf 359 (my beloved). Occasionally I will get brainworms about a different fandom but it takes a lot of brainrot for me to actually get stuff written down.

5) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always! I treasure comments on my fic to the point where I refresh my email inbox after posting a new chapter in search of Comment! I also try to leave comments on all the fics I read, because I know how much it means when I get them. <3

6) What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Either waiting for the world to end or all the shattering stars, which isn't exactly surprising - they're both pretty much the same theme (Angsty Mind Control) focussed on two different pairs of characters.

7) What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

If we're not counting pure fluff, probably merry solstice (please don't call), which is at its heart, a holiday romance despite the angst. Pretty much everyone gets to live happily ever after (and they all kiss).

8) Do you get hate on fics?

It hasn't happened so far, and if it did, I would probably cry and then block someone. Fortunately up to now my ship and fandom preferences haven't lined up with anyone's poor little meow meows, but I'm a little nervous for when that day comes...

9) Do you write smut?

I have Attempted Smut, in the Solsticeverse codas a spy in the house of your love. I will probably try again eventually, but it's almost as hard to write as a good fight scene, lol.

10) Do you write crossovers?

Unless you include Daemon AUs, which I love, not really? I tend to like settings where the characters absolutely belong there, so it's hard to come up with crossovers that grip me enough to write them.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not yet, as far as I know.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but it would be an honour.

13) Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

All the time! It's how my beloved @adainesjacket and I got together. <3

14) What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Cannot believe you would limit me to one, but I will try and take my picks from fandoms I actually write for!

Dragon Age - Morrigan/F!Warden

Grishaverse - David Kostyk/Genya Safin

Wolf 359 - Renee Minkowski/Isabel Lovelace

15) What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Ugh this feels like a jinx but maybe the sequel to What Stays and What Fades Away... I'm working on it, I swear, but then Dragon Age happened...

16) What are your writing strengths?

Based on my fic history? Angst and hurt/comfort, probably, along with childhood friendships.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

FIGHT SCENES (also sex scenes). Anything involving choreography and sentences that can't run on for an hour.

18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I love it! I'm bad at it, but I love it.

19) First fandom you wrote for?

So this is way back in the annals of history and will not be uncovered, but my first ever fics were for a series called The Sisters Grimm, when I was about 12.

20) Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Cannot believe you're asking me to pick my favourite child, but probably something enchanting, something deadly, the first thing I wrote with my wife, and a huge part of how we fell in love. <3

If I can cheekily add solo fics, it's the kick inside, obviously.

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

New OCs!

as always my attempts to create a new oc have been thwarted by my brain not stopping and now we have too many... some of these are also for plot bunny asks so i will eventually go back and actually answer those too!

and as always, thank you @manyfandomocs @ginevrastilinski-ocs and @the-witching-ash for helping me out and letting me be annoyingly indecisive let's gooo

Gilmore Girls

Beatrice Dalton

Boarding school brat with very very neglectful parents (mom was young, old family friend of the Kims who was living with them in order to find a husband, ran off with an older rich British man). She exposed a secret society at her school for abusive hazing behaviour up to and including sexual assault, the students involved were punished but she was so heavily ostracized and bullied afterwards (both for ratting them out and for having been a victim of the hazing) that she could not stay at the school anymore. Her mom wants to send her away to heal from everything that happened and to get away from the bullying, her dad wants to send her away because writing about what happened to her was "bad for the family image", she's sent to live with their old friend Morey Dell and his wife – who did not know that she was being sent to them but did not turn her away.

Dates Jess in high school, endgame ship TBD

Heartstopper

Mei Xu

Tao's twin sister, golden retriever to his black cat. Loves to bake, take pictures, and write poetry. Possible Tara & Darcy, Imogen, or OC ship

Percy Jackson

Aderyn

daughter of Aeolus from the time of the odyssey – might have joined Odesseus’ crew after Aeolus gave him the bag of winds tbd – but Athena is mad at Aeolus for Odysseus’ voyage being sent way off course by the winds, can’t actually punish him so instead sends his daughter “off course” aka thousands of years into the future, she’s been living in her father’s palace because he wants to protect her but she ends up joining Jason’s quest in Lost Hero

Jason ship

Loralie Lovelace

Daughter of Aphrodite and a sorceress, Circe’s apprentice and a devoted follower of Hecate. Gets captured on the pirate ship along with Hylla and Reyna and is stuck on the ship for a few years before she can finally escape and, to her absolute shock, crosses paths with Percy Jackson once again

Percy ship, probably

Lucina

Daughter of Aeneas (maybe also a demigod, legacy of Aphrodite through her dad either way), considered the second hero of rome for her own quests back in ancient times, died idk how/why yet brought back by Gaia because she has a grudge against a lot of the gods for the destruction of Troy even though she was only a child when it happened, but then finds out that Gaia is also trying to kill Roman demigods and the legacy of ancient Rome and says absolutely the fuck not, turns on her to side with them instead

Percy & Jason ship but lowkey probably in love with Reyna too

Maliah

child of a sea deity – poseidon or someone else tbd – from the crew of the original argo. Pretended to be a man to join the crew, eventually her secret is revealed. It is eventually decided to let her stay but a few of the crew members are not okay with that and throw her overboard in the Sea of Monsters (drowned but didn’t really drown because of her parent), spat back out during Sea Of Monsters and meets Percy & Annabeth & Tyson, or possibly meets Clarisse instead

Romilly Chase

Annabeth’s twin sister, left behind when Annabeth ran away, eventually also ended up running away and after a while got found by Roman demigods and taken to camp Jupiter, never claimed because Athena knows that the Romans would despise her if they knew who she was (whether they knew that she was Greek or saw her as a child of Minerva)

Starts dating Jason and Reyna somewhere between Battle Of The Labyrinth and Last Olympian, doesn’t properly see Annabeth until Mark of Athena and it’s extremely messy

Might have her own Labyrinth quest at the same time as Annabeth’s but paths just don’t cross, tbd

Jason & Reyna ship

Hunger Games

Elysia Trinket

Effie’s younger sister, an escort by day (district 1 escort with Apollo, I think, or district 4) and a different type of escort by night. Started her career in the Capitol in entertainment (movies & porn) and as a sex-escort, which got her the connections to eventually become a hunger games-escort, continues her sex work because she enjoys it but along the way gets roped into the rebellion and her job gives her an easy way to collect and pass along information without raising suspicion

Ares Crane ship, her sex work is how she helps with his plans to overthrow Snow and is the liaison between him and the rebels (bc he’s not really part of 13’s rebellion just willing to work with them for a shared goal for now)

Regulus Cyrillus

Ares Crane's best friend since the academy, another one of the Capitol's rich and powerful, part of Ares' plan to overthrow Snow. Part of Snow's cabinet (alongside Ares, who heads the Department of the Treasury) as the head of communications). A master at chess and at hustling pool, both of which are reflected in his ability to manipulate people to get whatever he wants

Athena Crane ship

Ripley Brennan

District 4 Victor from the year after Finnick (his longtime best friend/first love, reaped because he attempted to refuse to become one of Snow's prostitutes). Having been victors four years in a row (and being young, attractive, very in demand victors who spent the most time in the capitol), the two of them + Cashmere + Gloss became very close and were beloved by the media as the Capitol's darlings, returns to the arena for the Quarter Quell

Finnick ship

Varian Aristides

Richest man in the Capitol, once fell in love with a tribute who died, now every year he is the biggest sponsor in the games (no sex, he introduces himself to each tribute for 5-10 minutes at the opening ceremonies and decides from that and their interviews, 74th games were the first time he sponsored two people and he chose Rue & Peeta). Had been an up and coming game maker until the tribute he’d fallen for died and he quit, tbd what his new job is but probably in politics somewhere. Secretly donates to the family of every dead tribute (not a huge amount but in the outer districts it still makes a huge difference), is very inspired when Katniss and Peeta donate their winnings to the other families. Long time friend of Tigris’, not hugely involved in the rebellion but smuggles some information to rebels and helps bankroll a lot of it.

Concordia Snow ship

[emp-t-man]

how do you feel about the minffel hugs?? They’re some of my favorite moments in the entire podcast. 1. When he comes back from the USS horrible unending nightmare and 2. When he gets back from his meeting with the Dear Listeners

OHHHH I THINK ABOUT THESE SO OFTEN

eiffel and minkowski’s hugs make up two thirds of every canon hug in the podcast. the only other time positive physical contact occurs is when lovelace hugs eiffel shortly after his breakthrough from the neuro inhibitor (unless you count fourier and lambert’s hug that took place in change of mind). both of these are so meaningful in their own way so i’m gonna talk about them separately because. my god. the parallels.

the first time eiffel and minkowski hugged. broke me. it was the first physical display of affection used in the entire show, and involving minkowski. renée is very clearly not an affectionate person, and it’s made obvious through the awkwardness involved after she lets go. that hug was one hundred percent a spur of the moment, impulsive, heart-driven decision. she thought he was dead, and she personally blamed herself for his death, and so when she finally sees him again without the intrusion of other eyes that expect her to be the strong, stoic commander that she often needed to be, she doesn’t know what else to do. she grabs him, pulls him in, and she cries. both minkowski and eiffel are notorious for failing to communicate their feelings verbally, and so this is her way of telling him i missed you. life without you here was awful for everyone and when i realized i may never see you again it broke me. it’s an extremely emotionally vulnerable moment for her, perhaps the most vulnerable she lets herself be for the rest of the podcast.

now the second one. the second one is so much worse. hugging is something that seems like something much more natural to eiffel. he’s never been shy about his opinions of people, positive or negative, and now that he knows minkowski considers them close enough to hug, hugging her is the first thing he does once he sees her again. he’s the one who initiates the hug, and he’s under the assumption that it’ll be a sweet, emotional reunion just like last time. she’s the first voice he hears, and the first face he sees once he gets back, and he’s completely put at ease. he feels safe with her. but this time, minkowski doesn’t hug back. not because she doesn’t want to, but because it isn’t her. eiffel is most likely too relieved just to be back to think too much of it, but it’s revealed by jacobi that the crew is at least semi conscious of their actions while being controlled by pryce, so even though minkowski would be happy he’s home, and would love nothing more than to hug him, in that moment she’s probably screaming for him to get out, to do anything else. the last embrace they share, the last real moment of intimacy between the two, is soiled, and minkowski will never be able to make it up to him because eiffel isn’t eiffel after the finale anymore, either.

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Sexiest Podcast Character — Scripted Bracket — Finals

Propaganda

Captain Isabel Lovelace (Wolf 359):

Her everything <3 But in all seriousness WHAT is more sexy than a haunted, competent, funny, cursed, vengeful, mourning, badass, doomed woman?

listen to the run and hide speech and tell me that isn't the sexiest thing you've ever heard

Hot space lady who could kill me mmm yes please!

(sort of) twice-undead space captain who wired a bomb to her heart to make sure the crew of her ship didn't kill her before her escape shuttle got working. she's funny she's a genius she knows how to use a gun and she cares very much about her crew (despite the whole bomb thing).

#LOVELACE #idk who she’s up agaunst really tbf #but she cares so SO much #she gets boiled down to ’tough scary lady hot’ a lot (which 100% agree) but #she is heartbroken about her failure to keep her crew safe #and stubbornly wants to make sure none of it is in vain #even if it kills her #HOT. ​even apart from how hot her monologues and threats to hilbert are #also her and eifel laughing and getting along when they first meet her 😭 yall #anyway. lovelace 1000%. the defense rests

Vote Lovelace cuz of the way she says "Hi honey, I'm home" to the bastard who shot her in the head, and then how she proceeds to beat him up <3 Oh. And how she twists his arm and says "good boy". Yeah.

LOVELACE SWEEP LOVELACE SWEEP GO LISTEN TO HER RUN AND HIDE SPEECH AND WEEP THAT GODDARD AERONATICS EVER KILLED HER ENTIRE CREW AND ALSO HER (she recovered) AND MADE HER THEIR ENEMY

#LOVELACE SWEEP. DO NOT FUCKING LET ME DOWN #Lovelace is so much to me #Seen some people in the notes citing the run and hide speech#Which is very good #but my personal favorite Lovelace thing is variations on a theme #The cyclical nature of trauma #The lack of trust #The fear #the sadness #‘You can never go home. You were home. And now you’re back— and you can never go back.’ #Lovelace hearing Hera say something to her and #Thinking ‘what she’s actually saying is that I’m a demon and she would be glad to kill me in a slow and horrifying manner’ #Is so #I don’t agree that Lovelace is doomed either #Like #lovelace did die. But #She got out of that pain and trauma #How do you listen to her say that she is Isabel Lovelace #That she rejects the person that pain made her to be #And say she’s doomed

captain lovelace helped 12yo me realise I like women. She’s so hot. her threatening Hilbert is the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard. isabel lovelace SWEEP

If you don't vote for lovelace you're all lying about supporting womens' wrongs.

Not to be dramatic or anything, but I will never forgive any of you if you let Lovelace lose. She's tragic, she's haunted, she's an alien clone, she's vengeful but trying to be a better person. SHE DIDNT DIE TWICE FOR Y'ALL TO LET HER LOSE THE SEXIEST PODCAST CHARACTER TOURNAMENT. And I'm sorry. The part when (see propaganda above) she is intentionally pissing off Kepler so in the event he kills one of the hostages it's her instead of Eiffel??? Shit talking Kepler AND trying to save Eiffel's life? Serving absolute cunt. Sexiest moment of all time, actually.

Are we all forgetting that her introduction involved keeping a dead man switch for her spaceship (converted into a bomb) wired into her goddamn HEART??? Vote Lovelace or else

VOTE FOR ISABEL LOVELACE, HOTTEST WOMAN ON THIS PLANET (AND OUT OF THIS WORLD 🤘). she is everything to me , always . im head over heels

Hera (Wolf 359):

I don't care if she's an AI with no physical form, she is HOT

my digital wife <3

oh it's always "i want a hot computergirl with poor cable management to glitch on my shit" and "i want to fuck her until she bluescreens" on this website until it's time to put your money where your mouth is. i have a post about usb penetration with tens of thousands of notes. i see the things you all say. you have a hot computergirl in front of you and this is how you all repay her? you would abandon her? prove yourselves as the computer sex website; vote for hera NOW!!!

"everyone voting Hera in this round is doing it strictly because she is an AI" WRONG. INCORRECT. everyone voting for hera is doing it because she's funny and thoughtful and passionate and wears her heart on her sleeve despite all of the times people have let her down. because she's anti-authority, and that's sexy. it's sexy that she's an AI because the way she navigates being a woman in that context is inherently transgender, and THAT'S sexy, but on its own? not even like, top five most relevant things about her. self-determination? that's sexy.

VOTE FOR HERA. i'm not done. i've made the case that she would want this more, and that's true, but you should also want her. the propaganda says she doesn't have a physical form - in one sense, that's true, but she DOES have an internal self-image and the desire for physicality. most of the physical sensations she's experienced so far have been painful - think of what you could do for her. she has human desire without the means to act on it. she's the most touch starved anyone has ever been. making love to someone who can't be touched by conventional means IS inherently sexy and it IS a win for disabled trans women everywhere.

she's passionate and kind of emotionally unstable and fiercely loyal - "officer eiffel? he's your deadman's switch. if you let him die, or if you do anything that doesn't fall under the category of do no harm, i will go off. i will rain acid on your ass. i will crank the temperature in the room so high that your skin will crack, and bubble, and burn. i will vent you into space through a hole the size of a quarter. and if i am feeling very, very generous, i won't do all those things slowly." like come on!! what more do you want!!

VOTE FOR HERA. my final, last-minute appeal: her character arc is fundamentally about identity, autonomy, and being seen the way she wants to be seen. the way she navigates her identity as a woman in this context is inherently transgender, and that IS sexy. she's funny, she's passionate, she's sweet, she's been let down repeatedly by almost everyone she's ever met and she still opens her heart to people because she so badly craves connection. she's frustrated, touch starved, and pent up, and was initially rejected from service because of her impulsive, emotional, unorthodox way of thinking. i have so much more i could say on her behalf, but this IS a contest of sex appeal. thinking outside the box, breaking rules, and reaching beyond the limitations of her own form is so central to who she is. hera could come up with freak shit beyond the comprehension of the average person, and she IS enthusiastic enough to make it work.

[bracketsoffear]

Dr. Alexander Hilbert (Wolf 359) "Dr. Hilbert is the ship's doctor tasked with keeping the Hephaestus Crew healthy for the during of their deep space mission. However, he is your classic "Russian scientist performing unethical experiments" on the crew instead. His own secret mission was Project Decima – creating a retrovirus with the intent to make people healthier by reversing cellular degradation. Goddard Futuristics supplied him with the resources and test subjects necessary to start his human trials.

Hilbert has performed these trials on 2 separate missions, though on the first mission he was known as Dr. Selberg. On that mission, he was responsible for the deaths of the majority of the crew, after their bodies' immune system decayed too much to keep them alive. Lovelace recounts having to watch her crew-members getting sicker and sicker while she is unable to do anything to help them. She calls him "the finest medical sadist Goddard has ever produced."

The first time Officer Eiffel feels the effects of Decima in his system, he develops a headache, fever, rash, and terrible cough. Due to Hilbert's attempted mutiny and imprisonment, Eiffel has not been receiving regular checkups for his Decima infection and develops a small cough that escalates into him coughing up blood and lung tissue. Eiffel goes into shock and continues to deteriorate rapidly."

Clara/The Changeling (Pathologic) "Clara does not exist until the game begins. She takes on the role of a healer in this town with an emerging plague, but the first person she attempts to heal dies. She is told that someone who looks exactly like her is committing crimes in the town, so she has to actively work to maintain her reputation throughout the game, or else citizens will start to attack her in the street.

Though she does have healing abilities, the game purposefully misleads you on how they are used. She doesn't understand it any more than you do. She is also aware that she is a character in a video game, and knows that she cannot exist outside the framework of the game. Because Pathologic is about a town dying to the plague that you are trying your hardest to prevent, and then mitigate, and then destroy at any cost, Clara comes to believe that she is the cause of the plague. After all, she cannot exist in a world without one. She comes into being as the game begins, and will likely stop existing after it is over, as what more is there for her to do? Kill an already dead town? Save an already healed town?

Each character you can play as can choose their own ending, and hers involves asking people to sacrifice themselves to her routinely to keep the town alive. Even when you make the correct choices and try to heal the town, the plague is still a constant threat and will never truly go away, and Clara is indeed responsible for this looming threat, as her healing hands are the ones people are blindly following into a routine of self-sacrifice and reminder of the plague that almost destroyed their town. In a way, it is fully possible to interpret her character as the true source of the plague, and the game allows you to believe this. There isn't really anything to contradict it, after all."

[paranormals-of-ilvermorny]

For all of you who only ever wanted a place to fit in and be accepted as yourself.

You are safe here.

Chapter One

Lorelei Raywood, of 211 Lovelace Ave, was proud to say that she was utterly paranormal, thank you very much. She was one of the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, but she frequented what most would call ‘nonsense’ daily.

Lorelei was a witch, a title she carries with pride, and attends Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A bright girl for her age, she had wild curly hair that she felt did not match her personality one bit, and rich brown eyes that complimented her skin tone that was darker than her mother’s, yet lighter than her father’s. She also inherited her father’s slightly bulbous nose and mother’s thinner lips, along with her oval face and slender build. Sitting at her favorite seat, by her bedroom window, Lorelei looks up from reading to notice that some of the leaves were starting to decay which meant the coming of fall and another year of learning. This time of year always reminded her of her first year at school, and with it how her life changed for the better.

The air was warm and the sky was clear, a shade of blue Lorelei could still recall. Her family had insisted upon taking a well deserved summer vacation on the cape after her mother got a promotion. She had just turned eleven the September before, feeling a new wave of responsibilities she wanted to prove herself of that came with the new number. Amber Raywood had just gotten her daughter and herself hotdogs and large fries to share while her husband was on the hunt for some pizza. Busy dipping some fries in ketchup, Amber failed to notice her only child getting up and walking towards the low tide. It wasn’t until the screaming of a group of older women caught her attention did she look up.

What she saw was her daughter surrounded by parted waves, and seagulls flying around her in a tornado like movement. Fueled with the adrenaline only a mother could possess, Amber took action running towards Lorelei and scooping her up and away from the food crazy birds. As soon as she stirred her daughter from whatever fog came over her, the gulls flew away and the water came splashing down on them, luckily only reaching Lorelei’s waist.

When her husband came back, pizza slice in hand, Amber recounted the odd anomaly that almost cost them their child’s life. Anyone told this would have believed them, especially with the hysteric look in their partner’s eyes. But those wouldn’t be the parents of Lorelei Raywood.

She remembers it very differently. After settling down with her hotdog and questioning if the substance put into it could be called ‘meat’, the sound of a gull’s cry made her look up. Her eyes met that of a pristine white seagull, with impossibly smooth feathers and not a single speck of dirt or debris on it. What made her quietly gasp however was what the seabird was holding; an envelope as white as its plumage she would have missed it, if not for the ruby red stamp.

Getting up slowly, so as not to disturb the creature, Lorelei made her way out into the water where it stood. Step by step she made her way to the bird, never once realizing her foot never made contact with the cool water she clearly recalls splashing around in not an hour before. Soon enough she reached the gull and ever so slowly bent down to pull the letter from his beak, but didn’t have to tug at all, simply receiving the milky envelope like it was meant for her and her alone. Looking the bird in the eye she tried to ask it questions through thought. Is this for me? Am I dreaming? Can you talk? All too soon however the enchanting moment was ripped from her, and so was she, as her mother scooped up her lithe body. Suddenly all of the water that was missing before came crashing back onto them and her mother trudged the two of them through the chilly sea back to the safety of land.

Later, Lorelei could vaguely hear her mother frantically tell her father what he missed and the danger she was in, but her attention was stuck on the soggy envelope in her hands. Wrapped in a big beach towel to dry off and sitting in her mom’s lounge chair all she could think about was what the contents of the letter held. The sound of her father’s deep voice trying to calm her mother down stirred her slightly of her reverie, not much, but enough to think about the incident and what she overheard her mother say.

It wasn’t dangerous.

It was magical.

On the car ride home Lorelei waited anxiously for the letter to dry so she could open it, biding her time by running over the red wax seal with an intricate design that resembled a four leaf clover in the center of a blooming rose. She was so mesmerized trying to visualize the little creatures adorning the four leaves that the silence caused by her parents’ unease didn’t bother her. When they finally got home she ran up to her room, her mom calling after her that she is in need of a shower to rinse the sand off, and plopped down on the very same window seat she currently sits in reminiscing. Taking her time so as not to rip open the envelope, Lorelei carefully slid her thumbnail under the seal, only to be startled when a mass of fuzzy gray fur decided to join her. Laughing at how scared he made her, Lorelei pet sweet Poe’s head giving him a good scratch behind his left ear, just how the cat likes it. With the adorable interruption curling up for a nap in her crossed legs, she again began to lift the wax seal to open the desperately awaiting message inside. With the seal peeled off and the envelope opened her thoughts and imagination were racing.

Could it be a sailor writing to his lost love from years ago?

Maybe there’s a shipwreck and the captain had to bride the seagull with his last bit of food to deliver the S.O.S.?

What if it’s from halfway around the world and she wouldn’t be able to read a speck of it?

There was only one way to find out. Finally, taking the folded up piece of paper out and leaving the envelope forgotten on the floor, Lorelei carefully unfolded it from its watered wrinkles. It wasn’t at all what she was expecting. She read, then reread, then read the letter for a third time trying to make sense of the words her eyes were seeing. Witchcraft? Me? A school? Huh?

After taking a moment to let what she read sink into her mind, the gears started turning. And they didn’t stop. So excited was Lorelei that she jumped up, knocking sweet Poe Bear onto the floor, and ran downstairs to the kitchen where her parents were quietly talking, letter in hand and yelling about how she’s a witch and can attend a special school where she can practice and perfect her craft. Although through the excitement it took a while for her parents to calm her down enough to understand what she was saying. And after they dismissed it not believing her, she gave them the letter, with her full name and address down to the, “second bedroom on the left” did they start to question. With plain joy written across her face, Lorelei looked to her parents for approval to attend the school come this fall. Her father, Ford Raywood, had a look of pure confusion and shock with a sprinkling of fear, mind racing that maybe a day in the sun took too much out of the three of them. Lorelei was surprised, however, to see an embarrassed, almost pitying look on her mothers face, the picture perfect example of someone caught taking a few extra cookies. When the silence became too overwhelming the couple looked to one another for an anchor, something to tell them that this was not happening. Was it? Amber Raywood was the first to speak in what felt like hours.

“Lovey, I think it's time I tell you something”.

The rest of that afternoon was spent with Lorelei and her father sitting on the couch in the den watching and listening to her mother pace back and forth trying to explain herself. It turns out, Lorelei is not the first witch in her family. Her mother, and her father before her, have gone to Ilvermorny to study the use and practice of magic. When asked about her realtor job she claims she was being honest, she just didn’t mention that her employer, Beaver & Clampitt, specialized in searching for homes for witches and wizards of Massachusetts. As Lorelei absorbed every detail from her frantic mother, her excitement grew with every new and thrilling thought to enter her head, she was practically bouncing with energy. Or maybe that was the magic in her veins? As for her father, well, he didn’t take the news too well. He felt betrayed by his spouse and her dishonesty, choosing for the first time ever to sleep on the couch instead of their shared bed; thinking back, Lorelei believes being called a ‘Muggle’ was the last straw. By the time her story was nearing its end, Amber confessed that she thought Lorelei would be a normal child, having already turned eleven that January with no sign of a letter. It struck her as odd that her mother would wish she was ‘normal’ and not wish her to live an absolutely enchanting life filled with literal magic. The thought was fleeting, especially since she was overjoyed to feel like this was the solution to her adolescent problems.

Having never fit in at school or with other kids her age, Lorelei spent many nights wishing for a place she could find and befriend people who were like her. Even though she didn’t know she was a witch, she always felt different. There were times she couldn’t make friends and had to spend lunch with various teachers, discussing topics her peers never seemed bothered with. Although the love life of Mrs. Fitherbee and her gardener were entertaining, Lorelei longed for friends she could talk about hair and boys with. Then there were the times she would start to achieve this depressing goal only to ruin it somehow. For example, in the second grade when Holly Caddel was nice enough to ask the girl sitting by herself at recess if she wanted to join her and her friends to play with the latest toy, Pupcakes, which Lorelei eagerly said yes to. Holly introduced her to her group of friends, before they all took a seat in the grass and one by one began to take out brightly colored dogs resembling cupcakes. One of the girls seated to Lorelei’s right, Olivia, was nice enough to even let her use an extra dog she had named Sprinklez. As the girl’s seemed to continue where they left off from the day before, the anxiety and nervousness to not seem like a freakazoid overwhelmed her thoughts so much that poor Sprinlez seemed to contain more stiffness than the plastic already had. Lorelei was nervous about how she would engage with the girls, but sweet sweet Holly took her dog, Toffee, saying she had found a new dog to join their pack. That was one of the best recess memories Lorelei has, playing with the other girls and laughing at the silly voices they gave their dogs. She felt calm getting lost in the story of how they need to befriend the Fudgeponies to stop Cookiecat from taking over the island of Cakeberry.

All too soon however, Lorelei’s nerves got the best of her. Having told Holly that the pack should meet the ponies for breakfast waffles to persuade them to join the Pupcakes’ cause, she looked to Holly and met her eyes, sharing her smile, and felt the warmth finally belonging in the world. The sound of the other girl’s screaming brought Lorelei crashing back to earth. She watched as Holly’s eyes looked down to her hand, and she too screamed with a look of terror in her hazel eyes.

Lorelei slowly looked down to her own hand, only to find that poor Sprinklez was no more. Instead a squirming rat, with the same markings as the dog had, was held in her hand begging to be released from her hold. Scared and unsure what to do, Lorelei dropped the rodent and watched as all the girls jumped up screaming as the poor creature ran away. In that moment she wished she could turn herself into a rat and follow her brethren though the fence and into the woods, never to be seen or embarrassed again.

No child was brave enough to sit next to the ‘rat girl’ for the rest of second grade, fearful they too might end up with the same fate as Sprinklez. Sometimes late at night, when her mind has more energy than her body, Lorlei remembers how lonely and outcast she felt having no one to practice fractions with. So the joy she felt for having an answer as to why weird things happened to her catapulted her mood into the stratosphere. Learning that there was an entire school filled with other kids like her was the cherry on top. For the first time in a long while, she was excited for the first day of school.

Interrupted once again by Poe, Lorelei returned to the present moment and scratched his ear, noticing with sadness how his fur has more white to it than it did those years ago. Ever since that beach day,

A robin that frequents her mother’s bird feeder stops by for a late lunch. The sweet-tuned bird reminds her of her best friend at school who shares the same name, recalling the day they became friends and how attached at the hip they’ve been ever since. If there was one thing to be true, the thought of Robin Copper always brings a smile to Lorelei’s face.

The girls frequently chat at school, despite being in different houses, and have maintained their relationship by writing letters back and forth through Hawksley & Scarrow: birds for your words, a carrier service for witches and wizards to rent a local species of bird so as not to draw the attention of Muggles. All summer for the past three years they’ve been writing back and forth detailing all of their thoughts, feelings, and vacation stories, despite living only a few hours away.

Looking at her calendar pinned to her cork board, bailey winged butterflies danced in Lorelei’s stomach looking at the large, red circle around August 31st. The red marking signified the day her father would drop her off at Ichabod Lane where she would meet Robin and go school supply shopping for the new year.

“Just one more day to go”, she said to herself quietly, desperately waiting for this lonely summer to be over and to reunite with her best friend. Looking down in her lap at the gray and white Poe, Lorelei also sent a quiet prayer to whoever would listen.

Here’s hoping for easy sailing at Ilvermorny, 1997.

[clonerightsagenda]

It is Wolf 359 day (also known as Christmas for some) and since I saw a stoat photoset on my dash I feel compelled to post about daemon hcs.

Eiffel - Word of God is raccoon, and it fits. The poor thing probably looks like she has mange during the season 2/3 timeskip, since there's no way astronauts are stuffing their daemons in spacesuits - they must have to go through some kind of pre-mission training to lengthen their range. They are not trained to get blasted lightyears apart though, rip. That's gotta hurt. Once he's recovered from his ordeal though I'm sure he takes advantage of their massively extended range to cause problems. There's no way I stole those donuts from the Urania's stores, commander! I was here in the comms room the whole time.

Minkowski - white-tailed eagle. This bird is found in Poland, and some versions of the Polish flag have a white eagle. It's also similar to but not exactly like a bald eagle - showing how Minkowski aspires to assimilate into Americanness but can't completely abandon her Polish heritage. Plus pilot = bird, it tracks.

Hilbert - rosencrantz-draws-things did a series of daemon paintings for the characters and while I don't agree with all their choices, I did like chameleon for him. He changes roles and faces when he needs to, whatever helps him survive.

Lovelace - The painting series I referenced gives her lioness, which I don't hate, although the logistics are a bit messy for a space station environment. Given the backstory I've envisioned for her I kind of want to spend more time reading about Puerto Rican fauna and get back to you on this one. How does the daemon situation work with her being a surrogate? Unclear but it sure keeps her up at night!

Maxwell - Ferret! The wonder twins have mustelid vibes to me, and I am always charmed by the story of the ferret who cleaned out the tubing of a particle accelerator.

Jacobi - Stoat to match Maxwell. They are the mustelid twins now. It just feels right.

Kepler - idk I don't care about him.

Pryce - Coconut octopus. Something a little bit unusual and unexpected, requires specialized care and upkeep, and octopi are extremely intelligent, with this species actively modifying its situation via tool use. She can carry him around in his own special tank.

Cutter - I never settled (lol) on anything for him, but given I like the idea of him bodyhopping (this has been thoroughly debunked by Word of God but oh well) I imagine that he keeps around the old body's severed daemon as a smokescreen. This leads to a very animated, lively guy with a strangely inert, unfocused daemon which makes him even more unsettling to everyone. He's impossible to read.

Hera - I saved her for last because she's a special case. When AI reach sentience a block of code just pops up in their programming, and that's their daemon. They're not physical in the same way humans are - why would their soul be? However, product testing indicated humans preferred to see something daemonlike, so customer-facing AIs get holographic projections of cute, non-threatening animals like puppies or songbirds. Hera has a bird until Hilbert takes her offline. When she comes back, she has control over the projection and can make it look however she wants. It's not actually her daemon but she can use it to express herself in a similar way, including projecting her humansona, which scares the crap out of people the first few times they see a random stranger on board.

Daemons in microgravity would be their own headache. I imagine crewmembers get velcro pouches on their uniforms or toolbelts sized for their daemons to keep them from floating away. Smaller daemons are preferable in the same way that there's a height range for astronauts - this is why I'm conflicted about Lovelace. Also, you know I am a #hater of 'daemon touching = sex' in AU settings and believe there are multiple kinds of intimacy, and spaceflight involves everyone getting real cool about a lot of stuff real quickly, so I think by season 3 Minkowski and Eiffel at least are hanging on to each other's daemons when they're out on spacewalks both for convenience and emotional support. (Eiffel is still stressed out about it but more because he is really bad at holding a raptor and scared of getting slashed by talons.) Hera occasionally perches her projection on their shoulders which again doesn't mean the same thing to her but gets the message across. If Jacobi is working on something fiddly Maxwell will be wearing both their daemons around her neck, and vice versa.

Bob does not appear with a daemon while wearing his Eiffel suit. The alternative would probably be more upsetting.

[brightbeautifulthings]

All the Dead Lie Down by Kyrie McCauley

"'Everything stays at Lovelace, Mother says, down to the bone.'"

Year Read: 2023

Rating: 4/5

About: After the death of her mother in a horrific train wreck, Marin receives an employment opportunity at Lovelace House to nanny two girls. Alice Lovelace is a renowned horror writer and her mother's childhood best friend, and Marin is eager to learn more about her past. However, it's immediately clear that her two charges, Wren and Thea, don't want her there and are willing to resort to dangerous pranks to get her to leave. When their oldest sister, Evie, returns early from school, Marin finds herself attracted in spite of all of Evie's secrets. But the longer she stays at Lovelace, the more secrets she uncovers and the clearer it becomes that something sinister is happening. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books. Trigger warnings: parent death, animal death (a lot of minor animal deaths on-page, particularly birds, and a subplot involving an already-dead dog), emotional abuse, poison, body horror, severe injury, blood/gore, mental illness, grief, guilt.

Thoughts: All the Dead Lie Down is a haunting, atmospheric treat with a central wlw romance. I'm not the biggest fan of The Turn of the Screw, but there are definite Bly Manor vibes in Lovelace and its two slightly sinister children. It also reminded me a lot of The Bone Houses in its waking dead and quiet sense of horror paired with moments of contrasting loveliness. You wouldn't think books about dead things could be lovely, but here we are. There's more character and atmosphere than plot, which is rather slow-moving, but it all comes together well for a quiet, spooky little novel that's as much about grief as it is about dead things, although there's plenty of both.

Marin is a strong main character, and as an anxious, careful person myself, I found it easy to relate to her. She's not a risk-taker, but she's got a loyal, motherly protective streak for Wren and Thea (despite their tricks) that I really enjoyed. The relationships between all four of the girls are given plenty of attention, and I like the dynamics among all of them and the way they develop. There's a bit of a found family element in it as well, as Marin comes to find her place at Lovelace despite its horrors. I always love a wlw relationship, and Marin and Evie are a fun complement. (The kissing is a bit much at times, but I tend to let queer romances have that one. We deserve the happy rep.) I loved the central plot twists and the secrets once they started coming out, and there are plenty of creeps especially in the second half. I'll be looking for a copy for my shelf when it comes out.

[nobodysdaydreams]

Doug and Hera need to have their own spin-off comedy space podcast/sudden therapy be a regular thing, because there's no other duo I'd rather see confront Cutter outside of his office documentary style with cameras and mics demanding an explanation for his many crimes🎙️

(Or my reaction to episodes 50-52 of Wolf359)

Welcome back dear readers! It's been a long day, and I know it's been a long time since I've reacted so I thought I'd sit down for a little Wolf359 this evening. Please enjoy!

Tagging the mutuals who got me invested in this, and if you want to be tagged or untagged from these posts, lmk, or you can follow my blog or simply follow the tag "#bods wolf359 reactions". Anyone who has followed me for a while knows my updates are inconsistent, so I apologize in advance for that and for any spelling/grammar mistakes in my posts.

@sophieswundergarten @oflightningandstars @acollectionofcuriousreblogs @herawell @commsroom

Episode 50: The Hiccups Method

I agree Minkowski. When will Kepler get it through his head?

👏 No. 👏 One. 👏 Cares. 👏 What. 👏 He. 👏 Thinks. 👏

With all of Jacobi's sarcasm, I think he and Doug would have been drinking buddies in another life where things were different.

Poor Lovelace. I can see why she doesn't want to take the risk. These aliens are interesting. They called out Kepler for his violence, but they themselves have been extremely violent and hostile. Do they genuinely not realize how fragile humans are? Do they think humans can regenerate like they can so they don't bother being careful? Are they just not used to being careful?

Oh right. Because Hera has been taken over before too. She knows what it's like.

Hera deserves her moment. I hope she gets it, whatever it looks like.

Maybe they could listen to the music. Maybe that will draw the aliens out. They did seem to enjoy the tunes. 🎶📻👽

I mean...the brain IS like a computer...but it's not exact. It's way more complicated. And a "part alien" brain? Let's see how this goes...

Ah the creepy background music. 🎶 That must mean it's working.

Eiffel! Oh dear. I guess Lovelace doesn't do well with creepy silence and breathing.

I know that sound. A treadmill. My old enemy. /j /treadmills are actually fine, it's the pacer that gets me.

Oh no this sounds terrible. I'd be out. Bods would not be a pretty sight. I'll spare you all the details.

Keep trying Eiffel, I believe in you!

And it's not your fault Lovelace. It's none of your faults.

Well except Kepler it is his fault for sure. And Jacobi.

Kepler's idea would probably involve chugging some whiskey.

Oh this is bad too. I should have figured. Kepler would have probably hoarded the whiskey for himself anyway. Not to drink, but just to enjoy the feel in his...well feet now I guess since he um...could use a hand right now.

The aliens did make Lovelace pretty indestructible... except for the one that killed itself that they heard about...oh maybe they can self-destruct.

As horrible as they were, it would be way more useful to have Maxwell or Hilbert around. I get why they had to die. If you have characters who can explain things, you lose the plot. But it would be strategic to trade Jacobi and Kepler for them.

Oh they don't sleep much? Interesting. What happens when she sleeps? Do they take the data from her brain?

Alien duplicates have a more complex brain stem? Interesting. A more complex life support and control system.

Norepinephrine. I struggled to pronounce it to Doug.

So that would mean she needs the opposite of alcohol.

DOUG WHAT IS THIS PLAN?

HERA CAN IMITATE THEIR VOICES? That's kind of cool. I hope she uses that later to trick Cutter and Pryce.

"Complete the process?"

Cliff notes? Key inside is outside? Enter in order to leave? Douglas must what?

Do they want them to fly into the star? Is that why they tried to drag them in before? Is that what the aliens mean by "Kalabunga"?

They know that doesn't work with humans right? They've seen human bodies, they know that can't work right? Are they trying to make more human clones? Why?

Good work, Doug. At least they know what the aliens want now. Sort of.

Episode 51: Shut Up and Listen

Sophie has really been hyping up this episode, so I'm excited to listen.

I love these intros. ✨Hera✨, Captain Isabelle Lovelace the Second, all the aliases for Hilbert 😂 "Boom-boom wow Jacobi" oh my gosh the Kepler one 😂

Professor D.F. Eiffel. What is his middle name? What is he a professor of?

The Hephaestus files! I love the intro theme. It's very drama. UF Overview is good too.

Again with the dramatic music. This is perfect. I love Doug and Hera together they're fantastic!

Please Minkowski being the mom. "You're not poisoning anyone on your radio show are you?"

Man, Doug is never living down this "you poisoned yourself" thing.

Oh right the radio signals. The ones that couldn't possibly from 8 years ago, because no radio station has ever played old music before. It’s not like we have whole stations dedicated to music from the 70’s and 80’s.

Why are we listening to Kepler's opinions on the aliens? They already made it clear they don't like violence. Kepler tried to get violent and they chopped his hands off and talked down to him. These aliens don't really even seem to talk normally. Do they even normally communicate with sound?

The lion speech actually makes sense. You don't know what "that's a nice scent there" means.

But Kepler. You are ASSUMING that you can't get where the dear listeners are technology wise without doing horrible things. And even if that is true, you are also assuming that's where you want to be. Why are these aliens taking such an interest in you? Maybe they're desperate. You literally just said you don’t know anything about how they work, and now you’re claiming to know everything. Whatever fits your worldview I guess.

"Finish the process quickly" sure sounds urgent to me.

As for Maxwell's language logs, maybe Hera can take a look.

I knew it! Hera can understand it.

Math is math. There we go! And binary gives you yes and no. Simple, but effective for answering questions.

I'm sorry Hera. I know Maxwell wasn't here for you, but she was there for a while. I'm sorry she didn't make a better choice. It’s sad to think that if they made better choices in another life, Maxwell and Jacobi might have actually been friends with these guys.

"How to listen. How much have we missed already?" That's a good metaphor for life too.

Not the Goddard Futuristics sponsorship 😂😂😂

"Do you want to do horrible things? Do you wish more of your time was taken up by conspiracy theories? Are you tired of just being evil on earth and want to be evil 🚀in space🛰️?" 😂😂😂

"Experiences no other human has ever gone through" right, but Lovelace is technically not totally human. (no offense. Biologically I mean).

"The Doug Eiffel charm" oh goodness

"What could possibly go wrong" DO NOT ASK THAT QUESTION DOUGLAS.

The wonderful record scratch and future Hera. 😂

"Fancy meeting you here...in the bridge...of a space station...the USS Hephaestus" I can just tell Doug ran a comb through his hair and threw on his best shirt for this. And that’s all you need. Max effort. Charm to 100% 😂

✨my casual stance😎✨

smooth Doug, very smooth

"I won't record you without your permission" 😂

I would not be surprised at all if Cutter and Pryce have listened to 100% of their journey. Microphones hidden everywhere.

"Don't pull others into your sinking boat" you're all in the same boat.

Wow. Lovelace is getting real here. "What would Isabelle Lovelace do?"

Lovelace you are YOU. ...Aw, she wants to feel like herself again. You can still be you Lovelace.

"That doesn't work. You know why?" oh because she's not her? Eiffel? Oh no.

Oh Hera. He was afraid of Hera? Windup girl? Hal9000 impressions? Doug, they weren't just jokes, and you know it. That's why you stopped.

"People are always going to be afraid of me, aren't they?"

Ouch.

And Doug did deserve that slap. It know jokes are how he copes, but poor Hera and Lovelace.

...yeah that DID happen. And I'd imagine Doug has been MIA. He's probably ashamed.

Doug, they know you're not a bad guy. We all make mistakes, but you need to apologize.

Doug is not the best listener or good at remembering or reading subtext. Me too buddy. It's okay. Dang they really called me out with this character and I don’t like this part. Can we go back to him being funny and a good friend and the only person brave enough to point out the obvious “killing people is wrong”?

Minkowski's speech about how hard it was to change her language and accent was a lot. I wonder what she thought about all those times Doug mocked Hilbert’s accent and Nationality? It also makes me wonder whether the aliens are doing the same with them. Not the mocking, but changing their speech. Are they just trying to communicate or do they want to create a certain impression?

But this is getting sad. Why does this feel like a forever goodbye? I don't like that. I don't like that at all.

"That's the thing about you Eiffel. You try. You really really try. And then you stop trying. Don't stop."

Let's see if he does.

I also love that Hera continued the podcast even though she got mad at Doug. She's so sweet. HAHA...The Hephaestus Files, nice. Hera deserves that.

I love the exit music 🎶🎶🎶

I feel like this episode might be a good metaphor for the aliens and communication. Doug didn't listen to what his coworkers were really saying. Maybe the aliens are the same way. Who knows.

Hm. I should go to bed now.

Eh...one more couldn't hurt.

Episode 52: Constructive Criticism

Oh Hera's trying to take care of him. It's okay Hera, he'll get over it, he just needs time.

Good thoughts Doug! You're listening! Why classical music? What's so special about that to them? Maybe they don't have a concept of sound or music! Maybe that's what they came for! You're doing it Doug! Good job!

The music is what they are sending. The point is why.

Be careful, Doug. She cares about you. Your friends care about you!

Oh Doug. RUN!

What would he do without Hera?

Did Lovelace gag him? Is this Kepler or Jacobi?

...why does Hilbert's lab have it's own pressure and air? To protect the experiments or give Hilbert a way out? Is there a way to detach the lab?

Also, it was only a matter of time. Cutter's errand boys kept chiming in when they weren't wanted. I'm surprised they weren't gagged sooner.

"The rules apply to Eiffel?" I suspect many rules were created specifically for or because of Eiffel.

A game? Not Funzo I hope.

Huh. Fortunately, Unfortunately sounds like a fun story telling game.

The story will tell you when to stop. Or you get bored. Or everyone dies.

Well not everyone I hope.

Oh Jacobi was that kid wasn’t he?

A WEEK? What happened to Doug? I knew he'd be upset after what happened, but yikes.

I knew it. The NPR special. Doug's punishing himself.

Looks like Kepler and Jacobi are getting on slightly better terms. Don't like that.

Hera. Hera no! HERA!

Oh right. She doesn't want to do a full reset of her personality. She doesn't want to delete herself even if she won't remember.

Don't ask Kepler for his games.

Oh now Jacobi is upset. I wonder what happened to him during the last round.

Wait, the you can only ask questions game! I love that game!

"Run away while you still can" no thanks Jacobi I'll play.

Kill him, Hera. Ask him about his Whiskey.

Now here's a good question. How did Jacobi end up here?

Oh right...Kepler's too proud to stop the game. This is perfect.

So Goddard did some good things. Wonderful. But you can't kill someone, show up in court, and cry "what about the millions I gave to the orphaned children?" YOU COULD HAVE STILL DONE THAT WITHOUT KILLING PEOPLE.

And good and bad DOES matter when you talk about progress, because it determines what you are progressing towards. FORWARD TOWARDS WHERE JACOBI? ASK YOURSELF WHY DOES THE WORLD WORK THAT WAY? DO YOU THINK THAT'S A GOOD THING? ASK DEEPER QUESTIONS YOU SIMPLETON!

"There aren't sides. There's people you do things to and people you do things for"

So Jacobi would kill them if given the opportunity. Tell me something I don't know. Pity he wasn't interested in the redemption arc. I was hoping somebody, ANYBODY would reach for it. The standard is low. The bar is on the floor.

Doug just wants to be helpful. Poor guy.

Yeah Doug, I know how this feels. It hurts. It's okay buddy. It's okay. They're still you're friends. You’re not worthless.

Oh his poor stomach.

And...Hera wins the game! Yay! 🥳

That's a lot of music. But again, why. Why do they need the music?

I'm beginning to like fortunately, unfortunately game. Let’s try it.

Fortunately, Jacobi had a come to Jesus moment and decided to stop blowing things up and stop threatening to kill people...oh dang it Jacobi!

Should have seen that coming.

[wat3rm370n]

Public health officials, advocates, and health workers need to be on guard.

The threats are real. We all need to demand from representatives in government and law enforcement officials that violence based on this wild anti-health campaign be prevented.

We all need to demand from representatives in government and law enforcement officials that violence based on this wild anti-health campaign be prevented.

I have been warning about this, and I've been called alarmist, and had many people throughout 2024 tell me that they had assumed, or insisted still, that Project 2025 was just some "liberal conspiracy theory" so you can imagine how far I've gotten with trying to point out the people planning on thousands of anti-vaxxers getting deputized at the county level to go on "live stream swatting raids" off enemy lists.

But now people are worried, and they should be, because people high up in the MAGAsphere have absolutely been making these plans very publicly. They just don't get covered in the mainstream press, because the mainstream press buys into elite panic.

NBC News - Federal health workers terrified after 'DEI' website publishes list of 'targets' The site calls out workers who have been involved with DEI initiatives. A majority are Black. Feb. 4, 2025, 8:35 PM EST / Updated Feb. 4, 2025, 10:51 PM EST By Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and Erika Edwards On Tuesday evening, the site listed photos of employees and linked to further information about them under the headline “Targets.” Later Tuesday night, the headline on each page had been changed to “Dossiers.” The site lists workers’ salaries along with what it describes as “DEI offenses,” including political donations, screenshots of social media posts, snippets from websites describing their work, or being a part of a DEI initiative that has been scrubbed from a federal website. Benjamin suggested the acts of online harassment are criminal. “Law enforcement should look into them.”

I looked at these "dossiers" and the supposedly damning deets on some of the people on their shitlist of public health workers. An executive director in a significant department of a major federal agency and their listed annual salary was listed and it's basically the average regular doctor salary in northeastern Pennsylvania if she was a practicing physician employed by a health system.

They highlighted donating to political campaigns as "partisan political activities", except that even civil servants are allowed to make political campaign donations and put political signs in their yards. Civil servants can't do much else that's partisan besides that and vote. I don't know what else anybody wants from these people. It's not like she had an extremist flag in her front yard while she's deciding cases in court. There’s a thing about it being a free country. I thought these people liked freedoms.

They note that most people never give to a political campaign. That's true, and it's because conservative economic policy has dominated in the U.S. for decades, and the financial situation for the working class is so bad in America that generally, people don't have enough money for a surprise emergency and not a lot of spare cash to donate to political causes. But this is a doctor they’re highlighting, so the fact that this person has, over the course of more than a decade, given a grand total of $1,400 altogether makes it clear that the people behind this website (which says it's a project of the American Accountability Foundation) – they seem pretty pathetic when it comes to presenting oppo research frankly. That amount works out to about $10 a month. A doctor spent $10 per month on political donations and they think that's a big deal? I know low level civil servants who donate at around that amount to political causes. When you can't do anything else, you're more inclined to donate.

They say this public health worker donated to "the radical left". The most left politician in the entire list is literally Joe Biden. But hey, around where I live a church posted a political endorsement for Joe Biden as a Marxist — so people have some odd ideas I guess.

These left donations reported included a donation to Warnock in Georgia who GovTrack ranks as "most politically right" compared to other Senate Democrats, and a donation to Tom Wolf's first campaign over a decade ago — that's the businessman who became governor of Pennsylvania with a lot of votes of conservatives. But ok on another dossier they mention that donations were made to a "radical left-wing group" and by that they mean one single one time donation of $20 to MoveOn.org. (lol)

The whole DEI target list website seems like it was written by some tycoon's flunkie high school intern who spends too much time on reddit and 4chan and not enough time hitting the books. The dossier author(s) have a preoccupation for buzzwords and also mention enough about genetics to reveal themselves as super cringe and having a weird interest in eugenics pseudoscience where they don’t seem to know that they sound science illiterate.

This is all very sad.

But on the whole of course having a target shitlist with mostly women, and most of them Black women, is very disturbing and highly inappropriate to say the least, considering Ivan Raiklin specifically said that there are thousands of angry anti-vaxxers just waiting to do live streamed swatting raids on public health workers. And if some constitutional sheriff doesn't deputize them soon to do state sanctioned atrocities to their neighbors and maybe even kill their own families because some sheriff is on board with that shit — these radicalized mobs may go looking for lists on their own — laboring under the assumption they will be protected by the administration and pardoned, no matter what heinous act they do.

It's egregiously damning that there are not Republicans in positions of leadership condemning this type of behaviour. At a minimum, local public officials ought to be out there condemning violence and violent threats — but they only ever seem to publicly condemn people peacefully protesting war. Targeting public officials, hospitals, and one’s neighbors, for violence because of whacko conspiracy theories goes unmentioned as a problem by most community leaders. I don’t know if it’s because they’re on board with it leading to atrocities, or if they just don’t want to offend the people who will do the atrocities. Whatever the case is — it’s socially dangerous.

Are they really planning an anti-vax military retiree interahamwe in America? If the far right wrests power, the best case scenario is that possibly medical technology gets shelved and masks and vaccines are maybe banned. The worst case scenario is... worse. Chloe Humbert May 28, 2024 

Hinting atrocities. I just keep racking up instances where I see things going on in the US that are eerily familiar to things I’ve read about Rwanda. Seems problematic. Chloe Humbert Jan 02, 2025 

Thoughts on the Scranton Times-Tribune newspaper. Oh yes I have thoughts. Chloe Humbert Oct 17, 2024 

Dear Public Officials: Stop falling for the myth of an irrational panicked public. Ridiculously wrong elite panic: The only people panicking are the people in charge. Chloe Humbert Aug 25, 2023 

[cenviswasteland]

Who are Freyvay? You've tagged them in a bunch of your posts and from what I've seen I love their dynamic lol

jesus okay. alright. howdy. hi. my name is juno orion and im a writer. there's like a 90% chance that you, anon, are not real (as in youre one of my friends masquerading as an anon) or you have forgotten that you asked this entirely. i do not care. i am answering this now because im feeling insane.

in the interest of mobile users, im gonna cut this post here. under the cut you will find the ramblings of a fucking madman. cowabunga.

--the cut is here--

howdy again. thanks for clicking a button, let's get into it.

So there's two people involved in FreyVay, as any good ship should be. I'll just yap about them as individuals in name order.

Frey Lovelace

(yes this is my art. no i am not a good artist.)

male, 6'1

black hair blue eyes tanned skin etc

age range: 19 to 27-ish (im not good at math) (also it really depends on the story dont question it too hard)

current job: defense attorney

previous job: college student (this is how he met vay)

going to college for: polisci / history / law (this will make sense in a minute)

fun facts: smokes weed, easy going, has massive bazongas

main color: blue

his dad (alexander lovelace) is a lawyer, frey is basically a born ace attorney [in one universe, he cupped the balls of a statue of the god of law and said god of law was like "hell yeah brother" and blessed him with super-law powers], and also he is the womanizer ever. note the hickeys and bitemarks.

Valence Haiz

(please ignore the part that says "turnabout lawyer". i will explain later)

male, 5'11

blonde hair, gray eyes, pale skin, etc

age range: 18 to 26-ish (again i am not a math guy)

current job: CEO of a medical research monopoly, also politician

previous jobs: prosecutor, and before that, college student

going to college for: polisci / psychology / business / law

fun facts: very academic, stick up his ass, a special flavor of emotionally constipated (grew up rich and pressured)

main color: red

valence was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and he was expected [read: pressured] to do "great things" by his father (David Haiz), make his family proud, etc etc. he was interested in law, decided to go to school for it, all that. he would later inherit his grandfather's (Aldier Kamp) medical research company and pursue a career in politics to be like his father.

--this line is intentionally left blank--

okay, we're gonna do the rest of this like im doing an interview because it's the only way i know how to structure things. let's go!

So, how do these bozos meet?

easy: college. they both attend (fictional) school Pennick University, which offers an accelerated course of study that can make a person a lawyer with just a bachelor's degree.

[note: in case you can't tell, your author is a complete and total Ace Attorney nerd. this is AA logic. just go with it.]

frey and valence end up being random roommates in their first year. by some miracle, they actually go from just "roommates" to "person i tolerate and talk to outside sometimes".

Why ship them?

my sibling in starclan they ship themselves.

after the two of them become friends, talk regularly, etc etc, frey finds himself falling hard. like, head-over-heels ass-over-teakettle hard. while registering for spring classes in his second year, frey quite literally changes his major because valence has helped him realize this talent he has for law and polisci.

i think if anything, this excerpt from my aSiP series bible says it best, at least from frey's POV:

It’s not theory or subtext or conjecture anymore. Frey Lovelace is just… in love with Valence Haiz. Hopelessly. Helplessly. He probably didn't realize it until he was switching his major, too.

He’s in love with Valence. The real Valence.

The Valence that turns his head away when Frey cracks a bad joke. The Valence that stays up late to get work done, only to end up watching reruns of House and Criminal Minds with Frey. The Valence that lets his eyes sparkle when Frey asks about how his psychology research is going.  The Valence that’s a natural at public speaking. The Valence that could pull speeches out of thin air. The Valence that makes elaborate PowerPoints before every presentation.

The Valence that will entertain Frey’s contrarian need to be the opposing side in every debate. The Valence that lights up when he gets Frey backed into a metaphorical corner. The Valence that makes sassy and snarky comments between pages of a novel. The Valence that complains in the margins of his textbooks. The Valence that sends Frey letters over break. The Valence that encloses pictures of the places he visits or the art he’s seen in museums.

The Valence that went to Waffle House at 11 PM with Frey after their last final of the semester. The Valence that takes his coffee with a mountain of creamer and his waffles with chocolate chips and strawberries. The Valence that threw an orange in Frey’s face after Frey came home soaked from the rain. The Valence that made him stand in the hallway until he ate the orange. The Valence that said “I don’t want you getting me sick.” The Valence that cares. The Valence that allows himself to be vulnerable. The Valence that isn’t trying to put up a front.

The Valence that’s real.

-- just... just let that soak in for a sec. i don't have anything to add, just let it marinate. --

God, that's sickeningly sweet, but I'm not into all that sappy stuff.

don't worry, it's not all sunshine and rainbows! in fact, it's a special kind of hell from valence's POV.

because to him, frey is infuriating. while valence had to claw a path to any kind of respect, dignity, or even to have anyone look his way, frey just gets it naturally. from an outsider's perspective, he's damn near perfect at the law practice, he never studies anything, he can go and screw around (literally and figuratively) all day and come back with perfect marks on tests and quizzes, and he's having the time of his life in college.

meanwhile, valence is struggling with multiple flavors of his own sexuality, insane mental health problems, self-image / worth issues, and, again, the strange pressure of having everything at your fingertips but never feeling like you've done enough to deserve it.

please accept another excerpt, this time from my aSiP draft:

[note: contains references to sexual content, alcohol and weed. skip to next bracket to avoid.]

April 10th – 1:43 A.M.

Lovelace operates like an animal. It wouldn’t be an issue if it were simply in his habits, but habits will force themselves into the way one conducts himself in conversation. Lovelace has no manners, poise, or elegance. He says every thought that forms in his brain without pausing to think about the implications or the consequences. I make a point to avoid empty, dull-witted debates, and yet he just keeps pulling me in over and over again. He makes a fine acquaintance, but I would never consider taking it further. He takes far too many partners as it is.

Even so, last night I found myself in a wine-drunk stupor, kissing him like I needed his air more than my own. Lovelace kisses with tongue and teeth, in the same blunt fashion with which he does everything. He tasted like burnt herbs. Neither of us seemed to have the good sense to stop, and so we kept pushing the boundaries. He seemed so intent to stake his claim, to force me into the mattress, to take what he believed was his.

I felt as though I couldn’t take in my own air. There was something horrible in the way his weight felt on top of me. I distinctly remember enjoying myself. I can’t imagine how. I have no interest in being his. I have no interest in his lips. I never did, even when they were against my skin. I know I was drunk. He was drunk, too. He was drunk and high. He was worse than I was. He still had the common sense to ask me if I wanted it. We could have stopped. Even impaired, he would have stopped. We hadn’t lost all our wits.

He asked me if I wanted it. I told him yes. Was I lying? I can’t remember my own tone. Should I be angry? Did he lie to me? There’s no point in anger, is there? I feel ill. Am I fooling myself? Should we have stopped? I didn’t stop him. He didn’t stop me.

I don’t even know if I wanted to stop.

[end warning section. welcome back.]

again, i'm not gonna say anything here. just sit and process.

Okay, so what's aSiP? And Turnabout Lawyer?

they're two sides of the same coin! both are longform FreyVay-centric projects that i'm actively writing.

a study in purple (or aSiP) is a valence POV work that goes through his side of the Pennick University experience. it was originally a piece i wrote for my creative writing class last semester (spring 2024).

Turnabout Lawyer (or TL, or Burden of Proof) is a frey POV work that goes through his side of the PennU experience. it was originally an idea for a visual novel, which i then converted to a screenplay pilot episode for my screenwriting class last semester (spring 2024).

yes, there's intense and serious cognitive dissonance between their experiences. that is on purpose. i will absolutely be providing project updates if this post even gets one (1) note.

Surely it doesn't end after they graduate...?

you bet your shiny boots it doesn't! but i'll be damned if i keep this post going for longer, so for everyone's sanity i have to call it here. i'll make a follow-up post about freyvay after graduation. they go through a lot of changes... but that will have to be for another day.

Wait! I want FreyVay content and I want it now!!

Well, lucky for you, I am the soul owner and participator in FreyVay week, which is happening right the fuck now! No one knew about it other than my bestie westie pesties, and that's perfectly fine to me! I will be posting my silly little FreyVay fics here anyway!!! In fact, I'll be posting the Day One fic immediately after this post, so read away to your heart's content!

The full schedule is here for your perusing pleasure:

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thank you ever so much for reading all this yappery! i love blah blah blahing about my goofy little guys. please stand by for more freyvay content directly on your timeline as if you are a baby bird.

peace, love, little donuts, etc etc.

[stonewallsposts]

January 2024 Reading  

New year, more books to read. I had nearly finished up my list of novels, but I ran across more that I wanted to read, so I've added a bunch of novels, and more Italian reading, plus I already had a long list of history and political books to tackle too. I'm setting myself another goodreads goal of 50 books for the year. 

Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana- Carlo Emilio Gadda  (1957) 

This has been one of the most difficult books I have read in Italian. It's a mix of high Italian vocabulary and various dialects, which made it even slower than usual for me. 300 pages has taken much longer than the usually extended time it takes me to read in Italian. And then there's the convoluted narrative and plot. 

But.....come to find out... that's kind of the point of the book. The title translates to "That awful mess on via Merulana", and it refers to a series of two connected crimes- a theft and a subsequent murder, and the ensuing investigation. But things get muddy really quickly. Here is why: 

"The seething cauldron of life, the infinite stratification of reality, the inextricable tangle of knowledge are what Gadda wants to depict. When this concept of universal complication, reflected in the slightest object or event, has reached its ultimate paroxysm, it seems as if the novel is destined to remain unfinished, as if it could continue infinitely, creating new vortices within each episode. Gadda’s point is the superabundance, the congestion, of these pages, through which a single complex object – the city of Rome – assumes a variegated form, becomes organism and symbol." 

The author is using tangled language and complicated plots to reveal his view of life. This makes it easier to accept on one level; after all, I'm really glad my grasp of Italian isn't so poor as it seemed after the first few pages, but none the easier to actually read. Gadda shows an indignation at the harm done by incompetence, expediency, and self-interests, which he portrays through the garbled, conflicting testimonies of those questioned during the investigation.  

Oh, and just to top it all off, the mystery is never solved. Feels like it was close, and then then book just ends.  

Clarissa- Samuel Richardson  (1748) 

I believe this was the longest novel in the English language, 1462 pages of small text on larger pages in this version and nearly a million words. But a few people have produced some doozies since then, and it's not the longest anymore. Still, it's a whopper and I've put it off a few times. 

The full title of the novel is: Clarissa. Or the history of a young lady: comprehending the most important concerns of private life. And particularly showing the distresses that may attend the misconduct both of parents and children, in relation to marriage. I guess if you're going to write nearly a million words for your book, you might as well toss your reader into the deep end with a long title. 

The story plot isn't super involved, and in fact, my initial thought was that this book could have used some serious editing. I'm certain that any modern editor would tell him to chop it down or else no one will read it. But as one famous reviewer wrote: you don't read Clarissa for the plot, you read it for the sentiment.  

The basic plot is that a young man, Robert Lovelace, comes to call on the Harlowe family because he has heard of a pretty daughter. But the older daughter, Arabella, isn't as pretty as he had heard, whereas the younger, Clarissa, is. The family hears that despite his family and credentials, he is a famous rake, so he is rejected as suitable. Clarissa imagines how it would be nice to reclaim him to virtue by her example, but can't accept him as is. Their older brother comes home, and knowing and hating Lovelace, throws him out of the house. Lovelace, insulted by such treatment, ends up dueling with, and injuring the brother. 

Clarissa's family, deciding that her interest in Lovelace must be dampened by marrying her off, selects a wealthy, but ugly and boorish man as a husband. Clarissa rejects the man, but her brother, looking with greed to some financial inducements the suitor has proposed, and her sister, jealous because Lovelace wasn't interested in her, contrive to convince the family that Clarissa, a virtuous girl, submit to the family's wishes. 

Clarissa argues her point in vain, but right before she is to be married off against her will, Lovelace lures her outside the house and abducts her to a safe place. She is happy to be away from the forced marriage, but not to be in Lovelace's power. 

In fact, he rents a portion of a whorehouse in London, and pays the whores there to act as if they are respectable citizens... but keep her inside. He himself stays at the same house, to Clarissa's horror, applying pressure for her to give herself up to his advances. 

She manages to escape, but is tracked down and he surrounds her with his paid servants, who act like they are his noble relatives. She is then taken back to the whorehouse where she is drugged and raped. 

He promises to marry her, but she will not have him. Knowing she is now 'ruined', she wants only to escape him. But Lovelace is all the more smitten with winning her approval. She again manages to escape while Lovelace is away attending to family matters, but the madam of the house has her arrested and thrown into debtor's prison.  

Lovelace is horrified by the fact that the whores took this liberty while he was away, but while she is there, she is abused and mistreated until she becomes very ill. 

She is eventually set free from the debtor's prison and lives with some nice people who had taken her in, but she knows she is dying and only wishes to maintain her dignity before God. Despite threats by Lovelace to take her away again, and attempts by him to do so, she manages to escape his grasp and ends up dying peacefully. A cousin of Clarissa's tracks down Lovelace and kills him in a duel. 

The entire story is told in a series of (over 500) letters back and forth between the various characters. The novel is built around the revelation of the characters, their motives, their internal consistencies and contradictions, and how they both thrive, cope, or rebel against the restrictions of their time and place. 

My initial impression was that it was way too long... but as I went along, I came to see it as a fantastic story about the strength of virtue against any series of tools meant to bring virtue down.  

Even the length of the book might be read as an insight into the exhausting measures the world will go through in order to break you down, and just how tiring it can be to fight against it. 

Italian Ways- Tim Parks  (2013) 

Tim Parks is an English writer who has lived in Italy for the last 40 years or so. I really like his insights into Italian life, and you really need someone like him, who is not a native, but has lived in his adopted country for so long, to provide those insights. We natives don't tend to notice certain things about our own cultures, or if we do, we take them for granted as simply normal. Whereas an outsider with a different perspective will notice the differences. An astute outsider will take those differences and begin to understand what insights they give in to the culture and nature of the adopted country. 

Tim Parks uses travel on the Italian railways, in this instance, to explain life in Italy.  

Having traveled on Italian trains a few times, I was actually able to confirm his observations because I had similar experiences. It's a fun book to read for someone from the Anglosphere who is interested in Italy.