#cause that one was basically a math battle

[kushanna]

someone needs to tell ryukishi asap that his magical battle scenes are not as fun as he thinks they are

[oscquinn]

Smoke & Mirrors || Lip Gallagher

chapter one of BORDERLINE.

pairing: lip gallagher x fem!reader (nickname: MK)

warnings & tags: the start of a SLOWburn. idiots with tension. mature for mentions of violence, smoking, swearing, canon typical dialogue and whatnot. y'all've seen the show!

chapter summary: lip gallagher has been your best friend since before you could remember. he's the smartest person you know, so it astounds you how someone like him can be oh so stupid. you're committed to investing in his future, even if he isn't. you won't let your best friend end up stuck on the southside.

a/n: ummmm hi!! wrote basically this whole thing in the last 24hrs. it's unedited and tbh if i look at it for one more second im gonna explode!! enjoy <33

wc: 2.9k

The crisp October air sends a chill down your spine as you usher your younger sister Caroline out the door for school. She groans and rolls her eyes when you grab her by the handle of her backpack, pulling her back to adjust her scarf. At a mere thirteen years old she already carries the same attitude you did at sixteen. “Whatever you’re gonna say, I don’t wanna hear it. You were just sick, dad’ll have my head on a platter if I don’t make you bundle up.”

She stomps her foot, a stupid, childish action that has you mentally swearing to never have kids of your own. Helping raise this one was enough as it is. “It’s not even-” she starts, but you cut her off.

“I said I don’t wanna hear it. Wear your fucking scarf or I’m telling mom you make that tutor kid do your math homework.” You shove her head gently after securing the scarf around her neck and let her stomp down the stairs. “Don’t be a brat.”

She doesn’t answer, instead starting down the street towards the bus stop. Cigarette smoke wafts over the morning air from the Gallagher house. You turn to see Lip on the front stoop, blood shining on his brow as he smokes. You feel a twist in your gut. What did he get himself into this time, you think. The repetitive motion of locking the door comes like second nature and you spend the thirty odd seconds it takes worrying about the boy across the street.

When you turn towards the Gallagher house Caroline is already ahead of you, not waiting until she passes the chain-link fence to call out, “what happened to your face?”

You catch up in time to hear him scoff, “good morning to you too, Kit-Kat,” pulling out her childhood nickname, the one she still hates, that he gave to her when she was barely four. “‘S nothing. Battle scars an’ shit.”

“What the fuck kinda battle did’ya get yourself into?” you ask, leaning down to take his chin between your thumb and forefinger. The cut isn’t too bad, a lot of blood for a relatively small abrasion, but the skin around his eye is already blossoming a dark bruise. Lip stares at you as if to say ‘not in front of the kid,’ and you nod, fishing a five dollar bill out of your pocket. You were saving it for work, but Caroline’s silence is worth more. She raises an eyebrow, to which you snap, “just don’t tell mom, ‘kay? And don’t skip just ‘cause I'm skipping.”

Caroline turns to leave and you extend a hand to Lip, pulling him to stand. Eager fingers reach for his burnt-down cig when he goes to drop it, taking the final hit for yourself before stubbing it out on the sidewalk. “Greedy. Gotta buy y’own pack,” he remarks with a smirk. All it takes is a second to get back across the stress, and once you’re inside he unwraps the scarf from his neck. 

Your eyes catch on his bruised knuckles and you tilt your head to the side with a silent question, you gonna tell me what happened? He sighs, hearing you loud and clear despite not speaking a single word. “Got into it with Frank. He was givin’ Ian shit for no fuckin’ reason.”

“Mm,” you nod, and catch his hand after he runs it nervously through his curls. The bruises there aren’t as bad as the one on his eye, Frank must’ve only gotten one good, drunken swing in. No cuts either, which was good. For all his tough guy exterior, Lip Gallagher couldn’t stand the sting of peroxide. The less you need the better, you think, and a grin plays at your lips when you glance up at him, holding his injured hand up. “Think y’can roll a joint with these?”

His laugh is like music to your ears, revelling in the first grin you’ve seen from him this morning. “Yeah, yeah I can do that, y’wanna jus’ skip the whole day? We could catch a movie ‘r somethin’,” he suggests, following you upstairs to your room.

You shake your head, opening the door to your room for him. “Can't. Calc test in third period. Sit down, ‘m gonna get the first aid kit.” While you get the kit from the shelf in your closet you hear him open your desk drawer, pulling out the grinder and weed jar you keep hidden at the back.

“You got a shirt or somethin’ I could change into? This one smells like Frank’s fuckin’ booze,” Lip scoffs. He shrugs the tee over his head and lights another cigarette, his eyes following your every move with that same boyish twinkle you’d grown fond of over the years. It was always good to remember things weren’t getting to him, not too bad. 

You cast a glare in his direction, silently scolding him, ‘you know better, let me open the window,’ but he only grins in response. Pale morning light illuminates the room when you pull back your blackout curtains and crack the window. The city is still quiet–or, as quiet as it gets in Chicago–and the sounds of gentle wind and birdsong fall softly on your ears.

You settle at his side, first aid kit in one hand and a gray and black sweater of his in the other. Curious fingers reach for a small cut on his shoulder. “What’s this one from?” You trace the gash. It isn’t deep either, but it’ll need to be cleaned so it doesn’t get infected.

“It’s, uh, ’s nothin,” he brushes you off, to which you shoot him a glare. That sets him straight. In a low mumble he simply states, “beer bottle.”

Rage seethes inside you, your jaw tensing as you wet a cotton ball with peroxide. You keep any comments to yourself, not sure how LIp will react. You’re aware of his more than complicated familial relationships–you’d grown up with thim, seeing Frank’s drinking get worse, and the aftermath of Monica leaving–but if there was one constant with the Gallagher kids, it was family first, above everything. You had your opinions of Frank, and you knew Lip shared your distaste more than anything, but that didn’t take away the sensitive nature of the topic. So, you stay quiet, dabbing at the wound with a gentle hand. The sting draws a sharp hiss from him, and it’s then that you realize how flushed he is, his cheeks, neck and chest are a soft pink color. Graciously, you pretend not to notice, so as not to embarrass him further.

When the cut is cleaned and covered with a bandage Lip takes his sweater, pulling it over his head. It leaves his hair mussed and he smoothes a hand through his curls while you tilt his chin up, inspecting the cut on his brow. Blue eyes stare up at you with a vulnerability you’re not used to seeing from the boy you grew up with. At least you know he’s comfortable with you. That’s all.

Comfortable. Friendly. Nothing more. The same as it’s always been.

The way it’s meant to be.

“Quit starin’, get me fixed up so we can smoke this,” Lip grumbles, gesturing towards the rolling tray in his lap. You laugh at that, heart quickening in your chest. Tensions between the two of you had been thick as of late, but underneath it all things remained the same.

“Glad to know you’ve got your priorities straight,” you snort, cleaning up the second wound with peroxide. He takes it better this time, more prepared for the sting, but you still catch the way a few pained tears brim in his bright eyes. 

Soft, parted lips rest under your fingers as you clean the final abrasion. The bruising is the worst here, deep purple hues present across his mouth and down to his chin. He finishes rolling as you’re wiping at the blood that pooled below his lip, a deep red trail spilling down his chin. Your delicate motions are interrupted by Lip bringing the joint up to seal it, licking along the edge of the rolling paper. 

“‘M almost finished, be patient,” you murmur, focused on keeping the disinfectant out of his mouth. A moment later you pull back, swiping vaseline over the split before wiping the excess on his jeans. Payback for interrupting your tending to his wounds. “There. All patched up. Say ‘thank you nurse,’” you tease with a grin.

He’s already flicking the lighter on, holding the flame against the end of the joint to take the first hit for himself. You busy yourself with cleaning up the first aid supplies until he passes it off to you. Thick, earthy smelling smoke flows from his parted mouth, which lifts into a mischievous grin as he hands you the joint. “My lip’s busted up pretty fuckin’ bad. Think y’could kiss it better?”

Your cheeks flush with embarrassment at his blunt proposal. “Shut up,” you retort with a sharp laugh, before you can even consider it.

Lip throws on an exaggerated frown, “oh, c’mon MK. You know it’d be so fucking hot- ow!” He flinches, chest shaking with laughter as you throw your remote at him. “Okay! Okay, I know I know. You’re not one of my g-”

“Little ghetto girlfriends,” you tease, repeating the drunken dig an alibi patron had once thrown at Lip. 

“Exactly.”

You shake your head, laughing at him for a moment. “You’re never getting in my pants Gallagher. I’ve known you since we were three. It’s wrong,” you lie. Lip is your best friend, the same role he’s filled your entire life, side by side since the two of you were in diapers. But your rejection stems from something deeper than that.

Lip Gallagher is inconsistent. You can’t exactly call him unfaithful if he never truly commits to one girl, but he’s not one for relationships. He’s flighty. He runs from affection. More often than not he buries his true feelings under snark and insults, weed, booze, and–when all else fails–aggression. That doesn’t mean you didn’t love him, it doesn’t mean you had no feelings for him, it just gives you reason to brush off his advances. For now, it can remain a little game between the two of you.

Months ago, when these unwanted feelings began to blossom in your chest, you’d promised yourself you wouldn’t be just another girl he messed around with. You aren’t willing to let him mess this thing up for the both of you.

Eager to change the subject you move to your desk, pulling out an informational packet from MIT. Before you can get a word out Lip is shaking his head, casting a skeptical glare in your direction. “Hey, come on. I just want you to apply.” You lean to hand the packet over but he reaches for the joint instead, which you pull away quickly.

“No you come on, why would I apply to MIT, seriously,” he shoots back, refusing to take the folder from your hand. He settles more comfortably in your bed, laying back against the pillows and staring up at the ceiling instead of meeting your eyes. “Bunch ‘f ivy league reject pricks ridin’ on daddy’s money. You’re lucky I’m even applying to schools in town.” Greedy hands reach forward for the joint again and you yield with a sigh, passing it over. As an afterthought, you toss the packet to him as well.

“Just consider it, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll think about it,” he says. You don’t need anything but the way he avoids your eyes to know it’s a lie. 

You purse your lips, throwing an icy stare his way. Lip Gallagher may be your best friend, but you’re not going to take any of his shit. “Have you even got any applications in?”

The question seems to take him by surprise, tendrils of smoke curling from the corner of his parted lips. “I’ve got a few,” another lie.

“Really? What schools,” you question, head tilted to the side with a knowing look. “Don’t lie to me, I know you better than anyone. I can tell.”

He laughs at that, shaking his head in disbelief. “Fine, you got me. I haven’t applied anywhere yet.” The end of the joint has a good stretch of ash, which he’s trying to keep precariously attached while he takes another hit. 

“Scoot,” you mumble, grabbing your own binder of college information packets. He stretches one arm back towards your desk to snag your heart shaped ashtray and knocks the ash off, then lays the tray in the space between your bodies. You settle in beside him, your knees propped comfortably over the throw pillow that always ended up in the middle of your bed. One hand takes the joint and the other opens your binder. 

Pages upon pages of information, campus maps, scholarship pamphlets, and your hand written tuition calculations make Lip go a little cross eyed as you flip towards a page with a yellow tab. “Okay. Here, look,” you point at the information you’d circled, reading Engineering B.S., training the Innovators of Tomorrow. “UI Urbana-Champaign. Great engineering program–” you flip the page over “–and scholarships for kids from underserved communities.”

You settle the joint between your lips, flipping through a few more pages. After a deep inhale you use it to gesture towards the page. “Or UChicago, that way you’d be close to home. They’ve got this thing called inner city promise. Smart kids, like you, from certain high schools with certain academic records and test scores can get full rides.” You run a finger down the short list, stopping at a familiar name and tapping it. “See? Lincoln Grove High School. You’d qualify, Lip.”

“‘M not some fuckin’ charity case,” he grumbles, snatching the burnt-down joint from your hand. “You’re a pain in my ass, y’know that?”

“Oh I’m a pain?” you snap, turning on your side to glare at him. “For what, believing in you? For not taking any of your self-deprecating, avoidant bullshit?”

He shrugs then, and the action is almost shy. He’s embarrassed. You have this innate ability to see him, the way no one else does. You scare yourself with it sometimes. “Just don’t know why you care so much,” he mumbles.

The sigh that leaves you is a deep, tired one. Convincing him of these things has always been difficult. For as smart as he is, Lip can be so infuriatingly stupid. “You’re smart, Lip. You’ve always been smart. I dunno what I would do if I went off to college and you stayed here. In this shithole.”

He doesn’t laugh the way you expect him to. He doesn’t brush it off. He just stares.

“We made a pact, did you forget?” you continue. He shakes his head silently, the far off look in his eyes letting you know he’s remembering that day. 

The day the two of you spent drinking by the pool. Making promises to each other. You’d said you would make it out, and you would do it together. You’d made Lip promise you that he’d give it a try, and stupidly you believed him. Or was it stupid? You’re not ready to give up yet. 

“I don’t want to do it without you,” you admit to him.

Lip looks at you, his blue eyes softening. “Do what without me?” You shake your head, scooting closer to rest your head on his shoulder. He stubs out the joint and wraps an arm around your shoulders. Friendly, comfortable affection. The kind you were used to. “C’mon MK, spit it out.”

“Any of it,” you return. “Don’t think I could get through another four years of school if you’re not doing it with me.”

“Yeah? What if we’re at different schools, dumbass,” he retorts, but his palm soothes across your arm, a contrast to his words. “You gonna follow me to MIT, since y’want me to go so bad?”

You can’t help the laugh that bubbles up in your chest, turning to look up at him with a grin playing at your lips. He got what he wanted. He made you laugh. “I’ll call you every night.”

“Every night huh?” he says with a smirk. “Cockblocking me from a thousand miles away is just like you, isn’t it.”

You shove him playfully, sitting up to move the ashtray off your bed. The MIT packet lays somewhere at the foot of the bed and you search through the pillows to find it. Instead of handing it to Lip, you just tuck it into his backpack, handing the bag to him after. “Well yeah, can’t have you getting distracted by the chess team girls,” you joke back. 

He lays there in your bed, looking up at you with that stupid grin of his. All bared teeth and mischief, the same one you’d seen all those years ago. You stay silent for a moment longer before you stand, holding out a hand to pull him up. 

“You sure we can’t just skip?”

“No, ‘ve got a test, remember? Gotta keep my grades up if ‘m gonna follow you all the way to MIT,” you say, and shakes his head with a laugh. Maybe he’s coming around to the idea. “Come on, I’ll drive us.”

thanks so much for reading!! series masterlist here.

got something to say? stop by my inbox! looking for more fics? check out my masterlists!

[xanasaurusrex]

⇢ ˗ˏˋ zeus cabin headcanons ࿐ྂ

a/n: these are my headcanons for the children of zeus! i love thinking about what traits kids of certain gods and goddesses would have, and since zeus is the king of the gods, i thought it would only be fitting to start with zeus! these are less about like powers and stuff like that and more just about how they would be as people!

zeus kids can get kinda crazy

they're always the life of the party, and yet somehow they also shut down the party?

they're just good at knowing when things are getting too out of hand

speaking of knowing things

it's almost as if they have a sixth sense in knowing things, just like general things

oh this person liked this other person

the zeus kids already knew

you cheated on your math test?

yeah, they had a feeling

that kinda stuff

zeus kids also all weirdly have this universal little tic where when they're really bored, they'll rub their hands against something that can create static, and then play with the static in their hands

they can do the thing where they kind of roll it from one finger to another, and then back again

they can also utilize this to shock people, but only ever so slightly

technically they could summon a whole storm and electrocute someone, but very rarely do they have that urge

another thing to mention:

zeus children can hold a grudge

they're masters at being mad at someone for something they did days, weeks, months, or even years in the past that likely they forgot they did

but zeus kids didn't

they never forget

honestly even a bad first impression can really affect your relationship with a child of zeus, because they don't forget things easily

their minds are steel traps

children of zeus are also natural born leaders

this can cause quite the scene when there are multiple zeus kids up for a leadership position because they all fall into a leader role just naturally

a lot of people appreciate this because they're saved from having to lead themselves

but others find this incredibly annoying, and think that zeus kids are all very arrogant and full of themselves

there are some that are like that, thinking they're better because their dad is zeus

but that kind of reaction to being a child of zeus is pretty rare

most of the time it brings them great annoyance because monsters can smell them from farther away, and it makes them much more eligible for dangerous quests, which sometimes is a good thing, but when the mortality rate for a quest that dangerous is usually 0, it can be a little daunting

probably the best trait that children of zeus possess is their loyalty

i understand that this probably doesn't make much sense, considering the fact that zeus was never really known for being very loyal to pretty much anyone in his life

but zeus kids are

this is observed the best during battle, when they would do anything and everything for the people fighting alongside them

they're loyal friends and lovers, too

which, again, doesn't make a lot of sense when looking at who their dad is

but a lot of their lives have been negatively affected by him being disloyal, so a lot of them have a tendency to make sure they're loyal so that they don't end up like him

as amazing as zeus thinks he is, a lot of his kids aren't his biggest fans

in conclusion, zeus kids are pretty cool

they definitely have their flaws

(such as having a tendency to flake last minute when it comes to making plans with other people)

but ultimately they're pretty good people

they're very skilled when it comes to battle, and they're good friends

basically just good people to surround yourself with

a/n: so i won't be doing author's notes at the end of everything, but i just wanted to thank you for reading my very first official post! i'm going to be doing headcanons for the other gods and goddesses, both major and minor, because i just find writing for that kinda stuff really fun! also i really love headcanons (totally not because they're easier to write than full fics, definitely not at all)

anyways, thanks for reading, and be on a lookout for more stuff in the future!

[madrone33]

Can I rant for a bit about how cool it is that one of Lief's defining traits is that he's smart? Like, not even necessarily cunning or clever or street smart (though he's totally that too) but just. Book smart. He knows maths and history and english and he uses that knowledge for stuff! And! He's also cunning and clever and street smart and a fighter at the same time!

And I know it's not that big a deal, but normally in adventure stories, especially for a younger audience, the hero's strengths are more in sword fighting or magic casting or being really good at parkour. And here the hero is smart and he's proud of it, and his friends are proud of it, and the world is proud of it! Literally! Deltora Quest as a world and a plot revolves around puzzles and riddles and putting clues together more than it does on physical fights. In almost every battle they get into, the day is won not by being better at fighting than their opponents, but because they realised the loophole or figured out some vital info in the nick of time. (And I say almost every battle, because Jasmine is both willing and able to stab a bitch.)

The Topaz that clears and strengthens the mind is probably the most used Gem in the whole series, because Lief knows its value so well. And even when he can't rely on its strength, when the moon is new or the Belt is covered, he's still using his brains to find his way out of impossible situations! It's just! So cool!

Brain over brawn and all that, except not really, 'cause he's also a badass with the sword! Wtf! Lief why are you so cool??

Deltora is probs my fav series. I am OBSESSED with the characters and worldbuilding, but the codes and riddles and puzzles? That is my jam you guys. I studied those things. Every time a new one came up, I memorised it! I tried recreating it! It was awesome! And the Lief + Jasmine combo of "Basically-A-Nerd Who Is Awesome" and "Badass Fleshed-Out Women My Beloved" who are besties before love-interests was a pinnacle of my childhood.

[loz-chainsofcorruption]

Silly Game Time: Who are some "monster" characters you really like, and why? They can be entirely inhuman, partially human, or nearly fully human in their appearance and behavior; they can be derived from real-world mythology/folklore/urban legends or entirely original to their authors; they can be essentially just misunderstood animals, or creatures driven by deliberate malevolence, or basically persons with their own complex motives and morals.

And they can be from any genre of any media (movies, shows, books, comics, games, etc.) (OCs count, too, if you like). All that matters is that they are monstrous and you like them!

I didn't think too long and hard about this but I can't fathom there's a monstrous lookin being out there I adore more than Koro-sensei. Like. He's so weird but so caring. The entire premise of the show itself (Assassination Classroom) is fantastic - try to kill your teacher!! <3333 but also he will be the greatest and most caring teacher you will ever have <3333 so have fun with the emotional mess that causes 🥰

I wish I had a teacher like him growing up. I mean, I had some good teachers in elementary school, but I kind of wonder if I would have properly learned math beyond extreme basics if I'd had him as my teacher! As it is, I can hardly comprehend anything number related, and yes I've got discalculia so that's... There's only so much that can be done, but I do wonder if I'd be at least a little better.

Anyway his entire life reason for what he's doing is heartbreaking, but the relationships that grow between him and his students... Guhhhh. I love that show and I love him.

Oh you pluralized that though, so here are some other ones I love!

I like Slenderman, primarily the way he's presented in the Marble Hornets series. The video distortion and coughing and memory symptoms are all neat, and like. Idk there's something fun to me about a design that's close to human (or something else familiar) but definitely not there in a very haunting sort of way.

Moths scare me but I actually do like Mothman a lot. He is the exception to my moth fears.

And then as a bonus, I'm gonna include an OC!!

This is Pikk, someone who might as well be an alien despite actually technically growing up on earth (he grew up in an isolated, semi controlled environment watched over by scientists whom he and his people considered to be their gods owo had no idea there was more world out there than the little one he knew!) He's actually pretty friendly (and a total brat) but he has absolutely killed multiple people :) at least one of his own I'd imagine due to cultural things (they do occasionally have battles to the death where he comes from), but most of those were Humans out of self defense/fear when he suddenly found himself in a foreign place with humans shouting at him and shooting at him and stuff

And you know what, it wouldn't be fair to include Pikk but not Slate.. though it feels mean to call Slate monstrous 😔 he's such a sweet lil guy... Precious little kleptomaniac bird fish boy packed to the brim with anxiety....

They're in the same friend group with two humans <3 they are the friend group ever... Moe Moe Trio +1, I love you so much....

(West and Yuu both wear colored contacts btw jfjfkgk well, Yuu drops that once he gets older. He just wanted to fit in while living in a house full of mostly not normal 100% human people :o) silly boy. West just loves wolves, that's it, he wanted to look more like one, that's the only reason <3)

Man going through to find art of Pikk and Slate made me realize how much I draw Pikk and how little I draw Slate beyond the occasional mediocre doodle with absolutely no color. I have an insane amount of Pikk art. He's fun to draw I guess, but Slate is trickier and DEFINITELY more annoying to color... Sorry bud.

[cyb-by-lang]

Cascade (part 3)

So, fun fact: Without Kei being in in 1-C, she and Shinso are not friends yet in this continuity. It's the small tragedies.

Also, Manual's about to have a very chaotic internship experience.

“Dropping out of the Sports Festival narrowed your options significantly,” Aizawa said. Bundled up in that obnoxious yellow sleeping bag, the clear determination to be cozy and damn the consequences was almost impressive. It just clashed with his stone-cold voice and clear disappointment in Kei’s entire existence. 

“That was the point.” Kei scoffed as she flung herself into the opposite chair. And despite her gripes, Kei could admit that Principal Nezu chose decent furniture. “I could fake a week-long illness.” 

Despite Kei bowing out of the Sports Festival after the cavalry battle, allowing some 1-B student she didn’t know to take her slot, some pro somewhere had seen her “potential.” Mostly the ones who could do basic math and realize her water-controlling power worked basically on the same scale as Todoroki’s Half-Hot, Half-Cold. She had a handful of offers from people like Selkie, which would take her well out of Musutafu and could drill her in proper heroic conduct. 

And to be blunt, Kei wished they didn’t give a shit. Their letters were burning a hole in her desk back home. 

There was a sort of pity system where students who didn’t get any offers were still assigned to pros for the internship experience, but Kei wasn’t a normal student. While Midoriya, who looked like he was going to cry when he saw a whopping zero offers, got something through his connection with All Might, Kei wasn’t holding her breath for anything useful to her cause. Any pro worth their salt needed to keep tabs on their interns. If a teenage hero-wannabe escaped containment and threw a truck across a street without authorization or something, there would be hell to pay. A lot of the hero course students had such destructive Quirks that property damage was on the lower end of potential bad outcomes. 

Honestly, someone like Nezu taking her on as an intern would be the best possible scenario. He’d work out that they were all better off if he let her off the leash for this week. Sort of like a big guardian sheepdog, only her territory comprised at least one city. She could clear her backlog of patrol duties with her teammates instead of learning hero industry paperwork procedures.

Kei’s gaze drifted to Aizawa, who was pointedly still here despite Kei already learning he’d planned on taking the week to work with a kid outside of 1-A. Apparently, he’d met with Shinsō after the Sports Festival and decided the kid was now his protégé. It was much faster to just snap up the General Education’s sole standout than bother with writing letters through an agency. For Kei’s part, she looked at the Quirks written out for Shinsō and that Monoma boy in 1-B and added them to her personal “nope” list. 

Being found out would ruin everything. 

Being found out by children just added embarrassment to the mix in untold quantities. No, she’d rather not deal with that. Adults were more married to their preconceptions and kept letting her get away with things. It was safer to stick to that part of the plan. 

Kei took a long sip of her tea and tried not to think too hard about it. The mere fact of her presence in this office vetoed such a simple solution. 

“Well, we don’t need to go quite so far to ensure your work continues,” Nezu said, placing his paws together on the top of his desk. 

Honestly, if not for the fact that he insisted on wearing suits, he could have been any rodent summon clan’s adjutant. Probably the brains of any operation he wanted, even if the clans’ schemes probably struck him as thinking too small. Certainly he’d have the toad clan wrapped around his toe beans inside of the day. 

Kei blinked away the stray thought. 

“It would raise suspicion if you weren’t involved in the internship experience this week, Gekkō-san,” Nezu went on, pausing to take a ship of his own tea. His fur fluffed in enjoyment. “But, in the interest of furthering your goals and ours, there is a task that might suit your skills while also fitting that requirement. I hope you’re interested.” 

“Well, I’ll listen,” Kei said. 

“Good enough! Now, you’ve heard about the Hero Killer operating in multiple Japanese cities by now, yes?” When Kei nodded, Nezu continued, “While your friends’ efforts were quite informative in narrowing down the man’s Quirk and general methodology, Endeavor’s agency has made their operations in the area rather tenuous. They cannot safely patrol the city.” 

Which was a nice way of saying that while Obito and Kakashi could get into pitched fights with people like Burnin or even Endeavor himself, it was a waste of time and effort on everyone’s parts. Apparently, the general ANBU aesthetic trended closely enough to Stain’s known appearance that it nearly got her teammates set on fire three separate times. No one was hurt, but not for lack of trying. There was always a lot of griping afterward. 

Kei nodded along. “So, you want me to…?” 

“The hero Manual has already put in an offer for your internship experience,” Nezu said, “which isn’t even something I had to ask of him! It appears that aside from Iida-kun, no other hero students have accepted his overtures. Try to keep everyone from unfortunate accidents, Gekkō-san. I know I can trust you to act with prudence and diligence.” 

That was a nice way of saying that Kei wasn’t allowed to go for the double-tap on Stain. Or let anybody die. Even if it looked like Endeavor’s bullshit attitude might be curtailed at long last if she just stood back and watched him get a little bit stabbed. 

“Manual is a respected mentor for beginner heroes,” Kei murmured, mostly to herself. Setting her teacup down on the desk, drained, she said, “Are you hoping this might be a character-building experience for me, Nezu-dono?” 

Those beady black eyes gleamed. “Perhaps.” 

“I want it noted that I don’t agree with this plan,” Aizawa said in his usual monotone. His eyes were open for the first time in a while, about as red and itchy-looking as usual. “Using Gekkō as villain bait doesn’t stop being unethical simply because she’s being raised for the role.”

“I’m not going to just sit here and do nothing.” 

There was a slight pause. “I know. It doesn’t make it less of a tragedy.” 

Kei sighed. “Then can we just acknowledge it and move on? I’d rather be useful.” 

Aizawa’s expression was difficult to read—sort of like Kei’s in the mirror—but he didn’t offer more negativity just yet. 

The main reason he wasn’t protesting more vociferously probably came down to Kei’s demonstrated ability to go directly up to a Nōmu billed as “the perfect anti-All Might weapon” and make its head implode with water pressure and no small amount of spite. Sort of like a deep-sea diver if their pressure suit failed. If Shigaraki didn’t want his minion dying so pathetically, he shouldn’t have said what its Quirks were. Shock absorption combined with super regeneration were great in theory, but they both had limits. And it didn’t take a genius to look at that exposed brain case and draw some conclusions. 

The whole thing was messy. 

Suffice to say, Kei found the occasional wary looks from her classmates wholly justified and tried not to let it bother her nowadays. 

“If I accept, do you plan to have Manual read in on everything?” Kei asked. Typically, mission parameters were set by the Hokage in advance, but Nezu did have a lot of leeway outside of contract specifications because the rat’s funds were functionally limitless. 

“No, that is not a requirement to secure the next steps,” Nezu said. He sort of looked like he smiled, but the teeth were wrong. For a rodent. “Just try to keep your explosive intervention style to a minimum and there won’t be anything too serious to explain.”

So, that’s a jinx.

I assumed so. 

Kei sighed. “Mission accepted, Nezu-dono. I’ll try not to step on any toes.”

[wobster109]

Why is Aventurine Preservation-Imaginary?

(The real answer is, it's probably just HoYo filling out the path/element roster, but we'll play along!)

We'll tackle his element first. It's not the easier of the two, but it's the one with less info to sort through. The basic element types are:

Elements: wind, fire, ice, lightning

Sorta-abstract: quantum, imaginary

Physical: physical

It's a pretty funny system, all things considering. Here's Gepard, he can summon a massive wall of ice through will alone! Here's Dr. Ratio, he can make a massive tower just by thinking it into existence! Oh and here's Luka. Ordinary human. Pretty good at boxing.

(Not including Trailblazer here - probably the stellaron helps her swing that bat extra hard or something.)

And in the middle, you have Guinaifen, Hook, and Serval, who use the element but do not create it from scratch. For example, Serval is conceivably using electricity from her electric guitar.

Most of the elements are pretty self-explanatory, but Quantum and Imaginary are a bit more abstract. What are these types? What do they mean?

Quantum: technology, information, data, uncertainty

In my mind, Silver Wolf is the classic quantum character. She uses hacking to change data. In her hands, the data is always shifting. Fu Xuan is another direction that quantum can go - she's a diviner, and her job is peering into the future and making sense of the uncertainty. And then Qingque has elements of both: she works in divination, and also there is uncertainty in each hand of Celestial Jade.

Imaginary: Logic, abstraction, math/physics/metaphycs, theology

For some reason, Imaginary feels to me like dealing with the grand existential questions. There's Dr. Ratio on one end, knowledge is the measure of all things, and then there's Luocha with religious symbolism all over him, the devils, the church, the insanity in his character story, healing you with a cross necklace. Welt with his black hole - there's some kind of physics in there!

But this seems more like a philosophy than an element in battle. So in practice, what Imaginary characters have in common most of all is summoning miscellaneous objects 😅 black holes, dragons, chalk, etc.

So on that note, Aventurine fits right in, summoning dice and coins all over the place! Watch your he-ead~ 🎶🎵

I would've expected Aven to be Quantum. All the RNG in his kit. . . all the gambling, all the uncertainty. . . it seems more alike Qingque's tile suits. He even has card suits on his shields!

Perhaps the Imaginary is more about his character. Much of his story is intensely existential - what's the good of his blessing when everyone he loves is gone; why are we born if it's just to die. Perhaps he brings not just another answer, but a new way to see the question—not Why am I here, but All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

A more direct question that he himself discusses is why he's Preservation. We know he was offered the chance to become a Masked Fool, and seek Elation - the pursuit of happiness. Yet he turned it down.

As his alter-ego says, he and Preservation have nothing in common.

Interestingly, he also gives himself the answer.

He didn't choose the Preservation. Aventurine chose the IPC.

But wait—aren't the IPC the bad guys?

It is fascinating to me when people make out the IPC to be the villain of this tale, or talk about him "escaping" the IPC as if he's being held hostage. Not only did he choose the IPC, he gambled everything, including his life, just for a sliver of a chance to join them.

They didn't kill his family, enslave him, brand him, or make him kill 34 other slaves. Certainly, the IPC has used Aventurine's talents and self-destructive behavior to their benefit, and is not particularly concerned with what becomes of him. They are big, corporate, and easy to hate. But they are also not the cause of his tragedy.

It's not the IPC, but rather the Katicans, that kill Kakavasha's family. His sister describes them as "bloodthirsty, cruel, and insatiably greedy." Personally I can’t say with confidence that the Katicans are villains without knowing their full history, but either way, the conflict is between the Avgins and the Katicans.

My feeling is that the IPC is amoral - they are not actively out to do harm, but neither will they go out of their way to avoid or prevent it. They are focused primarily on profit. Sometimes that means taking over a planet against the people's will. Sometimes that means making gambles. . . or sacrifices. Other times, it means hosting an Aetherium event.

So, why does Aventurine choose the IPC? What's interesting to me is, he isn't a slave to the IPC in any sense - not even in the lack-of-choice sense of Topaz's planet. He had a choice. He could have become a Masked Fool. So, why?

It all comes back to this:

"Go ahead, use me as you wish, even stab me in the back if you see fit. Exploitation and treachery are simply tools of the trade. But remember, I don't make deals that don't pay off... So, I hope you don't disappoint me."

The IPC is a tool to him, a means to an end. He expects that the IPC will use him, and in exchange he intends to use the IPC.

But to what end?

It's got to be something big. He could have become a refugee or an ordinary IPC employee, and instead he took the risk of lying about Tayzzynronth's remains. He let himself be arrested and brought to Jade. "I bet you won't send me to the gallows." Death was a possibility, so it had to be worth that risk.

My guess is that he wanted to save the Avgin people.

(And in this sense, Preservation is his true path after all.)

His sister tells him, "As long as you are alive, the blood of the Avgin will never run dry." Perhaps his goal was to save the remaining Avgin people, bring them away from the land of rock and sand and hardly any rain, and give them a home where they could prosper. Or to environmentally transform his home the way the IPC transformed other planets. To do that, he'll need more money and power than an IPC grunt's income. But with a Stoneheart's power, the IPC's money, and the Intelligentsia Guild's knowledge, he could make that happen.

(It feels off. It feels like too simple of an answer.)

But the Avgin people are all gone. Aventurine specifically says there aren't any left. Now that his reason is gone, what will become of him?

In a way, he does offer us an answer.

Aventurine: There will come a day when the sky will drizzle, and I will hear the call of Gaiathra Triclops and know that it is time for me to go and be reunited with my family. Aventurine: So until the time comes... I should be preparing. Kakavasha: Preparing for what? Aventurine: Preparing to face them, Kakavasha, and to make them proud.

He will go on to live a good life. What form will it take?

I don't think he can ever completely shake off the responsibility of being the last surviving Avgin. It would be quite a leap for him to settle down and have a family, so perhaps he'll have to pass it forward some other way. Either by preserving the culture (another museum management event?) or by dedicating his wealth and power to saving other peoples.

The thing about being somewhere is, you can't help but grow into it, and it grows around you. And now, he has. . . allies who are a bit closer to friends than he might think.

He has two coworkers who willingly handed over their cornerstones for his plan—cornerstones more precious than life itself. He seems to genuinely look out for Topaz (advising her against getting involved in Belobog), and she talks about him cheerfully during 2.1. And I am sure that bringing him into the IPC was a significant personal risk for Jade, especially since he'd already caused the IPC a major financial loss. For Jade and Topaz, he has—if not their trust, at least their respect in his abilities.

And he has the Intelligentsia Guild's top Mundanite fussing over his survival. Not for the Avgin bloodline, and not for profit or the success of a mission. Acheron refers to Ratio as his “friend”, and he doesn’t bother to deny it.

He has three allies/maybe-friends involved in a grand scheme with him, and isn't there something addicting about scheming together? Something as marvelous as what the Trailblazer has with the Express? So, I don't think he'll leave the IPC anytime soon. He carved out this path with his bare hands, made a life and a purpose for himself, and even made some friends along the way. Now, it's time to live it.

[nazrigar]

Weretober 2023 - Part 2: Lives of the Werebeasts of Urvara

And now, to cap off Weretober 2023, the final batch exploring the lives of Werefolk in my setting of Beast Fables. From assassins to soldiers to ronin to nasty diseases, there are many sides to being a werebeast in Urvara!

A famous Were-Tarantula Hawk assassin readies for combat against a berserker were-shrew.

A were-sea lion stumbles upon a rare find: a black pearl! Surely this will give her clan honor! Unbenkowest to her however, she is being watched by a couple of merfolk. The Mer-tiger shark wants to "deal" with her, to keep their society a secret, but the Mer-octopus urges caution instead.

For most people, a person's animal form is either from one parent or the other. In much rare cases however, one could get an animal form that's a hybrid of their parents's beast form! Walter Raja Surrey here is a Liger, and has all of the hybrid's advantages, without the myriad of health problems associated with them!

A member of the last group of Were-Diprotodons shows an archeology student and an art history student an example of a hunting boomerang, otherwise known as a karli. Alongside being both a great example of art and a useful tool, it's big enough to double as a club.

A werefox succumbs to that most feared of diseases among were-mammal kind, rabies. Certain were-folk, like werebirds can fight off the disease, while others like were-crocodilians seem to be immune to almost anything.

A were-rhinoceros beetle gets treated for cordyceps. While not the lethal, muscle and nervous system hijacker of their wild counterparts, it still hurts, and requires immediate attention, lest it begins to interfere with the magics governing transformation as well as tissue damage.

A traveling group of were-elephantines, including a mammoth. While giants to a regular person, they themselves are dwarfed by the creator of the roads they travel upon, called the Titan Roads. These roads were built by Were-sauropods.

A turbulent priest preaches the cause for justice, and the betterment of society as a whole. A priest of the Ten Faced God, he dons the silver and black to denote his devotion to the face of Justice.

A were-raccoon dog ronin thought his speed and agility would win the day against the lumbering were-eremotherium, who himself is in service of a large empire known as Tartessos (basically Not!Spain). The risk the ronin took was calculated, but BOY was he BAD at math!

And finally, the classic Werewolf. A Durroyan werewolf charges with a bayonet, steely determination in his eyes and faith that discipline will win the battle through. A Gevaudanois werewolf counter charges with tooth, claw and sabre in hand, confident that courage and ferocity will win the day.

[goldeneyedgirl]

okay so since you asked here goes my main questions about Deaf Mary Alice: how was her relationship with Maria? Was she softer with her or tried to protect her in any way? Or did Jasper tried to protect Mary Alice from her? Also, was she and Charlotte and Peter friends? Did they talk to her like Jasper did?

And for what you said about Jasper not knowing how to act with her, since when I read the first snippet, I pictured him trying hard to be gentle (maybe because he had this misogynistic 19th century idea that she was a poor fragile little deaf girl) but really he doesn't know how to do that. It's like a baby monkey trying to solve a complex math problem. What I got from your last snippet (which I loved so much btw!!!) is that he didn't know if she would survive anywhere else.

But this is only my nonsese. I hope I got it right and I'd be the happiest with whatever you come up with because, again, this verse just touches my heart in a way I can't even explain, it's crazy the power that fanfiction holds

Oh I LOVE questions like these. Buckle up, I decided to ramble.

Maria

Maria's a complicated figure in Mary-Alice's life. Initially, she's tolerant of Mary-Alice - what's the point of killing her on the spot when she could be sent into battle as canon fodder? Free newborn without three days of screaming? Maria isn't going to say no.

Maria's been around a long time and she's seen vampires adapt to almost any circumstance. A deaf vampire is a new flavour, but not an insurmountable one.

So when Mary-Alice not only learns to fight with the other newborns, but makes her through her first few battles in one piece, Maria is suitably taken with her. She's completely useless for scouting, and not particularly helpful with hunting for the army, but she's a powerhouse on the battlefield, and a quick study at battle plans. Maria definitely suspects there might be some kind of gift at work.

But also on that side of the coin is that Maria accepted Mary-Alice into the army, and kept her after the newborn year. That's effectively claiming Mary-Alice as one of her own creations, which is about as affectionate as Maria gets towards her soldiers.

And Maria has a hard time dealing with Mary-Alice's positivity. She's so clearly pleased to be amongst them, and is loyal to them, that being nasty or violent towards her is kind of futile. It makes more sense when Mary-Alice can communicate enough to explain that she has no memories of her life or change. Maria might have an ounce more patience with Mary-Alice than hearing vampires, and she ends up carrying a flashlight to get Mary-Alice's attention urgently in battle situations, but that's about the most grace she gives her until Jasper leaves.

That's when Maria kind of promotes her, gives her more privileges, because she knows exactly how much of Mary-Alice's life relied on Jasper translating for her. It gets harder, the more time goes on, because Maria does not have the inclination to teach anything more than basic commands in sign language to newborns once a year, and the newborns often aren't interested.

Ultimately, Maria lets Mary-Alice leave for various reasons: officially, she's become a liability because no one can communicate with her effectively, and deserves a reward for her staunch loyalty to Maria's cause. Kind of a PR stunt with the rest of Maria's soldiers.

Unofficially, Maria realises that she's made mistakes in the past with her people, and she's learned from that. It would be nice if one of her people left the army considering Maria a friend and ally. It's also a gesture of peace and goodwill to Jasper - Maria took care of Mary-Alice, the person that Jasper prized most in the army. Now that he's healed and in a place Maria deems acceptable, Mary-Alice is following him.

Does that make sense? I hope so.

Peter & Charlotte.

Both Peter and Charlotte can speak to Mary-Alice, not as fluently as Maria, but Jasper really is the only person who can converse with Mary-Alice without her having to resort to lip-reading at some point. Peter is far more fluent than Charlotte.

Peter has a far better relationship with this version of Mary-Alice. She follows Jasper around like a puppy, and Jasper's somehow both embarrassed and kind of flattered by it. Most of the newborns were too frightened of the Major to hit on him, and here's Mary-Alice just trotting along at his side.

Peter and Mary-Alice joke with each other a lot, tease each other a lot, and competed a lot in training. The most you could say is that Mary-Alice was pissed that Peter picked a fight with Jasper the night he and Charlotte left because if Peter had used his damn words, Jasper probably would have let them go.

Peter's the first one to realise that Jasper's caught feelings when they're figuring out sign language, and he kind of just leaves it alone - but he definitely works double-time in battles to make sure Mary-Alice stays alive, and protects her from other newborns that see her as an easy target.

Charlotte doesn't get as much time with Mary-Alice, but sees her as some kind of magic - she caught Jasper and Mary-Alice together in her newborn year, and the way he went all soft and kind when she spoke to him. And then it's Mary-Alice who tells Peter that he needs to take Charlotte and go North as soon as possible. It's Mary-Alice who intercepts the fight between Jasper and Peter when they do try to leave.

Peter is the one that asks Maria if they can take Mary-Alice to Jasper. He's willing to negotiate, and he's kind of surprised that Maria agrees as easily as she does. Kind of a full-circle 'she got them out safe, so they returned the favour'.

If something were to happen to Jasper, Peter would insist that Mary-Alice leave the Cullens and join him and Charlotte. (That's not a spoiler; just kind of the dynamic Peter has with Mary-Alice.)

Jasper.

Jasper was exactly like a monkey trying to do algebra. Not once since he was changed did he have to be gentle. Everyone was terrified of him aside from Peter and Maria. By 1919, the only time he touches anyone is to destroy them. And he's so, so tired.

And Mary-Alice just looks at him and smiles. There is immediate trust there, and he has no idea what to do with that. He's doubtful Maria will even let her live if she can't hear. But Maria does, and he's put in charge of communicating with her. Suddenly, he's spending hours with this girl who has no fear of him. Who will grab him to point at something, whose face lights up when he returns from boundary runs. And the only thing he feels like he can offer her is to build her a language and train her to fight like the devil. The first scar she ever gets from a bite, she literally laughs and tells him they match now.

She forces him to remember how to be a man and not just an executioner, and it's hard. He does everything he can not to care but he does so, so much.

Jasper leaves her behind for two reasons; one is the depression. He's holding on by the skin of his teeth. He's barely making it through battles himself, he cannot protect her any longer. And then there's the fact that the North is a total unknown. Maria has always doubled-down on the idea that it's worse than the South, that it's a full death wish to leave Texas. He always thought Peter and Charlotte were destroyed when they left. But when Peter comes back, he's willing to take the chance on Peter's promises that it's safer and better - but only for himself.

The idea he could take Mary-Alice with him and get her killed, or have her harmed in any way, made him sick. He had no idea what he was running to, so he was going to leave the one person he loved best with Maria, the one person who knew how to survive no matter what. And he made this decision in about a minute, because Peter was begging him to just run.

The only thing Jasper ever really wanted was to keep the girl that looked at him like he was everything she ever hoped for safe, even if that meant he had to leave her behind.

Anon, I run with every little thing. You can just hit me with a question and I will get out my diagrams and pinboards and all my notes. I love getting into the details so much.

And I am genuinely touched that this little riff has had such an impact on you. I love trying out new stuff, especially things that make Twilight a little bit more diverse and nuanced than canon. Trust me when I say a lot of my weird little snippets and verses wouldn't continue without people who were invested in them <3

[renesassing]

Lovvvveeeee your Revan (all forms of them)!! I was wondering, is the 6 months you alluded to post Kotor 1? I'm curious about the Sith eye as well, did they have that right after being brainwashed? Cause that's cool as heck 🤩 The implications of it all ....... I love them your honor 😭

thank you so much hnnny!!!

the six months i alluded too is actually. me doing the math wrong because it was like 1am. 'revan' in that drawing is actually right at the start of the jedi civil war... so technically it shouldn't be +6 months it should be like. +3 years. i was going off of the timeline from revan's capture to like. the middle of kotor. LJKADSLJK but yeah lyn has the sith eye for the entirety of kotor and yes it is because of the Implications... a lot of jedi in the enclave were really uncomfortable with their eye.

anyway for more detail, behold a proper breakdown of their names through their timeline:

rye. [ 3986 - c.3996 BBY ] basically their name for their entire time in the jedi order. as an older padawan and knight they sport the big hair with the top clasp. they wear a lot of jewelry, more than one would think appropriate of a jedi, but they like metalworking, making hair clasps and bracelets with scrap metal. they're not very attached to any of it. they do, however, have a midline tongue piercing as part of firrerreo [ homebrew ] culture.

the revanchist [ c. 3966–3964 ] they originally start to braid their hair, but after the incident at flashpoint station they cut their hair short. when the jedi council puts a bounty on their head, they dye their hair black. they're oftentimes more ashen than what's typical— some suspect they suffer from fatigue or illness. in truth, firrerreo turn grey when experiencing strong emotions. like rage.

revan [ 3964–3960 ] they shorten the name after cathar and decide to keep their hair short + black too, though they start to become more infrequent about dying it because they have a mask and helmet now. so oftentimes their roots will show. they start to appear grey more and more often for extended periods of time. during the fight with te ani'la he almost takes off the lower half of their face (lol foreshadowing) and while they do heal it leaves a gnarly scar.

darth revan [ 3960—3957 ] still short hair, grey skin so constant that the few who see it without knowing them in the past think it's been their complexion this whole time. the red in the whites of their eyes is blood.

lyn [ 3956–3954 ] is told their one discolored, yellow eye and the subconjunctival hemorrhaging that comes with it is a result of trauma. lyn is told that they survived an explosion from a ship-to-ship battle with some major brain damage and they might have some long-term problems as a result, even with their healing factor. this explains the eye and the shrapnel scars across their cheeks and nose. it's used to explain away other things too, like sudden mood swings or unexpected triggers or sometimes-fuzzy memories.

revan [ 3954– ] after regaining a lot of their memories, revan starts to grow their hair out again. specifically keeping the clasped hair at the front. their eyes never do change back, but the never really return to the light, either.

[nyaboshi]

Whoa! Another Art Fight ref!

This one is an OC I've definitely drawn before and yapped about. Achlys! <3

Easily one of my favorite OCs, I love him so much.

Copy/pasted yaps, original design, and other images of the references below the cut

Yap

He was created in a lab by a scientist named Xander, who was obsessed with creating human hybrids and monstrosities in attempts to create the perfect soldiers. All of his attempts in the past had proven to be too unstable and unfit for actual battle. At some point, Xander came to the conclusion that it was because he was adding DNA to human beings who had already existed. His new priority became to gather the DNA of an individual and use it to make a clone that he would then mix with the DNA. Achlys was the first product of this experimental process (at least the first to not die immediately after being "born"). Xander started with something as simple as the DNA of a butterfly, just to see what it would be like if such an experiment succeeded. What Xander did not expect was to become emotionally attached to the kid. He raised him for a few years, and he eventually because like a father to him. After an altercation with his nefarious works that nearly cost him Achlys' life, he gave up his dangerous and illegal practices, faked his death so the authorities wouldn't be after him, and started a new life with his child.

Achlys grew up within a morally gray household. Although Xander taught him morals to prevent him from getting on the bad side of the law – both because he didn't want Achlys to grow up to be like him (huzzah, character development!) and because trouble with the law meant Achlys being discovered and likely hauled away/killed – that didn't stop Achlys from becoming a bit of a troublemaker. He's loud-mouthed, manipulative at times, and generally kinda self-centered. Achlys definitely isn't afraid to tell minor fibs to get what he wants, and he can and will pull out the good ol' puppy dog eyes on his poor old papá to get him to cave. Xander is somewhat immune to it by the time Achlys hits his mid teenage years. But not completely. Despite his iffy morals though, he's generally a good kid. All of his stuff adds up to petty actions only. If he ever actually got pushed to do anything truly evil, he'd just kinda stand there and likely have a panic attack. Ironically enough, Achlys is easily manipulated. All it takes is flattery and the promise of something sweet and he'll be eating out of the palm of your hand. That's only for first time interactions, though. If you take that opportunity and use it to wrong him, hoof... Once Achlys trust is broken, it is ridiculously hard to earn it back. ANOTHER IMPORTANT DETAIL!!! He is such a dummy. Like. My gosh, somebody help this child... He can't do basic math for the life of him, and not from lack of Xander trying to teach him. Achlys just refuses to pay attention to anything that doesn't interest him unless it's what he deems as super important. And... schooling was not one of those things. He did enough to get by and then it went right out his other ear. Bro can count, but like– If you asked him what 12 x 9 was he'd just sit there and stare at you blankly. The only subject in school he took an interest to was science – it made him feel connected with Xander, cause that's his father's passion. Does he understand a lick of what's being said to him? Not really, no. But does he actually try to listen and learn for once so he can assist him in the "completely safe" experiments he conducts? Of course! On that note, Achlys thinks the world of Xander. His father's opinion is really the only one he cares about. Achlys can get berated by a horde of angry Karens and not give two shakes of a rat's tail; however, the moment Xander does so much as raises his voice at him, he shrinks and turns into a puddle of tears. Never in front of Xander. He holds his ground until he's alone in his room. Then he curls up underneath his covers (or under the bed, depends on how badly he was lectured) and wallows. There's no greater achievement to Achlys than receiving Xander's praise and approval. Which he does receive often, because Xander adores his little sharp-toothed shark child.

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[crystalninjaphoenix]

Learning New Things

Paranormal Preteens AU: Episode Twenty-Four

A JSE Fanfic

After the two-part romp of the gang exploring Caverns & Creatures, it's back to business. The kids have exams coming up before winter vacation, so they have to buckle down and study and try to ignore anything supernatural happening. But that proves impossible for JJ and Marvin, as they finally figure out what that strange doll does. And they're not fond of it. Hopefully next chapter we'll reach winter vacation so the kids will be a bit more free :) Big things are planned! We just gotta build up to get there ^-^

More of this AU | From the Start | Read on AO3 at CrystalNinjaPhoenix

++++++++++++++++++++

Even with all the supernatural battles they’d fought since summer, Chase thought that exams were the worst struggle he’d had this year. And this was only for the end of the fall term! He was dreading how much exams would suck  at the end of the school year. November and December flew by in a blur of assignments. He tried to put them off for as long as possible, but not only was Mom constantly asking him about homework, but so was Schneep. “I would be willing to help, if you need it,” he was constantly saying.

Chase turned him down every time. “I’m never gonna figure it out if I get help,” he said. “Besides, you’re also busy, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but I am always on the top of my class work,” Schneep would reply. “And we have some same classes, I could definitely help with those.”

The first time he said that, Chase said, “Great! Can I see your work, then?” And Schneep slapped his arm and said something about cheating that Chase couldn’t quite make out, since half of it was in German. So Chase learned to quietly accept the help Schneep provided. It felt a bit weird to get help from someone younger than him, but Schneep was really smart, so it wasn’t too weird. Still, there were some times when Schneep was at a loss for how to explain things. Especially with maths. Maths were Chase’s worst subject. The numbers just didn’t click in his brain.

Still, he struggled on. It was so hard to concentrate with the other big thing coming up. That being, only the greatest holiday of the year: Christmas. He couldn’t wait! The lights, the presents, the decorations, the songs! And he had to get presents for Schneep and the others! And maybe he could save up to get something for Mom, too? What did Mom like? Books and stuff, right?

Chase was sure that every single kid out there was as excited for this holiday as he was. But one day, at lunch—

“What do you mean you don’t like Christmas?!” Chase gasped.

Marvin shrugged. “At home, basically every day after our birthday is fucking soaked in Christmas. You saw the lights were up already, right? I’m pretty sure they put those up on November first.”

Usually, yes, but not this year, JJ said. Didn’t you notice? They waited until the day after you were home.

“Uh... not really,” Marvin said. “But that’s, uh, good.” He looked back at Chase. “Anyway, yeah, ‘cause of that I don’t really care about Christmas all that much.”

Me neither, JJ agreed. The best part of Christmas is that our grandma stays with us until New Year’s. Other than that? I’m not a fan.

Chase stared at them in disbelief. He looked at Stacy. “What about you?”

“Uhhhh... I-I don’t have any... strong feelings,” Stacy said awkwardly.

“How can you not have strong feelings?!” Chase turned to Schneep. “Come on, Schneep! Christmas is great! Like—you’ve gone to our family Christmas parties in America! I’ve seen you there!”

“Well, Mama and Papa would fly us over for the party, and then we would sleep in a hotel and leave the first thing the next morning,” Schneep said.

“Huh? Well... I guess I never really saw you guys hanging around...” Chase and his parents would always fly to his grandparents’ house a week before the actual party, doing stuff in town and spending time with the rest of the family who would gradually show up over the following days. He realized he never did see Schneep or his parents there outside of the party on Christmas Eve. It was one of the reasons he hadn’t been close with Schneep before Mom took him in. “You guys would fly back on Christmas morning? What about opening presents?”

Schneep looked down at the table. “Most of Christmas was Papa’s business things. If I was good during the time, I-I would... get my present at the end of the day...” He slowly trailed off.

Chase clenched his fists, angry, and then took a deep breath and nudged Schneep beside him. “Well I can show you how Mom and me do things this year, then! It’s so much better than that!” Schneep smiled softly.

“So, you guys are gonna fly to America for Christmas?” Stacy asked.

“Uh... I dunno,” Chase said. “We usually do, we leave right after exams are done. But, uh, a while ago Mom asked me how I’d feel about staying here this year. And I... said I’d be fine with that.” He shrugged, trying to look unbothered about it. He would really miss the Christmas party this year. But... it wouldn’t be the same without his dad there, too. And since the party was on Mom’s side of the family, he probably wasn’t going to be there.

“Aunt Jess asked me something similar,” Schneep said quietly.

“Winter holiday would fucking suck without you guys,” Marvin said.

Yes, I agree, JJ said.

Stacy frowned. “You should add, like, ‘no pressure’ to the end of that or something.”

No pressure, JJ added. Then he blinked, looking momentarily confused, but dismissed it.

“Well, ah, moving on from Christmas,” Schneep said. “Have you all figured out anything more about the strange doll?”

JJ glanced to the side��no doubt looking towards his locker. Apparently the doll would show up in his bag if he carried it around school with him, but if he left his bag in his locker it would stay there.

“Well, uh, last night we tried seeing if a knife did anything to it,” Marvin said.

“What?!” Stacy gasped.

“It didn’t, don’t worry,” Marvin said. “But then again, we didn’t do too much. We just kinda... pressed it against the doll. Didn’t cut through the cloth or anything. But! JJ couldn’t feel that.” JJ nodded. “So it’s probably fine. He also didn’t feel it when we dropped the doll out the window again. Or stacked books on top of it.”

“And... you two just did this on your own?” Schneep asked, worried.

We were careful! JJ said.

“What if something worked?! You would be hurt!”

“It’d be fiiiine, we were careful!” Marvin said. “Very slow about it. JJ was able to stop things if he started feeling weird.”

“You guys are crazy,” Stacy muttered.

“I mean... I guess if it worked?” Chase figured, gesturing vaguely. “Anyway. You guys notice any grown-ups who might be in the Circle watching you or anything?”

JJ shrugged. I think... the attention has started to fade, maybe.

“We’ll be able to go back to normal stuff once we reach winter holiday!” Marvin said cheerfully. “And once the fucking exams are over—fucking hell, I always forget how much I hhhate them.”

“If you are in trouble of failing, I could try to help you learn,” Schneep offered.

“Nah—you guys are a year below us, your shit is all different,” Marvin said. “Thanks, though. I don’t think I’ll fail anything, but... uh...” Marvin trailed off. For a moment, he looked... afraid. Not mortally afraid, but still. There was fear in his expression. Chase knew immediately what it meant. He was afraid that he actually would fail something.

“Well, uh, getting bad grades isn’t the end of the world,” Chase said awkwardly. “I did really bad on my exams last year. I, uh... couldn’t study.” Couldn’t bring himself to study. He ended up spending most of April and May lying in bed and feeling bad. Maybe he should’ve tried a bit harder? “B-but I ended up alright!” he hurriedly added, partly to push away his own doubtful thoughts.

I’m helping Marvin, don’t worry, JJ said. He smiled. He’s not going to get bad grades if I can help it.

Marvin laughed. “Yeah. And, uh... really thanks for that, JJ.”

Of course. You’re my brother.

“Do you think Jackie could tutor you guys?” Stacy asked.

“He’s probably busy,” Marvin said. “He’s in sixth form this year, right? That’s gotta be a lot of schoolwork. But I guess we can ask if things get really fucking bad.”

Chase frowned. “I still don’t really understand what sixth form is... even though I’ve lived here for years now, I just don’t get it. Is it like... a different school? But it happens in the same building?”

“Yeah, I think it’s special stuff to help you prepare for like... going to uni and shit,” Marvin said, frowning. “Well, whatever. We don’t have to deal with that for a couple years. And Jackie’s smart. I’m sure he’s doing good even if it’s a lot.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Chase nodded. Jackie was really cool and smart. He was probably dealing with exams better than most of them.

++++++++++++++++++++

“I’m so fucking dumb,” Jackie said, slamming his head down on the open textbook.

“You’re not dumb,” Fengge said reassuringly. “You’re just not good at taking notes.”

“Because taking notes is booooriiiiing,” Jackie groaned.

He was with the rest of his friends, sitting around a table in Fengge’s house. His parents had a full-on library attached to the side of their house. Well... it was a single room with floor-to-ceiling bookcases surrounding it. But there were still a lot of books in here! And the bookcases lent the room a sort of soundproofing, so the friend group tended to gather here when it came time to study.

“I’m with you,” Missy said, idly doodling on a corner of her notebook. “Not fun. And not all that helpful.”

“Studies show that note-taking is very helpful, actually,” Rama muttered. “Otherwise I would not remember how to calculate the area of a... uh... an ellipses.”

“Pi times semimajor axis times semiminor axis,” Sylvester said.

“Whoa! You know that off the top of your head, Syl?” Missy said, eyes wide. “Impressive!”

“It’s, uh, really not.”

“Smart and good at Gym—you’re a rare breed, Sylvester Shepard!” Missy said, leaning close to him.

Sylvester frowned. “...I feel like all smart people should be offended by that.”

“Oh, uh.” Missy slowly leaned back “I didn’t mean it like that. I just... think you’re great.”

“Oh. Um, thanks.”

“You two need a room,” Celine muttered.

While his friends bantered, Jackie lifted his head and stared down at the textbook. Why did he need to take Biology again? He didn’t want to have a job that would need it... maybe. He thinks. What did he want his future job to be? The question stuck in his head for a while before it slowly fell out, a thick syrup like all the rest of his current thoughts. He could think about his future later. Right now, his present was full of homework. Come on, concentrate. What was something important about Biology that he remembered? The structure of an animal cell... “Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell,” he muttered.

“Maybe we take a break,” Fengge said, reaching over to close Jackie’s textbook for him. The pages gently slapped Jackie’s cheek, since his head was still pretty close to the book.

“I’m fine, I can keep going,” Jackie said, putting a hand in the book as he sat up so Fengge couldn’t fully close it.

“Yeah, no, clearly not,” Ram said. “Breaks are good for you, Jackie.”

“Welp. I’m all for it.” Missy closed her notebook. “Now what d’we do during the break?”

“We could... watch a movie?” Sylvester said.

“That break sounds a little too long,” Celine said. She put her books down and moved them into a little stack. “Let’s just chat. I actually wanted to tell you something, Jackie.”

“Hmm?” Jackie perked up. “What is it?”

“You’re still looking for that Jack guy, right?”

Jackie immediately sat up straight. “Yeah?”

“Well I talked to my brother, Mr. Student Body,” Celine said. “He said that when Jack’s parents had to pull him out they were required to give a moving address. To prove they’re moving out of range. I guess. He said it’s probably still in the records, so that the school can send them letters.”

“Why would the school want to send a former student letters?” Sylvester asked. “I know universities do that, but... our school?”

Celine shrugged. “It’s what he said.”

Jackie’s mind was racing. “Do you think you could...? Do you think I could ask your brother for...?”

Celine grinned. “He wouldn’t tell you, Jackie. But fortunately, I have myself some ways.” She wriggled her fingers mystically. “I can figure it out for you... for a price.” That last part was added in a spooky voice.

“I’m not giving you thirty pounds,” Jackie said, straight-faced.

“Twenty?”

“Fifteen.”

“I’ll take it.”

“Done.” Jackie reached into his pocket and dug around for his wallet. He opened it up, took out a few loose bills, and handed over seven. “The rest on completion.”

“Hehehe.” Celine grinned. “That’s fair.”

Sylvester watched this all happen. “You guys freak me out sometimes.”

“But you looove us,” Jackie said teasingly.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

“Why are you so curious about Jack McLoughlin, anyway, Jackie?” Ram asked. “Is it because of the name incident?”

“Uh... I just want to talk to him about some stuff,” Jackie said. “I... think he could help with it.”

“Hmm. That is fair.”

A moment passed in silence. “We could ask my mom for snacks,” Fengge said, looking towards the library door. “That would probably help with everything.”

“Oooo snacks!” Missy said. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

The group got up and headed out of the room towards Fengge’s kitchen. Jackie tried to keep his face neutral. If they could reach Jack, they could see if he really was connected to Anti. And if they could take care of Anti, they could stop these monsters for good. Or at least, stop Anti from getting them forcibly involved with the monsters. The rest? Well... he and the kids would figure it out eventually.

++++++++++++++++++++

Marvin stared at the worksheet sitting before him. He was sitting on the floor of his and Jameson’s shared bedroom, the worksheet sitting on a stack of books that formed a makeshift table. He really wished that they had a desk in their room. Honestly, he was surprised that Mam and Dad hadn’t already gotten one for JJ. But their room was pretty small; he wasn’t sure where a desk would fit, anyway.

A flush echoed down the hallway, and a few moments later, JJ appeared in the doorway. Sorry about that, he said.

“Literally don’t worry about it, it’s so normal,” Marvin said.

JJ sat down next to him. While I was gone, did you figure out the answer?

“Uhhh...” Marvin looked back down at the paper. “It’s... x = 12, right?”

Marvin, this is your World History homework, JJ signed gently.

“I know, I know. Just... thought I’d make a joke.” Marvin smiled weakly at JJ. When JJ didn’t smile back, he sighed, and put his head in his hands. “This fucking sucks, JJ. When am I ever gonna need to know this? I don’t think Chinese dynasties will come up a lot in my life.”

You could have taken English History instead, JJ pointed out.

“But I’ve taken English History every year! We never get any farther than, like, the fucking 1830s.”

Well, maybe this year would’ve been different if you took it, JJ said.

Marvin groaned. “Whatever. Just... help me out with this. It’s... Zhou, Shang, Qin—”

The first two are reversed, actually.

“Fuck.”

JJ smiled. Do you remember that little song I taught you to help with this?

“I do! I just... got the first two reversed.” Marvin groaned.

Let me see your textbook, JJ said.

Marvin pulled it out from the pile, opening it up. “I’m working on this chapter.” Some papers were sandwiched between the pages, covered in graphite writing. His notes. “And here’s what I got.”

JJ looked over the notes. The problem is that you’re being TOO detailed, I think. You’re never going to remember a long sentence like this. You have to jot down something shorter that reminds you of the longer fact. This is why people make acronyms and such.

“But... it all seems important,” Marvin said slowly.

JJ nodded. It does, but if you can remember a fact that’s linked to other facts, then the rest will come to you. Or at least, that’s how it’s always worked for me.

Marvin nodded back. “Alright. So... what should I focus on with this?”

The exam will probably ask you for a bunch of dates, so focus on those, JJ said. So you have to come up with ways to remember all those numbers. For me, I like to—

More footsteps came down the hallway. Dad peered into the open bedroom of their room. “What are you boys working on?” he asked.

“Uh... studying, Dad,” Marvin said.

“Oh really?” Dad smiled. “Working hard, huh? What’re you looking at now?”

“Um, World History,” Marvin said.

“Hmm?” Dad looked confused. “Jameson, I didn’t think you were taking World History.”

JJ blinked. I’m not... he said slowly. ...but I’m helping Marvin.

“Oh? So... you’ve already gotten all your own homework done, then?”

JJ hesitated. He nodded.

“Really?” Dad raised an eyebrow doubtfully. “So if I went down to check on your homework on the table downstairs, your essay would be done?”

Oh shit. The essay. Marvin glanced at JJ worriedly, knowing that he hadn’t even started it. It’s not due until next week, JJ said.

“It’s never good to procrastinate, Jameson. That only leads to sloppy work at the last minute. You need time to edit your writing and double-check that you’re doing the best work you can. You don’t often get second chances in life.” Dad smiled in a... well-meaning way. “Now. Go down and work on your homework and don’t stop until you’re done with that essay.”

JJ stood up right away, nodding, and headed out of the room. Marvin looked after him, surprised at how fast he got up and left. Usually when something like this happened, JJ at least took time to reassure Marvin that he’ll be back later. Or to remind Marvin about some important fact or studying method. Not this time. It was fine, but... confusing. And Marvin would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little hurt, wondering if he’d done something wrong. But it was too late to say anything. JJ was already gone, leaving Dad standing awkwardly in the bedroom doorway. “Well... good luck, Marvin,” Dad said, and went back down the hall towards his and Mam’s bedroom. 

Marvin sighed and looked back at his notes and worksheets.

Meanwhile, JJ was sitting at the kitchen table, pencil in hand, before he even realized what he was doing. He just—got up like that? How rude! He should go back upstairs to apologize to Marvin, at least. And finish what he was telling him. Maybe he could even take his books upstairs with him. Even though he usually left them at the kitchen table so he could do homework on a proper flat surface, it would be better to do homework together, wouldn’t it?

He started to get up.

Or, at least... he tried to.

He pushed the chair back from the table, but when he thought about standing up... his body just didn’t listen. He continued to sit there.

Okay, that was annoying. Come on, JJ. There would be no real consequence to delaying for a moment. Mam and Dad probably wouldn’t even notice if he popped back upstairs. Come on. Stand up.

But his legs wouldn’t move.

Jameson’s eyes widened in alarm. He looked down at the pencil in his hand, and told himself to let go of it. But the result was the same. His fingers stayed wrapped around the wood. He wasn’t gripping it tightly or anything. Just holding it casually. But he couldn’t... let... go.

He stared at his hand, utterly baffled for a moment. And while he did that, he found himself pulling the chair closer to the table. His other hand grabbed a piece of paper from the stack nearby and set it in front of him. And then... the pencil started to move. It pressed to the paper, and his eyes widened as he felt his hand write his name at the top without his intent.

What was this?! What was happening?!

The pencil wrote down his name, the class, and the professor’s name, and then stopped. Desperately, he tried to push back from the table again, but every time he thought about it his body stayed still. His eyes widened and his breathing started to speed up as panic crept up on him. Why?! Why couldn’t he stand up?! He looked around the kitchen, eyes darting, head turning. Was there something strange in here?! No, he couldn’t see anything. His eyes looked back down to the paper. Was he—was he being compelled to do his homework? Why?!

No no no, he didn’t want to do that. He wanted to go back upstairs and help Marvin. This wasn’t due for a while, but Marvin’s worksheet was due the day after tomorrow! He had to help him a bit more, at least!

Why couldn’t he stand up?!

A small whimper came from his throat. He continued to struggle against whatever force was keeping him here, against whatever was keeping him still. But he couldn’t fight it. He thought about crying out for help—Granmam was in the living room, she would hear him before Marvin or his parents did. But, as always, his throat closed up.

Maybe—maybe if he just got through the essay, this would go away? Maybe if he focused long enough to do it, he could get up afterwards? He wasn’t going to be stuck sitting here forever, he couldn’t be!

His vision was starting to blur with tears. Focus! Calm down! Just calm down! He didn’t have to write a good essay, he just had to write something.

Slowly, he took shaking breaths, and tried to concentrate on the words. He just... had to write about... what was he writing about? A book? Right, The Count of Monte Cristo. What prompt had he chosen, again? Something about... morality in the book?

Concentrate, concentrate. Everything would be okay if he could concentrate.

...

...

Time passed. He wrote slower than he usually did, counting the words until he was done, trying to write around wet spots on the paper. Finally, he finished it off with a weak conclusion paragraph. He leaned back, breathing slowly, blinking up at the ceiling. Then he tried to stand up.

It worked. Just as normal. It was so normal, in fact, that for a moment he doubted anything had happened. But no. He would never be able to forget that.

He walked out into the hallway, reaching the staircase—

“Jems!” Granmam was in the hallway already, walking towards the kitchen. Next to her feet, their kitten Sinney wound around her legs. But they both stopped as they saw Jameson, Granmam staring in shock. “Are you alrigh’, lad?”

Jameson was aware that his eyes were red and his face was red. But he couldn’t explain what just happened. He—he didn’t know how to. So he just hurried up the stairs, not looking at her as he climbed.

Marvin had given up on the worksheet and was now lying on Jameson’s bottom bunk, flipping through the instruction manual for his magic kit. He initially didn’t look up as he heard Jameson come in. “Hey, d’you think I could use my greenlight powers to do some of these for real?” he asked. And then he looked up. And he went white. “Wh-what happened?”

Jameson shook his head. I don’t know! I couldn’t move!

“What do you mean?” Marvin sat up straight.

I went down to the table and I couldn’t move I couldn’t stand up and the only way to fix it was to write the essay and I don’t know what it was but it must have been something weird and magic and scary— Jameson’s signs started to fall apart as the panic returned.

“Whoa, whoa, hey!” Marvin quickly scrambled to his feet and walked over to JJ. He put his hands on his shoulders. “Calm down. Breathe, JJ. Please.” His voice was soft. Gentle. A solid anchor to grab onto.

JJ took a few deep breaths and wiped his eyes. It must have been something related to Anti or the greenlight or something. That wasn’t normal.

Marvin shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. Hang on. I-I was thinking about this, and I might be able to sense the greenlight...”

JJ nodded slowly. He knew that Marvin had been practicing on that. So far, he’s been able to pick up on ‘vibes’ from the weird doll and some of the rocks in his collection.

While Marvin closed his eyes, concentrating, JJ heard footsteps come up the stairs. Granmam stopped in the doorway to their bedroom, holding Sinney in her arms. “I was wond’rin’ if you two wanted some playtime with the kitten.”

Marvin’s eyes immediately opened up again. “Sinney!” He went over to the corner, grabbing a cat toy that he’d left there. He dangled it in front of Sinney, and she immediately leapt out of Granmam’s arms and pounced on it.

“Is there anyt’ing else you lads need?” Granmam asked, looking directly at JJ as she said that.

Jameson shook his head. No. But thank you, Granmam.

Granmam smiled. “Any time.” And she headed back downstairs.

JJ waited until she was gone to close the doorway. Then he turned back to Marvin. Did you get any vibes?

“No more than the normal ones,” Marvin said. “From there—” He pointed at his box of rocks. “—and there.” He pointed at the corner where they’d thrown the doll earlier. It was sitting on the floor casually. Like it was relaxing and staring at them.

JJ shivered. He walked over to the doll and turned it around so it was facing the wall instead. And... that’s when he noticed it. Does the doll look... bigger to you?

“Huh?” Marvin looked away from Sinney and towards the doll. “I... guess.” He paused. “It’s not, like, taller, but it does look... bigger? Like there’s more stuffing inside.” His eyes widened. “Do you think the doll did that to you?”

JJ nodded slowly. We HAVE been wondering what it does... 

“Holy shit. It... froze you in place?”

No, that wasn’t exactly what happened. He wasn’t just frozen. He was stuck there until he did his homework. JJ frowned. He had a crazy idea... He didn’t want it to be right, but there was one way to figure out if he was. Tell me to do something, he said.

Marvin blinked. “Huh?”

Tell me to do something, JJ repeated. Something I wouldn’t normally want to do.

“Okay, uh...” Marvin looked down at Sinney. “Meow like a cat.”

“Mew.” JJ’s eyes widened as the sound popped out of his mouth. 

Marvin glanced at him in surprise.

Now see what the vibes from the doll are, Jameson said.

Marvin narrowed his eyes at the doll in concentration. He gasped. “It—there was like, a spike in the vibes. A vibe spike.”

Tell me to do something else! Jameson insisted.

“Um, uh—do ten jumping jacks!”

JJ started jumping immediately. He tried to stop, but just like downstairs, his body didn’t listen to his brain. As he did this, panic on his face, Marvin looked over at the doll again. “Another vibe spike!” he gasped. “The—the doll—it’s—making you do stuff?”

JJ finally finished his jumping jacks, panting. It’s making me do stuff people are telling me to, I think.

“That’s so fucking fucked up!” Marvin gasped. “What the fuck?! And we’re pretty sure the Circle gave this to you, right?! What the fuck?! Why?!”

I don’t know, JJ said. But we need to message the others.

++++++++++++++++++++

“So you’ve never seen a Christmas movie?” Chase pushed. “Like, at all?”

Schneep shook his head. “No, and I am starting to get tired of you and everyone else talking about Christmas all the time.”

“Sorry. It’s just... such an important thing to me, you know?” Chase said. “It’s like... really big and happy and, uh... and good.” He shrugged. “Anyway, you gotta at least see one Christmas movie. Then I’ll leave you alone. Probably. I’ll try, I mean.” He was currently crouched on the floor in front of the TV, looking through their DVDs. Schneep sat on the sofa behind him. In his lap was a textbook and his small plushie bat, Mitternacht. “Uh... We can watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Or these stop motion things, I guess, they’re kinda boring. Nightmare Before Christmas is more of a Halloween one, I think, but we didn’t watch it in October so we could watch it now. Have you heard of any of these at all?”

Schneep shook his head. “No. I am sorry.”

Chase sighed. “Maybe you didn’t have any of these in Germany.”

“No, maybe we did. But my parents did not like me to watch television. Remember?”

“Yeah...” Chase frowned for a moment, then continued looking through the movies. “Oh! A Muppet Christmas Carol! That one’s fun. But my favorite is Home Alone. It’s funny. We can watch that.”

“Do you think I will like it?” Schneep asked.

“Yeah, sure! It’s about this kid who gets left home alone accidentally while his family goes to France for Christmas holiday. While the mom really tries to get back to him, he has to stop some burglars from getting into the house.”

“Ooo.” Schneep leaned closer. “Alright. I am... intrigued.”

Chase laughed. “Intrigued? Fancy word.”

“It means curious... I think. Or, ah... interested?”

“Can’t believe you know more English words than me sometimes,” Chase muttered, setting up the DVD.

Footsteps came down the stairs as Mom arrived in the living room. “What are you boys doing?” she asked. “Are you done with homework?”

“Yeah, Mom,” Chase said. “I’m showing Henrik Home Alone.”

Schneep nodded. He held out the textbook—apparently it was a habit of his to offer for Aunt Jess to check his work.

“Don’t worry about it, Henrik,” Mom said, knowing what he was asking. “Before you two get started, Chase, I wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh. Uh, yeah, sure.” Chase stood up and walked over.

“Both of you,” Mom continued. She looked back and forth between Chase and Schneep. “How would the two of you feel about... having the family Christmas party here this year?”

“Huh?” Chase blinked. “Like... in our house?”

“Well, obviously our house isn’t as big as Grandma and Grandpa’s,” Mom says. “So the family wouldn’t actually stay in the house. They’d stay in a hotel.”

“Ohhh. Uh...” Chase thought about it. He did really like traveling back to America every year for the party. His grandparents’ house was great, they had a big TV and a big yard with a playground and so many rooms! But... He looked at Schneep. “What d’you think?”

“Ah... wh-who will be coming to the party?” Schneep asked, looking nervous.

Mom looked at him seriously. “Albrecht and Maggie won’t be invited if you’re not comfortable with them being there,” she said softly.

Schneep looked down at his lap. He messed with Mitternacht’s wings. “I... I would be... fine with... h-having the party here. As for Mama and Papa... ahm... a-ask me again l-later.”

Mom nodded. “Alright. If you’re sure.” She looked at Chase. “What about you? You know, if we have the party here... I was... thinking about inviting some of your dad’s relatives.”

Chase perked up. “Will Dad be there?” He hadn’t been expecting Dad to go to the Christmas party, since it was on Mom’s side of the family.

“I don’t know, sweets. Maybe.”

Chase nodded. “Y-yeah, let’s have the party here!”

Mom smiled. “Great. I’ll start sending out invitations, then.” She headed back upstairs. “You have fun watching the movie!”

“We will, Mom!” Chase shouted up after her. He grinned, thinking about it. What if Dad really did come to the party? What if—what if he could talk to him? About video games and baseball and everything? That would be amazing! Though his chest kinda hurt thinking about it... Not because he was sad. Because he was feeling... something else. He didn’t know what, though. It was... good, maybe? Maybe... he could ask Mom about that later. For now, he looked at Schneep. “Are you, uh... okay?”

Schneep nodded slowly. He was hugging Mitternacht to his chest. “Ah, can we... watch the movie now? You said it was funny?”

“Yeah.” Chase walked back over to the sofa and sat down next to Schneep in his usual place. While they’d been talking, the previews included on the DVD had been playing. He quickly pressed the menu button. “The movie’s from, like, years ago so some things are different, but the funny is forever.”

Schneep laughed a little. “I am very intrigued now.”

Chase laughed as well. “Hope it lives up to the intrigued, then.”

He pressed play on the remote and the two of them settled in for the movie, leaning close against each other. The first half of the movie proceeded normally, but then—

Beep!

He heard the text tone of his phone go off. Chase scooted over to the end table to grab it, looking at the message. It was from JJ. Emergency meeting tomorrow at zellys PLEASE!!!!

“Is it one of the others?” Schneep asked.

“Yeah... JJ says we need to meet tomorrow.” Chase frowned. The capital letters and multiple exclamation marks really wasn’t like JJ’s usual way of typing. He hoped everything was okay.

...

It would be fine, wouldn’t it? After all, the meeting isn’t now, it couldn’t be that bad if JJ was asking them to wait until tomorrow.

Chase slowly set the phone down. “I’ll ask him about the time after we’re done,” he said. Though he felt a bit bad about it, he was sure everything would be okay.

[tarotcard0]

I now have actual proof that the Dragon Quest Wiki is full of lies!

First, some set-up. If I were a normal person, I'd just open up with the proof I'm talking about, but I feel it's important to put into context why I find this to be such a big deal.

I've been playing a lot of Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior lately (And I mean a lot). It's basically consumed my entire life. And, lacking physical manuals, I had to look up digital versions. When the manual lacked the information I needed, or worse, wasn't available, I had to go to the wiki.

Now, the first time I went to the Wiki, I was playing Dragon Quest IX, and I was given a Side Quest in which someone had requested I deliver a Wing Of Bat. I was fighting Drackmages for actual hours. The entire party had leveled up multiple times, and not a single Wing Of Bat had dropped. So I went to the wiki, because I needed Item Drop Rates. At the time of writing, according to the wiki Drackmages have a 1/16 chance of dropping a Wing Of Bat.

That's really funny. Not the drop rate, the fact that they expect me to believe that.

And this sort of thing just kept on happening. "There's no way such-and-such enemy's critical hit rate is this low" "There's no way that's such-and-such ability's damage range" "The rate such-and-such attack causes a status ailment is obviously higher than that" and so on and so forth.

But that's not good enough.

Saying "I was unlucky, therefor these odds must be wrong" is not good enough. I can scream into the void all I want, but as long as the chance of a Drackmage dropping a Wing Of Bat is lower than 100%, then there's a higher than 0% chance that I was simply that unlucky.

And a combination of Dokapon's obviously cheating CPUs and their obviously loaded dice, Pokemon Gen 5 absolutely screwing me with critical hits, and never winning a real life luck-based event of any kind in my entire life, I sort of convinced myself that that really was the case.

Then, without thinking about what doing this would lead to, on my most recent playthrough of Dragon Warrior III, I put my Vatality into a calculator.

At the time of writing, according to the Dragon Quest Wiki, your max HP is anywhere between 195% - 205% of your Vitality.

When I decided to do this, I had a Vitality of 186, and a Max HP of 354.

The problem with that, of course, is that if we follow the wiki's math, then the absolute minimum HP I should have there, is 362.

That is not 195-205% of my Vitality. In fact, it's closer to 190%. That's not just statistically impossible. According to the wiki, it's just plain impossible.

Out of curiosity, I opened up one of my complete files on Dragon Warrior III GBC to see how the numbers feared there, and unlike the NES version, the HP amounts seemed to be within the threshold the Wiki mentioned, save for the sage, but as the only character who changed Class, I'll chalk that up to "Class Change Weirdness" even though he was level 33 and his stats definitely should have re-balanced by then.

Remember that the wiki claims that All Versions of DQ/DW 3 use the same formula for Max HP, but with this single screenshot, that is provably false. The NES Version clearly does not use the same formula.

This is incredibly vindicating. As I played through the games and had to frequent the Wiki I often found myself saying that aspects of the wiki were false. An example:

According to the Wiki, Orochi has a 33% chance to act twice in one turn. From my experience, on the NES version, she always acted twice in one turn.

Now, this is, once again, a statistic, and it is very well statistically possible that I just got absurdly unlucky, but with the proof that I have that the Wiki got the numbers wrong when it comes to the formula for Max HP, can we at least agree, that even though I don't have any proof that this statistic specifically is wrong, that I at least have the right to be skeptical about it?

Either I'm The Most Unlucky Person In Existence and throughout 4 battles spanning many turns, she never failed the dice roll and it was a coincidence that she always acted twice

Or, maybe, just maybe... The Wiki is wrong.

[angelfoodcake222]

Monkey King: Reborn Sun Wukong, y'know,

this guy right here?

What if he met a fellow stone monkey but this one was female & the only powers she had were the basics (strength, speed, agility, & stamina) coupled with intelligence (I.e. reading, writing & maths) learned from years of being with a group of humans. They weren't monks or nuns or anything like that, they were just peaceful people.

The whole village adopts her after her stone (which they thought was just a pretty centerpiece for their local healer's home) hatches during one of her mentor's/adoptive mother's late-night knowledge benders that left her passed out at her desk. She wakes the healer gently & the same gentleness is returned in kind. Everyone was stunned at the explanation but kept her nonetheless. She grew to be very intelligent & cunning, peaceful to boot. All that goes down the drain when an attacking demon spots her & woos her the demon way: kidnapping her & causing minimal damage to the sizable village.

She uses her knowledge to brew a stout drink within moments to "gift" her kidnapper partner, knocking him out & allowing her to escape back to her home. This attack happened two more times before she was huffing back home. She pauses when passing nearby soldiers injured in their fight with a different being. She heals them but asks only to be taught to fight like the warriors. They agree, so she splits her time between healing & training. A generation passes & grows before she is ready to face that demon again. She doesn't wait for him to come to her, facing him far from the village instead to minimize the damage as much as possible. She ends the fight by telling him that he will never be at a desirable level to woo her.

The crew finds her here & she pauses when she spots SWK. The lower-ranked demon scurries off after she hops off to a branch to keep from getting crushed in the scramble. The rest of the visit is death glares hoping that none of them spill her secret battle know-how to her pacifist mother/mentor.

[blackjackkent]

OK time for yet another boss battle combat report!

(Everyone seemed to like the Iron Throne play-by-play so I guess I'm getting more thorough with these. XD )

We get to fight big boy, who i'm not referencing by name till under the cut, and his three lady friends from the other thrones, plus the three guards from the front door.

Sarevok is quite beefy - 206HP. Surprisingly, the guards from the front door are the other scary ones; That Which Guards has 236HP and the other two are 162. Amelyssan and her cronies are a much more reasonable 72, which means that they're our first targets to get off the field as quickly as possible.

springagainafter: hee hee I've been waiting for you to get to the bit where Sarevok shows up springagainafter: ghost Melissan too UGH springagainafter: PUNCH SAREVOK, HECTOR springagainafter: do it for Rasaad, it's what he would want XD blackjackkent: heeeeee blackjackkent: hell yeah

Let's see how well Team Juggernaut holds up to this challenge.

Minsc was able to open the fight by taking out Amelyssan at once. (He gets five attacks with Nyrulna on the first turn of the fight due to Dread Ambusher and Enraged Throw and he used them all on her.) I like to think that this was not actually strategy but just him zeroing in on her immediately as the person he hates second most on the field (but was most likely to kill quickly) and wanting her GONE.

I backed up out of combat for a bit so I could look at Sarevok's inspect screen and he's a spooky boy. Among his Exciting Features are: Legendary Resistance (unsurprising), Exceptional Plate (decreased physical damage), multiattack, bleed infliction on enemies with full health, and 20AC. Fundamentally, though, the scariest thing about him is that he has a number of equally scary friends and a lot of health, so we'll be better off taking the friends out of the equation fast. We've dealt with Steel Watchers, so as long as Sarevok doesn't start exploding, I'm not as worried as I was with them. XD

The three echoes also turn out to be primary targets because they cast Haste on Sarevok and Slow on our party, both of which are TERRIFYING in this context, so good to get them off the field as quickly as possible.

As the fight goes on, though, things get... interesting. Every time our boy Sarevok hits something he gets a stack of "Murderous Strikes", and when it hits 4 he can cast "Deathbringer's Legacy" which basically allows him to do a four-strike multihit. And when hastened he can get that VERY often.

On her second turn, Jaheira DISCONNECTS HERSELF FROM THE PARTY because she doesn't have time for my mediocre combat skills, casts Confusion on all three of the weird scary guards, and beelines straight for Sarevok like a house on fire entirely without my input.

CORRECTION: The above point seriously confused me through quite a few reloads and I couldn't figure out what was causing it bc it only seemed to happen sometimes. Turns out that one of the Big Scary Guards cast "Compelled Duel" on her, which I think broke her out of my control briefly even though it's supposed to just prevent her from attacking anyone other than the caster. And then I think her casting Confusion caused the control to drop (when the BSG failed its save) but didn't put her back in the party.

I like my interpretation better, though, that she's so pissed off with Sarevok that she doesn't have time for my bullshit.

Honestly Hector's brute force punching is carrying the day. (The spirit of Rasaad moves within him indeed.) His second turn he got a starting topple on Sarevok and melted him for a total of [does hasty math] A HUNDRED AND FORTY FIVE DAMAGE. My boy is a guided missile and we love that for him! This build is so broken oh my god, Zen. XD

Looking more closely at the Big Scary Guards, I noticed this:

This is good news actually and means we probably don't have to kill them, just keep them from killing US long enough to deal with Sarevok.

Having finally, after a number of confused reloads, figured out what was going on with Jaheira, it was time to bring out the owlbear to smack Sarevok around, and leave Karlach in the back to deal with the BSGs. Four owlbear claw hits in a row for ~22 damage each is spicy, plus each of them does knockback, which gives us the incredibly satisfying image of Sarevok Anchev bouncing across the floor like an errant ping-pong ball.

Eventually we whittled him down! The BSGs, as expected, despawned when Sarevok died, and we just had to clear out the remainder of the echoes in order to finish the fight.

Yasssss. SAREVOK ANCHEV IS NO MORE!

*loud cheering from Faenya-Dail*

I would damn well hope the Murder Tribunal are impressed after that display. XD

I didn't even know that was an option but I think I'm glad we didn't become whatever that is. XD

Excellent. That will be Thursday's project since I have raids tomorrow. XD

[bluecatears]

TUMBLR UNIVERSITY

So I went to C2E2 awhile ago and it got me nostalgic for a convention I wasn’t able to attend cause I was a child. I’m of corse talking about DASHCON ! Taking place during the golden age of fandom culture that side of the 2000s It was terribly disappointing and scammed a bunch of people and not what it was hyped up to be. But what if we were to do it over again the way it was supposed to be but bigger and better? The theme can be TUMBLR UNIVERSITY

- Your hotel room is your dorm

- You can get tumblr university uniforms and merch or VIP swag (A little pricey but good enough quality)

- you can get a student ID picture taken! (Pay the price to laminate it right there or pay a smaller fee to have the Picture and or ID emailed to you)

- HAVE A GIANT BALLPIT

- Fanartist and Regular artists in artist alley

- The map of the con and the schedule can be layed out like a school map and schedule

10am : LARP Battle on the quad

11am: TOH Club meetup

Idk if you should be able to pick what you want to do first before you go like a real school so like that it’s a pre planed sort of but probably just keeping it normal like c2e2 would be fine too

Weather we like it or not Harry Potter is a staple of fandom culture. So I was thinking having a PARODY of the sorting hat. It will be a funny puppet that will sort you into your tumblr houses “I don’t want to get sued so you’ll be sorted into Fugglepuff” and the participants can have special merch to represent their house lol

Okay we all know that Celebrities have no business being in the depths of fandom but there are some celebrities that actually embrace their fandom and are active members with the fans. However I’m only saying this because I’m thinking of the fans and celebrities when I say there should be no meet and greets. I know I Know! Cons are a chance to meet your favorite celebrity but I know what cramming a full fun day of a con experience is like when you can only go one day. It’s all you can afford or all you have time for. Plus celebrities are expensive, even just inviting them is a lot then there is accommodations and security and green rooms oof. Just for them to sit at a table all day from morning to evening doing nothing not fun for them. Then the fans spend all day waiting in line missing out on the other experiences and they paid a lot for the meet and greet only to be told they are on break come back later and blah blah blah 😒 meet and greets are nice but not a high priority and not very fun if your only going one day.

The compromise is maybe just inviting them and they can just show up free for fun. (It could happen maybe lol) or we could pay 4 ONLY 4 celebrities to be “Teachers” and they teach a class and the papers you turn in are “Graded” by them but really it’s a signed autograph ✍️

Still the same what we would pay for a meet and greet but the interactive experience is much more fun and worth it for both parties 🤩 it could give even celebrities who are actually passionate about a subject a chance to give a small lecture about it. Or if they don’t know much about math or something then they can just have fun with the role of being a teacher like improv theater they don’t have to be professional who’s gonna criticize their lesson plan? They could be the fun substitute teacher types.

And for us how many times have we fantasized or wished that Tom Huddleston would be our theater teacher, or Pedro Pascal teaching science or turning in an essay to Neil gaimen? Each session would be 30 min (THIS IS NOT A Q&A it’s basically role play NOT LIKE That) throughout the day so everyone can get a turn and in between classes they go to the “Teachers lounge” for a break frequently. And it can even be streamed at home so that people from him can attend class. 🥹 (Paywall or no paywall is the question. Probably paywall because the people in person also have to pay)

Oh my god can you imagine the kahoot games can be the Panels?? “Yay the green team won the prize is … A peice of my hair. LOL no no here is a teddy bear.”

Then there can be cover bands or real bands Maybe 🤔 teaching music or just playing some songs.

These are just some ideas feel free to elaborate on them.