#so... be warned?

[il3x]

so about that messy cauldron cape oc...

Current permutation is a boy who grows up as his family's golden child, the flipside being that his sister is scapegoated and emotionally abused. When he's 15-ish (and his sister is 13-14, probably? It works better if she's younger), she triggers with a Tinker or Thinker ability. An ability that's suddenly very useful to their parents, who have no problem exploiting her for money or fame. The boy doesn't see it this way; he just sees his family suddenly paying attention to his sister instead of him (he's still favoured, but more net time and energy goes to ~managing~ her). Why did his sister get powers, anyway? Weren't those meant to come to successful people in moments of grand triumph? She sure hasn't had many of those lately. So he Googles powers, or finds a library book. He's just curious. And, woah, there's a lot of theories. And no one knows for sure! It's kind of intriguing. He's always gotten hooked on interesting things pretty hard (one of his teachers mentioned ADHD, but he's always done great at school, so.) and he spends the weekend deep-diving. There's also a lot of claims on how to get powers. Probably bullshit. That's not really the cool part, anyway. Seriously, he doesn't know how nerds spend all their time on Cape Football when there could be alien demigods walking among us! Or angels heralding the Rapture! Or the keys to a completely new branch of Physics!  Well, um. Most likely that last one.  His powers interest ebbs a bit, and meanwhile, his sister is still being super important. Like, it should be illegal for one person to be that important. Her power is probably the only one ever that isn’t cool to look at and think about, just frustrating.  Those How To Get Powers blogs and forums keep popping up. Sue him, but he’s kinda curious. They’re probably so stupid they’re funny. Some of them are hilarious (he sends screenshots to his friends). Some of them, well, he’s gonna follow them (as an experiment, ironically) to prove just how fake they are. It can’t hurt to try.  They are fake, fake and stupid and frustrating, but they’re not exactly a waste of time because - did you know there are people who seriously believe you can get superpowers? Like, not just grifters and kids messing around at sleepovers? Adults with jobs who actually believe this shit. It’s kinda fascinating to observe them, the religious forums, the self-trigger nuts. And they’re so obscure, it’s exciting. He’s on a deep-cover mission. And, you know… these people, they’ve actually read the research, they document, they’re doing real cutting-edge shit. (Sometimes literally, hah. That Activation forum is insane.)  You know… they get it. He’s witnessed someone get powers firsthand, and they’re all really interested to hear his observations. He wishes he’d paid more attention to his sister before. She doesn’t really like questions now, and he doesn’t want to debase himself by begging her.  By now, he’s tried all the really harmless no-cost methods. No results, of course. After all, putting his sister’s case in the context of the literature, he is 100-percent sure that whatever latent mechanism gives you powers requires high emotion to activate. It unifies everything. Who knew, the self-harm junkies were probably closest of all?

He’s 16 and learning to drive when he plans his own activation. He’s not sure he could go through with it if he had to walk or jump into danger. A car, though, he could probably activate without trying, haha. The tricky bit is not actually killing himself before the powers kick in.  He succeeds! …Okay, maybe he shouldn’t have totalled it.  …Maybe he should have waited until he had his own car to total it.  And yeah, okay, he failed at activation. It’s kinda fucked. It’s kinda really fucked, actually, he didn’t think about the medical bill (he shouldn’t have even needed medical treatment!) or how much it might damage him (it shouldn’t have hurt) or his parents going off about the car (he should have had powers to show them, and then they would’ve forgotten everything else). Fuck, why’s he acting so entitled? He knew the risks. The painkillers must be getting to him. Well, he survived; and now… now he really has to get powers, somehow. He’s missing school, and his sports has gone out the window. It’s the only way left to win everyone back.  He gets creative with his activation attempts after that. It's easier with practice. He even tries the fringe alchemy forum’s latest ridiculous cocktail, with the mindset that it wouldn’t do shit for his “midichlorians” but would probably poison him really well. His parents think he’s trying to kill himself, and that somehow makes them madder. His sister… She knows. She clocks what he’s trying, and throws a fit about it, because God forbid someone actually works for a win instead of just crying about it. What does she know! She’s still trying to play the victim, with superpowers.  (He used to actually feel bad for her. To be honest - he sometimes still does, but she’s burning that goodwill fast.) He bombs his final exams, and stays in his parents’ house, and they ignore one another cordially, which is fine by him. More time for research. And research is actually useful again, because - well, because another stunt might use up the last of his own goodwill, and he’s honestly not sure he could get up the nerve for it, but that’s not all. He’s found a new lead, buried so professionally he’s not surprised that it took three years. “Cauldron”. 

[kensatou]

felt sad. caught up on baseball from the past week. now i'm not that sad anymore.

[psalidodont]

i love you dearly old man

[shibafro]

If I don't see a 6900% uptick in those 'facebook winemom' memes but with Toriel ,then Im quitting

[wanderingibon]

anya deserved so much better

[confuzing]

Street kid Luo Binghe makes the mistake of letting some weirdo get a hold of him and finds himself locked up in a windowless room somewhere.

The only bright spot in this shit situation is that there's another boy in there with him. Shen Yuan is clearly in considerably worse shape than Luo Binghe and he says he's been here for a very long time. But he's so kind to Binghe and deliberately draws their captor's attention to himself (and away from Binghe) whenever he can.

He also, after Binghe's been there about a month, steals their captor's keys, unlocks the restraints they're both in, and then shoves Binghe out the boarded up window he's been prying open when he had time.

Shen Yuan is too big to fit through the window, he says. They both know that's not true but they can also both hear that their captor is coming-he must have noticed the keys were missing- and Shen Yuan intends to stall him while Binghe gets away.

Binghe promises to come back with help and SY just smiles and nods and shoos him away.

He runs as fast as he can, and once he's far enough away from the house he escaped from he starts asking for help- but no one is listening to him. And he knows if he goes to the local guard he'll probably be handed back over as a runaway slave... And then he sees two men who both seen almost to shine in the dirty city streets... they must be cultivators, they must. If anyone can help him now it will be them. So Luo Binghe throws himself at the taller of the two men and starts begging for help.

Shen Qingqiu is absolutely positive this kid is trying to lure them into an ambush, but Yue Qingyuan- who invited himself along on SQQ's mission without asking him- doesn't think so.

YQY goes with LBH, and SQQ follows, complaining that this is a trick the whole way- up until they discover that yes actually the local nobleman does have a secret room he's been imprisoning children in and there is indeed an almost beaten to death SY in there.

YQY sends SQQ off with SY- gotta get that kid medical attention ASAP- while he and LBH stay behind to Politely Ask Some Questions.

When YQY and LBH arrive back at the sect SY is still in the medical ward but isn't dying and is even awake! LBH is relieved and refuses to leave him again.

YQY fills SQQ in that not only were both boys not slaves, SY was actually the son of the nobleman's first wife she had as the result of an affair. He disappeared from the household around the time the first wife died and all the servants assumed their Lord had sold the boy or killed him outright.

But now that the nobleman has died a sudden and painful and extremely mysterious death it looks like SY has inherited the estate. YQY will have someone from An Ding go sort out the details since SY can't.

SQQ watches YQY smile at the little urchins they've rescued and talk in a way that obviously means he intends them to stay and says, internally 'Fuck no Qi-ge you don't get to replace me with a Shen you actually did manage to save. Absolutely not!'

Out loud the conversation goes:

SQQ: I want the older boy.

YQY: What?

SQQ: You intend for them to stay right? I want the older boy for Qing Jing Peak, you can keep the little one if you want.

YQY, pleased and assuming SQQ and SY must have bonded while he and LBH were away: Of course.

SQQ and SY have not bonded, and once they get back to QJ Peak things are tense. SQQ is low-key kinda jealous of SY and also reminded much too much of himself by the boy. Except he was never as naive and stupid as this kid is! Why is he so nice? How?? And the little shit isn't even afraid of him!

SY, deeply sarcastic: Oh nooo. I'm going to be beaten? Such a thing has never happened to me before! *Coughs because his throat is permanently messed up from being nearly strangled to death*

SQQ, aware that if he hits the kid now he loses: You're not allowed in the library for a week.

SY: What!

SQQ: The next words out of your mouth better be "yes Shizun, sorry Shizun" or it'll be two weeks.

SY: ...yes Shizun, sorry Shizun.

Meanwhile LBH and YQY are having a magical adventure in becoming a found family and are bonding over their obsessions with their respective Shens. They absolutely come visit QJ Peak at least twice a week much to SQQ's displeasure and SY's delight.

[razberrypuck]

sixer, it would eat you alive.

[canisalbus]

✦ Stealing from the trees of Eden ✦

[everythingiisromantic]

(tries to escape) (tries to escape) (tries to escape) (series of failed suicide attempts) (nearly successful suicide attempt) (participates in department-wide whistleblowing scheme) (has sex with mark) (has sex with mark) (gives revolutionary speech) (locks you in a bathroom and hits you on the head with a trombone)

[wickcipher]

You've Been Portal Jacked! Part 11

[Prev] [Masterpost] [Next]

Everyone you know, huh?

[kensatou]

*calling your colleague voluptuous* *begging him for kisses* *bouncing on it (his lap, while manifesting a goal)* yeah. checks out. just a normal day at the office for them

[chara-55]

Literal goosebumps man (Storyboard by tekkoman)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy one year anniversary to In Stars and Time!

[egophiliac]

looking at next month's schedule and between the end of 7-12 and the wishing lantern event it's like

February is officially RIDDLE MONTH, brace yourselves to be absolutely blasted into ashes everybody

[blaqcats-fics]

been thinking about jason being petty towards bruce. like, oh, you spend time with your other kids, but not me? tire privileges revoked! it would be over stupid shit too.

like there’s one time bruce decides to take damien to the movies, and jason is just beside himself.

like the conversation would be like:

JASON: So, let me get this straight—you took Damian to a movie.

BRUCE: He asked.

JASON: Oh, and I wouldn’t have wanted to see Kung Fu Panda 4 with you?!

BRUCE: You were busy.

JASON: Busy taking down a cartel. Which, by the way, I learned from you. I deserve quality time!

BRUCE: Jason—

JASON: No. No excuses. You’ll learn.

Jason storms off. Five minutes later, an alert pops up on the Batcomputer.

BATCOMPUTER: Warning: Batmobile rear tires have been removed.

BRUCE: …Jason.

Cut to Jason outside, rolling two Batmobile tires away, cackling.