#Advanced Documents Comparison

[erikftglitter]

Fallin’ Out | [e.k] [one]

My & my boo into it so…

All she wanted was for him to be here. Why was that so hard for the older man? Was it his own limited childhood experiences taking over? Could it have possibly been envy? Did he hesitate because he didn’t truly understand fatherhood? Or was he just an asshole. Claire has been starting to conclude the latter.

So here she was muffling the sounds of her cries as her son rested on her chest. He was completely oblivious to the high tensions between both his parents, but even his behavior towards Erik showed him that love cannot be bought.

Erik is a provider. That is true. This could be the possible reason as to why Claire didn’t become apprehensive about becoming pregnant. She knew that Erik would always be involved in his child’s life and would provide well beyond what the average child needed.

The latter was true.

They lived in huge home located off of the lake. Owned many acres and had top of line views of everything aesthetically beautiful. His son wouldn’t need anything. There were already conversations and commitments to fine art extracurriculars, private schooling, and meetings with the top directory of getting Erin Makai Stevens the opportunities that a nepotistic child could only dream of.

What about now? Baby Erin was hardly twenty months old. In fact right now he is laying across his mother’s bare chest, as he just finished his feeding for the evening. Claire began weeping slowly afterwards, the mother in her allowing her child to rest before she could think about her own feelings.

She began to understand the hurt of housewives who longed for their husbands. She was not a housewife however. Erik wasn’t the only reason for this luxurious lifestyle. Although he insisted that he be the one to purchase everything, Claire easily had more than six figures at her disposable fingertips. She slept peacefully at night.

This particular month though Claire had been wanting to experience an authentic family outing. She planned this for weeks in advance. They would take Erin into the city and attend the pumpkin patch accompanied by the petting zoo.

Tangerine Creek hosted these family gatherings all month and Claire heard about the benefits of introducing your baby to outdoor activities and not to mention that it would be beautiful for her little family to have pictures that documented this year.

Erin was walking, slowly but surely, on his own. He’s vocal and his fine motor skills were only improving. This wasn’t a trip just to satisfy her urge to take aesthetic photos as Erik limited the importance of doing things with your child. This wasn’t the first time and now she began to feel the disconnect. While she was absolutely ready to submit to motherhood, Erik hardly knew a single thing about fatherhood.

So she sat and wept with her biggest joy in her hands. Distant footsteps halted her tears. He did not deserve to see her like this. She refused to let him see the heartbroken scene that existed throughout the nursery. She used a nearby baby wipe to wipe her face and controlled her breaths. She would not give him the slightest chance to throw this in her face and only to conclude that she was manipulative for crying and using the child to exemplify that.

Those were some of the foul things that Erik has said and apologized for. Claire was checking out and felt only the slightest touch of guilt knowing that a divorce would only supply another fatherless baby. So she sucked it up and rested her eyes.

Oh how heartbreaking this reality was.

Erik knew that something was wrong. No one greeted him when he entered the home. Instead his wife, his child, and his dog were all one in the nursery. They clung to her and hardly cared for his presence. He thought that maybe he was overthinking it but as he got closer to the nursery the weeping stopped. Silence was hardly quiet in comparison though.

He could feel the thick layer of sadness in the air and he wondered how long it had been there. Four hours previously he had cancelled his plans to attend the pumpkin patch, as he reduced the entire trip to a photo shoot.

Sam Wilson, a good friend and business partner of his, had changed his perspective within a two minute conversation.

“Hey man!” Sam exclaimed and embraced Erik into a handshake and hug. “My brother. I’m happy to see you in the flesh. How’s Claire? Postpartum treating her well?”

Come to think of it Erik actually never thought about it. Sure he was there and could see that she was fine on the outside looking in, but Sam began to share his own relationship with postpartum in his marriage. How he stepped back and supported his family during the shift. How postpartum depression could be as severe as post traumatic stress disorder and the rates of suicidal tendencies afterwards.

“Oh man I’m happy to hear that!” Sam smiled at Erik and waved the bartender down. “Don’t need Claire leaving your ass after I was Best Man in your wedding. You know that’s bad luck?” Sam chuckled at his own words but Erik felt something in his chest that he couldn’t quite grasp.

Why did it feel like Sam had a deeper understanding of something that he lives with? Had he not been paying attention? He did not become the top ranked government official by being clueless, but he knows that he clears things that he doesn’t find important from his brain.

Had he cleared Claire and her needs from his mind? What was the last gift that he bought her? What month was Erin in? How many teeth did he have? When was his next doctor’s appointment?

The more that Sam talked intensely about his involvement with his family the more that Erik realized that Claire did all of those things alone. So he was not surprised by the cries of his wife when he entered the home. Instead he winced at the idea that she was indeed all alone while going through this process and all she wanted from him was to attend the pumpkin patch.

Erik was brave. That was an undeniable fact. But he could not bring himself to open the warm brown doors to the nursery straight ahead. Sure he wrote the check to redecorate and furnish the nursery shortly after Erin’s first birthday, but he doesn’t even remember what he even paid for. Because Erin usually sleeps in his own bed in their bedroom and he’s hardly ever here in the daytime, he’s sure the boy only sees him as someone who comes and goes.

No wonder that mama was his first word.

Erik walked to the opposite side of the large home and Claire finally breathed out normally. She really didn’t want him yelling at her tonight.

Erik had been calling all over the state to get a petting zoo to come to his house. His fists slammed on the desk for the fifth time once the operator relayed that there was a three week wait for personal petting zoo visits. For once Erik couldn’t buy his way out of this situation and now he was panicking. He knows that his wife is going to leave him and suddenly the world of business over his family repulsed him.

What had he been thinking?

—-

Two

[liillyliilly]

Alamort - half dead from exhaustion

yaku morisuke x reader words; 1117 synopsis; it's been way too long since Yaku's stretched properly, and who else better to help him than the girl he's been teasing relentlessly for months?

Yaku rolled his shoulders and groaned slightly, it had been way too long since he had stretched out any of his muscles. But how could he when Nekoma hardly had a break from all of the practice matches?

The libero had been through the ringer, bouncing on and off the court more than twice of what was usual for him. While holding his arm over his head and stretching out to touch his opposite shoulder, he caught her staring at him before turning her head quickly.

Yaku licked his lips slightly, his tongue just barely peeking out from his teeth to wet his bottom lip. Even though he is noted as a mature and respectable senpai, that never stopped him from going out of his way to flirt with the second-year manager. How could he not? Whenever he approached her, she always did that timid smile, holding her hands behind her back and shifting her feet, and he loved it. He loved that he made her nervous.

Whenever he teased Y/n or made remarks about her, she always turned to look at him with that deer-in-headlights look. Yaku swore he would one day be the object of her affection, but for the time being, he was satisfied with her being the object of his affections. As she started picking up water bottles and cleaning up the Nekoma bench for the day, Yaku made his move.

Like a cat on the prowl, he approached this mouse. She never squeaked, but she did scurry. He had to measure out his approach for the maximal benefit and yield from his approach.

Just like last year, with the introduction of her to the team in the first place. She and Yaku had shared homeroom, but she was in the more advanced classes for her core subjects. Yaku had sat behind her, in the back far corner. Her desk was also so organized and perfect, his was messy but for him it had a dysfunctional functionality.

Yaku almost lost his mind when she bit her pen. Her pen was a bright yellow, with dark yellow spots around it, just like a block of cheddar cheese but in pen form. That was where the mouse comparison began.

"We need a manager, I'm close to dead." Kuroo rubbed his eyes after he and Yaku had just spent the last thirty minutes tidying up the gym. Kuroo has flitting through the various paperwork. "I don't even know how to sort some of this stuff."

"So we need someone organized?" Yaku stated, beginning to list off the ideal qualities for their manager.

"Obviously."

"We need someone who is a first year, so they'll have to stick around."

Kuroo shrugs, "A first year would be nice, we just need someone."

"Preferably a girl."

"Yes, preferably." Kuroo finished sorting papers, with a miscellaneous pile that was a majority of the documents. "It sounds like you have someone in mind Yaku?"

"Hell yeah I do."

He slipped the application form into her cubby after school the next day. Her filled out application was turned into Coach Nekomata before the end of the day. Yaku never knew exactly why she just accepted the form, why she filled it out, and why she so quickly turned it in. All he knew was that from then on, she was apart of his life a little more deeply.

His approach to her was timed to perfection, she had just begun digging her shoe into the linoleum floor. He pounced.

“Are you busy?” Yaku knew she wasn’t. She tucked her hands into her pockets and shook her head. “Okay, can you help me stretch then?”

Yaku grabbed a hold of her forearm lightly and tugged her over to the cool-down area, where Lev and Kuroo were already sitting on the floor and touching their toes. When Kuroo caught sight of Yaku pulling their manager along, he smirked to himself before pulling Lev away, telling him to help clean up the gym.

“Um, what do I do?” She pulled her hands out of her pockets, wiggling her fingers lightly. Yaku froze for a moment before sitting down.

“You just need to push on my back, so I can stretch it out.” She hummed an affirmative noise. She set her hands in the middle of his back and pushed down lightly. “Put your hands up more, on my shoulders. You can also put more pressure.” Yaku could hear her swallow thickly, gulping lightly as she slid her hands up to rest on his shoulders.

Yaku reached forward past his feet, she leaned her weight on his shoulders. Just to mess with her, Yaku flexed his back and shoulder muscles slightly, causing her to gasp before quickly closing her mouth. Yaku stood up and turned to face his manager again.

“Next stretch, I’m going to lay down on the mat and then you're going to need to hold my thighs down as I do a few sit ups.”

“Hold your thighs down?” She raised her eyebrows lightly. Yaku was sure if her touched her cheek it would be burning hot.

If she wanted to question his unique stretching methodology, she kept it to herself. In fact, none of her athletic study books ever mentioned a stretch quite like this one that Yaku was proposing. But if he was one of the top liberos in all of Tokyo, then of course his stretch had a form of validity to her.

Yaku could tell that she was thinking just deeply enough, but skimming the surface of it. He thanked her trust in him mentally.

“Or you can sit on my thighs? Whichever works for you.” Yaku shrugged, a grin dancing on his lips.

She shook her head and held her hands out, “I can hold them, no need to sit down.”

Yaku leaned in, not holding back the smile on his face. “Even if I asked you to?” She looked like she could faint any moment.

“Well, I mean, if that would be effecti-” She mumbled, her words crumpled like a balled-up piece of paper.

“Then yes.”

Soon, Yaku was laying down, and she was straddled over his thighs. Yaku spoke up, “Hey?”

“Yeah?”

If there was ever a time for Yaku to be bold, it was going to be now. The gym’s final occupiers had finally left, leaving him and his favorite person alone. “Can I kiss you?” He leaned up, holding her waist, he slightly raised his legs, causing her to fall into him. Their bodies pressed up against each other.

She was stunned, her entire body going slightly rigid. Before exhaling the tight breath held in her chest, giving Yaku her answer, “Yes please.”

[callester]

A look on Franky's interactions with the WISE agents, Twilight and Nightfall, as part of his daily dealings.

Now associated as an informant to another WISE agent, Franky is shown to have earned Nightfall's trust in obtaining the needed documents for her undercover missions just as frequent as Twilight's request on overlooking Anya and Bond.

Having mirroring panels, these two interactions were done in a similar utmost curt way when exchanging information and services with Franky through the brief parting remarks of "take care" (Nightfall) and "have fun" (Twilight).

Contrasting the slightly differed yet equally brief remarks, the japanese counterparts of those words from both Nightfall and Twilight were the same, which is "よろしく" (yoroshiku). While there lies vagueness in a direct yet exact translation of this word into English due to its dependence on the sentence's context itself, the one in use here came close to a meaning of "thank you in advance".

Where this context may sound off in comparison to the English translated versions of "take care" and "have fun", viewing "よろしく" as "thank you in advance" in an asian language context would give off the perspective of a forced conclusion to a requested task without allowing a space for debate. Thus, the english translation achieved the goal of portraying the conclusive context through the parting remarks. And while the asian conversational perspective of it may be interpreted as "rude" in other language's context, concluding a request using a "thank you in advance" remark is simply a way of convincing the other side to answer to a request without much delay or further procrastination.

Note: This chapter sheds a light on Franky's sturdy connection with the WISE agents, as shown in his back-to-back emphasis of himself not being WISE's gofer (errand) boy to Nightfall and then to Twilight, that may further endanger himself alongside the chain of underground information network that is being actively hunted down by the SSS. And regardless of the difficulties presented in this era, those residing within the underground network showcased a strong sense of camaraderie.

Others: Mission 60 nickname analysis

[14muffinz]

3/?

C1 (and prompt) / C2 / C3 / C4

Duke’s no visual artist.

He’s a writer, first and foremost, and knows how to weave words into tapestries of literature even though when he speaks, he fumbles as hard as any other teenager. He’s got about seven different documents scattered across three different devices crammed full of quotes that he doesn’t have a use for but wants to, and that’s probably the best metaphor for his day-to-day life that he can come up with.

So, yeah, definitely not a visual artist, unless one can call his half-decent handwriting ‘art.’ Since gaining his powers, though, he’s had to train the skillset to the best of his ability, because otherwise it’s impossible to always convey exactly what he sees in the world.

Shrimp colours? Yeah, they’re funky things. (And technically not shrimp colours, according to Tim, but Duke refuses to call them anything else). Skin stripes? Complete bullshit, thanks for nothing internet.

Okay– not the point.

The point is that sometimes, he loses touch with what exactly is weird, or simply doesn’t notice because he doesn’t have a way of comparing what he sees to what everyone else sees.

The point is that Duke and Damian are in one of the lesser used rooms in the manor, enjoying some much-needed quiet time. Damian has his fancy pencils and markers next to him on the couch, while Duke is on the floor surrounded by a mix of supplies from different brands, and a couple highlighters that Damian sneers at but Duke uses to portray the aforementioned shrimp colours.

Does he think that there’s anything secret to see with their new foster sibling? Nah, not really. The guy looked pretty average, from Duke’s perspective, but often times with magic users or metas, normal doesn’t necessarily mean nothing. (For example, the absolute shitshow that was Duke meeting John Constantine).

With no photo to use for reference, Duke has to wing his drawing. Once or twice he discreetly pulls up the file on his phone, but otherwise there’s no reference, and it shows.

Certainly a bad sketch for a case, but when they need something like that, it’s usually Damian’s job first. What matters more is making him look human enough to get the point across, and Duke manages that just fine. Pale skin, distractingly green eyes, and a monotonous expression make the drawing recognisably their newest foster sibling.

… Okay, yeah, he doesn’t look as human on paper, but that’s probably just Duke’s mediocre art skills. Maybe he should try again.

“Who are you drawing?” Damian asks, glancing down at Duke’s sketch.

⠀

⠀

Cass, in the cave and about to go through some exercises to work out her energy, is not at all amused when she unlocks her phone to see herself logged into the secure JL app that is password locked to oblivion.

There sits a not-so-innocent file, entitled Not A Case: The Case. The folder icon is Oracle’s signature shade of green, in case Cass thought about wondering who made the new file. Clicking around, it seems to be shared with about half of the Bats.

Will it be helpful to gather information? Yes. Is it unfairly invasive? Yes. Is Cass going to complain?

… No.

This is how the Bats show their love, as other heroes tell them over and over (and over, and over).

She flicks out of the JL files and starts up her music. The fight for not turning their new brother into a case has already been lost, but Cass isn’t here to do work.

⠀

⠀

The front entryway of the manor is bugged. This is not considered an invasion of privacy, since Babs warned the family in advance, but maybe it’s a bit of an invasion of privacy now that there’s someone present who doesn’t know about the bugs.

Ehn. She can apologise once John Doe inevitably finds out about the Bat business. In comparison, Barbara’s constant monitoring doesn’t seem as stifling and unnecessary.

To the point – she uses high quality bugs in the manor. It’s the Bats’ safest of safehouses, and she will never take the risk of infiltration.

She zooms in on the scene of the social worker and Brucie chatting in the entry way. Despite being at an angle, the social worker is in crisp quality, while in comparison the teen beside him is completely out of focus, despite the fact that he’s practically angled straight at the camera.

Barbara has been stuck on this oddity all day. None of the footage was modified in any way, and there’s no smudge in any other footage. This, combined with the fact that all attempts at putting him through facial recognition have failed, begins to paint an intriguing picture.

Either he has some impressive masking tech, which has gone undetected by both the Bats and the government, or he may be a meta with some sort of ability to disrupt technology. Barbara is leaning towards the meta theory on account of his odd behavior. Metas are enough to be somewhat of a scientific mystery, and have a wide variety of possible hardships and genetic manifestations that could lead to an unpleasant collection of trauma responses, especially in a city as volatile as Gotham.

She places her current evidence into the slowly growing folder. So far, she’s only drawn Cass’ attention to it, but she knows that the rest of the Bats will come across it in time, and they will all draw their own conclusions. Barbara feels like she’s gotten somewhere, but she’s also a gal with a terrible sleep schedule, and is usually working on at least three cases at a time. It’s always helpful to get a second opinion.

Barbara reaches for her coffee mug, and finds to her dismay that there’s barely a sip left. She figures that’s a good a sign as any to take a break before starting on another case.

⠀

⠀

“Must I have father reduce your patrol lengths?”

Thomas groans, as though Damian’s scepticism is somehow unwarranted, despite the fact his memory is clearly failing him. “Damian, I’m fine.”

Damian raises the supposed drawing of Doe close to Thomas’ face. It’s likely too close, but the motion is mostly for emphasis, and Thomas surely knows what his own drawing looks like. “This hardly looks like him.”

“If you think my art is shit, you can say so.”

“It’s not that,” Damian snaps, dropping the sketchbook to the ground. Thomas’ art may not meet the standards that Damian sets for himself, but the progress he has made in only a few months has been admirable. “You’ve drawn Doe with green eyes, despite the fact that it is clearly stated in his file, as well as extremely evident when looking at him, that his eyes are blue.”

Thomas raises a finger into Damian’s face. “Counterpoint.” Damian swats the finger away, sneering. “His eyes are extremely green. Even greener than yours, and they definitely can’t be confused like Babs’ can.”

Damian scoffs. “Did you pay any attention to him?”

“Did you?”

“If I may,” Alfred’s voice cuts in from the doorway, causing the two to spin around and face the butler. “Could it be possible this odd illusion has something to do with Master Duke’s abilities?”

Hm.

Yes, it very well could be.

“God bless Alfred,” Thomas mutters.

Damian sighs.

⠀

⠀

JT: Looked at the new file.

JT: I’m assuming you wouldn’t have left us the bait if it was just a technical error?

BG: yeah thanks for noticing

BG: congrats on being first

JT: I got nothing better to do during daylight.

JT: So are we thinking android, storable tech, or meta?

JT: I know what I’m leaning towards.

BG: Is android even an answer?

JT: With some pieces of evidence? Yeah. With everything we have? Fuck no.

JT: Just trying to lighten the atmosphere. I don’t like that shit happened to a kid without us picking up on it.

BG: We can’t save everyone, Jay.

JT: Don’t I know it.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Chris Geidner at Law Dork:

For the past 20 months, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Democrats have investigated the ongoing ethical questions surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court, and now Committee Chair Dick Durbin is sharing what they’ve found. “This report and its findings make clear that passage of the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, which was reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 5, 2023, is a necessary step,“ the majority staff report issued on Saturday concludes, noting that more investigation is needed because “none of the justices have been directly questioned about their alleged misconduct.“ Although the investigation is coming to an end because the Democrats are losing the majority in January, Durbin released the 93-page majority staff report detailing what they were able to find — and also making public more than 800 pages of relevant supporting documents. “[T]he Supreme Court has allowed a culture of misconduct to metastasize into a full-blown crisis that has driven public opinion of the Court to historic lows,” the report states. “Justices appointed by presidents of both parties have engaged in conduct that ranges from questionable to clearly violative of federal ethics laws, and several justices have done so consistently without suffering negative consequences.” The report takes particular umbrage at the receipt of gifts by Justice Clarence Thomas, asserting, “The number, value, and extravagance of the gifts accepted by Justice Thomas have no comparison in modern American history.” It also concludes that Justice Sam Alito “has created the appearance of impropriety in several instances that necessitate his recusal in specific cases under federal law.” The report acknowledges the role that ProPublica played in advancing this inquiry, having published what the report describes as “several major exposés revealing extensive allegations of apparent ethical misconduct by sitting and former justices of the Supreme Court of the United States” — the first of which addressed Thomas’s relationship with Harlan Crow. (Notably, the report also highlights the fact that several senators, including Durbin, were looking into Thomas’s receipt of “favors” from Crow more than a decade earlier — something I’ve covered here.)

Saturday morning, the Senate Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee released a report on SCOTUS’s ethics crisis decrying the “culture of misconduct”, especially from “Justices” Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.

[nectar-rain]

(A note as of Mar 12, 2025: I'm prematurely publishing this. I know! It might be dumb! But I would rather have this out and be able to edit it later. Also, I have to postpone my other WIPs as I'm currently going through high amounts of stress, and I would not have the current mental capacity to continue doing research until further notice.

An extra bit; I was originally going to add kink-related educational books, but I would have to go through a lot of material to find the right things, and have been paranoid beyond that. As of right now, this doesn't have much sources and it's highly planned for this to be edited.

This is post two of three on power (exchange) dynamics, conabuse, and nichelink relationships.

Post about the comparisons

Post about spotting an abuser, especially a malicous one. (WIP)

.

Post going into further detail with more sources (Unpublished WIP)

My reasonings for this post.

Alright. Let's talk about safety. The primary reason I was making these posts to begin with.

I apologize in advance if your screen reader repeats words, i would rather make sure there is a more readable version of that word than have it be inaccessible.

Safety [Safety], as a topic in power dynamic relationships, is relatively important as the lack of can have much longer and stronger consequences to one's life, and also promotes severe harm. This is typically what happens in a conabuse relationship as it is meant to be abusive, but a "safer/consensual" way to indulge in that type of relationship.

So, what are ways to engage in relationships with power dynamics healthier, safer, and in a way that consent is enforced?

Communication [Communication] is a must, it is a massive must, to the point I actually beg of anyone who indulges in these relationships. This strongly includes consent, and even some beginning guidelines, which I discuss in more detail when talking about Time [Time].

As said, this includes consent, especially for the starting stages of this type of dynamic, and what the sub in question wants to start with. If there is physical harm, there should be stop-gaps as to how far that harm can go, and the harm should never lead to hospitalization. Having signals for public situations may also be a good idea, especially in the cases of discomfort, and you do have to discuss those if you wish to implement them. Also! The first word of consent is not the only thing that matters; consent is meant to be something one should revoke. I know this is a repeated sentiment, but consent is meant to be a yes and a discussion, and consent is something that can be taken away from. Hence the safe word topic. I would suggest three safe words, although I understand if that may be too much.

Contracts. Especially if you want to take control of some or all choices in someone's life, a contract should be a STRONG MUST.

[Should be a strong must.]

There should be a form of document that both parties can download. The contract exists as a document to refer to for consent, limits, what exchange is being given, and how the sub - or whatever term you both wish to use or be used - can voice a desire to lower what control is given, or that there should be changes to the power dynamic. For example, saying contract, or a phrase related to contract ["The contract is painted from the ink of flowers" would be an example of me using a safe phrase, rather than a word.] If you are told to discard the document, I will immediately tell you to not trust that person, as I feel the document should absolutely be used, especially [especially] if you're in this exchange as a minor; unless there was already a prior discussion of ridding a faux document or the duplicate.

Time. The sudden jump between a power exchange dynamic may be jarring and can lead to more harm than necessary, especially as not a lot of people like immediate change.

Allowing this shift between the exchange can, evidently, take time, however it allows a period of warm-up, and can allow both parties to discuss about what each person would want, what can be a compromise if there is a disagreement, and a starting point that is small, but easier to dive into, rather than the sudden jump.

Research. This would be the most important area go lead into. I will, for the record, link articles, blog posts about power exchange, and books for the sake of accessibility. Any links to books or articles that are physical or digital will have the purchasable link or will have an Anna's Archive link.

Research is a must, because it helps with safety, how you can safely and in an aware mannerism physically harm someone (Biting, slapping, shocking, etc.) If you are able to, as an adult, you can have the option to go to a dungeon or a kink education area, where dynamics or kinks and safety is taught.

Of course, any links that I have below will more than likely be sexual in nature, as power exchanges are typically rooted in sexual kink, but I would rather have introductory, informational sources of safety be available rather than limit what can be accessed.

Again, this post is meant to be edited. The sources or links I may have will change, and I may change links to books down the line, or add links to articles and books. I'm also, rather simply, skimming the books' first chapters, and may look into them deeper down the line.

And a final, generalized note; You may notice that the links I'm using for Anna's Archive are all for PDFs specifically. Make no mistake that this is my intention, as PDFs can be readily accessible for phones and PCs, and I do have a feeling that they may be easier to use a screen reader on, but someone else can confirm that if need be. Also! Downloads and waiting times for them will. Be very slow sometimes. That wait can be infuriating and I understand that.

Edit as of 3/14; Thank you, @/nichelink for linking a PDF-to-audiobook app!

Sources for starting research;

[Note - some articles or blogs will link servers oriented around these topics. Evidently, minors will not be able to join. The information is why I'm linking it.

For an introduction to power exchange, or more specifically, TPE;

"Introduction to Total Power Exchange", published on Elysium Life Style, by "Kaleb".

Notes; Uses a tag "for alphas" if that may bother you. [I got caught off-guard by that, for the record... Hence that warn.]

"I've Got The Power! Understanding TPE", published on The Commandant.

Notes; It does go into more detail about how TPE can and should be used as a beneficial system, and as an outlet. If you want to find a way to mask the benefit of both parties, that can be an option discussed.

"Total Power Exchange, written by Martha Pinkerton", published on JoyNights.

Note; This article is more focused on the sexual aspects of power dynamics, and may be more for those who wish to implement stronger sexual themes.

Books on general skills;

Never Split The Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended On It, written by Chris Voss. There's also a summary for the books per chapter.

Notes; It is written by a (Former?) FBI agent, however it's focused on learning beneficial skills in regards to negotiation. Skimming the summary, specifically, it imposes how navigation can be started, and shows an example of the author's son being kidnapped in an emulated situation

One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, written by Robert Maurer.

Notes; The prelude/introduction feels like it's a "motivational speech!" type of book (annoyingly), but it's meant to aide in taking small steps to develop a habit. Also note that you do not need to change a habit by having 21 consecutive days for that habit to form, it can be weekly if that helps you and if said myth is said in the book. That is for discussion with your partner, however.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, written by Greg McKeown.

Notes; This book can help with some form of prioritization, specifically, and can be used in PE relationships through expanding into a dynamic of what you ask for your dom to make a choice on. From my quick, short skim it actually makes a point to separate what you may have the energy or ability to do from anything that may exert you too much. Self care.

@anti-rq-gumi + @nichelink for reach. (With permission - request to be tagged.)

[fantasiac]

something something Sonic Adventure 3 story idea

the kitsunami are an advanced sunken civilization underwater like Atlantis

the kitsunami shot a beam of energy through the sea and through angel island, breaking angel island into four pieces and shattering the master emerald, the emerald pieces sinking to the bottom of the sea (treasure hunting stages set up)

the kitsunami are the direct rivals to the echidna

the kitsunami all have multiple tails

tails was part of this ancient civilization before he (wasn't anymore, idk how yet), it explains why he's so smart and why he can swim

Kit the fennec was named after the forgotten tribe by Starline, who discovered the tribe a long time ago, in fact, starline's documentation of the tribe is how Eggman found it

the Tornado III, Subnautica, or the Whirlpool is the submarine upgrade to the tornado

(edut): I never mentioned that The dynamic between Tails and Knuckles is going to be the focus of their part of the game, and how they interact with eachother DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS the Kitsunami's legends of the echidna, showing how great Knuckles is as a guardian, and how great Tails is in comparison to the rest of the kitsunami

[universalaigroup]

UniversalAiGroup.com review: Account Types

When choosing a forex broker, the biggest question on every trader’s mind is simple: Can I trust this platform with my money? There are too many brokers out there, and while some offer real opportunities, others are nothing more than well-disguised traps.

So, where does UniversalAiGroup.com reviews stand? Is it a reliable trading platform or just another risky venture?

To answer this, we’re going to dive deep into the facts—checking its establishment date, licensing, user reviews, account types, payment options, and overall trading conditions. Every detail matters, and by the end of this review, we’ll have a clear picture of whether this broker is worth considering.

Let’s start with something fundamental: how long has UniversalAiGroup.com reviews been around, and what does its domain history tell us?

UniversalAIGroup.com Account Types: Choosing the Best Plan for Your Trading Goals

Account Type

Minimum Deposit ($)

Key Features

Bronze

10,000

Standard trading conditions, access to educational materials, basic customer support.

Silver

25,000

Lower spreads, priority customer service, access to trading signals.

Gold

50,000

Personalized account manager, advanced educational content, faster withdrawals.

Premium

100,000

VIP trading signals, private analyst sessions, enhanced leverage options.

Platinum

250,000

Customized trading strategies, exclusive webinars, priority withdrawals.

VIP

500,000

Dedicated senior analyst, invitations to private events, ultra-low spreads.

VIP+

1,000,000

Highest level of service, direct market access, custom trading conditions.

What Do These Accounts Offer?

At first glance, the tiered structure looks well-organized. But why does this matter? Because it allows traders to choose a plan based on their capital and experience level.

Bronze & Silver accounts serve as entry-level options, providing standard trading conditions but still ensuring traders have access to essential resources.

Gold & Premium accounts start introducing serious benefits—lower spreads, account managers, and faster withdrawals, which are crucial for active traders.

Platinum & VIP accounts are where things get really interesting. These tiers cater to high-net-worth traders, offering personalized strategies, private events, and exclusive services.

VIP+ is the elite tier, promising direct market access and completely tailored trading conditions. This is designed for institutional-level investors or extremely experienced traders.

We think this account structure is quite flexible, covering a wide range of trader needs. But what’s even more important? The fact that each upgrade isn’t just about higher deposits—it brings tangible advantages that make trading smoother and potentially more profitable.

Would you like an in-depth comparison with other brokers, or should we move on to another feature?

UniversalAiGroup.com – Legitimacy Check Through Domain and Establishment Date

One of the first things that help determine a broker’s reliability is the establishment date and domain purchase date. Why? Because a legitimate company will have a well-documented history, while scams often operate with newly registered domains that disappear quickly.

For UniversalAiGroup.com reviews, the company was established in 2022, and its domain (universalaigroup.com) was purchased on December 7, 2020.

Now, this is an interesting detail. The domain was secured almost two years before the official launch of the brand. This tells us that the company didn’t just appear overnight—it was being planned, structured, and developed well in advance.

Would a scam broker bother securing a domain years in advance before operations even begin? Highly unlikely. Instead, fraudulent brokers often register a domain and start operations within weeks, sometimes even days. This gap between domain purchase and launch suggests long-term business intentions rather than a short-lived scheme.

This looks like a strong argument in favor of UniversalAiGroup’s legitimacy. Of course, one data point isn’t enough to form a final verdict, but when combined with other factors—like regulation, user reviews, and financial transparency—it builds a convincing case.

Would you like to analyze their license next?

UniversalAiGroup.com – Regulatory Compliance and Licensing

Regulation is one of the strongest indicators of a broker’s legitimacy. Why? Because regulated brokers must adhere to strict financial laws, ensuring transparency, security, and fair trading conditions for their clients.

UniversalAiGroup.com reviews operates under the regulation of the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), a high-authority financial regulator.

This is a big deal. The FCA is one of the toughest regulatory bodies in the world, known for its rigorous oversight and strict compliance requirements. Brokers under FCA regulation must:

✅ Maintain segregated client funds, ensuring customer deposits are not mixed with company assets. ✅ Provide regular financial reports, proving solvency and fair trading practices. ✅ Follow strict anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) policies, preventing fraudulent activities. ✅ Offer protection under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which safeguards clients’ funds in case of broker insolvency.

Not every broker can obtain an FCA license—it requires a strong financial foundation and a transparent operational model. Would a scam broker willingly subject itself to such scrutiny? Highly unlikely.

This looks like a solid argument in favor of UniversalAiGroup’s legitimacy. However, regulation alone isn’t everything—customer feedback and real trader experiences matter too. Let’s analyze their Trustpilot reviews next. Want to dive into that?

UniversalAiGroup.com review – What Do Traders Say? Trustpilot Reviews Analysis

One of the most telling signs of a broker’s reputation is user feedback. Numbers don’t lie—real traders share their experiences, and patterns emerge.

For UniversalAiGroup.com reviews, the Trustpilot score is 3.9, based on 6 reviews. Let’s break this down.

At first glance, a 3.9 rating isn’t terrible, but it’s not stellar either. However, something interesting stands out—all 6 reviews are positive (4-5 stars). This means that while the number of reviews is limited, the sentiment is consistently good.

Why does this matter? Because in the forex industry, negative reviews are extremely common—even top-tier brokers face complaints. But here, we see a small but 100% positive feedback trend.

Now, some might argue, “Why are there only 6 reviews?” Good question. The answer likely lies in the broker’s relative newness—launched in 2022, it hasn’t had as much time to accumulate thousands of reviews like older platforms. However, the absence of 1-star reviews is a strong indicator that users are generally satisfied with the service.

Would a scam broker have only positive reviews? Unlikely. Usually, fraudulent brokers get flooded with complaints early on, and their ratings plummet.

This suggests that while UniversalAiGroup.com review is still growing its reputation, the feedback it has is promising. Of course, the true test will be how this trend continues as more traders join.

Is UniversalAiGroup.com reviews a Legit Broker?

After analyzing all key aspects—establishment history, licensing, user feedback, account types, deposits & withdrawals, trading conditions, and customer support—it’s time to answer the big question: Can traders trust UniversalAiGroup.com review?

Here’s what we found:

✅ Domain & Establishment: The broker’s domain was secured two years before its official launch, a strong indicator of long-term business planning rather than a quick scam setup. ✅ Regulation: Licensed by the FCA, one of the strictest financial regulators in the world—ensuring transparency, segregated funds, and compliance with financial laws. ✅ User Reviews: While the broker is relatively new, its Trustpilot rating is 3.9, with 100% of the current reviews being positive. No major red flags here. ✅ Account Types & Trading Conditions: A wide range of accounts, from Bronze ($10,000) to VIP+ ($1,000,000), offering traders progressively better features like lower spreads, priority withdrawals, and exclusive market access. ✅ Payment Systems & Security: Fast deposits and instant withdrawals, supporting major payment providers like VISA, Maestro, Neteller, Skrill, and Union Pay—with 0% commission. ✅ Customer Support: Offers multiple ways to contact support, ensuring that traders have assistance when needed. ✅ Mobile App & Accessibility: Available on the App Store with a 3.9 rating, making it easy for traders to operate on the go. ✅ Trading Times & Market Access: Covers all major global markets, allowing traders to operate during the most active forex sessions.

So, is UniversalAiGroup.com reviews a scam?

Based on everything we’ve seen, this broker appears to be legitimate. It has strong regulation, positive early feedback, and a well-structured trading environment. The only downside? It’s still growing its reputation, so long-term reliability will depend on continued user experiences.

Would we recommend it? If you’re looking for an FCA-regulated broker with premium account options, UniversalAiGroup.com review is worth considering. However, as with any investment, proper due diligence is always key.

Want to compare this broker with another platform before making a final decision? Let me know, and I’ll break it down for you. 🚀

[ask--eggman]

if it isnt too sensitive a topic, would you be willing to talk about your grandfather? were studdying his work in my collage course and id like to know more about what role he played in your life

Hrmm. Well... I suppose I can appreciate the interest and how you've come to me as the best source, instead of haughty old historians that have written some silly books you might've read, who may dare claim they know as much about my grandfather as I do or feel they have anything interesting or valuable to say!

Now that the thought of all of you on that course learning about him through such ridiculous means is getting me all riled up, I feel like I can't NOT say anything now.

I never met him, I was born a little too late for that. It wouldn't have been possible as he spent most of his final years stationed in a top secret research center in space and they weren't letting just anyone up there without a good reason. MY reason obviously should've been a good one and if they wouldn't have thought so, they'd be wrong!

If only I could've been the one on the ARK with the honor of learning directly from the man himself, instead of that other member of the family who took it for granted because as far as I know, she didn't even want to be a scientist, so she was around all that knowledge and opportunity and never even took advantage. Ugh.

Anyway. For as long as I can remember, he was a part of my life, through the words of others. Being the greatest scientist of his time and therefore the most important and notable member of the family at the time, naturally he was going to be the common subject!

Especially being that I was lucky enough to be born as the son of his son. That's something I was proud of from the moment I learned, as early as I became an actual sentient being with thought. Which was earlier than the development of your average child of inferior intelligence, by the way!

So of course, I was immediately fascinated. His long, impressive, successful career as a scientist, making many groundbreaking advancements in the world of science and always striving to accomplish more immediately became one of my greatest fixations.

My father's past and business was such a bore in comparison, even if it did end up becoming useful to me later as a source of income for me to get myself off the ground and pursue better, far more interesting and valuable things. Anyway, let's not get too off topic here.

Naturally, I wanted to learn more about my grandfather in any way I could, through reading about as many of his recorded ventures and accomplishments that were made available to the public and that I could access.

A lot of it was from the news and much older books than later published garbage out there today. I was very precise and careful with my sources, only getting them from those who got their information directly, observed his work themselves and the most important and valuable of all, the things that were published by himself!

This was only as much of what was revealed to the public about his work, mostly pre-the-ARK-type-stuff because they obviously weren't sharing any of the top secret operations going on up there to the outside world. I didn't get any more access to it than anyone else, though I certainly would've deserved it.

I also had a more personal look into him with a couple of photos, though not as many as I wish. Most were from being a parent to my father and uncle but the rare few outside those fascinated me most. He had also written letters to my father, though they were quite a bit older because contact was very rare.

They didn't tell me as much about what he was getting up to on the work side of things but I was interested in learning about the person he was too. I'd perk up whenever I did find him mentioning or at least alluding to things he was working on. Or the rarest but most valuable parts of him documenting a day or two of life!

It wasn't that long until I learned of his passing. I didn't know the details, nobody told me and now I understand that it's because they didn't really know themselves, obviously, but I just assumed it to be because of old age at the time. I was disappointed that it sealed the fact that it was absolutely impossible for me to ever meet him.

Anyway, then I got access to some of his lecture tapes! I'd try to put myself there and imagine that I was his student as I watched. It really did feel like learning directly from him, the closest I could get to the real thing. It was very informative in a few areas I was interested in and very inspiring. I still hold a lot of valuable knowledge from them today.

There was nobody else in this family I felt connected to the same way. He was my hero for being a man who was passionate and devoted to science and made a name for himself by leading an impressive successful life, making an impact and being praised for his brilliance worldwide. I wanted the same! To be recognized and hailed for my own intelligence and potential I already started to recognize in myself at a young age.

He helped me realize my passion and who I wanted to be, I knew I needed to be a brilliant scientist too! If he could do it and become so famous and renowned, so could I! Finally, people would focus on and talk about me in the way they really should, remember my name and hail me for my genius and skill as I deserve! He gave me the hope and the desire to work hard and achieve my goals.

And so I started setting my own goals and trying to create my own things. I wanted to be a great scientist just like him but of course I had to eventually stray from the trail of his footprints and take my own path, to prove my independent genius and potential. It allowed my intelligence, knowledge, and experience to continue to expand. And look where I am today, now I'm the greatest scientific genius of all time!

But decades later we would cross paths again when I recovered his diary. I was thrilled to get my hands on something so precious and valuable and finally learn from him on truly the deepest most personal level, where I'd learn about the research facility and a top secret project he was working on and decided to get some use out of it!

That didn't quite go as planned in the end and I ended up finding out things I wish I hadn't as he'd planned to destroy the world, including his own grandson... To find out after all those years that the very person you held such deep admiration and idolization for was almost the one who caused your destruction... I don't want to talk about this any more.

Well, there you go. Some information from someone much more knowledgeable and actually equipped to speak on the matter.

[nareshkumartech]

How Canadian Licensing Systems Protect Against Identity Fraud

Identity fraud is a growing concern worldwide, and Canada is no exception. As licenses increasingly serve as key forms of identification for banking, travel, and government services, Canadian licensing systems have had to evolve with robust security measures to protect against identity fraud. Whether you are applying for your first license or renewing an existing one, it’s important to understand how these systems work to safeguard your personal information.

1. Advanced Physical Security Features

Modern Canadian driver’s licenses are embedded with multiple physical security features designed to make them extremely difficult to forge or tamper with. These include:

Holographic overlays: Special images that appear when the license is tilted, making duplication extremely difficult.

Microprinting: Very tiny text that is not visible to the naked eye but detectable under magnification, preventing easy reproduction.

Ghost images: A faint second image of the license holder that helps prevent photo swapping.

Raised lettering: Some jurisdictions use raised text that you can feel, adding another layer of protection against fakes.

These built-in technologies make it easy for authorities and businesses to quickly spot a fraudulent license during routine checks.

2. Digital Data Encryption

Canadian licensing systems now store driver data in encrypted databases, making unauthorized access to personal information extremely difficult. When information is transferred — such as when police scan your license or when you renew online — the data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. This ensures that even if someone intercepts the data, it remains useless without the decryption keys.

3. Stringent Identity Verification at Issuance

Before issuing a license, provincial and territorial licensing authorities conduct rigorous identity verification checks. Applicants must present multiple pieces of identification, including:

Proof of legal status in Canada (passport, PR card, visa).

Proof of residency within the province.

Secondary documents such as a birth certificate, citizenship card, or utility bill.

In many cases, cross-checks with federal databases (like immigration records or citizenship status) ensure that the applicant is who they claim to be. Newcomers may also face additional document checks to confirm their eligibility before a license is issued.

4. Real-Time Photo Comparison and Biometrics

When you renew your license or apply for a new one, your photograph is compared with existing photos on record using facial recognition software. This system helps detect cases where someone might be trying to fraudulently assume another person’s identity. In the future, more provinces are planning to expand the use of biometrics, such as fingerprints or iris scans, to further strengthen identification measures.

5. Ongoing Monitoring and Alerts

Canadian licensing systems do not just verify identities at the point of issuance — they continue monitoring afterward. If a license is reported stolen, lost, or involved in suspicious activity, it can be flagged in the system. Law enforcement agencies and border officials have real-time access to these databases, making it harder for stolen or fraudulent licenses to be used undetected.

Additionally, provinces encourage drivers to immediately report lost or stolen licenses to prevent identity theft and ensure the system remains secure.

Canadian licensing authorities are committed to staying ahead of fraudsters by continually updating security features and identity verification processes. Thanks to multi-layered protection — from physical security measures to real-time monitoring — Canadians can trust that their licenses remain a strong line of defense against identity fraud.

For step-by-step guidance on obtaining your driver’s license safely and staying informed about new ID requirements, visit LicensePrep.ca. Their resources make navigating the licensing process simple and secure!

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Advanced Dark Beings

Darkened, Darkspawn, Mnemosyne, Cataphractoi, the Dethroned. Fairly numerous are the Creatures Of Darkness and yet the most horrendous of those listed are not even always the most threatening. Darkened are just men, Mnemonsyne are worse men, Darkpspawn are just slavering beasts, Cataphractoi are corporeal ghosts acting out their passions plays in the world of the living and the Dethroned are the same but more and trapped in Purgatory. The worst of the Dark Creatures self-compartmentalize and the least of them are cockroaches of the Long Night, numerous, implacable but easily stepped on.

But the Kingdoms Fell and they Fell to something. It may well have been an endless tide of the lesser beasts corralled by armies of the tainted, generalled by the utterly corrupted, championed by the fallen and led by the hypothetical Avatars. Or perhaps there were even worse things among the Dark, as malicious and scheming as any Mnemosyne and as terrible as one of the Dethroned. And perhaps those things still walk the Earth, bringing fear and despair, destroying hope, wherever they go.

A Greek Noble active in Athens through the late 90’s to early 2000’s studied and documented at least some of these beings. Little is known of them except that they were as steeped in Acqua as they were in Tempesta and that they likely met their brutal end circa 2005. They were likely killed by the very subject of their studies and the Court Of Storms heaps honors over them that they did not go alone. Since then, the documentation has circulated among Storm Cells, into the hands of the Radiant and corroborated by some of the archives of Alhambra.

There are worse things in the Dark; here are some of them.

Ethrika the Nemeses, the Princes Of Darkness

Advanced Mnemosyne

Greek: “Hostiles”, εχθρικά echthriká (sg. Ethrikos)

When a Darkened human loses all Integrity and from a lack of any Umbrae is set to become a Mnemosyne, they may instead assume a different mantle. Just as seemingly human, just as actively inhuman, mightier than a mere Mnemosyne, the Ethrikos (pl. Ethrika) (mp. Enthrikos, Enthrika) ((bas[tardiz]ed on the Greek word for "Hostile", εχθρικός echthrikós)) is a terrible creature that draws many comparisons to the Kindred. Unlike those cursed by the Requiem, the Ethrika do not struggle with the Beast; they are monsters, one and all, totally, unrepentantly and without delusion, in complete control of their mental faculties.

There are two prerequisites to becoming an Ethrikos instead of a Mnemosyne. First, one must have undergone the Withering, granting them the same Inner Night “enjoyed” by the Dethroned. The second trait is an unknowable X Factor. Every “naturally created” Ethrikos had undergone the Withering before they lost their last shreds of humanity, but not every Withered Darkened who otherwise fulfills the requisite traits ascends as one of the Darkness’s most favored princes. It might be some favor of the Darkness itself, some undiscovered alignment of natural factors or just sheer raw luck that sees the transformation happen. Any Withered Mnemosyne may become an “artificial” Ethrikos at the hands of another Ethrikos that knows the caligines of Enervation and Venom Of The Soul, both of which are modified by being an Ethrikos, as described further below.

Withering (•••) | Must be Darkened or a Creature Of Darkness The Dark-Shaped accepts some form of cruelty not only as part of their nature and way of life, but as a legitimate and even positive philosophy. Not just paying lip service to it to justify their awfulness, but truly believing in it as some form of enlightenment, or endarkening. There may be other ways to achieve Withering, after resolving to commit heinous acts most foul or moments of overwhelming hate that calls to the Darkness. A philosophical enlightenment of cruelty or religious awakening of evil is just the most common method of attaining this uncommon trait. Creatures that undergo the Withering gain traits similar to that of one of the Dethroned. They gain Inner Night, starting at one dot. They may purchase further dots at five xp a piece. They do not gain access to the Dethroneds’ Chains. This grants the character Supernatural Tolerance and adds to his sensitivity rolls.

An Ethrikos may also form when a Strix possesses a Mnemosyne, when a Darkened Ghoul finally loses the last of their Integrity, when a Ghoul’d Mnemosyne betrays their Domitor and devours the vampire in an act of faux-diablerie by eating at least two-thirds of their body or when a Mnemosyne grasps a Noble's throat as she dies with 5 or less Belief, so long as he was responsible for its lowering by 3. Much like with a Withered Darkened, there is no guarantee of anything, though the resultant creature will be Withered by the experience and gain access to Inner Night.

Traits Of The Ethrika

At the stroke of midnight, every night, the Ultimate Darkness reaches through the black pit of the Ethrikos’s soul and extracts its nightly toll. It takes a Shadow from the Ethrikos, only the one, and that is all. If the Ethrikos is unable to pay this toll, the Nemesis falls into a coma and will not awaken unless an Act Of Cruelty is performed in their presence. It must be one that creates a  Taint that encompasses them or increases the Severity of a Tainted place that they’re already inside.

Unlike the Kindred, the Dark Princes are not burned by the touch of sunlight but they are not unaffected either. Natural sunlight falling upon them induces the Fatigued condition immediately, as if they had gone 30 hours without sleep and every additional minute spent in sunlight adds another 6 hours to the count. It takes an hour of rest in a shaded area, or ten minutes in total darkness, to recover from the experience.

Of note, sunlight through a glass tinted by jade will burn an Ethrikos in the same way normal sunlight does to the Kindred. This is an obscure piece of occult lore, as in obscure to the “average” occultist and virtually unknown to an amateur. It’s an accomplished occultist who can recall this information with ease.

Despite the resemblance to vampires, Ethrika age normally unless they know and have performed Undying Heart. Aside from that, an Ehtrikos enjoys many of the same physical gifts as one of the Kindred, the ones that come innately, that make a vampire stronger and tougher. Damage is downgraded one level unless it comes from the Bane of Jade. An Ethrikos may reflexively heal 1 Lethal or 2 Bashing by spending a Shadow. They may also boost a Physical Attribute Roll by +2 by spending a Shadow reflexively. Gaining a Kindred’s Keen Senses is automatic upon taking one dot of Auspex or Animalism, or the ability to turn on Keen Senses for a scene by spending a Shadow after taking one dot of Protean or Obfuscate.

Jade bypasses the toughness of the Dark Princes and hurts them the same as it does any Creature Of Darkness. Fire also bypasses the toughness of Nemeses but it doesn’t especially burn them as fire does the Kindred, only hurting them as much as it does any mortal creature.

The Ethrika do not have Predatory Auras, though they may purchase the ability to project them at the price of 1xp, and they cannot automatically tell who is another Ethrikos the same as the Kindred can. Instead, the Ethrika have the ability to tell when someone has the potential to be or become an Ethrikos. They are able to discern the following traits: that the person is a Creature Of Darkness, including Darkened, that the person will not be turning into a Darkspawn, that the person has less than 4 Integrity and that the person is Withered. An Ethrikos fits all these different criteria but so does a Withered Mnemosyne or a Withered Darkened with no Umbrae close to becoming a Mnemosyne.

Ethrika can learn vrykolas caligines ((bas[tardiz]ed on the Greek word for "Vampires", βρυκόλακας vrykólakas)) that imitates the power of vampiric disciplines, using Shadows in place of Vitae and Inner Night acting as Blood Potency. All Ethrika may draw from the common disciplines and most of them have access to one of the unique disciplines as well, with a few able to use even more. They may also learn devotions as vrykolas, so long as they have the requisite disciplines, but they may not learn any covenant specific powers or devotions. Why some Ethrika have access to two or more unique disciplines and some have none at all is about as unknowable as to why some Darkened turn into Ethrika in the first place.

Modified Caligines

Becoming or being an Ethrikos modifies the following caligines:

Enervation: Will absorb Wisps before it absorbs Willpower. Will absorb a number of Wisps and points of Willpower per use equal to 1 + the Ethrikos’s Inner Night. Wisps can be freely converted into Willpower or Shadows. Willpower taken from the Light Touched can be freely converted into Shadows. Any person brought to 0 Willpower by this ability dies. The Ethrika also gains all of the person’s Shadows by killing them this way. I Am Your Master: By feeding a Darkned mortal some of their flesh, the Ethrikos may enthrall the mortal in the same way a Kindred’s Vitae addicts a Ghoul, imposing a False Love similar to the Vinculum. These infected mortals, called Minions or Voulos ((Greek: "Slave", δούλος doúlos) by the Ethrika, have the same limited access to vrykolas caligines as Ghouls have to vampiric disciplines. The Ethrika doesn’t need to battle wills with the Darkened as the caligo normally does with Darkspawn unless they have undergone the Withering, only keeping up with monthly feeding as a vampire would a ghoul. You can also flesh bond a Mnemosyne, who cannot resist unless they have Withered, or another Ethrikos, who are all withered, in this manner. Undying Heart: By performing this ritual, an Ethrikos becomes a lot more like a vampire, unaging from that moment forward and counting as one of the undead. If they do die, their body rapidly decomposes as if they had truly died the moment they had performed the ritual. This further modifies I Am Your Master, as now Minions enslaved by that caligo gain another Ghoul-like trait, their aging halts as long as they remain a slave of the Ethrikos. Venom Of The Soul: If an Ethrikos drains a Withered Mnemosyne dry of their Willpower via Enervation, which normally kills, they may instead permanently invest a point of their own Willpower into the drained person and revive them from the brink of death as another Ethrikos. An “artificial” Ethrikos is called an heir, a nomoi. An heir is not undead, unless they have used Undying Heart. The newly forged creation has access to the same vampiric disciplines via vrykolas caligines as their creator. Crafted With Love And Care: If the Ethrikos knows I Am Your Master, Undying Heart and Venom Of The Soul, they may convert fresh corpses into creatures called Puppets or Kukles (sg. Kukla) ((Greek: "Dolls", κούκλες koúkles)). Puppets function as Ethrika that have performed Undying Heart except that they have no ambitions, no virtues and no vices. The only thing a Puppet wishes to do is obey the will of their master. Facsimiles of their personalities remain, thinly wrapped around an unmistakable core of perfect, nigh-robotic obedience. If the Ethrika that crafted them dies, so too do all of their Puppets. Unlike the dolls normally crafted by this caligo, Puppets can look normal and human. The creation of a Kukla requires the permanent investment of a Willpower, same as with any Childer or Heir. The maintenance of a Kukla is the same as maintaining the flesh-bond of a Voulos by feeding them flesh through I Am Your Master and another dot of Willpower. Failure to maintain this control will cause the Kukla to experience Final Death and cannot be revived.

On a final note, Ethrika can purchase or convert Umbrae as Caligines at the cost of 1 XP each. These powers still come with the drawbacks emblematic to all Umbrae, but an Ethrikos has a workaround. At the cost of 1 WP or 1 Shadow, an Ethrikos may turn off one (as a reflexive action) or all (as a full turn action) Umbra-turned-Caligo, suppressing them and absorbing them into the dark recesses of their soul. They may then freely reactivate all repressed powers as a reflexive action or activate select abilities at the cost of 1 WP or Shadow each.

Voulos have the same abilities. If the Darkened human loses their voulos status, all of the Umbrae-as-Caligines they have taken will turn back into Umbra and they will be refunded their xp.

Sample Ethrika

Vandal

Also called simply the Thug, granted all the power of a kindred without an ounce of the restraint, and all this creature can think to do is victimize the weak with overwhelming brute strength.

Attributes:

Strength 3 Presence 3 Intelligence 1

Dexterity 3 Manipulation 1 Wits 3

Stamina 3 Composure 2 Resolve 2

Skills: Athletics 4, Brawl* (Grappling) 4, Larceny* (B&E) 1, Drive* 2, Intimidation 4, Streetwise* 3 (Navigation), Medicine* 4  [Stealth (Moving Silently)]

*May be replaced with Weaponry (Improvised) or Firearms (Handguns or Shotguns), Stealth (Moving In Woods), Survival (Navigation), Animal Ken and just about anything respectively

Derived Traits: Health 8, Willpower 4, Size 5, Defense 7, Initiative 7, Speed 11

Merit Suggestions: 

Mental: Danger Sense, Fast Reflexes 2 or Fast Reflexes 1 & Direction Sense for a more outdoor survival type. Hypervigilance and/or Human Prey if you wanna give them a paranoid nutjob feel.

Physical: Demolisher 2, Fleet Of Foot, Hardy 2, Iron Skin1, Iron Stamina 2, Punch Drunk, Relentless, Greyhound. Covert Operative for the Assassin-type, Quick Draw if a weapon is used, Giant is an option if you wanna put the big in big dumb brute, Survivalist for an Outdoorsy-type. For one that’s a driver, like a Thief or a Kidnapper, consider giving them one more dote in it and Crack Driver, Aggressive Driver and Roadkill

Social: Air Of Menace. Vandals also seem to be the type to possibly take Den Of Vice and/or Mobster.

Fighting: Yes. Go through the list. Not all of them but clearly any of them, especially if you go for default Brawl focus. One more dot in Composure and you could do Killer Instinct.

Caligines: Enervation, Drag-to-Darkness 4, Grotesque Bulk 1, Loathsome Weapon 3, Zombie Flesh 3, Avoid All Eyes, Gathering Shadows, Hear Darkness Slither, Voice-Eating Hunger + Umbrae: Corruption Of Blood, Grip Unto Your Fear

Caligo Discussion: 

Enervation isn’t strictly necessary but the modification granted by being an ethrikos makes it a worthwhile tool for the physically oriented thug. Grapple your victim and suck the life out of them like a real vampire until death, gain Shadows if you do it to the right kind of victim. Activating Grip Unto Your Fear is especially good for this.

Grotesque Bulk, Loathsome Weapon and Zombie Flesh are all simple, brutish caligines that grant the Monster-type Vandal the offense and defense needed to bring hurt and take it in turn. However, a cost of 3 WP total is a steep price to activate all of them at once. A possible work around would be a custom caligo, possibly tied with Inhuman Form, that would allow the Monster to gain the benefits of all three at the cost of 1 WP. Perhaps, as a downside, it’s a Full turn action. Suggested names: “Monstrous Transformation”, “Brute Form”, “Into Hyde”, “Hulk Out”.

Loathsome Weapon, not to mention Grotesque Bulk, may be substituted for Shadow Blade by the Vandal who thinks they have more class or by Vile Gobbets by one who decidedly doesn’t.

Drag-to-Darkness at 4 dots may allow a Kidnapper-type Vandal, letting the thug take an unwilling victim to their lair for whatever purpose. This may horrifically pair well with Cruel Mercy if they decide to take that as well or I Have You Now My Pretty.

Avoid All Eyes and Voice-Eating Hunger are tools for the Killer-type Vandal, allowing them to get the drop on a victim and murder them in silence, with no chance of them screaming for help. Hear Darkness Slither goes in the opposite direction, helping a Vandal ensure no one gets the drop on them.

Gathering Shadows works for a Warlord-type Vandal who would gather to himself a horde of monsters to lead against a target. I Am Your Master could also help with this build, giving the Vandal darkened or mnemosyne voulos minions, or the umbra Subsumed By Another Shadow.

Darkness Enfolds might be worth taking if this dark prince is an assassin or hunter of the light princesses, granting them the ability to properly track down their quarry.

Vrykolas: Celerity 1, Vigor 1, Resilience 1

Add and/or substitute Animalism, Auspex and/or Protean if you want a more wild Savage crazed-hobo-in-the-woods type character.

Inner Night: 1

Shadows: 4

Grandsire

An evil creature taken with the idea of founding a new line of wickedness. It is not as simple as it is with kindred, an ethrika cannot metaphorically exsanguinate just anyone but must find, or create, withered mnemosyne. An ethrikos intuitively knows how many and which of the prerequisites a person has fulfilled necessary to be envenomed into another dark prince. Unlike one of the kindred, they cannot intuit if that person already is an ethrikos or what exactly fulfilling the rest of the prerequisites might entail, leaving an aspiring grandsire to muddle through that part on their own.

Attributes:

Strength 1 Presence 1 Intelligence 3

Dexterity 2 Manipulation 4 Wits 3

Stamina 3 Composure 4 Resolve 3

Skills: Athletics 2*, Stealth 1, Weaponry 1, Empathy 5 (Personalities), Persuasion 5 (Temptation), Socialize 1, Occult 4 (Dark Magic), Politics 2, Computers 1

*Move this 2 around the Physical skills as flavor demands. Calculate Defense appropriately.

Derived Traits: Size 5, Health 8, Willpower 7*, Defense 4, Initiative 7, Speed 9

*Eaten away by creation of heirs

Merits Suggestions: 

Mental: Multilingual to tempt across language barriers. Indomitable.

Social: Empathy, Peacemaker 2, Pusher, Retainer 2

Caligines: Enervation, Venom Of The Soul, Drag-to-Darkness 2, Liar’s Heart 1, Shadowblade 2, Zombie’s Flesh 2, Darkness Enfolds, Gathering Shadows, Mummia, Shadow Cloak, Taste Of Sin, Evil Influence, Sin Whisperer, The Demon Within, Drink Pain Like Wine, Everyone Dies Alone, Embrace Your Shadow

Caligo Discussion: 

The two highlighted Caligines, being modified by the nemesis template, are the centerpieces of this template, being the two step process by which an ethrikos may sire a new dark prince. Rather than being called childers, these “artificial” ethrika are called heirs or nomoi.

Taste Of Sin, Evil Influence and Sin Whisperer are ways by which the Grandsire might steer a prospective heir down the path of darkness and ready them for Enthronement. Dark Thoughts Consume may also do it, but it seems less reliable. Infectious Hate is also a good Umbrae for this.

Mummia is a useful tool for the longevity it grants, allowing the faux vampire sire the years to work and appreciate their growing “family”. Undying Heart will do the same thing but better, but it is far harder to get and more extreme in its application.

I Am Your Master, modified by the nemesis template, is a tool for the Patriarch-type Grandsire that wishes to maintain a firm control over their heirs.

Drag-to-Darkness, Liar’s Heart and Gathering Shadows are useful tools for a Shadow Master-type trying to remain hidden or just get away scot free with their proteges as needed.So are the Umbrae Hollow As A Shadow and Faceless In The Crowd, especially if they are made into Caligines to be turned on and off.

Shadowblade and Zombie’s Flesh are just means by which a Grandsire may defend themself, and a certain amount of elegance is imagined over the Vandal. They may, instead, rely on Voidblast if they’re a more sorcerer type of person, Loathsome Weapon if making a mess isn’t objectionable or entirely on their Vrykolas if they feel those are sufficient. Or the Grandsire may rely on a projective shield of heirs, assuming that their nomoi aren’t all birds of a feather.

Encacogen, Gathering Shadows, The Demon Within and Embrace Your Shadow are all excellent ways for an Overlord-type to get some extra muscle that isn’t their heirs. As is the Umbrae Subsumed By Another Shadow. I Am Your Master, not even needing the nemesis upgrades, could help make these creatures controllable.

Vrykolas: A Grandsire may normally have any Disciplines in their special faux-vampiric powers, although Majesty is a good one. Usually 5-9 dots if they’ve been at this for a while. All Disciplines they have access to, so too will their heirs, nomoi.

Inner Night: 2-3

Shadows: 5-7

Suggestion: This may be mixed together with the Vandal, the Thug, in order to create the leader and sire of a horrid little gang of thugs.

Mastermind

This being plays a role more traditional to the dancers of the Requiem, shadowy manipulator. They will have voulos servants, minions, bonded to their master and carrying out their will, as well as mortals simply in their pocket or charmed by their silver tongue. Unlike a proud Ventrue, the Mastermind does not just seek to climb the social ladder, but to spread discord and strife for its own sake, even sometimes to the detriment of their standing. Some are capable of being more careful than that and they perhaps can be the worst. Masterminds of that sort will orchestrate grand plots to bring society to ruin with themselves standing tall upon the ashes or simply engineer culture into something more cruel and callous.

Attributes:

Strength 1 Presence 3 Intelligence 1

Dexterity 2 Manipulation 4 Wits 3

Stamina 2 Composure 2 Resolve 3

Skills: Larceny 2*, Stealth 2*, Empathy 1** (Inciting), Expression 2**, Intimidation 2**, Persuasion 2** (Temptation), Socialize 2**, Streetwise 2**, Subterfuge 3** (Long Cons), Politics 4 (Bribery)

*If you wanted, appropriate specialties would Sleight-Of-Hand and Crowds respectively

**The character template is a skill sink. If you wanted, consolidate some points into more specialized pools and/or add one or two dots to each social skill to represent a more seasoned manipulator.

Derived Traits: Size 5, Health 7, Willpower 5, Defense 2, Initiative 4, Speed 8

Merit Suggestions:

Mental: Multilingual and Languages to reach across barriers. Indomitable

Social: It would be easier to list Social merits not appropriate for this character type, like Air Of Menace makes socializing hard, Cohesive Unit or Small Units Tactics unless the Mastermind is also martial, Defender, Support Network or True Friend requires you be an actual person anymore and not a devil in a human meatsuit, doesn’t normally qualify for Iron Will 

Caligines: I Am Your Master, Liar’s Heart 3, Darkness Enfolds, Taste Of Sin, Burying The Crime, Dark Thoughts Consume, Evil Influence, Scapegoat, So Many Of Me, Blood Diamonds, Call The Black Dog, Handful Of Dust, Sin Whisperer, Skinmask, Demon Within, Disloyal Susurration, Drink Pain Like Wine, Everyone Dies Alone, Oblivion Sign, Embrace Your Shadow

Caligo Discussion: I Am Your Master is nearly the centerpiece caligo in this build, being modified by the nemesis template to allow the ethrikos to turn Darkened and Mnemosyne into flesh-slaved minions, voulos, like vampiric ghouls. With this, the Mastermind can build a network of loyal followers to carry out their bidding.

Liar’s Heart, at 3 dots, is also very nearly essential for any version of the Mastermind, for the simple expedient reason of avoiding detection from the Enlightened.

Darkness Enfolds, Scapegoat, So Many Of Me and Skinmask are of particular use to an Espionage-type Mastermind hoping to avoid detection.

Taste Of Sin, Dark Thoughts Consume, Evil Influence, Sin Whisperer and Drink Pain Like Wine all offer direct ways to learn about and manipulate someone, good for a Tempter-type of Mastermind. Perhaps the Mastermind will only choose a few that fit their temptation style. They’re good ways to Darken somebody and leave them open to be turned into voulos. Oblivion Sign is a more direct way for a more literal Control-type.

Disloyal Susurration and Blood Diamonds are good tools for the Merchant Prince-type of Mastermind, allowing them to destroy rival organizations and reap profits from anything. Consider brewing a variation on Blood Diamonds that allows the user to reap social influence instead of profit from the destruction of a place.

Call The Black Dog, Handful Of Dust and Everyone Dies Alone are various ways for a Mastermind to break a target down, either removing an obstacle, making someone more pliable to other manipulations or both, and are excellent tools to choose from.

Demon Wtihin and Embrace Your Shadow are two different ways to create powerful minions on demand. The latter has the added benefit of creating a hostage all-in-one for those who would care about the person trapped in the Akuma Shadow.

Mummia may be useful to apply to a Mastermind if you're thinking of a creature who has had decades, centuries or more to craft together their master plan. In which case, it may behoove you to stat such an elder creature accordingly.

The Umbrae Faceless In The Crowd, Hollow As A Shadow, Light Is Dark, Scuttling Spider Sense, Sound Of Silence and Thief’s Touch are also useful to take as Caligines to a Mastermind that might need to get their hands dirty and then put away after. They may also be the preferred tools for their voulos minions. Subtle Tongue is something a manipulative Mastermind might keep on, until it too needs to be put away, Tainted Allure Of Vice if they’re feeling particularly dangerous. Infectious Hate might just be taken as a straight Umbra.

Vrykolas: Majesty 2, Dominate 2

A dot or two more spread among these may represent a more experienced and dangerous Mastermind. A dot of Obfuscate may be used  by a Mastermind with some hands-on needs or a second dot to aid her minions, and/or a dot or two of Nightmare in the backpocket for some self-defense if necessary.

Inner Night: 2-3

Shadows: 5-7

Suggestions: Mixing, matching or just adding up the best bits of this template and the Vandal (originally called the Thug) may pair well together is some kind of Crimelord type or just a Mastermind you wouldn’t mind actually putting up a fight when the final confrontation comes to be. It, of course, pairs well with a Grandsire to create a true Shadow King, fostering a legacy of darkness in both heirs and a powerbase for you to begin an era of darkness. All three and you have a Dark Kingpin, a kind of mafioso creating a warped crime family.

Puppetmaster

A dark and immortal sorcerer who has delved deeply in the magical powers granted to them by their status as a Prince Of Darkness. They have moved beyond bare imitations of the Kindred with unreliable ghouls and willful childers and have taken to the creation of perfectly obedient, undead automatons, the kukles or puppets.

Attributes:

Strength 3 Presence 1 Intelligence 4

Dexterity 1 Manipulation 1 Wits 1

Stamina 3 Composure 4 Resolve 4

Skills: Athletics 4, Brawl 3 (Dirty Tricks), Drive 1, Stealth 3 (Moving In Darkness)*, Subterfuge 2, Occult 5 (Dark Magic), Medicine 3 (Surgery)

*Could be Moving In Woods instead if their schtick is keeping their activities away from civilization

Derived Traits: Size 5, Health 8, Willpower 8*, Defense 5, Initiative 4, Speed 9

*Eaten away by creation of puppets

Merit Suggestions:

Mental: Hypervigilance, Good Time Management, Indomitable, Patient, Tolerance For Biology

Physical: Covert Operative, Crack Driver, Greyhound

Social: Air Of Menace, Alternate Identity 1-3, Anonymity 1-5, Beneath Notice, Iron Will, Safe Place 1-5

Fighting: Chokehold, Clinch Strike, possibly Subduing Strike if they qualify for it. Fighting styles aimed at taking someone down so that the Puppetmaster can take them away.

Supernatural: Dark Palace

Caligines:  I Am Your Master, Undying Heart, Venom Of The Soul, Crafted With Love And Care, Drag To Darkness 4, Liar’s Heart 1, Cruel Mercy, Hear Darkness Slither, Shadow Cloak, Voice-Eating Hunger, Void Magic, Grasping At Shadows, I Have You Now My Pretty, Nowhere Untouched, Inhuman Form, Walk In Darkness, Out Of The Depths

Caligo Discussion:

The highlighted caligines, being modified by the nemesis template, are the keystone of this build, allowing the Puppetmaster to Vassalize some poor soul into a Kukla. There is no need to Darken the potential puppet first, the Puppetmaster just need the time and resources to murder someone and literally carve out everything they were to turn them into perfect servants.

Each and every caligo central to this build is an enormous sink of not just xp, but willpower to put them to use, both in creating a kukla and maintaining it. The Puppetmaster heavily relies on their Vyrkolas for personal power, works through their hollowed-out puppets and invests in caligines that don’t require willpower to work. Nowhere Untouched, Inhuman Form, Walk In Darkness and Out Of The Depths are good examples of this and useful powers in their own rights. They’re also xp sinks but the Puppetmaster has have had to used Undying Heart on themselves and is an immortal monster with plenty of time to gather the resources. Hear Darkness Slither, Shadow Cloak and Void Magic are a lot less costly and do not cost willpower to use.

Enervation would be modified by the nemesis template but it is it’s base function that could be extremely useful to a Puppetmaster short on willpower. It’s not necessary to the creation of puppets but it sure would help. Autophage is another excellent choice if the Puppetmaster is willing to absorb the hurt. A combo might be having a puppet use Autophage and then the master use Enervation on the puppet.

Grasping Shadows and Drag To Darkness are good caligines for disabling and storing a victim respectively for Vassalization that cost no willpower. I Have You Now My Pretty and Cruel Mercy are also good for the same things but they have a willpower cost. The umbra Grip Unto Your Fear may also work, made into a caligo or not. Voice Eating Hunger is an excellent way to take down a victim and let no one hear them scream.

Faceless In The Crowd, Hollow As A Shadow and Hunger Means Nothing are in-character umbrae for a Puppetmaster to develop as they fit well with their anti-social tendencies and may take as caligines if not form them supernaturally.

Vrykolas: Like the Grandsire and their nomoi heirs, a Mastermind and their voulos minions, the kukla puppets are limited in the vrykolas they can learn from their Puppetmaster. However, these can be anything, but a Puppetmaster does not benefit much from Majesty. As they’ve been at this for a very long time, and likely rely on them because Shadows are far easier to gain and retain. Possibly 6-8 dots.

Inner Night: 3-4

Shadows: 6-9

Suggestions: Of all the templates, I would say Masterminds and Puppetmasters are the most diametrically opposed. One deals with people as they are(-ish) and the other one murders and hollows out poor suckers so they don’t have to deal with different opinions or any personal opinions at all, really. Maybe with the Mastermind, it’s split between the “on thin ice” voulos and the kukles who “failed me for the last time” but were too useful just to kill off outright.

Combining the Puppetmaster with the Vandal probably fits best with the Wood Hobo, an immortal serial killer in the forest that turns his victims into his undying slaves. With the Grandsire, you have a host of helpers split evenly between the “unworthy”, who get vassalized into kukla, and the “worthy”, who are enthroned as nomoi.

Occultist

Another dark and immortal sorcerer who has delved deep into the powers of Darkness for the sake of it. The Occultist commits horror out of a spiritual fascination with it and their transformation into a nemesis is more likely a result of this devotion. This is as opposed to the Puppetmaster who may have explored these powers in order to properly exploit their new state.

Attributes:

Strength 1 Presence 2 Intelligence 3

Dexterity 2 Manipulation 2 Wits 2

Stamina 3 Composure 3 Resolve 3

Skills: Athletics 3, Larceny 1, Stealth 2, Weaponry 2 (Knives), Intimidation 2, Persuasion 2 (Sermons), Streetwise 2, Subterfuge 2, Academics 1, Computer 1, Investigation 1, Occult 5 (Dark Magic)

Derived traits: Size 5, Health 8, Willpower 6, Defense 5, Initiative 5, Speed 8

Merit Suggestions:

Mental: Advanced Library (requires regular Library and a Safe Place), Area Of Expertise, Eidetic Memory, Encyclopedic Knowledge, Eye For The Strange, Meditative Mind, Object Fetishism 1-5, Tolerance For Biology

Physical: Hardy 1-3, Relentless

Social: Hobbyist Clique

Supernatural: Dark Palace

Caligines: Dark Dreams 1+, Encagogen 2+, Night Air 1+, Voidblast 1+, Darkness Enfolds, Defiling Touch, Gathering Shadows, Open Hellmouth, Vex, Void Magic, Autophagy, Burying The Crimes, Enervating Hex, Nowhere Untouched, Wither, Flesh Of My Flesh, Such Pretty Eyes, Walk In Darkness, World Corroding Entropic Trouch, Dance Puppet Dance, Hope’s Eclipse, One Of Us, Trophy Hunt, Profanation, Shadow Step + Umbrae: Animate Shadow, Corruption Of Blood, Hollow As A Shadow, Infectious Hate, Light Is Dark, Miasma Of Madness, Subsumed By Another Shadow

The Occultist is among the most likely to have self-invented Caligines, results of horrid experimentation.

Vrykolas: The kind of Disciplines that would form in an Occultists are liable to be the more esoteric sort, such as Nightmare, Protean and Obfuscate. He’s also most likely to experiment with Devotions. 4-7 Dots sounds potentially like the right range.

Inner Night: 3-4

Shadows: 6-9

Suggestions: Mixing with the Puppetmaster is the hardest thing to do, since you’ll have so many demands on your willpower, but if you manage to make a Dread Necromancer this way, great. Combined with the Mastermind would create a great Cult Leader, with the Grandsire a Dark Father and with the Vandal a kind of Death Knight.

Terata the Invaders, the Barons of Darkness

Advanced Darkspawn

Greek: “Monsters”, τέρατα térata (sg. Teras)

When thirty-nine darkspawn lay into one another in fratricidal violence, one may survive and soak in the ooze of its dead compatriots.  When a darkspawn does the impossible and gains forty-three Shadows, rapidly kills four Nobles or ages some change short of seven centuries; it might undergo a metamorphosis, a rebirth. When a person already not quite human, but not fully a monster, bearing dread powers beyond the norm, loses the last of their sanity, humanity, integrity to the Darkness, then that vile power may find a greater vessel than the norm to fill. When a Princess loses all belief and dies in despair, a fissure may open in the Dark World beneath her when the Darkness sighs in disappointment she didn’t Dethrone. Sometimes, a frozen spawn falls into that fissure and sometimes it crawls back out, changed.

To be Withered greatly increases the chances of a Darkspawn actually evolving to this exalted rank rather than dying in a pool of its pack’s blood, aging to a millenia and being anything other than a savage anomaly or getting annihilated when the Dark World swallows it. To the point that not being Withered makes becoming an Invader a nigh impossibility atop of something that is already impossible. But it is so incredibly rare for a mere Darkspawn to Wither, to the point of nigh impossibility, that those who were Withered before making it form little less than half of the Dark Barony. 

A Teras is an entity like a Dethroned approached from the other side. Not a Noble experiencing a horrid disillusionment but a Darkspawn achieving an equally horrid enlightenment, or endarkening, a blasphemous ascension rather than a tragic fall. And like the Dethroned, they are considered impossible, all while proceeding to happen anyway. Awful creatures reaching their awful claws out for power that never belonged to them and becoming worse creatures than never should have been.

Traits Of The Terata

The Terata have all the same traits as the Dethroned such as Clouds, Hexes, Inner Night and their accompanying Chains, renamed to fit their different nature. IE, Fortress Of Regret becomes Fortress Of Contempt. In addition, a Teras retains all of the Umbrae and Caligines it had before its apotheosis and may spend Clouds as if they were Shadows. The greater difference, however, is that a Teras was and remains Darkened, it can Enter Darkness and cross out of a Tainted Place into the real world, though doing so costs it one Cloud.

One difference is that Terata do not automatically gain Clouds every Midnight and the sight of an Invader does not trigger a Noble; a Teras is not the gut wrenching revelation of how far a Princess can fall, it’s just a bigger, meaner monster. Many are below human intelligence but otherwise quite cognizant and aware, if unhinged in their savage evil. Unlike a Dethroned, however, they are not trapped in their dispassion plays like some unhallowed ghost but are still active monsters in the Long Night.

And they have powers worthy of any monster, beyond Hexes and Chains, beyond incidental Umbrae or Caligines, they have Dread Powers.

Modified Powers

Wherever the Chains and Hexes make mention of the Dethroned’s torment and regret, replace it with the Teras’s ecstasy and celebration. Terata are not fallen angels wallowing in their grief, they are ascendant demons exulting in their horror. Still, however, at some point in the past, however long ago, the Teras was human, they did fall, how much of it was an agonized spiral downwards and how much was a whooping swandive may vary, but it happened. And those human memories of moral degradation may manifest in powers that require something similar in Dethroned.

The renamed if mostly unmodified powers are as follow:

Fortress Of Contempt Slaves In Suffering (Companions In Misery) Welcome To My Kingdom Of Hell Cherished Torment

While the effect [of Cherished Torment] is similar in many ways [to Remembered Torment], the Drawback for the Terata is not that it cannot remember what is past and what is present but rather that it, and all its Followers, are lost in a twisted nostalgia, chasing a remembered high with manic addiction.

Master’s Scorn Covetous Labyrinth

Cry Of Ecstasy Kiss Of A Devil One Thousand Wanton Eyes Toxinous Bite

Sample Terata

Ambush Predator

A singular killer for a singular target, this half-man, half-serpentine monster is a hunter and those touched by the Light are its intended prey.

Attributes:

Strength 7 Presence 1 Intelligence 1

Dexterity 5 Manipulation 2 Wits 4

Stamina 3 Composure 3 Resolve 3

Skills: Athletics 4, Brawl 3 (Grapple), Stealth 5, Survival 2 (Hunting)

Derived Traits: Health 8, Willpower 6, Size 5, Defense 8, Initiative 8, Speed 17

Inner Night: 3 (has up to Gate Of Exultation)

Hexes: Blast, Cry Of Ecstasy, Loathsome Weapon, Toxinous Bite, Unnatural Senses

Dread Powers: Agonize, Blinding Spray 2, Burrow, Catlike Reflexes, Chameleon Horror, Dread Attack 2 (Drugged), Lashing Tendrils, Leap, Lockdown, Natural Weapon 3 (Bite), Predator’s Sense (Lighttouched), Prodigious Leap, Surprise Entrance, Swift, Thresher, Wall Climb

Merits: Danger Sense, Direction Sense, Covert Operative, Double Jointed, Fleet Of Foot 2, Greyhound, Seizing The Edge

Crowd Killer

A taker of many lives, a beast of mass slaughter, a fiery thing seemingly out of Tolkien’s books. It’s not necessarily meant to kill the heroes who might stop it, but survive long enough to deny them a real victory.

Attributes:

Strength 5 Presence 3 Intelligence 1

Dexterity 3 Manipulation 1 Wits 3

Stamina 5 Composure 2 Resolve 4

Skills: Athletics 6, Brawl 3 (Blocking), Weaponry 3 (Improvised)

Derived Traits: Health 15, Willpower 6, Size 10, Defense 9, Initiative 5, Speed 14

Inner Night: 1 (has up to Fortress Of Contempt)

Hexes: Covetous Form, Loathsome Weapon, Monstrous Size

Dread Powers: Armored Hide 2, Destructive Aura 3, Fire Elemental, Flight, Last Gasp, Madness & Terror, Monstrous Resilience, Natural Weapon 1 (Claws), Regenerate 3 (Jade), Thresher, Unbreakable

Merits: Fast Reflexes 2, Ambidextrous, Punch Drunk, Air Of Menace

Eldritch Horror

A horror crackling with terrible power, a writhing pile of worms vaguely in the shape of a man, moving over the Earth only to blight it and leave a trail of taint in its wake.

Attributes:

Strength 3 Presence 2 Intelligence 5

Dexterity 1 Manipulation 1 Wits 1

Stamina 4 Composure 4 Resolve 4

Skills: Computers 1, Medicine 3 (Surgery), Occult 6 (Dark Magic), Stealth 0 (Hiding), Firearms 0 (Magic Blast x4), Intimidation 0 (Bluster), Persuasion 0 (Sermons)

Derived Traits: Health 9, Willpower 8, Size 5, Defense 1, Initiative 5, Speed 6

Inner Night: 5 (has up to Welcome To My Kingdom In Hell)

Caligine: Enervation

Hexes: Blast, One Thousand Wanton Eyes, Swarming Horror, Unceasing

Dread Powers: Black Gate, Blindsight, Eye Spy, Ghost Touch, Hex (Blinded, Deafened), Home Turf 2, Immortal*, Legion, Madness & Terror, Maze, Occult Avarice, Pierce Mind, Raise Dead, Reality Stutter, Skin-Taker, Soul Thief**, Storm Caller, Taint (Filth), Thunderbolt

*The Eldritch Horror may only be slain for good by Jade of a certain color

**The Eldritch Horror may only steal the soul of one who is killed within the Nightscape of a Tainted Place claimed by it as a Gate Of Exultation in a way that fulfills the Aspiration particular to that Tainted Place. Only my killing the Eldritch Horror may the soul be set free.

Merits: Eidetic Memory, Eye For The Strange, Encyclopedic Knowledge (Academics, Science), Good Time Management, Interdisciplinary Specialty (Surgery), Tolerance For Biology, Cast From The Heart*

*Custom merit: Lets the user use Stamina in place of Dexterity for aiming magical blast type attacks. Downside is you have an Exhausted condition at the end of the scene.

Monster King

The master of many minor monsters, the leader of the demonic hordes, ensconced in its courts of horrors, a well-muscled humanoid creature with an animal’s head like some Egyptian god come to life, directing its minions in the matters of ruining the world.

Attributes:

Strength 3 Presence 5 Intelligence 2

Dexterity 3 Manipulation 3 Wits 3

Stamina 3 Composure 3 Resolve 4

Skills: Athletic 3, Brawl 2 (Throws), Survival 1 (Hunting), Weaponry 1 (Duels), Animal Ken 1 (Wild Animals), Empathy 0 (Lies, Motives, Personalities), Intimidation 6 (Direct Threats, Physical Threats)

Derived Traits: Health 8, Willpower 7, Size 5, Defense 6, Initiative 6, Speed 11

Inner Night: 10 (has up to All Hope Abandon)

Umbrae: Subsumed By Another Shadow

Hexes: Bind Familiar, Unceasing

Dread Powers: Beastmaster, Earth Elemental, Gauntlet Cloak, Home Turf 4, Know Soul, Maze, Raise Dead, Venomous Ichor

Merits: Danger Sense, Indomitable, Trained Observer

Bogeyman

A devil, a horrid fucking goblin, rabid shitheel that exists only for the purposes of causing misery, revelling in shadows and striking at the weak, the innocent and the forgotten from places unseen, from orchestrating the tears of good people as they stand over mutilated pups and babes. All of its peers are horrid fuckers, but only one will stop to force a child to watch it drown their puppy while all wrath of angels bear down upon it. (The others will shoot the dog in passing or punt the little beast like a football but not stop when it’s patently inconvenient to do so.)

Attributes:

Strength 2 Presence 3 Intelligence 1

Dexterity 4 Manipulation 3 Wits 4

Stamina 3 Composure 1 Resolve 7

Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 0 (Dirty Tricks), Larceny 4, Stealth 4, Empathy 0 (Buried Trauma x3), Persuasion 0 (Temptation x3), Subterfuge 4

Derived Traits: Health 8, Willpower 8, Size 5, Defense 5, Initiative 5, Speed 11

Inner Night: 7 (has up to Call OfThe Pit)

Hexes: Infectious Madness, Kiss of a Devil, Mark Of Torment, Misery Glutton, Misery Voyeur, One Thousand Wanton Eyes

Dread Powers: Corruption, Damnation, Eye Spy, Glitch 3 (re-roll successes only), Hex (Arm Wrack, Leg Wrack), Lockdown, Numen: Aggressive Meme, Numen: Emotional Aura (Despair), Numen: Implant Mission, Numen: Innocuous, Numen: Left-Handed Spanner, Pierce Mind, Skin Taker, Steal Soul*, Taint (Unstable)

*The Bogeyman may only steal the soul of one who has just died in front of it and for whom it is personally responsible for lowering their Belief or Integrity equivalent in the last 24 hours. Only by finding the soul locked inside of a prop inside its Fortress Of Contempt and breaking it may the soul be set free.

Merits: Small-Framed, Beneath Notice

Apates the Pretenders, the Jesters Of Darkness

Advanced Dark Familiar

Greek: "Frauds", απάτες apátes (sg. Apati)

A Darkened with few Umbrae loses the last of their Integrity and instead of dying in their sleep and melting into a puddle of goo, they sweat the goo out, become a Mnemosyne and the sweat becomes a monster. A Darkspawn devours the flesh of their would-be Master and becomes possessed by a shadow of their intellect, compelled to seek another corpse and a Tainted Place on the night of a new moon so that they might give that voice a body once more. A Darkened loses the last of their Integrity, dies in their sleep and melts into a puddle of goo all over the person they were sleeping next to. A sorcerer binds a Darkspawn as their familiar and the binding goes far deeper than expected. A Darkened loses the last of their Integrity and falls asleep in the grasp of a Darkspawn, Subsumed By Their Shadow.

There are a number of ways to create an Apati, a Creature Of Darkness with two bodies and one of what passes for a soul. There is the seemingly plain half of the arrangement, called the humaniform, and the bestial half, the monstroform. The Apates don't gain any flashy powers from their connection that makes them more threatening to the Lighttouched, but their coordination and their persistence may make them more than a mere nuisance to a Nakama.

Traits of an Apati

In effect, an Apati is a Darkened or Mnemosyne with a Darkspawn as a kind of familiar. More succinctly, human and monster have become one entity in two bodies, with the human half being the dominant party and the monster acting as a mere extension of the former. For the most part, the monstroform acts independently, like a Darkspawn under the aegis of Subsumed By Another Shadow without the need for rolls and unshackled by any limits of time or distance. 

The two are still connected mind-to-mind, so the monstroform’s independent actions are motivated by the humaniform’s desires, albeit through an impulsive, bestial lens. Through this connection, the humaniform may give orders telepathically to the monstroform, which are always obeyed, and grant the monstroform access to their knowledge, skills and any merits that would make sense to be transferable mind-to-mind. When the humaniform sleeps, the two creatures share memories and learn what the other has learned.

Resurrection & Immortality

In the event of the humaniform’s bodily demise, their spirit will continue to linger with the monstroform as an anchor, seeing through their senses and continuing to give orders and share skills as if they were still alive. The monstroform may drag a whole and freshly murdered human corpse into the Nightscape of a Tainted Place, before rigor mortis sets, and perform a nightlong vigil under a new moon. As long as the body is roughly the same dimensions as the humaniform's old body, the Outer Darkness will transform the corpse into a simulacrum of the humaniform’s old appearance with a passable simulacrum of life instilled within it and inhabited by the humaniform's spirt. If the humaniform had any Integrity before this, they no longer do, and become a Mnemosyne if they weren’t already one.

In the event of the monstroform’s destruction, the humaniform may perform a nightlong ritual during the new moon in the Nightscape of a Tainted Place. By performing an act that increases the Severity or Size of the Taint, they may call to the Outer Darkness to recreate their faithful servant. In this way, the Apati can escape death over and over until someone figures out their secret and sees to it both halves are killed. In both cases, these rituals and their requirements are intuitive to an Apati. 

However, these traits and rituals are otherwise obscure pieces of occult lore. That is to say, the “average” occultist is unlikely to know these facts, even one specialized in Darkness lore, and virtually impossible for an amateur. It would take an accomplished specialist to recall these facts and so, for the average Princess, it should come as a shocking surprise when a destroyed foe pops back up in the area. It may take a while, if they do at all, to figure out how to put an Apati pair down for good.

If there exists a Tempesta charm capable of destroying a Dethroned, even at the cost of the Seraphim’s life, then it should be of sufficient power to destroy a Pretender for the same, killing both one half and the other through their connection in one shot.

Sample Apates

The Packmaster

The Packmaster was a Darkened Serial Killer utilizing I Am Your Master in order to cajole a pack of Duskhounds to aid him in his murders and make them look like animal attacks. However, he ran afoul of the very weapon he wielded and was torn apart by his own demonic dogs. This wasn’t the end of his story though, when the biggest of his erstwhile beasts was taken by a compulsion to lead the others in taking down a victim, only to drag the body into the old master’s shed, into the Dark Door under the rug and into the Nightscape within. The Packmaster, bereft of all humanity, rose up once more and with far better command of his pack through the new alpha. 

Now the Duskhound pack can travel farther afield and boldly into far more dangerous territory. No longer does the pack just target joggers in the woods but they make excursions into the cities now. The Packmaster no longer uses that caligo, having forsaken it, and instead relies on his monstroform’s Subsumed By Another Shadow to control the pack. At his command, they ambush lone victims, do their best to render them unconscious without killing them and drag them away to drop points to be picked up and tortured to death at his leisure. They also just kill people on the spot or drag people to lairs to be eaten, thereby obfuscating the fact that some of the victims are being kept alive for worse purposes.

Dynamic Duo

This Apati pair were once both Deluded Vigilantes, accomplices upon the bloody path of justice. One particularly violent cleansing saw the death of one, in both body and spirit. The last wretched act of violence that left that one covered in too much blood, including their own. As they lost consciousness and life slipped away from them, dying in their partner’s arms, their body began to rapidly deteriorate, melt into black goo. It melted all over their partner, it melted all over the floor, it melted all over the bodies.

The survivor of the pair now continues, further hardened and determined to make sure their partner’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain. Now they have a new tool for justice, horrid and hard to control but strong and determined, a Hundredhand. Two possibilities lie ahead for the Vigilante, to further give in to depravity in the name of a twisted justice and eventually lose the last of their sanity like their partner did, or learn to forsake the Darkness and forsake what has become of their most trusted friend. It will be interesting to find out what happens in either case.

Information Broker

The Information Broker was a Malicious Gossip who used a spy network of Invisibles. Either by pressing one or more of them too hard, to find secrets not meant to be seen, the Gossip caused their spies to lose their minds and devolve completely in Darkspawn. Using occult practices the Gossip had their spies dig up, they bound the broken monsters irrevocably to their will.

The Darkspawn Invisibles, the monstroform, if more than one there be, count as a single creature using some modified Umbra akin to Subsumed By Another’s Shadow but more mutual (Consumed By Each Other’s Shadows?), binding them to a hivemind under the humaniform’s control. Individual bodies of the hivemind cannot be resurrected; the humaniform may only resurrect them all at once if they all have met their demise.

The Broker can act like an actual broker, if they are still merely Darkened and especially have ambitions and greed; it can be a profitable gig. However, if the humaniform devolves into a Mnemosyne, then the gears will shift into using all gathered secrets for the purposes of social destruction, money and power becoming secondary. Information will start to flow more freely to exactly the wrong sort of people to ever get it and ensure the maximum amount of suffering. Not that they need to be Mnemosyne to be chatty, the base archetype for this one is a Gossip after all.

Shadow Man

AKA, Forgotten Person, The Forgotten. When someone is left to rot inside of a Tainted Place, carrying with them some token, a memento, of a previous life, that person can become Darkened, of course, but so too can the Taint take shape around the object. The Shadow Man is an Invisible with a bonded Shadow-wraith, two practically invisible beings moving in tandem to one another. 

The monstroform is often given far more free reign than a humaniform would normally allow but the human half of the symbiote is still ultimately in control. Unseen by others, wraith and man are able to carry out their agenda undisturbed, unperturbed by the barriers of mortal men. It’s a very petty agenda, most of the time, but if and when they get it in their head to do something far more horrible… 

Dark Emperor

By Dark Occultists, this horrid Apati is referred to as a Nikitis (Greek: Victor, pl. Nikites) the Usurper, an Emperor Of Darkness, and a Drakontas (Greek: Ogre, Dragon, pl. Drakous) the Conqueror, a Champion Of Darkness. The names refer respectively to the humaniform, which is an Ethrikos, and the monstroform, which is a Teras. 

According to these occult standards, one does not attain this status until both halves of the Apati have become “advanced”. However, writing along the same line also seem to suggest “advancement” of one makes the other inevitable. What is true is that the status of Withered, if the humaniform has it, is granted to the monstroform in turn.

[jimpagne]

hi! idk if it’s okay to ask this but, do you have any tips for someone who wants to start writing? there's a lot of ideas marinating in my head (mainly jikook ones hehehe) but i feel like the writing doesn't come naturally and things just feel so awkward ㅠㅠ

also, do you have any writers you take inspo from? or that inspire you? i have been trying to read fics in the perspective of a writer to help me but i feel like im not progressing at all…

thank you in advance! hope you have a wonderful day/night <3

Oh hello! This is certainly an unexpected flavor of ask but I am happy to have received this!

A little backstory + initial motivations (yap session)

Well, when it comes to writing... I think my relationship with the hobby is incredibly hot and cold. Ever since I was a kid, I was someone who was creatively inclined and I was absolutely obsessed with books. By the time I was in the first grade (about age six), I was already indulging in novels well above my reading level and I often wrote pages of my own stories inside of composition notebooks or word documents archived on my school's computers.

However, I feel like writing silly little stories as a kid pales in comparison to the absolute mental toll of writing stories as a late teenager or adult. Much like the pitfalls in secondary language acquisition, adults have this annoying concept of shame and perfectionism, and it often drives them to be hesitant to start new skills or to polish old ones. No one likes being at the bottom of a skill ladder, and yet we all have to start there. Whether or not you have the courage to go up the next rung is entirely up to you.

I think my actual writing journey started when I was about fourteen to fifteen years old. I used to write pretty sloppily given that I was never formally instructed on how to creatively write in English (it's my second language), I only knew how to write essays and boring term papers that gave you no room for creative input apart from carefully curating synonyms. So, there was a bit of a learning curve there. But I actually remember the exact fic that made me want to start improving my skills and to start formally writing for not only myself but for the overall fandom:

Young & Blue by syubology. A jihope fic (rare, I know). The first fic I ever read for bangtan.

Only 5k, short and sweet... and yet it flipped a switch in me. I don't know, something about how it was written was so incredibly vulnerable yet beautiful, and it made me want to start telling my own stories. I think how it showcased how pain was incredibly important to me, as my own upbringing was quite unsavory. I think it showed me that I could start using writing as a personal outlet for my own view on life.

So, I began to write with the intent to improve. And boy, the first story I wrote was ROUGH. And then the second one I wrote taught me a lot of valuable lessons about story telling. And then I hit writers block for three and a half years (mostly due to an extraneous situation... chronic illness).

But now I'm writing again. I think I was like you in the way that I had all these ideas but nowhere to properly put them. And then I realized, I think I was so afraid of not being good enough or not having all the pieces figured out that I was actively preventing myself from writing.

But all it takes is putting a few sentences on a page, and those creative floodgates will be quick to blast open.

actual advice and inspirations (what you came for)

Personal Inspirations:

Now I love sooooo many fic writers and stories that it's really hard to not list them all. But I think I'm going to list the ones that have had a personal impact on my writing as jeonnyrabbit (hell yeah self-plug) or on my way of thinking about story telling. I also won't be able to directly link a lot of these fics (due to Tumblr's content policy) but I will still name them. Only read some of the suggested if you are of age!

bellamees A yoonkook-centric writer that has personally impacted me the most. They write hauntingly beautiful stories, some that are a bit dark, some that are a bit sad, but overall they have almost this glow to them, like neon signage twinkling behind a frosted window pane. As of last year they announced that they will no longer be writing for the fandom anymore, but they still have their works up on ao3. Some of my favorite stories written by them are those nights (when you crave someone to be there at dawn) and and way down we go, down til' you fall.

paliampelo A writer who writes fics that feel like a warm hug on a rainy day, one where the laundry detergent of whomever you're hugging clings to your skin for a long time afterward. I think some of my favorites of theirs is definitely plan b and you got that something. They also have a tumblr! -> @paliampelo

ashlyn17 A jikook-centric writer who creates the craziest and most mind-blowing universes. If you haven't read Park Jimin's Guide to Good Housekeeping... please, go do it. That story chemically restructured my brain. I think one of Ash's greatest strengths is writing witty dialogue and action-packed scenes. But yes, I highly recommend the aforementioned story above and Oh, My Stars!

koomins Hmm... how to describe this writer. I really love how they capture the atmosphere within their stories, often warm or feeling emotionally tangible to the reader. I love the stories that showcase pockets of one character's reality, only for it to later be unraveled by another character altogether. My personal favorites from them would be Urban Palate and Under the Cherry Blossoms.

There are a lot more I would list but I feel like this post would go on forever! Also some really incredible writers that you can follow on tumblr (and on ao3) rn are: @oceanviewsong, @ginny-tea, and @maeumin.

Alright, how about those Writing Tips™?:

Writing is... a process. I find that it's different for everyone -- sometimes it comes naturally, whereas to some, it requires a few extra steps. I'm personally a very slow writer, so I'm quite picky about how I approach this process. However, I feel as if there are some things that remain a constant from person to person.

Motivation:

I think one of the most important questions that you should ask yourself before writing a story is... what am I writing this for? Many authors will tell you different things, but I find that you'll find that the words might come easier to you if your motivation is consistent and fulfilling.

I feel like a lot of fandom writers get stuck in this mindset of wanting to succeed numerically, or to gain some sort of badge of honor within their respective spaces... but in my opinion, that type of thinking it not sustainable in the long run. It's fine to want recognition for your work, hell it's just human nature. But at the end of the day, writing should be mainly for you.

One of the greatest motivators that a writer can have is their community. You can receive a lot of valuable feedback, and you can also get ideas from people by just talking about your own stories. Sometimes I would run my thoughts by some of my writer friends, and they would give their honest opinions as to how that made them feel or if they thought it worked in the overall grand scheme of the story. Finding a beta and close friend to yap stories to is just super important! Ironically, though, I don't really have a beta so I'm suffering a little.

General Drafting:

Rule number one of drafting: embrace the nonsense and your inevitable grammatical fuck ups. Some people feel the need to have their first sentence be the one that makes the final cut, but that's not really how it works. I think the most important thing is to get an idea out on the page first and then go back to perfect it. If you spend too much time contemplating synonyms, you might not be able to progress forward, therefore burning yourself out a lot faster.

WIP 1.0: I was tired but still trying to get my point across. At this point, I was getting a little frustrated because it felt like I couldn't progress/find my way.

WIP 1.5: Came back literally one day later. I was being dramatic, it's fine. Made the changes I wanted and moved on... allegedly. There are still mistakes and that's fine.

Rule number two: there is no correct way to draft/plan. Some people have a certain way of going about drafting/planning, whether it be with flow charts and graphs and pictograms or... blah blah blah. Some people just like writing four bullet points and can write 30k off of that alone. Don't get hung up on the structure, it'll come to you eventually. You will find what works best for you and the genre of the story that you're telling. Also, you'll find that it really doesn't matter how much planning you do, a lot of those ideas will naturally change throughout the writing process.

Progression:

As you said, you have a lot of ideas swimming around in your head. That's great! But how do you actually progress a story? How do you move on from one idealized scene to the next? I find that one of the most effective methods of story development is to just... ask a fuck ton of questions.

Say that you have the idea of Jimin and Jungkook meeting a bar, and maybe you have the idea to have them dance or maybe play a few rounds of twenty questions. Simple, fun, cute. How do you take this idea to the next level? Maybe you start asking yourself, why are they both at the bar? Did something happen beforehand that forced them here or caused them to pick it as their favorite place? Does Jimin have a job? Is he happy with it? Does he come to place as a means of escape? Do his friends know about the bar? Is there a part of him he's wishing to keep hidden? Maybe the bar is infamous, maybe it's popular. By simply asking yourself questions about the universe at hand, you can expand one scene into several others, both future and past in the story.

Also, another issue is that people try to write linearly, which can kill a story quicker than you would think. If you have an idea for the end, write the end. It doesn't matter if you don't have anything else down on the page yet. Sometimes the more you develop one area in the story, the more it naturally tends to bleed into other parts of the story. One of my first ever fics that I thought of began when I only thought about the ending... and that thing ended up spiraling into a 100k+ monster.

Some people feel a little stumped by progression because they've given themselves a timeframe. Don't. Timeframes are for fests and zines. I spent over a year just planning a fic, I feel like if I tried to rush that process, it would not be half of what it is now.

Personalization:

Now comes the hardest part... how do you make your writing truly feel like your own? There are a lot of things that you can do to become more comfortable as a writer and with your own personal voice. Sometimes if I feel a little lost, I'll play a prompt game of sorts, giving myself maybe five key words (dark, ocean, monster, poison, angel) and trying to write a minimum of 500 words about it. Nothing long, nothing special, just something to get myself going. You can also do this by constructing moodboards and making short stories or prompts off of that alone to keep yourself creatively motivated.

Another way I like to practice writing while also improving it is playing the dictionary game. Basically what I do is find a unique word that I've never really used before and constructing an entire paragraph around using that word. This has actually helped me a lot before, because sometimes I'll be like... I don't know what I want to write in this paragraph, but I know that I want to use this word. It forces your brain to get creative and to put something down on the page.

Extra:

Now this is just something I do, but as someone who has story ideas that haunt them constantly, I find myself having to jot them down even when I'm away from my computer. I found a personal way to keep track of all of my stories in a way that convenient and fun, and that's by making a private discord with channels and subchannels relating to their respective stories. This way I can keep all of my stuff correctly sorted and on a platform that I regularly interact with even when I'm not actively writing.

But yeah... I think that sums up some of the more important things. Hopefully the length of this post did not scare you!

Have a good day, anon~

[nandanevesc]

Notice

Hi hi everyone! I know I've been absent, but there were some things that were making it very difficult for me to share what I've been doing. I guess waking up and figuring out that 15 years+ of art I've worked on since I was a teenager had been stolen in a single night to "train" AI without my consent created a new trauma, and with every social media gradually putting its own rules for using AI in our images it is making me very insecure about sharing anything.

I'm really sorry for not explaining my absence. It was not at all once and on the same day it happened that I felt scared to post. I realized that I had been gradually giving up on posting anything, and in the end, I just stopped.

This subject was, and still is very inflamed, and I know that there are a lot of people defending AI, just as there are a lot of people fighting for the conscientization of it at the same time, and honestly, I wasn't ready to deal with that conversation. I'm still not ready at all.

I was too fragilized to even talk about all of this, and every time I see something about this topic I get extremely anxious. I am anxious right now to bring this up, but I feel I should at least share what happened to me with those who care about my whereabouts.

What I felt that day was worse than when I lost almost everything I had in a flood once, because back then my family and I just started working on cleaning everything and making new furniture with what we had left. We had people helping us recover, bringing us what they could to help, and eventually, we could get back on our feet.

I'm sorry for the comparison. I know that what we lost back then cost much more and that other people had similar experiences and know how much it hurts to see everything you have, every family picture, clothes, and document floating with sewage water. But that site was the very first one I posted anything online, and the one I posted almost everything I did until the day the site opted for every art uploaded on it to agree with the use of our images to train AI without even a notification.

I felt that I lost everything again, and this time were all things I did myself, my very first drawing, my very first digital painting that looked awful, and every single one I did while I was trying to get better at this until being an artist became my profession. This was not something that I could recover from, because I had everything with me, but someone else had these copies, together with the copies of everyone else's work that were on that platform. I felt robbed, and used. Just as I'm sure many artists who had their entire life's work posted on Deviantart that night and found out about this felt the same way.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not against AI in general. It can be used for many useful and even essential things that didn't harm anyone to be created and won't harm anyone to be used. Much of it is a necessary advance, and that is not the part I'm against at all. This is something too extensive to put a right or wrong label on and its aspects still need to be understood to define which parts are ethical and which are not. I'm against, however, the unethical part of it. That they used real people to scan their work, their voices, and even their faces without consent to create something that is not out of nothing, are bits and pieces of information of other people's essence, characteristics, and hard work.

I understand the need to grow, and I understand that since AI was something new, there were no laws whatsoever about it to protect us from it.

I understand that there are much worse evils than this to be considered in the world, and that my problems and how I feel about them shouldn't be that hard to endure especially since I know that there could be worse. But I wish things had been different.

I can only hope that this will change with time, that it can be used more consciously, and that unethical methods will no longer be applied. I hope that everything will work out in the end.

Sorry for my long explanation, but thank you for reading. And believe me, I missed you all so much. And I hope to feel safe sharing my art here with you more often again. It's a part of me that I had lost the courage to have until now, and I hope I have the strength to deal with it, because creating art is what I love most in the world, and I really miss being able to share it with you.

[nepfanfic]

Geek Week – An Event at UFRJ that Achieved Significant Academic Recognition

After a year of meticulous planning, the research groups NEPF, NuPNE, and NUPLIJ — affiliated with the Laboratório da Palavra (Word Lab) and PACC (Advanced Program of Contemporary Culture) — collaborated to organize a week dedicated to geek studies at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The event, named Geek Week UFRJ, took place from October 21st to 25th, 2024, at the Faculty of Letters, located on the university’s Fundão campus, while also being made available online through Google Meet and Youtube.

The primary objective of Geek Week was to establish a safe and engaging space for intellectual discussions on topics related to pop culture, gaming, young adult and children's literature, and fanfiction. The event encouraged not only the academic research groups to share their perspectives but also provided an open forum for attendees to actively engage in discourse about widely consumed cultural phenomena.

Given that the subjects addressed during the event’s panels and discussion sessions are not traditionally explored within academic research, Geek Week served as a crucial platform to highlight the significance of both formal and informal studies on pop culture. The participating research groups assumed the responsibility of documenting and disseminating their insights, combining their academic investigations with their experiences as enthusiasts and fans to foster deeper academic interest in these emerging fields.

Event Structure and Highlights

Each day of the event focused on a distinct thematic approach:

Day 1 – Theoretical Frameworks in Popular Literature

The first day was dedicated to theoretical discussions surrounding popular literature. A key highlight was the lecture "There Are No Ostriches in Fairy Tales" by Professor Francisco Câmelo, which provided an in-depth analysis of children’s literature and fairy tales from their origins to contemporary adaptations. The discussion explored how specific animal symbolism is employed in storytelling, emphasizing the absence of ostriches in fairy tale traditions while examining the inclusion of other bird species in these narratives.

Day 2 – Fandom Culture and Community Interpretations

The second day revolved around fandom studies, encompassing diverse fan communities. One of the most notable sessions was a lecture on the Furry fandom, led by Letícia Pimenta, General Coordinator and Administrator of NEPF. This presentation delved into the origins of the Furry community, the various ways it is interpreted, and the stereotypes and prejudices associated with it. Additionally, the lecture provided an overview of different Furry subcultures, offering a nuanced perspective on their development and representation in mainstream media.

Day 3 – Gender, Sexuality, and Representation in Media

With a focus on gender and sexuality, the third day of the event explored their portrayal in literature, gaming, and K-pop. One of the most thought-provoking panels was "Chapter 21: Sex, Fantasy, and Young Readers", presented by NUPLIJ and NEPF. This session critically analyzed the representation of sexuality in young adult and children's literature, drawing comparisons between different age groups and assessing the societal impact of such narratives on young audiences.

Day 4 – Horror Narratives and Their Literary Evolution

The fourth day examined horror fiction and its narrative techniques across literature and media. Engaging discussions included the role of horror in children’s literature, the construction of suspense in storytelling, and the use of zombies as a narrative trope. This segment of the event provided valuable insights into how horror elements are adapted across different literary forms and how they resonate with audiences.

Day 5 – Creative Workshops: Comics, The Sims, and Fanzines

The final day was dedicated to hands-on creative workshops, offering three distinct sessions:

Comics Workshop, led by NUPLIJ, focusing on visual storytelling techniques.

The Sims Workshop, facilitated by NuPNE, demonstrating narrative-building through simulation games.

Fanzine Workshop, hosted by NEPF, guiding participants through fanzine creation and self-publishing techniques.

These workshops were well-received, allowing students to explore their creativity and apply artistic and narrative-building skills. The fanzines produced during the event can be accessed online through a dedicated NEPF publication platform.

Impact and Academic Recognition

Geek Week UFRJ garnered significant engagement from both in-person and online audiences. Throughout the virtual sessions, over 50 participants attended simultaneously, actively engaging in discussions. Additionally, the total number of lecture views, including both live and recorded sessions, surpassed 1,000 views, marking an important milestone in legitimizing pop culture studies in Brazil. The lectures can be accessed through NEPF's Youtube channel.

The event also received official recognition from UFRJ, with the university dispatching reporters to cover the first day of discussions. Their coverage, published through Conexão UFRJ, emphasized the event’s commitment to inclusivity, academic dialogue, and the free exchange of ideas.

A Commitment to Pop Culture Studies

NEPF firmly believes in the necessity of fostering spaces for knowledge exchange. Our mission is to bridge contemporary interests with academic and theoretical studies, ensuring that discussions on fandoms, literature, and digital culture receive the scholarly attention they deserve.

We sincerely hope that all participants felt welcomed and respected throughout the event, as our primary goal is to create an inclusive and enriching academic environment. This is only the beginning—more events will follow, as fandom culture continues to evolve, and pop culture remains in constant motion.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

Ohio State Rep. Gary Click has been a prominent figure in the national push to legislate against transgender rights. As the lead author of Ohio’s gender-affirming care ban, Click sparked one of the state’s most high-profile political battles when Republican Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed the measure, triggering a legislative showdown. Beyond Ohio, Click has convened strategy sessions with lawmakers from other states, advising them on how to advance similar anti-trans bills. A pastor by profession, he has repeatedly insisted his legislative efforts are not religiously motivated. But a Twitter post he made yesterday—likening transgender people to the devil—is the latest to cast serious doubt on that claim. “Trans Jesus? He’s been around for a while. His name is Lucifer. He “identified” as the Most High. FYI, it didn’t work out,” Click posted, followed by a paragraph from the bible about the fall of Lucifer.

Rep. Click’s latest remarks are part of a well-documented pattern of religiously charged attacks on transgender people. Earlier in 2024, videos surfaced showing him promoting faith-based conversion therapy to his congregation, claiming he has “counseled” LGBTQ+ individuals and “helped them overcome that before.” In the same recordings, he describes transgender people as “straying from God’s plan” and frames their existence as evidence of a “crumbling of society” brought on by “Satan.” Despite the overtly religious nature of these statements, Click continues to insist that his legislative agenda is not motivated by religious animus toward transgender people. Rep. Gary Click has become a central architect of the anti-transgender legislative movement. In 2024, he authored House Bill 68, which not only banned gender-affirming care for trans youth but also barred transgender athletes from competing in sports—legislation that triggered a political standoff with Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. When DeWine vetoed the bill, Click rallied GOP lawmakers to override the decision and enact it into law. Not long after, in a strategy call with state legislators across the country, Click laid out the long-term Republican agenda: ending gender-affirming care for everyone. When one lawmaker asked how to achieve the “endgame” of banning such care even for adults, Click replied, “We have to take one bite at a time, do it incrementally. Anti-transgender rhetoric this extreme has backfired on Republican lawmakers before. In Florida, one state representative likened transgender people to “demons, mutants, and imps”—language that helped sink the state’s ban in federal court temporarily. In his ruling, the judge found the law was rooted in religious animus, writing: “There has long been, and still is, substantial bigotry directed at transgender individuals. Common experience confirms this, as does a Florida legislator’s remarkable reference to transgender witnesses at a committee hearing as ‘mutants’ and ‘demons.’” Typically, lawmakers behind these bills take pains to downplay or obscure such religious motivations—aware that overt bigotry can undermine their legal defenses.

The wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation sweeping the United States is not rooted in science or public health—it is driven by a well-funded network of religious fundamentalists seeking to impose Christian nationalist ideals on public policy. 

Ohio State Rep. Gary Click (R), the man who sponsored gender-affirming care ban law HB68, posted on X (formerly Twitter) a disgusting comparison of trans people to “Lucifer.”

[agent-cupcake]

any advice to a new fanfic writer? i love to write but i feel like it takes a ton of energy. is that just because I’m new? thanks in advance, i am equally inspired and intimidated by your work!

AH YES another episode of the blind leading the blind let's goooo

Writing does take a lot of energy like I imagine any art does. For me, it still does, I'm just a tiny bit better at managing that energy because I've been at it for five-ish years.

Taking inspiration is good, very good actually. Read, watch movies, listen to music, absorb art and let that fuel you. BUT BUT BUT the only person you can be compared to is your past self so if you're just getting started you're actually beyond comparison.

There is no reason to care about what people say about the type of stuff you want to write, they have ant opinions and you are the god of a new world.

When you open a blank document, do not have a stare down with that endless white oblivion and contemplate why you're even alive. Make it your bitch. Write out everything you can with the incoherently drunk violence of a deadbeat boyfriend whose TV just broke, really let her have it. Are they good words? Who cares! You have defeated the snowstorm purgatory that is an empty doc, now you can try and forge something out of that chaos.

Look. I don't think people recommend this and maybe it's bad practice but find a thesaurus you like and use it. I'm giving you permission. Those "said is dead" posts are a bit cringe and I think using action tags between dialogue or describing the tone of voice/expression is more effective but sometimes you really reach a point where you've used "splendid" like six times in two paragraphs and you gotta move on. Personally I like Power Thesaurus. There are also websites you can use to check for repeated words which I find helpful.

If you can, find somebody to help read your stuff with you. It's super cursed but I've also plugged stuff into AI reading websites just to try and check for errors. Listen to the robot read your smut. Let your spirit leave your body. Suffer. I am a terrible editor (lazy editor) though so take that as you will.

Write as much as you can. That's it. You could get all the advice in the world and it won't matter unless you're doing it.

Good luck!