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#Making fun of that seal is making fun of a disabled animal
theseventrumpets · 1 year
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A loud, trumpeting sound goes across the entire Plain. All cats are overwhelmed for a moment by an ethereal sense, something that they can't control and can't find the source of. The sky pulses white for a moment, but no one can tell if it was a hallucination or not.
♪ ♫ The Seven Trumpets Sound,   ♫ ♪
The cats of the Plain have experienced a lot of loss recently. With the Red suffering an attack from one of their own, the Pale discovering a monster in its depths, an illness finding its way into Black, and the White having its final battle with the raccoons, things don't seem to be going too well for them.
Trouble stirs, as Calandivaspade heightens tensions with the Red Face, Volcanicdiamond, bringing the two decks ever closer to war, while Turnclub suffers from losses after a war with raccoons, and his only ally, Aegisheart, is dealing with a mysterious disease with no cure. How will the canaries escape the coal mine when there's no exit in sight?
►► The First Trumpet Sings. ◄◄
This RP has been running for 10 months now, and after 3, I finally make the announcement that we are OFFICIALLY IN THE 1ST ARC!!!! THIS IS SO EXCITING!!! I have never run anything on this big of a scale before, and I hope so desperately to create a memorable experience for everyone involved. All of my members and moderators mean SO SO MUCH TO ME. It is truly amazing to me to see your creativity shine, and all the wonderful characters you've made so far. I'd love to see even more as time goes on!!
Now, of course, there's still room for those uninitiated. The current plot needs to be updated on the website, but if you hop in the server, you can get some pretty decent rundowns from fellow members if you're interested! You must be 18+ to join, there's no applications, and there's little to no restriction on the kinds of cat characters you can make in here.
If you’re interested, read below the cut to see more in-depth details about the server and story, or check out the links right below to get started on reading the lore, about the Decks, and so on. To join the RP, just go ahead and click the link to the Discord server! After you’re in, wait some time for our mods to check you over, and give you permission to join. I would love to see a batch of new members and potential helpers/mods in this first arc, so please please PLEASE take a looksie at my story, and I hope to see you there!!
♪♫♪► WEBSITE ► RULES ► SEND AN ASK ► DISCORD LINK ♪♫♪► SERVER ADOPTS ► ALLEGIANCES ► LORE ON TUMBLR
"We picture seven swinging branches, with seven swinging bodies--seven singing trumpets, with seven seals to come! We shall overcome!"
Here’s what you can expect from this RP:
► Oh god, there’s elemental magic built into the cats. ► It all takes place entirely in a world of my own, so there’s a shitton of worldbuilding! ► Paranormal and supernatural activities, including Gods and ghosts from the grave! ► Non-feline animals are allowed in limited quantities! ► There’s no Starclan, just Ad Infinitum and it’s subsections! ► A completely overhauled and hand-crafted Warriors ranking system! ► A mostly liquid time based RP, both in events, roleplay, and aging! ► Morally dubious and evil characters allowed in certain quantities! ► Neurodivergent/mentally ill/physically disabled characters are allowed with no restrictions or paywalls! ► Currency system to add rare traits to your cats, AND MORE! ► Occasionally fun games and events to earn you points for currency, as well as to bond with your fellow server-mates!
The Seven Trumpets is an 18+ horror Warrior Cats Roleplay based around the concept of a biblical apocalypse, inspired by the album 'Until The Horror Goes' by the band John Congleton & The Nighty Nite. It uses a lot of horror themes, though mostly focuses on psychological horror and the idea of unreality and fear, and how those can drive characters to survive, or cease surviving entirely.
This RP will focus on some darker topics, and gore will be featured from time to time. This RP may not be for the faint of heart, and I encourage you to make sure you can handle psychological horror before coming into this server! Although this RP is horror themed, it will not be purely angst and hardship. As the goal of the story is to stop an apocalypse, there will be themes of hope and light coming through the darkness, and characters finding the strength to keep pushing on even when everything is against them. Don't expect this server to be purely dark with no happiness, as that just wouldn't be fun for anyone to constantly deal with anxiety and pain and suffering all the time!
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shinoposting · 1 year
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I appear to have been tagged by @onmywaytofanfic so here goes--
Name: "ShinoP"?
Pronouns: he
Where do you call home: I live on a farm lol. Lots of space to method act as Shino.
Favorite animal: I can't pick just one, oh no. Whales, true seals, armadillos, cats and bugs of every sort...not to mention all the awesome extinct animals to choose from. If I really had to choose I guess I would go with the humble housecat.
Cereal of choice: Fruity Pebbles :T I don't keep milk around all the time so if I have cereal it's a special treat.
Visual, audio, or kinesthetic learner: I really need a combination of audio and visual. I almost failed a year of math because I missed lectures for a week and I couldn't understand the book at all.
First pet: We've always had animals, but the first pet...rather, pets, that were my own were a pair of maine coon mix kittens that were abandoned on the edge of our property. They were very cool, loved to swim and hunt, even at the same time, so they kept the rats down.
Favorite scent: Citrus of any sort, especially in baked goods.... Now I'm hungry
Do you believe in astrology: Not any of the predictive stuff but the personality types might be useful, depending on culture and other factors. I think people prioritizing different things through the year could potentially affect the personality development of very small children? Maybe. That's all I can think of really.
How many playlists do you have on Spotify/apple music: Never reinstalled Spotify but I have 21 playlists of music on YouTube, 19 of which are for characters. Some canons, mostly OCs.
Sharpies or highlighters: Highlighting things so so satisfying >:)))
A song that makes you cry:
youtube
Ow :(
A song that makes you happy:
youtube
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🕺song of the century (I actually really recommend this game. Great animations and sfx, fun story, and some clever puzzles. It's basically a point-and-click adventure.)
And finally do you draw/write/create?: Yes! I don't post much of my own work these days due to disability but behind the scenes I do scratch away at my own projects here and there.
Oh god do I have to tag a mutual? How about @mcdonaldsworker-shinoaburame and... @albinaaburame. I don't know how tag games work aaaa it's awkward. Sorry if you were already tagged.
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thessalian · 2 years
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Thess vs Gaming While Disabled
Pretty sure Goblin gave me her cold. Also still in exceptional pain from two consecutive days’ commute. Cold-achy plus fibromyalgia-achy is ... not fun at all and I didn’t sleep overly well because I kept having stabs and spasms.
On one hand, I kind of want to give Code Vein a proper try. Bestie got it for me as a part of a replacement birthday present when the Trinket slippers didn’t work out.
(Note to prospective buyers of the Trinket slippers on the Critical Role store - CHECK THE SIZES. They say One Size Fits Most, and there is zero wiggle room in their size range because my big-ass feet are a half-size or so larger than the upper limit on the slippers and they just will not fit on my feet. Also I kind of feel bad for any guys that want the Trinket slippers because my feet are large for ‘women’s sizes’ but about average in ‘men’s sizes’ so ... yeah.)
(Further note: the Trinket slippers are getting a good home with my friend in France as soon as I can figure out how best to seal and label an appropriate box, and I have Code Vein, and also a pre-ordered copy of B Dylan Hollis’ Baking Yesteryear, so nobody loses out on this; Bestie gets to make two people happy, friend in France gets slippers, I get cookbook and ARG. Speaking of; back to ARG talk.)
I mean, seriously, I do want to try this game. I’ve basically discovered that my predominant issue with ARGs is keybinds. As in, it feels like they’re usually designed for console and expect someone to be able to plug a controller in and appropriately use it. Fuck that; I could barely hold up my phone last night, and my phone’s way lighter than today’s controllers. Thing is, people more comfortable with a keyboard can apparently eat shit because people dealing with the keyboard controls appear to have gone about assigning keybinds the way I used to play Pin The Tail On The Donkey as a kid. I’m pretty sure the “git gud” crowd would probably say I’m overreacting about this and I just need to figure it out ... except for one thing.
To paraphrase Keanu Reeves as Neo: “I know Google-Fu”.
It’s easy to believe that whatever condition or problem you’re having, you’re the only one having it. Especially when the loudest and most annoying voices involved are the people who belittle and bitch at you about not being able to do exactly what they can, and how you should either cope with how it is or accept that it’s not “for you” and howl like they’re having their human rights violated when you ask politely for accessibility options that they don’t even have to use. I think the best lesson I ever learned - from therapy, from my friends, from Tumblr, which feels like a stupid place to learn a valuable life lesson but Tumblr Be Like That - is that there is always someone who has been where you are, who has gone through what you’re experiencing, and who might be able to help make it easier for you to go through it. All you have to do most of the time is find the right search terms, and advice will be there.
So I Googled “Code Vein Keybinds”. And what do you know? A whole, if short, Reddit thread where people are basically going, “The keybinds on Code Vein are dogshit; any advice for how to set them better?” The only reason the thread is so short is that a couple of people had what appears from the reactions to be an ideal set-up that I’m actually entirely keen to try.
The problem is the OW. Lotta OW. So much OW. I’m not sure I could manage that amount of frenetic activity in the state I’m currently in. I need something that’ll let me hyperfocus past the pain, yes, but adding a learning curve is probably not it. I suppose the thing to do is to go through the character creation thing (because seriously, it has the most fun character creation menu I’ve ever seen; almost makes up for the fact that there’s an awful lot of Big-Tittied Anime Girl With Minimal Clothing right in your face as soon as you get out of the tutorial), see if the new keybinds get me through the tutorial section any easier, get through the opening cutscene, and then stop there and do something a little less ... intensive. Not that my current thing isn’t kind of intensive in its way - I’m trying to finish my Meep!Herald’s run through Inquisition and am in the middle of Jaws of Hakkon, and still noticing that its response to the complaints of “too much running around through too much empty scenery” was “throw in respawning monsters too high level to simply blow through easily”, which is not the point but never mind. Just the controls are somewhat simpler; just a lot of pressing R interspersed with number keys. That’s a lot easier to manage than “parry”, “block”, “dodge”, “drain attack”, “variety of Gift keys”, etc.
I’m probably never going to be good at ARGs, but I dislike there being a whole kind of video game I can’t play because disability. I already have the whole thing where I can’t play most first person perspective games because I get migraines; if the ARG route is also blocked to me ... well. There are fewer and fewer games that don’t fall into those two categories, and I’m starting to feel shut out of the entire hobby. I mean, there are the indies - thank the gods for the indies - but still.
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eienoah · 4 months
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Media Blog - Osaka aquarium
Me and a small group consisting of Zach, Luke, and Griffin decided to take a small voyage over to the Osaka aquarium Kaiyukan for our media blog. It appears in both Jujutsu Kaisen and Josee the Tiger and the Fish and enlists scenes from mostly inside the aquarium but also boasts a couple scenes in the surrounding area. Seeing the scenes from both of these anime summed up my view of what a Japanese aquarium would be like. I went in believing the aquarium would be an absolutely stunning experience beyond all hopes and dreams. In Josee it almost seems like the characters are floating behind the glass. This could be an artistic take as Josee is a wheelchair bound girl ever longing for the ability to be free of her disability. She wishes to move free and not be bound by her limitations. Thus the fish seem almost free in their tank. It feels so incredibly big from the perspective that is given. In Jujutsu Kaisen it is the same way but from the glass perspective. The tank is incredibly well lit so as to not give off the background and it just feels like she is walking through a glass tunnel in the ocean. In Jujutsu Kaisen, the author Akutami Gege utilizes fish as a symbolism for lots of significant events in the manga. In this instance he shows us Riko, a character who is going to become a special vessel for a great cursed energy user who needs a new host every 500 years. She is forced to leave her maid who took care of her for almost her entire life and without even being able to say goodbye she breaks down in a clash of emotions. We are led on to see a scene where the whale shark comes out to symbolize a wave of emotions particularly in relation to loneliness. I believe it symbolizes a forward movement with all the emotions she is experiencing but more so in a solitude kind of way. She has realized her role and is fighting with herself on what to do. On the contrary to how beautiful these scenes were, I really was kind of put off by the whale shark tank in the aquarium. I had these grand dreams of how great it was only for my illusions to be squashed into a million pieces upon seeing the true size of the tank. The tank is built in a way where the whale sharks are in a constant turn, almost in a plus shape. It makes it so they have the room to make their turn but barely enough room to move straight forward. The part that turned me off the most was the deformation of one of the shark’s dorsal fins due to that constant turning. The fin had literally curled over itself in order to be designed for turning and it absolutely crushed my heart to see. I fear now that I will feel the same way when I go to the Atlanta aquarium but I will have to wait and see when I get there. Other than the whale sharks, the other fish seemed to have plenty of space to swim around and rest but I really couldn’t take my mind off the whale sharks. Destined for greatness only to be cast aside in that aquarium. I now feel as if I can relate to the same way the boycotters of Sea World used to be back when the killer whales were there. It was still a fun experience in the rest of the aquarium, especially the seals but it definitely changed the way I see Japan’s aquariums.
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slushyseals · 3 years
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#There are many videos of seals swimming into glass#Kimjia knows her enclosure very well including where the glass is and you can even see her extend her neck#in antici...#...#PATION#of stopping herself on the glass#using the squish of her neck to slow herself at the end#She is being cute and friendly and not hurt in any way#and silly sound effects are added#But there is another video I won't share as it is in poor poor taste#in the other video you see a seal with cloudy eyes swim into the window of their enclosure#And the comments are horrible as it is a bunch of people laughing at the animal for running into the glass it can't see#The seal in the video I'm not going to share is blind#Making fun of that seal is making fun of a disabled animal#A lot of seals and sea lions in zoos and sanctuaries are blind because they cannot survive in the wild#A seal that can see knows every detail of its enclosure and exactly where the glass is#But a blind seal is amazing in that they can even swim at all using their whiskers to 'see' through the vibrations in the water#Unfortunately even though blind people can memorize the layout of their home#when you are sailing through the water it's hard to tell exactly where you are#And these poor animals often end up swimming into the glass they can't see or other objects in their enclosure#Don't laugh at them#Celebrate them for being brave enough to keep swimming despite being blind#And continuing to live their best lives even though they are facing challenges#They are amazing and incredible and deserve our love admiration and support#But of course we can enjoy Kimjia above for she is just being cute and friendly :)
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A Cursed Reality-JJK x M!Reader (Ch.2)
Question: Do you guys prefer longer chapters or shorter chapters? I’ve been making an effort to write longer chapters but if you hate reading them I’ll write them less.
Warnings: fluff, comparison of Inumaki’s speech to a disability/handicap, cursing. Dislike of Maki (Not me. wrong bitch. I love her)
Previous || Next
Chapter Two:
[Name] actively dislikes hanging out with the second years. Not that they’re bad people in any way, it’s just he’s anxious and awkward, and even after spending a year familiarizing himself with the school and the people in it, there’s like a small group of people he would invite to his birthday party.
That and he just doesn’t care for Maki Zen’in. And it is most definitely mutual. To him, she’s just pretty. She also won’t die in a battle between her and a curse below first grade. But that’s about the end of her appeal. Of course, Panda is fun to tease but he typically plays the peacemaker between the second years. [Name] would rather not care about people in peace.
There’s no dramatic reason to it all, it’s just [Name] didn’t really come to Jujutsu Tech by choice so he hadn’t intended on making friends. He obviously failed considering he befriended Inumaki within his first day and they have some homoromantic vibes going on in their friendship.
That’s not to say you can’t platonic cuddle with your best friend but when you longingly gaze into each other’s eyes and he’s the only friend you’ve made besides an annoyingly hyper 30-year-old because no one else understands you like he does… And it kind of goes both ways considering you’re the only person he trusts himself enough to have a full-on conversation with.
Yeah, it’s not looking very good for the argument that they’re not gay. They’re not though. At least not now.  
“[Name]”
“Yeah toge?”
“You look like you’ve got something on your mind” Inumaki responded. And although he had plenty of experience saying words, having a conversation without using safe words felt a little weird. It was an aspect of who he was now and [Name] being immune to the cursed speech wouldn’t erase the problems he had with talking and it didn’t make [Name] his savior or soulmate.
Luckily [Name] was both lonely and not a complete asshole because he had no problems adapting to the switch between Toge’s ‘onigiri glossary’. Learning it was actually a really fun experience because it turns out Inumaki did not have the exact translation of all his safe words. He would just say an ingredient and [Name] had to fill in the blanks. There was a lot of trial and error and a lot of [Name] smiling down at Inumaki’s concentrated face.
“I was just thinking.” [Name] broke the contemplative silence.
“Hmm”
“You know” [Name] started again “... They say it was believed people kept their souls in their throats” and as Inumaki gave a confused denial (“fish flakes”) [Name] was internally panicking on whether or not he should keep going with this specific train of thought or make a joke to deflect from the very real and emotional but corny statement he was about to utter.
“Ah fuck it. I want to exercise the curses in the world or at least enough to keep you safe so you don’t keep damaging your soul when you use your cursed technique”
“Sujiko”
[Name] looked at Inumaki. And as if breaking off pieces of his soul didn’t matter to him, Inumaki spoke, a short sentence that stunned [Name] into silence
“I love you”
If Gojo hadn’t come in, they might’ve kissed.
“[Name]-kun!!!”
Aaaand [Name]’s sentimental mood was gone. Don’t get him wrong, Gojo definitely would get an invite to [Name]’s birthday party, but the man was like 30 running around being overly cheerful and with that teasing nature he was definitely repressing some trauma. He also definitely had some of the worst timing
“What is it Gojo?”
“No sensei at the end? So mean!
“Fushiguro was sent out to find a cursed object but he’s been out all day with no calls back home or anything. Of course I plan on going to check on my beloved student, but I am busy for the next hour or so. Can you please check on him? For your favorite sensei?”
“My favorite sensei is actually Nanami and he’s not even a sensei but yeah I’ll check on the emo kid”
‘You’re pretty emo yourself dude’ Gojo thought to himself
“Ah Thank you [Name]-kun. You’re a lifesaver” Gojo called out behind him as he left to do whatever it is crazy white haired ‘old’ men do.
‘He’s/I’m totally not doing this for free’ both [Name] and Inumaki thought at the same time.
[Name] got up suddenly and started getting ready to leave paying no attention to Inumaki who watched him get ready with a casual interest. Before [Name] headed out, he turned to look at Inumaki with a serious and concentrated expression.
“Toge.”
“I love you”
“What the hell happened here?”
“....”
“Fushiguro-kun, if you please”
“Well I only know half of the story so it’s best if we hear it from Itadori”
All eyes whipped to the shirtless Yuji who had just gotten control of his body back from Sukuna, the apparent king of curses.
“I’d say it started when I went to school this morning but I think it started a little earlier for Fushiguro. Right Fushiguro?” Yuji asked
‘I swear I’m going to explode if someone doesn’t tell me the how we got this far I mean Fushiguro is bleeding from his head, this pink haired enthusiastic kid is possessed and I can’t tell if he’s too sweet to care or if he lost a few of his brain cells when he and the little emo first year wrecked this building’ [Name] thought to himself.
Clearing his throat he began “Well okay Fushiguro has a lot of really bad injuries so is it okay with you if he just quickly shares his part and then you take over?”
“Ohh Yeah that makes sense” Itadori awed and both he and [Name] turned their attention to poor Megumi who was bleeding from his forehead.
“Yesterday I was sent to retrieve a special grade cursed object and when I got there it was gone. Gojo sensei told me I couldn’t go home until it was recovered. The next day I stalked around the school and investigated when I saw Yuji for the first time.”
“Oh I remember that. It’s my turn to take over now. Uhh. I was in the occult club with my senpais Sasaki and Iguchi and we were asking the spirits about which animal the Student Council President was weaker than ( a fish) and then he burst in the room because he didn’t approve of our club-”
“Fast forward please” [Name] interrupted
“Fushiguro found me after my grandpa died and told me Iguchi and Sasaki were in danger because of the finger so I led him to the school where they said they were going to peel off the seal”
“And that’s why we’re here” [Name] surmised
“So what’s the situation”
“Gojo-sensei”/ “Old Man what are you doing here?” Megumi and [Name] called out
“I wasn’t gonna come but the higher ups got involved. I knew you’d all be fine though, I sent [Name] here to deal with it.”
“That’s true” Fushiguo mumbled
“I’m glad you all have faith in me” [Name] started “But that means I came here for absolutely nothing”
“... So did you find it?” Gojo asked
“Um sorry.... I ate it”
Gojo who didn’t hear the whole introduction and [Name] who didn’t quite get to the eating of the finger part in the story turned to Yuji in shock
“For real”
“For real”
“Haha you’re not kidding. They’re combined. How does your body feel?” Gojo asked Yuji
“Okay”
“Can you switch to Sukuna?”
“Sukuna?” Yuji asked
“The curse object you ate”
“Oh yeah. Probably”
“Ten seconds” gojo said “Take control again after ten seconds”
“I dunno about this”
“Don’t worry. I’m the strongest Jujutsu sorcerer”
Megumi looked to [Name] after hearing a curious “hmm” but [Name]’s face showed no anger or displeasure.
“Megumi hold onto this will ya” Gojo’s voice bled through Megumi’s thoughts of who would win between [Name] and Gojo. Give it a year or two and it might actually be [Name].
“What’s this?” Megumi asked
‘It better be a fucking weapon’ [Name] thought ‘Because if he sent me out because his important business was shopping he’s gonna regret it’
“Kikufuku Mochi” Gojo replied casually before feeling bloodlust leaking from [Name]. He’ll just have to make it up to the second year somehow
“Behind you” Fushiguro called out and [Name] sucked his teeth hoping Gojo would get hit at least once. He did not get his wish once
“I’ve got a student watching so..I hope you don’t mind if I show off a little bit” . And after that Gojo commenced kicking Sukuna’s ass. Sukuna tried to monologue a little as he sent out a powerful attack, but he missed Gojo on account of Gojo’s infinity dispelling the attack. By the time Sukuna realized Gojo was unharmed it was time for Yuji to switch back.
“Oh was everything okay?” Yuji asked as he came to his senses.
“Oh what a surprise” Gojo responded “You really can control it”
“Yeah, but he’s kind of annoying”
“It’s a miracle that’s the only side effect” Gojo said right before knocking Yuji out with one finger
“If he wakes up and isn't possessed, he might have potential as a vessel. Okay question for you two. What do I do with him?”
“Even if he is a potential vessel… He must be executed under jujutsu regulations…
“But I don’t want to let him die”
“Is that a personal opinion? Gojo asked
“Yes, a personal opinion. Please do something about it.
Gojo smiled and the two of them turned their attention towards [Name] who had been silent throughout the whole experience.
‘Besides being a little too excitable, he’s not bad. Like a puppy. I’d keep him as a pet.’ [Name] thought
“Don’t kill him” he said
“A precious student's request. And one from my favorite second year? Of course. Leave it to me!” Gojo said before lifting Yuji up.
[Name] still a little upset he was called away for nothing, raised his hand in front of his mouth so gojo couldn’t see what he was doing and whispered
“Fall over”
“Aak! [Name]-kunnn”
Fushiguro was shocked to see Gojo faceplant on the ground with Yuji on his shoulder. If the combination of Fushiguro’s wide eyed expression and the sight of Gojo in pain made [Name] giggle a little, he’d never admit it.
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best-ghoul · 3 years
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Darklanders: Inuit with Whale-Oil Guns
First bit takes place in the extreme northern border, closer to Alaska than Skyrim. These guys are Fantasy Canadians, with a Redneck’s verve for zero-waste DIY, derived from Inuit culture without being 1:1. They’re here because I think I’m onto something and Inuk angles add to the narrative.
Book I’m reading right now for insp is by recommendation, from an inuk perspective around the chronological time I’m drawing from for the game (Top of the World, by Hans Ruesch). It is, well, woke for the 70s. It’s explicitly post-Colonial, and don’t let the “Eskimo” fool you, Ruesch has disposed of it by the end of the front matter. I’m researching around it now, and it seems to scratch the right itch.
So, I’m still looking for primary sources and fiction, especially historical. ATLA Water Tribe’s the initial framework, but it’s materially more Dishonored. Whalers and shit.
The angle hoping to come from here is as a white girl who’s a little confused, but who has got the spirit. Stories are tools to Inuit culture, so lifting something and missing intent, or worse, ripping off an allegorical story as Aesthetique would make me complicit. This is a take that comes from a book and a half and a couple games right now, so it’s rough.
My take? Inuit are fucking Punk and this is a Punk Game.
Consider this me checking with the internet before I snip the red or blue wire. That’s a major spirit in which Inuit tell stories and have fun, so that’s how these guys are conceived, and they’re a designed to be a natural part of the thematic tapestry and one lens among several.
I’m looking for the go-ahead from a couple Inuk outreach orgs once I’ve got a clearer picture. It would be disrespectful of me to and waste an already-stressed org’s time by coming completely ignorant and asking them to do the creative work for me.
I have been told before, and I should know better, you could say.
Here’s the concept at it’s roughest:
The Darklanders [Working Name], are Inuk with a tech advantage. They derive their epithet from the Northern Darkness, a permanent supercell around Planet’s north pole. This is the water nightmares swim upstream to fuck in, and the Darklanders are the only ones who can reliably sail it.
They brought the guns.
Everything aughta be explicitly “how this tribe does it”, but there’s major pressure to conform out of necessity. Tribe’s a ship, we’re the crew, and the ideal Darklander finds the joy in work and ensures everyone picks up the slack. Generosity without reciprocation is tantamount to insult. Tribes get more flexible the more there is to go around (generally, more southern), but there’s obviously never a whole lot of slack to work with. They’re working through The Duties of Gender, but they’re historically pretty binary about it (Inuk binary, not Europe binary). It’s explicitly A Problem.
These guys are the most maritime of several communities that operate in some of the same general ecology.  The biggest icebergs are big enough to support a tribe and sustainable animal traffic at the same time, and some hardy plant life can be grown via hydroponics for teas, medicine, and some dangerous fucking moonshine. Bergs float, though, so everything’s built to move on a dime if the weather or game turns. Permanent installations are regularly lost and rediscovered. Whaler, salvager, hunter and hawker are just the same job with different priorities.
Intertribe conflict exists, but it’s understood to be taken with high likelihood of mutually assured destruction. There are pirates.
Almost everyone is taught to be very good with tools, and there’s a high average cultural knowledge base. If the Darklanders don’t work with you, you fucking starve up here, and the seas are carpeted with the bones of proud sailors who didn’t take good advice. The joyless and proud Catharate (evil empire), often forgets that as they built the first railroads to the northern coast. 
These aren’t a miserable or sullen people, though, but the sense of humor gets more morbid the further north you go. Their Dwarf-cognates are pranksterous and Seal-y.
Tribes don’t always fracture on species lines, but there’s plenty of Horrible Little Men and sinister crones in the snowy warrens and sea caves, but nobody gets kicked out without good reason. Teamwork is the default, and they have a system of social Face.
There’s a lot of Demiurge salvage up there, as well as wares from Zu (Implied to be flourishing Fantasy China in the middle of an Inward Perfection policy. It’s closer to here than the Europe analogue, “Elf Rome”, and it shows). That’s where the metal comes from. Dis is a metal-rich place in general.
Metal and machinery blends with scrimshaw, and hide. They work off of a Dishonored-style Whale Oil system, but there’s a continual struggle between whether it’s safer to innovate or conform at all times, and there’s a tendency to view ancient salvage as much as a perfect product as the whale, moon, or sea, with their tech being a blend of that. That’s a Big Problem.
This is a game of fighting with tools and, part of an ecosystem, and remembering fun. Inuit’s probably the way to go.
Companion concept’s a Goth Bullet Witch, and a recurring NPC as a male, disabled, masterful engineer, responsible for the party’s crunchy, Bloodborne-inspired weaponry.
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themurphyzone · 4 years
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PatB Nova Ch 6
Ch 6: Eccentricity
AN: Loved some of the PatB shorts more than others (You know my eternal hatred for THAT one). But that’s a story for another day. I’m sticking to the 90s versions of these characters though. For now. I might have a gander at the reboot versions someday. You never know!
Ch 6 FFN Link
April 22, 2015! Narf! You’ll never guess what happened, Mickey Mouse. I met the Brain! Well, I’ve only known him for about four months, or less than two days, depending on how you wanna look at it, but if anything happened to him, I would make myself watch Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender!
Tomorrow, I’m going to the mall and buying a hat. Can’t root for Farfignetown (I have to ask her how she spells her name!) at the Derby without a super fancy hat!
Love,
Pinky.
PS: Tell Minnie I said hi!  
o-o-o-o-o
Pinky stepped back to admire his handiwork, the tip of his blue glitter gel pen pressing under his chin as he leaned against it. He did his best to copy Brain’s messages, but he was probably gonna have to write only the first letters only in the future. He didn’t want to take up the entire calendar page again.
His ears twitched at a scraping sound behind him. The sparkly gel smeared against his fur as he turned around, leaving a blue streak across his chest. Egad, if he continued to cover himself in the stuff, he’d look just like one of the Blue Men!
Brain pushed a heavy textbook across the counter, finally stopping underneath a light panel on the ceiling. Then he flipped it open, climbed up, and began to read.
It wasn’t the same book he’d started reading after they’d shaken hands to seal their new friendship either.
“Whatcha reading, Brain?” Pinky asked, slinging the gel pen over his shoulder. “I thought you were reading about jeans! So, find anything good? I think I like the flare type best. Skinny jeans make me chafe.”
“I have no idea what you’re blathering about, Pinky,” Brain said, not looking up from the page he was on. His head shifted from side to side as he read on, and Pinky imagined a giant, fluffy marshmallow making the same movements.
His stomach growled, and a marshmallow dinner sounded heavenly. With cheese fondue and rainbow sprinkles and a light dollop of whipped cream on top…
Wait, no, no. The kitchen didn’t have Gruyere cheese! Processed American cheese wouldn’t provide that proper creamy texture at all.
What kind of host was he? Unable to serve proper cheese fondue to his alien guest?
Then Brain hopped off the book, growling to himself as he pushed up on the hard cover and the few pages he turned. The pages slid into place, but he wasn’t tall enough to get the cover to close the entire way.  
“Do you need help, Brain?” Pinky asked. He dropped the gel pen and grasped the cover’s edge, but Brain smacked him sharply on the wrist, forcing Pinky to let go. Pinky flicked his wrist, and the sting quickly disappeared.
“Don’t patronize me! I can get it myself!” Brain snarled. He pushed on the cover again, and it rose a couple inches in the air, only to land against his fingertips. He growled and spread his feet, jumping as he pushed on the cover once more. This time, the cover slammed into the pages with a heavy thud. “Your sources of information are woefully lacking with your livable yet rudimentary conditions. Penumbra had a much better database, and it’s been dilapidated for a long time.”
Pinky had no idea what dilapidated was. Probably something to do with laps though.
“Oh, well if you need more reading material, I’ve got just the thing!” Pinky said, motioning for Brain to follow him over to a tiny side table where all the magazines were stacked. “Let’s see, we’ve got Vogue, National Geographic, Reader’s Digest…ah, here we are! This one’s my favorite out of all the Zoobooks! Lots of pretty horses to look at. Zort!”
Pinky thumbed through the magazine until he found his favorite page, which had gorgeous art of a white horse running on grassy hills. “This one’s my favorite,” he said as he pressed the magazine into Brain’s hands. Brain nearly went cross-eyed just trying to look at it, but he held out his hands and pushed the pages back until they weren’t so close to his face. “I named her Pharfignewton after Pharfignewton! Isn’t her mane just the flowiest thing you’ve ever seen?”
“Including or excluding your mind in that comparison?” Brain asked. He closed the magazine and set it on top of the stack. “Your choice of reading material is peculiar, but I suppose brushing up on this planet’s ecology wouldn’t hurt.”
Pinky grinned. “If you think those are good, remind me to show you David Attenborough’s work sometime! His documentaries are amazing!”
Brain tilted his head, his antennae bobbing with the motion. “You’ve mentioned someone named Pharfignewton multiple times. An acquaintance of yours?”
“She’s not a quail, Brain. She’s a horse, of course!” Pinky laughed at his little rhyme. “Oh right, I’ve never showed you pictures of her, have I? Where are my manners? Anyway, I left them in the cage. It’s right this way! Or left this way. I can never tell which.”
Pinky ran back to the cage and squeezed through the bars, Brain trailing behind at a much slower pace. As Pinky slid his right leg through the bars, he realized just how dirty the cage was. There was a small puddle by the water bottle, and straw was scattered all over the place. Crumbs littered the floor around the food bowl, and his wheel had a stain shaped like a pomegranate.
It just wouldn’t do at all!
“Sorry for the mess!” Pinky called to Brain, who was watching him curiously from outside the cage. “I didn’t know I’d be having a visitor today!”
But Brain didn’t seem to care about the mess. Instead, he prodded the locked cage door.  
“Nicholas and Mr. Button, you’ve gotta wake up and help me clean!” Pinky said, shaking them frantically from where they were tucked into the straw. “Narf, you two were up talking late again, weren’t you?”
They were too asleep to respond though.
“Okay, well, I’ll let you sleep for now, but tomorrow I’ll be going over proper cagesitting behavior with both of you,” Pinky sighed. He carefully rolled up the photo of Pharfignewton he kept near the straw bed, hugging it close to his body as he slipped through the bars again.
“Pinky, those are inanimate objects,” Brain said, bending a paper clip until it was completely straight. He poked one of the sharp ends and winced.  “They won’t respond to you.”
“They’re real life objects, Brain. They’re not animated,” Pinky said. “Whatcha doing with that paper clip?”
Brain pressed his ear against the cage door, carefully maneuvering the paper clip into the lock. It slipped a quarter of the way in before Brain yanked it out again, his eyes darting around the room as if something would swoop down on them.
When nothing happened, he went back to inserting the paper clip. “Nothing to disable here. There’s no alarm system on the door,” Brain said, turning to Pinky. “I thought you were squeezing through the bars to avoid triggering it.”
“I’ve never had an alarm before. Do you think I should get one?” Pinky asked. “Just so nobody tries to burger my wheel or water bottle? Hmm, what would a burger with those ingredients even taste like? Not very appetizing, probably.”
Brain only stared at him, the paper clip almost slipping from his hand in surprise. “Don’t tell me the only reason you haven’t used the door is because you can’t unlock it.”
Pinky nodded. “Okay. I won’t tell you the only reason I haven’t used the door is because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to unlock it.”
Shaking his head in dismay, Brain reinserted the bent paper clip until it was halfway in, then turned it clockwise (or was it counterclockwise? Pinky always got them mixed up).
“There,” he said, letting the door swing open. “Now you can enter and exit as you please like a civilized mos.”
“Egad, that’s brilliant!” Pinky stepped inside the cage, then back out. In and out again, and again, and he almost started dancing the Hokey Pokey, which would’ve been a whole lot of fun, but Brain still hadn’t seen Pharfignewton’s photo!
Now that was a real tongue twister there!
“This is Pharfignewton, Brain! Isn’t she pretty?” Pinky asked, pressing the photo into Brain’s hands.
The photo had been taken two weeks ago, when her owner had hired a professional to photograph Pharfignewton as she sprinted around the field. Pharfignewton had given Pinky her personal favorite, one that showed her hooves flying through the air and her gorgeous mane streaming in the sunlight. She was having the time of her life, and she couldn’t have picked a better photo to give him.
“There’s certainly an uncanny resemblance,” Brain admitted. “And the size discrepancy between you and her is incredibly blatant. Not to mention the species difference.”
Pinky crossed his arms. “Oh, don’t be so intolerant, Brain. She’s big cause she’s a horse, and I’m small cause I’m a mouse. But we make it work.”
Pharfignewton would be gone for the next two months, possibly more when she achieved the Triple Crown. It would be lonely, but he could manage.
“You mentioned she was far away when I interrogated you.” Brain set the photo down, smoothing out a corner though it didn’t have any wrinkles.
“She’s still on the road to the Derby, I think. Can’t really get in touch with her though. Phones are kinda tricky with hooves, you know.” Pinky said. “She’s wanted the Triple Crown her entire life. So that’s why I gotta make a giant hat and root for her when she races!”
“I don’t understand how a hat factors into all this,” Brain said.
“Zort! I dunno,” Pinky shrugged. “You can’t have a Derby without horses, hats, and My Old Kentucky Home. Otherwise it wouldn’t be much of a Derby then, would it?”
Brain folded his arms. “I’m currently debating if I should take your words at face value or not. Your customs make no sense whatsoever.”
Pinky thought they made perfect sense, and cents, and all of the five senses really, but his stomach growled and that thought was soon forgotten. Brain never had Earth food before, had he?
Definitely a job for a genetically altered Earth mouse to show him the ropes!  
But first, Pinky had to clean the gel off his fur. It was starting to clump into spikes, and that wouldn’t do at all.
o-o-o-o-o
Pinky rinsed himself in the sink, sticking out his tongue to lap up some of the cool water as it trickled out of the faucet. Thankfully, the gel hadn’t settled into his fur and was very easy to wash away. And flicking the water around the sink with his tail was loads of fun too!
Brain stayed on the outer rim, pulling on the stopper and handles by the sink out of curiosity. He edged closer to the stream of water, almost touching it with a gloved hand, but decided against it. But he wouldn’t stop staring at it either, like he’d never seen water in his life.
Maybe he hadn’t?
The moon was made of cheese and not water after all. Water would make the cheese all soggy and mushy and wash away the cheesy taste that made cheese so delicious.
“C’mon, Brain! Poit!” Pinky pushed his fingers together, trying to send a squirt of water up to Brain, though it missed his nose by a mile and landed on a small crumb on the slope of the sink instead. “The water’s just fine!”
“I’ll have to decline your offer, Pinky,” Brain said. “My information about water is rather lacking, and I’d rather not cover myself in a substance without knowing more.”
“I guess water would leave the moon cheese not very tasty to eat, huh?” Pinky asked. He braced himself and shot out of the tiny waterfall, and he was very glad for all the focus he’d put into leg exercises recently, because his running start was enough to get him over the rim on his first try. “Well, all you need to know is that water is wet, it splishy-splashes all over the place, and it’s fun to play Marco Polo in!”
Brain didn’t look convinced though. He removed one of his black gloves and touched a puddle, rubbing the water between his fingers curiously.
Pinky turned off the water, then dried himself off with a fluffy towel. He double checked his chest to make sure the gel was completely gone and patted down his fur.
“This way, Brain!” Pinky called, jumping off the counter and onto a spinny chair. The seat twirled around for a bit, making him slightly dizzy, but it was all in jolly good fun. Brain carefully climbed down, gripping the drawer handles and moving slowly. He slipped on the last handle and landed awkwardly on his right leg. He grimaced for a moment, his nose scrunching up rather adorably. “Blueberry bagels and cream cheese, here we come!”
“Your sustenance on Terra, I assume?” Brain asked. He followed Pinky through a corridor and into the kitchen, his large head turning every which way to take in all the sights of ACME Lab. Now that it was daytime, there were more colors than just shadowy blue. Pinky wondered if Brain would try to name the colors he saw. Pinky tried once, but there were just too many pretty colors streaming in from the window pane above.
“They aren’t consonants, Brain. They’re delicious and all, but they wouldn’t fit with the alphabet. A little bit of a mouthful, don’t you think? Poit!” Pinky climbed up the cherry-print towel hanging on the refrigerator door like he’d done a million times before. He braced himself against the fridge door, pressed his legs against the handle, and pushed with all his might, feeling that familiar strain of his stomach muscles.
The door opened with a satisfying pop. Breathing heavily, Pinky tumbled more than he climbed down the towel, landing on the cold floor of the refrigerator.
“S-surely there has to be a more e-efficient way to open a door than your method.” Brain’s teeth chattered together, his ears flattening to avoid the sudden chill. He took a few steps away from the open fridge, his arms folded in front of his chest. “Is it a-always this cold?”
“Oh, I haven’t even opened up the freezer! If you think this is cold, you’ll really feel like a mousesicle in there! But it’s worth it if you wanna get to the strawberry ice cream with the cute little mini spoons! Maybe some other time though. Right now, it’s important to get a daily serving of cheese!” Pinky exclaimed as he pushed two small tubs of cream cheese from a middle shelf. They each landed on the floor with a thud, and Pinky jumped down and retrieved them, closing the fridge door behind him with his foot.
Brain sighed in relief as soon as the door was closed, his arms dropping to his sides.
“They keep the blueberry bagels by the bagel warmer,” Pinky said as he led Brain out of the kitchen and into a room that had been marked with a yellow and black caution sign. The bagels were so delicious they even had to warn everyone to take caution! “Oh, now that’s a tongue twister. Blueberry bagels by the bagel warmer. Boobelly beige by the baguette warmer...oh, that’s a toughie. I’ll work on it.”
The bagel warmer was an oddly shaped toaster, with lots of wires and bulbs sticking out along the sides and top. It even had a conveyor belt running through it, but Pinky thought it made this toaster really unique among toasters. Why, he’d even been toasted in this toaster himself! Though it wasn’t as much fun as crispy pieces of bread made it seem. He just remembered a lot of smoke and electricity. And there’d been a lot of narf inside too.
Pinky set the tubs of cream cheese on the floor, then climbed up to the conveyor belt, which was propped on metallic cylinders.
“This is so much easier with two mice!” Pinky crowed. He peered down at Brain, who curiously poked at a red wire on the floor. “I don’t mind eating bagels by themselves, but there’s something about toasty bagels that just warms the heart!”
“If they’re truly that delectable, I suppose there’s no harm in trying it,” Brain replied.
“Did your file thingies say anything about Earth food?” Pinky asked. Because Brain sure didn’t seem to know much about tasty things.
Brain shook his head. “The Selenians didn’t bother with information about the lifestyles or cuisine of Terrans. It was irrelevant to their cause.”
Oh. Pinky tried to imagine being an alien who didn’t know anything about cheese, but came up blank. He’d eaten cheese and food pellets his entire life. He couldn’t imagine a world without them.
“Pinky, are you aware that machine is also apparently a gene splicer?” Brain asked, pointing to the letters along the side.
ACME GENE SPLICER AND BAGEL WARMER, it said.
“So it does. But the only things that go in are bagels and lab mice. Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone try to splice a pair of jeans. Oh, that reminds me!” Pinky snapped his fingers. How could he have forgotten something so very important? The silly machine was on the gene splicer setting! Pinky pressed a conveniently labeled button that said ‘press here for bagel warmer setting’. How nice of the scientists to label their stuff!
He was so glad he discovered that before sending the bagels through. The gene splicer setting would’ve made the bagels extra crispy, and while Pinky didn’t mind, extra crispy bagels were a taste one had to get used to first. Nope, it was better to start Brain off lightly!
“Can you please get two blueberry bagels from the bag, Brain?” Pinky pointed to a bottom cabinet where the bagels were kept, grinning at the new tongue twister he’d come with. Egad, he was good at this! “They’re the tan circles with a hole and blue specks in them! Kinda like a donut, except without the frosting and sprinkles. Zort, Brain! You’ve never eaten donuts, have you? Oh, I am definitely making a list of foods you need to try!”
Pinky hopped onto a tall table and neatly tore a paper towel off its roll, then laid it flat on the conveyor belt. Following Pinky’s instructions, Brain retrieved two bagels from the cabinet and passed them up to Pinky. Brain still seemed rather confused about the gene splicer and the bagel warmer being one and the same. Pinky carefully separated each bagel so that he had four half-bagels with the inside lying face-up and arranged them on the paper towel so they would all be nice and toasty.      
Then Pinky realized he’d forgotten another thing. Namely, that he didn’t know how to turn the bagel warmer on.
He scratched his head.
That could be a real issue.
“Pinky, do you actually know how to work this machine?” Brain’s voice sounded oddly strained. Pinky turned around. Brain was hanging onto the side of the conveyor belt, his legs wrapped around one of the metal cylinders. He’d tried to climb up himself, but his arms were too short to get a proper grip, and if he leaned over anymore, he’d fall right on his chubby head.
Pinky reached over, grasping Brain’s wrists and trying to haul him up, only for Brain to be resistant to help. He wouldn’t budge, his wrists feeling oddly tense under Pinky’s hands. His pink eyes were wide and apprehensive, pointed ears flattening against his head.
“Brain?” Pinky said. “I’m just gonna haul you up. Could you relax a bit please? It’ll be much easier.”
Brain didn’t move for a second, searching Pinky’s eyes warily. Pinky just gave him an encouraging smile. Brain looked away, his brow furrowing, but some of the tension left his wrists.
Pinky pulled him onto the railing of the conveyor belt, Brain’s feet scrabbling in the air briefly before settling firmly on the metal.
“Thanks,” Brain muttered. He walked over to the various buttons and levers, examining each one curiously.  
“You’re welcome, Brain!” Pinky brought one hand to his forehead in a salute, only to remember that Brain was an honest-to-goodness alien, and probably didn’t know that particular gesture. So Pinky tried to make the Vulcan salute instead, but it was kinda tricky with only four fingers instead of five.
“This is very intriguing,” Brain breathed, pressing his face against a small closed window that offered a look into the gears and wires within the bagel warmer. “Yes, pure lithium power source, proton accelerators, and automatic anti-inertia capabilities? The use of nanoplasmic charges leaves a lot to be desired of course, but to have the rest of these things in one machine at your fingertips…”
Pinky didn’t understand anything Brain just said, but the alien’s fingers were twitching in excitement, his nose smushed against the glass. It was the first genuine smile Pinky had seen from the alien since they first met, and Pinky thought it looked really good on him. Even nicer than the jumpsuit, which was already really fashionable. “If you figure out how to turn it on, that would be really great!” Pinky grinned. Brain pulled down on a nearby lever, and the conveyor belt began to move. “Egad, brilliant!”
“The lever was labeled, Pinky.” Brain waved him off, pointing to the word ‘on’ stenciled next to him. But his head tilted up and his chest puffed out too. He seemed to like that word a lot. “Wait, you figured out the machine was on the wrong setting, but you can’t turn it on?”
Pinky shrugged. “It’s not really my type, Brain.”
“Never mind,” Brain sighed, the tips of his ears turning as red as his nose. He turned back to the machine window. “I want to observe this process.”  
“Me too!” Pinky exclaimed, and he hopped over to the window, smushing his nose against it just as the bagels were swept into the machine. Blue electricity sparked and jumped all around the metal structures inside, and the glass warmed beneath Pinky’s hands.
It was a beautiful sight, and Pinky licked his lips as the bagels crisped from the heat.
Beside him, Brain watched the electricity intently, murmuring a bunch of smart words Pinky didn’t understand, but definitely enjoying the show too.
Within several minutes, the bagels gained an extremely nice golden brown crisp, and the conveyor belt moved them out of the bagel warmer. Brain pulled the lever up and the conveyor belt stopped moving, the thrum of the machine beneath their feet slowly fading away.
They weaved around long, multicolored wires as they made their way to the other side, where the bagels awaited them.
“Troz! Looks positively dee-lish!” Pinky exclaimed, poking at one of the bagels. Firm and flaky, just how they were supposed to be. His mouth watered in anticipation.
“The scent alone is quite appealing,” Brain agreed, taking several sniffs of the bagels. “I’ve never smelled anything like this before.”
Pinky grinned at him. “Oh, just you wait, Brain! The real magic is just starting!”
Sliding down the cylinders, Pinky retrieved the two cream cheese tubs they’d left on the floor and passed them up to Brain one at a time. His lower leg strength had improved a lot in the past few months, and it was easy for him to hang on while he passed the tubs up.
“Show-off,” Brain grumbled as he took hold of the second tub.
Pinky just laughed as he fetched two plastic knives from a drawer and carted them back to Brain and the bagels.
“Here you go! Bon appetit!” Pinky said. He gave one of the plastic knives to Brain, who gingerly ran his finger across the toothed edge as he examined the flat, see-through handle. “Oh, be careful with those, Brain. You don’t wanna cut yourself.”
“Not to worry, Pinky,” Brain said. “We have knives on New Selene. But I’ve never seen one with this particular material before. And much duller too.”
Pinky peeled away the cover of a cream cheese tub, drooling over the gorgeous smooth white surface inside. Brain copied him with the other tub, pulling off the cover completely. The alien took off his gloves and sniffed the cream cheese a few times, swiping one fingertip through the cream cheese. Then he tasted it.
Brain’s eyes widened immediately, his antennae perking up. He licked cream cheese off his fingertip four more times before he realized Pinky was watching him. Brain ducked his head and fiddled with his sleeves.
“That was…even better than I anticipated,” Brain admitted, his voice full of wonder.
“Aw, you don’t have to be embarrassed if you like it, Brain. I’m glad you think so, cause blueberry bagels and cream cheese is my favorite. Well, so are food pellets. And marshmallows, especially the puffy kind. And smiley face lollipops and…poit! I have a lot of favorites, it’s so hard to choose just one! Zounds, mac n’cheese too! You really need to try mac’n cheese, Brain! That one’s definitely going on the list. Anyway, if you think the cream cheese alone is good, try this!”
Pinky dipped the knife into the cream cheese. Once he got a good coating, he spread it across the surface of the bagel, took the largest chomp of the combined food he could manage, then swallowed. It went down a little rough, but it was delicious all the same.
“Scrumptious!” Pinky exclaimed. “It’s like a party in your mouth!”
Brain copied his actions again, and while he preferred to rip off chunks of the bagel and slather cream cheese onto smaller pieces, his enjoyment of the food wasn’t any less than Pinky’s. He made some funny ‘mmm’ noises in the back of his throat, his eyes closed in bliss as he worked his way through the first half-bagel.
Pinky started on his second half, licking cream cheese off his lips. This was a nice way to spend the evening.
“Brain, you’re welcome to share my cage if you’d like,” Pinky offered. “Mi cage es tu cage, you know.”
“Are you sure, Pinky?” Brain swallowed, thumping his fist against his throat to make the bagel go down. “I know we’re in a mutual partnership, but I wouldn’t want to impose in your living space.”
“You’re not imposing,” Pinky said. “Besides, plenty of unmarried people share living spaces these days.”
Brain was silent. He continued spreading cream cheese across a small portion of bagel, even though it was completely slathered at this point.
“Snowball and I were in neighboring cages. Aisam had to be housed alone because of their inclination towards territorial aggression. We had separate quarters for the journey to Terra as well.” Brain nibbled on a corner of his bagel. “Point being, I’ve never shared a cage before.”
“Sharing is caring,” Pinky smiled, finishing the last of his bagel. “Besides, it’s one more new experience for both of us. Isn’t that just dandy? I just hope Mr. Button and Nicholas didn’t leave too much a mess.”
“Very well. But we’re moving that sponge bed I slept on last night into your cage. It was much less aggravating for my back than the usual fare,” Brain said. “So…thanks for that, Pinky.”
“You’re welcome, Brain,” Pinky replied, rubbing circles into his belly, his hunger satisfied.
Beside him, Brain seemed satisfied too. And there was nothing better in all the world than sharing blueberry bagels and cream cheese with a new alien friend.
AN: OK this one’s more of a breather chapter since the last 5 were like wham bam nonstop stuff for the characters. Sorry it took so long to get this one out. Next chapter will have Pinky finally getting his hat and Brain’s first mall excursion!
24 notes · View notes
thefandomlesbian · 4 years
Text
WIP tag: thank you @scandinavian-punk for tagging me!!
Brace yourselves because I am about to word vomit on your screen—
(not including WIPs that are currently posted, since you can explore those at your leisure)
To Rule and Guide: The sequel to To Light and Guard, Lana and Mary Eunice go forward in their relationship, but they encounter hiccups along the way as old enemies rise, friends twist beyond recognition, and the church tries to call back the nun it released so recklessly.
Break Rank: John Laurens was shot down off of his horse and dragged away from the Battle of Combahee River, believed to be dead. A mutilated corpse was buried in his stead, but he awakens in a warm cabin to a middle-aged lesbian couple who nurse him back to health. Now disabled and with everyone believing he's dead, he has to try to make his way back up to New York, as there is only one person who will believe him.
Lead Me Astray: Spencer receives a diagnosis of malignant cancer behind his eyes, the first-line treatment being removal of both eyes. He quietly hands in his resignation to Strauss and earns a deal for medical retirement, and he intends to spend his remaining days setting things up to survive life alone as a blind man. However, when the team receives word of his decision to leave without telling any of them, Aaron hunts him down and demands answers. Convincing Spencer of his worth, both as a person and as a member of the BAU, is not easy, but it's necessary for the upcoming case they will face.
Like Minor Gods: Spencer lost a high-stakes bet with Derek. Now he's training for a triathlon. It's not exactly a fun time, seeing as his athleticism peaked when he was the basketball coach in high school, but with a little help from his unit chief, he may have a chance of crossing the finish line.
Shipwrecked Souls: After taking his leave from the BAU, Aaron struggles with Jack, who has developed increasingly concerning behavioral and psychological issues. Jack is riddled with anxiety and PTSD, and no matter what Aaron does to try to help, they wind up yelling at each other. Desperate for some help, he attends a seminar for parenting a troubled kid, where Spencer is surprisingly guest lecturing after earning his PhD in adolescent psychology. Aaron asks if Spencer will help tutor Jack—though Jack's failing grades are just the tip of the iceberg in regards to his current string of issues—and happily, Spencer agrees.
Singing While Rome Burns: After Foyet's escape from prison, Aaron has lost all of his coping skills. His family fell apart for his job, and he's apparently not even good at that anymore. He gets blackout drunk and wanders around lost in Rock Creek Park until he intends to call Rossi to come get him. Inadvertently, he calls Spencer instead. Spencer rescues him, and this act of mercy ignites a spark between them. But they walk a path ripe with trepidations, as Foyet is still on the move, Haley is busy settling the divorce, Strauss battles corporate challenges, and Spencer struggles to find where he fits in all of it with his new role in Aaron's life.
Spencer & Aaron: Dharma and Greg AU. Hotshot federal prosecutor Aaron Hotchner sees the most beautiful man he's ever met on the subway on his way to the office. He tries to go after him, but the doors slide closed, and he's left with a sense of longing—until he arrives at work to find the same man sitting on his desk. "You're Aaron Hotchner," he says. "You appeared in the Washington Post five months ago for putting away the Freeway Butcher. Your building security is weak. I was able to guess the passcode in two tries. I'm Spencer. I remember everything I read." On an impromptu first date, they recklessly decide to get married. On the days after, they bring together two incredibly different families and groups of friends, slowly teaching everyone that any relationship can work if there's enough love and compassion involved.
The Good Place: The Good Place AU. Corporate lawyer Aaron Hotchner was an asshole in life. In death, he awakens to find he's been placed in the Good Place by mistake. Partnered with his "soulmate," Spencer; a former nun, Emily, and her soulmate, Penelope; a spiritual vessel of knowledge, JJ; and two so-called angel-men, Dave and Derek, they find themselves dragged into a war which could challenge the very foundation the afterlife is built upon.
The Landscape After Cruelty: Spencer drives Aaron home from Quantico the day of Haley's death. Over the following days, he orchestrates everything from behind the scenes. He works with Jessica to care for Jack; he cooks meals for Aaron; he calls funeral homes to arrange services; he makes Aaron's appointments and then drags him to them by force. He makes himself indispensable. It only leaves Aaron wondering—why?
Insects in Amber: inspired by @ablogofthecriminalmindsvariety Whumptober prompt, infection. The team has split to handle two different cases. Spencer finds a breakthrough in the case he works with Aaron, but Garcia is busy with the rest of the team, so they go with no coordinates and no warning. When Aaron gets into combat with the unsub and they both fall down the stairs, the chamber doors seal behind them, trapping them inside. The unsub is dead, his neck broken in the fall, and Aaron's femur is protruding from his body where he landed. He's in an agonizing amount of pain, and Spencer knows the statistics for infection of an open fracture are bleak at best. No one knows where they are. They only have the hope that the team will find them soon—or else there will only be one of them to rescue.
Call Me Home: Cordelia Goode has finally escaped the oppressive home of her mother and has landed a job at the local animal rescue, Starfish, where she becomes fast friends with the quirky woman who works dog side, Misty. As shelter drama picks up, they learn together how difficult saving lives can really be.
Minor Bird: Acclaimed pianist, Misty Day, has decided to step away from her career and take an early retirement. Amateur Cordelia Goode wants to find out why. When her teacher makes arrangements for her to meet Misty in person, she learns that soon, Misty will not be able to perform any longer. In a crunch for time and desperate to learn more, Cordelia begs for Misty to teach her. In the process, they grow closer together than either of them ever dreamed.
The Sister Act: Lana Winters witnessed a horrible crime and has been placed in witness protection in an abbey for her own safety. She repeatedly butts heads with the Mother Superior, Jude, as she struggles to survive the trauma of what she witnessed. With the help of Sister Mary Eunice, she begins to appreciate the quiet spirituality of the place. But criminals are still pursuing her, eager to silence her before she can testify.
I've Got Your Demons (They're Crying Out for Love): Lana Winters aids Briarcliff in the exorcism of Sister Mary Eunice. Both are pregnant from crimes committed against them and against God. Lana places her son up for adoption; Mary Eunice's daughter is stolen from her, dumped on hospital steps with no note by Monsignor Howard who will not be held accountable for his actions. When Mary Eunice is well enough, she leaves Briarcliff with Lana, desperate to reconnect with her daughter, but it's years before they catch up to young Billie Dean Howard, and they find that demons still continue to touch them at every turn.
Autumn Hands: Audrey saved Shelby's life, but she couldn't save her mutilated vocal cords, permanently damaged by her attempt on her own life. All sorts of trials await them—criminal, medical, social—as they try to look past their fraught history and come together as the sole survivors of Roanoke.
On the Pyre, Before the Hearth: Lana Winters gets lost in the Louisiana swamp after she tries to find herself in the wilderness. There, she encounters a lonely hermit woman who has spent the past decade living in solitude and subsisting off the land. A flood forces her and Misty into one another's company for several days, but when it's time for Lana to leave, she finds she doesn't want to life with Misty ever again. Misty has her own secrets and reasons for hiding, unbeknownst to Lana, who writes and publishes about her experience in the hope of drawing Misty out of the woods. She has no idea the ramifications of her actions.
That... Should be everything 😳😬😐 I'm tagging @reidology @ablogofthecriminalmindsvariety @its-a-goode-day @honeyvenable and whoever else feels motivated to do it!
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Hey. I don’t like posting this because I like to be a positive person and this is a really cool and positive fandom, but I need to say please avoid melodicalmusic on DeviantArt/doggiebeats on Quotev. Initially I thought it was just someone who was missing the point, but they are far worse and actively harmful. (notes under cut)
melodicalmusic/doggiebeats is the author and illustrator of an au fic named “Velo Life”. At first glance it is harmless, the art is fine. The story revolves around a mask named Pap (a papillon dog) doing things, being an assistant to the monarchy, and dating Fox. Sometimes other masks get chapters, but the overall focus is on her oc, which is fine, as ocs can be good. The problem isn’t conception, it’s execution.
Transphobia: Melodic decided to cast Leopard as a non-binary intersex character. It was a fair design choice, other than the fact she referred to them as a “pseudo-h*rmaphodite”, which is medically outdated, as well as the inclusion of ‘pseudo’ is more offensive than the slur alone. Leopard has biological cubs, despite most intersex (obviously not all) being infertile or unable to carry children showing a lack of research on the topic, as well as it being a very dysphoric situation for many trans and intersex people.
Leopard was referred to as a “quing”, combination “queen” and “king”. Now. Mull over it. Okay stop mulling, because she had every inch to just use “Monarch”, such as “Monarch Leopard”, as well as titles like “Their/Your Majesty”, which works for both kings and queens, so it should have been suitable for Leopard.
Unprompted, she backpedaled saying “But I wanted Leopard in my AU to be a actual female. Cause I think it's for the best. Everyone kinda hated Leopard, but I love everything she does. No not Transgender, just really a female.”. Besides the fact she took it in her own hands to decide that a mask played by Seal was ‘now a cis woman’, she implies that trans women are not women, calling cis women ‘really a female’.
In her fic, the only other trans character is Egg, who is exceptionally ambiguous to being trans, not specifying if Egg is NB, FTM, or if he as well was going to be intersex. She dedicates a chapter to pride month, yet a lot of the focus is on the cishet masks (Pap (her oc), Frog, and Fox), as well as a concerning ship of T-Rex and Poodle, as everyone knows that T-Rex is somewhat coded to be a child, since Jojo was only 16 when she performed. Despite claiming to respect trans people, she only had two trans characters, and decided that one of them wouldn’t be trans anymore because “I admired the high-pitch voice that was fitted for the Leopard, it just suits SO well. Even if the show kept going, I always hear the digital high vocals.”. Call me crazy, but that’s not a reason to make a man a cis woman.
As a trans man, Leopard was disgustingly handled in the show with the panel first week, accusing Seal of ‘tricking’ them for wearing drag and acting feminine (not acting like a woman, acting feminine), and I hoped it wouldn’t leech into the fandom. Clearly I was wrong.
Homophobia: Where to start with this. As stated, she changed Leopard from a NB intersex character (in her original canon) to a cis woman. In the fic, Leopard is married to Nick. I don’t need to tell you that she made Nick x Leopard into a straight ship. She made the only gay ship tease in the show into a straight ship. I wish it ended here.
Somali, an oc, has potential. Not here, but he has it. Somali is gay. If you think I’m undermining his character, that is his character. Somali likes magic and theater, and is very flamboyant. He is a gay walking stereotype. In his description, it is stated, “The story is that he turnout Gay, Of course Pappy was Supportive, but she knew it wasn't fair, especially through everything she's involved.” If you need me to translate: Somali broke up with Pap after realizing he was gay. Pap saw that as unfair, and that she was a victim of being lead on because he found out he was gay. Yes, Pap is making Somali being gay and dealing with his internalized homophobia… about herself. She goes to the point of calling him her nemesis. Which is a... toxic way to refer to someone who broke up with you on clean terms.
Somali eventually teams up with Rottweiler, Pap’s brother (who abuses her, despite it being out of character in every means) and is. Evil, and he hates Pap now apparently. We can’t go a minute without the gay oc being evil huh. Somali being gay doesn’t add to the story, it just suggests the only reason he stopped dating her was that he was gay (which is bad and offensive in Pap’s eyes) because he is not shown to fall for Rottweiler, or have any crushes on other male masks. His homosexuality is an accessory tag, and it’s really not a good one when he is the only gay character with a lot of lines.
Every. Character. That. Is. LGBT. Is. A. Token. Ice Cream and T-Rex are the closest ones to not be tokens, as Ice Cream has a job at a diner and T-Rex gets lines, but T-Rex is only used for exposition, and again, a child shipped with an adult mask. Peacock’s and Rabbit’s role outside of the first chapter is to have a rocky relationship, being forced to rekindle their relationship after Pap tells them to do so for a love festival. Several of the female masks are bisexual or lesbians, but they add so little to the plot, that I don’t even remember which ships are which. Every [since Leopard used to not be but is now] main character is heterosexual and cis (Pap, Fox, Leopard, Kitty, Frog, Turtle, Rottweiler) which doesn’t imply that she actually is that pro LGBT. Drawings of hers for Ice Cream and Egg are captioned “Just something Gay for you guys to see~” (fetishizing much?).
Ableism: One of the ocs in the fic is a Red Panda, who is related to Panda (don’t be confused, animal wise they are not closely related at all). In the fic, Red Panda suffers from PTSD due to an accident which caused her to be disabled in the leg, who uses a single-leg-crutch to walk. The physical disability is handled well enough, not being a hindrance or made fun of, but her personality is the worst. Red Panda is a cowardly and sniveling child, scared of her own shadow and completely incompetent. Her PTSD is very thinly written, not giving her any specific triggers or reasons for anxiety. If her PTSD was presented with her being afraid of entering a vehicle or certain smells that would relate to the accident (rubber, smoke, leather), it would make sense, but Red Panda is scared of everything. On a dare, Frog tells Kitty to impersonate a mask. Kitty impersonates Red Panda, making fun of her cowardice, which can be an actual attack on people who have PTSD (like myself), Kitty justifies herself, saying she couldn’t think of anyone else, Red Panda immediately accepting it. Being a minor character, there is no time for her to develop, and the Red Panda we were presented with is already a mess.
In the same chapter that Red Panda is introduced, Axolotl (mentioned a lot later) dares Fox to remove his prosthetic arm. I don’t need to need prosthesis to know that asking someone to take their ARM OFF is unfunny and uncalled for. Pap, Fox’s girlfriend, decided to take the time and kissed the welt, commenting that it “looked interesting”. Don’t- don’t do that. Don’t kiss people’s scars or cuts or welts or anything related to their disability, especially without permission. Axolotl was being ablest to Fox and somehow Fox didn’t know better and forgot to tell her she was acting uncivilized, despite being one of the smartest masks in the canon.
Condoning Incest: One of the ocs in the fic is an Axolotl. The axolotl is Frog’s biological sister, Frog having Turtle as his adopted brother, which in fic Turtle is stated to have been adopted in Frog’s family for over 15 years. In the axolotl’s description, it is stated “Though Axolotl is a relative of him, She deeply has a crush on him. Which maybe weird but hey, Turtle's Adopted. So not a big deal”. No, it’s not ‘ok’ because Turtle is adopted, especially since they’ve been related 15 years. It’s not like Frog and Turtle are ‘close enough to be brothers’, they are related by law. Axolotl is presented to quirkily force a kiss on Turtle in one chapter, which she is not punished or condoned for 1. Sexually harassing him 2. Committing incest and putting it on his conscience, OTHER than her getting salmonella, which all characters who kiss Turtle are prone to getting (Ice Cream in chapter was stated to have fallen sick after kissing him). Axolotl is treated completely fine and Turtle has her in his band, regardless of the fact she is predatory towards him. Additionally, Axolotl is treated as a babysitter towards all of the children on the island, despite, again, sexually harassing someone she is related to, which people saw happen.
Incest is a harmful thing that can cause people to self-deprecate themselves or worse. It’s not a quirky “ha ha, they kissed, so funny!” because Axolotl DOES want to prey on Turtle. She DOES want to be with him. She didn’t CARE about his feelings, in the moment or after. It wasn’t a cute kiss on the cheek, and it wasn’t funny.
Fetishization of Japan: Pap is a weeeeeb. Pap is stated to be Japanese (her last name being Akita) which is confusing on account of the fact Rottweiler and her family are not shown to be Japanese? Anyways, Pap uses broken Japanese, completely unsparingly, and just says it in a way she expects everyone to understand her. It’s not Engrish, she speaks English well enough, she just adds it in sentences, and Melodic doesn’t even offer translations at the end of chapters. Phrases used are arbitrary, one some reason ending with “translator”. Entire sentences can be in Japanese, making the story hard to follow. If this fetishization of the language was limited to Pap, it’d be more tolerable, but other masks, ones who have no reason to know Japanese, use it as well, equally poorly.
Xenophobia: Some reason the USA and UK masks are all good guys (other than Rottweiler) but the German masks live in a ‘badlands’. German Monster teams up with Rottweiler and is his girlfriend, while German Dragon sexually assaults Kitty when they go through the badlands. There is no rhyme or reason why they are the scapegoated ‘evil’ series, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Inability to handle criticism: I tried. I tried my absolute best to tell her that what she was writing was harmful and past borderline offensive. I told her that Somali was a gay stereotype and very poorly presented, not getting a personality out of ‘likes singing’ (which all masks do…) and ‘is evil gay’. She didn’t care. We told her she was using slurs and that turning a mask played by Seal into a cis woman was offensive and transphobic (as well as Leopard already poorly being handled). She didn’t care.
In fact she more than didn’t care. She called us insensitive and whiny. Quote from her, "Now, I been feeling upset about some Haters/Karens harassing me on my AU ideas. And yes that's dumb.” Karens. You know, the stereotypical older women who hate the gays and trans people and bully people doing their jobs? Karens? Yeah, no. A Karen would be against any characters being trans or gay, insisting the show is for families, not telling them to stop using literal slurs (which have been outdated over 20 years) and to actually write gay characters. She genuinely acts like she can do no wrong and that everyone that doesn’t fawn over her is bad. This has nothing to do with the quality of the writing and the lack of grammar, this is about how she is unapologetically offensive and writing triggering content for the sake of being ‘quirky’.
I’m not saying “go rally against her” or “dox her” or “flame her story”, I’m suggesting please don’t give her attention. She’s clearly a child, and she’s not willing to change. All we can do is limit how much attention she gets until she grows up.
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agatharights · 4 years
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Can u please talk about ur catppl sci fi???
BASICALLY it was in a vague setting where biopunk/cyberpunk had become relatively commonplace- but one of the oldest “models” of biomodded quasi-humans was the “Catgirl/Catboy” line- humanoids with feline features (and a handful of non-feline features thrown in for marketability) such as catlike ears, heightened senses, a whole mess of stuff- they even used this popular base to make various versions such as defensive combat units with enhanced reflexes and retractable claws and whatnot...except that for every cute, docile, playful catgirl who looked like an anime babe, you got a handful of catpeople who looked more like sphinx cats or straight up furries, who actually acted in more feline fashions and thus weren’t really...suitable for being “adopted” out by the common public.
Which meant that instead, the genegineering companies had to give them homing and education and jobs- which actually worked out just fine for them! They were raking in the big bucks obscenely so they could afford to train up catppl, and with space exploration becoming a big thing they basically had a ready-made workforce of people they could train to work in space stations or to maintain offworld colonies, ready to go and on the payroll!
Catppl, meanwhile, turned out to have some additional feline features that weren’t on purpose- most biomodded people are inherently sterile due to their genetics being an absolutely hodgepodge, which ends some ethical quandaries and raises a whole bunch more! No such problem for most catppl, though, as it turned out they were absolutely capable of breeding with each other.
And growing to natural adulthood in about ten years.
And had a propensity towards multiple births, with teensy tiny triplets with closed eyes and sealed ears being the most common.
So suddenly the catperson population *explodes* over a few decades, because they’re capable of reproducing 2x as frequently, 3x as fast, and the companies they work for are scrambling to try to distribute birth control but having kids, in this setting, gets you some benefits because natural birthrates have decreased so much. Having a kid guarantees you to housing and whatnot, and biomods are included in that.
Catpeople are quick to form their own culture, all the meanwhile, even having their own variant of common spoken languages as they can communicate in registers humans can’t hear, and have very elaborate body language/sign language that utilizes stuff like tails and ears and whisker twitches.
They start designing homes for themselves, and regular humans who visit generally just put up with it or get used to climbing ladders because the catppl don’t care for stairs- climbing is easier and when catppl can’t climb the fact that their culture and upbrining was so insular means that their first response is to devote entire first floors and sections of their architecture to the elderly and disabled and infants/toddlers. Regularly-replaced scratchboard carpets are pretty common, since a lot of catppl have perpetually-growing claws that they’d rather wear down over time than trim manually, though products for them start to pop up pretty quick (like specialized claw-caps, clothes, perfumes, the like)
They make the conscious decision to start basing their culture off of African Wild Cat colonies- and to reject a lot of the capitalist human culture at the time. Things are shared. Children are nurtured by the whole. A lot of them go offworld to set up in faraway colonies. It’s not all good- like a lot of biomodded species, Catppl suffer from unusual and detrimental genetic ailments that can seemingly pop up out of nowhere, and are particularly vulnerable to certain diseases. They have faster metabolisms than a standard human, with more demand for protein and taurine, which means that even synthetic food can be costly for them.
A lot of them struggle with stimulant addiction, in no small part because designer stimulant intake is encourage by the genemodding companies who were initially training them. Their average lifespan is only fifty-odd years, before their bodies start to break down irrevocably, but it’s an intense fifty-odd years, seeing the world through eyes that register ultraviolet but have difficulty seeing blue.
Anyways that’s some catppl stuff and then I never did anything with the setting it also involved a rash of “ghosts” from people uploading their brainscans for fun and then abandoning them and weirdly intelligent corvids that everyone argues about because nobody can tell if they’re just naturally that smart over time or if someone at some point artificially made all these crows capable of computer programming.
Also dogs can talk now.
Genetic engineering was a mistake and the genemodding companies bit off way too much to chew with trying to make sexy catgirls but shit, we got a whole new branch of people out of it so I think that’s a win-win.
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galleryfake · 4 years
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answering every question from muse things - !
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❄ — all striked answers are things that do not apply to him, and even if they do, he has no opinion/doesn’t find it relevant. three of the sections have been omitted entirely due to their lack of relevance to his thought process.
SELF + HEALTH
how do they see themselves? — as a part of the spider, nothing more or less. without it, he’d be just another person living uselessly until death.
how do they want to be seen by others? — he hopes he can be useful & that he can bring even the most fleeting, temporary meaning to his loved ones’ existences. he also, secretly, wishes to be loved, and to have it expressed to him in any of its forms.
what is their life motto?
would they rather lead or follow? —follow.
what motivates them? — working as part of a group, & discovering hidden or sealed away knowledge.
are they most likely to fight with their fists or their tongue? — his tongue, as he dislikes physical fighting as anything other than a means to an end. he only fights to kill and doesn’t like to spar. 
do they have any pet peeves? — acts of pure emotion that have no thought or planning put behind them, that end up deconstructing something that could’ve been handled more sensibly. so basically... most things done by enhancers, in general. looking at you, phinks & uvo.
what do they most regret? —not many things, in general. when things get screwed up despite him having thought he had made the best judgement at the time, it will keep him up for a few nights, but he’ll eventually forgive himself and move past it. paku’s death, for example.
what achievement are they most proud of? — being the troupe’s only #12, yet to have been killed and replaced. 
what would they like to improve on? —nen is a very versatile pool of energy to work with, he will always be tweaking with his abilities one way or the other. see: his ice transmutation.
do they have any scars? —several very tiny blips on the expanse of his skin that tell of countless IV insertions and things strapped to him when he was younger. a fair amount of battle scars, mostly centered around his hands and arms. #justconjurerthings 
do they have a disability? — anxiety disorder & ptsd, both which he quietly shoves down and rarely ever discusses their symptoms - as both are essentially a given, considering their line of work.
do they have any allergies or food intolerances? —mildly allergic to pollen, VERY allergic to latex. the latter is the reason he doesn’t ever wear disposable gloves even though he prefers to keep his hands clean.
do they have any long-term illnesses or injuries? —being a clearly very premature infant having inhaled the toxins of meteor city’s trash, he spent his infanthood all the way up to his early double digits extremely ill and practically on the verge of death. his body went into sepsis several times due to a weak immune system, and complications with his blood vessels left him with acrocyanosis well into adulthood after being on and off a (cheap) ventilator for years at a time. nowadays he’s mostly fine, though, just very small and very purple in the hands. 
PERSONALITY
describe their personality in one word. — cryptic. 
their predominant emotion? —contemplative. 
someone wrongs them. do they respond with revenge or forgiveness? — calculative neutrality, then, depending on which conclusion he draws, either forgiveness or cautious distrust, but never revenge. 
do they make snap judgments or take time to consider? — almost always takes time to consider, except in rare cases where his emotions run high and cloud his reason. 
are they a glass half-full or a glass half-empty kind of person? — depends on the situation, he will assess it accordingly.
do they express themselves through words or deeds? — a combination of both, most likely a deed followed by a bit of helpful explanation.
how often do they lie? — not often, unless it’s to conceal his own weakness or to deceive someone on orders from chrollo. 
do they listen to their head or their heart while making a decision? — his head, but sometimes his head and his heart war with eachother, and his heart wins in tense split-second decisions. 
HABITS
how organized/disorganized are they? — quite organized. organizing is a small hobby of his, and he’ll often do it without even thinking as he busies himself in thought. 
do they have any routines? — his life is a bit too hectic for that, but he does have a specific way of washing + caring for his hair out of a shower and right before bed, to avoid tangles. 
talk about their mannerisms. — gesturing with his hands. making small noises to himself. flicking his head to either side to adjust his hair-to-vision ratio.
is there an item they take with them wherever they go? — his cellphone, for obvious reasons, and often a small weapon he can clone for traceless murders, such as a knife or a handgun.
good habits and bad habits. — good habits: cleanliness and organization. bad habits: repressing his feelings and keeping himself up at night with anxious scenarios and telling no one. 
THOUGHTS
their views on formal education vs self-education?
what are their thoughts on animals? — sees them as no different than humans, selfish survivalists staying alive by whims and instinct. this is not a good thing. he kills them as effortlessly as he kills humans, if needed. 
how much do they care what people think about them? — when it comes to the troupe: he cares a lot more than he lets on. anyone else? strictly 0. 
do they enjoy being the center of attention? why or why not? — he typically doesn’t, he gives himself performance anxiety by holding himself to a high standard, even though he typically accomplishes whatever he sets out to do with a high success rate. 
how do they feel about learning? — one of his favorite hobbies, and the easiest way to bond with him. 
which do they value more: creativity or practicality? — they go hand-in-hand, he’d say. they are both tools to be utilized at their proper times. 
thoughts on material possessions? — he doesn’t keep many himself, but somewhat understands the need to have them and assign them value. under no circumstances should anyone be deluded into thinking anything can be owned, though. even objects. 
would they rather win an argument or avoid conflict? — avoid conflict, though purely intellectual arguments thrill him and he actively seeks them out on occasion.
views on people in general? — food for the spider’s web. 
what qualities do they admire in other people? — confidence in one’s actions, clear sets of boundaries that they follow, and the sense that someone knows what they’re doing beyond a shadow of a doubt.
how do they feel about fun?
what do they want written on their tombstone? — nothing. he’d much prefer to have no trace of himself left behind.
what would an ideal day, in their mind, be like? — discovering something new to revel in for a while, and then ending his day in the warm presence of someone he loves. 
thoughts on privacy? (are they private or are they “tmi”?) — most people assume him to be very secretive and locked away, but he’s actually rather honest about things when asked directly - he just doesn’t divulge them on a whim. like with most things, he never speaks first, but this doesn’t mean he never speaks at all. 
thoughts on superstitions or the occult? (do they believe, not believe, etc.) 
what are their religious views? — none. as far as he’s concerned, everything is put into motion by someone’s individual will. if some god doesn’t exist, he’s not particularly concerned about it.
THE PAST
where did they grow up? — meteor city. 
how would they describe their family? — the spider. 
what was their childhood like? —plagued by illness. 
what did they want to be when they grew up? — alive to see it. 
as a child, what were they most likely to be found doing? — struggling to breathe in a medical cot somewhere in meteor city.
the worst thing that has ever happened to them. — first running away from the city by himself and experiencing withdrawal from being taken out of intensive care for his weak body.
the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to them. — whenever he’s called out for his emotional weakness for the troupe. he just loves them, okay. 
the best thing that has ever happened to them. — a little bit after being recruited, the first time he felt truly acclimated with them. like he had a family for the first time. 
which memory stands out most clearly? — meeting chrollo, and getting close to shal and fei. those memories still visit his pleasant dreams once in a while. 
TOUGH STUFF
do they have any phobias? — medical rooms or establishments such as hospitals. they make him instantly claustrophobic and if he absolutely HAS to be inside of one, he will make an effort to complete his task there as quickly as possible while still doing exactly what he needs to do.
do they get nightmares? — sometimes, but they’re never violent, mainly just sad and vaguely hollow and empty. from these, he wakes up feeling like he didn’t even sleep at all. 
what kind of person are they? — one you would likely be much worse off for meeting, if you’re not a spider. 
would they let someone take the blame for something they did? — sure. it was their choice to do so, after all. 
what are they insecure about? — his own emotional weaknesses. they’re a nuisance to his thoughts and strategies and no one should be bothered with them. 
what is one way to earn their trust? — simply make plans and follow through with them. display confidence and the skill with which to back it up. 
what is one way to lose their trust? — be an enhancer. *COUGH* i mean, be primarily emotionally driven and cause destruction as a result. such a bringer of chaos would no doubt be a headache to have around regularly. 
one thing they would hate anyone to know about them. — that he’s very soft and with simple desires. he’ll verbally deny being slightly clingy and affection-starved, but his actions will say otherwise. 
they have to pick one: to be loved, to be feared, or to be admired. — to be loved. no question.
have they ever been bullied or teased? — due to his size, typically, but he doesn’t really care. there’s no impact to his life if people think he looks weird due to his appearance, or his voice or his powers. they’ll simply have to live with it. 
FUN STUFF
what is their character archetype? — the quiet but deadly one. 
what are they confident about? — he is confident in his efficiency and ability to carry out tasks and speak truthfully. 
talk about their moral alignment.  — true neutral. pretty self-explanatory. 
describe them in three words. — helpful. devoted. curious. 
describe their aesthetic. — ancient libraries covered in dust. a snowstorm in the night. an iced-over lake reflecting an overcast sky. 
what will make them laugh? — seeing his loved ones happily goofing off and being relaxed, as well as any number of empathetic reactions shared by the happiness of ones close to him.
what makes them feel safe? — simply being near the others, or being somewhere very far-off and secluded from largely populated areas.
favorite color and the reason for it. — blue, simply because his hair and eyes all fall in line with its palettes and it looks good on him. 
favorite book genre? — informational textbooks of a certain field of expertise, or, in the case of fiction, mystery &/or crime solving. 
favorite movie genre? — psychological thriller. also may or may not have a thing for hallmark movies with cheesy happy endings. 
favorite type of muse?
if they could have a superpower, what would they choose?
do they have a role model? — definitely chrollo, and also, to a certain extent, feitan. 
what is their personal kryptonite? — choosing things/planning for things that involve the life or death of someone in the spider. in that moment, his emotions cloud his judgement and he can only find himself reaching the conclusion most likely to keep them alive. he can hardly bear to lose any of them. 
how do they entertain themselves? — organizing things, studying a particular topic, or playing a boardgame/doing puzzles.
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nyeh-sureiguess · 4 years
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CB Theory: Aku Aku’s Guardianship (and the Brothers’ Human Past)
Out of all the characters in the Crash Bandicoot series, I've always found myself drawn towards Aku Aku and Uka Uka respectively. Not only for their unique designs, characterization, and outright whimsical concept (the spirits of two recognized witch doctors immortalized through floating wooden masks? Sign me up!) - but also for the possibilities their characters open up within the franchise's lore.
Below would be one of those possibilities that I like to theorize about; the very reason why Aku Aku devotes himself to protecting our little orange marsupial alongside the archipelago they reside in.
As a disclaimer, I'd like to state that what I'm about to describe will all be grounded in fiction (we're talking about a denim pants-wearing bandicoot around here) and are purely on headcanon territory. I'll be tackling some massive "what if" scenarios that have little to no evidence canonically but are fun to think of personally.
With that out of the way, allow me to go on a full-on I'm-desperate-for-more-lore-and-overall-content-of-these-masks-and-therefore-I'm-making-this-up-as-I-go-to-satisfy-those-needs ramble.
Let's start with Aku Aku. He's a being of high intellect, for sure - usually filling in the role of an advisor to the rest of the characters when they find themselves faced with tricky situations. This aspect of his could only be rivaled by his power, as he not only grants protection to other beings when summoned but has also shown the capability of sealing other mystical entities (such as his brother) away when he sensed that the world would be in peril otherwise.
So with these in mind, why in the world would he go and devote his guardianship role to Crash? The dude's another failed animal experiment from none other than Dr. Cortex; someone who had been planning a worldwide takeover for god-knows how long. Surely with how ancient Aku Aku is portrayed to be, he would have some previous experience encountering Cortex's other specimens (Ripper Roo, Dingodile, Pinstripe- you name that boss battle) and know of how dangerous they are. Heck, Crash himself is unpredictable right from the get-go. His life cycle had only just started by the time he had washed up on the beach and his first-ever conscious decisions are to flail around, breaking boxes and any enemies that happen to cross his path. Sure, he has a good heart. That's something that we come to know throughout the game, as he actively goes out of his way to choose the greater good and stop Cortex from fulfilling his evil plots. But something like that requires the luxury of time that Aku Aku didn't have when Crash decided to spin right into one of his crates on that fateful day.
So what was Aku Aku's thought process upon meeting the bandicoot and deciding to be his protector?
I like to think that it was first out of obligation. Aku Aku's crates seemed to exist alongside the others found within the island, far before Crash had come into contact with any of them. Perhaps - when his spirit was first incarnated into the mask, he made it so that any living creature in dire need could summon him when needed (even if this proved to be a little impractical, given how rarely any of the other creatures break his boxes). So that takes care of their meeting encounter on the beachside in the first game and one could even argue that this logic stretches into the second game, given his absence from the bandicoot duo.
What I'm far more interested in would be the reason why he stays in the third game and beyond.
We're talking about an all-powerful being here who could travel anywhere in the universe in the blink of an eye (and even across universes, taking Twinsanity into account), and for whatever reason, he decides to stay with the bandicoots in their own household, watching over them even as they do something as mundane as figuring out new yoyo tricks and watching Uncharted 4 on their laptops.
So why?
To answer that, I have to take a moment to talk about an aspect in Aku Aku's life that we all barely know about: his human incarnation. He couldn't have been a magical floating mask for the entirety of his life, after all. So let's say that centuries ago, he was the witch doctor of one of the tribes on the archipelago, appointed by the chief leader to be at his side and care for the rest of their people. A powerful yet humble witch doctor, at that, as he would never abuse his power for the sake of self-gain. Let's say that - aside from his position in the tribe, he lived a relatively normal life and even had a family to care for, including his twin brother, Uka Uka, who had also been a witch doctor in their village (but we'll get to his part later down the lane).
Let's say that - one day, Aku Aku's wife bears a child. Someone to help carry on their legacy of practicing medicinal magic, ideally. But the child themselves is born with mental disabilities, ones that have shown to only worsen as they grew up. The child found it difficult to communicate properly, to control their movements outside of impulse, and with the limited resources their world was faced with at that time, no one in the tribe seemed to understand what was wrong. Aku Aku would try his hardest; trying to use his magical abilities to help the child in any way he could in hopes of "fixing" him and finding himself at a loss whenever he was unable to.
Now here enters Uka Uka.
I imagine him to be the more practical of the two, wanting things done immediately even if it entails harsher, extreme means. He was matched with his twin brother in terms of their magical prowess, with the difference between them being his lack of empathy towards others. He seems like the type to charge the tribal folk with favors in exchange for his services, that coupled with his malicious demeanor being the reason why the chief hadn't appointed him as the witch doctor of the tribe despite being on par with his brother. This event struck jealousy within him, soon spiraling into an unquenchable need to knock his brother off his perch at every opportunity he got in order to show who the better between them truly was.
That child was his opportunity - because if there's one thing that Uka Uka was also good at, it's making people believe every word he said, as ill-intended as it were.
Uka Uka claimed that the child's behavior was the result of the ancients cursing their family bloodline, aligning his statements with spiritual beliefs that the people of the tribe shared. He linked the ancients' frustration to his brother, saying how they were being punished for how unworthy Aku Aku was to handle such a high-stakes position and even citing instances of the other's failures in saving lives (as he often spent too much time trying to work around the use of force and violence). He further claimed that the curse could be spread across the entire village unless the source itself was purged, that of, the child.
Aku Aku was outright against the notion, still holding onto the belief that he would one day be able to cure the young one of their problems. But it was already too late then; his brother's words had naturally stricken fear into the hearts of the rest of their people, and it was out of their own selfish greed that they pushed for the child to be executed in order to free their village from the wrath of the ancients. It came down to the point that Aku Aku found himself helpless as the chief took the matter into his own hands, having no other choice but to follow through with Uka Uka's theory in a means to appease the restless people.
This was the breaking point in the twin brothers' relationship. The grief of losing a loved one so unfairly made something snap in the witch doctor that day, the result of which being an all-out battle between the two. With how evenly-matched they were, however, the battle had only succeeded in slowing draining each other of their energy until they both reached their final breath. In was in that very breath that they had used the remainder of their powers to seal their souls away into the mask forms, allowing their spirits to live forever and their fight to continue on for the centuries to come. Aku Aku later found the redundancy in fighting and decided to lock his brother away in the temple, keeping his malice hidden away from the world (insert his speech at the beginning of Warped here. His fear of his brother's return stems from how he's well aware of the lengths Uka Uka would go to achieve ultimate power - meaning that countless of innocent lives could be lost in the process).
That brings us back to the main concern of why Aku Aku decides to stay with the bandicoots.
I'd like to imagine that, to some degree, Crash reflects some similar characteristics of that child Aku Aku lost all those years ago. From his inability to properly communicate (outside of actions and limited words and sounds) to even the childlike innocence of the mutant when looking past his chaotic exterior. He learned from his previous mistake of trying to fix the little one of his faults and found value in just being with him; accompanying him along his journey of righting Cortex's wrongs and slowly adapting to the unique way Crash acted (which could lead to why he's shown to understand Crash's gibberish throughout the years).
In doing so, Aku Aku was not only providing the world's only hero with the necessary means and power of stopping an evil scheme - but was also hoping to fulfill his role as a fatherly figure; something that he had once failed to do years ago.
TL;DR: Aku Aku decides to be Crash's guardian as the bandicoot reflects the behaviors of a son he had lost back in his human life due to Uka Uka's doings.
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happymeishappylife · 4 years
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Movie I Watched in 2020
I brought back my Friday Night Movie Nights, where I would watch movies every Friday Night as a way to relax after the work week. Because of that I got to see a lot great films, a lot of diverse films, and listen to some great stories. Here’s the list, with a special review of my top 10:
1. Klaus
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Christmas may have passed, but that honestly doesn’t matter. I watched this movie in May and balled my eyes out at just how beautiful a message this movie delivered. It was magical not because of how it tied into the holiday, but by how it was able to paint such a beautiful character arc and journey. I highly recommend this if you want to be reminded of your own potential and the joy of being kind.
2. Taare Zameen Par
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Another movie where I cried my eyes out. I know that certain issues are felt around the world, but I’ve never seen how other countries deal with them and this movie did so in both heartbreaking ways and overwhelming hearfelt ways. The story involves a boy who is dyslectic and how he can’t preform in a regular school or to his families views and so gets sent to a boarding school to help him, but it absolutely wrecks him until they hire an art teacher who not only gets through to him, but understands him because he too has dyslexia. It’s one of the more impressive bollywood movies I’ve ever seen.
3. The Breadwinner
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A hard and yet amazing tale of courage from a young girl who wants nothing more than to help her family. Understanding what is going on in parts of the world that are not your own is why movies and stories can be so powerful and watching Parvana risk her life to help feed her family after her father gets imprisoned is just that.
4. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
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An older film, but there is a reason why its so beloved: It’s absolutely hysterical and such a fun time. My parents and I watched this virtually together and laughed so hard. Bill and Ted may be goofy high school boys who don’t pronounce names correctly, but the fact they can gather up so many historical figures for their report and learn something from the little time they spent travelling through time, is impressive. Good to know that telephone booths and boxes are the way to time travel.
5. Train to Busan
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For years, Philip Defranco praised this movie and told his audience several times to watch it. Well I finally listened and realized he was right. This movie is fantastic and Korea not only perfected a zombie movie, but gave it heart to the point where I nearly wanted to cry at the end. Because this movie has so much depth beyond just killing zombies, it gets lifted beyond its genre to be just a great movie.
6. V for Vendetta
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“Remember, remember, the fourth of November.” It’s funny that I happened to watch this movie for the first time now, in the year 2020 with a plague set about the world because that’s the setting for the movie. And with a corrupted authoritative government, the tale to fight back and fight for justice rings true louder than ever before.
7. Miss Virginia
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What would you do to make sure your child could get the education they deserved? Because Virginia Walden is an amazing woman who found resources and allies to not only get her son into a better school, but helped a lot of families get their children scholarships in the DC area. This is a fictionalized story of course, but the fact that Virginia did in fact fight so hard is powerful even if the circumstances are difficult to handle. We need better education in the states. Especially for our low income and minority neighborhoods which means dismantling the racial injustice sewn into our systems.
8. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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Another fictionalized account of a true story, but truly what an incredible human being is William Kamkwamba. Seeing how his family and his village is destroyed by lack of rain and have been left to starve, he cleverly figures out a way to bring irrigation to his farm and change their outcome. He does this after he gets kicked out of school for not having enough money to pay the fees by simply reading about it in a magazine he finds in the school library and figuring out the rest. It’s brilliant and inspiring.
9. Song of the Sea
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A magical and absolutely stunning animated film that tells the tale of a family who has lost much, but has been gifted by the life of a selkie who can help save the mystical world around them. But as Ben still struggles with the death of his mother, he is reluctant to help his sister save the day until he seas what she can do, even if she can’t speak. Its sad at times, but the beauty is in the way it weaves its Irish tales and beliefs into such a wonderful story makes for a good movie.
10. 37 Seconds
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Seeing what people can do when they believe in themselves and find people who believe in them, is powerful. Watching Yuma shake off the overprotection of her mother in pursuit to be a great manga artist, we see that while she may have cerebral palsy, she is still capable of living her life on her own. Plus she finds new friends who don’t treat her disability as the main thing about her and allow her to live and have her own adventures for the first time. Its hard at times. It’s funny. And it’s a reminder that people are people no matter what struggles they are living through.
Other Movies I watched this year:
11. Your Name
12. Pachamama
13. Wonder Woman 1984
14. The Lego Movie 2
15. Burlesque
16. Poltergeist
17. Enola Homes
18. The Cabin in the Woods
19. Get Out
20. Ip Man 4
21. Kabi Kushi Kabhi Gham
21. The Twins Effect 2
22. Roma
23. The Impossible
24. Moonlight
25. The Grudge
26. Self/Less
27. A Silent Voice
28. See You Yesterday
29. Jupiter Ascending
30. Salt
31. A Quiet Place
32. Atlantics
33. Insidious
34. Moonlight
35. All Day and a Night
36. Code 8
37. Rim of the World
38. The Lobster
Plus the movies I rewatched this year:
Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie
Cardcaptor Sakura: The Sealed Card
How to Train Your Dragon
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bigfan-fanfic · 5 years
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Making Bad Look Good Part 2
A second part! Featuring... Two-Face, Deathstroke, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Mad Hatter, Hush, Zsasz, Klarion the Witch Boy, and the Court of Owls!
I got a ton of requests for these, and you’ve all been so helpful! This one’s for you!
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Making Bad Look Good part 2 - a.k.a. another 6 Degrees of Evil Bacon
Warning: Long post ahead.
Two-Face - Harvey Dent
You met Two-Face back when he was District Attorney for Gotham.
He was no “Ce-SEAL-Your-Fate” Horton from Central City, but he was doing a bang-up job putting criminals behind bars, cracking their insanity pleas.
So you went to meet him after a case where he got the Penguin sentenced to Blackgate instead of Arkham.
Sure, he’ll probably escape, but the precedent the case sets is important.
“Mr. Wayne! To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Just came to meet our amazing new D.A.”
You make small talk, until you decide to ask him to lunch to congratulate him on the case.
He grins. “Okay. But we’ll flip a coin for the check. Heads, you pay. Tails, my treat.”
You shrug.
He flips a strange coin that he tells you is his lucky charm.
It comes up heads, on the side that looks like it’s been corroded.
You smirk. “That’s a double-headed coin, isn’t it?”
He laughs. “Yup. Most people don’t get it so quick.”
He shakes your hand and offers to pay anyway since you were such a good sport.
After he becomes Two-Face, it’s this moment you choose to remember...
Deathstroke and Deadshot - Slade Wilson and Floyd Lawton
There have been quite a few times when you were targeted by an assassin or two.
But that particular time, you were the prize for a competition between them.
Slade and Lawton had been hired to take you out, but only the actual killer would get the other half of the payment.
So one day, Deadshot is setting up the hit, angling a crazy shot to hit you through the back of the skull and bamboozle all ballistics tests. You come into range, and he shoots -
-only to see you get shoved out of the way by the eyepatch-ed Slade Wilson.
Bruce wants to sequester you in the Batcave, but instead, you tell him to set up a meeting as Batman.
It’s fun to throw money at problems.
On a rooftop, the Bat behind you, you offer Slade and Lawton double the total for your contract to give you the name of their employer and void the hit.
It’s technically against whatever assassin code there is, but you know, money tends to grease the wheels of any machine.
Deadshot takes the money and tells you it was some crackpot billionaire trying to get at Bruce. He also chuckles and says that he’s available if you ever have more money to throw and a grudge for him to carry out.
Deathstroke also takes the money and nods at you before leaving.
And while Slade comes back to torment you and your sons time and again, Floyd is actually quite pleasant. You sometimes hire him when you need security, which he calls easy money, and from that point, your husband almost never encounters him on the job...
Harley Quinn - Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel
“Paging Dr. Quinzel. Dr. Quinzel, to the front desk.”
You and some other Gotham big shots were invited to Arkham for a publicity tour. Reporters are there, too, including Clark, so you feel pretty safe.
A surprisingly young woman comes to play tour guide, her hair in slight pigtails.
“Hello, I’m Dr. Quinzel. Currently I’m junior psychologist here at Arkham Asylum.” She has a bit of a New York accent, though you can tell she’s worked hard to soften it.
One reporter asks just how “junior” she is, and she gives an indulgent chuckle. “Yes, I graduated med school early, so I’m a bit young for a specialized doctor. But I’m also one of the only medical professionals still willing to work at Arkham, so I think that’s what counts, right?”
The tour goes well enough, until you raise your hand. “You’re the psychologist in charge of the Joker, right?”
Dr. Quinzel smiles in a strange way. “Yes, that I am.”
You frown. “And do you think, as a junior psychologist, you’re adequately prepared for him?”
“I know that I am a medical professional, Mr. Wayne, and I am certainly qualified to examine my patients.”
But Dr. Quinzel, just for a moment, looks fractured, torn. Like there’s some sort of internal war raging in her soul. But it gets absorbed in her too-wide smile.
You put it down to nerves about meeting the press, and let it go.
You always wonder if there was something you could’ve done for the woman, prevented it from all going wrong, prevented her from becoming Harley Quinn...
Poison Ivy - Dr. Pamela Isley
Pamela was going to college at about the same time you were. 
You weren’t friends, exactly, although you did both share a class in Professor Crane’s Intro Psych course (an elective for both of you).
There were a lot of rumors about her. You chose not to engage in the gossip, especially as it was a lot about her sleeping with her Biology professor for a better grade.
You had to do a project with her for your final grade, and she invited you to her apartment to work on it together.
It was full of plants. She mentions it before you have a chance to even think about bringing them up. 
“They’re my babies.” she jokes. “So much easier to take care of than pets.”
You smile. “All the oxygen probably helps you work better, right?”
She nods. “Yeah. Yeah, it does.”
She talks about how she’s going to be a botanist when she graduates, and she’s going to work for the EPA. She’s very self-interested, but genuine, and you have fun while working on the project.
But only a few weeks after you turn in the project, she disappears. Rumors abound about how she ran off with the Bio professor. Some say they were having an affair. Others are kinder and say they’re on a botanical conservation mission in some swamp somewhere.
Either way, you never see Pamela again.
At least, until Poison Ivy shows up in town...
(Side note: Drew Barrymore as Poison Ivy? Thoughts?)
Mr. Freeze - Dr. Victor Fries
Fries shows up one day out of nowhere
Just shooting with that cold gun.
He attacks a gala event for the Wayne Foundation and holds it up for jewelry and the cash being raised for the underprivileged of Gotham..
You glare at him. “You know you’re just taking money right out of the pocket of needy kids, right?”
“It’s for a good cause.” He says darkly.
“And what cause would that be?”
He sneers at you. “Disease research, mainly.”
The phrase surprises you.
Later, Bruce is doing research at the Batcave. “He goes by Mr. Freeze. Born: Victor Fries. Wife Nora suffers from Stage Four of a rare pneumonia-like condition known as MacGregor Syndrome. He had her cryogenically frozen, and now it seems like he’s turned to crime to fund his research into a cure.”
You hesitate. “Well... is there something we can do to help him?”
“Help him? May I remind you that he held hundreds of people hostage?”
“Well...” you shrug. “I just figure that maybe he wouldn’t be so... crime-y if his wife was being taken care of. I don’t know what I’d do if I was so close to losing you.”
Bruce softens slightly. “Look, Freeze committed a crime - several crimes, and he has to go to jail. But if it makes you feel better, we can have Wayne Enterprise’s medical division look into studying her disease. Judging from what I see here, MacGregor Syndrome has similarities with many other diseases. It might be a key in finding lots more cures.”
You smile and hug him. “Lead with that. Tell Fries that we’re willing to do that.”
Of course, Fries’ future crimes are due to the cost of maintaining his portable cryogenic suit, but you hear a lot less about it than you expect, especially since Nora is being taken care of...
Mad Hatter - Jervis Tetch
You were meeting a couple of old school friends at a tea parlor one day. It’s nice to escape the stress of your life and reminisce.
Roland and Alicia are a cute couple, and they tell you they have a baby on the way.
But the day is marred by a strange incident in which a small man in a top hat and tails (tuxedo tails) comes up to your table and starts babbling at Alicia, calling her “Alice” and trying to touch her blond hair, despite her attempts to shove him away..
Roland gets angry and punches the man, but before he can go any further, you pull him back.
The strange man glances at you. “The Dormouse...” he mutters, and walks away.
“What a creep.” Alicia shudders.
You’ve already figured it out. The man is deluded, thinking he’s the Mad Hatter, and he seems to be trying to fit everything into his Wonderland-inspired delusions. You tell Bruce about this, and he immediately agrees that Alicia is in danger.
You go to their hotel room to see them, warn them, but Roland answers the door wearing a bowler hat and Alicia is nowhere to be found.
Roland attacks you, knocking you out and kidnapping you.
Thankfully Bruce has been watching as Batman and follows.
You wake up tied to a chair around a tea table. Alicia is tied to another chair in an Alice-in-Wonderland costume, looking terrified. 
Jervis Tetch reveals himself and points out his minions, enslaved with his mind control headwear.
“Very spiffy, if I do say so myself.” you say cheerily. “Quite the milliner you are, my good sir.” (Alicia looks at you like you’re crazy)
Jervis loves the flattery, and it distracts him long enough for Batman to smash through the glass ceiling and knock the hat off his head, disabling the control.
Sure, no one was hurt much, but needless to say you would have to visit Alicia and Roland in the future instead of ever having them come to Gotham...
Hush - Dr. Tommy Elliot
“We’re having lunch with an old friend of mine.” Bruce announces.
You raise an eyebrow. “Wait a minute. Why don’t I know who this is? We have pretty much all the same old friends. I mean, we were together, like, all the time.”
“You remember Tommy, right?”
“Tommy? No, Tommy doesn’t ring a bell, hon.”
Bruce sighs, and you laugh. This is as animated as you’ve seen him in a while. “Come on, Tommy Elliot! Back when we were little! We used to play Robin Hood together in the park, and you two always fought over who got to be the Sheriff of Nottingham?”
“Yeah, nope. No memory of that.”
He sighs, but you go with him anyway. It hits you when you see the man at the restaurant. He was that kid! His parents were friends with Bruce’s parents. They had almost died in an accident when Bruce’s dad saved them.
He’d always try to play this strategy game thing with you and Bruce. It was only two players, and while he’d always beat Bruce (your husband wasn’t always the tactician he was now), he’d get really frustrated playing against you.
Tommy liked to try and get inside your head to beat you, figure out what you were going to do and then planning for it.
But you could tell what he was doing, and kept doing random moves you wouldn’t normally play, throwing him off and winning.
You didn’t like him much, and you kinda got the feeling he didn’t like Bruce that much either.
“Oh. That Tommy.”
Bruce looks at your worried face. “What’s wrong? If you really don’t want to, we can cancel.”
“Oh, hush. We’re already here. Least we can do is have a nice lunch...”
Zsasz - Victor Zsasz
It’s never a good sign when a payphone rings. So many bad reasons...
Not the least of which is that barely anyone even uses payphones anymore.
Let alone to call another payphone. I mean, how does that even work?
So it startles you when you’re walking Gotham (during the day, of course), and a payphone rings. No one else is around to answer it. 
You start to walk away, and then the next payphone rings when you reach it.
The other guy near it jumps like fifty feet in the air, but then goes to answer it.
He looks scared. “It’s... it’s for you.”
You sigh and take the phone
“Ignoring my calls? Naughty...”
“Um... wrong number. This is a payphone, not, uh, whoever you were calling.”
“This isn’t Y/N Wayne?”
“Yeah, no, it isn’t. May I ask who’s calling, though?”
“I know it’s you, Y/N. You don’t know me. Yet.”
“Look, I know Halloween’s coming up, but I’m not in the mood for Scream right now, okay?”
“This isn’t a scary movie, it’s real. My name is Zsasz.”
“Z- zsa... okay, how is that spelled?”
“Z. S. A. S. Z.”
“Oh, that’s beautiful. If you don’t mind me asking, is that Polish?”
“...What?”
“Sorry, I have to run, but it was nice talking to you!”
You run home and immediately tell Bruce you talked to Zsasz. Luckily you were running a trace with your phone - a little extra Tim developed for you. Within the hour, Batman has Zsasz in custody, saving the poor people he had kidnapped to add to his tally...
Klarion the Witch Boy
“Oh, hello! Who are you, little guy?”
The orange tabby glares at you with utter hate. It flicks its tail, but surprisingly, comes closer and curls around your legs.
It allows you to pick it up, and it purrs.
“Teekl! My word!” a boy comes running up to you, wearing a tailored suit and a newsboy cap. 
The boy snatches the tabby from you and pets it, despite how it looks like it wants to go back to you. “What were you doing with Teekl?”
“That’s its name? He’s a cute little guy. Uh, he just wandered in front of me and basically asked me to pet him.”
The boy glares at the cat. “You TALKED to him?”
The cat looks at him and rolls its eyes.
“Um, who are you, kid?”
He looks at you incredulously. “Seriously, mortal? You haven’t heard of me? I am Klarion! Klarion the Witch Boy! And this is my familiar, Teekl.”
You nod seriously. “Good for you, kid.”
He seems about to throw a tantrum, so you wave and leave the boy dumbfounded...
The Court of Owls
“Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time,
Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime.
They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed,
Speak not a whispered word of them
Or they’ll send the Talon for your head...”
“That’s a stupid poem. It doesn’t even keep time.”
“It’s free verse.”
“Yeah, free ‘cause no one would pay for it.”
You and Bruce were only kids when you heard the old rhyme. Bruce was trying to scare you as a Halloween season joke, but it wasn’t working.
“Come on, Y/N! At least pretend to play along!”
Thomas Wayne enters the living room, and pretends to scold Bruce. “Now, Bruce, be hospitable to your guest. What’s the argument about?”
You smirk. “Bruce says that there’s a Court of Owls who eat limes and put talons on people’s heads.”
Thomas hunches down, making a spooky face. “Well, Y/N, it’s an old Gotham story. It’s a very bad thing that Bruce told you. You’ll have to be very careful now.”
He looks dead serious, and now you’re scared. “Really? What should I do, Mr. Wayne?”
He puts a hand on your shoulder. “You’ll have to be a very good kid all your life, Y/N. Never go out after dark without your parents’ permission. Don’t ever cheat on a test. Don’t lie. And if you ever see someone in an Owl mask, look the other way and forget you saw it.”
He grins, dropping the facade. “I’m sorry, Y/N, I just couldn’t help it. Hope I didn’t scare you too badly.”
Being a stubborn child, you insist he didn’t. After all, you’re old enough not to be scared by that stuff anymore.
But on the way home, after your parents pick you up, you notice something.
A tall figure in an alley, wearing a stylized white Owl mask.
You quickly look away, trying to put it out of your head, mumbling the rhyme to yourself.
“Beware the Court of Owls...”
You forget about this until far later in life, after you, as Y/N Wayne, have become an enemy of the dreaded Court...
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Welcome to your final destination
It's been years since F.I.N. Engineering crashed and burned as a corporation and no one has heard a word from them since. But you, our new protagonist, know that the aftermath of their deeds still lingers. Their old headquarters still stands, sealed off from the public. Keeping whatever is inside a secret from the world. But you know what's in there, and you are determined to finally burn away the suffering that F.I.N. Engineering has left inside those walls.
For years, F.I.N. Engineering has been creating absurd experiments to further develop their AI. This resulted in a plethora of experimental animatronics never seen by the public eye. Only a few remain active, and you need to survive them if you want to put an end to this.
Introducing: The Experiments
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Experiment 0012 "rodent droid"
This collection of animatronics was build to replicate the mind of the average mouse. They behaved almost identically to actual mice, without the need of food or water. They were being developed in hopes of completely eliminating experimentation on live mice. A good cause, that ultimately went sour. Like the other experiments that remain active, the rodent droids began acting sporadically. Now, the hundreds of robotic mice will swarm and attack any human they see, ultimately overpowering their victim and killing them.
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Experiment 0300 "Troni"
In their attempts to make human-like AI, F.I.N. Engineering created Troni, an almost perfect replication of a child's mind. Troni thinks and behaves like a young boy around 4 to 6 years old. In the early days of testing, Troni would be provided with puzzles to see how well his child mind would be able to solve them. In the last test he was ever given, Troni was tasked with escaping a large maze. Just as the building was being evacuated, Troni was left alone in the maze, unable to find his way out. He can still be found in the maze today, though his child-like demeanor isn't to be trusted...
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Experiments 0020 and 0021 "Dawn and Dusk"
While human AI was the main goal of Project Biotronic, realistic animal AI was also something they began experimenting with. Dawn (Green) and Dusk (Purple) are the result of this. Dawn and Dusk have the minds of an average Siberian Husky. Both Dawn and Dusk can feel temperatures, vibrations, and can even identify scents like real dogs. However, Dawn is blind and Dusk is deaf. Part of the experiment was seeing how these two animals would aid eachother with the others disability. Dawn and Dusk work well together and stay loyal to eachother like real dogs born in the same litter. They make quite the dynamic duo, and quite the deadly one too.
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Experiment 0379 "Bio-Freddy"
Along with replicating the human mind, F.I.N. Engineering aimed to replicate the human body as well. This would mean building a robot that requires organic matter to function. Bio-Freddy must eat food for fuel, like humans do. Bio-Freddy was given an array of different foods while testing. Unfortunately, giving something the ability to not only eat but also taste can lead it to have very specific food preferences. In Bio-Freddy's case, he seems to have grown a taste for human blood... Oh well
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Unauthorized Experiment "Twitcher"
Twitcher (as the staff called him) is a dangerous mistake that should have never been created. Twitcher was build in secret by one of the engineers. Each of F.I.N. Engineering's AI is stored in a microchip that can be placed inside of an animatronic. Whoever built Twitcher thought it would be a fun experiment to put multiple AI in one animatronic body, specifically the old chips of the circus animatronics. Having so many clashing minds in one body causes Twitcher to be a dysfunctional, chaotic, and unpredictable machine that attacks and shreds anything that moves. It's eyes are constantly flashing random colors and it's body is always twitching and convulsing (which is where the nickname "Twitcher" came from) Twitcher is one of the deadliest animatronics you'll encounter within the walls of F.I.N. Engineering, beware.
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Experiment 0001 "Sammi"
Sammi is a personal project created my the head of F.I.N. Engineering himself. He refused to reveal the purpose of the experiment but he always kept it at top priority. Sammi is F.I.N. Engineering's most advanced animatronic. She has the smoothest and most functional mobility. Working hearing, sight, smell, and touch sensors. The most in depth simulated pain and heat detection. Most importantly, she has the most realistic human-like artificial mind of any other F.I.N. Engineering creation. Despite all of these features she has never been fully powered up
Until now, that is.
#͕͈̼̟͙̮̫͉̣͖͓̹̉ͥͧͫ̋̓͂̍̄ͤͪ̎ͩ̌͋̚ͅ#̠̼̼̲̞̊̆̐͐̊̎#̳͔̲̞͇̦̻̥͈̻̗̫̜͍͈̭̓̌͋́̔ͪ̄̆͆͂̒͗ͭͭ͏̵̢͢҉̸͟#̴̵̡̢̛̛̣̪̫͎̤̫̩̤̱̩͎͈̦̬̗̞͙̗̆ͫ͘̕͠͝#̸̧̞̥̺̆͛̀͊ͥͬ̑̈̌ͩ̈́ͣ͋ͩ͛̔͂ͤ͟͠͡͏͏҉#̤̝̤̻̯̼͕͚̠̯̳̼͉̾̎ͬ͛ͅ͏̴̶̵̴̡͏̕͢#̷̷̶̡̧͓̼̬̣ͧ̍̂̈́ͯͦ͟#̈́̾̎��̀̌͂̈ͮ̽ͦ͛҉̵̧͟#͚̥̮͓̍̔͋ͫ��̴̧̨̛͎̤̖̫̱̮̲̟͉̩̀͘͠͠͠͏͝͏#̸̸̶̶̪̼͔͍̙̮͎͍͔̘͙ͦ͛̒̅͒̓ͩ̔̏̾̔ͯ̓̒͗ͩ̃ͅ҉̧͠͏̶̡͠͏͜#̴̷̸̡͇̬̙̬͓̌̋ͭ̊ͮͩ̒̌̽͌̋ͫ̎̍̏̿̔̄̈̋̀͠͡#̴̵̡̠̻̳̰̝͕͉̊̎͛͌͆̍ͬ̑ͩ͌͐̌̚̕͢͟͢͠͠͞͏̨҉̷̨̕#̸̴̰̳̹̤̯̰ͤ̿̅ͯ́̇ͥ͋̓̽͠͞#̴̡̲̗̞͙͉͍̘̯̹͙͖͕͕̪ͥͬ͗ͭ͑̽̏̂̃̕͜͜͟͝͞͞ͅ҉͝#̵̸̖̠͎̙̞̗͙̝͍̙͍̝̲̰̖͙̩͈̣̠͟͏#̤̭̱̜̺̰͍͍̳̪ͫ̾͒͌̒̎̃̐ͦ͗ͥ̽̎̔̈́ͮͥͥͦ̔͏̵̧̨̨̧̨͜͜#̷̴̷̶̸̷̧̨̨̢̭̮̳̭̉̈͂͑̾͒̓͐̄͒̔̽͐͊ͧͤ̉͊̋́̚͘͝͠͠#̘̙̤̠͇͎̝̙̺̝͎̥̟͖ͫ̑̓͟҉̡̛̀͠#̸̴̷̶̴̨̢̨̧̧̛ͦ̾́́̀͜͢͞#̵̷̸̶̴̴̵̷̨̧̨̛̾̚͘͘̕̕͘͟͡͡#̡̟͈̳̜̗̼̑̓̏͊̐͊̄̎́̕͟͢ͅ҉̕͘͟#̮͖̣ͦ̅ͨͅ͏̴̢#̴̷̧̺̞̝̭̗͎̳̯͈͍̙̹͎ͤ̀̒̄̒̾̃͂̒̀͜͞͝#̴͙͈̯̗͎̦̜̤̖͕̳̱̬̙͇͙̖͍̥͍͒͛͗ͤͦ̔͆͛ͬͦ̔ͮ̋̐̇̅͊͟͢͡͡͞
Thank you for supporting F.I.N. Engineering©! We strive to bring you a better future, and what better time for the future, then now.
#͕͈̼̟͙̮̫͉̣͖͓̹̉ͥͧͫ̋̓͂̍̄ͤͪ̎ͩ̌͋̚ͅ#̠̼̼̲̞̊̆̐͐̊̎#̳͔̲̞͇̦̻̥͈̻̗̫̜͍͈̭̓̌͋́̔ͪ̄̆͆͂̒͗ͭͭ͏̵̢͢҉̸͟#̴̵̡̢̛̛̣̪̫͎̤̫̩̤̱̩͎͈̦̬̗̞͙̗̆ͫ͘̕͠͝#̸̧̞̥̺̆͛̀͊ͥͬ̑̈̌ͩ̈́ͣ͋ͩ͛̔͂ͤ͟͠͡͏͏҉#̤̝̤̻̯̼͕͚̠̯̳̼͉̾̎ͬ͛ͅ͏̴̶̵̴̡͏̕͢#̷̷̶̡̧͓̼̬̣ͧ̍̂̈́ͯͦ͟#̈́̾̎͛̀̌͂̈ͮ̽ͦ͛҉̵̧͟#̴̧̨̛͚̥̮͓͇͎̤̖̫̱̮̲̟͉̩̍̔͋ͫ̀͘͠͠͠͏͝͏#̸̸̶̶̪̼͔͍̙̮͎͍͔̘͙ͦ͛̒̅͒̓ͩ̔̏̾̔ͯ̓̒͗ͩ̃ͅ҉̧͠͏̶̡͠͏͜#̴̷̸̡͇̬̙̬͓̌̋ͭ̊ͮͩ̒̌̽͌̋ͫ̎̍̏̿̔̄̈̋̀͠͡#̴̵̡̠̻̳̰̝͕͉̊̎͛͌͆̍ͬ̑ͩ͌͐̌̚̕͢͟͢͠͠͞͏̨҉̷̨̕#̸̴̰̳̹̤̯̰ͤ̿̅ͯ́̇ͥ͋̓̽͠͞#̴̡̲̗̞͙͉͍̘̯̹͙͖͕͕̪ͥͬ͗ͭ͑̽̏̂̃̕͜͜͟͝͞͞ͅ҉͝#̵̸̖̠͎̙̞̗͙̝͍̙͍̝̲̰̖͙̩͈̣̠͟͏#̤̭̱̜̺̰͍͍̳̪ͫ̾͒͌̒̎̃̐ͦ͗ͥ̽̎̔̈́ͮͥͥͦ̔͏̵̧̨̨̧̨͜͜#̷̴̷̶̸̷̧̨̨̢̭̮̳̭̉̈͂͑̾͒̓͐̄͒̔̽͐͊ͧͤ̉͊̋́̚͘͝͠͠#̘̙̤̠͇͎̝̙̺̝͎̥̟͖ͫ̑̓͟҉̡̛̀͠#̸̴̷̶̴̨̢̨̧̧̛ͦ̾́́̀͜͢͞#̵̷̸̶̴̴̵̷̨̧̨̛̾̚͘͘̕̕͘͟͡͡#̡̟͈̳̜̗̼̑̓̏͊̐͊̄̎́̕͟͢ͅ҉̕͘͟#̮͖̣ͦ̅ͨͅ͏̴̢#̴̷̧̺̞̝̭̗͎̳̯͈͍̙̹͎ͤ̀̒̄̒̾̃͂̒̀͜͞͝#̴͙͈̯̗͎̦̜̤̖͕̳̱̬̙͇͙̖͍̥͍͒͛͗ͤͦ̔͆͛ͬͦ̔ͮ̋̐̇̅͊͟͢͡͡͞
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