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mirai-e-jump · 1 year ago

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Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger Photo Book: ~King of Kings~

Gira Husty Profile: King of Shugoddam, the most powerful country where the guardian god resides. Learning of king Racules Husty's goal of "prioritizing the unity of Chikyu, even at the expense of the people," he rebels against the world by playing the role of an "evil king" in order to protect everyone. His partner is God Kuwagata, and he arms himself with the KuwagataOhger armor.

Yanma Gast Profile: King of N'kosopa, country of technology. Born in a slum, he rose to the position of king with just his computer. He's a skilled engineer, and all of the equipment for the Royal Sentai was developed by Yanma. He's an ambitious man with a desire to improve, with many people looking up to and calling him "President" due to his yankii spirit.

Hymeno Ran Profile: Queen of Ishabana, country of fine art and medicine. While beautiful in appearance, she has an extremely selfish personality, and values "beauty" above all else. On the other hand, she has no hesitation in saving someone's life, and has the face of a doctor who brilliantly saves lives. She maintains a "selfish style" in battle, not caring about her surroundings, and fights using the King's Weapon: Scythe Mode.

Rita Kaniska Profile: King of Gokkan, country of ice and snow, they're the Chief International Judge who believes that neutrality is justice. They're always reserved and cautious, and don't show emotion, so they're often seen as a stubborn person……but, they actually have a compassionate side……? At the climax of the battle, they face the enemy with a cool style of "remaining immovable," unaffected by anything.

Kaguragi Dybowski Profile: Lord of Toufu, an agricultural country. He's always smiling and has a gentle and friendly personality. However, the truth is he's willing to use dirty tricks to protect his country, and has exceptional negotiating techniques to get things done to work to his advantage. He's concerned about his younger sister Suzume, who married Shugoddam's Racules.

Jeramie Brasieri Profile: Born to a father who was the sixth hero that saved mankind 2,000 years ago and a mother who was a Bugnarak, he has passed down the history of Chikyu for a long time as the "storyteller." His right arm is that of a Bugnarak, and he has a special ability to create strong webs from inside his body. His existence stirs up both the kings and Bugnarak, using words and actions that are difficult to read.

Racules Husty Profile: As king of Shugoddam, he united the five kingdoms with his unparalleled and overwhelming charisma, but was defeated in trial by combat with his brother Gira, and was dethroned as king. While Gira and the others were away from Chikyu, he became the king of Shugoddam and ruled the country as Shugo Mask……

Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger: Costume Guide The gorgeous costumes of the kings, which are reminiscent of the characteristics of each country. A guide to the current costumes and accessories worn by the characters since the beginning of the story.

Gira Husty (Top) Costume of Gira, who replaced Racules as king of Shugoddam. The cape remains the same, but the costume and boots underneath have changed!

(Middle) His recognizable oversized shirt and the bright red harness that highlight it. Red and black straps cross over the wide collar.

(Bottom) The brown boots were worn by Gira as he escaped during the beginning of the story. The necklace is designed with five pieces of red glass.

Yanma Gast (Top Right) Costume from the start of the new chapter two years later. The jacket has a design with a black belt hanging down. The cuffs have a zipper that can be opened and closed.

(Top Left) The wide pants are designed to be divided into upper and lower parts above the knee. The inner one has two lines on the front part. The color blue is used strikingly throughout.

(Middle) The cuff earring has ridges that grow alongside the ear, two chains, and N'kosopa's "King's Proof." The headphones have a cord connected to a switch.

(Bottom) Items that Yanma wears on his arms. The design of the shoes are silver with blue accents. They also have decorations that resemble headphones.

Kaguragi Dybowski (Top) A luxurious and gorgeous costume that just screams, "I'm the lord of Toufu!" The sleeves of the haori have a distinct pattern on both the front and back. The beehive like patterns are also a key point.

(Bottom) The footwear seen under his kimono are boots. Furthermore, the soles are shaped to be like geta.

Hymeno Ran (Top) From the new chapter, the shape of the sleeves and skirt have changed, and the large ribbon on the back is also one of its main features. The asymmetrical skirt produces cuteness and elegance. The tiara contains the "King's Proof."

(Middle Top) The previous costume was made up of a top, skirt, and corset. The skirt has volume, with the front being short and the back being long. The corset is laced up at the back.

(Middle Bottom) The sequin encrusted tights are the same design throughout the entire story. Also, the glittering shoes made entirely of gold are one of Hymeno's signature items.

(Bottom) Hymeno's Favorite Accessories: Hymeno has a large number of accessories, including earrings, necklaces, and bracelets, which among them she'll use at random. This is the commitment to beauty!

Rita Kaniska (Top Right) From the new chapter, Rita's clothes changed to a shorter length jacket. The metallic purple collar accentuates the black base color of the outfit.

(Top Left) The previous costume was a tailcoat type of long jacket. The black cloth is decorated with snowflake like patterns. The design of the purple collar and cuffs are the same as the costume for the new chapter.

(Bottom Left) The black gloves are one of the most distinctive features of Rita's costume. The bracelet decorated in the center has Gokkan's "King's Proof." There's a similar emblem on the cuff earring.

(Bottom Right) Rita is characterized by their all black outfit. Their knee length long boots are of course, also all black.

Jeramie Brasieri From the new chapter, an elegant cape has been added to Jeramie's costume. In the previous costume, his right arm had a longer sleeve. The top is asymmetrical with the left side being longer.

Handwritten Messages Check out the handwritten comments from the cast!

Sakai Taisei (Gira Husty)

"What do you respect about Gira, the character you play?" The fact that he tries to understand people's feelings!!

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" A country where children can eat until they're full!!

"What do you think is the best part of Gira's costume?" The cape he got from his big brother!!

"Please give a message to Gira!" I want you to be happy!

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" I'm going to rule the world!!

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" You guys are the gears~ ^_^

Watanabe Aoto (Yanma Gast)

"What do you respect about Yanma, the character you play?" His sense of distance and respect for people.

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" A country where the youth are the driving force.

"What do you think is the best part of Yanma's costume?" The sandals that I literally ran in for a whole year.

"Please give a message to Yanma!" I'm on top!!

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" Thank you for the past year!!

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" Thank you so much for your support. Now, you can also be a Royal Sentai.

Murakami Erica (Hymeno Ran)

"What do you respect about Hymeno, the character you play?" Her inner strength 💛

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" A country without war.

"What do you think is the best part of Hymeno's costume?" The asymmetrical design!

"Please give a message to Hymeno!" I'm encouraged by your nobility!

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" Thank you all for making this past year so enjoyable. Really, thank you so much 💛

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" Filming for King-Ohger has finished, but we'll live on in everyone's hearts! Thank you so much for your support!!

Hirakawa Yuzuki (Rita Kaniska)

"What do you respect about Rita, the character you play?" The part where they never waver.

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" A country where many different languages are spoken.

"What do you think is the best part of Rita's costume?" The chain attached to the jacket.

"Please give a message to Rita!" You've got humanity and are cute :)

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" We're family! Thank you so much for the past year!

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" Thank you so much for loving King-Ohger so much!

Kaku So (Kaguragi Dybowski)

"What do you respect about Kaguragi, the character you play?" That he'll dirty himself for the sake of others.

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" Protein supplied.

"What do you think is the best part of Kaguragi's costume?" The emotions (design) on the sleeves.

"Please give a message to Kaguragi!" Be selfish every once in awhile.

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" Thank you all so much, we're family forever.

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" Thank you so much for your support. Let's meet again soon!!

Ikeda Masashi (Jeramie Brasieri)

"What do you respect about Jeramie, the character you play?" His vocabulary.

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" Peaceful World.

"What do you think is the best part of Jeramie's costume?" It gives off the feeling of a prince.

"Please give a message to Jeramie!" Thanks ^_^

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" I was really happy with the six of us!

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" Thank you for all the love and good dreams.

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henrykathman · 11 months ago

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youtube

The Miraculous Horror of Stop Motion

From the same artform that brought you Coraline and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, comes three stories that evoke the existential fear of art.

Original Music by Molly Noise

Bibliography below

Atrocity Guide. “The Animators Who’ve Spent 40 Years on a Single Film.” YouTube, 9 Oct. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=73hip3pz0Xs&pp=ygUMdGhlIG92ZXJjb2F0. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Brubaker, Charles. “The Japanese Studios of Rankin/Bass.” Cartoon Research, Jerry Beck, 14 Apr. 2014, cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-japanese-studios-of-rankinbass/.

Bute, Paris. “Introduction to “a Rankin/Bass Retrospective from a New Perspective.”” Citizen Jane, Stephens College, 19 Nov. 2021, www.citizenjane.org/home/cwwicd2ucb2fvs64kgfaocfykjhaum. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Crome, Althea. “Coraline.” Althea Crome | Micro Knitter, 2012, www.altheacrome.com/coraline. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Harold Halibut. Directed by Onat Hekimoğlu, Slow Bros., 16 Apr. 2024.

Hekimoglu, Onat, and Gabriel Schmitz. “Unite Berlin 2018 - Harold Halibut and Making a Stop Motion Game.” Unity, YouTube, 6 Aug. 2018, youtu.be/9usssSQc0wQ. Accessed 6 May 2023.

Jon "Sikamikanico" Clarke. “The Making of Harold Halibut.” XboxEra, YouTube, 21 Mar. 2024, youtu.be/WMyxM9t3o7A. Accessed 19 June 2024.

LAIKA Studios. “Sweater and Gloves: Knitting Coraline by Hand.” YouTube, 11 July 2017, youtu.be/zUvkfcGR-7U. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Mad God Productions. “Phil Tippett’s “Mad God.”” Kickstarter, 17 May 2012, www.kickstarter.com/projects/madgod/phil-tippetts-mad-god/posts.

Olson, Mathew. “Report: Michel Ancel Accused of Abusive, Disruptive Practices on beyond Good & Evil 2.” VG247, 25 Sept. 2020, www.vg247.com/report-michel-ancel-accused-of-abusive-disruptive-practices-on-beyond-good-evil-2. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Ono, Kosei. “Tadahito Mochinaga: The Japanese Animator Who Lived in Two Worlds.” Animation World Network, AWN, Inc, 1 Dec. 1999, www.awn.com/animationworld/tadahito-mochinaga-japanese-animator-who-lived-two-worlds.

Orland, Kyle. “Claptrap Voice Actor Accuses Gearbox CEO of Assault, Underpayment.” Ars Technica, 7 May 2019, arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/claptrap-voice-actor-accuses-gearbox-ceo-of-assault-underpayment/. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Pilling, Jayne. A Reader In Animation Studies. Indiana University Press, 1998. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/40033.

Prehistoric Beast. Directed by Phil Tippett, Tippett Studios, 1984. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlaXIRTjNfo

Randles, Jonathan. “VFX Studio with Star Wars, Jurassic Park Credits Goes Bankrupt.” Bloomberg Law, 1 May 2024, news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/vfx-studio-with-star-wars-jurassic-park-credits-goes-bankrupt. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Shanley, Patrick. “Gearbox Software CEO Accused of Contempt in Latest Filing.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Aug. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/gearbox-software-ceo-accused-contempt-latest-filing-1235064/. Accessed 19 June 2024.

The Making of “Jurassic Park.” Directed by John Schultz, Amblin Entertainment, 1995. https://youtu.be/8r01mk6F_Pk

The Making of Mad God. Directed by Maya Tippett, Shudder, 2021. https://youtu.be/sfUOHh0xmwc

The Tale of the Fox. Directed by Irene Starewicz and Ladislas Starevich, UFA GmbH, 10 Apr. 1941. https://youtu.be/Us_Pn6Q1dBQ

Wikipedia contributors. "List of films with longest production time." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "List of media notable for being in development hell." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "List of Rankin/Bass Productions films." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 9 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "Tadahito Mochinaga." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Nov. 2023. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wilson, Josh. “Phil Tippett: 24 Frames per Second < the Fabulist Words & Art.” The Fabulist Words & Art, 5 Nov. 2021, fabulistmagazine.com/24-frames-per-second-the-phil-tippett-interview/.

Worse than the Demon. Directed by Maya Tippett, Shudder, 2013. https://youtu.be/ghKqvDNRe4c

#video #video essay #youtube #stop motion #harold halibut #Mad God #phil tippett #Rankin Bass #laika studios #Animation #The Overcoat #yuri norstein #Francheska Yarbusova #Youtube

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tabathastan · 11 months ago

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In a tumultuous landscape of shifting loyalties and whispered conspiracies, you find yourself on the precipice of a remarkable yet unsettling future. Your husband, Aemond, who also happens to be your uncle, has been thrust into your life as a result of a decision made by his father, King Viserys. The king, in a moment of grief and necessity following the tragic loss of Aemond’s brother’s eye, deemed it fitting for you and Aemond to unite in marriage. This decree has sent shockwaves through your family, casting a shadow over what should have been a joyous union.

Your mother, Rhaenyra, is caught in a web of conflicting emotions. Although she deeply disagrees with her father's choice, she finds herself powerless to alter the course of fate that has been laid out. With a heavy heart, she must concede to the will of the king, surrendering her wishes for you to wed Cregan, or even your brother Jacaerys, in a more traditional arrangement that might ensure your happiness.

Aemond, for his part, has always harbored a complicated affection for you. Despite his disdain for your brothers, he never held any animosity towards you; in fact, he cherished you in a way that often went unspoken. Upon receiving the news of your impending marriage, his heart swelled with joy—an uncommon sensation for a young man who has faced much turmoil and resentment in his life.

As the day of your departure from Driftmirk approaches, Rhaenyra's sorrow becomes palpable. You can see the tears welling in her eyes as she confronts the reality of your separation. She wishes deeply that circumstances had allowed for a different path—one where she could continue to guide and protect you. As you prepare to leave her side, you reassure her, promising to pen a letter every day, sharing the thoughts and experiences of your new life. Your words are meant to soothe her troubled heart, even as you both grapple with the uncertain future that looms ahead.

#hotd #targeryan #aemond targaryen #aemond imagine #aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen x niece reader #aemond one eye #prince aemond #house of the dragon #viserys targaryen #rhaenyra imagines #rhaenyra targaryen x daughter reader #rhaenyra targaryen x reader #princess rhaenyra

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cmdrfupa · 5 months ago

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Masamichi Yaga ~~~~~~~~~~~~ New to this online dating so please, bare with me.Single. Divorced once. One grown son. Educator. I love knitting and crocheting. Looking for a needle to thread (I am sorry, this is cheesy but it's true.)

6.7k words (jjk au, fluff, smut, Yaga is a green flag)

a/n: Yaga, Yaga, Yaga. What a man. I wanted to give him love during the season of love. Enjoy and thank you for reading!

“Hello. My name is Masamichi Yaga and this is my twentieth years coming at the International Knitters and Stitchers Expo.” He spoke into the small vlogging microphone and watched as the interviewer rambled.

This was actually it. Year twenty. Year 10 of no longer being married and coming to these things. He wasn’t sure if it was the big banner showing his knitting clubs faces or seeing some of his long time friends bring their little ones to it this time around. But the feeling of being single and walking around wasn’t a pleasant one.

“Yaga! Its so good to see you again!” The elderly woman who was 2 feet shorter came up and gestured for a hug from the large man. “We would’ve missed your expertise for this years ‘Stitch your hearts or die’ event!

Yaga bent down to accept the warm, motherly hug before she pinched his cheek. “Good to see you also, Tita.” He took the badge with his name from the table:

Yaga M.

2025 K&SE

GOLD PASS

He didn’t hate this hobby of his. It was probably his favorite thing in the world outside of working in education. Student need a button put back on? Principal Yaga’s got it. Need a hem? He’s got his emergency kit on hand. Four newborns in the neonatal unit need some warm foot and hand mitts? Masamichi Yaga is on the scene with ten sets because he knows he will get a call for six more before the end of the month.

But twenty consecutive stitch expos for a man in his 40s is beginning to feel…

“Betsy cross-stitched some of the cutest flags for each of our home countries so we can wave them around during roll call! Gotta rep!”

He gave a half smile. “Yes ma’am..gotta rep.”

His group encircled him, smiling and greeting him as they would while he tried his best to stay in the moment.

He forced a smile. Another year surrounded by over three thousand people and he felt more alone than ever.

__________________

Yaga settled into bed post shower. It felt nice to be back in his own home after 4 days of nonstop conversation and photo ops with the “worlds largest knitting needle” recipient. He fell back into his routine: cleaning up, checking emails despite being off work for another 4 days, and meal prepped for the week before his wind down officially started.

He stared down at the open web-page on his phone, brows furrowed in concentration. "The Foolproof Guide to Dating: Master the First Three Dates and Win Their Heart!" The title alone should have been a red flag, but it had been a long time since he'd gone on a real date—long enough that he figured a little structure wouldn't hurt.

Yaga sat up in bed, pushing his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose and began to slowly read.

He tried not to be too hard on himself, it wasn’t as if he had time to fumble his way through modern dating customs. Between his work and his students, romance had taken a backseat for years. Now, thanks to Nanami’s insistence, he had a blind date scheduled with a woman who was supposedly going to be good for him.

He let out a breath and scrolled further.

“Date #1: Set the Perfect Tone!

Choose a location that showcases your best qualities.

Maintain strong eye contact to establish dominance. Let her know you mean business!

Pay a subtle compliment, but don’t overdo it! Keep her on the edge so she chases you!

Keep the conversation lighthearted yet intriguing. Who doesn’t love a man of mystery.”

Yaga rubbed his temples. This was nonsense, wasn’t it? Showcase his best qualities? What did that even mean? Was he supposed to take her to a classroom and demonstrate his ability to keep a rowdy group of students in check? Pull out a ripped pair of pants and sew a patch on? He laughed silently, his large shoulders shaking as he put a sound to the belly laugh he expelled.

He sighed.”A man of mystery.” he repeated in a huff, setting his alarm and sitting his phone on the nightstand. “There’s no pressure, Yaga,” he talked to himself sternly, almost like a father speaking to his son the night of prom. “Its a date, not a wedding. Just enjoy the experience.” he turned over, closing his eyes to try and imagine what tomorrows date could result in. It was too late to back out now. He had to go in full speed.

The café Nanami suggested was a quiet, bookish kind of place, which Yaga appreciated. The soft hum of conversation, the scent of freshly brewed coffee, and the rows of bookshelves lining the back wall made it feel comfortable. Approachable. He could work with this. He settled into the arm chair, feeling confident in the afternoon.

Then you walked in.

He spotted you almost immediately and smiled, something warm and effortless about you. You stepped in like a dream. You waved at the barista and smiled, dress flowing as if you’d paid the wind to make it move with each step you took. Breathtaking.

“Uhh let’s do a honey latte with coconut milk today. And two lemon cookies, please.” He wondered what made you want a honey latte. Was it the honey? Perhaps you weren’t one for the strength of just straight coffee? His mind filled with scenarios as he watched you wait for your order.

“Yaga?” An unfamiliar voice walked up to him while he sipped his coffee.

“He’s not here.” His eyes stayed on you, not flinching.

“Sorry? Nanami told me you were my date?”

Shit. He turned to her and felt that guilty gut feeling at the confusion that stirred on her face.

“Oh gosh, so sorry. Yes, I-” He stood up and held his hand out and let her shake it. “I thought I saw someone I knew. My apologies. Call me Masamichi.”

“Oh! You’re okay. Happens to the best of us.”

“Would you like a beverage? I’ll get it for you.” he offered the chair right next to his. “Anything you fancy most?”

She pondered for a moment then smiled. “An americano with an extra shot of espresso.”

“Bold. You’ve got it.” He gave a warm smile and went to the front counter, walking past you as you scrolled on your phone waiting for your order.

He’s seen the viral clips of men bothering women and being called out about it. Was it really worth disturbing your peace?

‘Its for the best. And you’re on a date. Just leave it alone-’

“What are you thinking about getting?”

Your voice cut through his own dialogue and he froze from the neck down, turning to see you just a few steps closer to him. Your eyes were gentle, your voice sweet as honey.

“An americano.” he gruff voice lightened with his response. “With an extra shot of espresso.”

You raised your brow almost surprised at his answer. “Very… intense.” You laughed gently. “If you need something to help balance it out, I suggest the chocolate chunk muffin tops they have here. The perfect sweet treat to wash that down.”

“Oh, this isn’t for me. Its for my blind date.”

Amusement flickered across your expression and you looked subtly over your shoulder to see the woman sitting, waiting for you. "Exciting. Or nerve-wracking?"

He exhaled a quiet chuckle. "Both."

“Well, good luck to you! May the odds be in your favor.” Your order was called out and you grabbed your latte first, raising it in mock cheers before grabbing your plate of cookies and walking to a nearby table.

He sat across from his blind date, doing his best to focus. She was an amazing person—Nanami had vouched for her, after all. She had an easy smile, a soft voice, and seemed genuinely interested in getting to know him.

And yet, he kept glancing in your direction.

He tried to shake it off, returning his attention to the conversation. The guide had emphasized eye contact, active listening, and finding common ground. So he nodded along, asking genuine questions as he engaged in the conversation, offering polite responses. But every so often, his gaze drifted—just a flicker of a glance, quick enough that he hoped his date wouldn’t notice.

But he noticed. He noticed how you tucked a braid behind your ear, how you smiled at your book and widened your eyes and gasped in hopes of no one hearing you. How you tapped your fingers lightly against your coffee cup. It was distracting, pulling at the edges of his mind even as he tried to stay present.

Halfway through the date, he knew. He knew there wasn’t a connection—not the kind he was wanted to feel. His date was great, but she wasn’t the one keeping his attention without even trying.

By the time an hour had passed, Yaga took a breath and made up his mind.

“This was really nice,” he started, rubbing the back of his neck. "You seem like a wonderful person, but… I don’t think there’s a connection here. I wanted to be honest with you before we parted ways."

His date blinked, then gave a small, understanding nod. "I appreciate that, actually. And I get it. No hard feelings. Good luck to your future dating trials."

They parted on good terms and Yaga walked her outside before he went back in to sit for a moment, tapping his fingers against the table trying to wrap his head around exactly what he was about to do.

He was never one to act on impulse. Impulsively buying a high dollar steak? Sure. But something in him told him he’d regret walking away without trying.

“Full speed ahead,”

So before he could talk himself out of it, he stood, walked over to your table, and cleared his throat.

"Hey. Uh." He shifted his weight slightly, suddenly aware of how ridiculous he must look—this broad-shouldered, serious-faced man struggling to find the right words.

You picked your head up from your book, a little surprised by his approach, “Americano! Hi!”

"I know this might be a little unexpected, and I apologize. I know I told you I was on a blind date but… it has ended. I wanted to tell you that you are incredibly striking.”

Yous placed your bookmark and slowly closed your book. “Did you scare her off?”

“Oh no no. It’s just that there was no connection,” He tried to clarify his actions not realizing it may be doing more harm than good. “I found myself interested in getting to know you and I wanted to do it the right way.”

You couldn’t tell whether he was joking or just being a nuisance, but you were too intrigued to not find out.

So you sat quietly, smiling.

He cleared his throat. "Your, uh, shoes look sturdy."

A pause. Then, to his immense relief, you laughed.

"Wow. High praise. I was hoping to impress you with my charm after you decided to be so brazen, but if my footwear is winning points, I’ll take it."

Yaga felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders and laughed just loud enough for you to hear.

“To keep my momentum going, I’d love to take you out to lunch sometime to get to know you better.”

“What if I’m not single?” You stood up, letting your eyes trace over his defined shoulders and chest. “This would all be in vain.”

He hadn’t even thought of you being taken. His ears turned a shade of tomato red as he tried to figure out how he could recover from fumbling this badly. “I’ll pay for you next coffee if I’ve disrespected you and your partner. That wasn’t my intention.”

There was something endearing about this big man overthinking every other thought he had. It was obvious to you that he was not one for approaching strangers in public for things as informal as asking someone out. It was.. cute.

“After our first date, we can come here for a coffee then. I won’t say no to coffee with a handsome man with no name.”

“Cheeky.” You both laughed as he pulled out a card from his jacket pocket, passing it onto you gingerly. “Masamichi. And it would be my pleasure.”

=============================================

Six months. You’d been dating Masamichi for six and it was heaven on earth.

You’d come to know a mild giant for a partner. The perfect balance of love, laughter, and understanding. You’d complemented each other in every way imaginable, personalities intertwining like the branches of a sturdy oak tree, unshakable and resilient.

He was considerate, gentle, consistently showing that he would be there for you come hell or highwater. And you showed the same.

Two people swimming in the dating pool meeting by chance in a small pond.

Fate.

And now on your 6 month anniversary, you found yourself lost in thought, your mind wandering to the elephant in the room - or rather, the absence of it in your bedroom.

You sighed, tracing your fingers along the rim of the mug filled with now lukewarm green tea, a gift from Masamichi's grandfather. It was a small gesture, but one that spoke volumes about the sincerity and thoughtfulness that permeated your connection. Yet, despite the depth of your bond, there was one aspect of your relationship that remained unexplored, a chasm that seemed to grow wider with each passing day.

Masamichi was in the kitchen, the sound of pots and pans clattering as he prepared dinner, his humming a soothing melody that normally would have chased away any lingering doubts. But tonight, your mind was consumed by the gnawing uncertainty that had taken root in the pit of my stomach. You couldn't help but wonder if there was something wrong with you, if his hesitation to take your relationship to the next level was a sign of some deep-seated inadequacy.

You watched as he nodded his head along to the light jazz that filled the air. He was everything to you. And you didn't want to ruin the perfection you had cultivated together, the easy camaraderie and the deep respect that underpinned every interaction you’d shared all because it feels like you’re ovulating every other day.

But at the same time, the weight of the unspoken desires was beginning to take its toll, the deafening screams of wanting to be in the throws of passion grew louder with each passing day.

You knew you had to say something, to address the elephant in the room before it consumed you both. you took a deep breath, steeling yourself for the conversation that was to come, and made your way to the kitchen, determined to confront the fears and insecurities that had been plaguing your thoughts for weeks on end.

Masamichi looked up as you entered, a warm smile playing on his lips as he greeted you with a kiss on the cheek. "Almost ready," he murmured.

Your heart pounded in your chest as you tried to find the right words. Masamichi sensing the uneasiness in your demeanor, set down the spoon he was holding and turned to face your fully, his brows furrowed in concern.

"Hey, is everything alright? You look like you've got something on your mind," he asked softly, his hand reaching out to gently squeeze your shoulder.

You nodded, swallowing hard before speaking. "Masamichi, we need to talk. About us, about... our relationship," you spoke with intention, your voice barely above a whisper.

His eyes widened slightly, and you could see a flicker of uncertainty in their depths. He took a step back, running a hand through his hair as he seemed to grapple with his own thoughts.

"I fear I know where this is going," he admitted, his voice tinged with a hint of frustration. “I know you said the crochet thing wasn’t a big deal but it becomes one. Its just part of me..” He untied the apron from around his waist and lifted it over his head. “I know it isn’t for everyone.”

What a man. You smiled, rubbing his bicep before pulling him to the couch. “No no. I like your hobbies. It isn’t that.” You sat him down, his dark eyes brewing a storm as he tried to figure out just what you could be referring to.”

“Chi, do you find me attractive?”

He looked shocked, almost offended at the question. “A goddess among us mere mortals. You are beyond gorgeous. Where is this coming from? Am I not calling you beautiful enough?”

“God, you make it real hard to be assertive when you’re this sappy.” biting your lip and faintly laughing, you cleared your throat to push through the conversation. "I know we haven't... I mean, we haven't taken that step, and I can't help but feel like I'm disappointing you somehow in the attractiveness factor or you may not be ready which is totally okay! I just want to at least talk about it."

He paused, his gaze dropping to the floor as he struggled to find the right words. "The truth is, I want nothing more than to be intimate with you, to express the depth of my love and desire for you. But I'm scared," he confessed, his voice barely audible.

Your heart clenched at the vulnerability in his tone, and you reached out to take his hand in yours, squeezing it gently. "Masamichi, look at me," you followed his eyes, waiting for him to meet your gaze.

He did, and you could see the anguish and self-doubt swirling in his eyes. "You could never disappoint me," you assured him, thumb brushing against his cheek in a tender caress. "What we have is so special, so perfect, and I don't want to ruin it by rushing into something you may not be ready for."

You took a deep breath, choosing your next words carefully. "Masamichi. I love every part of you, including your kindness, your patience, and your unwavering commitment to our relationship. Our intimacy, whenever it happens, will be a natural progression of the love and connection we already share."

Thank you," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "Thank you for saying that, for seeing me the way you do. I was so afraid that you thought there was something wrong with me, that I wasn't enough for you."

He pulled back slightly, his hands coming up to cup your face, his thumbs brushing the soft moon of your cheeks. "I love you so much," he murmured, his forehead pressing against yours once more. "I love your strength, your kindness, your unwavering faith in us. I don't want to mess this up, to do something that might hurt you or push you away."

You turned your head slightly, pressing a soft kiss to his palm before smiling. "You could never push me away, Masamichi. Your love, your respect, and your consideration for me are what make me fall in love with you more each day," You remarked, voice steady and sure. “And you’ll have to try harder if you want to get rid of me.”

Masamichi laughed, his wide shoulders moving as he enveloped you in his embrace. He closed his eyes, exhaling sharply with a shuddering breath. "Well you know I’m an older guy so it takes awhile to make sure my engines stay running for awhile.”

“Is there anything I could do to.. keep them running?” You were sincere in your curiosity.

Grinning and shaking his head, Masamichi squeezed your hand. “You could wink at me and the engine starts. Its just part of me getting a little older. I need time to..” He thought for a moment before continuing, “Time and maybe a boost to make sure the engine can run for as long as it needs to.”

“Oh!” you fanned him off, thinking you clearly understood what he meant until it actually clicked. Your brows raised. “Ohhhh..”

He chuckled, nodding. “Exactly.”

“Do you have that on like, standby? How does one obtain… engine boosting medication?”

“I’ll make an appointment and hopefully be seen next week. Easy as that.”

You hadn’t really thought about the implications of dating a ‘seasoned man’. He’s older, not old so you didn’t really think he’d need help I suppose. But it didn’t deter you by any means.

He was a one in a million kind of man and sex wasn’t everything to you. But he was.

“I want to do this right," he said, his voice filled with determination. "I want our first time to be perfect, to be a celebration of the love and intimacy we've built together. And I want to make sure that you're ready, that we're both ready, before we take that step."

“Respectfully, honey, I was ready the moment you picked up that love seat without breaking a sweat awhile back.”

“You’re an insatiable woman.” He leaned in, kissing you softly before lying you back onto the couch.

You nodded, a smile playing on your lips as you leaned in to press a soft kiss. “I’m sorry you are just too hot. I can’t help but be in awe of you.” you whispered against his lips.

“And just so we’re clear: I’ve thought of the many ways I want to ravish you. When I get my hands on you,” He ran his thumb ever so gently over your bottom lip. “I want you to be the only thing that can satiate my appetite.” His large hand traveled up your thigh, lightly allowing his knuckles to caress your soft skin until he stopped right at your inner thigh.

For the first time ever, you were rendered speechless, only nodding as he placed soft kisses across your collar bone and shoulder before meeting your lips.

His lips moving against yours with a tenderness and love that stole your breath away. "Together," he murmured, his arms wrapping around your waist and pulling you close. "We'll navigate this journey together, one step at a time, and build the perfect intimacy that we both deserve."

===========================================

As the candlelight flickered, creating the perfect cozy table for two, Masamichi couldn't help but steal glances of you from across the way.

The romantic dinner was going perfectly in his eyes. Dinner came out absolutely divine. He opted for the lighter style of Greek food to go along with the light and engaging conversation and playful banter flowing freely between the both of you. He had been looking forward to this moment for what felt like an eternity, his heart fluttering with anticipation and desire.

Reaching across the table, Masamichi gently took your hand, giving it a tender squeeze. "Tonight has been absolutely wonderful," he murmured, his thumb caressing your knuckles. "I'm so glad we could have this time together, just the two of us."

You smiled warmly, squeezing his hand in return. "I've been really looking forward to this," you admitted, a hint of mischief sparkling in your eyes. "And I don't just mean the delicious food and wine."

Masamichi felt a shiver run down his spine at the implication, his pulse quickening. "Is that so?" he asked, a playful smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Well, I think we both know where this night is headed, don't we?"

Slowly, deliberately, Masamichi stood up from his chair and walked around to his lover's side of the table. He held out a hand in invitation. "Dance with me?" he purred, wanting to feel your body pressed against his.

Accepting without hesitation, you rose gracefully to your feet. "I thought you'd never ask," you teased, melting into Masamichi's arms as he pulled you close.

He wrapped one arm around your waist, holding you flush against his expansive chest as he began to sway to the soft music playing in the background. His other hand cupped your cheek, tilting your face up to look at him. "You look stunning tonight." he whispered, his breath ghosting over your lips.

“Thank you. My boyfriend bought this for me.” You responded sweetly. “He said the color made me look like an ethereal beauty.”

He smiled down at you and continued to sway, the light air around him made him feel like he was in a romance film as you brought your lips to his, starting with a small peck that slowly moved into something more. He ran his finger tips down the center of your back, deepening the kiss the moment he felt your body shiver against him.

"I don't know how much longer I can control myself around you." He muttered against your lips.

Your eyes fluttered for a moment, a soft gasp escaping your throat. "Then don't," you breathed, leaning in to capture Masamichi's lips in a searing kiss. "I want you. So so badly.” you whispered into his mouth.

Masamichi's hands began to wander, exploring and caressing every curve of your body with a hunger that bordered on desperation. He slid his hands to the cutouts of your dress, relishing the feel of your soft, warm skin beneath his fingertips.

Breaking the kiss, Masamichi trailed his lips down the column of your throat, nibbling and sucking at the sensitive flesh. He could feel your pulse racing beneath his mouth, and it spurred him on, determined to mark you as his own.

Without thinking, he lifted you, an arm at the crease under your knees, carrying you bridal style towards his bedroom.

"Your skin tastes divine," he murmured against your throat, his voice rough with desire. "I want to leave my mark on every part of you, to show the world that you belong to me." He stepped to the edge of the bed and sat you down with the gentleness of a feather before he began to unbutton his shirt, his eyes never leaving you.

You could feel the heat of his gaze as he undressed. Watching the shirt fall to the ground your core tightened. That feeling flooded you.

His pecs were well defined, contoured by his chest hair. His body was hard, chiseled to perfection and for the first time, you were seeing it without any restrictions. He leaned over you, kissing the top of your head as he brought you up to your knees.

“Here. Let me help you.” He walked around to the side of the bed and sat on his knees behind you, running his knuckles along the straps of your dress, dragging slowly across the valley between your shoulders. He unzipped, leaving kisses on your newly exposed skin right until he got to your lower back

He could feel you arching into his touch, your hands fighting to just reach behind you and pull him in by hair to hold him closer to you. "Yes," you hissed, tilting your head to give him better access. "Please, Masamichi… please..”

Masamichi groaned at the desperate plea, his hands sliding up to cup and squeeze the soft mounds of your breasts. He could feel your nipples hardening beneath the thin fabric of your dress, and he couldn't resist taking one into his mouth, sucking and flicking his tongue over the sensitive peak. He let the dress fall to your thighs and reached around, taking a nipple into his mouth and groaning at the contact.

As he lavished attention on your breasts, his other hand slid down your stomach, slipping beneath the waistband of your panties to cup your mound. He could feel the heat emanating from your core, and he knew you were just as aroused as he was.

"You're so wet for me already," he purred, rubbing his fingers along your clothed slit. "I love how responsive you are to my touch. It drives me wild."

He continued his sensual battle, alternating between kissing, licking, and nipping at every inch of skin he could reach. He wanted to overwrite every thought in your mind with pleasure, to make it so the only thing you could focus on was the feel of his hands and mouth on your body.

Lie back, I’ve got you,” He whispered before stepping off of the bed, cradling you before crawling over you with a wicked grin. "I'm going to worship every part of you tonight," he promised, his eyes dark with lust. "I'm going to worship every inch of your body," he promised. "I'm going to make you scream my name until it's the only thing you remember."

Pinning you with his hips, he attacked your neck with open-mouthed kisses and sharp nips, licking your skin before blowing light breaths on each patch.

Masamichi gazed down at you, The sight of your bare body, the swell of your breasts rising and falling with each anticipatory breath, sent a surge of desire coursing through him. He quickly shed the rest of his own clothing, eager to feel your skin against his own.

He settled himself between your spread thighs, his hands immediately going back to your breasts. He cupped the soft mounds, kneading and squeezing the pliant flesh as he brushed his thumbs over your nipples, feeling them stiffen under his touch.

He took his time lavishing attention on them, rolling and pinching the hardening peaks until you writhed beneath him, your back arching off the bed. His hands then trailed lower, skimming over your plush stomach, feeling your tense muscles flutter under his fingertips.

His thick digits dipped between your thighs, his fingers gliding through the slick heat he found there. He groaned at the evidence of your arousal, his cock throbbing with the need to be inside you. "You're so wet for me already," he murmured, circling your clit with the pad of his thumb. "I've barely touched you and you're dripping."

You whimpered, hips lifting to grind against his hand, seeking more of that delicious friction. "It's because of you," you panted, voice high and needy. "The way you touch me...the things you do to my body...I can't help it."

Masamichi smiled, a wicked glint in his eyes. "And I plan to make you even wetter," he promised, before sliding two fingers deep inside your fluttering pussy.

Just his fingers, stretching you, filling you. He pumped his fingers in and out, curling them to hit that special spot that made you see stars. At the same time, he leaned down to capture one nipple in his mouth, suckling and flicking the sensitive bud with his tongue as he worked you over with his hand.

Your body was tensing and he could feel it. Your inner thigh muscles clenching around his invading fingers as you climbed closer and closer to your peak. He knew you were getting close already, and he wanted to push you over the edge.

Suddenly, he withdrew his fingers, ignoring your protesting whine but kissing between your breast then your lips.

“My beautiful angel,” he whispered against your lips, “Want to taste yourself?” He brought his soaked fingers between you, glistening under the dim light and smiled as you did. Running your tongue between his pointer and middle made his cock jump. “My good girl.” He brushed the back of his hand over your cheek and kissed you, twirling his tongue around yours to savor your taste.

His fingers dipped back between your thighs to rub slow, deliberate circles around your clit and you arched into him. He could feel how swollen and sensitive it was, how it throbbed against his touch like a tiny, aching heart. With that, he slipped one finger inside and continued his barbarous pace. You clenched around his digit before trying to form words, but nothing came out except more teary eyed moans.

He leaned down to capture your lips in a searing kiss, his tongue delving deep to claim every inch of your mouth. He swallowed your moans and whimpers, relishing the way you tasted, the way you felt pressed against him. He captured every whimper and moan as he quickened his pace, the sound of your wetness now being muffled by his hungry grunts and the sensation of that engine revving magic pill suddenly reaching the places it needed.

He continued to grind and rub, bringing you closer and closer to the edge. Just as he felt you start to tense, your body coiling like a spring ready to snap, Masamichi pulled his fingers away, stroking his cock with his now soaked hand while he reached for the pillow next you, then lined himself up with you.

“Are you ready?” He asked softly, eyes looking into yours.

“Are you?”

He looked down to where you two were almost meeting and chuckled at just how red the head of his cock was. “Maybe a little too ready.”

You lifted your hips and he placed the pillow underneath you. “Then please. Have me.”

With one powerful thrust, he sheathed himself fully inside of you, burying his cock to the hilt in your tight, wet heat. You both cried out at the sudden intrusion, body stretching and accommodating his thick length.

“God damn it.” He groaned, his hips pressed flush against the back of your thighs as he cautiously placed one leg over his shoulder.

The feeling of his hard cock buried deep inside you was almost too much to bear. You could feel every throbbing inch of him, stretching you wider than you ever had been before. It was a delicious mix of pleasure and pain, and you never wanted it to end.

Masamichi gave you a moment to adjust, fighting the urge to start moving. He could feel your inner walls fluttering and clenching around him, trying to draw him even deeper. It took every ounce of his self-control not to start pounding into you like a wild animal.

Instead, he leaned down to press hot, open-mouthed kisses along your shoulders and chest, his teeth grazing your skin. His hands slid up your sides to keep you with him, holding and caressing you as your heartbeat filled his ears.

Masamichi started to move, pulling his hips back until just the tip of his cock remained inside, before moving forward and burying himself to the hilt once more. He set a steady, deep rhythm, each thrust pushing the breath from your lungs in a rush.

"You feel incredible," he panted against your skin, his voice rough with pleasure. "So tight and perfect around my cock. I don't ever want to pull out."

The only thing you could muster was a moan in response, your body rocking forward with each of his intense thrusts. You reached a hand down to rub at your clit, desperate for the extra stimulation to push you over the edge.

Masamichi growled, a dark and feral sound, as he watched you lover touch youself. The sight of you lost in pleasure, impaled on his cock and chasing your own release, was almost enough to make him come undone right then and there.

He grabbed your wrist, pulling your hand away and replacing it with his own. He rubbed at your clit with quick, firm circles, feeling it swell and throb under his touch. His other hand gripped your hip hard enough to leave bruises, holding you in place as he began to pound into you with wild abandon.

"That's it, baby," he encouraged, his voice a low rumble in your ear. "Come for me. Let me feel you come all over my cock. I need to feel you squeeze me like a vice as you scream my name.”

Masamichi could feel his lover's body tensing, your muscles pulling taut as you teetered on the brink of climax. He doubled his efforts, pounding into you with short, sharp thrusts that hit that special spot inside you with every drive of his hips.

"Yes, that's it," he urged, his voice a low, seductive growl. "Come on, baby. Let go. I want to feel you come undone, shatter in my arms."

You let out a high, keening cry, your back arching as your orgasm crashed like a tidal wave. Your inner walls clamped down around Masamichi's cock like a silken vice, rippling and fluttering as you came harder than you ever had before.

Masamichi groaned, the sensation of your pussy gripping him so tightly almost enough to make him lose control. But he held on, determined to bring you through your climax and prolong this feeling of pleasure for as long as possible.

He gentled his thrusts, rolling his hips in a slow, sensual circle as he worked you through the aftershocks. His hand never stopped its relentless rubbing at your now sensitive clit, coaxing out every last bit of your release until you were boneless and spent beneath.

Masamichi leaned down to capture your swollen lips in a deep, passionate kiss. He poured all of his love and desire into the kiss, wanting you to feel the depth of his feelings.

“Please.” The faint sound of your voice filled his ears, The shudders and tremors started to subside, and he finally let himself go. “Please cum for me.” You reached up to drag your nails down his torso and he threw his head back, losing every ounce of willpower he tried to hold onto. With a hoarse shout of your name, he buried himself as deep as he could go and pulled out the moment the flood gates opened.

He covered your stomach, spurt after spurt of his hot seed, painting you white as he emptied himself completely. His hips continued to rock and jerk, working himself through the intense pleasure until he had nothing left to give.

Collapsing onto his hands, caging you in, he peppered your neck and shoulders with soft kisses, his hand finding its way to roaming over your curves with a tender, almost reverent touch.

He finally mustered the energy to get up. “One moment, I need to get you a towel to clean you off.” He pressed a kiss to your forehead and smiled before walking into the bathroom.

The grin on your face grew with each moment you lied there waiting for his return. The sound of the running water turning off made you sit up on and elbow.

His large figure walking back in made you feel butterflies.

“Hi.” you spoke softly, clearly giddy.

He grinned, sitting on the side of the bed and wiping your stomach with the warm towel. “Hello, darling.”

You giggled, bubbly and absolutely over the moon.

He finished cleaning you and went to toss the towel in a hamper before returning to your side, lying and immediately taking you in. You sighed contentedly, melting into his strong embrace.

You felt safe, cherished, and utterly fulfilled in his arms. His scent enveloped you, a mix of your own perfume and the musky aroma of sex, and it made you feel deliciously claimed.

His hands continued their gentle explorations, now soothing caresses rather than the heated touches of before. He ran his fingers through your soft coils brushing it back from your face, before trailing down to trace the delicate line of your jaw and the column of your throat.

The rise and fall of your chest pressed against his own, a soothing, hypnotic sensation that made him feel at peace.

Masamichi pressed a tender kiss to your temple, letting his lips linger for just a moment. "Being with you, like this...it's everything I've ever wanted."

You turned your head to meet his gaze, eyes soft and hazy with contentment. You reached up to cup his cheek, thumb brushing over his lower lip in a loving caress. "For me too," you whispered, a small smile playing at the corners of your mouth. "I never want this moment to end."

Masamichi turned his head to press a kiss to your palm, his eyes fluttering closed for a moment as he savored the taste and feel of your skin. "It doesn't have to," he promised, his voice a low rumble in his chest. "We can stay like this for as long as you want. I'll hold you all night long, if that's what you need."

Eyes shining with happiness. You snuggled back, tucking your body even closer to his own. "I want that,” you closed your eyes now, feeling the warmth of your deepened intimacy filling your heart. “I want that with you. Always.”

#jujutsu kaisen #jjk #yaga masamichi #masamichi #yaga x reader #jujutsu kaisen imagines #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk smut #jjk x you #jjk x reader #jjk au #lu.logs #jjk fluff

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codemerything · 2 years ago

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A structured way to learn JavaScript.

I came across a post on Twitter that I thought would be helpful to share with those who are struggling to find a structured way to learn Javascript on their own. Personally, I wish I had access to this information when I first started learning in January. However, I am grateful for my learning journey so far, as I have covered most topics, albeit in a less structured manner.

N/B: Not everyone learns in the same way; it's important to find what works for you. This is a guide, not a rulebook.

EASY

What is JavaScript and its role in web development?

Brief history and evolution of JavaScript.

Basic syntax and structure of JavaScript code.

Understanding variables, constants, and their declaration.

Data types: numbers, strings, boolean, and null/undefined.

Arithmetic, assignment, comparison, and logical operators.

Combining operators to create expressions.

Conditional statements (if, else if, else) for decision making.

Loops (for, while) for repetitive tasks. - Switch statements for multiple conditional cases.

MEDIUM

Defining functions, including parameters and return values.

Function scope, closures, and their practical applications.

Creating and manipulating arrays.

Working with objects, properties, and methods.

Iterating through arrays and objects.Understanding the Document Object Model (DOM).

Selecting and modifying HTML elements with JavaScript.Handling events (click, submit, etc.) with event listeners.

Using try-catch blocks to handle exceptions.

Common error types and debugging techniques.

HARD

Callback functions and their limitations.

Dealing with asynchronous operations, such as AJAX requests.

Promises for handling asynchronous operations.

Async/await for cleaner asynchronous code.

Arrow functions for concise function syntax.

Template literals for flexible string interpolation.

Destructuring for unpacking values from arrays and objects.

Spread/rest operators.

Design Patterns.

Writing unit tests with testing frameworks.

Code optimization techniques.

That's it I guess!

#codeblr #coding #programming #roadmap #coding community #progblr #web development #javascript

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guujikaroko · 2 months ago

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Aglaea is so fascinating as a Chrysos Heir, on account of how her flaws run counter to her blessings.

Most of the Chrysos Heirs' blessings and curses walk hand in hand. Like Tribios, who could guide as many people as possible with her splitting, or Mydei's immortality aiding him in waging eternal war, or Castorice's touch of death being her instrument of granting souls passage.

But Aglaea is different. She's the heir to Mnestia, the Titan of Romance, the god who walked the land and granted beauty and love to people. Mnestia is the deity that taught humans how to feel, how to appreciate the world, how to create art, how to love each other.

And yet, she's slowly losing her ability to do any of that.

It's so sad when you think back to how she started out. Aglaea is a seamstress; she always had an eye for aesthetic, and she was also so terribly kind. She loved so much she was willing to cast herself aside in favor of the world and its inhabitants, in favor of everything Mnestia taught her to love. She loves so much she is willing to nurture and guide heroes no matter how twisted their pasts, difficult their circumstances or diverging their ideologies are. She will still love so much to the point of losing her humanity completely.

I wonder how Aglaea will meet her end. I wonder if she will be reduced to a completely unresponsive, unfeeling husk. I wonder if she'll lose all the feelings she held for those around her that perdured despite it all. I wonder if she'll even lose her passion for seaming, the very thing she started with.

The Demigod of Romance, with all the power in the world to unite the hearts of humanity, ending up all alone, as though severing threads from an intricate web. Tragic, and therefore romantic.

#aglaea is like second place on the “chrysos heir that gives me the most anxiety” ranking #first place is undisputably phainon's of course #third is cipher's #but godamn does this woman stress me out #i hate that she'll never see the fruits of her sacrifice #honkai star rail #hsr #hsr aglaea

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ghoularaki · 1 year ago

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w3lc0me t0 th3 fr3aksh0w <3 | 1

↠ summary: Your ex-boyfriend not satisfied with how the relationship ended comes back to teach you a lesson its best to keep your mouth shut. Some secrets are best left unspoken.

↠ word count: 4,871

↠ pairing: todoroki touya x reader, takami keigo x reader, geten x reader

↠ genre/warnings: angst, smut, college/dark web au, DARK CONTENT, yandere! dabi, bullying, asphyxiation. NSFW (morning sex, riding, slight dubcon, unprotected sex)

↠ a/n: geten fuckers unite

series masterlist

Smoke filled the room, a cigarette perched between Geten’s lips. Leaned against the propped up pillows, his hands clamped onto your stuttering hips. Dressed in just a tank top and a pair of flimsy panties adorned with tiny, black skulls he pulled to the side, his eyes don’t leave your bouncing tits.

Little moans left you as you kept a fast pace. Your pussy was filled to the brim with his cock. This morning, Geten woke you up with a hand down your panties, fiddling with your clit. Still sore from last night, you easily opened for him, tilting your hips so his deft fingers drifted to your aching hole. Not one to ignore your wants, his hand slipped down to shove two fingers inside you. Pumping them against your walls, he made a comment about how wet you were for him already.

Impatient, Geten flipped you both over so you sat on his lap. Shimming down his sweatpants, he pulled his hardening cock out. He grabbed one side of your waist and guided you down onto him. A squeaked left you at his length entering you with little prep.

Eyes bleary, you stared at Geten’s cocky, but content face.

“You’re so easy.”

A whimper tumbled out from the degrading words. You were so easy for him, but who could blame you when he always put your needs above his.

You nodded in agreement, “Please.”

One of the hands on your hips drifted up to your throat. Circling around the column, he brought you closer to his face. Eyes bouncing to his lips, Geten repeated the motion. Leaning up towards you, he encompassed your lips, working in tandem. Mutual moans interrupted the kiss. Resting your head on his shoulder, you burrowed into his long, dove-white hair. The hand on your throat migrated to the back of your neck to bring you closer to him.

Glancing down, you spot the alarm clock on his side table.

“Shit!” You had class in ten minutes.

Your shout startled him, “What?”

You spring away from him and try to pry yourself away from his grip but he only clamped down on you and thrusted his pelvis up. “G-geten, stop, I have class in like ten minutes.”

“That’s enough time.”

Instead of letting you go, he planted his feet on the bed and thrusted up with fervor. The shock of him slamming into you had you collapsing onto his chest.

Your hands scrambled to grab onto something. You wrapped your arms around his neck, clutching on as he rocked you up and down. “I-I’m going to be l-late, please!”

A loud moan left you as his thumb made its way to your clit and he angled his cock to hit the spongy spot inside you. He repeatedly hit it while swirling and twiddling your clit.

“Shut up and take it. The less you complain, the faster I can make you cum,” His voice had a gravelly tone to it as he also approached his release.

“D-don’t be a dick.”

He only hummed in response. The sound of slapping skin filled the room with your squelching cunt. His hips stuttered as he got closer. You squirmed against him as you tried to reach your climax with him. His hand moved down and pinched your clit.

Whining, you cum onto him and he followed, filling you up to the brim. Your breath hitched at the warmth painting your walls. Sagging against him, Geten started petting your hair.

Your eyes looked down to see you now only had two minutes to get to class.

“Ugh, you’re such a prick!” You screeched at him as you pulled yourself off his softening dick.

Shivering at the cooling cum slipping down your thighs, you kept going, “You know that I told you it is the first day and I’m going to be so late.”

Geten raised his arms to lean against them while staying on the bed, not even offering to help you get ready. “You weren’t complaining while cumming on my cock.”

Whipping around, you glared at him as you took off your underwear and threw it at him. He caught it with ease and pocketed it in his sweatpants he put back onto his hips.

Running into the bathroom, you quickly sat on the toilet and shoved new underwear over your thighs. Washing your hands, you muttered to yourself how you were going to fucking stink of sex.

The bed groaned as Geten got up and grabbed you a spare skirt you kept at his apartment. While you brushed your teeth, he tapped your thighs and you stepped into the clothing as he pulled it over your hips and zipped it up.

Spitting into the sink, you grabbed the hoodie Geten handed you and threw your bag over your shoulder. Swiping your boots, you hopped as you tied up one and the same with the other. As you raced to the door, Geten grabbed your upper arm and pulled you to him.

“Geten,” You said, exasperated.

He gripped your jaw and kissed you, finally releasing you. “Have fun.”

Rolling your eyes, you waved him off and ran out of his apartment towards the university. Thank god he lived close enough if you ran you would only be fifteen minutes late. Flipping your bag towards you, you pulled your flip phone out from the front pocket.

The little charms clattered together as it opened with a click. Beeps chirped from the device as you opened your messages to see Toga had texted you.

bitch where r u ?!

from: lil psycho

sent 8:01 AM

Texting and running, you glanced up from your phone to make sure no one was in front of you.

uhh about 10 mins, geten was being an asshole

from: scene qween >:3

sent 8:06 AM

As the main building enters your view, you slipped past the people to swing the door open with more force than needed. Another beep came from your phone but you pocketed it into your backpack once more. As you flew by the people in the halls, you swore you heard whispers of your name and lingering eyes. Waving it off, you continue to the elevator.

Once inside, you rested your head against the wall, thankful no one else joined you. You watched the numbers go up until you hit the third floor. The door barely opened up when you snuck through them sideways. You spy the door and go for the one in the back. At the top of the lecture hall, you slipped to the back and sat right next to Toga.

The room juts up like tiers stacked on a cake, students scattered around the tables like decorations. Toga stared at you while you shily made your way in, closing the door softly in hopes to not be seen by the professor. Scooting yourself onto the chair Toga saved for you, you slumped onto the table and plopped your bag on the floor.

“So what did I miss?”

Toga slapped your arm and you sucked in the yelp.

“Bitch, why the fuck are you so late?” She seethed under her breath.

You rolled your eyes, “I told you, Geten was being a dick.”

Toga gave you a coy smile, “Was he being a dick or were you on his—”

Pretending to gag, you stopped her before she could continue that thought. “Eww, don’t say that!”

A throat clearing interrupted you both, snapping your head up, the professor raised his brow at you two. “Are you ladies done?”

“Yessir,” You mumbled while Toga huffed.

Snickering pulled you from your shame. Targeting the sound, you see Shigaraki laughing at you, an aisle down. He kept eye contact as he smirked at you. You rolled your eyes to see Toga also annoyed by him.

“He’s so freaking creepy, and he wonders why people think he’s a school shooter.”

Shigaraki’s jaw clicked. He definitely heard that. You had no qualms with the recluse man at all. If anything you would call him an acquaintance, but sometimes he was so up his own ass, it made it hard to like and defend him.

“Toga!” You bit out, “You don’t just say that.”

“Buzzkill.” She paused for a moment, almost like she didn’t know how to articulate her thoughts. “Anyway, speaking of school shooters, did you hear the news?”

Your brows pinched in confusion, “What news?”

Toga faced twisted into a grimace and shifted her eyes to the side. “Dabi’s back.”

Cold water splashed over you. Of course you knew this. Who didn’t know about Dabi coming back to school despite everything. You just didn’t expect it to be so soon.

Wiping your sweaty hands over your skirt, you simply nodded and turned back to the lecture. Taking the hint, Toga left you alone. Blood pumped in your ears as dread infiltrated your system. Dabi being back, especially on campus, meant there was nothing saving you from him anymore. And after what you had done, you were sure he wouldn’t be happy.

The rest of class, your leg bounced with anxiety, rattling the table. Your eyes bounced between the clock and the door. A route to avoid the main campus filled your head.

A loud sound of the professor clapping his hands together pulled you from your stupor. Charged up on adrenaline, you masked the need to hide under the table and cover your ears from the sudden sound.

“That completes class, remember to look at the syllabus—”

Before he could finish the words, you grabbed your bag and tossed it over your shoulder. Toga opened her mouth to say something but you were already out the door. The door swung open and it slammed behind you with an audible clank.

Threading your other arm through the bag, you looked left and right, deciding to keep left. Not going the same way you came in, you stuck to the walls. Glancing frantically around you, for any signs of black hair, you reached behind you and lifted the hood over your face. Further you went, the less you saw of other students.

Opening another door, you leaned your head to make sure no one was present. Deeming it safe, you go through the door to the staircase. No one really used this stairwell as it mainly led to the basement. Racing down the three flights of stairs, your heart pounded in your throat. Despite there being no one behind you, it felt like there was a presence lurking behind any corner. Them just waiting to snatch you up.

Shaking off the paranoia, you continue down the hallways of the photography wing. The only people that come here are photography majors waiting for their film to develop and the janitors. Nodding your head at the one that was currently mopping the floor, you go to the door leading outside.

Squinting your eyes at the bright sun, you clutched further onto your backpack. Your phone beeped in your bag, but you ignored it. It was most likely Toga. You weren’t in the headspace to talk to her. Not until you were safe in your dorm room.

Your boots slapped against the pavement. Peering from under your hood, you saw nothing out of the ordinary. Your phone beeped again. Hitching your bag higher, you kept a fast pace. If you didn’t want to seem like a lunatic, you would have started running ages ago. Sucking in a breath, you kept going.

Passing other dorms, you slowed down a little as you were on the right street. Taking a right, you finally met with your building. Other students hung out in the nearby parking lot, but you paid no mind to them. Swinging the door open, you continued on. Going through the foyer, there were people already at the tables with books spread around them. Walking to the elevator, you pressed the up button. After a moment the elevator arrived with a ding.

As you walked in, you turned around to hit the third level, through the closing line you swore you saw Keigo amongst the crowd. Shuttering, you stumbled further into the elevator until your back hit the wall. You rubbed your eyes, there was no way he would be in the same dorm building. You two were completely different majors and he was two years above you.

Waving it off as your nerves getting the best of you and not sleeping well last night, you swallowed the terror. Shuffling through the hall until you met the second to last dorm on the left, you paused. Swinging your bag to your front, you pulled out your keys and your phone. Prioritizing getting in the door, you grasped your phone in your palm while stabbing the keys in the lock. Twisting it with a small struggle, you were finally in your room.

Securely away from campus, you sighed in relief. Luckily, your roommate must have still been in class. Twisting the lock behind you, you swung your back on your bed that was to the right along with your designated desk. Plopping down on your chair, you opened your laptop.

Your phone buzzed again. Now annoyed, you flipped it open with vigor. You had three messages: one from Toga, another from Geten and then an unknown number.

Ignoring the ones from Toga and Geten—you can answer later—you went straight for the unknown number. The buttons lit up when you clicked onto the message.

miss me doll?

from: unknown

sent 9:21 AM

Gasping, you slapped your phone shut and threw it away from you. Instinctively you tucked your legs to you on the chair and hugged them to your chest. Staring at your phone, you flinched when it buzzed again. A ping coming from your laptop had you yelp this time. In the corner of your eye, you spied a message from MySpace.

Your hand shook as you clicked on the notification to see it’s from your internet friend. You had been talking to her for a few months now. When you were at your lowest point, she had walked in your life and offered you a place to hide from your problems.

how did classes go ?!

from: killerkiko

sent 9:26 AM

Her message went unnoticed as you reached for your phone. Opening it back up, your face illuminated from the soft glow. The text stared back at you. Knowing it will only be a temporary solution, your phone beeped twice as you blocked his new phone number.

Through your panic, your webcam blinked red. Someone enjoying the show you unknowingly gave them.

~*~

The next day came too quickly. Yesterday you spent the rest of the day hiding in your room. In your spare time, you talked with your friend and posted photos of yourself. Rapidly, you became kind of popular on MySpace. You and Toga were well known within a niche space of people with common interests. You weren’t arrogant enough to call yourself famous in the slightest, but your photos and videos got some traction.

Though, your laptop annoyed you more than anything. While you were still friends with Keigo he had installed a different router to ensure safety after a minor stalker incident. Nothing too major, just a freak found out your location and threatened to leak it. Ever since he installed it though, everything ran slowly.

“Stop complaining,” He rolled his eyes at you with a lopsided grin.

Despite being a jock, he surprisingly was good at technology. Anytime you had problems with your computer or phone, he was the person you went to.

But after what happened, that kindness no longer extended towards you. To say you were isolated from the friend group would be an understatement. At least you still had Toga.

“Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to be late, again?” Your roommate sassed you.

From her bed, she had a nose in a book. Peering from over the edge, she raised a brow at you. Waving off her attitude, you walked out the room.

“Don’t forget my snack, you owe me!” She shouted into the hallway.

“Yeah, yeah!” You replied and then muttered, “You’re welcome.”

Luckily, your classes for today were later in the day. Being able to sleep in today was a blessing. Taking your time, you leisurely walked to the business building. Majoring in business was the least of your interest, but your parents were relentless.

Still taking the back routes, you felt a little safer. From the message you got yesterday, Dabi was definitely on the lookout for you.

Someone clearing their throat made you jump and snap your head towards them. Crossing the fork in the walkway, Shigaraki shuffled to you. Inwardly, you groaned. What possibly could he want.

Walking together, you remained silent, waiting for his typical snarky quip. Strangely, he didn’t say a word as you two went into the building. Going towards the stairwell, you decided to avoid elevators for now. Before you could though, Shigaraki grabbed your upper arm and guided you to the elevator.

You struggled out of his grip, “W-what are you doing?”

Dragging you with him, Shigaraki let you go once you two were in the confined space. Ripping away from him, you rubbed away his surprisingly strong grasp. Hitting the number two, you waited for Shigaraki to hit the button he needed. His hands stayed stuffed in the black hoodie he always wore, hood up. He did nothing, so you shrugged it off.

“You want to tell me why you kidnapped me?” You asked sarcastically.

“If I wanted to kidnap you, I wouldn’t have done it so publically.” He side-eyed you.

Staring at his peripheral, you snipped, “You know what I meant, asshole.”

“Always the attitude. Can’t I walk with my dearest friend,” He had a lilt to his voice as he twisted his neck to give you a creepy smile.

Used to him, you didn’t think twice about his wide grin displaying all his blunt teeth. “You want something.”

The doors opened, metal scrapping together. You both walked out. While you went to the right, Shigaraki went the other way.

“I always want something.” He called over his shoulder.

Shuddering at his cryptic words, you continued to class. Once you reached the door it hit you that Shigaraki wasn’t a business major and had no reason to be in this building. Connecting the dots, you gave a little smile. Despite being a dick, he had his moments.

~*~

Making it out of the building after back to back classes, you were exhausted. Heading to your dorm, you screamed as someone tackled you with a hug. Whipping your head you saw Toga attached to you. Pushing her off, you slapped her arm.

“You scared me!”

“Geez! No need to hit me,” She pouted.

Not being able to stay mad at her for too long, you threaded your arm with hers. “What is with people ambushing me today.”

She raised a brow at you in question.

Leading her to your dorm, you answered, “Shigaraki decided not to be an asshole and walked me to class.”

While walking, Toga redirected you towards the main building. Subtly you tried to go back to the path, but she strengthened her hold.

“I told you, he doesn’t suck that bad.”

“Himeko.”

“I’m hungry,” She whined. “Plus, you can’t hide forever. Do you think Dabi of all people is actually attending his classes?”

Tilting your head in contemplation, “You do have a point. I also promised Ayame a snack, so might as well.”

“And you have me to protect you!” She cuddled up to your neck.

Giggling, you placed your head on top her’s, “Oh my darling knight what would I do without you.”

“For one, starve to death.”

Rolling your eyes at her, you moved your head as you braced yourself for the cafeteria. With bated breath, you opened the heavy doors with Toga in tow. Like a cornered animal, you surveyed your surroundings for danger and any escape route. Not spotting a tuft of dyed black hair or dirty blond had you letting out a stuttering exhale.

Peering at the line for real food, you changed your mind. You weren’t that hungry anyway.

“I’m going to just get some snacks from the vending machine. I’ll meet you outside.”

Toga furrowed her brows, “Are you sure?”

Bumping her shoulder with yours, you simpered, “Yeah, you know how I am.”

The petite girl obviously didn’t believe you, but waved you away. Being the social butterfly she was, Toga cut into line to converse with some people she knew. A girl with brown hair smiled at her and welcomed her into her place. With bubbly laughs flowing into the air, you walked further into the room.

Gaggles of fluctuating conversations followed you as you hurried towards the doors outside. The crowds were stifling. Anywhere within the people Dabi could jump out and swallow you whole. Grasping the door, you push the doors open into the courtyard. Around the garden laid tables with a few students scattered about. Turning to the side, you kept under the awning towards the vending machines.

Pulling your wallet from your baggy pants, chained to your belt loop, you scooped some coins for your snacks and Ayame’s. Your back to the students, you shivered. Rubbing the nape of your neck, a chill ran down your spine as if you were being watched.

Shaking, you quickened your pace. It could be nerves, but you rather not gamble. Slotting your coins inside the metal mouth, you reached your arm down to grab your drink. Repeating the same for two bags of chips. Clinking together in your palm, you shoved your change into your wallet. Hands full, you tucked your drink under your arm while walking, plopping your wallet back in your pants.

Dead leaves crunched under your boots. Shuffling over to the empty table under a tree, you brushed away the leaves displayed across the table. Letting your snacks spill over the top, you sat down with a huff. Bending over, you unzipped your back to put Ayame’s chips so Toga doesn’t steal them. A heavy weight had the seat sink next to you.

Sighing, you said, “I was really hoping you wouldn’t see—”

Your heart stuttered.

Cold enveloped you in a cruel embrace.

“Hoping I wouldn’t see what?” Slumping his posture to establish eye contact, gold ate your own irises.

“K-keigo.”

A sly, lopsided grin parted his lips. From his smile, his sharp canine caught your eye. Leaning his cheek on his palm, he rested his elbow on the table.

“Aww don’t be like that, Y/n, we are closer than that, aren’t we?”

You scowled at him. He knew damn well, you weren’t going to call him by his first name and the audacity he has to call you by yours was asinine.

“What do you want, Keigo.”

Though you wanted to look around you for either Toga or Dabi, you dared not to break the power play he began.

“Can’t eat with my darling friend?” Before you could correct him that he didn’t have anything, he opened your chip bag and munched on your food.

Deepening your glower, you reached for your food but he snatched it away from your grasp. In the earlier days, you would have followed his hand by tackling him, but you refused any skin contact with him.

“Fine.”

Despite your heart pounding in your eyes, you were done with his antics. Grabbing your drink that still wasn’t opened, you go to stand up, but overly warm hands gripped your shoulders and slammed you back onto the bench.

Your teeth clattered together in your mouth from the force. One of the hands snaked around your neck, forcing your head into a firm stomach. A pointer finger tilted your chin up with such strength your throat strained. Cold rings bit into your thin skin.

Blue consumed you. Liquid fire poured into your terrified visage. Dabi gave away no emotion as you shook under his palm. A bunny captured by a wolf, prey eyes stared down the canines begging to satiate their hunger.

“Where do you think you’re going?” His pierced, thin brow raised in question.

Words caught in your larynx.

A laugh is heard from the side reminding you Keigo hadn’t left. “Aww the poor girl. Just look at her, man, she looks like she’s going to piss herself.”

Dabi doesn’t break his gaze with your watering eyes, a grin spread on his scarred cheeks. “You’re right. The little snitch is gonna make a mess of herself. Aren’t ya, princess?”

He moved his finger and thumb to pinch your cheeks, and shook your head. “But I think she’s more upset we disturbed her lunch.”

Tearing you from his trance, he glanced at Keigo and nodded his chin at the drink still in your hand. He ripped it from your slacked fingers and cracked the cap open with a swift twist. Keigo handed the now open bottle to Dabi who released your shoulder to grab it. He tapped it to your lips.

Scared, knee knocking together, you sucked your lips and shook at your head. Dabi only gripped your harder, shoving your head upwards. Fingertips dug into your mandible, prying your mouth open.

“Drink up.”

With no remorse, he poured the sweet juice down your throat. Hastily, you swallowed, but the man above you didn’t stop. The drink spilled from the corners of your mouth. Coughing it back up, it went up your nose, effectively choking you. You squirmed to free yourself, but he had you by your throat—quite literally. Your feet kicked up the grass beneath you as your hands went up to pull the bottle from your mouth, but Keigo grabbed them and slammed your wrists to the table.

Choking down all you could, the flood of juice finally stopped. Throwing the bottle somewhere to the right of him, Dabi never let go of your throat as you sputtered and harshly inhaled all the air you could. Gagging, you tried not to throw up on yourself.

Unable to fall forward, you sagged into the man behind you. He welcomed it. Mouth agape and spit dribbling from your bottom lip, you were already exhausted.

“Hmm I’m already done with my chips,” Keigo spoke up, watching what unfolded in front of him with keen eyes.

Your eyes blearily rolled over to him, a glare quivering on your face. He balled up the wrapper. Just as you thought he was going to litter like Dabi, he shoved the trash into your open mouth. As you were going to spit it out, Dabi slapped his hand over your mouth.

“Maybe this will teach you not to run your filthy mouth,” Dabi sneered above you.

Tears streaming down your face, your brows pinched upwards in desperation. Nostrils flaring, you resisted the urge to swallow as saliva built in your palate.

A slam of plastic hitting the table caused you to jump and see Toga glaring down at Dabi and Keigo.

“What are you doing?’

Dabi huffed and shrugged, “Just talking to my girlfriend.”

Now glaring too, you struggled further to get out of his grasp. Keigo went to tug your arms down but Toga snipped.

“Don’t.”

He raised his hands up in defense, “Whoa, don’t need to get pissy with me.”

With Keigo distracted, you clawed at Dabi’s wrists and tried to pry him away. He gripped your neck tight, so tight, your eyes bulged.

Silver flashed as Toga jumped half way on the table to slash at Dabi with a hidden pocket knife. Before she could land a hit, Keigo gripped her arm and swiftly tugged it down.

“Are you trying to get arrested?” Keigo seethed.

Toga kept her gaze on Dabi, pupils blown and bobbling with frenzy. Taking the hint, Dabi pulled away and you doubled over, coughing out both spit and the wrapper in your mouth. Keigo then also released Toga. Discreetly, she flipped her knife back into its hilt and shoved it into her pocket.

Placing his hand on the table, Dabi leaned over you and sneered into your ear, “I’m not finished with you.”

Eyes wide, you barely processed his words as you traced the details of his hand adorned with thick rings. Nails still painted with chipped, black paint. Intricate and darkly shaded bones tracing his own cartilage to cover some of the old burn scars.

He hasn’t changed one bit.

Somehow that both comforted and terrified you. With a bite to your ear, Dabi departed from your trembling frame. Keigo was soon to follow.

Rapidly, Toga took where Keigo sat and rubbed your back.

“This might be stupid to ask, but are you okay?”

Shakingly nodding, you croaked, “That went better than you I thought it would.”

Toga laughed, “You crazy bitch.”

Shrugging, you slumped into her form and shut your eyes. “At least he didn’t kill me.”

“He still might.”

Nodding once more, you agreed with her. Despite her words sounding like a joke, she was completely and utterly serious.

Dabi has killed before and he would do it again. Even—especially—when it came to you.

#yandere dabi #yandere x reader #yandere dabi x reader #yandere #yandere x you #yandere touya #yandere bnha #yandere hawks #yandere hawks x reader #geten x reader

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mariacallous · 9 months ago

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The New York Times once dubbed the Princeton professor Robert George, who has guided Republican elites for decades, “the reigning brain of the Christian right.” Last year, he issued a stark warning to his ideological allies. “Each time we think the horrific virus of anti-Semitism has been extirpated, it reappears,” he wrote in May 2023. “A plea to my fellow Catholics—especially Catholic young people: Stay a million miles from this evil. Do not let it infect your thinking.” When I spoke with George that summer, he likened his sense of foreboding to that of Heinrich Heine, the 19th-century German poet who prophesied the rise of Nazism in 1834.

Some 15 months later, the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson welcomed a man named Darryl Cooper onto his web-based show and introduced him to millions of followers as “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States.” The two proceeded to discuss how Adolf Hitler might have gotten a bad rap and why British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was “the chief villain of the Second World War.”

Hitler tried “to broadcast a call for peace directly to the British people” and wanted to “work with the other powers to reach an acceptable solution to the Jewish problem,” Cooper elaborated in a social-media post. “He was ignored.” Why the Jews should have been considered a “problem” in the first place—and what a satisfactory “solution” to their inconvenient existence might be—was not addressed.

Some Republican politicians spoke out against Carlson’s conversation with Cooper, and many historians, including conservative ones, debunked its Holocaust revisionism. But Carlson is no fringe figure. His show ranks as one of the top podcasts in the United States; videos of its episodes rack up millions of views. He has the ear of Donald Trump and spoke during prime time at the 2024 Republican National Convention. His anti-Jewish provocations are not a personal idiosyncrasy but the latest expression of an insurgent force on the American right—one that began to swell when Trump first declared his candidacy for president and that has come to challenge the identity of the conservative movement itself.

Anti-Semitism has always existed on the political extremes, but it began to migrate into the mainstream of the Republican coalition during the Trump administration. At first, the prejudice took the guise of protest.

In 2019, hecklers pursued the Republican congressman Dan Crenshaw—a popular former Navy SEAL from Texas—across a tour of college campuses, posing leading questions to him about Jews and Israel, and insinuating that the Jewish state was behind the 9/11 attacks. The activists called themselves “Groypers” and were led by a young white supremacist named Nick Fuentes, an internet personality who had defended racial segregation, denied the Holocaust, and participated in the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where marchers chanted, “Jews will not replace us.”

The slogan referred to a far-right fantasy known as the “Great Replacement,” according to which Jews are plotting to flood the country with Black and brown migrants in order to displace the white race. That belief animated Robert Bowers, who perpetrated the largest massacre of Jews on American soil at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 after sharing rants about the Great Replacement on social media. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the gunman wrote in his final post, “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people … Screw your optics, I’m going in.”

Less than three years later, Carlson sanitized that same conspiracy theory on his top-rated cable-news show. “They’re trying to change the population of the United States,” the Fox host declared, “and they hate it when you say that because it’s true, but that’s exactly what they’re doing.” Like many before him, Carlson maintained plausible deniability by affirming an anti-Semitic accusation without explicitly naming Jews as culprits. He could rely on members of his audience to fill in the blanks.

Carlson and Fuentes weren’t the only ones who recognized the rising appeal of anti-Semitism on the right. On January 6, 2021, an influencer named Elijah Schaffer joined thousands of Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol, posting live from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Eighteen months later, Schaffer publicly polled his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers: “Do you believe Jews disproportionately control the world institutions, banks, & are waging war on white, western society?” Social-media polls are not scientific, so the fact that more than 70 percent of respondents said some version of “yes” matters less than the fact that 94,000 people participated in the survey. Schaffer correctly gauged that this subject was something that his audience wanted to discuss, and certainly not something that would hurt his career.

With little fanfare, the tide had turned in favor of those advancing anti-Semitic arguments. In 2019, Fuentes and his faction were disrupting Republican politicians like Crenshaw. By 2022, Fuentes was shaking hands onstage with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. In 2019, the Groyper activists were picketing events held by Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization founded by the activist Charlie Kirk. By 2024, Turning Point was employing—and periodically firing and denouncing—anti-Semitic influencers who appeared at conventions run by Fuentes. “The Zionist Jews controlling our planet are all pedophiles who have no regard for the sanctity of human life and purity,” one of the organization’s ambassadors posted before she was dismissed.

In 2020, Carlson’s lead writer, Blake Neff, was compelled to resign after he was exposed as a regular contributor to a racist internet forum. Today, he produces Kirk’s podcast and recently reported alongside him at the Republican National Convention. “Why does Turning Point USA keep pushing anti-Semitism?” asked Erick Erickson, the longtime conservative radio host and activist, last October. The answer: Because that’s what a growing portion of the audience wants.

“When I began my career in 2017,” Fuentes wrote in May 2023, “I was considered radioactive in the American Right for my White Identitarian, race realist, ‘Jewish aware,’ counter-Zionist, authoritarian, traditional Catholic views … In 2023, on almost every count, our previously radioactive views are pounding on the door of the political mainstream.” Fuentes is a congenital liar, but a year after this triumphalist pronouncement, his basic point is hard to dispute. Little by little, the extreme has become mainstream—especially since October 7.

Last December, Tucker Carlson joined the popular anti-establishment podcast Breaking Points to discuss the Gaza conflict and accused a prominent Jewish political personality of disloyalty to the nation. “They don’t care about the country at all,” he told the host, “but I do … because I’m from here, my family’s been here hundreds of years, I plan to stay here. Like, I’m shocked by how little they care about the country, including the person you mentioned. And I can’t imagine how someone like that could get an audience of people who claim to care about America, because he doesn’t, obviously.”

The twist: “He” was not some far-left activist who had called America an irredeemably racist regime. Carlson was referring to Ben Shapiro, arguably the most visible Jewish conservative in America, and insinuating that despite his decades of paeans to American exceptionalism, Shapiro was a foreign implant secretly serving Israeli interests. The podcast host did not object to Carlson’s remarks.

The war in Gaza has placed Jews and their role in American politics under a microscope. Much has been written about how the conflict has divided the left and led to a spike in anti-Semitism in progressive spaces, but less attention has been paid to the similar shake-up on the right, where events in the Middle East have forced previously subterranean tensions to the surface. Today, the Republican Party’s establishment says that it stands with Israel and against anti-Semitism, but that stance is under attack by a new wave of insurgents with a very different agenda.

Since October 7, in addition to slurring Shapiro, Carlson has hosted a parade of anti-Jewish guests on his show. One was Candace Owens, the far-right podcaster known for her defenses of another anti-Jewish agitator, Kanye “Ye” West. Owens had already clashed with her employer—the conservative outlet The Daily Wire, co-founded by Shapiro—over her seeming indifference to anti-Semitism. But after the Hamas assault, she began making explicit what had previously been implicit—including liking a social-media post that accused a rabbi of being “drunk on Christian blood,” a reference to the medieval blood libel. The Daily Wire severed ties with her soon after. But this did not remotely curb her appeal.

Today, Owens can be found fulminating on her YouTube channel (2.4 million subscribers) or X feed (5.6 million followers) about how a devil-worshipping Jewish cult controls the world, and how Israel was complicit in the 9/11 attacks and killed President John F. Kennedy. Owens has also jumped aboard the Reich-Rehabilitation Express. “What is it about Hitler? Why is he the most evil?” she asked in July. “The first thing people would say is: ‘Well, an ethnic cleansing almost took place.’ And now I offer back: ‘You mean like we actually did to the Germans.’”

“Many Americans are learning that WW2 history is not as black and white as we were taught and some details were purposefully omitted from our textbooks,” she wrote after Carlson’s Holocaust conversation came under fire. The post received 15,000 likes.

Donald Trump’s entry into Republican politics intensified several forces that have contributed to the rise of anti-Semitism on the American right. One was populism, which pits the common people against a corrupt elite. Populists play on discontents that reflect genuine failures of the establishment, but their approach also readily maps onto the ancient anti-Semitic canard that clandestine string-pulling Jews are the source of society’s problems. Once people become convinced that the world is oppressed by an invisible hand, they often conclude that the hand belongs to an invisible Jew.

Another such force is isolationism, or the desire to extricate the United States from foreign entanglements, following decades of debacles in the Middle East. But like the original America First Committee, which sought to keep the country out of World War II, today’s isolationists often conceive of Jews as either rootless cosmopolitans undermining national cohesion or dual loyalists subverting the national interest in service of their own. In this regard, the Tucker Carlsons of 2024 resemble the reactionary activists of the 1930s, such as the aviator Charles Lindbergh, who infamously accused Jewish leaders of acting “for reasons which are not American,” and warned of “their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.”

Populism and isolationism have legitimate expressions, but preventing them from descending into anti-Semitism requires leaders willing to restrain their movement’s worst instincts. Today’s right has fewer by the day. Trump fundamentally refuses to repudiate anyone who supports him, and by devolving power from traditional Republican elites and institutions to a diffuse array of online influencers, the former president has ensured that no one is in a position to corral the right’s excesses, even if someone wanted to.

As one conservative columnist put it to me in August 2023, “What you’re actually worried about is not Trump being Hitler. What you’re worried about is Trump incentivizing anti-Semites,” to the point where “a generation from now, you’ve got Karl Lueger,” the anti-Jewish mayor of Vienna who inspired Hitler, “and two generations from now, you do have something like that.” The accelerant that is social-media discourse, together with a war that brings Jews to the center of political attention, could shorten that timeline.

For now, the biggest obstacle to anti-Semitism’s ascent on the right is the Republican rank and file’s general commitment to Israel, which causes them to recoil when people like Owens rant about how the Jewish state is run by a cabal of satanic pedophiles. Even conservatives like Trump’s running mate, J. D. Vance, a neo-isolationist who opposes foreign aid to Ukraine, are careful to affirm their continued support for Israel, in deference to the party base.

But this residual Zionism shields only Israeli Jews from abuse, not American ones—and it certainly does not protect the large majority of American Jews who vote for Democrats. This is why Trump suffers no consequences in his own coalition when he rails against “liberal Jews” who “voted to destroy America.” But such vilification won’t end there. As hard-core anti-Israel activists who have engaged in anti-Semitism against American Jews have demonstrated, most people who hate one swath of the world’s Jews eventually turn on the rest. “If I don’t win this election,” Trump said last week, “the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss.”

More than populism and isolationism, the force that unites the right’s anti-Semites and explains why they have been slowly winning the war for the future of conservatism is conspiracism. To see its power in practice, one need only examine the social-media posts of Elon Musk, which serve as a window into the mindset of the insurgent right and its receptivity to anti-Semitism.

Over the past year, the world’s richest man has repeatedly shared anti-Jewish propaganda on X, only to walk it back following criticism from more traditional conservative quarters. In November, Musk affirmed the Great Replacement theory, replying to a white nationalist who expressed it with these words: “You have said the actual truth.” After a furious backlash, the magnate recanted, saying, “It might be literally the worst and dumbest post I’ve ever done.” Musk subsequently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accompanied Ben Shapiro on a trip to Auschwitz, but the lesson didn’t quite take. Earlier this month, he shared Carlson’s discussion of Holocaust revisionism with the approbation: “Very interesting. Worth watching.” Once again under fire, he deleted the tweet and apologized, saying he’d listened to only part of the interview.

But this lesson is also unlikely to stick, because like many on the new right, Musk is in thrall to a worldview that makes him particularly susceptible to anti-Jewish ideas. Last September, not long before Musk declared the “actual truth” of the Great Replacement, he participated in a public exchange with a group of rabbis, activists, and Jewish conservatives. The discussion was intended as an intervention to inoculate Musk against anti-Semitism, but early on, he said something that showed why the cause was likely lost before the conversation even began. “I think,” Musk cracked, “we’re running out of conspiracy theories that didn’t turn out to be true.”

The popularity of such sentiments among contemporary conservatives explains why the likes of Carlson and Owens have been gaining ground and old-guard conservatives such as Shapiro and Erickson have been losing it. Simply put, as Trump and his allies have coopted the conservative movement, it has become defined by a fundamental distrust of authority and institutions, and a concurrent embrace of conspiracy theories about elite cabals. And the more conspiratorial thinking becomes commonplace on the right, the more inevitable that its partisans will land on one of the oldest conspiracies of them all.

Conspiratorial thinking is neither new to American politics nor confined to one end of the ideological spectrum. But Trump has made foundational what was once marginal. Beginning with birtherism and culminating in election denialism, he turned anti-establishment conspiracism into a litmus test for attaining political power, compelling Republicans to either sign on to his claims of 2020 fraud or be exiled to irrelevance.

The fundamental fault line in the conservative coalition became whether someone was willing to buy into ever more elaborate fantasies. The result was to elevate those with flexible approaches to facts, such as Carlson and Owens, who were predisposed to say and do anything—no matter how hypocritical or absurd—to obtain influence. Once opened, this conspiratorial box could not be closed. After all, a movement that legitimizes crackpot schemes about rigged voting machines and microchipped vaccines cannot simply turn around and draw the line at the Jews.

For mercenary opportunists like Carlson, this moment holds incredible promise. But for Republicans with principles—those who know who won the 2020 election, or who was the bad guy in World War II, and can’t bring themselves to say otherwise—it’s a time of profound peril. And for Jews, the targets of one of the world’s deadliest conspiracy theories, such developments are even more forboding.

“It is now incumbent on all decent people, and especially those on the right, to demand that Carlson no longer be treated as a mainstream figure,” Jonathan Tobin, the pro-Trump conservative editor of the Jewish News Syndicate, wrote after Carlson’s World War II episode. “He must be put in his place, and condemned by Trump and Vance.”

Anti-Semitism’s ultimate victory in GOP politics is not assured. Musk did delete his tweets, Owens was fired, and some Republicans did condemn Carlson’s Holocaust segment. But beseeching Trump and his camp to intervene here mistakes the cause for the cure.

Three days after Carlson posted his Hitler apologetics, Vance shrugged off the controversy and recorded an interview with him, and this past Saturday, the two men yukked it up onstage at a political event in Pennsylvania before an audience of thousands. Such coziness should not surprise, given that Carlson was reportedly instrumental in securing the VP slot for the Ohio senator. Asked earlier if he took issue with Carlson’s decision to air the Holocaust revisionism, Vance retorted, “The fundamental idea here is Republicans believe not in censorship; we believe in free speech and debate.” He conveniently declined to use his own speech to debate Carlson’s.

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demifiendrsa · 2 months ago

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youtube

LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS VOLUME 4 | Official Trailer

Season 4 of Love Death + Robots will stream on Netflix on May 15, 2025.

Poster

Volume 4 episode guide

CAN’T STOP

Synopsis: A unique take on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ legendary 2003 performance at Slane Castle, Ireland, with band members Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, and John Frusciante recreated as string-puppets. Directed by David Fincher, who originally made his name with music videos in the 1980s and early ’90s, before segueing into unforgettable feature films. Director: David Fincher Music, Lyrics and Performance: Red Hot Chili Peppers Animation Studio: Blur Studio. Voice Cast: Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, Chad Smith

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE MINI KIND

Synopsis: Tiny terror is unleashed in this mini alien apocalypse as directors Robert Bisi and Andy Lyon pay loving tribute to classic sci-fi stories of alien invasion and human stupidity using tilt-shift techniques that make the end of the world look almost cute. Director: Robert Bisi & Andy Lyon Writer: Robert Bisi & Andy Lyon Animation Studio: BUCK

SPIDER ROSE

Synopsis: A return to the fantastic cyberpunk universe of “Swarm” (Vol. 3), created by visionary sci-fi author Bruce Sterling and directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson. On a remote asteroid mining operation, a grieving Mechanist gets a new companion and has a chance to avenge herself against the Shaper assassin who killed her husband. Director: Jennifer Yuh Nelson Writer: Joe Abercrombie, based on the short story by Bruce Sterling Animation Studio: Blur Studio Voice Cast: Emily O’Brien, Feodor Chin, Piotr Michael & Sumalee Montano

400 BOYS

Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic city where warring gangs follow a bushido-like code of honor, a new gang, the 400 Boys, forces them to unite. A blend of beauty and brutality from Canadian director Robert Valley, whose LDR episode “Ice” won the Emmy for Outstanding Short Form Animation. Director: Robert Valley Writer: Tim Miller, based on the short story by Marc Laidlaw Animation Studio: Passion Animation, a Division of Passion Pictures Voice Cast: John Boyega, Ed Skrein, Sienna King, Dwane Walcott, Rahul Kohli, Pamela Nomvete & Amar Chadha-Patel

THE OTHER LARGE THING

Synopsis: From the mind of prolific writer John Scalzi comes the story of a cat who plans world domination. Sanchez, as his puny human “pets” know him, is helped by a new robotic butler (voiced by Last Week Tonight host John Oliver) who can hack into the World Wide Web and is eager to help his new master. Director: Patrick Osborne Writer: John Scalzi Animation Studio: AGBO Voice Cast: Chris Parnell, John Oliver, Fred Tatasciore & Rachel Kimsey

GOLGOTHA

Synopsis: In a rare live-action entry in Love, Death + Robots, a conscientious vicar – played by Rhys Darby, (What We Do In The Shadows) – plays host to an emissary of an alien race who believes their messiah has been reborn on earth… as a dolphin. So, uh… yeah, Dolphin-Jesus. Directed by Tim Miller. Director: Tim Miller Writer: Joe Abercrombie, based on the short story by Dave Hutchinson Animation Studio: Luma Pictures (VFX) Voice Cast: Rhys Darby, Moe Daniels, Graham McTavish, Phil Morris, Michelle Lukes & Matthew Waterson

THE SCREAMING OF THE TYRANNOSAUR

Synopsis: On a space station orbiting Jupiter, decadent aristocrats gather to witness a brutal contest of genetically modified gladiators — fierce combatants riding deadly, engineered dinosaurs. A tale of visceral violence and unlikely emotion, directed by Tim Miller, based on a short story by Stant Litore. Director: Tim Miller Writer: Tim Miller, based on the short story by Stant Litore Animation Studio: Blur Studio Voice Cast: MrBeast & Bai Ling

HOW ZEKE GOT RELIGION

Synopsis: B-17 Flying Fortress Liberty Belle has the oddest mission of World War Two: a journey into occupied France to bomb a church before the Nazis can raise an ancient evil. John McNichol’s short story of blood, fallen archangels, occult magic, and ultraviolence is directed by Diego Porral (lead animator on previous LDR classic “Kill Team Kill”). Director: Diego Porral Writer: J.T. Petty, based on the short story by John McNichol Animation Studio: Titmouse Voice Cast: Keston John, Braden Lynch, Roger Craig Smith, Gary Furlong, Bruce Thomas, Andrew Morgado & Scott Whyte

SMART APPLIANCES, STUPID OWNERS

Synopsis: From an angry toothbrush to an overworked smart showerhead and an intelligent toilet, various household appliances divulge tales of bemusement, scorn, and wonder about their human owners. Directed by Patrick Osborne, of Vol. 3 favorite “Three Robots: Exit Strategies.” Director: Patrick Osborne Writer: John Scalzi Animation Studio: Aaron Sims Creative Voice Cast: Melissa Villaseñor, Ronny Chieng, Amy Sedaris, Kevin Hart, Josh Brener, Nat Faxon, Niecy Nash-Betts & Brett Goldstein

FOR HE CAN CREEP

Synopsis: London, 1757. A poet confined to an insane asylum believes Satan wants him to write a verse that will end the world. And the only thing standing between him and the Prince of Darkness (voiced by Dan Stevens) is his cat, Jeoffry. Emily Dean directs this wildly inventive period adaptation of Siobhan Carroll’s short story. Director: Emily Dean Writer: Tamsyn Muir, based on the short story by Siobhan Carroll Animation Studio: Polygon Pictures Inc. Voice Cast: Dan Stevens, JB Blanc, Jim Broadbent, Nika Futterman, Jane Leeves & Dave B. Mitchell

#Love Death and Robots #Netflix #television #cartoon #animated series #shorts #animated shorts

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the-worms-in-your-bones · 3 months ago

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Lore notes: Neverland

‘Humanian era’ → this does make me wonder how the time lords measure time across the universe, we know the names of a few eras, but i wonder what these measurements are based in, what are considered big enough events for them to name an era after, also they are clearly using different time units/measurements to talk about the different eras (human dating system for humanian era, what i presume is a time lord dating system for the rassilon era)

‘Files on doomsday weapon stolen’ → well they’ve got a doomsday weapon then

Outer planets → gallifrey’s colonies?

‘6796.8’ → example of one of the measurements of time (years?) used when talking about gallifrey

Also interesting that the rassilon era seems to also be the contemporary era on gallifrey, i would have expected it to be the time when rassilon was alive (or maybe their eras are really long, or they cycle through them or something, idk)

‘Oh it’s possible, the daleks obliteration might cause terrible [word] in the web of time’ → the time lords are willing to let a species like the daleks continue existing and killing just to protect their precious web of time, what happens doesn’t actually matter unless it interferes with their perception of the right way for events to happen

‘That dull grey box’ → default tardis exteriors (these ones are specifically battle tardises)

‘May the star of rassilon guide you, his wisdom inform you, and his sash be your protection in the vastness of your duties’ → vansell just says this to romana when she walks into the room and asks him a question, her reply makes me think that it’s some sort of ceremonial greeting type thing, though i feel like this is the only time we hear it (is vansell just being annoying, is it something that exists, but no one actually does) (did the writers just forget about it) (i mean romana does seem to not like this so maybe that’s why we don’t hear it again, but i don’t think we heard it before either)

Doctor’s tardis is referred to as a time capsule, but then the battle tardises are called tardises

Also ‘tardises with full offensive capabilities’ vs the time lords having very little defenses the last time we saw them, romana was serious about them not being defenseless anymore (though in the last episode with them, they didn’t exactly have access to the tardises, but their lack of defenses was still brought up)

‘Blocking all entrances to the vortex across five million consecutive years’ → two things a) that’s got to be a lot of battle tardises and b) the implication that there are specific ways to ender the vortex, you can’t just do it

They’re on a time station

‘Power down your vessel’ → can just power down a tardis, and also can do that in the time vortex, assumedly without having horrible consequences (at least in the short term)

Time torpedoes from the battle tardises → ‘we’ll be frozen in a microsecond of spacetime for several centuries, long enough for the time lords to override the tardis’s entrance protocols’

The doctor’s tardis has been sealed and frozen for a few hundred years, but it doesn’t seem to have been any significant amount of time for the other time lords → kept in some sort of time pocket? time stasis? just stuck in the time vortex?

‘ostophossius’ a common thing in time lords names

‘Our time in the academy, all of six hundred years ago’ → the doctor states earlier in this audio that he’s around 950, which would mean they were in the academy at 300, which doesn’t line up with previous things we’ve seen about the academy (and when the doctor left gallifrey), so either a) the doctor has experienced more time than vansell and their timelines are slightly out of sync here, or b) the writers forgot about all that stuff and just put a number in there

Also is back to the commonality of academy nicknames (well i say back to, to my knowledge it only got brought up once before this in the happiness patrol, but we do see later that they seem to be a pretty common thing)

‘The right clearly stated in the Archetryx convention to be tried by an independently assembled commission of the temporal powers’ → time lords beholden to laws outside of their own now it seems

‘In your nice earth chair’ → i mean we’ve seen some gallifreyan chairs, so yeah, earth chair is probably a distinction that they can make (we have also seen some normal looking chairs though, so who knows)

The time lords talking to charley as if they she is a toddler

‘Over the last few quarters’ → what is a quarter, who knows, but it’s a description of time lord time measurements, so it’s going in here

‘A thesis which has been among the thinking circles for some time, one which has never been accepted into our codex of disciplines’ → she’s talking about anti time, yet another time lord ‘myth’ that actually exists

‘The flat galaxy society’ → adding this to the list of throw away lines that i desperately need to know more about, what weird gallifreyan groups/cults are there

‘But it’s given far less credence’ ‘officially’ → interesting, so the cia (well, assuming the other parts of government aren’t in on this as well) is looking into ‘false’ theories, why, because they believe them? just to cover all of their bases?

‘The web of time could not exist until the great rassilon built the eye of harmony, the hitching post of chronology, that which does not flux, nor wither, nor change its state’ ‘the eye of harmony created a universe of positive time, finite time. Gallifrey anchored the continuity of the universe’ → the web of time is a product of the time lords, it is not an inherent property of the universe (and therefore all the things about preserving the web of time are really about preserving the status quo that the time lords have set)

‘The agency no longer has enough operatives to maintain continuity across the universe, history is leaking like a sieve’ → again, the time lords having control over what they have deemed has to happen

‘The matrix, as you know, is a vast repository housing the combined intelligences of all time lords, past and present, living and dead’ → it’s a little funny to me that the majority of the time the matrix gets brought up they give us a slightly differently worded explanation of what it is

‘We have turned the entirety of the matrix over to remembering all of history as it should be recorded’ → the matrix as a whole can just be made to do things, i wonder what kind of power it takes to do that and who can give those orders (i’d assume president)

Vansell just seems to summon a projection (?) of the matrix to show the doctor what is going on

All of history is too much for the matrix (i wonder if there would be a point in gallifrey’s future where the amount of time lords became too much for it (that is in a timeline without the war), though i guess that then they would be able to update it because it wouldn’t be a sudden thing like this is)

Cia upholds the ‘true course of history’

‘It is in fact a portal into the matrix, an eighth door if you will’ → so a) they can build doors into the matrix that a person can physically go into (as opposed to just projecting themselves mentally into the matrix) and b) what’s up with the numbered doors, do they signify anything, is it just the order in which these doors were built, why so few

The doctor has an ‘actual presence the projection’

‘Kasterboran borealis’ → stars visible in the sky above gallifrey

‘Mount cadon’ → mountain that can be seen from the city surrounding the citadel

‘Silver leaves of the cadonwood trees’

‘The skies, which once danced with lights, purple and green and brilliant yellow’

‘Talking to yourself like some shabogan’ → time lord view/stereotype of regular gallifreyans (?)

Architecture that can reconfigure itself

President can sanction meddling in time to prevent (or make sure things happen too probably) certain events

I wonder what the difference between a time station and a tardis is, they both are able to travel through space and time, is it kind of an aircraft carrier vs plane type thing?

Time lords can get travel sick (though, it possibly has something to do with the unusual nature of the trip they’re taking, but i’m still writing it down)

‘How do we learn about anti time without our sensors’ (paraphrasing) → time lords so reliant on technology that going outside and looking doesn’t actually come up as something you can do (also a bit interesting to me that this is romana saying this, because she was a renegade, but she also was always more time lord than the doctor even when they were traveling together, and i guess she had less time to shake that bit off)

‘You are witnessing the life and death and life of an entire universe taking place in an ever changing instant’ ‘well that was always the theory doctor. Our academics put it in slightly less florid terms’

‘Vansell, your boss?’ ‘our superior’ → is vansell not the highest in the chain of command, i would assume that the coordinator of the cia would be, but i guess he answers to the president (though i wonder if that’s how it always was, or if that is a result of changes romana made, because previous things make it seem a bit like the cia is their own entity separate from the rest of time lord politics)

Interesting how their first instinct is to shoot at the ghosts, the time lords have a reputation for being civilized and just sitting and watching, but we do see them be pretty quick to use violence, especially as time goes on and especially within some aspects of their society (cia, chancellery guard) more than others

Also the staser noises sound a bit different here (they’re shorter?)

‘You made us time lord, here we can unmake you’ → from the ghosts, i know we’ll be getting more about this later, so i’m not gonna get into it here

‘We know you kurstelliafestixon, a cousin of the patrex house, under assassin with the celestial intervention agency, fast tracked from the chancellery guard, you keep a striped pigbear called staser snout and feed him promaze bars’

‘Patrex house’ instead of chapter → is there house called patrex (assumedly started by the same person who started the chapter), or are the writers just getting the two mixed up, either way, houses mention, yay

Assassin is a job you can have at the cia, unsurprising

‘fast tracked from the chancellery guard’ → there are ways to skip the proper cia training, wonder if its a sort of thing similar to someone taking college classes/ap classes before college and just transferring the credits so they can skip the intro courses, or does the cia select specific people and give them a fast pass

Love that he has a little pet, i kind of wish we got to see more into the everyday life aspects of time lord lives rather than just the things they do in emergency situations or politics, because i want to know more stuff like this, are pets common, what kinds of animals do people keep as pets, stuff like that

Also they’re getting all this by pulling it straight from his mind, that’s probably important to note

The ghosts can just absorb (?) the energy of living beings

Actually seems like it’s time energy

Vansell starts reciting the zagreus while semi conscious → something about where they are, or something subliminal buried in time lord brians

Yet another reference to people being removed from history, that’s just a thing they can do

‘You over reach your authority vansell’ → romana’s response to him trying to order the guards around

‘And there is a higher authority than yours madam president’ → cia may officially be under the jurisdiction of the president, but they can still be more powerful than the president (monarch) (god) when need be, they are the ones really in control of time among the time lords

Time lord technology can regenerate itself to an extent, well at least the newer stuff

Zagreus is clearly something that the cia was looking into before this

‘All that temporal energy flowing through them’ → time is a physical part of a time lord

‘The books of zagreus’ → this is very much being presented as a sort of mythological text, which makes me wonder what other similar things they have, and when do they move from mythology to truth (though this being the time lords, we can assume they are all true, no matter what the time lords believe about them) how is proof here quantified

Planetoid they are on is a tardis wreck

They are able to power up this tardis with just a bit of energy

Also when they do this it shows them a projection of the pilot

‘An old man, eternally sad and infinitely wise’

Romana orders them to kneel in front of rassilon → he’s treated like a god

‘It has been a time beyond measuring – here, alone in the cold, adrift and aloof from my people, my home. Once, my name was hailed and feared in equal measure by friends and enemies alike. Know, then, that I am Conqueror of Yssgaroth, Overpriest of Drornid, First Earl of Prydon, Patris of the Vortex, Ravager of the Void... and President of Gallifrey from the time of our empire's Great Foundation. I am the Lord Rassilon. At last, my children, you have returned to me.’

Shout out to the transcript for that one, love not having to type all of that out, also think it’s notable that rassilon’s voice here is described as ‘something like the voice of god’

Also the way he says he is president, it’s as if he never stopped being president

‘A long time past, I helped end centuries of tyranny and bloodshed on my own planet. Helped to usher in a great age of enlightenment, with faithful counsel from the wisest of my Technomagi. I locked the space time continuum with the great Eye of Harmony. But, in my declining years, I grew fearful that by constructing the one true Time, I might have brought into being its very opposite. The menace of what I termed anti-time. A vile poison which might yet spill out to contaminate and undo all I had sought to achieve filled me with horror and dread. I resolved to journey into the strange, uncharted fringes of space time in search of my nemesis. And here, in this weird unreality, I found the Neverworld of Zagreus, the corpus of chaos and nowhen. I have battled this entity. It is dormant, docile now. My Tardis shattered, my exit hole shut. I am trapped in this place. But I leave this message in the hope that one day my Time Lords will find a way to rescue me. My body I have placed in a Zero Cabinet nearby, my last breath suspended. If I live, my children, I should like you to revive me and take me to Gallifrey. Take me home’

Don’t have the energy to actually say much about all that, but i’m definitely putting it there

‘What do you call someone so powerful they rescue god’ ‘there are no gods, doctor, rassilon least of all’ → no i think he has a point here, you certainly treat him like a god

Zagreus is a nursery rhyme

Seems to be a prophetic one as well (descriptive of what is currently happening to the web of time)

Zagreus is also a character in the mythologies of other worlds → i know pandora comes later, but interesting to me how multiple time lord myths/figures exist across the universe

‘The heresy of anti time’ → really love the depiction of time lord society as a sort of fucked up religious order

‘VANSELL: It would explain why the idea of anti-time has always been discredited or suppressed. An enduring legacy of Rassilon's lieutenants. But a possible congruence between these tales and the heresy of anti-time's been noted for centuries.

ROMANA: Only recently have our students been brave enough to break with the Great Curriculum, to open their eyes to newer fields, sharing their knowledge with other of the Temporal Powers.

VANSELL: An undertaking which my Agency has been happy to assist. But imagine if the great Rassilon were to be returned to us, he who began the intuitive revelation, who established the Eye of Harmony and anchored the space time vortex. How much could we achieve? How much further could the Time Lords go? Madam President, the proof lies inside a Zero Cabinet somewhere within the bounds of this planet. Or Tardis. Whatever.’

Purposeful suppression of ideas that did not align with what rassilon (or the people following him) wanted to be known and accepted

The academy and cia seem to be the bringers of change in time lord society, the cia makes sense, their whole thing is intervention, though if i had to guess they do it more behind the scenes, and the academy also makes sense, it is a place of learning and ideas, even if you try to make students stick to one way of thinking some of them just won’t

Don’t have a lot to say on the rassilon stuff, but it’s there

Zero cabinet and casket treated as the same thing → something something the death of a time lord's body isn’t actually the end, so what is a casket but a special kind of stasis chamber

‘We time lords are a pretty conservative bunch, the minds in the matrix even more so. The slightest tremor in their web sets their senses jangling, of course the matrix is in turmoil’ → implication that the matrix projection shown may not be the only/most accurate one, but rather the one that the matrix wants to show, its prophecies are altered by the views of the time lords within it

‘I won't. We have held ourselves back too long, bound by caution, tradition and deference. We're a joke! We maintain the universe. Oh, yes. We preserve it in amber, its injustices uncorrected. Aggressors go unpunished in the name of mediation. Doctor, you placed the Daleks, the Daleks, the most evil, ruthless, coldly calculating race to have ever stained our history, in a time loop. We could crush them, now. Ensure that the torments they visit upon every peoples they encounter never occur again. But will we? Will we? We could work with our allies, the Monan Host, the Warpsmiths of Phaidon, humanity even, to build a consensus for progress across all the galaxies. To be a radical force for the advancement of a common good.’

Interesting to me that the head of the cia is in breaking with tradition, given that it seems the cia’s job is interference with the purpose of making things fit within the ideas of what the time lords think the universe should be

‘Why not? Do we have to argue whether or not we should negotiate the return of the architect of our race? A progressive, a hero who was unafraid to reach out to the unknown to further not just the glory of his people, but the security of the people of the entire universe. Our reality is falling apart, and yet you vacillate while the one man who might have the wisdom and power to resolve this crisis is within your reach!’

Rassilon treated as more important and powerful than other time lords

Also from the things we know about him, i wouldn’t exactly call him a progressive

‘President of gallifrey and all its dominions’ → they say this often enough, but i do wish we got to hear more about it

Vansell turning in romana to the neverpeople → interesting to me when we consider that the coordinator is apparently loyal to the office of president (according to narvin), he clearly sees rassilon as the ultimate president, so it is okay to betray the current one for his sake

‘When you were a little girl, lady romana, no more than 60 years or so’ → 60 is little girl, but she has a hover car at 70, so i feel like this is more an adults calling anyone under 18 a child than 60 actually being super young thing (still, i’d love more of a look into what is considered childhood on gallifrey given that they live so long)

‘Spend most summers in a rambling house on the shores of lake abydos. You used to go swimming with the singing fish. You collected zinc hawthorns from the molten rushes near the water's edge’

Summers on gallifrey, seem to have summer breaks from the academy as well

Location name → lake abydos

They’ve got singing fish and whatever zinc hawthorns are

‘I was an only child’ → something something gallifreyan family structures, possible to have siblings (look, i’m a fan of the looms and everyone benign cousins lore, so for my own sake i’m gonna say that siblings here aren’t literal people with the same parents, but rather loomlings who were loomed and raised around the same time, but you can interpret that however you want, i just like the idea that family roles are more defined by the role that person has in your life than your actual relation to them, because everyone is a cousin)

Talking about a hermit → was it just a common thing for there to just be a hermit hanging around the houses?

‘The Jasquig Records, the War Perceptors, the Cavox Imperative.’ → gallifrey’s most closely guarded secrets, revealed to romana when she became president (along with the oubliette of eternity)

SENTRIS: What is the Oubliette of Eternity, Madam President?

ROMANA: A disused chamber deep in the heart of our largest off-world station.

SENTRIS: The Headquarters of the Celestial Intervention Agency. Could you tell me, Madam President, what this chamber was used for?

ROMANA: Dispersal. A barbaric punishment long since abolished. Is this relevant?

SENTRIS: Very. And what exactly did dispersal entail?

ROMANA: It was reserved for those found guilty only of the highest treason against Gallifrey. Inside the chamber, offenders would be dissipated from history, their entire timeline erased as if they had never existed.

SENTRIS: And where, do you suppose, did these dispersed people go?

ROMANA: Nowhere. I mean, they'd never existed. There was nowhere for them to go.

Dispersed people go to the antiverse

They never existed in the first place now

‘Once you were gallifreyans, time lords even’ → we know by this point that they are different, but i’m writing it down anyway

Cia in charge of dispersements

People seem to be dispersed based on things that would be a disruption to the set status quo

Dispersals seem rare, but people also can’t remember them happening because then that person never existed

Not actually that rare (sentris approved over 200 in a year)

Records for this are kept in a time protected vault so that they don’t get overwritten with the timeline

Anti time acts sort of like a virus it seems

‘That paranoid despot, the architect of the web of time, the worm who denied free will to the people of the universe chained them to his eye, bound them to one single reality, who decreed that any threat to his great empire's sanctity should be dispersed from all time’

‘Rassilon created anti time’ ‘and he called it zagreus’ → wow a time lord myth based in truth, who could have guessed

Well, it isn’t exactly true, it’s a trick, but i’m still counting it

‘Not one single atom can arrive on gallifrey without authorisation’ → presidential vessel, however, doesn’t need to give warning, especially given it has the head of the cia, both positions have enough power to override pretty much any time lord security measure

‘All that maintains the constance of the universe is the eye of harmony’ → possibly not in regular times, but with the web of time damaged and stretched this is true

‘It will be as if the Time Lords had never existed. History will be a blank canvas. A churning chaos of twisted, unregulated Time’ → the universe if anti time gets to the eye of harmony

Also with this whole thing, it seems that there is relatively easy travel in between universes, like it takes some different technology, but it’s still treated as something they’re just doing

given that romana is still there and presumably president how is vansell the acting president, is he just calling himself that, seems like a thing he would do (maybe it’s the whole the never people are planning to kill her thing)

Vansells pledge of loyalty until basically the end of time → something something either it’s the office of president that does this to people, like the time lords are basically programmed to be like this, or it’s something about romana (I’m gonna say a mix of the two)

Entering the matrix seems to be generally disorienting

The matrix is a bunch of voices talking over each other, interesting to me because we’ve never seen it this way before, it seemed to work more as you pulled up the information you needed, not people were already there talking, maybe this is a product of it being overwhelmed by the zagreus situation

‘No amendments can be made to transduction permits during a state of emergency, with no exemptions’ → recent rule (from vansell)

Undercardinal → that’s a job (can’t remember if i noted that before, but i’m putting it here anyway)

Matrix can be accessed off of gallifrey

Rassilon stops the doctor’s tardis (they’re sort of frozen in a time bubble(?) while things go on around them) → how is he doing this, some inherent power he has over tardises and/or time lords because of his part in inventing time travel/the species, can reach them even though he is dead

The doctor doesn’t seem to actually remember this interaction

Breaking the web of time seems to erase the existing past

‘The time lord known only as the doctor’ → interesting that this is how the matrix records his name since we know that he has gone by other names and we know at least one of those (theta sigma)

‘An old man, eternally sad and infinitely wise’ → description of rassilon

‘But there is more than one way out of the dreamscape for those whom the Matrix favours. The choice is yours, Madam President’ → then rassilon gives her a door to get out of the matrix (the matrix is simultaneously a physical and nonphysical space, it seems you can project an avatar of yourself into it while your physical body remains in the real world, or fully enter it, but it doesn’t exist in real space) (something something what is a time lord but a computer, so of course they can wander around within a computer)

Rassilon referring to romana as things like ‘daughter of time’ or just ‘daughter’ → something something founding father who literally created the species

#doctor who #neverland #eighth doctor #j rambles #lore project #gallifrey relisten #circular gallifreyan #dw art

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hothothotch · 2 years ago

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hi sweetheart! after you absolutely killed my last request and cleaned every dish with it MM MM MMMMM I'm back

this time, DBF!Hotch. The two of you got caught on your dad's new security camera beside the house that you didn't know about. Your dad tries to send aaron home to chew you out on it but Aaron gets all defensive and refuses to let you take the fall for both of your actions (maybe this leads to aaron's first acknowledgement that he loves you, 😮‍💨) but yes just protective!hotch standing up for you and your relationship 🦋🦋

Hello I'm baaaack!

I'm finally taking the web off the asks that got lost on my inbox when I disappeared, so you may see me for a few days!

Requests are still open, and you're invited to send anything Aaron Hotchner on my way.

Thank you for your request!

LUCK: sucess or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions. Chance considered as a force that causes good or bad things to happen.

With you, it was usually bad things.

Of course, there were exceptions — like when you graduated in law, only a few months ago; or the day your father (the Senator) allowed you to go for a guided visit to the FBI to study it's many Units just because you wanted to see law being applied on different contexts; or — and this one was your absolute favorite — when you stumbled into your dad's best friend, Aaron Hotchner.

The latter one had been an absolute blast.

Aaron Hotchner was BAU's Unit Chief, and thanks to his ties with your father, he had been the one responsible for your tour of the sixth floor. Aaron had been attentive and careful, he embraced your curiosity as if he was being paid to give someone a tour, and not to find serial killers.

At the end of your tour, he offered you his number because, "I was a lawyer, so if you ever need something, or another tour, just give me a call".

One week later, you called him to ask for advice on a hard case you've taken at the law firm you were working at; Aaron asked you to dinner so you could talk privately about it, and helped you go over the case files. You also talked some more about your private lives — how he had an 8-year-old son, how you had a dog, how both your jobs took more time from you than you wanted. At the end of the dinner, there was another one scheduled.

Aaron had to reschedule that one (a case in Alaska wanted his immediate attention), but he knocked on your door first thing when he came back, a bouquet of flowers (sunflowers, to be exact) in hand as he proposed you'd go out for that delayed dinner. You accepted right away.

The third date was at your home, and that was the first time you kissed. The first time you've done way more than kissing. By the time Aaron left your home that night — staying over wasn't an option when he had a son at home —, you were sure there was nothing you wanted more than a solid career and to have that man's hands on you again.

That was when things started to go wrong.

You've had your fourth date scheduled when a pipe at your home exploded, causing a flood to start in your bathroom and spread all over your house; and while you weren't excited to go back into living with your father, that was the only available (and financially worthy) option, because you certainly wouldn't ask Aaron to let you live with him.

No. Nope. Absolutely not.

It wasn't like you were dating, on the romantic sense of the word. Yes, you had feelings for him; yes, you messaged so often that people had asked more than once if you were in a relationship; and yes, you did way more than just making out like hormonal teenagers whenever you had a second to be together.

But Aaron had a son, and you had a golden retriever (and said golden retriever was too attached to Aaron, to be honest), and a month and a few days of hookup wasn't enough to justify calling someone and saying, "Hey, mind if I crash down at yours while my pipes are being changed?".

"Yes, honey" Aaron nodded, looking down at you as he played with your hair, "That's exactly what you should've said".

You rolled your eyes, shaking your head in bewilderment. That was probably the third time you've been having that discussion, but it was the first time you've done it personally since Aaron had just came back from a case.

As usual, Aaron spent the night at home with Jack (he did invite you to go over, but you didn't feel like you were this far in your relationship to say yes) and appeared first thing in the morning at your father's house to see you. Now, you were lying together on the backyard, Aaron looking down at you, prompted up on his shoulders as you laid on the towel you brought out.

It was intimate, cute. The kind of moment you wouldn't have anywhere else, since the two of you lived on apartments. It was special, as if there was something more going on there, something unspoken.

Frightening. That was the word to describe it. And yet...

"I'll keep that in mind next time" you replied, a smile spreading on your face at the sight of the smallest quirk on his lips, "I like it when you smile, Aaron".

Aaron's smile widened, and God — you could feel your heart beating faster at that godly image, at the fact that you had put that smile on his face, the realization that his look of adoration was for you, and not any other woman.

"I like it when you smile, too" he whispered, leaning to press a soft kiss against your lips, "Even if this is not a rare occasion, because you're the softest person I've met".

"Oh, come on!" you pushed him away, and even if it was nothing more than the touch of your hand against his chest, Aaron pretended to fall backward on the towel, a silent invitation for you to lay on his chest, "I'm not soft!".

"Yes, you are" Aaron replied with a laugh, "Even more than Garcia, and she's essentially a marshmallow".

You gasped at his words, placing your hand on your heart as if he had offended you, "I can't believe you said that! I am a serious lawyer!".

"Never said you weren't, honey" Aaron pointed, pressing a soft kiss against your head, "Just that you're a very soft lawyer, that's always good to everybody".

"Which some would point as a weakness".

"Some are stupid" Aaron shrugged, "You are not. You're the best lawyer I've met, and I know you can do great things, baby".

You didn't know how to react to his words if there was an appropriate way to react. On these few months you've been seeing each other, Aaron had made a point of cheering you on whenever he could, and even managed to watch some of your court hearings (a benefit he got from being both an ex-lawyer and an FBI Agent), always having some strategic input for the next one.

Aaron has been helping, and has been hearing. He believed you even when you weren't sure your father believed.

God, you loved that man.

"Thank you" you whispered shyly, moving to kiss his lips, "I don't know what—".

"What the fuck is happening here?".

So, here's where the word luck suddenly turns into unluck. That specific moment in time, when you realize that the feeling of something missed you've been nurturing, had nothing to do with a lack of word to define your relationship with Aaron, but with the fact that at the end of the day... your father had no idea you've been dating Aaron.

It wasn't like you were hiding it from him — you've been open about dating someone, and he was aware that he knew that someone, but in truth you've never properly told him who that someone was. And while you wanted to say it was pretty obvious (because you've lost count on how many times you and your dad talked about Aaron when having dinner together), your dad had never been the one to read between the lines.

So, yeah. That was kinda your fault.

"Dad!" you stood up immediately, thanking every god available you and Aaron had decided to just lay outside, and not do something else, "You're home early".

"Yeah? You tell me" your dad snorted bitterly, looking between you and Aaron with anger written all over his face, "I was watching the security camera because I know this is when you get Lucky ready for her walk, and what do I see? You and Aaron here together! What was I supposed to do?".

You had some answers on your mind, but none of them seemed important as you looked around, eyes half-closed as you studied the space around you, "There are no security cameras on the backyard".

"Thank God I put on some last week!" your father pointed, "I thought you'd be safer if I did, and now I see that was providential for some other reasons".

You noticed when Aaron stood up beside you, his hand touching the small of your back softly, "There's no reason for you to talk with that this way".

"No reason? No—" your dad stopped, pinching the bridge of his nose for a second before he pointed at Aaron, "You, I want you out of my house. And you—".

"No".

For a second, you thought you'd been the one to mutter that simple word, that you had dared to say 'no' to your father to defend a... situationship with Aaron; it made sense because in your heart you wanted — craved — to tell your father that he couldn't tell you who you could date, or to put your "I'm an adult" speech to use, but you hadn't been the person to retort.

It had been Aaron.

"What did you say?" your father barked, his eyes twitching in nervousness.

"I said no" Aaron replied, taking a step in front of you, "You're not gonna talk like that with her. Not today, not ever".

"I'm her father—".

"That doesn't mean you don't owe her respect!" Aaron retorted, his voice louder than your father's, "You wanna talk about us, that's your right. You wanna know about us, that's also your right. But to scream with her in order to get some manipulated answer, that's not happening, not on my watch".

You knew you were supposed to step up and say something. Maybe you should tell Aaron to leave, so you could talk privately to your father; maybe you should stand with Aaron and leave with him because, honestly, you were dreading this specific talk.

But having Aaron defending you?

You've decided to study law because you knew what it was not to have someone on your back. Of course, your father had defended you in some instances, but there were other moments he'd made it known he'd step out so you could solve things by yourself; it did help you build character (as he used to say), but you missed having someone patting your back at the end of the day, or helping with the fights you just didn't feel ready to fight.

Aaron was just that person.

You didn't know if it was because he was FBI or it was his lawyer side rubbing in again, but it didn't matter — Aaron was fighting for you. Fighting for what you had.

God, you really loved that man.

"Okay" your father humphed, both his hands on his waist as he looked directly at you, "Then plead your case. And I hope is a good plea, because I didn't pay for the best university is this country for you to give me some lame reasoning—".

"Shut up!".

Yeah, this time it was you. And you knew that if you didn't go on with that, you probably would get too afraid to continue, so... "I'm an adult, dad" you cringed at how lame your words sounded in front of what Aaron had just said, "I won't say there isn't an age gap..."

"Twenty years" your father pointed between gritted teeth.

"But I'm an adult!" you stomped your feet, holding Aaron's arm, "I'm 28, I'm a lawyer, and I..." you closed your eyes, biting your bottom lip before those three words escaped her lips, "I can make my own decisions, dad. I'm not asking for your permission, I'm asking acceptance".

Silence. Deafening silence.

"Can I talk to Aaron?" your father asked finally. You could read anger all over his face, the way his jaw was tense and his hands were closed in fists, but you could also see defeat in his eyes — the realization that it didn't matter what he did or said, you'd stick to what you had with Aaron.

And you were proud of yourself.

You looked up at Aaron, waiting to see if he wanted to have this talk with your father, even if you knew he was too much a gentleman to refuse something like that (you had your doubts he'd ask for permission if he ever decided to pop the question — but why the hell were you thinking about that?), which was quickly confirmed with his curt nod, "Okay" you whispered.

With a gentle smile towards Aaron, you made your way towards your dad, stopping your walk beside him before whispering, "I love him. Please, don't fuck with that".

He didn't answer, nor looked at you. Taking it as your leave, you walked back inside the house, closing the door behind you — but not quick enough not to hear Aaron's final words.

"I fucking love your daughter, man. Please, don't fuck it up".

Maybe you weren't that unlucky, after all.

Thank you for the request!

#aaron hotchner #aaron hotchner x reader #criminal minds #hotch #hotch x reader #hotch x you #aaron hotchner fanfic #fanfic

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monstersdownthepath · 5 months ago

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Monster Spotlight: Egregore

CR 10

Neutral Large Aberration

Bestiary 5, pg. 104-105

These bizarre aggregates of psychic energy are the result of a powerful psychic caster finding a group of like-minded individuals who are also willing to dispose of truly enormous amounts of income. They take, at minimum, 13 days and 13,000 GP to create, which seems like a downright steal for most cults trying to create an ultimate minion, but an Egregore is not an ultimate minion! Rather, it exists to help a community coordinate, remain healthy, and stay close to one another. Very close.

An Egregore is neither an independent creature nor a mindless servitor construct, but acts more like a living focal point for a community (not necessarily a cult) to build itself around, with their ideals permanently emblazoned on the Egregore's surface in abstract; the Egregore above possesses an eye not because it needs one, but because an eye represents concepts such as vigilance, knowledge, or seeking. An Egregore made for a different purpose would bear different symbols, though all of them are identifiable as an Egregore by the fact they look like clusters of brains united by bands of light. Precisely one brain per member of its Cult Mind, in fact. While a charismatic psychic may lead groups of several dozen or even several hundred, an Egregore has a maximum limit of 13 creatures it can personally connect to unless its creator invests further resources into making it a more powerful Egregore Master, but we won't be covering that today!

While the Egregore itself does not lean towards Evil or Good, it is guided by the collective will of the beings it's connected to via its Cult Mind, and thus there's always the possibility that one bad apple may spoil the whole barrel for everyone else if the cult can't throw the apple out. The book states that many a doomsday cult has met their end creating an Egregore and hoping for a protector until they could enact their destructive plans, only for their creation to enthusiastically and homicidally embrace their ideals, wiping out its creators and, shortly after, itself, because once there's no one left in the Cult Mind, the psychic construct dissipates into nothingness in just 1d4 rounds.

But what do you GET by being part of the Cult Mind? A lot, actually. Everyone in the-- I'm going to call it "connection" or "web" from now on. Everyone in the web can send simple messages and emotional flares to one another, allowing for quick and easy communication over long distances. In addition, any creature making a Will save can roll twice, once with their own roll and once with the Egregore's towering +15 to Will saves, and even if they somehow fail, another member of the web can volunteer to take the effect instead, keeping more important members safe from mind-influencing effects. This implies that everyone in the connection has some level of awareness of incoming hostile effects, even subtle ones, which is interesting but not expanded upon.

The most important part of the Cult Mind, however, is that an Egregore can use its spell-likes on any creature in the connection regardless of range or line of effect. What does it have to offer? At the top of its spells, it has 24 PE worth of psychic energy that it can expend to use Mass Bull's Strength (6 PE), Mass Bear's Endurance (6 PE)... Or Heal (6 PE), restoring 130 HP and clearing a dozen different conditions and ailments off its target. Without its psychic magic, its sole contribution to the cult is the ability to cast Cure Moderate Wounds at-will, but that's nothing to simply brush off! That's 2d8+10 HP a round, every round, without giving the aggressor the ability to interact with the healing, allowing the connected members a limited form of Regeneration. It's infinite out-of-combat healing, for god's sake! No one in the Cult Mind has to worry about running low on HP if they can retreat and take a breather, and that's even IF the aggression keeps up when the cult leader--who is always some powerful psychic caster!--suddenly regains their entire health bar three separate times through the fight.

This isn't all it can do, though. Egregore aren't bound to the sites of their creation (which is extremely valuable, but we'll get to why later!) and can freely roll across the ground at 30ft/round or fly with perfect maneuverability 40ft/round, allowing them to join in a fight directly. In addition to its buffs and healing, it can freely manipulate its bands of psychotropic light as a standard action to mimic the effects of Hypnotic Pattern, potentially costing everyone within 10ft of it their turn. No creature connected to the hive mind is affected by this hypnosis, allowing them to freely shelter in the Egregore's light or walk among hypnotized foes to relieve them of their belongings without risk.

They're also able to contribute physically, solidifying their psychic energy into a quartet of lashing limbs that allows them to manipulate physical objects OR make up to four tentacle attacks for 1d8+4 damage each. The damage is somewhat low, but the Egregore makes up for it with consistency, as its Light Tentacles are treated as though they had the Brilliant Energy ability, letting them ignore almost every form of armor and shield in the game, and even attack through thin obstacles. With a 10ft space and 10ft reach, they can reliably cover a good portion of whatever cramped community quarters they're sheltered in, and they have a trio of simple but potent defensive abilities atop their 27 AC: Amorphous, preventing critical hits and precision damage from harming it, insurmountable DR 5, and 21 points of Spell Resistance. Any creature attempting to cast psychic spells while near it and NOT in its web will also have to contend with its 30ft Mental Static Aura, imposing a DC 22 Will save onto any attempt to cast a psychic spell or concentrate on an ongoing spell.

Quite a powerful entity that just about any cult or commune can summon to aid in coordinating their members, but they come with a painful weakness: Any creature within the Cult Mind must remain within 1 mile of the Egregore at all times, or its connection to the entity snaps and sickens everyone else in the web for a round. This severely limits how far a connected cult can spread its influence, and makes them rely on unconnected agents to work past the 1-mile limit. The Egregore CAN move, but most cults wishing to create one will likely want to keep it in one place! The web also becomes weaker as strands are severed; regardless of the reason, if a member of the web dies, all creatures in the web have to make a DC 20 Will save or become sickened for a round as well. If the Cult Mind ever drops below 6 members through death or distance, the Egregore must succeed a DC 20 Will save or become confused every round, potentially lashing out at itself or its allies until succeeds a second save. This Confusion effect triggers every time another member of the web leaves, so anyone with a desire to destroy the construct without having to fight it can simply kill off everyone in its web, after which--as already mentioned--the Egregore fades away 1d4 rounds later regardless of its HP.

Repairing a damaged web isn't cheap, taking 1 day and 1,000gp to invite someone new into the Cult Mind, but it IS possible so long as one still survives... even if they're not the original leader, and have no psychic power at all! An Egregore that's existed for many generations may only have the psychic echoes of its former creators within it as the community changes members around it. Who knows what an especially ambitious psychic aggregate may do with a slew of new, pliable minds...

You can read more about them here.

#pathfinder #monster spotlight #cr 6 to 10 #dungeons and dragons

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justinspoliticalcorner · 3 months ago

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Alex Samuels at Daily Kos:

Four major groups focused on organizing young progressives are offering Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer two options: fight President Donald Trump or resign from leadership. The letter, which demands that Schumer “obstruct the MAGA agenda with every tool you have,” was signed by College Democrats of America, the Sunrise Movement, United We Dream Action, and Voters of Tomorrow. “Chuck Schumer, your leadership is failing to meet the moment. Your decision—along with nine other Senate Democrats—to cave and support the MAGA budget bill is just the latest example of how you and other Democratic leaders are driving young people away from the Democratic Party,” the groups wrote in a joint letter, first shared with Politico on Thursday. “Instead of taking a stand against Trump’s illegal actions to gut our healthcare, dismantle public education, attack immigrants and trans people, and tear up climate action, you supported a budget that gave tax cuts to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their billionaire buddies. You sided against us.” The momentum behind the letter suggests progressives are not letting up on Schumer after he betrayed his party and encouraged Senate Democrats to vote for cloture last week, ending a filibuster of a partisan funding bill that further strengthens Trump’s power over spending decisions.

[...] And while Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also didn’t explicitly call for Schumer to step down from leadership, she did say earlier this week that Schumer was “wrong” for his vote. Voters, especially younger ones, are also losing faith in Schumer. A series of polls released over the past few days show that Schumer’s overall approval has slipped, with fewer Democrats now viewing him favorably.

[...] Even if Schumer insists he’s not going anywhere, calling himself the “best leader for the Senate,” it’s clear that the party—out of power, bereft of a single leader, and struggling to find a cohesive response to Trump and Republicans—is in need of a new direction. After all, polls show that the party is widely unpopular, and in a year that should be crucial for Democrats, it doesn’t seem like there’s widespread confidence that Schumer is the sort of inspirational leader capable of guiding the party out of the wilderness.

Four progressive groups sent Chuck Schumer a message: either shape up or step down as Senate Minority Leader.