#While dealing w redacted

[radio-charlie]

Idk about switching one sus global power for another sus one but it's ok. Each day I try for an actual moral stance while people get their non binary cocks sucked into dessication for doing copywriting and pretending to have problems

[klesek]

novem-bur day 14: walter crondale !! i wouldve posted walter on his day but i ended up making it way more complicated than i could finish in time so im just gonna post it whenever i finish it lmao. so in the meantime have a doodle :3

prompt list

[straydogged]

honestly if I could just. time skip the next few days without having to experience them... that would be lovely.

[dykethang]

god i wish i could just avoid going to therapy right now but they'll cut my funding for a year if i miss too many appointments. but i'm really Not feeling It

[ahaura]

i know i risk jinxing it by talking about it but. this month makes this the longest ive had a singular blog in uh. years<3

[vaugarde]

should i edit castors profile w some info from his parents bc i dont wanna give off the impression that hes not the one who got dealt the worst hand in that entire ordeal

[duoduotian]

just finished blow drying my hair in 40 min i hate how long it takes to dry despite me squeezing as much as i can out also fuck the weather for always raining and adding more unneeded humidity

[literallymechanical]

Beryllium? I hardly know 'em!

I think I mentioned this in passing a while back, but it's an interesting anecdote and deserves its own post.

So you know that story about how during WWII, John W. Campbell – editor of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine – figured out that something fishy was going on at Lost Alamos when all the nuclear physicist readers changed their delivery addresses to New Mexico at the same time? My dad did something similar the 1980's.

He's a doctor, and he was doing his residency at [HOSPITAL REDACTED]. Over the course of a few months, he started getting patient after patient in acute respiratory distress, lungs chock full of weird granulomas, all of whom worked at [DEFENSE CONTRACTOR REDACTED].

At first, the patients were reluctant to share info about any occupational exposures. But once you've been choking on your own lungs for a while, disclosing a tidbit of Secret information suddenly doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

They all regularly worked with large quantities of beryllium.

(All y'all nuclear engineers in the room just realized exactly where this is going lol)

A few facts:

Beryllium is HIGHLY toxic. Even small exposures can cause a condition called berylliosis – all the symptoms mentioned above.

The concept of "workplace safety" had yet to be invented in the 1980's.

Beryllium is used as a neutron reflector in nuclear research.

So. That's how my dad figured out that [DEFENSE CONTRACTOR REDACTED] was working with fissile material just outside town lmao

[doroinoue]

okay so i've been listening to the dorohedoro manga soundtrack for a while now, and my morning has been a little hectic so i decided to just ramble about all the songs and what/who i associate them with, and also which songs from the anime ost they remind me of (since the anime ost is very much inspired from the manga ost)

WARNING: DIABOLICAL LEVEL OF YAPPING BELLOW, PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!!

you can listen to the songs Here if you haven't, and i'll be going by this order, since thats the official one

Redacted, Recalcitrant, Repressed - khost: this one in my head is literally curse/risu theme and you cannot convince me otherwise Ever. Man Inside The Mouth from the anime ost is im pretty sure inspired from this song too so it All just makes sense. also the title itself reminds me of risu and the way he is and whatnot (im so shit at explaining good lird) also this is me just being insane but i think the voice of the guy singing KINDA fits risu more (the deeper more monstrous voice sounds like curse in my head too), like i love his actual voice too but when i read the manga i definitely dont imagine him with it i expected something more raspy(?), meanwhile aikawa being the one with the smoother voice (his raspy voice fits too giving that Kaiman and yadda yadda) Dont ever let me talk abt risu drhdr bro i dont stfu

Blaka Smoko - VOODOOM: i love this song so much but kai's stupid fucking face pops up in my head when i listen to it and i DONT KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH IT!!! though yeah uh this is pretty much either his song or the cross eyes in general since the lyrics are "i sell black smoke"..though the deranged laugh really reminds me of him solely. imagine a version of the drhdr manga where black smoke is like weed and they smoke that shit and get high i Think thats rlly funny i dunno what else to say tbh i think me associating the song w kai is preventing me from having too many thoughts about it. However i hope when he like shows up fr (not just in flashbacks) the anime ost makes a remix of this song cuz it genuinely fits (also i just love how this song directly mentions nikaido and kaiman, although a bit nonsensical given the context)

Dorohedoro Zombie Slushi - Candie Hank: im so certain 1000手観音 and another song (i cant remember which one) from the anime ost sampled from this one lmfao. anyway this one just reminds me of zombie ebisu, or ebisu in general. not even like living dead day, literally just zombie ebisu. its probably the vocals tbh, someone in a youtube comment was complaining abt them and another person replied "just imagine ebisu singing it" and i cant get it out of my head now. i can totally see her sing this song, especially knowing shes canonically interested in the manga ost album  (you can see her read the songs of it while checking it out in like episode 4? i think? the one where they follow doll risu around and end up in some cheap clothing store)

Eating food and fighting Wizards - Shitwife: this one makes me very nostalgic, i like how its one of the few songs that isnt just pure nonsensical chaos. like i love those too, infact im bummed out the anime ost doesnt have more chaotic songs given the manga is literally incomprehensible sometimes, but i like how this song kinda shows the more coherent and cheerful side of the story. of course this is just kaiman theme to me, i mean the title and all. i think kaiman would really like this song, he would def listen to it. it also reminds me of that scene where him and nikaido are driving in their motorcycles, it gives the vibe of a drive in the middle of the night to me anyway, not much to say for this one too, i just think its really nice (also the drums go crazy hard)

Enter the Hole - NAH: lovely magic predecessor LOL. perfect for me honestly cuz lovely magic is my fav song from the anime soundtrack. This one just reminds me of hole, i dunno. the brief ethereal part reminds me of the past of the hole though, before the lake of refuse was created (i forgot what they called that shit in the official translation forgive me..lake of refuse sounds cooler either way). thats all tbh

She is a devil - Hanali: devil nikaido theme song what can i say...i literally want this song beat for beat to play at the scene where nikaido grows her devil tail and gets devil high (if they even animate season 2 that far) either that or when theyre selling gyoza at the department store and she goes devil high again and starts beating ass. its so perfect for those scenes also i like to think the distorted singing at the very beginning is like what humans hear when a devil sings, i know it should be more ear bleeding giving the reaction everyone has in canon but whateva!!! also also i like to imagine nikaido was probably hearing something similar while her tail was growing and she was going crazy, i think maybe hearing the singing of devils in your head while slowly turning into one is a cool idea

LIZARD HEAD - Dr. Das: i cant lie this ones...a little boring for me. like the beat is cool and all, but i think this is the one song i have the least to say abt. to reference another youtube comment, they said smth abt imagining kaiman fucking around in hole to this song, and yeah. i see it. i think if the anime animates that little bonus(?) comic abt how kaiman spends his day in hole, they should use smth similar to this song

Transformations - Shackleton: ok i lied this is the one i have to say least about. i dont mind 10+ minute songs, but damn this ones even more boring to me. the pissing sounds arent helping either LOL. though i think if they had to play this song somewhere, or a variation of it, maybe it fits best at the part where kawajiri is making nikaido do the devil exam in his house or whatever...idk....

Dorohedoro - Igorrr: ALRIGHT BACK TO YAPPING. this song is so fucking good, dare i say its my favorite of the whole ost. and im not the only one, everyone seems to love this one. its literally just TIC TOC predecessor but even better. the classical music and opera singing inserted into this absolute chaos is insane and i cant think of a song that fits shin more honestly. like this is literally shin theme. it perfectly mixes his calm and rational self with the deranged outbursts he has. ive heard people say shin is a boring character and i genuinely cant wrap my head around it like HELLO...not only is his design just cool as fuck, but he has such interesting personality? my boy went through absolute hell and grew up from an aggressive and snarky kid to a calm and if i may say, empathetic guy. like he cares about the people around him, he was carrying three guys (one with his fucking mouth mind you) that passed out because of the rain flooding the underground basement. he refuses to kill people who are weak with magic, and generally doesnt really like going on killing sprees unless its a life or death situation (which since kid has made him go crazy, i like to think its probably cuz it increases his heartbeat and being a human+sorcerer maybe doubles the adrenaline this way). also the way he has inhumanely high pain tolerance, he can have his guts splattered on the ground and still manage to walk, to the point it even weirds EN out. like you gotta be some freak to get en concerned for you (or be kikurage lol). sorry this turned into a shin rant more than the song itself, i just cant believe so many people dont see how cool shin is. like hes not even my most favorite character but i will protect all the drhdr characters i like (which is most of them). anyway moving on

The Hole - Ghengis: alot of ppl say they think of hole (the place) when they listen to this song, but me personally?this song screams hole the entity, and artificial devil kai. like this song FEELS like its oozing with the sludge and that feeling every sorcerer that gets in contact with hole "magic" feels. i like to think the headaches they get is equivalent to the beat of the song LOLL. like just super loud and painful pulsing headache that can leave you paralyzed on the ground. anyway, i dont have that much to say, i just want this song to play at the central department store arc, OR. when artificial devil kai is first shown thas all

Don't Think, Just Kill - Roly Porter: i lied again this is the one i have least to say about. sorry. literally my only thoughts are that one of the songs playing during the living dead day episode is inspired by it but i frogor which one

Kaimans Head - Dead Fader: to compensate the fact i mightve lied once again im gonna ramble about something mildly related. so the one youtube upload i found of this song uses this one fucking risu fanart that legit makes me shit my pants. its honest to god the scariest freaking fanart ive seen of a character i like. its not like Shiver me timbers scary, its just so unsettling to me, like WHO COOKED THIS UP. WHO DREW THIS. i know hayashida would love it. she wishes she made risu this scary and not the catboy babygirl beautiful princess with a disorder she created (/J). anyway uh, this song goes pretty hard, i like it, i just dont have much to way besides that i like the beat maybe. also heres link to the youtube upload with the picture if u wanna know what im talkin abt

Radio 538 - Dow Jones Brotherhood: because the first time i listened to the songs was on youtube, i found this song pretty much last and uh. i dunno its cool! for some reason it reminds me of the cross eyes? ive no clue why it just does. it reminds me specifically of how all of them are basically just worshipping some guy half (if not most) of them havent even seen the face of. i like how the whole thing is basically just a cult. people built statues of the boss, tattooed his face on their hands so they never forget it, And the elites...oh those poor little guys. closest to the boss and got psychologically tortured with killing thousands of sorcerers daily and left to deal with the incomprehensible shit their boss does, while slowly building suspicion and disgust towards him, but unable to do anything because of how far theyve gone into this. like can you imagine how miserable dokuga and tetsujo must feel knowing their devotion to kai led to all their friends killed. id just die bro this is so fucked... anyway, kewl song👍 i love the cross eye elites

Stay down zombies! - Ed Cox: i honestly love how lowkey dramatic this one is. ALSO the accordion tune from el corazon is im pretty sure taken from this one! which makes two shin references yippee!!! i like how this one kinda mixes calm music with breakcore (do not erm akshually me on this one i dont care), just like how igorrr does. i dunno its just a cool song, though PERSONALLY i dont think it fits living dead day, it reminds me more of that scene where shin remembers his mothers death, and then slowly turns into a zombie. it gives off that vibe giving how the song progresses from dramatic and a bit somber, while the beat starts creeping in, accompanied by the accordion that i literally will never not associate w shin in general

ANYWAY WOW THATS ALL!!!! if even one person bothered to read all this, thank you. i love yapping about dorohedoro i love silly manga about a bunch of freaks and freak stuff and i am obsessed with hayashidas taste in music, knowing she picked all those artists cuz she likes their music makes absolute sense considering the kind of art she makes. i love you q hayashida im your biggest fan. also if you notice any grammatical errors pls remember english is not only my second language, but i also barely slept last night so that's my excuse

[fae-sodapop]

Thanks Lost in Code AU for making me create lore for characters I dug out of Toby Fox & temmi Chang's trash cans.

Anyways, meet the skeleton family! (WIP design)

Grandma Hardinge (Redacted),

They/it/She

it's very old - it was around before the war. She isn't even a skeleton! She's a phantom (type of undead monster) & why gaster doesn't have a nose - she doesn't have a nose either. She wears a long black robe... Dress? Undecided. I don't think she has hands either, she may use her hair to manipulate things! She's a little rusty in her own font (Hardinge) so she speaks in wingdings most of the time, but she'll make an effort to refresh her mind, she wants to connect with her grandsons after all!

Grandpa Semi, Semi serif

He/him

Tired old southern Grandpa, not as old as Hardinge, definitely not, but still elderly. He was born underground & he's never seen the sun. He thought Gaster's fascination with the surface was just a dream brought about from Hardinge's stories & hopeless reminiscing but he was actually proud of him when he became the royal scientist. He doesn't have a hatred for humans, he remembers the days of the first human child that was found. They seemed like a sweet child but a little shaken, no one was really sure what to make of them - to be honest it didn't even really seem like they came from the surface.

Gaster's childhood made him sterner, dealing with a not entirely corporeal baby that can teleport & fade away at will probably does that to a person. Sans & papyrus were a bit different though. The two used to play pranks on him when they were younger, while he was grumpy he wasn't bitter, he'd join along when his old bones would allow. I'm not sure about his magic right now

W.D. Gaster

He/him

Proud father and former Royal scientist! Gaster is a phantom & a skeleton! He can go non-corporeal whenever he pleases as well as teleportation. He wears a white turtleneck and a long black robe, his hands are separate from his body and usually float near his form. He retired from the role of Royal scientist not long after having his children, though no fully as he helped tutor alphys for her new role. He moved to Snowdin with his boys when Papyrus was around 11 years old as he was looking for a fresher start than what the capital had to offer. Hardinge & Semi moved in a bit after - to get closer with their grandsons.

-- Character dialogue if Hero chooses to interact w/ them! --

Breaking the barrier:

Semi, "The surface? BAH! What's the point? These old bones don't see no point in leavin' the caverns. Why go up there, I heard the temperature can change on a whim! If I wanna be boiled I'll go to hotland. But... Suppose' I can't be to stubborn. Good job yougin'."

Hardinge, "I... Am glad....I...can see...the...Sun....again...a thousand...years...is a....long....long time..."

Gaster, "Amazing! I can't believe we'll finally see the surface, do you think they'll be interested in my theories? What kind of technology do you have up there? I should stop rambling... Good job, human."

[tainbocuailnge]

so you like ebenholz and rolled him but now you don’t know how to use him. I heard the people at [REDACTED] say he’s bad? don’t fucking listen to them, listen to me, who is gonna tell you all the cool stuff you can use ebenholz for, because you like him and want to use him

ebenholz is a mystic caster which means that he’s got higher attack and lower attack speed than the other single target casters you’re used to. he can additionally store his attacks up to 3 times to unleash them all at once for increased damage, that is to say storing up attacks and then attacking someone will deal more combined damage than if he’d been using them on a target one by one. if he has 3 charges and then attacks an enemy, it will be a single hit that deals the damage of 4 attacks plus the additional damage applied to those 3 stored attacks. that’s a lotta damage!

the big strengths of mystic casters are their high burst damage and long frontal range. they can cover the far corners that are cut out of other single target casters’ ranges, allowing them to reach targets other casters can’t. they shine the most on lanes with a slow stream of high hp enemies that they can quickly burst down, and conversely tend to struggle as the sole dps on lanes with a lot of weaker enemies that their aspd is too slow to efficiently clear out. you know those maps where there’s one box that all the trash comes out of and another, separate box a little bit further away that occasionally spits out a more dangerous enemy? mystic casters like ebenholz are meant to be pointed at that second box so they can instantly delete whatever comes out of it.

I don’t read g*mepr*ss opinions but I’m assuming he’s being rated unfavorably because his kit is geared towards specifically taking out elite enemies and bosses instead of indiscriminately killing everything. the one weird trick that they don’t want you to know about though is that WAY more enemies are elite than you think. you can tell an enemy is elite by checking the enemy info of a map, if they have this symbol they’re elite and are not immune to goat.

ebenholz differs from other mystic casters in that he can store an additional fourth attack which will only be used on elite enemies and bosses. this not only increases his burst against important targets but also ensures that he has a bit of extra damage to deal with high priority targets even if the lane he’s covering also has trash come through, which makes him a little more reliable than his colleagues. you can tell how many attacks and what kind he has stored up from the amount and color of his dice: the three yellow ones he rotates are regular attacks, and the red one that floats a little above them is for elite enemies. he will only store this red dice if he already has three yellow dice stored, so in stages with a constant flow of enemies he loses this advantage (though mystic casters in general are at a disadvantage in stages like that)

ebenholz’s bread and butter skill is his s2, which works similarly to W’s s2. every 14 seconds (or 13 with masteries) he takes his next attack plus the attacks he’s stored up and turns them into ominous goat ghosts that explode when an enemy approaches them. this gives him respectable aoe capabilities for an archetype geared towards single target burst as well as +500 style points. the goats also have a medium pull effect on exploding, so if a lower weight enemy approaches them they’ll get puled into the other goats for a chain explosion. a cool bonus effect with shift is that it will interrupt enemy attacks and prevent them from attacking while the shift effect is being applied, so the goats indirectly slightly reduce the amount of damage your operators take.

he will only convert as many stored attacks as there are tiles available to put goats on, and will prioritise using the yellow dice. if he’s facing a lane with a lot of undeployable tiles, he can both fill it with goats and keep some attacks in reserve to utterly annihilate whatever fool sticks their head out of that red box. the goats will naturally dissipate after 30 seconds, so he does need to keep expending charges to keep his range filled with goats even if there’s no enemies coming through.

ebenholz’s bosskilling skill is s3, but don’t be fooled into thinking it’s solely good for bosskilling. as mentioned before, there are a LOT more elite enemies in the game than you might suspect, and some maps consist almost entirely of elite enemies. I’m an IS2 gamer so that’s my examples but lucian’s boss stage is all elite except for the dogs, both sarkaz lancer stages are all elite except for the guerilla herald in absurd trickeries, jesselton’s stage is all elite enemies, the list goes on. audience members and scarlet singers are both elite and thus susceptible to goat blast. in stages like that the targeting condition on s3 is moot and it just becomes a very high uptime atk and aspd buff. at 22 sp (20 with masteries) it charges fast, it lasts a very respectable 30 seconds, and you can even turn it off early once the wave is over to make sure it’s back up on time for the next wave.

on maps that feature a more usual spread of a lot of trash mobs with a few elite enemies it has the obvious benefit of making him target only the high priority elite enemies while other people deal with the weaker enemies, similar to steward’s talent but with a lot more damage behind it. the ideal situation to use this skill is a wave with a number of elite enemies spaced slightly apart. you want to activate it shortly before the target enters ebenholz’s range so that the atk buff will apply to the attacks he has already stored up. the increased aspd means he also stores up charges faster, so if there’s a bit of space between elite enemies or it’s a boss that goes invincible for a bit (like the first to talk when using its skill or jesselton’s phase transition) he will quickly stock up more attacks to blast them with.

ebenholz’s first module, which is out on EN right now, lets him store a fourth charge (up to 5 counting the elite-only charge) and further increases the damage multiplier of stored attacks, massively increasing the upper limit on how much damage he can deal in a single hit. this module is very straightforward in its benefits and is best when you’re using him on low-traffic lanes with a few single strong enemies in accordance with his archetype. since the damage modifiers of stored attacks and his s3 are different this module scales really well with s3, especially in those situations where he’s able to store more attacks between elite targets coming through.

his second module, which isn’t yet out on EN, instead increases his attack speed when he’s holding a charge, meaning he gains the second third and fourth charges much faster. at higher levels it additionally gives his attacks a small amount of splash damage, massively increasing his aoe potential. it greatly improves his usability on stages with few or no elite enemies, because as long as he holds the elite charge he has permanent +30 aspd and will have a much easier time handling larger crowds even before adding the splash damage. it also scales well with his s2 in that higher aspd = more attacks stored while charging the skill = more goats summoned.

obviously as a 6* single target caster ebenholz is gonna be compared to eyja and the result of that comparison will say eyja is better in most situations. this is true, because eyja is a caster who is usually fine being your sole ranged damage on a lane while ebenholz generally struggles to be the only man dpsing a faster lane while having higher deployment cost. fortunately, you’re allowed to bring up to 12 operators to a fight and you can just use both. if you’re IS2 gaming and ebenholz is your only caster, his second module and s2 can cover for a lot of that weakness at handling busier lanes.

you already know why eyja is strong and where you might use her. the advantages ebenholz has over eyja in situations where you might use either are 1) his extended frontal range lets him catch tiles that eyja can’t, 2) his targeting priority on s3 lets him burst down bosses surrounded by lower priority mobs where eyja s3′s large range and random targeting would waste a lot of damage on trash mobs, 3) the low sp cost on s3 allows him to deal with high priority targets in quicker succession than eyja s3, and 4) he can deal high burst damage without relying on a skill, which gives him an edge in CC situations where you might have to take contracts that affect skill charge times.

now go forth and holz those ebens

[straydogged]

okay let me see if I have this straight. (subsystem stuff beneath the cut)

there's... more of us than I care to keep track of but I'm going to search my brain and try to figure out who tf all is in here. I have a nasty suspicion there's a bunch I'll be missing and that there's. a lot more jack parts than I think, certainly more than I am currently aware of.

j1- me, allegedly? most often fronter, I do most relationship and daily life things

j2- the Introject. he really id's with his source and is generally pretty subdued. probably a TH

j3 and j4- I. do not know the different between them tbh. he and 4 are, I think, fairly similar? maybe one is from [redacted city] and the other is from [other redacted place we've lived]. they're both social protectors who handle in person friendships, especially when there's substance use involved. both are. I think. introjects but not as intensely as 2

j5- bitter "shoot first ask questions later" asshole who deals w a lot of conflict

j6- somehow subtly different than j2

[redacted] jack- the one who lived with our partner's family for a while and fronts when we're therr

financial jack- the poor guy who had to deal with everything around that time I got defrauded out of something like $1800 total, deals with bank stuff and has general Money Anxiety at any given time

ajax- 16/17 y/o dickhead who needs to lay off the monster and would probably benefit from a high dose of adhd meds to slow him down. egotistical motherfucker

jax- 14-ish, much calmer than ajax. tends towards being sad and triggered, almost certainly a TH

caretaker jack- cooks and cleans, idk if he's super self aware but he sure isn't any of the rest of us

kid jack- apparently exists. 10 at the very oldest, probably younger. idk what his deal is but he seems to come around when I'm breaking down

I am not gonna count how many that is. I'm looking away.

[gingerbreadmonsters]

echo and... gavin??

ok so this is incredibly outlandish and doesn’t really have a huge amount of supporting evidence in canon that isn’t entirely circumstantial, but i think it’s cool and a fun idea to play with - plus, i have a wip based on this premise and i wanna lay the groundwork for that bc it’s a pretty mad concept if you’re not expecting it lol

so, i think about the imperium a lot - probably more than is normal or healthy - and i especially like to think about that one meme that erik posted on patreon just in the wake of cataclysm:

now, in all seriousness, it’s just a low quality meme that was probably made in about 5 minutes and just for fun, so i doubt it has any actual meaning - but i would like to propose a world where this meme is actually one of the most significant lore drops we’ve had yet!

in short, just go with me for a minute here - i would like to propose a world where gavin and echo are the same person.

we tend to treat a lot of these characters like real people with free will and agency, but they’re not - both on a meta level and inside the narrative itself. there’s a creator, and a larger narrative at play! even from echo’s very first introduction, he makes it clear that he exists as an independent, self-aware character - he’s emphatically NOT an impartial narrator, and while he certainly implies that he’s omnipotent and omniscient, it’s not clear whether he actually is, or where the real extent of his abilities and knowledge lies.

interestingly, he’s also both aware of AND separate from ‘Redacted’ (i.e. erik, canonising himself within his own universe) - he’s highly conscious that the events taking place aren’t real, and that he has some degree of control over the narrative. presumably, echo and ‘Redacted’ exist on the same level of reality in this universe - i.e. outside of it, but aware of what’s going on in there and able to change it.

ok, cool, but what does this have to do with gavin?

also, it’s a little bit weak, but go back and have a listen to echo’s playlist - don’t you think he speaks a lot like gavin (specifically early gavin, when he’s still all arrogant and whatever)? maybe this is just because they’re both being written by the same person, and their characters are just quite similar, but the resemblance is definitely there. circumstantial evidence, yes, but it’s worth mentioning.

to be honest, echo’s actually a little bit… strange?? when it comes to gavin?? he talks about him quite weirdly - the most obvious example for me is in ‘The Deal’, where he says:

it’s always struck me as a bit strange that echo SPECIFICALLY chooses gavin and fl to cross over with ivan and baby - and yes, i realise that there was probably an irl reason for this, but just go with it a bit longer! it’s likely that it was just pragmatism on erik’s part, of needing a storyline that could plausibly overlap with sadism’s hold, although maybe if the outcome of the poll had been different maybe this could have freed up fl to go out with damien as was the original plan… anyway, i digress.

hold onto that thought for a minute, and we’ll come back to the ‘why did echo choose gavin and fl?’ idea in a second.

it’s no secret that, if things continue as they are, freelancer is going to die - they are painfully, deeply human, and tbh they’ve survived some pretty long odds already! the confrontation with vega in their bedroom, the fight with vega in their living room, the inversion (and if you count the imperium, the takeover of - and escape from - the imperial academy)... all of these situations had the enormous potential to go horribly, horribly wrong, and freelancer could EASILY have died at any of those points!

if we exclude vega and fl’s first meeting (bc all things considered, vega was being cruel but not actually all that hostile in that interaction), gavin is almost always the one to save them - to step in and protect fl from whatever threats arose.

combine that with our idea from before - i’m suggesting that a world exists where freelancer dies at one of those points, or maybe even for an entirely unrelated reason that we don’t know about. maybe’s it’s vega in their living room, or the shade that killed xavier killing them too (i’ll come back to this later), or maybe it’s just that their natural lifespan comes peacefully to an end. they die, and that’s that.

except it’s not just that - because gavin’s not having it. it’s no secret, how much he loves freelancer, and i think he has the potential to do absolutely ANYTHING to stop them dying.

that anything, i suggest, is becoming echo.

this establishes the world that we’re hearing now - the universe that we’re familiar with is actually the second attempt. perhaps what we’re hearing are the delusions of a grieving demon, DESPERATE for a world where freelancer doesn’t have to die. or perhaps he finds a way to genuinely create a world where he makes the rules - maybe he finds his way to a world - ‘Redacted’’s (i.e. erik’s) world - where he can finally change things for good. maybe it’s time travel, or some sort of reset point, but whatever the case may be, he’s outside of it all now.

he couldn’t save his freelancer then, so he’ll do whatever he can to save them now - he’s walking them and this version of himself (whatever that might mean) through the life he had with his freelancer, just with a few… changes.

is he fully in control? no, that’s erik. but echo DOES control the imperium - and of everyone, it’s arguably vindemiator and freelancer who escape the horrors of that world the most successfully. they both survive RIDICULOUS odds, when you consider just how dangerous both of their situations are!

or, if you like, maybe echo’s not really in control of anything in the prime universe - maybe it’s erik steering the narrative but echo’s just able to hit the handbrake and make a few hasty edits whenever things look like they’re taking a turn for the worse. nothing earth-shattering, just changing a few minor details that keep freelancer safe (or even just alive).

in that vein, let’s come back to that point about xavier. this hc goes really well with the idea that fl is killed during the inversion, more specifically at the point just before gavin creates his ward. perhaps gavin can’t make that ward in time, and freelancer’s killed by the shade - so all that energy and power and hurt that OUR gavin pours into his ward from seeing xavier die? it’s that, but times a million if it’s freelancer who dies there - maybe that’s the moment where gavin manages to change things and step out of the bounds of the narrative. now, when we get to see it (i.e. in the versions of the audios that we know, which i’m calling here a ‘second attempt’), we’re given the character of xavier, who - apologies to the xavier nation - is essentially ballast, a human shield to stop the shade killing fl or gavin. for all intents and purposes, he’s a filler character with very little actually going for him - other than the fact that he dies during the inversion (and you can argue that even that is just to develop the characters of the DAMN crew a bit further). if we accept this hc, xavier is basically placed there by echo-gavin as one final, hail-mary barrier between freelancer and the shade who killed them the first time, to give gavin just enough time to put that ward together.

to take this a bit further, let’s return to the point about fl’s mortality for a bit. are we ever going to know their fate, or will this be left unresolved and up to our interpretation? will they settle for their human lifespan, or be turned into a vampire (willingly or otherwise)? will they die prematurely, or live out their natural lifespan, or find a way to artificially extend their life via some hitherto-unknown method?

placing this problem squarely in the context of the echo-is-gavin hc, i would love to see a world where echo finds some way - any way - to bend the rules of this universe, and to change freelancer or gavin in some way that they might be able to be together for the rest of both of their natural lives, however long or short that may be.

it strikes me as very interesting that when a’xerahn accidentally makes vampires, he’s searching for a way to create ‘a more manageable form of Concubus’ - of which incubi are a subset. is this just a choice that erik’s made either at random or because of the historical and cultural associations between sex and vampires and blood and all that? probably, yeah. but it’s especially interesting because it might imply that concubi are the easiest type of demon to convert humans to/from - which would then come with a whole HOST of implications for gavin and fl!

to be entirely honest, this is a completely off-the-wall hc that will almost certainly not come true - but it’s certainly fun to think about! basically i just want gavin and fl to be happy and in love and together forever, and i’ll come up with whatever hcs i like to make that happen lol

[v7lgar]

titles tag!

thank u for the tag @veryinnovative and also im stealing the formatting for this too lmao

rules

1. list the titles of your top five priorities for WIP updates 2. an upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing 3. make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIPs they're most excited to see an update on 4. tag writer friends

titles

1. are we dating, are we fucking? (rosekiller/bartylus) 2. staring at the sun (jegulus/bartylus) 3. the rotten history (rosekiller/pandorcas/minor bartylus) 4. stepbrothers rosekiller au (unfortunately it's still nameless) 5. beneath the stars (jegulus/rosekiller)

info

1. are we dating, are we fucking? - barty cheating on evan w regulus because he didn't know they were exclusive and thought it was ok to fuck bros and him trying to get back evan while getting closer to regulus 2. staring at the sun - the sequel of having a ghost in my bed (u don't have to read it first but i advice u to read that fic first and read this after it will make more sense trust me) it's three chapters first chapter is bartylus until the fight leading to rosekiller fuck and second chapter how jegulus fell in love in 6th year and the last chapter is after the fight and then trying to find a way 3. the rotten history - it's the secret history au where evan has to change his school after [REDACTED] happened and go to his twins school where he notices weird things about her weird friend group and after murdering [REDACTED] how they're trying to deal with aftermaths and how they are changing. very toxic, will make u question your morals. 4. stepbrothers rosekiller au - rosier family adopts barty when he is 11-12(? still haven't decided) but barty tells directly that he is never gonna accept evan as his brother and throughout the years how they're relationship devil ops into smth so much more (they're gonna have a 2 years age gap or 1 not decided yet)   5. beneath the stars - regulus starts to see james potter in his dreams and every time he does they're fucking and he is trying to find out why whereas rosekiller evolving into something more but after learning [REDACTED] everything becomes worse 

poll

np tags: @star4daisy @orchideous-nox @salty-wench @buttfaceingtons @donotwishonme @bloodykissesandhazyeyes @messymoony

[sn4kebites]

opening more than what is necessary to internet strangers and dehydrated insane behavior

i have been feeling so weird. soooo weird.

i never read into anything that happens in my life because i think it would cause more questions then answers and while i do believe in this and that i just. never consider anything ever like i just cant it makes me feel cringe

but im really feeling WEIRD because it really does feel like im about to enter the Next Phase Of My Life. but its so uncomfortably noticeable its making me want to edljsdkjg crawl out of my skin.

its not even bad change but its . change . like my life is noticeably changing. and its not even just the transferring to a nice four year its like Everything at the same time HSDJKFND

im sure it's just a result of trauma in many ways but i get soooooo fucking scared when things are good HSDKDJFSD. like. its what i want but i feel like i havent done enough to earn it. like i havent suffered enough for it

my early twenties for me have always been for me to figure out how to be stable and reserve my energy so i can live the rest of my life. i want for nothing. i have no aspirations outside of stable job and life to support me and my partner and maybe have kids on dual income. i already did the drugs and partying as a teenager.

but when those things start to like. happen i get SO freaked out i get so BUGGED out i feel like everything is going to fall apart.

IM SO SCARED!!!!!!!!! everything is SOOOOO SCARY TO ME!!!!!!!!! WHY IS MY LIFE CHANGING WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN. I DONT CARE WHO THE IRS SENDS IM NOT OPENING THE DOOR.

sometimes i wish i was . more normal. im so self aware and self conscious and all i do is used my brain but i realized so recently that my self worth is like way lower than i thought. but its not that im negative like i have no internal hatred or vitriol.

but i was reading like . messages and looking at pictures and i was like. i was so desperate for someone to love me during all of this but people already did. i have no idea how to deal w that now KJDJFS

its so weird. it feels like im about to live my life. but i dont know what my life is without all the horrible shit in it!!!!!!!!!!!! the fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and like. everyone has a hard life but my life was Bad. like 2020 was the worst year of my life and it was not the isolation but like. [redacted] happene. like it wasjust insane not to make light of anyone else but i truly did have a Hard life

i just . dont know. im just not used to this. being a druggie addict dickhead deadbeat with loose morals and no prospects is comfortable sdkjvf. its how i see myself its how ive always been its who i am. im not prepared to turn my life around im SCARED!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DONT WANT TOO!!!!!

im sure this is some mix of dehydration and period anxiety but myjgbkjsfnjhhgsdjklfjfgjsdfkja. IM SCARED IM SO SCARED WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ME IF I MAKE PROGRESS.... I FEEL LIKE A FRAUD IT FREAKS ME OUT

[mintiicinnamonii]

stayed gone: a forest town oneshot

Slash walked through the elaborate mansion, chandeliers glistening in the moonlight as the villa’s temperature dropped whenever they walked through the halls. Their red eyes glowed with a constant icy hatred for the world as their boots clicked on the marble, red hair flowing behind them like a ribbon to a dancer. 2 guards were standing in front of an elaborate door, where loud, raspy laughter was heard frim the other side. Slash casually walked through, remaining undetected. Being a demon had its perks. 

The bedroom was amess, with wrappers and old discarded clothing (of which / could have never been able to afford in her alive days…) A show played on the wide-screen television that cost the same as 3 houses, and on the couch is just who Slash was looking for. “Oh Eric, you must be back with my— W-WAIT A MINUTE!” Lou Jitsu- no, Hamato Yoshi looked over to Slash, who was standing scarily straight near the door. “You aren’t Eric.” The action star blinked, rubbing his eyes. “Ya think old man?” Slash said, pulling a cigarette out of nowhere and smoking, the fog that came out when you exhaled in cold weather rising up instead of smoke. “Oh. It’s you.”

Slash crossed their arms, staring at Lou icily. “Drop the disguise already you coward. Did you really think tou could escape your destiny as a Hamato? Not anymore, you hear? (redacted for spolier reasons) won. They destroyed Seclouth. So you better quit your horseplay, Splinter. Fulfill your destiny.” Lou Jitsu couldn’t even comprehend what happened before his facade faded in a swirl of icy ninpo. Not as just Lou Jitsu the movie star, no, that had disappeared the second Slash walked in; but as Hamato Yoshi the human. Splinter narrowed his beady rat eyes. 

“I run the Hamato Clan now, so let me be clear; they hurt your kids.” Splinter blinked, as if he didn’t believe what he just heard. “I am not joking; this is serious. We have to tear those pests LIMB FROM LIMB. Get them back in line like the weaklings they are.” Slash spat, balling their transparent and scarred hands into fists. Half of their face was contorted in anger while the other side was paralyzed and motionless, as a result of the gruesome way they’d died. “We have to make sure they have no hope left in their miserable lives, tell them that the Hamato Clan will never lose.” Splinter didn’t seem convinced, so Slash stepped closer, wintery fog from the cigar blowing in the rat’s face. As the rat coughed, Slash tossed their cigarette in the trash. “A simple reminder that while you’re here filming action movies and going to banquets, all your children, especially Leo,” Slash said, growing angrier. “Are trying so hard to redeem all of these people who already blew their shot. So if you want this paradise, then you better get the hell up and pay the price for your actions.”

And then Splinter laughed. Raucous, wheezing laughter. “Back over there, I’d rather not. We made a deal, yokai spawn. You get to take revenge on the gang that killed you, and I get to be Lou Jitsu again.” He said, standing up. “The idea of going back up there is unappealing and foolish. Do you really think you can threaten me? I’m the one alive here.” Slash gritted their teeth. “You won’t be if you don’t..” Splinter cut them off. “I’ll go back to my show now, kid. You’re distracting me.” He sat back down, making a ‘shoo’ gesture. Slash’s eye twitched. “What?” 

“May I remind you, I’m a celebrity. No matter if you lead this clan, or made a deal with me, I am more powerful than you will ever be. You aren’t even a full Hamato. You’re half yokai, a Draxum at that.” Splinter said ‘Draxum’ with some sort of snobbish disdain. Slash’s blood boiled, room dropping a solid 4 more degrees as Splinter shivered. Slash stormed up to him, looking as if their entire physique went sharp as ice. “Oh, I’m sorry, your highness, since when was being a cheap action star a higher rank than a Baroness?” Slash inhaled sharply, room returning back to normal temperature as they walked away from the dangerous distance she was from Splinter’s face. “But go ahead. Fine! I’ll do this the Draxum way.” Slash coldly walked out, boots clicking on the tile as she once again going under the guar’s radar as Splinter sat down and resumed his cartoon. 

“A Draxum, huh? I’ll show you how us Draxums really get things done.”

(link to fic if yall want: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49123036)