#also its stated like 50 times in the show that all the boys not just Blake have tiny dicks. so. headcanoning that they are all trans??? yes

[ilovelickingrocks]

Also LITERALLY HOLY FUCK WORKAHOLICS IS THE MOST HOMOEROTIC SHOW IVE EVER SEEN WHAT THE FUCK WAS WITH THE BONER BATTLE BETWEEN KARL AND DERS???? AND ADAM LITERALLY BEGGING DERS TO LET HIM GIVE HIM A HICKEY UHHHHH YALL GAY

[demontobee]

Good Omens is queering TV/storytelling - part 1: GAZE

I would argue that part of why Good Omens is so refreshingly queer is because it does not cater to the male gaze (which centers around the preferences - aesthetic, romantic, sexual, visual, logical, emotional, political ... - of mainly white men in positions of power):

no oversexualization of groups or types of people: Women or characters that could be read as female presenting are not overly sexualized. In fact, some of them are shown to be grimy, slimy and not sexual at all. All of them are real characters and not just cardboard-cutout on-screen versions of male misogynistic fantasies. They portray real people with real people problems. They are human, or exempt from our categories when portraying angels or demons. There are no overly sexualized bodies in general (as has so far also often been the case with young gay men, PoC, etc.), no fetishization of power imbalances, and not exclusively youthful depiction of love and desire.

sex or sexual behavior is not shown directly (yet): All imagery and symbolism of sex and sexuality is used not to entice the audience but is very intimately played out between characters, which makes it almost uncomfortable to watch (e.g., Aziraphale being tempted to eat meat, Crowley watching Aziraphale eat, the whole gun imagery).

flaunting heteronormativity: Throughout GO but especially GO2, there is very little depiction of heterosexual/romantic couples; most couples are very diverse and no one is making a fuss about it. There is no fetishization of bodies or identities. Just people (and angels and demons) being their beautiful selves (or trying to).

age: Even though Neil Gaiman explained that Crowley and Aziraphale are middle-aged because the actors are, I think it is also queering the idea of romance, love and desire existing mainly within youthful contexts. Male gaze has taught us that young people falling and being in love is what we have to want to see, and any depiction of love that involves people being not exactly young anymore is either part of a fetishized power imbalance (often with an older dude using his power to prey on younger folx) or presents us with marital problems, loss of desire, etc. – all with undertones of decay and patronizing sympathy. Here, however, we get a beautifully crafted, slow-burn, and somehow super realistic love story that centers around beings older than time and presenting as humans in their 50s figuring out how to deal with love. It makes them both innocent and experienced, in a way that is refreshing and heartbreaking and unusual and real.

does not (exclusively) center around romantic/sexual love: I don’t know if this is a gaze point exactly but I feel like male gaze and resulting expectations of what a love story should look like are heavily responsible for our preoccupation with romantic/sexual love in fiction – the “boy gets girl” type of story. And even though, technically, GO seems to focus on a romantic love story in the end, it is also possible to read this relationship but also the whole show as centering around a kind of love that goes beyond the narrow confines of our conditioned boxed-in thinking. It seems to depict a love of humanity and the world and the universe and just the ineffability of existence as a whole.

disability as beautiful and innate to existence: Disability is represented amongst angels by the extremely cool Saraqael and by diversely disabled unnamed angels in the Job minisode. Representation of disability is obviously super important in its own right, but is also queers what we perceive as aesthetically and ontologically "normal". Male gaze teaches us that youth and (physical and mental) health are the desirable standard and everything else is to be seen as a deviance, a mistake. By including disability among the angels, beings that have existed before time and space, the show clearly states that disability is a beautiful and innate part of existence.

gender is optional/obsolete: Characters like Crowley, Muriel and others really undermine the (visual and aesthetic) boundaries of gender and the black-and-white thinking about gender that informs male gaze. Characters cannot be identfied simply as (binary) men or women anymore just by looking at them or by interpreting their personalities or behaviors. Most characters in GO, and especially the more genderqueer ones, display a balance of feminine and masculine traits as well as indiosyncracies that dissolve the gender binary.

Feel free to add your own thoughts on this in the comments or tags!

[chlobliviate]

Wolfstar Microfics - Crack Fic

Words: 986 😅

@wolfstarmicrofic

🌙✨🌙✨🌙

Moony

(13:47) Sirius, I’m going to fucking murder you in your sleep. 😌

Padfoot

(13:48) you can try

(13:48) but

(13:48) i’ve been awake for hours

Prongs

(13:48) What did he do now?/

Moony

(13:48) He knows what he did.

(13:49) I said I shouldn’t go out last night.

Padfoot

(13:49) and yet out you went

Moony

(13:49) And yet, out I went. 😔

Prongs

(13:50) Pretty sure I just heard Moony sigh through the wall.

(13:50) So what did Pads do?

Padfoot

(13:55) O NO

(13:55) o nooooooooo 😬😬😬😬

Wormtail

(13:56) ???

Padfoot

(13:56) i may have given us all personalised ringtones on moonsss phone

Prongs

(13:57) 😂😂😂😂😂😂WHAT WS MNE?!??!!?

(13:57) Moony don’t bang on my wall to punish me for shoddy spelling when Sirius hasn’t used a capital letter since 2008.

(13:57) BUT WHAT WAS MINE

Padfoot

(13:58) do-re-mi from the sound of music

Prongs

(13:58) I am less excied about this now.

Padfoot

(13:59) naturally pete’s was rat-a-tat-tat by fall out boy and courtney love (absolute banger btw)

Prongs

(13:59) Nvm I’m back on board!

(13:59) What about yours?

Moony

(14:00) You Belong with Me.

Wormtail

(14:02) Ah. 🙃

Moony

(14:04) So Benjy suggested we ‘take a break’

Padfoot

(14:04) fuck im so sorry moons

(14:05) i can text him and tell him it was a joke

Moony

(14:06) Nah, it’s ok. I care a lot less than I thought I would tbh.

(14:10) James. Your headphones are unplugged.

Prongs

(14:10) SORRY SORRY FUCK ITS NOT WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE

Padfoot

(14:10) wow moony’s having a crisis and you’re having a wank

(14:11) harsh

Moony

(14:12) I’m not having a crisis. I’m fine. That’s probably not a great comment on my relationship though?

(14:12) JAMES! HEADPHONES!

🌙✨🌙✨🌙

Wormtail

(20:27) Lads, 😱😱 I think Benjy’s on a date

(20:28) Just showed up here with some guy

Padfoot

(20:28) moony sleeping 🤫 wtf we need details

Prongs

(20:29) Nvm, Sirius woke him when he yelled wtf

Moony

(20:40) Yeah, I bet that's David. He’s on Benjy’s course and he may have come up a few times.

(20:41) He didn’t even give it 8 hours. Wow. What a prick. I’m not surprised though, which probably also speaks volumes.

(20:41) Fuck. 😂

Padfoot

(20:41) you have four minutes to make yourself presentable moons then we’re coming in with tea and chocolate and a movie

(20:42) three minutes

Moony

(20:42) 👀👀👀 What’s happening next door?

Padfoot

(20:43) TWO MINUTES dont change the subject

(20:43) new neighbours

(20:43) all girls

(20:43) james is in love already 😂

Prongs

(20:43) I AN NOT

(20:44) BAD PADFOOT

Moony

(20:44) When did you meet them?

Padfoot

(20:44) one minute moony moon also we did not meet them but james spent a lot of time peeking out of his windoe this morning

(20:44) winDOE AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA 😂😂😂😂😂

(20:44) let the record state that i was assaulted with a wooden spoon 😔

Moony

(20:44) 😏😏😏

🌙✨🌙✨🌙

Moony

(10:01) Just met the neighbours.

(10:01) They asked what James’ ‘deal’ is.

(10:01) You were not slick at all. 😂

(10:02) They invited us over for drinks tonight, though.

Prongs

(10:02) It’s not my fault they were so loud moving in that I had to see what the commotion was.

(10:02) There was Beyonce and shrieking. I was merely a CONCERNED citizen. 😌

Moony

(10:02) That’s your story and you’re sticking to it?

(10:03) Benjy and David are already Facebook official. Wow.

Prongs

(10:04) Moony. He is a massive twat. You have terrible taste in partners.

Moony

(10:05) That is not at all reassuring.

(10:06) I’m going to drink so much tonight. 🙃🙃🙃

Prongs

(10:07) oh yeeeeah? Anyone from next door ccatch your eye?

Padfoot

(10:07) moonys only got eyes for me thank you very much 😤😤

Moony

(10:08) Don’t get me wrong, they’re all pretty, but no.

(10:08) Plus, I CLEARLY only have eyes for Pads.

Prongs

(10:17) So… whats her nameeee? 🫠

Moony

(10:18) Who?

Prongs

(10:18) YOU KNOW WHO

Moony

(10:19) Drawing a real blank here.

Padfoot

(10:20) hes just giggling at his phone

Moony

(10:20) Traitor.

Padfoot

(10:20) MOONY EHY MuST YOU WOUND ME SO

Wormtail

(10:20) Did you two sleep together again?

Prongs

(10:21) I mean the red headed, fiery goddess who lives next door and laughs like a witch.

(10:22) Ooooooooooh? 👀👀

Moony

(10:22) Emphasis on the word SLEEP. Yes.

(10:23) No homo.

(10:23) I mean, partially homo, I guess. 😂

Padfoot

(10:23) FULL HOMO BIG HOMO ENERGY IN THIS ROOM ;)

(10:23) get over it wormy

Wormtail

(10:23) I didn;t mean it like that!!!! It’s fine if you want to do that!

(10:24) I only request that you do it in Remus’ room, bc Sirius is next to me and I don’t need to hear his cum noise.

Padfoot

(10:25) let the record state that moonbeam laughed so hard at ‘cum noise’ that he banged his head on the wall and dropped his phone down the side of his bed 💀💀💀

Prongs

(10:25) Is his hed made of lead? That was so loud fuck.

(10:26) That means your cum noise is gonna be loud too. Ew no. go fuk by Pete.

Moony

(10:27) We’re not fucking, wow.

(10:27) We’re all very aware that I’m not Sirius’ type.

Padfoot

(10:28) what is my type

(10:28) fite me

Prongs

(10:28) dumb, obscenely pretty, easy.

Moony

(10:29) One out of three. Damn. 🙃

(10:29) Also you misspelled *bite. 😌

Padfoot

(10:30) which one what moony what wait what 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

[dallasgallant]

Time period post: Teenage culture

Now “youth culture” has been a thing since the early 20th century but it really began to take off and see “teenage” as its own thing in the 1950s. Both as a new group to advertise to but also as a distinct time in life. Now while it was still a relatively new demographic the 1960s is when things really began to kick off and sort of the height of the age, rebellion, catering and so on and you can sort of tell a lot of it was throwing at the wall and seeing what sticks. Shows, music, products etc.

This is just a quick post on a bunch of topics related to that, but for further looking into

- “Age of teen angst”

- “Teen car culture”

- 1960s hangouts

- dissolving censorship/more freedom of the time

Teenage rebellion! Distancing from parents, wanting to have fun and danger and change tradition. (Especially with the way the world was changing at the time with social justice and technological advancement) Clothes started to be less conservative, hair got bigger and longer, kids got more openly touchy and expressive etc.

Cars have always been a part of rebellious youth culture since their invention, they represent both a literal freedom in being able to travel and sexual freedom (unchaperoned, away and private - another aspect to reach a peak in the 50s and 60s with drive ins and look out/make out points)

Subcultures were also huge, not to be mixed with today’s “aesthetics” a subculture isn’t a short form thing based souly on appearance. Its looks, beliefs/attitudes, often music taste etc. where you were in the world and social class has a lot to do with it. (For examples Greasers being working class, city/some suburban, like rockabilly etc)

Regionality-

Speaking of place! The world in the 60s was not even close to as interconnected as we are today, sure you may get a little more of the world news on tv but it wasn’t this melding we have. Culture of counties, regions, states etc were much more distinct (same goes for accents) and while more things were shared across the world things weren’t universal.

Being from Tulsa Oklahoma you’re going to be more concerned with Tulsa Oklahoma and what’s done there than say New York. You’re not going to know everything or care about everything. There was more local and community focus. And perhaps a much more optimistic view of the future in SOME regards, huge time for technology, space travel, social change etc.

Where you are also affects availability, you’re not exactly going to have the hot new fashion in small city Oklahoma. Especially not just ordering it off Amazon- people traveled, waited for things to come, order from magazines etc.

Food-

Fast food is not brand new but is still relatively, they’re not nearly as common as they are now days. Most of the time when going on a road trip, people would still pack food rather than have the expectation of stopping at a drive thru all the time. However it was coming more common.

Some of the wacky gross foods of the post ww2 period were still “in” and the same goes for some Great Depression recipes. You could also find a lot of stuff in a can or processed, precooked etc. they were convient and exciting at the time… I’d bet the boys like a lot of stuff we’d consider “gross” tv dinners were also a big hit.

Dating-

This differs across class lines but there was still a lot of older rituals that were still followed in the 60s depending on who you were, these sort of holdovers from “courting.” Stuff like promise rings would be much more of a Soc thing than for greasers— though I think giving jackets or other items that aren’t a specific thing like a promise ring are general.

Dating was becoming its own thing for a few decades and didn’t have to result in marriage. Relationships were simultaneously slow with steps and milestones (1st base, 2nd base etc. lol- aren’t “official” but sort of a real thing) but quick as it’s also a thing to marry pretty damn fast and young… shotgun or otherwise.

There was a more “loose” idea on dating and relationships while some more traditional elements also remained, again it depends on who you are, where you are, class, race etc.

[earlymorningfoxhunt]

Hello, we're a system/collective who started listening to Malevolent on June 7th, 2024, and boy did it hit close to home! not only because of the jarthur body sharing blues, but also johns individual experience with his identity made us feel seen in a way we haven't felt before.

the way john has to figure out what differentiates himself from both arthur and hastur, despite feeling trapped behind arthurs eyes and chained to hastur heart, aligns with our experiences... a lot. so we've been making a compilation for the past month that includes all of the moments that made us go OOORRG as well as different folks commentaries (mostly consisting of us going OOORRG). this is going to be long as shit because this entire show is this.

also if your a system/collective who likes malevolent: PLEASE put ur favorite moments/ur thoughts

and if you haven't listened to malevolent: hey, you should give it a try and then come cry to me about it :D

A Compilation Of Malevolent Moments That Hit Differently As A System:

The Caves: (34:59-35:20)

during their argument john laughs while arthur trips over things

hehehe ya

The Path: (43:06-44:05)

johns questioning if he's feeding off of arthurs emotions or if hes learning them for himself, new split type beat, trying to figure out where each other start and end.

"we are of two minds, and more and more im realizing two souls as well. there's a bleed over effect but you are something entirely your own, john."

The Fall:

oh my god this episode. this man got so fucking pissed, not at john for rubbing the death of arthurs child in his face, but at arthur pulling host rank???? i was like ya buddy you can rot in a pit for a few months, mf you cant do that!! we we're listening to this at work and we were so pissed

The King: (35:00-36:25)(45:18-48:57)

its the first time arthur talks for him and its the first time he feels johns tears.

arthurs confrontation with the king and the feeling of no matter how much you hate each other, you're going to have each others back. for us personally it feels like a sucker punch to the gut every time he says "because i cant lose another person!"

The Unconquerable:

when we wrote down the title we didnt know why the episode resonated with us, but now I come back to it a month later as a yellow introject. we have horrid memory issues on top of memory issues, so it hurts something familiar to see the state yellow is in when he gets thrown into arthur. not knowing who or where he is but still trying to hold the cards, arthurs disappointment that hes not who he wanted him to be. its a new kind of painful. its the odd solace that comes from a shattered mirror.

we see arthurs frustration but its almost nice to be able to hate him for not giving yellow more grace.

The Train: (4:19-8:10)

I have literally told this guy he looks 80lbs sopping wet before, this entire episode is perfect. the bickering, the team work, the having to navigate socializing, it feels so nice

The Tear: (12:14-22:48)

ya...

The Detective: [(3:50-7:05) (10:40-14:58)] (28:09-28:18)

we made the mistake of listening to this on the way to getting tacos and we just had to sit in the parking lot, crying as john got to be seen for the first time by an ally. I've never had the experience myself(others in our system are out tho) but seeing it go well for him sparked something in me, enough that it pulled us to front for the past few weeks. that, w. it was a very important moment to us

and on a completely different vibe, "have you ever... before?" fuckin "well with out my excellent call outs" silly guy

The Order II: (23:26-24:00)

huh? oh hes not talking to us

The Witch: [(16:11-17:24) (25:30-26:56) (29:00-33:17)]

the whole episode honestly, start to finish.

no, im not including the ending speech it makes me physically ill

WITCH: This woman cared for you?

JOHN: Yes. 

WITCH: Lies! She cared for your mortal!

JOHN: He couldn’t hear her! I was the one who received her care, her kindness, her –

WITCH: Intended for another!

JOHN: What does that matter!? She knew no difference between me or him! She knew nothing of the soul that heard her, whether it was… (He sighs in frustration.) It was the same care. The same… compassion. 

UUUUUUUUUGGGGG

Honorary Mentions:

all of johns memory issues in season 4:

how every time he came back he would be defensive saying "right, i knew that!" even when he didn't remember, that's a classic.

Intermezzo: (5:00-5:46)

kayne and his many many voices/me not me/ its not about the names were given its about the names we choose

every time jarthur says we/our

The King:

"well at least thats what the loudest voice in my head says" ya? and how many voices are in there?

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Pat Byrnes :: @thePatByrnes

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 5, 2024 (Friday)

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUL 06, 2024

For all that certain members of the media continue their freakout over Biden’s electability after his appearance in last Thursday’s event on CNN, it is Trump and his Republicans who appear to be nervous about the upcoming election. 

Journalist Jennifer Schulze of Heartland Signal noted today that as of 8:00 this morning, the New York Times had published 192 pieces on Biden’s debate performance: 142 news articles and 50 opinion pieces. Trump was covered in 92 stories, about half of which were about the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling. Although Trump has frequently slurred his words or trailed off while speaking and repeatedly fell asleep at his own criminal trial, none of the pieces mentioned Trump’s mental fitness. 

But for all of what independent journalists are calling a “feeding frenzy,” egged on by right-wing media figures, it seems as if the true implications of Project 2025 are starting to gain traction and the Trump campaign recognizes that the policies that document advocates are hugely unpopular. 

On July 2, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts assured Trump ally Steve Bannon’s followers that they are winning in what he called “the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” In March, Roberts told former Trump administration official and now right-wing media figure Sebastian Gorka about Project 2025: “There are parts of the plan that we will not share with the Left: the executive orders, the rules and regulations. Just like a good football team we don’t want to tip off our playbook to the Left.” 

This morning, although Roberts has described Project 2025 as “institutionalizing Trumpism,” Trump’s social media feed tried to distance the former president from Project 2025. “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it,” the post read. Despite this disavowal of any knowledge of the project, it continued: “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.” 

In what appeared to be a coordinated statement, the directors of Project 2025 wrote on social media less than two hours later that they “do not speak for any candidate.”  

Aside from the fact that “[a]nything they do, I wish them luck,” sounds much like the signaling Trump did to the Proud Boys when he told them to “stand back and stand by,” Trump’s assertion and Project 2025’s response can’t possibly erase the many and deep ties of the Trump camp to Project 2025. Juliet Jeske of Decoding Fox News noted that Trump’s name shows up on more than 190 pages of the Project 2025 playbook. 

Rebekah Mercer, who sits on the board of the Heritage Foundation, was one of Trump’s top donors in 2016; her family founded and operated Cambridge Analytica, the company that misused the data of millions of Facebook users to push pro-Trump and anti-Clinton material in 2016. Trump’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has appeared in a Project 2025 video. Trump’s own super PAC has been running ads promoting Project 2025, calling it “Trump’s Project 2025,” and many of its policies—killing the Department of Education, erasing the separation of church and state, ending renewable energy programs and ramping up use of fossil fuels, deporting immigrants—are also Trump’s.

Project 2025’s director, Paul Dans, as well as both of its associate directors, Spencer Chretien and Troup Hemenway, were in charge of personnel in Trump’s White House, and the theme of Project 2025 is that “people are policy,” by which they mean that hand-picked loyalists must replace civil servants. Trump’s former body man John McEntee, who reentered the White House as a senior advisor after having to leave because he failed a background check, was in charge of hiring in the last months of the Trump White House; he helped to draft Project 2025. Key Trump ally Russell Vought wrote the section of Project 2025 that called for an authoritarian leader; he is also on the platform committee of the Republican National Convention. 

If indeed Trump knows nothing about Project 2025 and has no idea who is behind it, his cognitive ability is rotten. As former chair of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele wrote, “Since [Project 2025] is designed to institutionalize Trumpism and you know nothing about it, then why do you echo some of its policy priorities during your rallies? Coincidence? And how exactly don’t you know that Project 2025 Director Paul Dans served as your chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management, and Associate Director Spencer Chretien served as your special assistant and associate director of presidential personnel? And folks say we should be worried about Biden.”

Trump’s attempt to distance himself from Project 2025 indicates just how toxic that plan is with voters. As political scientist Ian Bremmer dryly noted, it seems that “the second [A]merican revolution apparently [is] not polling as well as the first in internal focus groups.” Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson was even more direct, saying that Trump was trying to distance himself from Project 2025 because “most of it polls about like Ebola,” the deadly virus that causes severe bleeding and organ failure, and has a mortality rate of 80 to 90%.

The extremism of the MAGA Republicans was on display in another way today as well after The New Republic published a June 30 video of North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson, currently the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, saying to a church audience about their opponents—whom he identified in a scattershot speech as anything from communists to “wicked people” to those standing against “conservatives”—"Kill them! Some liberal somewhere is gonna say that sounds awful. Too bad!... Some folks need killing! It's time for somebody to say it.” 

Today the Vatican turned against one of those extremists when it excommunicated pro-Trump archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was the Vatican’s diplomat to the U.S. from 2011 to 2016, for “schism” after he refused to recognize the authority of Pope Francis. Viganò has repeatedly attacked Francis’s Catholic Church for being “inclusive, immigrationist, eco-sustainable, and gay-friendly.”

Also today, Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing Trump’s criminal trial for retaining hundreds of classified documents, to dismiss charges that can no longer be prosecuted in light of the Supreme Court’s decision that a president cannot be charged for crimes committed while engaging in “official acts.” They also called the case “politically motivated” and asked Cannon to stop the case entirely in light of Justice Clarence Thomas’s suggestion that Special Counsel Jack Smith was not properly appointed.

The other big news today was that the U.S. added 206,000 jobs in June, bringing the total number of jobs created under this administration to 15.7 million. Last month’s numbers were, once again, higher than economists expected and, according to economic analyst Steven Rattner, above job growth levels before the pandemic. He added that these jobs are not simply a bounceback from the depths of the pandemic: 6.2 million more Americans are employed now than before Covid hit. 

Poking fun at the calls for Biden to step down, conservative lawyer George Conway posted: “Biden needs to RESIGN NOW before any more of these terrible job things are created.”

In a speech today in Madison, Wisconsin, Biden vowed to stay in the race, and the speech appeared strong enough that right-wing extremists, including Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and activist Laura Loomer, posted on social media—falsely—that he was having a medical emergency aboard Air Force One. Tonight, George Stephanopoulos of ABC interviewed Biden without a teleprompter or notes, focusing only on Biden’s age without any questions about policy. ABC News posted the interview transcript with the president’s conversation portrayed the “g”s dropped off the words and with other colloquial pronunciations spelled out, as if it were dialect. Trump, whose words the press tends to turn into clean prose, has refused to do an interview under the same conditions.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[an-au-blog]

Kissing booth but its zosan

I'll just assume you're not talking about the movie, (if I'm wrong, correct me, I can work with that too... i think) to which I will say: yes. I agree.

I mean listen -

Vivi started a fundraiser for charity and she decided that it'd be fun if they made it in a more festive manner. To which Sanji is happy to help because, how could he say no to a beautiful lady in need? Zoro on the other hand did not want to go but Nami blackmailed him into doing this "eentsy weetsy" favor for her girlfriend. (He still owes her money.)

Luffy, Zoro and Franky help with carrying the heavy things. Usopp and Franky do the lights and music set-up. Sanji does cooks the food and the rest help with decorations and setting up different attractions.

Once the event began, they put Franky and Robin in the haunted house, Book has a performance, Luffy is let to run around because he can't stay in one place and so on everyone is at attractions. Sanji thought he was going to be at the food stands, but then Nami drags him aside to an empty standalone booth. What was even more confusing was that Zoro also had one right next to his.

Nami as if talking to toddlers: You guys are gonna be on kissing booth duty, isn't that exciting?!

Zoro: Wtf? No, I'm not doing that.

Nami, taking out her phone: Let's see, January - 50, February - 25, Match... wow 140 that's a lot, huh? Anyways, April -

Zoro: Okay, okay I get it.

Zoro got a line of beautiful girls, some young some old, but his attitude is the same for all of them. Irritation with slight boredom. Sanji on the other hand, had only a handful of women. Most were Okamas and his line was still twice smaller than Zoro's.

Sanji agrees because he would live to kiss pretty ladies. He doesn't need convincing, but Nami throws in a "I'm putting the two most handsome boys on these stands after all" just to ensure Sanji stays.

She also ended up giving them a quota to fulfill.

In their "hygiene break", Sanji grabs him by the collar and gets real close to his face.

Sanji: You think you're all that just because you got more ladies? Huh?

Zoro smiling for the first time since the festival started: Are you jealous of them, cook? Of you want a kiss, you gotta pay me first.

Sanji becomes furious and starts shouting at him but then a lady from the ones waiting speaks up.

Woman: Um, actually, I'd pay to see you two kiss.

Sanji: ...

Sanji: Pardon? Je ne comprends pas. ("I don't understand" in french)

Zoro looks at the woman: You have the money?

Woman: Yes.

And she put the money in the slot.

Zoro smiles again and shrugs: Welp, money's money. Works for me.

He grabs Sanji by the back of the neck and plants a kiss on his lips. It was short and as if out of spite. Not in a bad way. Im fact Sanji was surprised how much "not in a bad way" it was. His lips were soft and soaked in long overdue passion. He couldn't dare say it was in a good way though, he still had some pride to admit it.

Still, he was frozen in place.

Another "client" raised their hand in the air holding money: I want the same thing, please!

Zoro nodded and kissed Sanji again, ironically enough it broke Sanji's trance-like state. He was a bit too aware of everyone's eyes on them.

Zoro, amused and absolutely sure Sanji wouldn't do it, tilts his head in the person's depreciation, he laughed: You heard the clients, so what ya gonna do love cook?

A third person from the back, throwing in three times the price: I'll pay triple for Sanji to kiss him.

Sanji furrows his brow, takes a deep breath and pulls Zoro into a deep and passionate kiss that caught everyone off guard. Once he pulled away, they were both out breath and everyone was watching them wordlessly.

After a long moment of Sanji's determined eyes looking into Zoro's pleasantly shocked ones, the cook looked back at the people and announced: That's the last show your getting from us. Booths are open again.

After that, until the end of the night qt least eight more people asked if they could make them kiss each other again, but they said "no".

Afterwards Zoro was pulled aside before they could go to the others. He got pinned to the wall, Sanji's hands leaning on either side of his head. They were sharing air, almost like when they were fighting but if felt so much more intimate this time for some reason.

Sanji: Stop me if you don't like what I'm about to do.

After which Sanji kissed Zoro again. Not being watched must have been a factor, because if Zoro guessed by his movements and kisses, Sanji was no longer holding back on him.

Zoro never stopped him.

[enriquemzn262]

At this point you could tell me anything about Jobless Reincarnate and I'd believe it if it's degenerate enough.

Oh, rudeus reenacts that scene in a Serbian Film? Sure, sounds like it him.

The funniest thing about jobless reincarnation, is that besides all the weird sex stuff, outsiders know nothing about it, as in, if you have social media and consume some kind of anime content, even if its all memes and shitposts, you can, with enough exposure, figure out the general plot beats of shows you have never watched, for example:

JJK? The main bad guy is Sukuna, who lives inside the main good guy, Itadori, for some fucking reason, and there was Gojo, the sexiest man alive, now just half a man. Oh and there was this hammer lady everyone thought would break the curse of the useless female warrior in a shonen battle manga, who just one day died.

MHA? It’s a superhero school, the main guy is tue goodiest of good guys, everyone has weird and different powers, and the bad guys are sometimes hot and also sometimes right. Also anime Dr. Doofershmitz for some reason.

Jojo? Muscular gay men fight against an immortal vampire, the Aztec gods of fitness, the vampire again, a mafia boss, the vampire’s boyfriend, the president of the united states, and a rock man who gives bad luck somehow.

RE: Zero? Isekai about a guy who goes back in time every time he dies, and he dies a lot, there’s a main love interest no one likes, a blue haired maid everyone likes, and a cat guy that makes a lot of fans question their sexuality.

I have never watched nor read any of the above, but through sheer exposure I know all that.

But jobless incarnation? Besides the fact that the main guy is a former 50-something virgin shut-in (who I keep hearing was also a pedo), now reincarnated as a boy who has the hots for his half sister(?), beats up anthropomorphic cat girls, almost killed himself over getting erectile disfunction, fucked and then married an elf, only to then cuck her with a 500-year old loli because of course, I know absolutely nothing about it: I don’t know if the guy actually has friends, I don’t know if there’s some stakes in the story, I don’t know if it’s slice of life, action adventure, battle royale, I just know absolutely nothing, everything I have learned against my will is about the one guy’s sexual exploits.

[moongothic]

i would love trans crocodile but im very cynical that oda would write him in a respectful manner. thats not even thinking of how horrible that one portion of the one piece fandom would treat him

Yeah the fandom sucks and I'm going to strangle everyone (including the cishets who claim to be trans allies and then use "Crocomom")

But with Oda it's weird because like. The more I think about it, the more I'm like... 50/50 about Oda being able to actually deliver good, respectful trans masc rep.

Like I've posted about this before but One Piece does have this on-going theme of having characters "stuck in wrong bodies" or "having one's body changed" (sometimes reversably, sometimes irreversably; sometimes against their will, sometimes consentually). Which, in theory, in my mind, does kind of signal that on some level Oda understands the idea of being "the wrong sex" (whether or not that's a good way to explain The Trans Experience™ is a whole different subject but it's an old fashioned explanation that Oda would probably be/is familiar with) But at the same time, while the concept pops up again and again in One Piece, Oda doesn't really dwell too deep into the idea of what that's like. Like, emotionally. How it feels like to like, get turned into a toy or be a child who gets aged 20 years or to get turned into a cyborg or a giant child or have parts of your body permanently turned into animal parts (sometimes with a will of their own) etc

And like. Part of me understands why, Oda does tend to want to focus on writing a story he thinks teenaged boys would be interested in reading, and he has often stated he wants to have fun with his story too (like that's partially why Luffy's a Rubber Man, because Oda thought giving Luffy a ridiculous ability would make him more fun to write and draw long-term, which is valid as hell) This is why for example Oda has avoided doing any romances in OP, and while there are dark themes in the story, often he has done his best to avoid making them too blatant, as some things would be too mature for his youngest readers (like, for example until Kuma's backstory, it was never explicitly stated what would happen to the slave wives of the Tenryuubito, even saying it was "implied" would be pushing how that subject had been treated until now)

So like. Because of that, I understand why Oda hasn't dwelled into The Feelings™ part much/at all despite the "stuck in the wrong body" narrative appearing time and time again

Either Oda thinks it'd be too boring either for himself or his readers, or he hasn't dwelled into it because he doesn't really understand gender dysphoria and can't relate to the experience (despite how often it shows its face in OP). Or it could be both, even

The thing is though, as OP has gone on, while I wouldn't say Oda has "broken his writing rules", Kuma's backstory alone has pushed them to a new limit with the love-that-never-was story and the all-but-explicitly-stated storytelling.

So a part of me wonders, if Crocodile is trans, could Oda actually like... take a slightly deeper look into his feelings and explore his queer experience? ('Cause god knows, if Crocodad Real, then there really would be a literal coming out-story built into his backstory that would be extremely unavoidable, and as I've mentioned before, the fact that we haven't gotten to learn almost anything about his backstory yet is Kinda Fucking Sus)

Also I do want to mention how... like Oda gets a lot of bad rap when it comes to queer rep in One Piece, but the more I think about it, I think it's more an issue with the terminology and how translators have gone about either localizing it, or more often than not, leaving it unlocalized 'Cause like. Yes the "okama" would be horrible trans rep but... really... they're not trans representation. They're representation for draq queens. Piss poor draq rep, but still, they're draq queens. And just like our very real life drag performers; some of them are cishets. Some of them are gender non-conforming gay men. Some of them are nonbinary*. Some of them are trans women. Obviously lumping all of these people into one group is kinda offensive (which is why "okama" is (as far as I understand it) such an unpopular term even amongst queer people in Japan), and the way Oda often chooses to draw these characters looks no different to how gender criticals choose to present trans women in their propaganda.

*Like Bon-chan, who explicitly states they are both male and female. And Iva-chan, who switches between boy-mode and girl-mode from time to time, could arguably be called genderfluid (though any specific terminology is up to debate). Both are nonbinary draq queens.

And yet, despite all that. It can not be understated how if you put aside the nameless background gag-characters, Oda does treat the actual, proper queer characters with respect. Everyone would agree that Bon-chan is an absolute hero, we would all die for them. Iva-chan (and Inazuma too) is explicitly presented in a heroic light, seen as someone who helps people and fights for justice (with the Revs)

And then there's the first binary trans characters we've actually gotten, Okiku and Yamato. And I'm pretty sure we would all agree Okiku is 10/10 perfect trans fem representation (I am not entirely serious, I'm not trans fem so I can't speak for trans women here, it's just that I can't see anything Horrendously Wrong with how Okiku is presented within the story- not actually perfect but all things considdered, damn good). She is stunning, people around her (INCLUDING SANJI!!) don't just view her as a woman but would go out of their way to date her (as in, she is seen as "desirable", and not as some kind of a disgusting freak to avoid), she is heroic and sweet and kind and just. IDK I love her And while I'm sure many trans mascs would agree Yamato may not be how they want to be seen by the world (though having Yamato ID as a man while having the biggest moobs is surely validating for a lot of people, including anybody who might not want or be able to get top surgery and/or HRT), again, he is only presented as heroic within the narrative and respected by the characters around him, Luffy especially, which is by far the most important part; the protagonist going out of his way to be respectful of trans characters does represent the values of the story.

And like.

Think about how Oda has treated Crocodile so far.

Like, although we're all having a bit of a laugh over the whole Cross Guild thing, Oda is still treating him as a cool character whom he presents seriously and treats with respect. Like Oda wants the readers to see Crocodile as at least a little bit cool. So I can't imagine him pulling a full 180 with how Croc would be treated in the story if he was revealed to be trans, especially when the potential foreshadowing for that was laid out in the story years ago already.

All this to say; Oda is not perfect at all, but considdering the things he has gotten right so far, I think there is hope he could pull it off. Because Oda is for Queer Liberation.

Really, my only concerns would be whether or not there's a risk Crocodile could get somehow detrans'd during the story (I'm praying the Haki theory isn't an option, really Doc Q might be the only true risk here), if he's stealth and that got presented as "a wrong thing to do" (which I'd hope not, like our previous queer characters have been okay with being openly queer but that may have been more for the readers than anything else. At least, I hope, god knows if Crocodile is and wants to be stealth trans then that's his right and he shouldn't have to out if he doesn't want to, and yeah, I don't want him to be demonized within the narrative for being stealth (if he's stealth, for all we know he could be out)) and like, most importantly, what'd end up being Crocodile's "motivation" for transitioning in the first place

Like. God. I just. I don't want there to be a twist where Crocodile transitioned because "being a woman was weak" or because he "wanted to be acknowledged by Whitebeard" ('cause WB doesn't take women into his crew) or "the scar in his face made him so ugly he decided he should be a man instead" (seen unironic Redditors suggest that. Almost lost my mind) or something

Like I hope someone's at least tried to explain gender dysphoria to Oda. Like the man does have actual queer friends in real life (some of whom inspired characters in OP), so I'm hoping at least someone's tried to explain the feelings that come with The Trans Experience™ to him so that, if Crocodile's trans, then Oda can actually try to base his reasoning to transition on those feelings instead of any stupid "reasons" that no actual queer person would relate to

But it all just boils down to... Is Oda willing to actually dwell into those feelings and explore them in the story.

It... it really could go either way with Oda

So yeah. Anon, I'm with you, I'd be lying if I didn't admit I was at least A Little Worried. But also... I want to be hopeful. Because I do believe there is reason to be hopeful.

Only time will tell how it'll go

[mariacallous]

The members of PleasrDAO are, well, pretty displeased with Martin Shkreli.

The "digital autonomous organization" spent $4.75 million to buy the fabled Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which had been produced as only a single copy. The album had once belonged to Shkreli, who purchased it directly from Wu-Tang Clan for $2 million in 2015. But after Shkreli became the "pharma bro" poster boy for price gouging in the drug sector, he ended up in severe legal trouble and served a seven-year prison sentence for securities fraud.

He also had to pay a $7.4 million penalty in that case, and the government seized and then sold Once Upon a Time in Shaolin to help pay the bill.

The album was truly “one of a kind”—a protest against the devaluation of music in the digital age and the kind of fascinating curio that instantly made its owners into “interesting people.” The album came as a two-CD set inside a nickel and silver box inscribed with the Wu-Tang logo, and the full package included a pair of customized audio speakers and a 174-page leather book featuring lyrics and “anecdotes on the production.”

In a complicated transaction, PleasrDAO purchased the album from an unnamed intermediary, who had first purchased it from the government. As part of that deal, PleasrDAO created a non-fungible token (NFTs—remember those?) to show ownership of the album. The New York Times has a good description of what this entailed:

Makin’ Copies …

But after purchasing the album and sharing the collective ownership of its NFT, PleasrDAO discovered that its "one of a kind" object wasn't quite as exclusive as it had thought.

Shkreli had, in fact, made copies of the music. Lots of copies. On June 30, 2022, PleasrDAO said that Shkreli played music from the album on his YouTube channel and stated, "Of course I made MP3 copies, they're like hidden in safes all around the world … I'm not stupid. I don't buy something for $2 million just so I can keep one copy."

Shkreli began taunting PleasrDAO members about the album, telling one of them, "I literally play it on my Discord all the time, you're an idiot" and claiming that PleasrDAO was concerned about an album that ">5000 people have." Shkreli claimed on a 2024 podcast that he had "burned the album and sent it to like, 50 different chicks"—and that this had been extremely good for his sex life.

Shkreli even offered to send copies of the album to random internet commenters if they would just send him their "email addy." He also told people to "look out for a torrent" and hosted listening parties for the album on his X account, which reached "potentially over 4,900 listeners."

We know all of these details because PleasrDAO has sued Shkreli, claiming that he is acting in violation of the asset forfeiture order and that he is misappropriating "trade secrets" under New York law.

Shkreli "knew that by distributing copies of the Album's data and files or by playing it publicly, his actions would decrease the Album's marketability and value," said PleasrDAO. They have asked a federal judge to stop Shkreli—and also to get them a list of everyone he has distributed the album to.

Not a Secret

Shkreli's response to all this is, in essence, "So what's the problem?"

When he purchased the album for $2 million in 2015, he also acquired 50 percent of the copyrights to the package. Before the album was seized by the government, Shkreli says he took advantage of his copyright ownership to make copies as he was "permitted to do under his original purchase agreement." The government, he says, seized only the individual, physical copy of the album, and Shkreli was within his rights to retain the copies he had already made.

As for trade secrets, well, a trade secret actually has to be "secret." Thanks to his own actions, Shkreli has made sure that the album is not a secret. "Because Defendant legally purchased and shared the work before the Forfeiture Order and the Asset Purchase Agreement, the work is no longer a trade secret," his lawyers wrote in his defense.

The Empire State Strikes Back

On August 26, 2024, a federal judge in Brooklyn issued a preliminary injunction (PDF) in the case as the two parties prepare to battle things out in court. The injunction prevents Shkreli from "possessing, using, disseminating, or selling any interest in the Wu-Tang Clan album 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin' (the 'Album'), including its data and files or the contents of the Album."

Furthermore, Shkreli has to turn over "all of his copies, in any form, of the Album or its contents to defense counsel." He also must file an affidavit swearing that he "no longer possesses any copies, in any form, of the Album or its contents."

By the end of September 2024, Shkreli further must submit a list of "the names and contact information of the individuals to whom he distributed the data and files" and say if he made any money for doing so.

[tarabyte3]

Fic Updates

It's been a while soo....

I Want You to Show Me Weak — As I've stated before, there are only 2 chapters left in the entire fic. I'm going to be finishing both of them before I post chapter 26. Then I'll be posting chapter 27 the next day. Gonna end the fic with a bang 😏 I have everything outlined and thought out, I just have to finish writing it (I'm very excited about what I have planned/written for the final chapter, which includes the ending). Though I will admit, it's been difficult to write knowing I'll be saying goodbye to this story. I'll miss my boys SO much 😭, as well as this version of Kino x Reader, but I want to finish it for myself and for all of you! Besides, there's always the possibility of oneshots set in this universe in the future AND I'm not done writing for Kino. Not even close! I have no date estimate at the moment, but I'm trying to give this one my full attention so 🤞

The Devil Makes Us Sin — Once Show Me Weak is done, I'm going to give this one my full attention for a while. (Though, to be honest, even though I'm trying to focus on finishing Kino first, I still keep this document open and regularly pop in to write a paragraph or two. What can I say, David is VERY fun to write for 😏, I love him, and I must follow the serotonin). The next few chapters will be shorter so they should go quickly, and I already have around the next 4 of them half written (I actually have about ~25k of future stuff written last time I checked, including parts of chapters MUCH further down the road 😅).

Other Wips

While my focus has been on my ongoing stories, I do have a few other WIPs I have actual content written for! So here's an update on those as well. For fun.

Personal Trainer!Kino x Reader Modern AU — I have the beginning of this story and a few scenes written, and SO many notes for it. (My relationship with my trainer is fantastic. He's 50% big brother energy, 50% wingman energy, but he says THE most out of pocket shit so I immediately write it down after my sessions. Because him saying it does nothing for me, but imagining Kino saying it?? 😵‍💫🫠🥵) It will probably end up ~5 chapters total. Probably.

And Your Heart, Love, Has Such Darkness (David x Reader smutty Oneshot) — I started this one a year ago because I wrote something for TDMUS that didn't quite fit, but I liked it enough to keep it and make it its own thing. It's over half done right now, so it will likely be the next oneshot I post.

I Didn't Want to Hurt You, but You're Pretty When You Cry (Dark!David x Reader) — I think this one will end up about 3 chapters long and will contain a lot of content warnings. It's going to be more horror focused (with splashes of dark humor because I cannot help myself). I adore the opening chunk I've written. It gave me goosebumps.

Secret Andy Blorbo x Reader Oneshot — This one started as a joke on Discord about an Andy blorbo that is not only incredibly niche/unknown, but is actively not attractive (one of the very rare times Andy Serkis does nothing for me. In fact, when I see him, my vagina makes the windows shutdown noise). Except I made the mistake of saying, "I want to try to write for this character as a fun challenge just so I can sexually confuse everyone." And it, uh, spiraled from there and made me rethink my entire stance on this character (thank you for not only indulging me, Hannah, but encouraging me and giving me more ideas 💖 I loved [redacted] thirst day in TNBF)

Halsin x Tav — That's right, I'm writing for the sexy druid. It'll be 2 chapters, and it's about a third of the way finished. This Tav will be a human fighter, but is otherwise written more like a Reader Insert. (Side note: going back to 3rd person POV after writing a lot of 2nd person POV is harder than I imagined 🙃)

Paz Vizsla x Mando!Reader Oneshot — That's right, I'm also writing for the big Mandalorian. It's about a third of the way finished as well. (These last 2 are actually a little intimidating because the fandoms are MUCH larger, but I need to get them out sooo fuck it, it's happening.)

So as you can see, even though I haven't posted very much outside of Liam Black, I'm still writing a lot. Apparently I just have commitment issues and a lot of ✨thots✨ 😌💖

[erenozturk]

EREN ÖZTÜRK INTRODUCTION.

meet eren; private investigator banshee

GENERAL

FULL NAME: Eren Öztürk NICKNAME(S): N/A AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: 54 (appears 29), 01/04/1969 GENDER: Cisman PRONOUNS: He/Him OCCUPATION: Private Investigator, and owner of Tower Treasure Detective Agency SPECIES: Fae, Banshee

BIOGRAPHY

TRIGGERS: death, haphephobia, racism, xenophobia, gore

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a boy who fell into a hole. 

It’s not a normal way to start a fairy tale, but in the case of Eren Öztürk this was the way his literal fairy life began. Falling face-first into a dark, seemingly endless hole. It was that night that his banshee powers had manifested themselves for the first time within this specific timeline, as well as the defining moment which led him down the path to his current life. Seated in a small office above a laundromat on a corner in Downtown Lunar Cove, surrounded by case files, grainy photographs, and dozens upon dozens of takeout cartons, the banshee often reflects on that pivotal moment way back on that early 80’s autumn day in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania and how everything changed forever after. 

Eren Öztürk was born to a mechanical engineer and a children’s book writer in Istanbul in 1969. He doesn’t remember his homeland, at least not back in that time, because shortly after in the early 70’s his parents made the decision to migrate to the United States. Settling in a small and charming town in the foothills of Pennsylvania, Eren was set to have a pretty idyllic childhood. Being the only child the Öztürks would ever have – as far as he knew – he had a warm upbringing full of love and everything a young kid like him could ever ask for. Everything seemed absolutely perfect… That was, until it wasn’t. Being an immigrant to the United States in the 20th Century wasn’t exactly the easiest thing, and being one of the only Turkish families in their small town made things worse. When Eren started attending school, he quickly found himself growing into an outsider and began hiding his sweet and warm demeanor behind a stoic and socially anxious exterior. The kids at school made fun of his homemade dishes, a stark contrast to their pizza and chocolate milk carton lunches bought at the cafeteria. They mocked him and his family as they spoke in their native tongues at the supermarket, and they found every way to let him know he was “just too different” from them.

As a result, Eren had only a couple of friends – Frank, his brother Joe, and their oftentimes collaborator, one Nancy Drew. While the other kids ran about the playground playing freeze tag and hide and seek together, Eren spent his recesses in the library, checking out Hardy Boys book after Hardy Boys book. He delighted himself primarily with the mysteries at the core of each adventure, but also the brotherly bond and camaraderie between its main characters – something he always wished he had in his own life. These novels were the first signs of an inquisitive and curious mind, having bred a love for anything mystery and crime detective related, and when Eren was going through puberty and feeling woefully alone, he began to act out. Combined with a bad attitude, which was undeservingly flung at his parents, Eren began sneaking out of the house and running off to a local art theater late at night when they began showing Noirs from the 40’s and 50’s. Films which he quickly became addicted to. Out of the Past, Murder, My Sweet, Kiss Me Deadly — these movies and so many more all became quick favorites for the young boy, who soon after began daydreaming he was a detective in a trench coat and fedora, on a hot case with a femme fatale in a dark and smoky city. 

After one such late night excursion, and imagining himself as the quick witted detective at the center of the narrative, Eren left the theater on his bike and cut through the woods which lead to his backyard. It was supposed to be a shortcut, a quick way to get home so he could be tucked back in his bed before his dad checked in on him to ensure he didn’t sneak out again. But one sharp turn turned a simple bike ride through the woods into him stumbling face-first into a barely concealed hole. One that felt like it went on forever, endless and dark. He woke after an indecipherable amount of time in the pitch black, sore and covered in scrapes and bruises. As Eren tried to feel around for something to help him up, his hands felt something softer than the hard, cold ground. Adjusting to the dark, he was able to make out a silhouette of what looked to be an oddly shaped object, which his hand reached towards. Moonlight piercing the clouds revealed it to be a corpse, and as his hand sank into the decomposing flesh, Eren let out the loudest, piercing scream he had ever made or even heard in his entire life. His vision clouded as a chilling vision unfolded, depicting the deceased's final moments — a visceral connection to death that marked the onset of his supernatural gifts.

This was the first time his abilities as a banshee manifested themselves.

The trauma of that encounter lingered, overshadowing the remainder of his youth and impacting his relationship with his parents. The banality of life faded into the background, replaced by the manifestation of even more peculiar abilities – a debilitating scream, the ability to transfer an injury inflicted by his bullies to them, and retractable wings which made for many an awkward moment. But all of those were eclipsed by the even more horrifying ability to witness moments of death from just touching a person. It all made adolescence a confusing and isolating period. He was desperate to escape whatever was going on with him, but especially his parents who were stuck between wanting to help their son with whatever was happening to him and horrified as stranger and newer symptoms of his unknown curse made themselves known. He couldn’t stand the terrified look on his mother’s face, or his father’s confusion which quickly turned to frustration when Eren lashed out when they tried to make sense of everything going on with their teenage son. Or the hurt that crossed their faces when he refused their touches, caresses of love and concern from a parent watching their son become undone. The last thing any kid wanted was to see how their parents would die, long before the event itself happened.

The second that Eren came of age in the late '80s, he had made a rather difficult choice. He couldn’t stay there, with parents who would likely never understand what he was going through and in a town where he wasn’t accepted when he was at his most “normal”. So he left home – without farewells, leaving behind the tearful visage of his mother as his last memory of her. His search for answers regarding his strange abilities propelled him into a nomadic existence, hopping from place to place, country to country, continent to continent, searching for something he wasn’t quite sure of, avoiding attachments all along the way. It seemed all across the world there were many places with their own myths to explain what was happening to him, but nothing concrete beyond old wive’s tales. No documented cases of another going through what he was, from what he could find. His existence quickly became the one mystery that Eren had no way of solving. 

With little to nothing to work with, he gave up on his soul searching for a moment and made his way to Turkey, his homeland which he only heard about in stories and in faded memories from when he was really quite young. All his life he had felt like an outsider looking in, only feeling a sense of belonging within the pages of old children’s mystery novels. When he arrived in Turkey, things were instantly somewhat different. For once, he didn’t feel like he didn’t belong, he felt like just another face in the crowd, blending in fully to the environment around him. It felt like maybe things would be alright, maybe he found some happiness despite all the strange occurrences surrounding his existence. He still had the premonitions which haunted him any time he came in contact with people and sometimes objects which formerly belonged to others. This gave way for a severe case of haphephobia, which made him awkward and anxious when out in public. This being the only thing that marred his time home in Istanbul, he didn’t think of it as a major tell as to the supernatural things which had been going on in his life. But he was wrong, there was someone who was able to notice something was off about him and was able to quickly deduce what was going on.

When Zehra first approached him, he didn’t know how to take her boldness, especially when she began asking him about his wings and if this was his “first life”. Of course it was his first life – as far as he knew, this was his only life – but her vagueness gave way to more transparent explanations and soon Eren was getting the explanation he had longed for for a handful of years now. According to Zehra, he, much like her, was a faerie, only he was one called a banshee whereas she was a siren. Suddenly everything about himself made sense, and all because of this stranger who was able to recognize the shared struggles of their kind. Slowly, they forged a profound friendship, and Zehra became Eren's guide, helping him understand his banshee abilities, introducing him to a supernatural world within their own. With her he found his first family outside of his parents, and they worked on his trauma and helped him make sense of his past. Eren knew he was finally with someone who understood him when Zehra gifted him with his first pair of leather gloves. “You know,” she had said warmly, “To help you with your fears.”

He was content to stay there in Turkey with Zehra, but as quickly as he learned about the broad supernatural world they were part of, he learned there were those who wanted to destroy it. Hunter activity was growing across Europe and Asia during that time, and so the fae duo knew they would need to keep moving if they wanted to survive. At Zehra’s insistence they began moving westward. She had heard talk of a supernatural haven back in the States which many of her compatriots had either come from or escaped to. While the thought of going back homeward gave him anxiety, a sense of self preservation prevailed and the pair began slowly making their way towards Lunar Cove, Rhode Island. Between 1988 and 1991, they found themselves settling in towns here and there, meeting others like them and of different species, and trying to find some sense of normalcy wherever they could. Wherever they stayed Eren would pay keen attention to the local goingons, and Zehra was surprised to see the young banshee quietly following and even solving some of the local crimes which were being documented by the public, talked about in small coffee shops and diners.

During a particularly long stay in a town in the Southern US, Eren went as far as crossing paths with detectives on a cold case and made light comments after touching something he was supposedly not allowed to touch. He may have been the anonymous tip to help things progress to justice. While talking over coffee in the middle of the night at a Waffle House in Alabama, Zehra made a throwaway comment about them opening a Private Investigation agency together when they settled in Lunar Cove. At first he shrugged it off, but as they continued their northward travel the thought became more and more appealing. When they finally crossed the barrier into Lunar Cove in the spring of 1993, Eren decided he would make that vision a possibility. Working days bussing tables at an Italian restaurant while he spent nights getting his criminal justice degree at the local college, it seemed like this was the cherry on top of Eren’s life turning out just as it was meant to be. So much so that he stopped aging in 1998, finally feeling his true self. When he got his PI license, Eren began renting out a small office space above a laundromat in Downtown Lunar Cove, and thus the Tower Treasure Detective Agency was born – aptly named after the first Hardy Boys adventure which started his long journey towards amateur sleuthing and now real detective work. Things were going great, perfect even, and after skirting around their feelings for so long, Eren and Zehra finally progressed their friendship into a romantic connection. 

The turn of the century brought with it many changes. Tower Treasure was doing well, mostly dealing in smaller crime cases that the local authorities didn’t pay as much attention to, as well as targeting cold cases in the greater local area in order to earn some extra big cash. With his banshee abilities, Eren began taking on more and more cases regarding inexplicable deaths, using his premonitions to help families get a glimpse of exactly what may have happened when their loved ones perished and providing much needed closure and even a bit of grief counseling as a result. It was simple and sweet, it made those visions which oftentimes plagued him and scared him as a youth into something good for the community, at least he tried to think of it that way. It didn’t always pan out that way and in his seemingly perfect life, there were some cracks which exposed a less happy underbelly. No matter what positive spin he tried to put on things, Eren still suffered with his phobias and fears, as well as an unending guilt for having never reconnected with his parents who likely would always wonder what exactly happened to their boy. Zehra had been supportive of everything he went through, but every person had their individual needs and soon enough she wasn’t feeling as fulfilled as she hoped. And despite himself, Eren pulled away from most everyone and everything. The visions of death began having a toll on him once again, and he found himself pulling more into himself after years and years of detective work. Solidarity has always been his best coping mechanism.

Eventually Zehra left, citing a desire to go back to Europe and find some of the others they used to commune with. Eren knew she didn’t want him to feel bad for not being adequate for her and he comforted himself with the thought that she was back in Europe or Asia, living out her vivid and interesting life and hopefully in the arms of someone who could love her properly. It felt better to think that way than to imagine hunters found her and she had regenerated, or worse. Since she left, Eren never took on another partner in his detective work, or personal life. Left alone, aside from his only lasting employee which was an eternally middle aged vampire secretary with a nasally voice and penchant for knit cardigans decorated with woodland creatures, his agency continued on — still bringing closure to Lunar Cove’s residents in death whenever it’s needed, but with his somewhat dreary case load he’s lost a bit of love for the work over the past couple decades. Now it seemed he was just robotically going through the motions of work and life, as he has been over the past couple decades now. His social life remained minimal, not interacting much beyond his clients and the other members of the fae court, and he shied away from forming new attachments, being haunted by the fear of another heartbreak. Life reached a standstill, a boring downhill slide…

That was, until the Catalyst arrived.

With the chaos and turmoil enveloping Lunar Cove due to the mysterious Catalyst, Eren has found himself contemplating the unfolding mystery between his usual lighter case load. Alone in his dimly lit office, surrounded by the remnants of takeout and mountains of case files he ought to be working on instead, he often reflects on the facts laid out before him on a board hung up on his wall. Photographs, newspaper clippings, and anything he could find about the town’s biggest adversary, pinned up on a corkboard with red lines crossing over all of it, connecting invisible dots he’s yet to figure out, but delights in seeing. The prospect of a tumultuous mystery has been slowly rekindling Eren’s passion for detective work, as the promise of more danger and chaos looms on Lunar Cove’s horizon and ensures that something bigger than they’ve witnessed yet is surely on its way. And Eren Öztürk welcomes the developments, taking in each and every thing that comes up, and prepares to face the shadows that he hopes will soon darken his agency's doorstep. In the meantime, he continues paying close attention to the goings on, doing what little work comes his way, and keeping a careful eye on every new face that shows up in Lunar Cove. In this new chapter of his dark fairy tale life, everyone is suspect. That is, until he can prove their innocence beyond a reasonable doubt.

HEADCANONS

Typically wears all black, a mix between casual and dressy, in particular is usually in a suit and tie but sometimes rocks a tee and leather jacket. The one thing Eren is never without are his gloves. Black or Brown leather racing gloves which he wears to help him interact with the world without a fear of seeing things he doesn’t want to (outside of work) or direct touching with others

Doesn’t invite and has never invited a single person into his home. If you want to see him privately, go to his office, but don’t ever expect to make a house visit.

Has a very dry sense of humor and delivers teasing banter in a very monotonous voice. If you didn’t know him, you may construe this as mean but he is actually a very sweet person. He just rarely shows that side of him to others.

He appears young, but he’s an old man at heart. He loves sitting at the park and playing chess with others, his favorite show is the nightly news, and he will complain about nonexistent back pains. His sensibilities skew towards older interests, namely with music and media. He loves noir films from the 40’s and 50’s but also loves his 80’s coming of age films, and carries a Walkman and mixtapes of 80’s hits on any case. If he’s doing a stakeout there’s a 100% chance he’s listening to Tears For Fears or Spandau Ballet.

No hookups, no romantic relationships, nothing beyond professional (even for his few platonic relationships) — he’s afraid of touch and there isn’t a single exception to the touch rule. Aside from his dog. He needs cuddles somewhere, the poor man.

idk more will come to me I’m sure lol

MISC

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Demisexual ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Biromantic FAMILY: a dog named Hardy HOMETOWN: TBD, Pennsylvania FACE CLAIM: Emin Günenç HEIGHT: 6’2” EYE COLOR: Brown HAIR: Dark Brown DISTINGUISHABLE FEATURES:  STYLE:  ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: capricorn PINTEREST: (x)

WANTED CONNECTIONS

Past clients

Acquaintances

Few close friends

Maybe you were one of his cases / he had to trail you at the request of a former flame/loved one

Unwanted Partner In Crime

‘It’s Always You, Seemingly Caught Red Handed At The Scene Of The Crime’

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Heavy Harry And The Three Railway Engines (Red And Black Steam On Southern Metals, CW: Some coarse language)

This next one was actually the first RWS-type story outside of Sodor I ever wrote featuring my VR OCs. I was obsessed with the idea that the RWS books did exist within the Island Of Sodor, which is not an uncommon idea in the fandom...

But I don't think anyone did a story where locomotives outside of Sodor and existing in the same reality as Sodor actually read the RWS.

Heavy Harry And The Three Railway Engines

Newport Locomotive Depot and Works, late December 1950

The mighty VR H-Class Pocono H220 “Heavy Harry” has settled in his shed for the night. He has an express passenger train tomorrow to the border town of Albury all the way in New South Wales, the next state over across the Murray River, and needs plenty of rest. He is the largest locomotive built locally in Australia and the largest non-articulated loco in the Southern Hemisphere.

Somehow, it doesn’t really go to his head, probably because he pulls a lot of goods trains as well, overnights to Albury and back (VR seems to give everyone plenty of mixed work, not even the snooty S-classes are above pulling goods trains every now and again). It gives him ample opportunity to show his strength, for no other class of locomotive in Australia is stronger than he.

He is dark and shining in his majesty, painted in standard VR all-black; the imported American bar frames upon which his whole being is built, the pilot out the front and enormous smoke deflectors give him a proud and armored look.

Unlike the suave, stylish S-class Pacifics who are the lords of the fleet; who hid all their machinery under dark blue and gold streamlining, he unabashedly shows off his rugged mechanical lumps and bumps. He needs to be rugged if he is to mount the 1-50 and 1-44 inclines of the North Eastern Line on a daily basis, such as his purpose.

Near him is in the next berth the old fashioned, black VR A2 4-6-0 No 986 “Pluto”, who also pulls passengers, though not as often these days. He’s an older fellow that plays the doddering old man, but he’s sharp and cunning and won’t hesitate to take the piss out of anyone who he thinks is stupid.

“Your driver is coming to tuck you in and give you a kiss, Har’! Has he got a glass of warm milk?” giggles Pluto.

“He might be coming to change your adult nappy, Pluto!” snickers Harry.

“He’d better be dressed all sexy-like in a nurse outfit if he’s going to do that! Give me a sponge bath too! That’d make my night!”

They’re both laughing like crazy by the time Harry’s driver reaches them.

“Ready for bed?” his voice echoes.

“Just settling in, Driver…” says Harry

“Have a squiz at this!” His driver cheerfully, and shows him a tiny yellow book, The Three Railway Engines, “Just published! I bought it to read to me kids! I thought it would be fun to show you, Har’.”

Harry was curious at the little book.

“They have living locomotives in Britain as well?”

“Of course they do!… We’re not the only living ones out there! Its impossible!” barks Pluto.

Driver carefully reads the simple stories and shows up the pictures in front of Harry so he can appreciate them. Their faces are grey, like that of the Australian locomotives, but their classes and types are difficult to discern from the artwork.

Pluto listens in with interest.

“Blimey, Gordon is such a limp prick!” exclaims Pluto.

“That hill looks pissy as! Surely the A3 can’t be as great as they say if it struggles on a little hillock!.. “ snickers Harry.

They go to the next story.

“Pluto, there’s a 4-6-0 in this book!” exclaims Harry.

“Good for him! I hope he’s as splendid as me…” puffs Pluto, then suddenly the sound of snoring came from that berth.

“Heh! Old coot!”

They continue reading the stories.

After finishing the book, Driver asks “What do you think, Har’?”

“I’m not sure…”, Harry is a little uneasy.

“Whats the matter, boy? Don’t you like it?”.

Harry kept flickering his eyes to the side.

“I don’t like the story of Henry getting shut up in a tunnel… I don’t think he deserved his punishment…”, he looks down towards his bufferless footplate.

“He sure deserved his punishment! What a princess! Imagine stalling cuz you’re afraid of a few drops of rain? What a total pillock!” he laughed.

Driver thought it was very funny, but Harry didn’t think so.

“Sir, would you like it if the coppers threw you in jail because you went on strike over something?” he said with uncharacteristic solemnity.

Driver frowned at the realisation. He had joined the strike that year and Harry had struck a nerve.

“Have you been talking to one of the Communist locos, Har’?”

“No! Why? Didn’t you join the enginemen’s strike too? The one we locomotives wholeheartedly supported? And it made things better for everyone? Because that the promises that fucking terrible Pig Iron Bob bloke made didn't come true? ”

“Fair point, Harry… but striking for better pay and conditions is one thing… being silly over paint is another…”

“How do we know he’s being silly over paint? Just because the author said so?

'The stupid newspapers said you were all Communists or puppets of Communists! The other drivers were complaining about it!

‘They made the locos so silly-looking too! Like kiddies and children’s toys! Do they really look this silly in England?” grunted Harry.

“I don’t think these are meant to be literal, Harry…I mean, the paintings aren’t the most accurate depictions of locomotive types.. you can’t even see what classes they’re supposed to be…I mean, Henry’s a 4-6-0 in one picture and a Pacific in another!”

“Pacifics! Feh! Wankers!” yelled Pluto in his sleep ,“Too good for pulling goods eh? Why I oughta take them by the scruff and rub their noses in boiler sludge! ...” , snoring resumes.

“Do you think the Thin Commissioner would come down personally if one of us were to stall in a tunnel just to yell at the passengers, have them try to pull a 200-tonne locomotive with full consist, then lose his temper and brick it up?” asked Harry.

“No, Harry, that would be silly and absurd. But in the book, the Fat Controller is on the train… but I do get your point...”

“That Fat Controller must be a child, if his solution to Henry being silly in a tunnel is to brick him up and leave him there. The board of directors must have been spitting chips at that!”

Driver shrugged, “They’re just stories in a book, Harry. Not a thing to get upset over… I must admit now that you bring it up, it is a bit stupid in the way they seem to run it, leaving a perfectly good engine in his shed… then sending a wholly unsuitable locomotive to do a goods run on a steep hill… then bricking up another one in a tunnel...”

“Anyway Har’, best not think about it too hard… big journey tomorrow! Nighty night!”

Just stories… Harry thought.

And he put his discomfort away, and tried to get some sleep even though Pluto snored like it was going out of fashion.

Here are a couple of true events referred to for context:

Previous to the events of the story, there had been a major strike by the enginemen of the VR for better pay and conditions. Things that were promised to them when the war ended were not given to them. They were exhausted and a lot of the locomotives were in terrible shape because no one could afford to maintain them as often as they should. The railway workers union AFULE called a major strike which lasted for 55 days, and most of their demands were met by the VR.

The "Pig Iron Bob" referred to in the story is Sir Robert Menzies, the arch-Conservative Prime Minister of Australia at the time of the story. He was infamous as Attorney General for letting the sale of raw iron to the Empire of Japan even as it was clear they were allied with the Nazis and were committing atrocities all across Asia, such as the Massacre of Nanking.

The unions and every right-thinking Australian hated this and they refused to load iron on ships bound for Japan:

[justforbooks]

Collectors can be withdrawn and secretive creatures, as jealously protective of their possessions as Tolkien’s dragon Smaug was of its gold. This was not Joe Bussard’s style at all. Over more than 50 years he built an exceptional collection of American vernacular music – old-time country music, blues, jazz – on 78rpm discs, and he enjoyed nothing more than sharing it with others. Joe, who has died aged 86, played the records on his Country Classics radio show, he taped them for fans and researchers at 50 cents a track, and he lent them to labels that were committed to reissuing the music of the past, so that enthusiasts all over the world could hear fabulously rare, sometimes unique, recordings for the price of an LP or CD.

In “Joe’s Basement”, the 30ft storehouse of shellac beneath his home, he entertained an endless procession of visitors, spinning records he wanted them to hear and telling stories about where he had found them: “This old stone house down the hollow … This old shotgun shack … This little old coal town, forgotten long ago …”

“Joe doesn’t just listen to his records, he actively participates,” wrote the fellow collector Marshall Wyatt when he reissued some of them on his Old Hat label in 2002, on the CD Down in the Basement. “He’s snapping his fingers, jiving, keeping time with his whole body, and smoking his cigar all the while. He picks up the record sleeve, fanning imaginary flames that leap from the turntable. ‘This is one hot record!’ Every record has a story, and every story is like a theatrical performance, with Joe playing all the parts.”

The exuberance of Joe’s interaction with his records is brilliantly captured in Edward Gillan’s 2003 documentary Desperate Man Blues, interspersed with tributes from performers and listeners whose horizons were redefined by the music he secured before it was lost. “When you stop at Joe’s,” his musician friend Paul Geremia said, “it’s like going to a museum.” Joe himself, no lover of museums, would simply grin. “You can’t say you don’t have fun when you come down here!”

Joe was born in Frederick, Maryland, to Joseph Bussard Sr (it was pronounced not Buzzard but Bersard), who ran a farm-supply business, and Viola (nee Culler). As a boy Joe liked Gene Autry, but when he was 11 he heard a record of the pioneering country music singer Jimmie Rodgers – it was a bombshell moment that reshaped the terrain of his life.

Having dropped out of high school, he financed his record-gathering by working in the family business and at other jobs; he also spent eight years in the National Guard.

In the 1950s, he began to take long collecting trips into Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio, and down into the south-eastern states. He claimed he could glance at a house and tell, from how it was kept, whether there might be records inside. “I’d go from door to door, house to house, and it was nothing to go out and in one weekend to come back with four, five hundred records.”

In later years, the duplicates he acquired in these ventures became another source of income. He liked to tell the story of how the band Canned Heat, whose Bob Hite and Henry Vestine were themselves noted collectors, dropped in one day, flush from one of their hit records, with “wads of money, enough to choke an elephant! By the time they were done, they dropped $9,000. In cash!” So he bought a swimming pool.

Joe’s tastes were wide, but not limitless. Country music and blues of the 1920s and 30s were his passion. Jazz, too, but only up to the Depression; he would say bluntly that, for him, jazz died in about 1933. Of the music made since the second world war, he approved of bluegrass but scorned rock’n’roll (“the cancer of music”), and he dismissed all subsequent pop as inconsequential noise.

His response to the 45rpm record was to create his own label, Fonotone, hand-pressing 78rpm discs with a vintage record stamper and handwriting the labels. It lasted from 1956 to 1970, its catalogue embracing obscure rural musicians Joe had come across; himself, playing guitar, banjo or mandolin, with his friends, sometimes as Jolly Joe’s Jug Band; and collector-musicians such as Mike Seeger, Mike Stewart and the young John Fahey, whose first recordings were made for Joe in 1959. The Fonotone years have been lovingly documented by Dust-to-Digital Records, presented – a detail Joe appreciated – in a mock cigar box.

It was even through records that he met his wife, Esther Mae Keith, a bluegrass enthusiast. They married in 1967; she died in 1999. Joe is survived by their daughter, Susannah, and three granddaughters.

🔔 Joseph Edward Bussard Jr, record collector, born 11 July 1936; died 26 September 2022

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[bringerofdeathandtheapocolypse]

I have further reason to insanely dislike those news sites that make like 50 top tens a day.

I was basically looking for some pics of where Nirvana was hidden for the story so I could figure out how to transition characters walking through a forest to those old ruins when I came across an article ranking the ten dumbest villain plans in the show and oh boy, I am convinced they either A. didn't read/watch the show, b. skimmed through it or c. purposefully cut out important key details to make some of those plans sound dumb.

Daphne being on the list doesn't bother me but oh boy some of the others do.

They several times bring up how its dumb for villains to want to resurrect Zeref when he isn't dead like it isn't established that very few people know that information. Neither Avatar nor Jellal (both in the list) knew that information.

They also say that its dumb for Jellal to want to build the R-system and mention how he was never possessed by Zeref but completely negate to mention that he was influenced by Ultear which was why his personality did a sudden 180.

They say its dumb the Seiz want to cause Chaos when its literally a case of they are angry at the world for the trauma they went through and were being led by a man who didn't care to have them healthily address their trauma. Some people angry at the world will lash out in similar ways (minus the magic of course)

Rogue's plan was apparently dumb because there was no way 7 dragons would be able to defeat Acnologia, completely ignoring the fact that Rogue planned to have 10,000 dragons but Lucy and Yukino closed the gate which caused him to have to rework. They also state that its dumb that he wouldn't care about killing anyone in his path but in the same paragraph already mentioned how he had been swallowed by darkness and we already saw in the same arc that the shadow is very willing to kill when it wanted to kill Gajeel.

They say how its dumb for Faust to want everlasting magic in a world where its fading. Its not dumb for him to want something that would benefit him or his kingdom. That was his motive. What made him the villain was that he was willing to kill people from another world and the exceeds to get that magic. That doesn't make it dumb.

And by far the one I am the most annoyed by, "Acnologia just wants destruction". Firstly, they get a basic fact wrong by saying "audiences were able to sympathise at first" when talking about his backstory which is completely false. His first mention is after he maimed Gildarts and first appearance where he destroys Tenrou island. We never get a backstory in the manga and the anime one isn't until the last few episodes. The closest thing to back story before that is Zirconis saying that Acnologia was once human before becoming a dragon and when he sympathises with a little girl in dragon cry. That's it. And even then, Acnologia was never motivated by just destruction. He was betrayed by a dragon he trusted and then immediately went into a war against them with no chance to healthily cope with his trauma and emotions which he turned into anger that was directed at dragons which was followed by 400 years of isolation with maybe a couple interactions every so often with Zeref or someone else. And 1. he didn't seek out Gildarts, he accidently stumbled on the location that Acnologia was staying at and the dragon attacked. We at least know the immense magic on tenrou was what attracted him that time, maybe the multiple dragon slayer magic being used since Wendy, Laxus, Gajeel and Natsu were all in the one place for the first time two of them used secret arts. He showed up in Tartarous because of END and stayed because of the dragons and came in Alvarez because of the slayers in the area since all of them were fighting and he made it clear when he killed God Serena that was what he was after and then later gathered the remaining 7 because he needed them to stabilise his body when his soul and body split. He had reasons for showing up every time and always had something he focused on. He only destroyed stuff in the end of Alvarez because his body and soul were split. His goal was always dragons and slayers(possibly because he didn't know their seeds were thwarted so just saw them as dragons since they would become dragons eventually like he did)

God I went on there. I just had a lot to say about this article.

[whenyourunlabeledbutlabeled]

Self insert

Don't read this it's just me being a hoe for shuichi

Or do idc that much

WE DO GOT SPOILERS THOUGH!!

M!ghost x Shuichi

It was the first trial that something seems slightly off, two extra stands. Something even more unnerving was the fact that there was a portrait on it, identity unknown.

Shuichi was lucky enough to be seated right next to the portrait, deciding to look at it a little more, he found there was a smug smile on it, along with it having a cracked and seeming painted on bleeding effect. A second and third one too, Rantaro Amami and two unknown people, One seemingly waving slightly, cracked and bleeding still, another with a line across their neck and a fan symbol, and Amami, with a X across his face.

The second incident occured when Shuichi found a note asking him to meet them in the library next to a bookshelf, a map attached to it.

"Don't make the same mistake I did."

He whipped his head around, that voice.. strange. He must be hearing things. Deciding to go to the bathroom to splash water on his face, he did so and when he looked up, there was another face behind him in the mirror.

"W-What the-?!" He turned around then back to the mirror.

"Oh finally! I've been waiting for you to notice me!"

"Who.. Who are you..?"

"I'm that portrait you saw. Cracked. Bleeding. My execution hurt.."

"Y-Your what-?!"

"Shut up dude shut up! People are gonna think your crazy!"

He chose to look at them some more.

Bright neon red hair, wild eyes and black mascara, Wearing jeans and a hoodie.

"Are you done-?"

"Ah yes, sorry."

"Nah your fine emo boy." He snickered.

"Your so much like Kokichi.."

" Oh him? I tried to get him to look in the mirror, did not work.."

"Why did you tell me not to go?"

"Obviously I'm not gonna let my connection to the living die!"

"Wha.. Wait hold on! Your dead-?!"

"Bingo! Well probably. Also I follow you around, so good luck trying to get that Angie girl to be your freind."

Third incident.

"Oh dear! Atua senses a disturbing force! I must calm him! Bye-onara!"

*Huh.. that.. mirror thing was right.. Apparently Angie hates me now.. Great..*

°I am not a thing asshat! I am Aoi Kagehara!°

*So that's your name.. Let's go before people get suspicious..*

The fourth incident was when a "reward" was being loaded out.

"Alrighty kids, let's see what happened on September 9th 2022 at another killing game!" Monokuma stated, before turning a video on.

The video shows a boy about to be executed or something similar, kicking his legs while sitting on a table, before looking up and smiling before being crushed, or something it seems.

It cuts to a video recording.

"Hiya! Its me again, Aoi Kagehara! Ultimate Theorist and Strategist! You can't get rid of me! I just got crushed after all! Now I'll let you in on a secret, I'm even better in person behind the scenes, I control everything aside from somebodys actions. I am The Ultimate Mastermind. Aoi Kagehara."

It cuts again to another recording.

"Oh my god, Aishi-san, you'll be okay! Just stick with the plan! You not the Ultimate Serial Killer for nothing!"

"This is extremely risky. I would prefer it if-"

A knife is drawn, the sharp sound ringing through thw air.

"Who has your family Ayano. Who controls everything? Me."

"Kagehara-kun, you wouldn't."

"I would, just stick to exactly what I said to do."

"Well give me another run-over so I can do it exactly."

"You'll dress up as Momikano-kun and go into the gym, from there you'll take that big weight thing like 50 pounds, and drop it before running away with it to the rooftop. You'll then hide it behind the air vents and run. Make sure to blame it on him. You'll then put the note in Ponzu Komeda's locker, telling him to meet you in the Plaza. You'll drop the weight on him and crush him. Make up an alibi or something."

"..As you wish."

It then cuts to the execution again, this time showing him reaching up to the sky before getting disnembered and crushed.

It ends with a close up to his face, That iconic smug smile before he opens his eyes and his face briefly goes white, his eyes widen and tear up before he almost immediately dies.

To be continued because I am tired asf and I'm bored also asf