#and a cardboard boat to build

[qroier]

okay it's post purgatory 1. roier cubito just got off that boat. everything sucks. cucurucho takes one look at roier's stumbling ass, thinks of all the blood covering him, how it belongs to his friends and family, how cellbit is nowhere in sight, and decides hmmmm.... I can do something with this.

so one day later, once people are more settled in, cucurucho siddles over to roier's house and knocks on his door. there's no answer. um, okay. he knocks harder. still no answer. well. maybe he's working on a building somewhere?

cucurucho needs to hurry. preparations are still under way for the trip to rescue the eggs but, well. roier doesn't exactly need to know any of that, does he? so he needs to find him quick.

he's not in la taqueria el tripon. no roier in the bodega. pemex looks desolate. ouch, someone stole from the coppel. on he goes, until. ah. the oxxo's a mess inside.

the shelves have been knocked over, there's somehow kitkats stuck to the ceiling, and the roier cardboard cutout attendee has a big hole punched into his face. cucurucho looks around some more, trying to figure out where to go from here, before he spots something on the floor that looks out of place. he crouches down to get a closer look and realizes he's looking at leaves. red leaves, specifically. red leaves and orange grass. well, that certainly explains where roier’s been.

cucurucho teleports over to cellbit's castle. he's already crossed the bridge and is just about to enter when he hears some sort of commotion somewhere to the castle's side. roier is there, at the castle's base, fighting with a bird over a bag of chips and yelling profanities. there's lots of bags of chips scattered around his feet.

"stupid fucking bird! is that your problem? you know only inglich? te estás haciendo pendejo leave my food ALONE!" roier gives one last pull that manages to free half the bag from the bird. chips go flying everywhere as the bag tears. roier stumbles backward and steps on another bag, shouting in dismay. the crunch is very loud.

"TÓMALA CULERO!" roier yells, shaking his fist like abueloier after the bird. he looks around and starts half-heartedly cleaning up the bags, still mumbling curses under his breath. wonderful, looks like he's not busy now.

cucurucho waits until roier's back is to him before walking up to him. "good morning."

"GAH!" roier wheels around to look at him, hand to his heart. "WHAT THE FUCK, MAN."

"hahaha," cucurucho laughs. he knows how it is with roier.

"culero estupido pendejo, ok, pues ríete de mi! ríete de mi!" roier crosses his arms and turns his back on cucurucho with a humph. the action makes more chips crunch. they both turn down to look at the scattered bags. roier's shoulders slump before crouching down to continue stacking them into piles.

"good morning," cucurucho repeats himself. politeness is vital. "what are you doing?"

"what does it look like, stupid? i'm eating chips." roier gives up at that point before plobing down on his back. he opens a bag of chips and starts eating them, slowly and one by one. there's a small radio next to him that cucurucho hadn't noticed before. it's not currently on.

"what are you doing?" cucurucho asks again, knowing that's not the full story.

"me voy a quedar aquí. me voy a quedar aquí comiendo mis papitas y me voy a podrir," roier turns to look into cucuruchos eyes at that. "adios." he says, and closes his own eyes. realizing he's forgotten something, roier grabbles for the radio next to him, eyes still closed, before he finally finds it and turns it on. si no te hubieras ido starts playing. he starts eating the chips again, each crunch louder than the last.

well, that won't do.

"no," cucurucho tells him politely.

roier opens one eye and squints up at cucurucho. marco antonio solís is still crooning, soft and low and made a bit tinny by the radio. "what the fuck do you mean, no?"

"no," cucurucho repeats. that won't do. roier is still covered in blood and wearing his emoier clothes. there's still an asset there.

"y bueno. pues f, no? mamate." roier closes his eye again, this time more firmly. there's finality to the motion. he reaches out and turns up marco antonio solís. he starts pointedly singing along.

"noy hay nada más difícil que vivir sin ti," roier and marco antonio solís mourn together. it's muffled by the sound of crunching chips. this won't do.

"sufriendo en la-"

cucurucho reaches down-

"aA WHA?" and pulls roier up by his bloodstained hoodie. he starts squawking immediately.

"ME ESTAN ASALTANDO, ME ESTAN ASALTANDO!" he shouts, looking around and going as far as placing a hand delicately to his forehead before remembering that there's no one left to come looking. the fight slumps out of him, and he twists out of cucurucho's grip easily. cucurucho considers the motion apprasingly. yes, he will do.

annoyance covers roier's face. he crosses his arms. "what the hell is wrong with you. que es tu problema. bueno, aparte de ser cucurucho y horible y asi."

cucurucho takes out the notepad he wrote ahead of time for this. preparation is always vital. he hands it to roier. roier raises an eyebrow before snatching it away and opening it to read through. his brow furrows almost immediately, before he clears that away and looks up from the book, eyes wide.

"ahaha, what the fuck?" roier goes back to reading the book, and scoffs as he pockets it once he's done. "nope! nuh uh, no acepto."

"why?" cucurucho asks him. it's a good offer. a smart one. they both get something they want in return if roier agrees to work for the federation.

"para que solo me pagen con café y enigmas? hm, no gracias." there's a glint in his eyes that he hides by looking around at the ground and muttering something about bears and ruined chips.

cucurucho takes out another book and writes down the offer he gave in the first book, as a reminder, before handing it over to roier. "the federation has resources to find people. stellar employees may request access, should their work be sufficient."

roier reads those lines. he looks at the book, pondering. he looks at cucurucho, also pondering. marco antonio solís finishes his song, and the radio switches over to llueve sobre la ciudad. the sound of static draws both of their attention to the radio. Instead of los bunkers, hozier's voice comes through, and they blink at the radio in confusion.

"do you think i'd give up," he sings, and cucurucho looks at roier pointedly.

roier just rolls his eyes. "fine! ugh." he pockets the second book and approaches cucurucho to poke a finger at his chest. "but i'm quitting the second you try and give me coffee!"

wonderful news.

"disfruta la isla," cucurucho tells him, smiling wider as roier goes to poke at the radio before he teleports back to the offices. a new asset has been acquired. everything is going as planned.

[roxynugget]

Roxy's Top Minecraft Tips:

Hoard like a goblin, as long as you have a chest to put it in. Yes, you will probably need all that extra stone for something. Yes, you will probably want all that netherrack as a cheap temporary block. No, you will probably not want all that uncobbled deepslate (let's not get crazy here).

If you have emeralds, the wandering trader is actually a decent early-game source of nautilus shells, saplings you don't have, and blue ice (which is good for redstone machines). You can also pop off his leads from his llamas, without killing him, by putting down a boat and letting the llamas sit in it. Please stop murdering the little guy...

I am a major advocate of abiding by The Three Laws Of Big Ugly Holes In The Ground. Which is a law I just made up, but is a common problem in Minecraft worlds where people undertake megaprojects. The Three Laws Of Big Ugly Holes states:

If you spend hours and hours digging a big, ugly hole in the ground for a project, you will now have a big ugly hole in the ground.

If you don't want to look at a big ugly hole in the ground, you may have to spend a lot of time and energy to make it look nice again.

And lastly, if you don't have the time or energy to fix the big ugly hole in the ground, you will have to look at it every single time you're in the area. Make sure you REALLY need that big ugly hole in the ground.

Barrels are excellent for building spruce furniture in Minecraft. But other villager work stations are also really good for building furniture! Cartography tables are excellent for building dark oak furniture and decor, because they look like they're made of dark oak. Likewise, fletching tables look like they're made of birch, so they're good for birch furniture. Bee hives also look like cardboard boxes or oak drawers.

Never underestimate the power of armor stands. They can really liven up a space, and there are some cool mods out there for posing them now. Disabling gravity also makes them less laggy.

Teach yourself just a little bit of redstone. You'll find ways to use it to benefit yourself.

If you're not going to be fighting other players, the Smite enchantment is probably going to be more useful to you than Sharpness. There are more undead enemies in the game than any other type, and suiting your melee weaponry towards them is a good idea. Add Fire Aspect, and you have a sword that can take out most monsters very quickly!

Allays and other flying mobs have difficulties navigating blocks that are not half-blocks, such as trapdoors, fences, amethyst, and slabs. If you want your pets to free-range in your house, you may want to remove these obstacles to prevent them from getting stuck.

A complicated storage system will not fix your organizational habits. It might help! But if the idea of making one exhausts you, aim for something simpler, and you may find that any organization at all will help you more.

Minecraft will still be there after you have a snack and take a drink of water. 🥪🥤

[weepingfoxfury]

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday ...

It's raining, it's pouring, and there are so many old men snoring that Mr Snippy has declared today a duvet day!

(sigh)

How I wish I could join him in his totally committed to it, full on blep, sleepy doggy way. Mind you ... I've tried doing the doggy blep thing ... (shakes head) ... and, I have to say, I'm not feeling it. Your tongue gets dried out ... it makes your mouth ache ... and you end up with a strange almost metallic taste.

I confess that, like many people, once I can see there's a blep going on, there's that irresistible urge to tweak it. There it is, all dried out, just sticking out and it's akin to seeing a red button with a sign that says 'Do Not Push.'

I also confess to having tried out other doggy favourites. I've tried chewing a cardboard tube (bleuch!) ... dragging my belly across the carpet (ouch!) ... lying on the bed with my head hanging over the side of it (eek! cricked neck!)

However ... I draw the line at huffing my butt across carpet, concrete, or any other surface that just seems to take the fancy! I mean ... what the hell!?! One dog I had regularly used to turn circles on his butt on the patio and smiled as he did it. Another dog I had used to like doing the same on gravel. Hats off to all in the doggy world ... after all ... if you like it, you like it ... but, much like all the badges I failed to get whilst in the Girl Guides, this is yet another badge that won't be adorning my sleeve any time soon. ;-D

Ach well ... the shiny metropolis calls ... so I'd best start building a bigger boat and put on some wellies. And, for those of you that are wondering in the slightest ... nope ... I still don't have a raincoat! ;-D ...

[rbgiraffe]

Слава ГНДР !

(Изначально планировалось обрезать по краю на манер броши , но больно меня случайные пятна заинтересовали . Потому в дальнейшем сделал из них грибочки)

_ __ _ __ _

Glory to the MPDR !

(Initially , it was planned to trim the cardboard along the edge of the Frame in the manner of a brooch , but I was too interested in random spots . Therefore , I later made mushrooms out of them)

Information:

MPDR (Mushroom People's Democratic Republic)

An organization on the Mainchild server , founded by PWGood in November 2024. It was created to protect its citizens from an unknown bomber by building completely glass aboveground bases . Any movement on the ground is detected by sensors that emit a sound and light signal when activated. To avoid false alarms, all mushroom cows are placed in boats

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Propaganda why Bella Swan is insufferable:

Feels like low hanging fruit, but characters that are supposed to be self inserts will always be bland boring bad ideas if you want to make a truly interesting character. Especially self inserts that go along with things like stalking and abuse from their love interests for the sake of continuing the story, because it kinda makes them seem like a mannequin who just there to be passed around like the punching bag in super smash bros, you know what I mean

complete bland character that all the boys somehow fall in love with. just gets pushed around by the plot. she's interesting as cardboard while everyone around her is more interesting.

She spends the entirety of three books looking down on others, being completely braindead, worrying that she's old at age 18 for an entire book, has a horror movie pregnancyand birth, and then becomes the most specialist vampire to ever vampire. And through all that her personality and thought processes that she had page 1 of Twilight she has on the last page of Breaking Dawn.

She has the personality of a rock, but for some reason everyone is obsessed with her.

Propaganda why Tony Stark is insufferable:

She’s a hypocrite who is ready to restrict the freedom of others when they make one mistake, but when he makes a mistake he figures he’s able to handle himself

Super long, sorry lol

Thinking about how in Homecoming when Peter accidentally caused that boat to get split in half because the Vulture’s gun exploded and Tony was acting like as if Peter was completely in the wrong for going there just because he did it without his permission. He was acting like as if Peter was out of line and “disobeyed him”, trying to act like his father. And then I remember how in CACW he’s the one who scouted Peter in the first place just because he saw he might be useful against a personal squabble between him and Captain America despite knowing that he was a kid and he’s just now acknowledging how dangerous it is because Peter “acted on his own”

Completely hijacking Peter’s superhero story and trying to control his every move (Training wheels protocol and baby monitor thing he put in the suit), acting like Peter should’ve known that Tony would send someone in despite the fact that he’d been ignoring him for 2 months since Civil War and not keeping him updated on anything!!

How the hell is peter supposed to know Tony is going to listen to him when he treats him like a kid instead of a superhero when it’s convenient for him? And when Tony loses his temper after Peter says he’s 15 not 14 like “the adult is talking” bitch he could literally flatten you without your suit!!!

I guess in a way he is acting like a father but like the absentee kind. He’s more like a sperm donor father trying to act like he has any rights over Peter’s life smh.

It’s not that reprimanding Peter for the situation is bad, but the way he makes it seem as if Peter is irredeemable as if Tony wasn't a literal weapons dealer lmfao. He could’ve said what was the truth about it without completely invalidating him saying shit like “no thanks to you” after Peter asked if everyone is okay when it’s literally thanks to Peter finding a lead on those guys in the first place that they were even noticed and it’s not like the FBI being there could’ve in no way caused a similar situation.

And then near the end of the movie when he’s getting crushed by the building rubble screaming and crying for someone to help him where the fuck is Tony?? That scene just proved that he never needed Tony’s suit in the first place to be Spider-Man since he had to use 100% his own strength to lift it off of him. I know he would’ve found the motivation even if Tony hadn’t been involved in the first place to give him the suit, take it away from him and have the words “if you’re nothing without the suit you shouldn’t have it“ echo in his head. Why did Tony even take the suit away? Like as if he expects Peter to stop being spoderman without it??? Holy fuck. This is why you don’t make it out of endgame /j /srs.

When Tony took this suit away from Peter he was like “God I sound like my dad“ shouldn’t that be a red flag to him? Wasn’t he literally just saying that he wished his dad was better than he was?? Lmfao

Tony is so annoying. When they first meet he straight up bullies Peter into fighting for his personal bullshit, insults and objectifies Aunt May in front of him, spits into his trashcan and is in general being pushy af. He blackmails Peter when he doesn’t wanna come to Germany with him AND HE DOESNT EVEN EXPLAIN WHY HE WANTS HIM TO COME. Uncomfortable vibes lol.

Tony being the one to tell peter “if Captain America wanted to hurt you he would’ve” when Peter was trying to state his case, yet HE’S also the one who put Peter in harms way when he didn’t even want to go with him???

Telling Peter that he should stick to being a “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” (stealing his thing once again) when that’s what Peter _was_ doing before Tony took him out of his zone and filled his head with grander things to be apart of….bitch? Die. Ohh waaaait (jkjk) but yeah

There’s the usual “he’s a war criminal who only felt bad about it when he realized his weapons were killing white Americans as well as Arab people” reason, and also he’s just super annoying. You had to be there for the original Avengers shitty dialogue a la “we have a Hulk” that had Tumblr in a vicious chokehold. Also he was supposed to FINALLY go away after destroying all his suits in Iron Man 3 but he just… didn’t! Which is bullshit.

Portrayed as a hero because? He chose to no longer mass produce war weapons and bombs after suffering the consequences. Huge hypocrite. Doesn't care about anyone but himself. Will backstab people if they believe in human rights when it's inconvenient to him. Seen as a hero while he's the personification of privileged people saying they're not privileged

>Makes weapons

>Billionaire

>Made multiple AI Surveillance Robots

>Gaslight a child into fighting a super soldier in a foreign country for him

>His fans are annoying

[lpsotd]

Break up anon here- I'm ok :) thank you for asking.

It's hard and I miss him but I'm better off without him. It's just hard to forget the side of him that was nice to me.

I looked it up and i was talking about Great Dane 1439!!! Aaand Cat 1921,,, god i remember that little boat set now that I'm looking at it :)

Them, the heart dachshund and German shepherd 491 are all sitting on my shelf of. Treasured possessions. I have all my older LPS still ofc but. :) These ones are my favorite.

I remember when i was tiny i would do stop motion with them and the stop motion thing the 3ds camera app could do!!! I don't think i still have the little videos but i remember filming stuff in. That big house set with the rotating part 1 sec. (God that plane set kid me loved making plane crash scenarios lmfao)

"Biggest Littlest Pet Shop" gOD THAT HOUSE WAS THE SHIT IT WAS SOO COOL AS A KID. so much spacceeee. The only other houses i had were tinier (and or was the cardboard one + that one that was weird plastic that you were meant to zip up that one was disgusting idk i hated the texture and just. Vertical sjit like that sucked as houses)

Fjjjf sorry for infodumping 💖 i love this blog seeing little friends everyday makes me happy :)

it's near impossible to not miss someone who's no longer in your life, no matter how bad they may have been, i understand that very well <3

i love these two ... #1439 was my first great dane lps ever actually, and i got it semi-recently in 2023 !! i love this cat mold a lot ... there's only around 7 cats that use the mold, i wish there were more ...

i love it when people ramble in my inbox tbh, it's more than welcome !!

i feel like i know exactly what house/building you're talking about that you zip up. i think i had one similar but it may have been barbie??? or maybe it was lps, but i used it mostly for my barbies because i didn't have any real barbie houses lol

[odysseywritings]

Meet the Siren

@flashfictionfridayofficial

(cartoon death)

BLU prepared for their offense and finally capture territory in some beach they knew nothing about. Scout ran around itching for a fight, Soldier cracked his neck in multiple painful directions, and many more prepared for a bloody good onslaught.

The announcer signalled the countdown and they were gleeful when she'd finish.

"5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Fight!"

The siren blew the cacophony as they stormed out ready to attack... Nothing? RED was nowhere in sight and their joy turned to confusion and then to paranoia thinking they were all spies. Pyro incinerated everything not bolted down and there was nothing behind the rocky terrain and rustic buildings.

"So, uh," Scout said while looking around, "this means we win, right? Sweet!"

"Dammit, son," Soldier pointed at his chest. "Use your American ears! That siren is still blasting. Do you know what this means?"

"We... Smash it and win?"

"Affirmative! Men, let's find that noise and kill it!"

BLU team roared in a raucous mob heading toward the blaring sound, not stopping even as it booped and warbled in oscillating tones, as their bloodlust compelled them to shoot first ask never. They turned around the corner to find a rotating light in the distance, and like moths with guns, they were drawn to attack it.

The mercenaries followed the siren and light to the bay and Engineer constructed a boat to travel across the foggy ocean. They shot wildly at the source with reckless abandon, rockets and bullets flying without care, and laughing with exhilaration and a few dancing in joy. They closed in on the sound and light, sensing both clearer, and the fog lost its hold.

They stepped off the boat and headed to the remote island to see the culprit; a cardboard cutout of a suggestive woman with a rotating head. The crew stared at her head beams that distracted them, too dumbstruck to register the RED sticky bombs and laser sights around them.

Resignation, fear, shame, disappointment. All emotions felt as they saw the bombardment arriving. Soldier played a somber trombone song that aggravated everyone with his scratchy performance and were glad to welcome death until they respawned.

RED pointed and laughed at their BLU enemies' demise and started a jubilant conga circle around the siren siren, waiting until the next round of senseless funny killing would return.

[knockyasocksoff2022]

☾🐈‍⬛Where Black & White Make Red🥀☽

☾The Deal☽

☾1,316 Words☽

"Did no one ever tell you, Jinko, that on certain moonlit nights in this city, black, white, and red become one and the same?"

☽☾

In the chaos the Armed Detectives Agency has almost forgotten the deal they made with Mori . . . almost. And just before they do, mori comes to collect his debt.

Who will be chosen to lead the rest of their life as a mafioso?

Everyone knew it was coming, looming like distant rain clouds on a sunny day. But, for now, at least, they'd put it all out of their minds.

Today, however, on a miserably stormy day, the president has an announcement.

"Ahem, may I have everyone's attention?"

Affirmations echo around the office. The detectives think it's sweet how despite having their utmost respect the President still asks kindly for their attention.

"I want you all to listen very carefully. You can most likely sense from my tone that the news I bear is not good. At noon today, Mori-dono will be paying us a visit to inform us of which one of you he's selected for a position in the mafia."

Each member reacts differently, but the underlying emotion is all the same: shock.

Everyone thinks some version of the same thought: "I thought we'd have a little more time!"

Kunikida steels himself, stepping a bit in front of Atsushi. Yosano pulls Ranpo closer. Kenji finds Kyouka's hand and grips it tightly. The Tanizaki's cower in the corner. Dazai stares off into space, eyes fixed on Yokohama's five tallest buildings visible from the window.

"Nobody's taking my Junichi away!" Naomi declares, crushing her brother in a suffocating hug.

"Ahh, Naomi . . . l-let me go . . . please!" Junichiroiu whimpers.

The president's face turns hard, determination in every wrinkle, like a lone tugboat readying to face a Typhoon. The old wooden boat that could, the years only having made its planks sturdier, ready to take the waves without so much as a grimace, an immovable object preparing to meet an unstoppable force. 

"Mori-dono has given me no indication of who he's going to pick. It may very well be Junichirou or any of us besides Yosano-san, so please prepare yourselves. Say anything you feel you need to. Once you've been selected, you will immediately pack up your things and head with him to the mafia headquarters. You are to waste no time with your departure." 

The President's face turns sad. Well, not exactly sad, it's more than that, deeper, mournful, longing. "Once picked by Mori-dono you will be an official member of the mafia." He says this as if he cannot bring himself to say 'You will cease to be a member of this agency.' "and as per the rules of this agency, we cannot have mafia members on the premises unless for a prearranged meeting of absolute necessity. So with that in mind, I suggest that all of you start clearing out your desks of any personal items you would wish to bring with you. There is no need to prolong the process. Haruno-san will hand out boxes."

Haruno obeys, passing out cardboard boxes, and with heavy hearts, every agency member save for Yosano gathers their trinkets and places them inside. Only Dazai, who has nothing but his precious suicide manual which he always carries on his person, stands at the window, still looking out at what could be any of their future workplaces.

— 30 Minutes Later —

None of the detectives have gotten much done. Most of them have either mumbled quietly to their deskmates or looked thoughtfully at their effects. 

With his small personal shrine, Kenji prays for Mori not to pick Kyouka or Atsushi. He isn't naive. He knows someone must go, but not someone who only recently found a home in the agency. He prays for whoever does get chosen to have an okay time.

Kunikida writes his thoughts silently down in his notebook.

Yosano lets Ranpo sit in her lap, twiddling a ramune marble, whilst she sorts the infirmary supplies. She feels almost sick in her safety with the boy who showed her the light on her lap. 

'As much as I never want to be in the clutches of that . . . man (if I can even call him human) . . . if he picked Ranpo . . . I . . . I might go then, just to ensure that Ranpo can always stay in the light.'

Kyouka polishes her katana and dagger.

The Tanizaki siblings are locked in an embrace.

Atsushi tries his best to ignore the growing panic, aimlessly twirling the rows and columns of a Rubik's cube.

And Dazai just stares.

-

Not a second late, Mori arrives, Elise his only company. There are no guards and the single sleek black sedan cuts through the foggy morning like a wraith, a clear sign of who has the advantage and it sends shivers down the spines of the detectives.

"Well, we ought to give our guests a proper welcome," Kenji says, trying to cheer his coworkers, but sounding more desolate than anyone has ever heard him. 

The president sighs, "We may as well, but I will be the one to do it." He walks silently out of the office and down the stairs to the front door, having agreed only because it felt wrong to let Mori just let himself inside. 

"Fukuzawa-dono."

"Mori-dono."

The two men bow to each other, nodding affirmatively but exchanging no more words as the president leads the mafia boss into the quaint office.

-

Mori seems to be a black hole when inside the walls of the brightly coloured agency building, his boots clicking across the floor with finality, the sound bouncing off the walls and bathing the silent office in mafia black. After a moment of his steps filling the space, the man comes to a stop at the head of the room, back to the President's office.

The detectives hold their breath.

Mori smiles. If they didn't know him, the expression would appear gentle, one of serenity.

Kenji holds Kyouka's hand, steadying her as she shakes at the sight of her former superior. She knows she shouldn't be afraid anymore, and yet here he is, once again holding power over her. She can't help but tremble. This time she has more than herself to think of. Yet she still can't help but pray as hard as she can that it's not her. It makes her sick to her stomach that she wishes this after someone else.

'I should volunteer, and sacrifice myself so that the agency can continue on with its most essential member, it's the least I can do after what I've done. This is what the relatives of the 35 people I killed would want . . . B-but I-I . . . I-I d-don't want to go back to that place and take more lives. I don't want to kill EVER AGAIN!!!'

Kunikida clutches his notebook so hard his knuckles turn white as if the words inside will bring a solution, but for once his pen remains intact.

Yosano glares as hard at the mafia's leader as she can, willing laser beams to shoot from her eyes and explode him, hands itching for her cleaver to hack away at his evil form.

Ranpo is silent, grimacing. He knows who's going to be picked, of course he does. Yet, for once he doesn't shout out the answer in fear that if he does it may suddenly change. He knows that the person picked will be able to survive. If Mori were to choose another, they may lose them for good.

Junichirou stands, ready to fight, in front of his sister who curls around him with an expression of mock fear. 

"Protect me, Junichi-sama," she whispers, sounding almost aroused at her brother's sudden possessiveness. "It's alright, I won't let them separate us. Wherever I go, you go. Don't worry. You can do it."

Atsushi fights the urge to hide behind Kunikida, instead standing in front of Kyouka and Kenji.

Dazai just stares and stares and stares, brown eyes appearing to have suddenly lost all colour as they stare through Mori's very soul.

Mori's smile grows, and twists until the pressure in the room is nearly unbearable, like the deepest depths of the sea. The water swells up around you and before you know it, you can't breathe.

"Thank you for allowing me to visit today, armed detective agency. The person I have selected to join the Port Mafia is . . . "

[mizuthe-cat]

we have to make cardboard boats as a team building activity and then race them

[musingsofadepressedgay]

It is absolutely fucking wild how little accountability church leaders need to have

A while back I was a girls camp

(Intermission for those of you who have never experienced a girl's camp)

Picture this, every young women between 12 - 17 is taken up into the mountains with nothing but clothes toiletries ✨️feminine products✨️ (side note why are we so afraid to call them fucking pads or tampons but whatever it doesn't matter rn) a journal pen and scriptures

Phones were not allowed and even if someone snuck one in most of the time we were out of cellphone range because it is time to 'disconnect with the world to connect with god' and at the end of the week everyone is peer pressured into telling about how they didn't want to go but thier mom made them and now that they went they are so happy and feel so close to God because spending a week doing nothing but team building activities all with metaphors about how it is our devine right to be a stay at home mom and we should be honored to submit to our husbands cause Jesus loves us and God knows what's best, while operating on 5 hours of sleep tops, is so eye opening and all that grand stuff

Sometimes there would be showers, sometimes there would be flushable toilets, sometimes some jackass would hide a life sized cardboard cut out of Justin Bieber inside of the Porta potties

Anyway now that we have established the vibes

I was at girls camp, around 14 or 15 years old, and we were going canoeing, because see girls camp is just like scout camp! They go white water rafting but we get to canoe in a reservoir

Now you could have 3 people in a canoe so me and 2 friends went off to go get sunburnt and paddle around for a bit before heading back into a cramped car to listen to the girls gossip about whoever the guy of the week was, because that's what we were expected to do

One crucial design flaw in said canoes is that they aren't actually buoyant enough to float if they get flipped upside-down, they just slowly sink as the air trapped underneath escapes when you attempt to flip them back over

I know that because we tried to take a sharp turn and capsized

Now after we figured out that not only had we flipped the canoe but now we were at a chance of being the only people to lose a whole fucking canoe to the bottom of the reservoir we begin to panic and tread water while holding onto the canoe and calling for help

Eventually some very nice young adults who were out paddle boarding took pity on us and offered to help flip the canoe so it wouldn't sink

Seeing as the canoe had already sunk enough that flipping it would just make it right side up while still underneath the water they had me sit on the back of their paddleboard and hold the canoe to tug it back to shore while my friends swam along side it to help keep it afloat

There are 3 important factors to this situation that are crucial to note

The first is that it is early spring in the mountains, the reservoir was filled with water from melted snow and some of it was still frozen over in shallower areas, on top of that ot was a chilly, and windy, day that felt decent when the sun was out but when you are in the cold water, it in fact did not feel decent

The second thing to note is that at the time I was incredibly short and built like a stick, not much muscle, not much body fat, just a small prepubecent teen (I know I was 14 or 15 however I was a 'late bloomer')

The third thing to note is that the kind paddle boarders who helped us were men in thier 20s or something, idk I wasn't really paying attention to how old they looked, but they were conventionally attractive

And so it was when we finally hauled the boat to shore and got it flipped right side up that we were told by our camp leader that we were not allowed to canoe back across the entire reservoir that we had paddled out to, but we were expected to swim back

To teach us a lesson about flipping a canoe to get the attention of the conventionally attractive young men

(It is worth noting that they were not even paddle boarding near where we accidentally took too sharp of a turn and we had been treading water and holding onto the boat for a good 8 or so minutes before they showed up)

But clearly we had done it all for the attention from boys because we were spending a week in the woods with no boys and so we flipped the boat for an excuse to talk to them

(Secondary note: I am very gay, I did not even understand what they were accusing us of until someone spelled it out for me because the possibility someone might flip a boat for a chance to talk to guys did not ever cross my mind)

And so it was that we went back into the water to swim the whole way back, now we were not just ignored, at one point some other girls took pity on us and told us we could hold onto thier boat as we swam to make it easier for us, and they were towing our boat (that we weren't allowed to paddle back ourselves) so they didn't mind a little extra weight of us holding on while we swam

We got to do that for all of 5 minutes before our leader yelled at them for showing us sympathy and told us that we needed to swim the whole way back on our own

Everyone had finished canoeing and was getting ready for the group picture by the time we got back, we had been swimming as fast as we could the whole time but we had to go back the entire distance that we had canoed out to

When the other girls helped me out of the water I looked like I was badly sunburnt because of how red I was, but it was just my whole body turning red from how cold the water was

I remember vividly that I was crying when the group photo was taken because my feet were burning with every step I took because they had been in the snow melt for so long that when I stepped onto the sand it felt like hot coals

(Yet another side note, having walked on hot coals bare foot before this was worse, the coals was over with fast and my nerves barely had time to react but with this I was so cold that I felt like going into the air I was burning except when the wind blew I was shivering so hard it felt like I was spasming)

We made it back to camp and shockingly none of us felt any better after changing into dry clothes, maybe being in cold water for 20 minutes isn't just something that goes away by getting out of the church approved swim suits

We were told by the church leader that we were allowed to take a shower to wash off the reservoir water and help us warm up, I had to turn the water to cold just to stop myself from feeling like I was being boiled alive

I got home and went straight to my mom to tell her of the injustice I faced, because whenever I told any other adults at camp they just laughed about how cute we must have thought the boys were

I finished telling her and her response was to tell me she already knew because the camp leader had texted her about it

However it was okay because she gave us her one shower she was allowed for the week (the campsite we were at was working on conserving water so the leaders were allowed one shower each and the girls were told they could just deal with not showering for five days) and that because the camp leader was really looking forward to her shower but she gave it up for us, it was all worked out in the long run and there was no fault or blame

I now have experienced things that hurt worse, but at that age the burning feeling around my entire feet as they sunk into the sand was one of the worst physical sensations I had ever felt I can still feel it if I think back because it was such a strong memory of the way my feet stung and my teeth shivered and I cried in front of all of my peers even as I tried my hardest to stop so that I didn't look like a cry baby infront of them

But she didn't get to have her shower

So it alllll evened out

Nobody remembers it besides me and my friends

I don't think we ever got an apology that wasn't followed by a 'but she was doing what she thought was best' or 'but she made it right by letting you have her one shower for the week'

Because it doesn't matter

Whatever the church leaders decide is right is what is right

It doesn't matter who gets hurt along the way

Let the lords will be done

And whoever speaks the will of God can't ever be wrong, and so any harm they do must be right

[tgammsideblog]

Analysis of the symbolism from ¨All In the Mind¨

¨All In the Mind¨ is an episode that left the fandom quite a lot to talk about since it involves the duo going inside Scratch's mind and finding many things about him. The episode has a more serious tone, filled with metaphorical imagery that is up for the viewers to intepret it and see what they represent for Scratch's character.

In these post i'm going to discuss this imagery and analyse what it means for Scratch and his human past. Since there is a lot to analyse, i'll go point by point, talking about different aspects from the episode.

The surface level

The first level of the mind Molly and Scratch find themselves into when they first go through the portal is what i would like to call ¨the surface level¨.

This level doesn't have much going on since it is basically a distorted version of the Mcgees house with gray color. Molly is able to jump from one room to the other randomly in this part. It doesn't seem to have a clear path as one room connects randomly to another.

Most things are gray in color, except for the monkey character that shows up multiple times across the episode, Molly's stuffed animals and food related items. There aren't any particular memories nor imagery that could be connected to Scratch's life as human if one excludes the monkey.

This level seems to represent who ¨Scratch¨ is, as his ghost persona and not his human past life. It's heavily implied that Scratch repressed the memories of his human life on purpose. It is possible that after dying/ repressing, Scratch created a new identity for himself as a ghost.

This would mean that the surface level represents the identity he build himself as a ghost until now. That's why the duo finds themselves in place Scratch considers his new home (the Mcgees house) and most things moving are things Scratch is familiar with, like his obsession with food and Molly's plushies.

His huge obsession with food seems to be part of his current persona instead of his human self. It could be considered as something he uses to distract his mind with, since he mentioned eating food when he gets nervous.

An interesting detail is that the pink ghost glow shows up in the song sequence when Molly ends up in her bedroom, which is where Scratch's doll house is located.

The duo finds out that the pink glow is coming from the doll house, shaped as a star from all the places it could be in the house. The doll house would be where Scratch has the most ¨privacy¨ for himself and the glow coming from inside it could be seen as a metaphor for Scratch having to open up to Molly to go deeper into his mind.

The bottle level

After going through the door in Scratch's doll house, Molly and Scratch find themselves in a boat made out of cardboard. They notice that they are inside a giant bottle and they are floating in what it is strawberry soda, the same one that brought a part of Scratch's memory in ¨A Soda to Remember¨.

Molly mentions of how this level could represent how Scratch is ¨emotional adrift¨ and ¨how he is bottling up his emotions up¨, showing that Scratch has been trying to avoid thinking of the flashback memory he got in ¨A Soda to Remember¨ and now those emotions are ¨bubbling up to the surface¨ manifesting as bubbles in Scratch's ghost body.

Based on this, this level could be described as Scratch's ¨emotional level¨ since it is about him having to be honest about how he really feels. It is when he lets out these feelings that he has been repressing that they are able to move to another part of the mind.

Some aspect that are worth of bringing up are: 1) The boat Molly and Scratch are in is the same boat that Scratch and Adia are sit on in the flashback 2) The soda seems to be what Scratch left in the bottle in ¨A Soda to Remember¨, avoiding drinking more out of fear of what other things he could see from his past. Considering all this, the bottle level is an allegory for the general anxieties and fears that Scratch has of facing his own past and finding out what is really inside his mind.

The building level

The third level the protagonist find themselves into is what it is a black space at first that has a trunk with a pink star surrounded by light. When they try approaching it, a huge tall building emerges from the ground and they both have to climb leaders to reach the top of the building, which is where the trunk is. Scratch can't float up, when he does, he falls into the ground. In result he has to climb the leader like Molly does.

The building resembles the Chicago building from Adia's memory. Inside of it looks very business like, filled with offices. Molly and Scratch even stop at one moment to point out how the strange monkey is working in one of the offices.

Seconds later a huge version of the same monkey starts throwing bananas at them, trying to stop them from climbing higher. The monkey is very angry and is also wearing a business suit like other versions of him.

It's a bit harder to guess what the building and the monkey throwing bananas at them could be an alllegory to, but, it is possible that it is about Scratch having a family that had too high standars for him to reach, probably they expected for Scratch to become a sucessful business man when he became an adult. It could be other societal pressures included as well. Another way to see it is that it is part of Scratch's life as adult when he was working in a very busy job that made him miserable. Since the monkey character is rarely seen happy with his job, it could be an indication of Scratch not being satisfied with his job.

Molly brings up that Scratch's mind is stopping them from reaching to the top. Scratch admits to Molly that he doesn't like thinking about his past and confesses that he got a memory from the time he took the soda in ¨A Soda to Remember¨. Based on this, this section of his mind could be where Scratch repressed his own memories. It is where he saves his own memories.

Once Scratch is ready to face his own memories the huge monkey character goes away and lets them climb to the top of the building where the trunk is.

The memory level

This isn't much of a level as it is the memory that Scratch has been repressing about Adia: It is about Adia and him (as a kid) playing in the cardboard boat and Adia talking to kid Scratch about how they are going to see all these different places when they grow up. Adia mentions how they are going to mark every place they visit using pink star stickers, which are the same pink stars that Molly and Scratch have been following during all the episode.

This gives hindsight of why Scratch usually is seen into navy related things, like having decoration in his room or pretending to be the captain in the ¨All Shark No Bite¨ episode. It comes from this childhood dream that he and Adia had about travelling the world together on boat.

Given all the thing we know about Scratch's character so far, it isn't too far to say that Adia was very likely one of the few friends he had, if not one of the few people that cared about Scratch when he was a human. It was one of the few things that he didn't fully repressed from his past life, as he mentioned that he could recall the soda in ¨A Soda to Remember¨.

It wouldn't be out of place neither to say that Scratch may have tried to work in the navy growing up, inspired by this childhood dream he shared with Adia, or maybe as an attempt to find her after she moved away.

The room they are playing in the memory is clearly the attic from the Mcgees' house, meaning that same house was where Adia used to live before she moved. This explains why Scratch was living in the attic as a ghost and was so protective of it when the Mcgees moved in at the start of the show (The Curse). Scratch was haunting and protecting something that he considered very important from his human life, even if he couldn't remember what it was.

What is with the tacos?

One common element that is mentioned a few times in the episode is tacos.

The image of a Scratch ¨brain¨ is shown twice in the episode, both times mentioning he loves tacos. It shows up during the song sequence when Molly is trying to check Scratch's ¨brain¨ and one of the spaces gets filled with tacos. Scratch is later seen grabbing a taco from a box that says ¨taco memories¨.

Having this in mind, tacos seem to have an important meaning behind them the same way the Surly Sid Soda is related to Adia. It's likely that tacos have to do with ¨memory repression¨ since they are mentioned when Molly asks Scratch about the things that are inside his mind and the tacos filling an empty brain space in the song sequence.

Another interpretation is that they are related to some personal memory from Scratch's past life. Scratch mentions ¨tacos of my past¨ in the song scene. Maybe he has to eat an specific type of taco to be able to recall certain memory the same way he did with Surly Sid Soda.

What is with the monkey?

The monkey character that shows up multiple times in the episode is the most unclear symbolism from ¨All in the Mind¨. He is shown doing different things like typing, making calls, driving the boat in the bottle level, throwing bananas at Molly and Scratch in the building level and giving therapy to Scratch during the song sequence.

What it is interesting is how he shows up in almost every level, including the first surface level. It is like something that Scratch can't repress, unlike Adia's memory.

The monkey is seen wearing a business suit and shares some resemblance with Scratch, like having the same bangs in his hair. He always looks at Scratch in disapproval, as he was dissapointed and annoyed by him. Scratch is shown to be annoyed and scared of the monkey in return. He backs away when he sees him in the bottle level and confesses to Molly that he is really scared of him.

A giant version of the monkey throws bananas at the duo in the building level, trying to stop them from going further. He is very agressive and angry towards them until Scratch confesses that he is scared of facing his past. The monkey changes his expression when Scratch mentions this to a more sad one and appears to be somewhat proud when Scratch says that he is going to face his memories.

It has been discussed by fans that the monkey in the suit represents Scratch or different stages of his human life, like working in the navy or in a business job. He could be an allegory to his parents' high expectations of him and pressuring him into be something that didn't want to be. Scratch is disturbed and scared by his presense, almost the same way a child acts when they don't want to dissapoint their parents. The fact that Scratch is so disturbed by him indicates that it was someone or different people that were negative experiences to him and he wants to avoid them.

He is clearly important since Molly brings him up near the end of the episode and Scratch avoids answering about it. The title end card with the Adia bubble hints that he could be a darker part of Scratch's past and he is going to show up in a future episode.

Conclusion

¨All In the Mind¨ is an episode that has a lot of symbolism and allegory that is worth of analysing, giving more exploration to Scratch's psyche and hints of what his human life was like. Hopefully future episodes are going to dive deeper into these allegories as well as showing Scratch's past life and why he repressed it.

[finniestoncrane]

I'll let my date decide I'm 22 years old. Pan. Genderfluid. Short and fat. I'm canonically autistic and canonically have ADHD (I'm sorry I like referring to it w=as canon). You already know that though. You already are SO FUCKING AWARE of my obsession with old monster movies. I mean... I didn't go on an hour long tangent about movie titles ibn a game, and are therefore copywrite friendly, and what films they could be meant to be for no reason. And you are so incredibly aware of the research I did for Gen-1 and Gen-2 synths, and me picking apart Nick Valentine's voice lines to determine anatomy of gen-2 prototype synths. I believe I've also told you that I'm still considering being an auto-mechanic.

What you probably don't know though is that I took an engineering class in high school and I kicked ass in competitions. Like there was this hydraulic robot arm made of wood, syringes, and plastic tubes. Despite the fact that the tubes kept falling off the syringes, my team got like... 2nd place in my class and 4th place schoolwide. There was also a competition for making a boat out of just cardboard and duct tape. Not to brag but our boat could hold 3 people (when it was only required that 2 people go in the boat) and we got the second fasted time schoolwide. We didn't even have paddles technically, unlike some groups who made carboard paddles. We had just a thick pieces of cardboard covered entirely in duct tape. Literally was my favorite class. This wasn't my decision cuz it was a group project but still.

In video games I am a sort of item hoarder because I'm terrified I'll need something later and then I never need it later. Not me having an inventory full of Junk in Fallout 4.

You are also probably aware of my insistence that ghoul cum is radioactive and how the terminal on the Prydwen proves this. Which is good for me and my item hoarding tendencies because I have so much RadAway. Cuz we all know that I'm a ghoulfucker. Also a robotfucker but that's a different story that started with Transformers and got me into cars because I wanted a way to fuck Transformers in vehicle mode because I'm just horny like that (affectionate). A weird hobby I also have is miniatures. I wouldn't call it miniature painting just yet because I have done a whole lot of not painting. I have paint for sure. I seem to be refusing to pick a color scheme and sticking with it. I have not bought primer yet. I have so many miniatures. I am preparing to get more because there's one of Cooper Howard and John Hancock and Nick Valentine and Sturges. But Sturges is in a different box from Hancock and Nick, and then Cooper is in a different one from everyone else. And the box Sturges is in is REALLY hard to find. And the box Cooper is in isn't technically out yet. Like... I already have Toad and Magento from Marvel Crisis Protocol that are unpainted. And then I have a whole bunch of Seraphons in a box that I cannot for the life of me pick a paint scheme for. And I don't even know why I bought Necrons. I don't know how to even play Wasteland Warfare. Or Marvel Crisis Protocol. Or Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. Or Warhammer 40k. I just like the models. Hell, I don't even know how to play D&D and have no one who will play with me as of right now. But I have 2 D&D books (one is official, the other one isn't) and a Fallout TTRPG pdf file with rules for how to play. It's not technically official but I think the guy got permission to make it. It was free. I was considering making a campaign for that based on where I live but then I realized I'd have to build creatures from the ground up, and find a way to play test them when I literally don't personally know enough people who even really care about Fallout in general. Also the terrain makes it hard to slap a vault anywhere.

zim my tiny beloved, i already knew who i would pair you with, but if i'd had any doubts this message would have sealed your fate because you know who else would have infodumped before explaining anything about themselves...? 💚🩷 🔞minors dni🔞 send a request • masterlist • kofi link • tag: finnie2k (to follow or to block)

Kent Connolly is literally the autistic mascot. He's the cutest, silliest, sweetest little guy, so that already tells me you'd be perfect for one another.

I think one of the best things about Kent, and you, is your ability to retain soooooo many details. You're both so passionate about learning everything you can about specific subjects, and you're both determined enough to learn everything you can.

I can picture you both either braving it to go out to the library or saving up your caps to pay for a mostly intact book that will answer a niche question you both had about Grognak the Barbarian.

You're both so brave too, willing to go through a lot for the things you love and for your happiness.

If there's one ghoul who will understand the need, and the joy, of infodumping, it is Kent. He'd be such a sweet listener, he'd ask informed questions, he'd participate respectfully in whatever lecture you were giving, and he'd do it all with the sweetest smile. And when you were ready to listen to him, he'd have a very well-written little speech all prepared.

I can't think of a happier way to spend your time in the wasteland than by sharing your interests, learning about each other and their favourite things, or just engaging in some paralell play, the autistic national sport.

And I know he'd write extra episode of the Silver Shroud for you if you just desperately needed more of that particular hyperfixation.

I just think Kent would be the kind of guy who would be appropriately impressed and appreciative of how much you know about Captain Boomerang and his entire family history, and the only person who could maybe try and know more than you on that subject.

[vickozone]

The Magnus Archives

-S1 Notes-

I took notes on every episode in season one. I thought some of y’all would find it interesting. Oh well.

Fanart may or may not be coming soon.

next notes ->

Handwriting translated below:

#1 Anglerfish

#2 Casket (don’t open) delivery

#3 Creepy gay guy (neighbor)

#4 Book (old head-shaven woman)

#5 teeth & dolls

#6 Laid (worms)

#7 battlefield piper

#8 House building, bleeding tree guy

#9 creepy dad murderer

#10 homeless vamp killer

#11 Guy that dreamed Gertrude’s death

#12 Hospital.

#13 First side character, graveyard dead fiancée chic

#14 Guy kept loosing limbs (cardboard curse)

#15 ooo cave spooky (audio scared me)

#16 SPIDERS

#17 Book 2, boneturner’s tale

#18 meat stapler upstairs

#19-20 cannibal possessed priest

#21 the sky ate my son, also, Martin’s first appearance

#22 Martin is “spookied”

#23 Letter to Jonah Magnus

#24 doll & organ

#25 Religious Girl weird

#26 MICHAEL

#27 Night nocturnal intrusion dementia

#28 YouTube bloggers (BuzzFeed Unsolved)

#29 Man escapes death by becoming death??

#30 Butcher meat. IDK

#31 werewolf in America (Jon also sings)

#32 Jane is scary and Jon sounds genuinely terrified (scared me)

#33 First Tim interaction + bald head boat

#34 Dr is scared of his students

#35 idk, something underground + Robert Smirk + Jon got a package

#36 sick nursing home + lighter gift + fear + table (from ep3?)

#37 Forest checker that burned (Gertrude photo)

#38 antiques and Jon running for his lif- RUN

#39 THEY’RE EVERYWHERE Sasha + Martin is GONE

#40 Gertrude was murdered

[ultravioletlightwaves]

Ao3 is up and down for me right, so for everyone else in the same boat, here's a chapter out of one of my current WIPs: 30,000+ words and counting of MCU/616 mismash Avengers team ensemble and IronBat (Tony Stark/Bruce Wayne).

This chapter is from right around the middle (so far). Enjoy!

-----

There wasn’t much to see on the first three blocks. Rather, there was plenty to see, but it was all business as usual for Gotham: gargoyles leering from the upper reaches of buildings, broken glass where someone had chucked what looked like a crate of bottles, limestone-clad walls with gothic flourishes, shredded cardboard where someone had discarded the outside of a package, addicts nodding out against light poles, unhoused people huddled in the doorways of buildings, where there was a little shelter against the drizzle that fell from the sky. Steve’s face got grimmer and grimmer as they went.

The fourth block started out much the same, only devoid of humans, even the addicts. The rain came down harder, washing little clumps of god-knew-what into the already half-clogged storm drains. Jan was the only one who had thought to bring an umbrella, but she tagged it with Pym particles until it was big enough for most of them to crowd under together.

“What are we even looking for,” Clint muttered. He had flipped up the collar on his SHIELD jacket and was trying to hunch down into it like a turtle.

“Any evidence that the weapon’s been used recently,” Steve said.

“Which would look like what?”

“It disintegrates matter,” Natasha said. “So holes where there shouldn’t be, things falling apart that shouldn’t be.”

Clint grunted. “Most of Gotham already looks like that, though.”

“I think more on the lines of that,” Jan said, pointing ahead with the hand that wasn’t holding the oversized umbrella aloft.

The building in front of them was a neo-Gothic revival like most of the structures in this part of the city, every window in the tall skyscraper framed with ornate detailing, the doorway positively frothing with carved embellishments. It had clearly been nice when it first opened, built with a kind of artistry that wasn’t often evident in newer urban architecture. But it had just as clearly fallen into disrepair since then. A quarter of the windows were boarded up, and there were chips and stains all over the façade, including round spalling that looked like bullet damage. Graffiti crept out of the alleyways to either side of the building and spilled across its front, encroaching on the door.

More to the point, there was an enormous gaping hole in the nearer side of the building, about 30 feet across and almost a full story high. Big pieces of the sidewalk in front of it were missing, all the way down to dirt. Through the hole the interior of the building was dimly visible. There were vast, unnaturally empty areas inside, as though the speilhund had taken big chunks out of the building’s innards as well.

“OK, I can see how that’s different,” Clint said.

“Recon,” Natasha said, stepping out from under the umbrella and immediately getting soaked. “Careful. We know it was here, it might still be here.”

Steve stepped up next to her, his hair slicked down to his head with rain. He pushed it backwards off his forehead with an innocent, artless gesture that nonetheless looked like something out of a men’s fashion magazine, or an extremely classy porno. “Look around for anything that might indicate why this building in particular. If someone’s controlling it, they might not be using it randomly.”

Inside it was drier, at least. It was obvious that the building had been stripped and gutted long before the speilhund came through. They picked their way through dark, cavernous shells of rooms with only the most stubborn remnants of built-in light fixtures or furnishings left attached to the walls. Anything that could be removed was so long gone that there weren’t even cleaner spots to show where furniture had been; the floors were covered with an even layer of fine dust and debris. Almost every room had a wall or two that had been opened so copper wiring could be stripped out.

Five rooms in the light from their flashlights disappeared into a massive hole in the floor. Tony crouched down, balancing on the balls of his feet to get his flashlight closer to the edge. “Foot-thick metal, insulating air layer. Some remnants of what was probably a piston system. There was a big vault here under the floor. Looks like they took out most of its door.” He played the beam of the flashlight around the edge a little. “Thing makes clean cuts.”

“Could it be simple robbery?” Steve came up to stand next to Tony, peering into the hole. “Going to the trouble of sourcing and mastering an Asgardian artifact just to steal things from vaults seems like overkill.”

Tony stood, wincing as his knees popped. “Yeah, it’s a little much, but that level of unnecessary drama is par for the course in Gotham, to be honest.”

“Might be test runs for something bigger or more dangerous,” Natasha said. “Or someone who doesn’t really know what they have. Lots of possibilities.”

“Can you tell how long ago this was done?” Steve looked from the hole to Tony and back again.

There was almost no flash rust on the cut surfaces of the hole. With Gotham’s humidity levels, that was telling. He looked at the way the debris was disturbed around the edges of the hole, the amount of debris that had fallen in. “Very recently. Within a day or two for sure. Maybe even earlier today.”

“Any tracking we can do?”

“Not without the suit.”

“All right. Suit up.”

Tony sighed. He tapped the little button on his wristband that called the armor, held his arms out to let it snap into place around him, picking up each foot as the boots closed over his dress shoes. The helmet wrapped around the back of his head, holding him familiarly for a moment before the faceplate snapped down and everything came online. The scene in front of him lit up in several different ways at once: a lime green wireframe of structural and topographical features, an infrared heatmap, an air current map, moisture mapping, electrical and magnetic field mapping—

“Whoa, is that new?” Steve blinked at him. The armor automatically tracked the rate and force of his blinks.

“Not that new, it just doesn’t get out to play all that often. It’s the most natively modular model I had available.” Tony crouched back down again to look into the hole; this time the armor supported the pose, exoskeleton-style, and his knees barely felt it. “I’ve got some add-ons specially tuned for Asgardian tech, needed a mod-compatible suit to use ‘em. Figured it was better safe than sorry.”

“Love the color scheme,” Jan said from somewhere behind him. Tony smiled inside the helmet. The Mark 42 armor was mostly black with gold detailing. Jan would be a fan.

“Iron Man,” Natasha called softly. He went over to her and focused on the area of floor illuminated by the oval of her flashlight. The dust was more unevenly distributed here, with patches of floor scraped almost bare. He flipped rapidly through scans until the HUD showed him something useful.

“Boot prints. Three—no, four people, likely men, plus something with six smaller feet, surprise surprise.”

“Can you follow where they went?” Steve was right behind him, out of visual sight but bright and obvious on the armor’s heatmapping; he ran hotter than the average, and glowed in infrared. Tony scanned the area, looking for residual heat signatures. Natasha was a red-yellow blob to Tony’s right. Jan and Clint were reddish blobs just behind Steve. There was a bluish blob above, behind, and to the left of them, high enough up that it had to be clinging to the ceiling somehow. Tony switched to the structural overlay briefly to confirm the presence of exposed ceiling beams. Back in the heatmap he watched the bluish blob cool even further, congealing into the background ambient temp. Almost like it was deliberately matching its radiant temperature to the environment.

Always with the fucking drama. He aimed a hand over his shoulder and fired a short repulsor blast at the ceiling beam behind him without looking. The beam exploded in a cloud of wood shards and dust.

Credit to his team: they all spun around and had their weapons out before he even finished turning around himself. A tall black shadow rose up from the floor, shaking itself free of debris.

“The new thermal masking is nice,” Tony called out.

There was a pause. “Not nice enough, evidently,” the shadow growled.

“Oh wow,” Clint said as the shadow approached, picking its way across the floor. “The ears are real. I always kind of thought that was a joke people made.”

Jan tilted her head thoughtfully. “I thought they’d be shorter, like Daredevil’s horns.”

“No, it makes sense,” Clint said sagely. “Bats have big ears, on account of the whole echolocation thing—"

“They aren’t thin and pointy, though,” Natasha noted. “Echolocating bat ears are all surface area, like satellite dishes.”

“Sorry about—literally all of them.” Steve strode out to meet the shadow in the middle of the floor. He stuck out a hand. “Hi. I’m Captain America. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

The Batman dipped his chin to look at Steve’s hand. He slowly raised his head to look at Steve’s face. The lenses were up, making his eyes blank white voids, but Tony could read the barely restrained disbelief on his face just fine. Steve kept his hand out for a couple of beats. Freshly disturbed dust continued to swirl down from the ceiling, settling on the floor and everyone’s heads and shoulders.

Steve lowered his hand. “All right. Well. Nice to meet you regardless. Do you know anything about the whereabouts of an Asgardian weapon, kind of looks like a six-legged metal dog, unusual optical properties? It wouldn’t hurt to work with someone who knows more about the local landscape while we try to clear this one up.”

Tony sighed. Bruce stared at Steve like he had never seen such a creature in all his life. “No.”

“No, as in, you don’t know anything about its whereabouts? Or no, as in, you don’t want to work with us?” Steve’s voice was taking on the same exaggeratedly patient tone he’d used in the police station. “We’re here to help.”

“Get out of my city.”

And here was one of the many things that Tony adored about Steve: he may have been an idealistic optimist with an unrealistically moral stick up his ass, but he also had a spine of steel, and he didn’t so much as twitch at the Batman glowering at him. “We’re here to help,” he repeated, like he was explaining something to a stubborn child. “We’re better equipped to deal with this thing than you are, and we have been assigned to bring it in. We’re going to do that with or without your help. I’d prefer to do it with you, but we don’t need you to complete this mission. And you certainly don’t have the authority to eject us from this city.”

Bruce drew his cape around himself, seeming to stand even taller. “You come into Gotham, and you speak to me about authority—”

“The Captain is correct. You don’t actually have jurisdiction here,” Natasha said. It wasn’t a rebuke, just flat statement, but he could see Bruce’s jaw clench anyway. The nerve of him sent a hot lance of annoyance through Tony. Nope, not today.

“You don’t have jurisdiction anywhere, buddy.” He swept both arms wide, encompassing the city, the country, the planet. “I know you like to think of yourself as the unelected lord and savior of this urban hell hole, but fact is, you don’t have any actual authority here.”

“If you think you have the right—”

“Actually, yeah, we do have the right.” Tony glared him down, knowing damn well that the impassive helmet was infuriating him, making it impossible to read Tony’s face. “We do have the right, because we’re Avengers, and like it or not the Avengers are a SHIELD-affiliated organization, and SHIELD is a federal agency. Federal as in a service of the American government. Gotham, last I checked, was in fact within the United States of America. Federal agencies have jurisdiction within federal borders, and more to the point, we literally and legally have the right to walk into Gotham and tell you and your people what to do, because you’re vigilantes, which is—that’s the opposite of legal enforcement. All you people traffic in illegal enforcement. Actually.”

“This isn’t productive,” Steve said, cutting right through whatever response Bruce was working himself up to. “Iron Man, tracking, please.”

“You got it, Cap,” Tony said, turning away to scan the scene again, in part because he knew it would drive Bruce insane to see him taking orders without complaint. He’d scan all fucking day to make it clear where his team was now. Scan scan scan.

Walking through the room, following the traces thrown up on his overlays, felt satisfying in a way that dealing with people never did. The tech would show him the truth of the scene. It would bear him out where he was right, and where he was wrong? It would show him that too, without drama or judgement. Everything was there, it was just a matter of having the right tools to see it. Clean. Simple.

“Federal intervention is unwarranted,” Bruce said quietly, just over Tony’s shoulder. Tony didn’t startle, because it was very difficult to sneak up on armor that had 360º sensor arrays. Bruce had always hated that.

“Agree to disagree.”

“I have it handled. Gotham PD will work with me where necessary. The matter is not nearly so dire as to require a hands-on SHIELD intercession.”

Tony muted all the scans, turned his full attention to Bruce. From the outside it wouldn’t look like anything had changed except for the fact that he’d turned his body slightly. “I don’t think you really understand the larger context here. This is an Asgardian artifact.” Bruce stared back at him with that eminently punch-able neutral non-expression on his face. “Imagine it was a priceless Amazonian artifact that was meant to serve Amazonian soldiers, and some dumb fucks boosted it and were using it to, I don’t know, steal candy from 7-11. Imagine Diana’s reaction. Imagine what kind of international incident that might shape up to be.”

“Hmm.”

“Now imagine that instead of a very touchy isolationist sovereign nation with a powerful but scale-limited military, the artifact belonged to a literally god-tier-powerful nation with super advanced tech, a much, much less scale-limited military, and a long history of direct, bloody intervention instead of isolationism?”

“Hmm.”

“Yeah, hmm. We’re here for several reasons, actually, and one of them is the fact that if anyone in Asgard’s ruling family asks, we can say with no hesitation and full honesty that we put the mightiest Earth warriors known to Asgard on the job. Asgard doesn’t know your ass from a hole in the ground. You think we can tell Asgard that we just left you to it, sorry it’s in the hands of that guy over there, nothing to worry about? You think that would go over well? You think we should lie and say we’re looking into it directly while we let you do whatever you want? Have you ever tried to lie to Frigga? Spoiler alert: you can’t, unless maybe you’re a frost giant.”

Bruce looked away. That was the closest he would get to admitting that Tony had shared a piece of information that did actually alter his opinion of a situation. It made Tony angry. The fact that he could read that intention in the gesture of Bruce looking away also made him angry.

“But god fucking forbid anyone try to help out in your city.” He snorted, switching the scans back on and turning away. “Next time maybe we’ll just let the Asgardians come down and vaporize a few city blocks for you. It’ll clear the way for some serious urban renewal, maybe it’d be doing Gotham a favor.”

“Iron Man. Are you—” Steve approached warily, gaze snapping between Tony and Bruce. “What’s our status?”

“We’re fine. I have tracking. I don’t think there’s much more to gain here, we should get moving.”

“Are you helping us, or is this where we part ways?” Steve asked, addressing himself to Bruce. He said it very calmly, like those were the only two conceivable options, like he was presenting them to any run-of-the-mill person off the street. Tony would have maybe gone to war for him, in that moment.

Bruce visibly failed to appreciate it-- there was a small narrowing of the lenses, a twitch of the jaw, all of it signaling loud and clear to Tony. He thought back, briefly, to Dick asking him to not actively antagonize Bruce, immediately followed by a quick recap of everything he’d said to Bruce since they got to this building. Ah, shit. Well, it was Bruce’s fault anyway. It wasn’t like Tony had sought him out.

“Perhaps it would be for the best that I assist you,” Bruce said, opening his mouth the absolute bare minimum needed to get the words out.

Steve beamed at him. “Great! Glad to have you on board.”

[basedandlovepilled]

the rain

the rain never stops anymore. it used to come and go in waves, gently and comfortably. now it's cold, and it's relentless.

it's starting to flood.

"we can build a boat," i say. i laugh a bit and remind you of when we tried to make that boat out of cardboard at summer camp. you smile back feebly, trying to pretend like you don't see my hands shaking.

i look to you and smile. we've always been the type to joke about the weather. i put as much intention as i can behind my grin--don't worry, i'm fine.

the water's only up to our ankles, but it's rising quickly. it's no longer a gentle shower. this rain is aggressive and imposing. it seeps into our socks and weighs down our eyelashes. it wants to cover every inch of us.

you look at me out of the corner of your eye. i'm still smiling weakly. i can't let anyone know how much i hate this. i crack another joke.

"man, wet socks are the worst, huh."

my smile is so obviously fake, i can feel it. but as long as you don't ask, then that's fine with me. i know you won't ask. it's reassuring. but why does my chest still feel so heavy? what is this lump in my throat?

i look up into the sky. i don't see anything. it's just grey, and it hurts. i let the rain seep into my face, into my skin, into my lungs. it hurts. it hurts more than anything.

"what hurts?" you ask.

huh? you weren't supposed to say anything. i turn to look at you before replying. your pose mimics mine, shoulders relaxed, face to the heavens. your eyes are closed.

"what do you mean?" i play dumb.

"why are you crying?" you ask, turning your face towards mine. our eyes meet. for once, i decide not to look away.

"i'm not crying."

you reached your hand to me. i meant to dodge your touch. i don't like affection, I don't want you to pity me. i meant to look away.

but i feel your hand on my face anyways.

what is happening? this isn't right. this isn't how we've always done it. you aren't supposed to look at me with those expecting, sad eyes. don't pity me. don't feel bad for me. i'm not crying. i'm really not. see? i'm smiling. it's fine. why are you doing this? why are you asking me? why are you touching me? don't you get it? i'm fine.

i can feel my smile wavering. i try to laugh it off, but all that comes out is a choked sob. oh, no.

i try to turn away again. but you don't let me. the rain beats down, angry as ever.

this is so painful. it hurts so bad.

"it…hurts." i say. in my mind it's meant to sound like a joke, it's not meant to mean anything. even I can acknowledge how shaky my voice sounds.

you nod, and gently wipe my face. my wavering smile finally breaks. i can feel my face contorting into something ugly, something embarrassing. i sink into the puddle surrounding us. my tears mix with the rain on my skin, running down and seeping into my bones.

i hug my knees to my chest, i feel your hand resting on my back. gently, but secure. your warm gaze holds no judgement.

i finally cry. i sob. i can't breathe. it’s so loud, but i can't stop. i look up to the sky, to the rain. i can hear myself weeping, wailing.

my pride falls with the tears, dripping off my rain-soaked body. through my hazy vision I finally see the sky. the pain is still there, but it's outside of me now. and as it get washed away, the rain finally stops.

[elysia-nsimp]

OC introduction: Prince Jonah Cainwell (Twisted Wonderland)

(featuring comet!)

Basics

Jonah (he/him) is the Student Council Vice President (replacing the faceless character from glomas) of Nobel Bell College, based off of Prince Hans from Frozen. He is a cishet man 😒😒 (I’m kidding he’s bi he just doesn’t know it yet), and 18 years old.

Jonah’s around 6’1, so just a tad shorter than Rollo himself. He’s a pretty average build and weight for his height. He’s not super athletic, but he stays in good shape.

So, we don’t really know a lot about NBC’s classes, so I’ll be going off the idea that it has similar classes to NRC’s roster. That being said, Jonah would excel at ancient incantations and curses, as unlikely as it is for those to appear in NBC. He enjoys mythology, and excels at history and art. He’s likely in some kind of business class as well, which he’s also good at. He’s shockingly good at a lot of subjects, but

Hobbies, Talents, Preferences

As stated above, Jonah loves art. He makes glass mobiles and wood carving kits in his free time, and sells them in the markets when he’s not in school. He’s started many small businesses to get money here and there, including a cardboard cheeseburger stall in the school cafeteria because they don’t sell those and apparently people wanted them.

Jonah is known campus-wide for his ability to bend rules to his will through malicious compliance. He has never broken the letter of any law, but he does find workarounds for any rules he doesn’t like or approve of (usually if it’s unjust in his eyes or it’s for the betterment of the student body (this is where the cheeseburger thing came in, the school itself is not allowed to sell them nor are people allowed to sneak off campus to get burgers.))

There’s an on-going joke that Jonah is a boat enthusiast because he mentioned ONE TIME that he thinks boats are a cool way of traveling the soleil. He likes them a NORMAL amount, but all his peers tease him and blow up how much he likes boats. He thinks this is funny, and plays into it with theatrics.

Backstory

Jonah is the youngest of a total 7 siblings so, although a prince, he will never make it to the throne. Jonah doesn’t particularly care about titles, he kind of disregards the Prince title as is, but what he DOES care about is power.

Throughout his childhood, he was very much emotionally neglected due to him basically being backup to the power of 6. This led to his siblings picking on him for most of his life. As soon as he was accepted into Nobel Bell, Jonah packed his stuff and left ASAP.

He’d cut his family off, but he “wants a backup source of income” in case he runs out of money from his little spur-of-the-moment business ideas. That being said, he does not like them at all. None of them.

Due to his not great upbringing, he’s kind of cynical person. He speaks mostly through sarcasm and backhanded compliments, though it’s for the most part just intended to be teasing. Jonah actually is a genuinely nice person… he just… has a power complex.

Actually, that’s why he’s vice SC president. He wants nothing more than to be in power, because he never had that growing up. He does want to rule a kingdom or country or something, but he can settle for a school for now…

Jonah is also a hopeless romantic. He’s been searching for true love’s kiss for years, hoping some beautiful princess will whisk him away from the trials and tribulations of life… one day, he hopes to travel the world with his future partner. Until then, he waits for the door to open. /ref

Unique Magic

I haven’t decided on the incantation yet, but Jonah’s UM is called Frozen Heart and it can create and fix inanimate objects with ice (think Elsa’s ice dress). Jonah specializes in ice magic!

Relationships

Rollo Flamm

Jonah has conflicting feelings about Rollo. On one hand, he considers Rollo a friend and a peer, and someone he respects greatly. On the other hand, MAN is he jealous of Rollo’s position. This ends up coming out as Jonah constantly pushing Rollo’s buttons (see the cheeseburger thing, it pissed Rollo off but he couldn’t do anything because it was barely in the rules) and messing with him for fun.

…he’s also very obviously in love with Rollo but HE DOESNT KNOW HES BI YET anyway you didn’t hear it from me /j

Azul Ashengrotto

They met during glomas. They became fast and frankly terrifying friends. Keep them away from each other they WILL plot and scheme together.

Other Works

Playlist!! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3HW7AeQ3rzvyrHsqGwXTSA?si=g2hc2RJySEK3BXmUjWIM0g&pi=u-T0kdIKb9T1q0

Media

no he will not wear the hat it messes up his hair :(