#because the way he interacts with lis is evil. but then once he comes back to earth he is just apathetic about the people on it

[artekai]

It's weird because I did say Fross was true neutral on his character sheet and my reasoning for that was that he's not particularly motivated by the pursuit of evil, he is mostly just motivated by whatever feels easiest/safest to him, and no matter how much he wants to hurt someone, he probably won't do it on purpose until it's the last resort. But then again I don't know anything about dnd alignments so I might be interpreting them all wrong. AND I suspect I may have underestimated his desire for evil. Or he might be becoming more evil as time goes on, who really knows

[geekgirles]

I seriously think Emmelyn's role is going to be pivotal in giving Unicorn back their humanity and empathy.

As seen at the end of A Fateful Encounter and the beginning of What Lies Beneath, Emmelyn was more proficient with her powers and more effective when Melinda took control of their body. She immediately gave chase to the Evil, cornered her and was about to vanquish her once more, all by herself...

...until she saw the damage her powers caused to that poor family's home and lives.

From then on, it's Emma who asserts herself over Melinda's soul again, horrified at the damage she caused.

But here's the thing, she's the only member of Unicorn who pays the poor woman and her kids any mind. Edred, despite witnessing the state the house is in, quickly brushes it off because Melinda let the Evil escape, not once sparing a glance to the innocent people whose lives they just essentially ruined.

And that seems to be Unicorn's recurring flaw: they are so laser-focused on defeating the Evil in the name of humanity, they tend to overlook the individuals they're supposed to be trying to help.

This episode showcased this brilliantly: when Melinda's fire destroyed the bridge and threatened with harming lots of innocents, Edred and Copernicus were quick to solve the problem. The civilians even cheered for them!

But when it comes to dealing with people's problems individually, they tend to disregard them in the name of the greater good. Unicorn will do what's objectively right or best, which is usually the needs of many over one person's issues or desires, but they won't stop to think about the possible consequences of their actions beyond vanquishing the Evil.

This is especially prevalent during Emma and Melinda's confrontation last episode. Through Melinda's callous treatment of Emma and refusal to see things from her point of view, as she is devoted to their cause and Emma's refusal to merge with her directly threatens their mission, she also fails to understand asserting herself over Emma only serves in alienating her more.

If only Melinda had tried a gentler approach in explaining to Emma she is not responsible for the turn her life took but they really need to work together or hers won't be the only life that prematurely comes to an end, then chances are Emma wouldn't be resisting her and her powers as much as she's doing right now.

Edred has this same problem too, as evidenced through his interactions with Winston. Instead of explaining that the woman he loves isn't exactly there anymore, he coldly tries to push him aside, to get him to leave Emmelyn alone. He doesn't even try to relate to the boy's problem, even when they're essentially one and the same! Both Edred and Winston are terrified of losing their beloved because she's not acting like herself and, no matter what they do, she is constantly pushing them away. But because Edred has grown unaffected by people's struggles outside of saving them from the Evil, not helped by the fact that his actions are also fuelled by jealousy, he makes no effort to sympathise with Winston or even offer an apology or words of comfort. He just wants him out of their way and away from Melinda.

But with Emmelyn, it's precisely the fact that Emma can actually get Melinda to snap out of it and take control over their body that she realised their current actions are doing more harm than good to the people they're supposed to protect. Meaning, once she explains to the others why she's holding back, how fully giving in to Melinda means more people will suffer in the long run unless they start doing things differently, maybe it'll help Edred, Seng, and Copernicus realise they need to understand those they're trying to protect better and that tackling things as a whole won't always be the answer. Otherwise, they're only going to do more harm than good and, as with their reincarnations, the cycle will only begin once more.

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Junior Year Ep 6

Post Shrimp Jump Conspiracy Board Special

Hey y’all! Welcome back to Seacaster Manor where the shrimp party is still raging and the Bad Kids are balancing being cooler than ever with some serious sleuthing. We get a lot of new information this episode so I wanted to try out a new format for this week. I often talk in a metaphorical way about putting items up on a Conspiracy Board but I want to actually try that now that we’re a little over a quarter of the way in and have multiple overarching things happening. This is going to be a lot less linear than usual but bear with me. Gotta shake things up a little so I don’t get burnt out! There’s still fourteen more episodes to go! 

The Rat Grinders

The Bad Kids’ de facto rival party got a lot of screen time in this episode, which makes sense: Adaine declared the party their nemeses over Goldenhoard or anyone else they’ve fought, which is saying a lot. Before this point, we knew the following facts about them:

1) They got their name because the only enemies they’re recorded as killing are low level ones (including rats) that they grind in the woods behind the school, showing a willingness to follow the letter but not spirit of the rules but also an impressive amount of dedication. 

2) Their leader seems to be rogue, Kipperlily Copperkettle who is type A as hell and has a LOT of free time to kill having found the rogue professor (or at least having the rogue professor find her). She’s running for class president on a platform based around “fairness” which is a theme that’s come up more than once this season. 

3) Also on the team are emo Bard Reuben (who seems to be related to the new Artificing teacher and who shares an agent with Fig) and nonplussed Barbarian Mary Ann (who is buffing herself magically somehow).

4) Kipperlily specifically asked about where Kristen was able to create a new god. Now how, where. An odd question. 

This episode, we learned a lot more, so let's throw them on the board and make some connections!

5) The Rat Grinders have a new cleric named Buddy Dawn (something Kristen’s brother mentioned two episodes ago). He’s from Highcourt and moved with his grandparents. He’s got super Mormon+Southern “Bless Your Heart” energy and Kristen doesn’t like how familiar it feels. His vibes are clocked as well meaning but kinda judgey. 

6) Buddy Dawn was *specifically requested* by the party. Of course, requesting a cleric isn’t weird–why wouldn’t you want one? And Helioism seems a pretty common religion in the region so odds are good that if you get a cleric is would be a Helioic one. But, paired with KP’s question about Kristen, it makes you wonder if the plan is to recruit a Kristen expy and try to get lightning to strike twice.  

7) At the beer pong table, we meet the RG’s archer who is an elf named Ivy Embra. She’s got some flirty, catty energy (which we see when she interacts with Fabian and Mazey respectively).

8) We also meet the party wizard, Oisin Hakinvar, who is a Conjuration specialist with a focus in summoning. He’s a blue dragonborn which means that he has a great great great (etc) blue dragon ancestor he can ping when he needs barrels of diamonds, no problem. He has so many in fact that when Adaine lies badly that she’s also swimming in diamonds, he kindly offers to let her borrow some of his “extras”. But she turns them down, calls him great, and then panics and runs away to commiserate with Fabian who is also panicking about a flirty moment with Ivy. Oisin, for his part, seems driven to distraction and can’t make a single other shot all night. Cute! But–

9) As much as I want to wholeheartedly love Oisin (and honestly do and will until I am given direct evidence to change my mind) I have to point out that KVX, known evil bank, did change its logo from red (Goldenhoard’s color) to blue (Oisin’s Ancestor’s color) and there is a shot in the trailer of the party fighting a blue dragon. Connected? Maybe.

10) From investigating some yearbooks, the party also learns that the Rat Grinders have existed since Freshman Year but, at the time, they were called the High Five Heroes. They all look a lot more smiley and a lot less intense–Rebuen’s not even emo. It was the lineup from above, minus Buddy and plus a frost Genasi cleric named Lucy Frostblade. They learn that she supposedly died in their Sophomore year but specifically during a period near the end of the year where grades are locked and it wouldn’t affect their party comp which is…convenient. 

11) Fig tries to investigate this by disguising herself as Lucy and seeing how Ivy and Oisin react. Only Ivy sees her but she doesn’t seem shocked at all to see her allegedly dead party member She just raises an eyebrow and ditches the game to talk to her. Fig bails (and rolls only a 12 to stealth away) so we don’t get any extra info but just the fact that Ivy reacted that way is pretty juicy info as is.  

12) The other Rat Grinders don’t seem to be at the party but the members are skeptical about that. On the other hand, when Ivy leaves, it’s because Oisin pulls her aside and says, “Kipperlilly’s calling”. So it’s possible there was a Team A and a Team B for whatever the Rat Grinders were doing that night?

13) And speaking of what they're doing, we do have a theory. When Fabian checks some damage in the basement where Max and some other kids were smoking "gorgenfern" he sees that something called a cloud rider engine was smashed up pretty bad and in a suspicious way–gorgenfern doesn’t make you rowdy. Fabian checks the security tapes he obviously has and sees that some ice mephits came in and riled people up to the point of crashing into the engine. Adaine conjured some earlier in the party and as far as her arcana check can tell, they’re here, but there’s suspicion that Oisin–a conjuration wizard–could have done it. It’s certainly within his skillset. A cloud rider engine allows a vehicle to fly on clouds and it’s not clear if it was simply smashed or if something was stolen from it. 

14) Max isn’t a Rat Grinder but he did ask them all if they wanted to smoke with him and Ivy offered Fabian snuff so Riz is suspicious that the RG’s are trying to get them kicked out of school for drug use now that they have a non-Aguefort principal who presumably cares about silly rules like that at the murder school. 

That’s basically what we know about the Rat Grinders! So, to sum it up, I’d say the conspiracy board bullet points are:

Supposedly dead cleric Lucy Frostblade: What actually happened to her and why isn’t Ivy surprised to see “her”?

New cleric Buddy Dawn: Why was he specifically requested? 

The High Five Heroes: What caused them to turn into the Rat Grinders? And, as they seem like they were more gung ho their first year, why did they never pivot to fighting things other than low level monsters?

Do they actually have beef with the Bad Kids specifically or are their vibes just terrible? Were they trying to sabotage them by offering drugs? Did they break the engine on purpose and, if so, why?

Oisin: Is he chill or is he working an angle? That question technically goes to Ivy as well but I’m almost certain she’s fully working an angle, lol. I’m getting straight up Aelwyn vibes from her.

Class President: What is KP’s angle re: running for class president? This seems like something she’d want to do either way with her personality but her policy of fairness dovetails too neatly with Grix’s appearance and Cassandra’s inability to say the phrase, “It’s not fair,” last episode.

How did KP find the rogue professor and is that relevant?

And finally, why did KP want to know about where Kristen created her Freshman year god? Well, that question may be partially answered in our next section. 

God Stuff

There is a lot going on this season with celestial shenanigans between Cassandra and Galicaea and even Yes! So let’s mark out what we know.

1) Cassandra was possessed by some kind of rage entity via crystal shards that were expelled from her body. Her status is kind of up in the air right now as the party was shunted away to safety by Connor Counterspell (RIP) and all Kristen has left of Cass are some glowing, purple shards. 

2) Earlier in the fight, while lucid, Cassandra said, “I thought you were dead” about some unseen entity. Later, Kristen heard from a creepy voice that said, “She is at my side once more”. It then threatened her and slid out the rotting corpse of Yes! as a sick joke. Likely that these are the same person or at least connected. 

3) Gorgug identified that the rage stars are similar to what’s going on with Ragh’s mom, Lydia so it was put on the docket to get in touch with her about that–especially because Kalina specifically told them to track down Ragh with her last lucid words. 

4) Tracker’s Galicaea rebrand is going really well. Her social media is really popping and the endless night probably didn’t hurt. 

5) Kristen on the other hand, hasn’t been doing so hot. Due to a bunch of negligence based in lack of time management and personal uncertainty, she hasn’t been evangelizing much which means only she and Craig stand between Cass and her permanent destruction. 

6) Kristen can’t contact Cass telepathically and says she can’t use her magic which is Not Great if you're as danger prone as the Bad Kids. 

Alright, that’s all the old business so let’s move to the new business. 

7) When Kristen talked to her parents, we learned that Helio doesn’t have a chosen one since she left but we learn that it’s more serious than that. Helio also can’t choose a new chosen one. He only gets one. With Kristen gone, the whole religion is without a chosen one.

8) At a certain point, Tracker finally gets a hold of Kristen and says some harsh but true things about Kristen but, more relevant to the conspiracy board, she talks about her girlfriend Nara and Adaine, as a fellow high elf, clocks her as coming from a family of moon goddess clerics in Falinel. That raises the question: is this run of the mill teenage rebellion a la the theme song, or is she some kind of plant? We’ll hopefully get some more info from Aelwyn since Adaine texted her about it.

9) The real juicy stuff happens when we talk to Ragh’s mom. The fiend in Lydia's gem is called Bakur. Her having him in there doesn't make her rage--she's raging to keep him trapped but that's it. Her personality is the same. 

10) Bakur was a pit fiend and the right hand guy of a dead god whose name we don't know (hmm, another dead and nameless god). Bakur can't even say the god's name. It's like, weird god rules and Lydia explains in a weird vague way: gods not being able to use loopholes and saying names being powerful and rules changing for non-mortals when gods die.

11) The one very concrete info we get is that a god can only come back in a place where they were born or created. The reason Bakur’s plan failed is that he tried to bring back the nameless god in the Red Waste and not where they were created. 

12) Rana (Lydia’s party cleric) is away and Cormyr (the party sorcerer) is dead but Lydia offers to put the party in touch with Rana and Cormyr’s family because they have more stuff related to this and they were the ones who knew more about this than her. 

Following? Good. So let’s distill this down to bullets again:

Holy Helio. The corn god doesn’t have a chosen one anymore because Kristen up and left. What does that mean in a concrete sense? What can a chosen one do that a normal cleric can’t? Is Helio gonna ask Kristen to do anything this season now that we know that this is a special position that only one person can fill? Is it until she dies (or at least dies for real)? Would a fanatical Helioic person try and kill Kristen to open up that slot?

KP specifically asking WHERE Cassandra was created seems clearly tied to the info Lydia gave about only being able to resurrect a god where it was created. But what does that mean exactly? Is she trying to resurrect the same god as Bakur? Did she just assume that wherever Kristen made her god is probably where most gods are made and, thus, her best bet? What’s her angle? Is this an evil plan for just a “this will get me a good grade” plan?

Where in the world is Cassandra right now? She is MIA right now which means Kristen’s powers are too. Though I wonder if she can draw on those shards to cast spells.

We obviously can’t be sure but it seems like the voice Kristen heard and the person that Cass thought was dead is likely that unnamed god. What’s his deal? I’m sure we’ll have more info for this bullet soon. 

Is Tracker’s new girlfriend Nara, much like Ecaf, a turncoat? 

With Helio, Cass, and Galicaea all being in the mix, is there any kind of family angle being played. It doesn’t come up a ton but they are very much related. 

MISC

This is a section for a few points that don’t yet fit under the main two headings of the season but still need to go up on the board. 

Why would Aguefort program a robot that acts like Grix? Is he supposed to be like or is he hacked? If he is hacked, who would be able to do that? The new artificing teacher? The old one?

We learn that Aguefort has made a lot of contradicting proclamations and all of them are canon, so you’re able to pick and choose what you want to cite (I feel like I’m in law school again). Lots of room for loopholes which could be useful later. 

Adaine, while very drunk, had an oracle vision of Kristen at a birthday party, giving a victory speech to a bunch of teens on election night as a crescent moon hangs in the sky. The Crescent moon potentially gives them a time frame if they look into it (and it specifically being mentioned makes me think of Galicaea even though not every moon thing has to be connected to her). And we know Gorgug’s birthday is near the Frosty Folk festival so maybe that’s why the hats.

Speaking of, we know there’s a connection between Riz’s mom defending someone for money crimes re: that Festival and Gorgug’s parents hosting it so that’s something to remember. 

This isn’t something for the pin board per se but this season introduces a stress token system for downtime! I’m sure I’ll talk about it more when we use it for the first time next ep but, for now, gotta say he’s really ramping up the pressure on our kids! And, to that point, let’s do a quick check in with everyone and see what they’re up against!

Character Board

Adaine

-Adaine is still facing major money troubles. After last episode, not only is her job terminated, but she actually owes 2.5 gold for her uniform. 

-It looks like she might be developing a bit of a crush on the cute dragonborn (yay) but he’s a Rat Grinder (nooooo). I will say though, cross party romance could be a lot of fun and also my favorite NPC in this show is Aelwyn whose top 2 traits are famously Criminal and Loves Adaine so I am honestly fine with this either way lol. 

-Speaking of Aelwyn, I’ll put the sister stuff together: When Adaine calls her to ask for dirt on Nara she says, “Working, will call in five.” And when Adaine questions the fact that it's 5am on a Saturday, Adaine just gets a winky face emoji back. Suspicious! 

Fabian

-Fabian has to juggle the new 150% course load (bard/fighter) as well as his new party house reputation.

-He has a lack of adult supervision which also means a lack of adult care and it seems to be affecting him more than he’s willing to let on. 

-But honestly his biggest obstacle is probably himself right now, lol. He made himself a new nemesis in Gertie Bladshield and I am not confident he can handle this honey trap mission with Ivy without the tables being turned on him. 

Riz

-Riz is also facing money troubles, but for him that’s kind of business as usual unfortunately.

-He has a TON of extracurriculars to keep track of but he so far seems to be handling it pretty well and is picking up some interesting allies (that double as votes for Kristen’s campaign–campaign manager is also an extracurricular he’s taken up): the aforementioned Gertie Bladeshield (Apiary Club), Sprak LeFevre (Aviation Club), and Molman Holden (Soil Club). Always good to have new allies and Aviation Club seems like it could be really useful later! I can see him making some luck checks to successfully say, “I know a guy” in a tight spot based on how many clubs he’s joined. 

-He also has the Reliable Talent ability now which means he’s incapable of rolling lower than a 21 on things he’s proficient in which includes Investigation. We’re about to be getting some INSANE lore dumps. 

Gorgug

-Gorgug has his insane 400% courseload happening and I didn’t notice this until it was pointed out to me but Zac actually leveled Gorgug DOWN in Barbarian to take an extra level of Artificer! That’s commitment. But I can’t imagine Porter, who already has a problem with him, is gonna like that. 

Fig

-Fig would hate it if I didn’t start this list by saying that she hella misses Ayda and that’s her biggest problem. 

-But she also has her album to worry about and we actually get the bombshell during a conversation with Mazey that she’s not even sure that she still wants to be a bard.

-On top of that, she’s taking Barb and Warlock classes along with the Bard classes she’s finally going to. 

-She has her gnarly Gilear curse happening that’s seemingly connected to whoever the boss who owns the pride armor is. 

-She has beef with Rebuen and is living her double life as Wanda Childa to try and learn whatever she can about him/the Rat Grinders. 

-Both she and Wanda are wanted by the Solace FBI.  

-On a positive note, she really endeared herself to Mazey by sweetly sticking up for her when Ivy was being catty. If Fig wasn’t so devoted to Ayda I could have read their interaction at the end of the ep as flirty. Regardless, nice moment and great ally. 

Kristen

-Welp, her god is, if not dead, MIA which is arguably the biggest deal of anything on any of these lists, especially since it’s tied to her magic AND her grade. 

-Next of course is the potato to her meat on her plate: her campaign. But that’s actually going really well, especially after this party. Her biggest issue is whether or not she can get Fetty Wap to homecoming and, lbr, in a pinch Fig can just disguise herself as him. When has that ever not worked?

-She also has this unnamed god (or whoever it is) taunting her and threatening her specifically which isn’t ideal. 

-But I honestly think she was more fucked up by the conversation which Tracker where her ex basically outlined everything she needs to get together in her life and then posted a pre-written pic with her new girlfriend. That’s gotta sting. 

And that’s it! I wanted to focus on the specific nuggets of info we got this episode and start to connect them with what we knew so far. Different format, I know, but I’m feeling experimental this season and I might switch it up a few more times as Junior Year goes on. I love covering Fantasy High but, like I said at the top, I have to keep it fresh so I don’t burn out. See you next time when Brennan makes the stress we’re all feeling an actual game mechanic! Fun!

[na-t0]

𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳

Nicholas D. Wolfwood x reader (fem)

nsfw . male masturbation . multiple mentions of religious themes . minors please do not interact

"I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth...shit, what's next?"

Despite of what others think, Nicholas D. Wolfwood has come to the conclusion that he is indeed, the perfect example to belie the thought commonly held by people that him, and all the other children of the Lord who is high in the heavens, are made in his image and likeness. He is just a man, a mere mortal, vulnerable and weak in the face of temptation, son of original sin. Trying to atone for, and amend, the errors that life has brought within his path, and from which he cannot seem to escape.

Same life that unfortunately has also placed him in the way of your so intoxicating self. As if it were an unforgivable and cruel test to endure the strength of his already cracked spirit, a test to prove how much he is capable of resisting when the sharp claws of lust slowly scratch his back when he tries to sleep and the image of your beautiful face invades his mind. He also claims being able to feel them scratching once again when, after what seems like an eternal week of waiting, he manages to spot you sitting among the 47 people that fit in the orphanage’s chapel at the time of the religious ceremony he presents on Sundays at 10 in the morning.

Nicholas talks to himself all the time. He talks about a whole bunch of different things to stay busy and distant from the loneliness that his profession entails. He also writes, on a small black notebook that shamelessly reads Holy Bible on its cover, which he keeps in the inside pocket of his suit all day. It is possible to find random thoughts scrambled between its pages, occasional unfinished sketches of the kids who visit him frequently, prayers and attempts at poetry that, despite the ease he possesses to release a speech towards an audience made up of people full of faith in the word he preaches every weekend, the simple idea that one day you might inadvertently read what lies on those yellowish paper sheets terrifies him to the point where he can feel each and every one of his nerve endings on the surface of his skin, pulsing with the same intensity as the wings of a flying hummingbird.

He writes for you, more specifically. Even though in life, there are weaknesses that sometimes, do not allow the deepest feelings of the heart to flourish freely.

"I am just an object waiting to be ashes, and it is precisely for that reason that I would like my body to burn until it is consumed as one with yours. So at the end, dust will be the only thing that remains of our spirits, mixed together, to be later carried away by the wind of this unforgiving desert we call home."

“I have reached such a degree of insanity that, not even with the help of a thousand divine healing rites, my composure will return. I have even considered exchanging the blood of as many sinners as necessary to the Devil in order to melt into the blazing but purifying fire that surely arises with the single touch of your lips, and if you allow me, to endulge in the perfect contradiction that lies between your legs. A place both sacred and infernal, a place where good and evil converge and is powerful enough to drive even the most righteous and ruthless of religionists to an infinite madness. A place that I can only imagine feels like heaven and hell at the same time, capable to burn but also soothe the wounds in the soul of a disgraceful believer, one such as myself, your humble servant.”

“And I am not ashamed to affirm in front of the cross in which the son of God was punished because of filth like me, that, your mere presence encourages me to violate every order imposed by the invisible power of my belief, all that for what he, the same guy I mentioned earlier, sacrificed himself for in the first place. He sacrificed himself for you and especially for me, and above all, for the atrocities that come with the human race to disappear from the world. Such as the kind of things that flood my mind when my gaze manages to distinguish a little glimpse of your underwear when you put on that pretty dress of yours and you take a seat in the front row. A dress I like to imagine you only use for me.”

When Sunday comes, the ceremony starts and it's your turn at the moment of communion. It all happens in a matter of minutes every single time, a fleeting contact that is difficult to remove from his system. The host is delicately held by Wolfwood's hands as he stares at you, the abyss of his obsidian orbs capturing your attention to ask for your permission. You nod and look back at him too, subtly batting your eyelashes and slowly sticking out your tongue in an inviting way, that more than innocent, seemed diabolical, as if you knew which cards to move to obtain an absolute victory. And he feels it, he feels something struck his chest. Like a pair of magnets who can't fight the silent attraction that tries to unite them. You glance at the thick fingers infront of you for an instant, and then once again, you lift your stare towards him to take the host. His breathing stopped the moment he felt the back of his fingers get in contact with the wetness of your tongue while accommodating the wafer on it, and he almost, just almost, stutters in his words, but he doesn't, it takes all of his will not to. He blinks and his hand moves away from your lips to continue with the the other presents. You turn around and go back to your place without looking back. Luckily for him, the robe that covers his body does not allow to reveal any trace of what could give away his growing hunger for you.

Reminiscing something that he himself already wrote once in his notebook.

“It’s a disgusting sight, truly. How you take the sacramental bread from the hands of a sinful bastard, how you try to be purified by the same hands that are permanently stained with the obscene thought of consuming your body, your entire being. But you don’t have an idea of how much I love it, how much I want you to be mine.”

The lecture finished at 10:57 a.m. Nicholas remembers glancing at the watch on his wrist to regain the track of time he lost when you got close to his body. Seeing that people were starting to get up, he decided to clean his instruments to leave everything in order, and at the same time, bring some peace to his mind. He didn't have long arranging his space when Wolfwood felt a sudden and intense urge to look back, and when he did, you were the first thing that he focused on, stumbling upon the surprise of your eyes already searching for his while walking to the exit, wearing the most precious smile he’s ever seen on your face. A smile just for him.

By 11:23 a.m. the chapel was completely empty and Wolfwood walked with an unbearable weight on his feet towards the confined space of the confessional, along with a box of matches in hand that he took from an old cabinet. He closed the door, took a seat and leaned his head against the wall, which protested with a slight screech, as if it knew what was going through the troubled man's mind. Of course you appeared immediately, the images of every time you two have exchanged greetings in the streets, in the market, or even at the events to raise funds for the orphanage.

First came the color of your eyes, which seemed to dominate and illuminate the darkness of the small space he was in, then your eyebrows and the expressions that characterize your words while speaking. Thirdly, your mouth, the Eden he dreams of so much, reflected in the shine that your lips acquire when you bite and wet them with saliva. Imagining how they move to the compass of your voice, if they are rounded, if you smile or if you stay quiet. Nicholas raised his right hand and gently touched his own mouth to try to calm the urgency of joining it with yours. He closed his eyes and remembered the slight meeting he had with it an hour ago. The warmth of your breath on his knuckles and the softness he touched with the pads of his mistreated fingers. How easy would it be to draw a whimper out of you, the sweetest sound he can think of. His pants began to feel more and more uncomfortable with every passing minute, the pressure exerted by the growing erection in his groin started to become unbearable. Will he be able to obtain salvation if he confesses everything, here and now?

"God...please" And just as he often does, he began to talk. "I want her more than...a-anything in this world...can't I have her either?" The hand that previously touched your lips, traveled up to his crotch and gave a first cautious squeeze, allowing himself to be carried away by the venom of the serpent that condemned us all as sinners centuries ago, which little by little contaminated his veins and blinded his sight. Now not only did he imagine the Eden in your beauty, he was about to enter that precious place, only to break the rules. "I haven't been...a g-good man, but..." His breathing began to falter, with great gulps of air, his chest rose and fell, trying to oxygenate his racing heart. "I swear I...I can treat her right." The restraint of the stiff bottoms was starting to be painful for Nicholas, so he reached for the button, hastily undoing it to reach into his underwear. The burning heat of desire greeting him. And as he could, he pulled out his member from the base without removing his pants. The cold edge of the zipper brushed against the prominent veins of his rigid sex while his hand tried to conciliate the relief he so desperately needed. He kept traveling with his mind through your neck, your chest, your waist and your navel, the unknown nudity that he longes for unfolding before him in an imaginary scenario within the four small walls of the confessional. His breathing became more and more disturbed and growls began to sprout from the depths of his being.

"I'm sorry, God...I'm so s-sorry" He started to apologize because he knows exactly what is next. He enjoys being rough with his wicked self, he is violent. Pulling his own hair with one hand while the other strokes himself harshly. He spits on the tip, and watches how saliva slowly rolls to the base. He grunts, an animalistic type of sound that reveals the wildest part of his existence, his human predatory instinct, the part that he tries to repress with calling himself a preacher of the Lord’s word. He likes to tighten the grip in his member to the point where the veins on his forehead begin to become visible and the color of his shaft changes entirely with the accelerated flow of blood. Suffocating in his own body, a prisoner of his dark desires.

"Our Father, who...a-art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is...i-in heaven." It was in that moment when he began to pray. And the drops of fluid that came out of his slit with anticipation gave his hand more access to stroke with a quicker pace. From outside the confessional, it was possible to hear the faint slippery sound of friction from skin to skin and the murmured pleas of a man sunk in perdition.

"Give us this day our daily bread, a-and forgive us our trespasses...as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temp-temptation...but deliver us from...evil."

Would God be able to truly forgive such an act?

"A-Amen."

And it's just when he finishes his pleas that he finds himself betrayed by his own mind, letting your name slip from his lips, over and over again, like a renovated prayer, but profane and corrupted. The peculiar burning sensation in the lower part of his abdomen starts to approach. He bites the collar of his white camisole and drool escapes from the sides of his mouth in the delirium of a near orgasm. Squeezing his eyes shut he imagined your breasts swaying in front of his face as you grind on top, your angelic face contorted with the ecstasy of a fictional encounter, and your core eagerly receiving each of his thrust. The sweet aroma that your sweat must have and all the possible ways you could moan his name.

"Ni..cholas, ah...Nicholas...Nic..."

The entirety of his skin crawls to the thought. And his hips begin to move with an unbridled, involuntary frenzy, consequence of the carnal instinct that species keep hidden in their bodies.

"Oh...God..please, please...ple-please." He calls uselessly for the only one who could redeem him, the only one who could accept a sin like this. Finally, he rapidly drags his hand a couple of last times and the orgasm begins to hit his senses. A last growl comes out of his chest before his teeth unconsciously loosen the fabric of the shirt to let out a deafened cry. With some last thrusts, his hips rise in a lost rhythm from the bench on which he is sitting as his seed spills violently into his right hand, staining some of the fabric of his black pants along the way.

The warm sensation of contact with his own release brings him back to himself, and he can only at this point, contemplate more clearly the mistake he has made.

“Divine forgiveness, what a bunch of shit.”

He drops the other hand that was tugging at his brunette locks in the heat of the momentum inside his pocket, pulls out a cigarette, places it in his mouth and proceeds to wipe the remains of cum on his right palm with a handkerchief, so he can pick up the matches he had brought with him, light the stick, and take a hit, trying to quell with smoke the latent nectar of lonely intimacy impregnated in the air. He takes a few moments to let the haze of the moment pass completely as he watches the mess in his lap and his now softened member.

The cigarette is half finished, he is a fast smoker.

He inhales and exhales once more, and then, there’s a subtle, almost silent, knock on the door, followed by what he recognizes is your voice coming from the rusty confession room's grate.

“F-Father Nicholas...?”

[jadeacereigen]

Claw Reigen? 👀

oh GOD I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN WITH THIS

TIME TO LOOK AT MY OLD NOTES ABOUT HIM TO REFRESH MY MEMORY 😭

So Claw Reigen was this AU I came up with based on that moment in S1 where they make it seem like he's the Claw Boss. I never believed it for a second, but in my head I was kinda going "huh it would be an interesting au if it WAS true". Then I had my friend Parker watch the show and they genuinely fell for it and got super upset, so this made me come back to the random idea in my head and develop it more.

He's not the actual boss in my AU though, I made him a Scar instead because I thought that fit him better. Although he's a member of Claw's 5th division, no one has ever seen him use his powers and he still only describes them as "spiritual" when asked. Despite this, he is the 5th division's second-in-command and the leader Sakakibara obviously favors him despite him seemingly not contributing much to the group. This leads to rumors about Reigen being an incredibly weak esper or maybe even someone who isn't actually a Scar. (Because how could the Boss have respected his weak powers enough to spare his life after challenging him?)

None of these rumors are true, however...

(more details below sorry this got really long)

Reigen is certainly hiding many things from everyone in his life, including his fellow colleagues at Claw. But perhaps he's hiding the most from his disciple, Mob, who he is training to become a strong esper. He wears makeup to hide most of his scar when he's not interacting with Claw members, so Mob doesn't see his scar until... Season 1 events. Mob believes that Claw is a group of superheros whose mission is to make the world a better place. If he proves his worth, they'll allow him to join his ranks and become a fellow hero. However, as of now he is just an apprentice and is not allowed to meet any other members.

Claw is actually unaware of Mob's existence, and Reigen very much intends to keep it that way. In truth, he's not actually loyal to Claw, but he knows what he must do to survive. He's fully aware that his scar is not a badge of honor but is in fact a marker of his own unworthiness to Suzuki. Once Suzuki completes his world domination, Reigen knows that he and the other Scars will be disposed of, and he is determined to not let that happen. Somehow, Mob is a very important part of this plan...

In terms of personality, Reigen is similar to his canon lighthearted counterpart when he's with Mob. However, he can have a bit of a cruel streak—when he saves Mob from the S1 art gallery scammers, he intentionally sends an evil spirit to haunt them. He's also not the best role model and still smokes around Mob sometimes, though he'll awkwardly snuff it out and make a lot of excuses if Mob stares at him for too long or points out that it's bad for his health.

This is in stark contrast to how he is when Mob isn't around. The makeup he wears to hide his scar also hides his dark eyebags and stress lines on his face. He generally has a bored, heavy look to his face and doesn't smile. When he's with Claw, he sneers a lot and talks very condescendingly to make sure he doesn't look weak. (Also he just hates everyone there tbh-) People don't take him seriously, but the few who actually manage to piss Reigen off know that his sneer disappearing is a very bad thing.

(Another random but important fact that I'm not sure how to fit in here is that he never takes off his gloves.)

In summary, Scar Reigen is still very much a man of lies and self-serving deceit, just... in a far more twisted way than canon. He thinks he's long past redemption or changing his ways, but is that really true?

Anyway uh wow I talked a lot I'm not even sure if any of this makes any sense 😭 I was pretty into the idea of writing this au out as a fanfic last year but I quickly got stuck because I just couldn't figure out where to begin with it and what the structure of the story would even be like. I don't exactly see myself coming back to it but who knows. Idk

[retshirou]

local egomaniac experiences pure unconditional love and devotion and doesn’t know how to process it

rambling about their relationship below the cut

Betrayus has always been kind of an enigma for people to place on how he’d handle romance and love in general, especially since he flip-flops so often between just being a manchild with massive insecurities and a guy who literally committed war crimes. for me, i think he IS lonely and DOES want adoration and care given to him, but at this point has only registered these things as things you have to earn, either through respect or (in his case) fear. he GREATLY exaggerates just how much he “suffered” growing up, but does still have the mentality that kindness is just a tool for manipulation, and that love is something that you have to fight your way to get, and even then any who shows it to him does it for superficial reasons. it’s both sad, but also a good reflection on the fact he himself is a dishonest and selfish person, balancing it out so its not TOO sympathetic.

that’s kinda where Paz comes in. she’s also kind of an enigma when it comes to love. compared to Betrayus, she is FULL of it, much more than any desire for evil or to cause harm. if she loved someone normal, she’d be seen as a very kind and compassionate person who’s a bit quiet and keeps to herself. but she doesn’t love someone normal, it’s BETRAYUS. all this compassion and pure unconditional love that’s held in her tiny heart is focused on this guy, this annoying high-strung and arrogant supervillain. and when her love is focused on someone, it’s loyal and dedicated to a detrimental degree. really, the things shes done for him should classify her as just as evil, if not more. but it’s weird, as its not exactly like an axe murderer obsession kind of love…

she genuinely cares about him and his happiness. she’s genuinely tired of seeing him angry and upset at the world 24/7, and wants nothing more than to put a smile on his face. she’d never force him to do anything he didn’t want, and she doesn’t even really mind if he never loves her back that way, as long as he’s got her as support. the populace gets terrorized by ghosts, and she performs problematic-to-terrifying kinds of spells for his plans, but all purely with the intent of making him happy because she loves him. it’s a weird situation of evil actions all with an endgoal that, by itself, is extremely wholesome and well-meaning. it reflects a weird detachment in her brain that as long as it makes Betrayus happy, its necessary. she can probably be classified as insane for this.

and Betrayus’s reaction to it… once it slowly registers with him just how deep this loyalty goes, he’s stunned. even if i think he both exaggerates and lies about HOW “cruel” everyone treated him in life, i do think the experience of unconditional love outside of his family is a foreign one to him. especially love he never had to earn. he’s done much more to logically prevent someone from ever seeing him in such a light, but here was Paz, ready to fight the world and Pac-God himself just for him. it wasn’t even someone loving him for their own benefit at the expense of his comfort like Ghoulasha, or because they wanted something out of him. for once, its someone that for whatever insane reason, just wants to see him happy and content and that was it. no strings attached. such a simple goal that, despite his superego, still perplexes him greatly.

there’s probably a nugget of self awareness deep inside that ego of his that he’s definitely the Worst, and everyone thinks this. so interacting with even just one person who disproves that opens that self awareness back up, and Betrayus is left completely bewildered. how is someone managing to say such sweet and sincere things to him? how is it they don’t want ANYTHING from him but his happiness? normally he’d be suspicious its all an act, but for what other endgoal there’s no clue for. everything Paz has done has always proven to be sincere, as she barely gains anything just for herself from the experiences working as his assistant. but still, her patience never weakens, and she still gives him that same adoring smile no matter how much he screws up or acts obnoxious. so as a result, for the first time he actually has to reflect and really try to absorb the kindness someone shares with him. to figure out how it makes him feel, and how to properly respond to it. does he have to be kind back now? he knows its his nature not to be. but the sincerity of it is infectious… and a small part of him actually wants to meet her love with his own positivity, to create more of this feeling. which of course has him feeling like he’s going soft/crazy. but eventually, he does realize this IS a feeling he enjoys having, of being loved unconditionally and wanting to give that love back.

considering what he learns of Paz’s own insecurities and her self-image issues (read my fic for more context), her love for Betrayus could partially be some kind of coping mechanism, to feel like she’s making a difference with someone by giving them something the universe deemed didn’t fit its system for them to have. but that’s just a small part, she really DOES love him and all his little obnoxious mannerisms. once Betrayus does catch wind of her low image of herself though, that and his growing enjoyment of sharing in her kindness gives him that FINAL push to actually step out of his ego and focus on bringing someone else up other than himself. an out of character move that has realistic motivations and development for it!

in the end, i DO think even a war criminal like Betrayus is capable of love, as he’s shown to have a lot more sad and kind of pathetic emotions going on beneath the bad-guy shtick. its something he wants deep down, but just needs to figure out how to handle it and respond to it so it doesn’t die immediately, and with Paz he’s given the patience and loyalty to figure it out on his own terms. and in turn, he realizes the person who loves him has ACTUAL problems of her own regarding her mental health and self esteem, and his ultimate act of understanding love is to help her with that and make her feel loved. so it comes full circle, and what was once a possible unhealthy coping mechanism becomes a healthy realtionship for both. 💖

so yeah. sorry that was so long, they just make me think too much

[murdockmeta]

The earth-65 symbiotes are such a fascinating species! Not just the synthetic ones but the hint that the more well known ones and just the contrasts between the two. Gwen’s eats whatever she does but needs things like cellulose to survive meanwhile the organic ones only feed on brain chemicals such as adrenaline and phenylalanine. Anyways ever think about how Elsa Brock and technically Matt Murdock are Venom’s parents in Earth 65?

thank you for all this interesting information, thats something I'd honestly never noticed before but i also dont really know a lot about symbiotes lol. thats really cool!!

also OKAY LISTEN LMFAO in e65 circles I only ever really hear people talk about Matt's scenes with Cindy Moon when it comes to addressing Matt's canon non-platonic interactions and I honestly think Elsa Brock is way too overlooked on this front

the relationship that we are shown in only a handful of panels is waaayyy more interesting than anything we are given about Cindy and Matt.

Matt approached Elsa, told her he was going to mentally manipulate the Manhattan DA into becoming his personal pocket square, told her he was working with spider woman, told her he was going to go after Norman Fucking Osborne to manipulate and scare the hell out of him, and then told her that he wanted to fund her symbiote project to be the pretty bow wrapping everything together

and she fucking loved it

NOT ONLY WAS SHE ON BOARD SHE WAS FUCKING EXCITED, SHE WAS ESTATIC. she heard "I want to fund your batshit project to create an organism that's extremely dangerous and unstable" and she started FOAMING AT THE MOUTH

I kinda loved Matt and Elsa's relationship and I wish we got to see more of it. They had more chemistry in a single panel together than Matt and Cindy had in the entire kiss they shared. They both love putting on a show, they're both evil (actually, i think elsa's worse than matt to a degree), and they both love controlled chaos.

another detail I enjoyed was that Matt very much lied to Elsa about his true intentions w the symbiote.

in the scene with Osborne, he lays the whole plan out to Norman and Gwen. about the symbiote and harry and everything. and that had kinda seemed to be the original idea until:

first of all, love the banter like genuinely its so fun. second, I love that we find out the reason Elsa is angry isn't because she doesn't like working with Matt due to his reputation or because she feels bad about it. in fact, I think she couldn't care less except for when it comes to how it affects her own career.

She's angry because Matt acted like he was going to keep their true intentions for the venom secret until after it had already worked only to TELL SPIDERWOMAN LITERALLY EVERYTHING.

Elsa was involved in this whole thing because not only did it benefit her research but she also like that it was evil lmfao. like she couldn't understand why Matt would reveal so much to Gwen or even why Matt would want to infect Gwen w the symbiote since Matt already had a way to easily control Gwen through using the "power-up" isotopes.

this whole scene she's basically saying "you wanted to be evil so why aren't you being evil???? we were supposed to be evil together Matt what the fuck????" And she's reasonably second guessing his intentions

what she doesn't know is that Matt was just using her to give Gwen her powers back. Matt didn't actually ever want to control Gwen. he had the hopes of maybe manipulating her into killing him but there were just enough holes in his plan that him failing feels very intentional.

here I am once again pushing my agenda that Matt wanted Gwen to win. he knew the symbiote was going to consume Gwen but he also knew it wasn't a perfect organism. far from it. once again, a win-win situation for him. either the symbiote makes gwen kill him or the symbiote is just unstable enough that gwen can mold it into something that isn't consuming her, therefore making her stronger and better than before.

but anyway. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS ASK I LOVE ANY EXCUSE TO TALK ABOUT ANYTHING EARTH 65. OR ANYTHING MATT MURDOCK.

good day to you :)

edit: I just reread your ask and I'm starting to wonder if the symbiote was altered that way on purpose? (to have to consume cellulose, ect. rather than brain chemicals lol) cause both chemicals you listed promotes alertness, alters mood, and regulates body function. specifically phenylalanine is an extremely important amino acid. if the symbiote feeds on these, it takes them from the host. taking important neurotransmitters like that would inevitably cause a destabilization and deterioration of the host (ignoring the fact that the radiation would probably kill them first). Matt certainly didn't want that for Gwen, right? he wanted the symbiote to fuck w her but not like. destroy her. he wanted to keep the mood enhancing qualities while stripping away the more dangerous aspects. gwens already immune to the radiation but the venom needed to be altered to feed on something that wouldn't harm gwen. matt wanted Gwen to have a chance to fight the thing off before it completely took control. he was ACTING like he wanted it to take her over but if that was true he would've left the symbiote in its more organic form. or something closer to it.

[edoro]

What do you think of "Watching and Dreaming"?

oooh thank you for asking! took me a bit to get to it but today i am MEDICATED and MOSTLY FINISHED WITH CLEANING so let's see what i can shake out of the ol' brainpan

gonna put this under a cut because it's probably going to get long, but overall: i liked it! i think it wrapped everything up pretty well, did not leave any major plot points unaddressed, and i found the timeskip epilogue to be sweet and hopeful but not saccharine or cloying.

in more detail:

seeing the three episodes we got for season 3 makes me wish so badly that we'd gotten the full run of the show that the crew wanted. i've seen word from the last post-hoot that they found out the show was canceled right before the mid-s2 hiatus, which tracks with the overall pacing and direction of the back half of s2, and it's just a tragedy. i think they did a really good job with what they had, considering the insanely compressed runtime they were given to work with.

i'm a little disappointed that the other kids didn't get more screentime in the final episode. it makes sense but i wish we had gotten more of them and their interactions with each other outside of Luz - and their interactions with Camila, too.

i honestly really loved the whole thing with the Collector. i know a lot of people don't for various reasons, but, Shrug Emoji. some of the criticisms of his whole arc really don't make sense to me - i feel like the people who are mad that they did turn out to be a misguided kid who didn't understand the gravity of what they were doing or how it affected others for various reasons (such as: being a child, having been isolated for centuries with only Philip for company, being immortal and having incredible reality-warping powers) and changed their tune when it was explained to them just, uh... were not really paying attention? lmao?

like it was pretty obvious from his first appearance that he was a child or at least very childlike, and we can easily infer from those scenes that he's been held captive and manipulated by Philip under the guise of friendship and 'letting him free to play', so everything else follows pretty naturally from that.

i liked how it was Luz, with her own childhood experience of death and grief, who recognized what was going on here and sought to explain it to them. she's always been an empathetic person who tries to see the best in others and give them the benefit of the doubt. sometimes, like with Philip, this comes back to bite her, but most of the time it's good and helpful.

i really like how we had someone just outright tell her "lmao no" to her whole "but am i JUST AS BAD as Philip???" thing. like honey, no, you have made some clumsy mistakes while meaning well, and the thing you're the most guilty about is literally just 'helping a guy who manipulated and lied to you without realizing he was manipulating and lying to you', which is not even your fault, because HE LIED TO YOU. Philip has spent centuries carefully engineering his way into being able to commit genocide. these two things are not the same.

speaking of Philip: i also know a lot of people have been upset with his ending. honestly, i'm not! i think that it tracks very well with the kind of person he's always been - a stubborn, manipulative liar who sees himself as a victim and blames everyone else around him for the tragedies that he's experienced, many of which he's directly personally caused, and who has been given chance after chance to change his mind, change his behavior, change his beliefs, and simply refuses to.

like... some people are just assholes! i don't think that the fact that he ended up lying, manipulating, treating humans as supreme, and trying to commit witch genocide to the very bitter end means that he was like, Born Evil, i think it means that he was once a sweet kid who loved his brother who grew into a cruel, hateful, manipulative man who only saw certain people as Fully Persons and therefore deserving of existence, and felt like he had the authority to decide who is or is not a person.

and honestly like... The Owl House is a children's cartoon. it's rated Y7. it is for children and part of its purpose IS to teach children things, and i actually think that "sometimes, people will hurt you, and they'll lie and say they're doing it for your own good or for the greater good, or they'll have a sympathetic reason for doing it, but that doesn't actually matter because they keep hurting you and you do not owe them infinite chances to keep doing that" is a really good lesson to teach children.

Philip's story is a tragedy and the tragedy is that he easily COULD have done literally any other thing, but he refused to. he had chances! he refused to take them! he had centuries to go, "wait, am i the baddie?" and he did not. he murdered Caleb himself and then blamed witches for that. instead of treating the grimwalkers like family, he treated them like disposable toys to take his anger at Caleb out on. he lied, manipulated, killed, stole, and hurt countless people because he felt like they deserved it because of his own unhappiness.

some people are like this! it happens! i have met them and personally been harmed by them in ways that are going to impact me for the rest of my life and have, if not exactly ruined my life, made it a hell of a lot harder than it would have been otherwise.

so for me, seeing that the ultimate resolution of Philip's story is that he refused to change, he refused to admit any fault, he kept lying and manipulating and trying to hurt people, and eventually everyone he tried to hurt and lie to turned on him and got rid of him so he couldn't keep hurting them is very satisfying.

The Owl House is a show about how people have the capability to change, but the flip side of that is that it means they have to choose to do so, and some people won't. so what do you do then? what happens when someone is hateful, cruel, and dangerous, and won't stop trying to exterminate an entire race of people because he blames them for his own self-inflicted problems? what do you owe someone like that? how many chances should you give them? how often should you let them have the opportunity to hurt you or others again?

i think the fact that he went out so pathetically is also very fitting. to the very end he wouldn't own up to anything. he just kept trying to lie and manipulate. and like many people who act this way, when his manipulation didn't work, he dropped the mask and got mad.

so yeah! i liked that aspect of it, and i feel like a lot of the criticisms are honestly just... expecting Philip to have played a very different role in the story than imo he was set up to play. he was the contrast to people like Alador or Hunter or Amity or the Collector. he was the example of what happens when someone REFUSES to change and uses any chance you give them as a foothold to do more damage. so the ending where it's just, "sometimes you have to do what you can to protect yourself from people like that" is imo quite narratively cohesive, and i think that it also fits into the overall theme of "your character is determined by your actions." Philip COULD HAVE ended differently, but he didn't, because of his own actions.

let's see... i feel very (seesawing hand motion) about the scene with Luz and Papa Titan. overall i think i like it.

i like the idea that Luz found everything through her own ingenuity and Philip didn't because he didn't treat the Isles as worth studying!

but that being said, i think there's something quite powerful about the idea of the land itself as a being with some limited level of agency, able to open itself and its resources up to someone who approaches it with respect and able to reject someone who comes in to rapaciously plunder it in order to kill those who live on it, ESPECIALLY given the fact that Philip is, literally, a white Puritan.

like that's definitely also a very meaningful narrative to me!

i don't really talk about this a whole lot here, for various reasons, but half of my family is native (Osage, specifically.) i'm not connected to that side of my family or that aspect of my own heritage for Complicated Reasons including abuse and the ongoing effects of white supremacy and colonial violence causing those members of my family themselves to be disconnected from their heritage in a way that meant that i was, basically, raised as a white person who is visually Ethnically Ambiguous depending on how familiar the people looking at me are with what mixed native people look like.

however, as someone who has perhaps a more personal connection than some others in the fandom might to the idea of "white man from a colonizer culture comes into a land foreign to him, views them all as backwards evil savages who must be purged for the safety of the good white Christians, proceeds to plunder and misuse their resources for his own gains, destroys their connection to their own history and culture and installs himself as a figurehead leading them into death" as like, a narrative, i don't think that the idea that the Titan was watching what happened and subtly nudging or influencing events to the degree that he was able to (which was ultimately a very, very small one) is like... meaningless.

and i don't think that what he said to Luz negates any of the messaging of the series. he didn't say, "you were special All Along, so you deserve my powers." he said, "you're the one who's here right now, and you seem good enough."

like... she proved herself, by her actions, to be an open and caring person who wants to do good, and specifically cares deeply for the Isles and the people on them, to the point where she is willing to sacrifice herself for them. and she's the one who is here, right now, in this moment. and she is not a perfect person, but she's Good Enough.

i actually really like that! she's here and she's good enough. she's the one in a position to do something about it and she seems okay. i don't think that it does retroactively make her into a "chosen one", because she didn't get it through her birthright or anything, she was given it because she ended up there (because she sacrificed herself to save the Collector) and she had previously shown herself to be someone the Titan thought would use it well.

so i liked that! i think that, like with "you actually do not have to keep giving someone chances to hurt you when they are a shitty liar, even if they're also sad", "you're here and you're good enough" is a pretty good lesson!

what else, what else... loved the whole bit with Philip possessing Raine and them fighting him off. loved the sequence of the two of them duking it out in the throne room and the fact that Philip just BIT them - little brother behavior for sure. Raine is a stone-cold fucking badass.

one little detail i liked a lot is the bit where they're stuck in the goop in the throne room basically waiting to die, and Eda comes in - i specifically really love how the crew got the look of soft, fuzzy, unfocused confusion in their eyes because they don't have their glasses and can't see. there's a particular way that people who need glasses to see often look when they don't have them, and they got it really well, and i just really liked that detail!

the final fight was indeed Cool As Fuck. i love how anime TOH is.

i liked the epilogue! it was very sweet. i like that it showed how people grew and changed and repaired the Isles, while not completely erasing the damage that was done. i also think it did a good job of wrapping stuff up while still leaving a lot open - it did not, imo, fall into the "jobs and babies forever" trap of something like, say, the Harry Potter epilogue, but it showed us how things went and gave us a lot of room to imagine where they'll go from there.

also love everyone's new designs. Good For All Of Them. Amity got so fucking gay and Gus is so HANDSOME now!

also of course i was ecstatic over the Huntlow lmao - i can't believe i used to dislike it! i love how often she just kind of casually and fondly manhandles him. my friend Sharo said something to the effect of, "i like how the scene where they're sliding and he stumbles and she catches him shows that it's been so long since he had to do child soldier shit that his hot jock gf is now way stronger and more athletic and nimble than him" and i haven't been normal about it since! he's SOFT now!!

so, overall, i feel positively about it! there are a lot of small threads that got dropped, no doubt due to the series being canceled, but i think they wrapped everything up well, and i feel like everything that happened actually was pretty thematically on point. i am satisfied with it! i wish we'd gotten more, but i enjoy what we did get.

[six-owls-in-a-trenchcoat]

Greek Fire (Ethabaster)

Not an AU. Al saves Ethan from the explosion of the Andromeda and they get to know each other better. TW for mentions of violence, alcohol, abuse, homophobia, and conversion therapy.

Ethan stared in shock at the ticking detonation timer on Charles Beckendorf's watch. He gulped. He'd messed up. The son of Hephaestus had tricked them. He'd already planted the bomb. Kronos was going to be furious with him- that was, if he even survived the imminent explosion. He was dead either way.

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1. The sudden explosion blasted Ethan backward, knocking him off his feet. He could feel the wave of heat washing toward him, and he closed his eye tight, ready to die. When asked about the moment later on, he would have said his life flashed before his eyes, but that wasn't at all what happened, and it was stupid and cliche anyway. However, he did think briefly about the house of death. He imagined waking up in the Underworld and standing before the judges. Where would they choose to send him?  He personally saw himself as an Asphodel kind of person- average, unexceptional, a balance of good and evil that didn't really slot into either group. He certainly wouldn't call himself a hero, but he didn't think he'd done anything worthy of eternal punishment either.

Then, just as he was certain he was dead, he felt someone grab him by the waist, and the heat of the blast was gone. He guessed Thanatos had come to take him, but when he dared to open his eye and look up, it was Alabaster. The son of Hecate's body was pulsing with glowing green runes, and he seemed to have conjured a thick forcefield around himself and Ethan, protecting them both from the explosion.

"Al-" was all he had to say before they plummeted into the ocean.

***

Ethan pulled himself and Alabaster up onto the warm sand of the beach, coughing up salt water. Unfortunately, Al's forcefield had shattered the second they hit the water, and being underwater and drained of energy, he'd been unable to reconstruct it, so Ethan had had to swim to shore carrying the son of Hecate.

"Help," he coughed, scanning around for a lifeguard. His eyepatch had somehow come off in the ocean, and he was glad that the eyelid where his missing eye used to be was scarred and swollen shut, because he didn't want to get salt water in his empty eye socket. Anyway, he wasn't even sure where they were. He sighed and rolled his companion onto his back. "Al, wake up," he croaked. The son of Hecate was out cold, and his lips were tinged slightly blue. Ethan groaned. "Oh, please do not need CPR."

That was when a young female lifeguard jogged over. She was around Ethan's age, seventeen or eighteen, with tanned skin and pixie-cut caramel hair.

"What's wrong?" she asked, kneeling down in the sand beside her.

"It's my... brother," Ethan said. He wasn't quite sure where that had come from. The idea of Al as his brother felt outrageous. They looked nothing alike, for one. Not to mention Ethan had thought before that he might possibly like the son of Hecate as something more than a friend. Not that he hadn't also wished before he had the same godly parent. Not in a weird way, it was just that he sometimes envied the kind of relationship Al and his other siblings, had with Hecate. He'd only met Nemesis, his own mother, once, and that interaction had ended with her taking his left eye. After that, he felt like she hadn't given him a second thought.

"You don't look like brothers," the lifeguard said, articulating just a tiny piece of Ethan's whole inner monologue. He hated that he did that, but he blamed it on his anxiety.

"We're both adopted," Ethan lied, curling his lip a little. He'd never liked lying, and when he was younger, he couldn't have done it to save his life. That was what had landed him in macho wilderness surviving training camp after his dad found out he liked guys. He sighed. There were things he missed about Seattle, but his shitty dad wasn't one of them.

"Oookay," the girl nodded, scrutinizing the two boys. "Are you here with your parents?" Ethan shook his head.

"No, they're shopping in town. Can you help him?" She nodded.

"I suppose I could try CPR."

For some reason, Ethan couldn't watch, but the lifeguard was a miracle worker. In a few minutes, Al was up and his coloration had returned to normal. The lifeguard offered to find someone to take them to their parents, but Ethan insisted that they were fine, they just needed directions to the nearest town.

The nearest town happened to be Chesapeake, Virginia. Luckily, along with a few soggy drachma he figured he'd use to IM Kronos later to find out the rendezvous point for the remnant of the army, Ethan had a little bit of mortal money on them that he was able to use to hail a taxi into Chesapeake, where they found a small cafe to sit and talk.

"Thanks for saving me," Ethan said as they sat in a booth, looking over the cafe's menu. "I owe you one."

"Nah, it's fine," Al said, waving his hand dismissively.

"No, I mean it. I'm going to pay you back for this. I'm a son of the goddess of balance. I have to."

"All right, if you insist," Al chuckled. Ethan sighed and looked around the cafe. Chesapeake was an affluent community, so a lot of rich people were coming into the cafe, and he didn't like the looks they were giving him. He reached up and touched the side of his face. He'd been wearing it regularly for so long that he hadn't realized how self-conscious he felt without his eyepatch. "Hey, are you okay?" Al asked, seemingly picking up on his discomfort. Ethan bit his lip.

"Fine. I'm just a little awkward, not having my eyepatch."

"Oh, okay." Al slipped a stack of somehow completely-dry notecards and a green Sharpie out of his jeans pocket. He placed one of the cards on the tables and made a quick sketch on it. Then he tapped the card with two fingers and a black felt eyepatch just like Ethan's old one- the one he'd been wearing since he was thirteen years old- appeared out of thin air. "Here." He handed it to him. Ethan gaped.

"Should you have done that? Aren't you still super drained from that forcefield spell?" Al shrugged.

"Mistforms are easy magic. And I was doing a favor for a friend. Now take the damn patch, Pirate." Ethan sighed and put it on.

"What did I say about calling me that?"

"Aww, but it's so funny!"

"Not when you're on the receiving end."

"Fiiine," Al said. "What if you come up with a nickname for me?"

"It's no fun if you're in on it!" Ethan chuckled and put down the menu. "I think I'm gonna go order. I'm getting a plain black coffee, you?"

"Earl Grey tea for me," Al said.

"Got it," Ethan said. He walked up to the counter and ordered. A few minutes later, he came back with their drinks.

"Ooh, they have fancy cups," Al said, taking his. Ethan nodded and sat down.

"Hey, by the way, we've been working together for about a year now, and I'd say we're friends, but we really don't know all that much about each other. Where are you from?" Alabaster hesitated.

"London," he said quietly, stirring his tea.

"Really?" Ethan asked in vague disbelief. "I would never have thought you were British."

"Yeah..." Al said, a hint of an English accent showing through on this word. "I didn't want to stand out when I came to camp, so I made myself unlearn my accent."

"That sucks," Ethan said. "What made you leave home?" Al held up a hand.

"Woah, Mister. First you have to tell me where you're from." Ethan grinned.

"Touché. Well, I'm from Seattle, but my dad emigrated from Japan. I would always spend summers with my grandparents in Kyoto. That is, until they both passed away when I was ten."

"I'm sorry," Al said. "Did you like them?"

"Yeah," Ethan said. "My dad, not so much." Al bit his lip.

"That's something we have in common. My dad is why I left home." Ethan nodded.

"Tell me about him. That is, if it's not too sensitive of a topic." Al nodded.

"It's not. I mean it's not great, but I'm alright talking about him if that's what you mean. Anyway, my dad came from a Wiccan family, he was a practicing witch. That's what drew Hecate to him. Only, as he got older, he started losing belief. He became a businessman. He still practiced, but it wasn't as big a part of his life." Ethan nodded

"And?" Al sighed, like he was gearing up to tell a big secret.

"I was born a girl," he said. "My dad thought he had three daughters. Two of them were with his long term girlfriend. I was the odd one out. I came out when I was pretty young- I mean, I always knew I was a guy and all- and I don't think he quite knew what to make of it. He wasn't unaccepting by any means. In fact, he was probably the opposite. He immediately started using my name and pronouns, but because I was the only boy, he started putting all this pressure on me to be his perfect son. And when I didn't live up to his expectations, he got upset."

"Lucky," Ethan said. "I mean, not that last part, but at least he accepted you for being trans. You should here what my dad did when he found out I might be gay."

"Tell me more about him." Al folded his hands. He was completely talking in his natural accent now, and Ethan hated how attractive he found that.

"Okay, let's see," he said. "Well, he was a lawyer. Justice and all- I guess that's why Nemesis liked him. Well, as much as she can like anyone. She just kind of showed up with me one day, so I gather my dad didn't really even want me in the first place. When I was really young, he got married, so I grew up with a stepmother. I didn't hate her, but we weren't particularly close. She was just kind of there, honestly."

"That's the same way I always felt about my dad's girlfriend," Al said. "But to her credit, she was always nice to me." Ethan nodded.

"Anyway, everything went to Hades when I was about six. My dad's law firm went broke and he started drinking. He became verbally abusive towards me, but he was worse towards Keiko. I may not have loved her, but I felt really bad for her."

"Yikes," Al said. "You said something about your dad finding out you like guys?"

"Um, yeah," Ethan said, taking a sip of his coffee. "Funny story, as a kid I was an awful liar. When I was about ten, I think, I was starting to come to terms with the fact that I was pretty sure I liked boys, and I was writing about it in the little diary I kept one day when my dad came up to me and asked what I was writing about. Long story, he made me do a lot of tough manual work and survival training as basically his version of conversion therapy. He thought doing manly stuff would turn me straight."

"Yikes," Alabaster said, his green eyes wide. "What was the final straw?"

"You first," Ethan said. Al sighed.

"Due to some learning difficulties and stuff, I didn't do the best in school, which meant my perfectionist dad was always on my back about my report cards and shit. The last straw was when I was in sixth grade. We'd moved to Maine a couple years ago, so I was going to an American school. I got an F in maths, and my dad went crazy, threatened to kick me out. I was so done, I high-tailed it out of there on my own. Eventually my mom sent a satyr my way and I ended up at that camp. Your turn."

"Right," Ethan said. "Well, one time when I was eleven, my dad and Keiko, his wife, got into a really big fight. He beat her so hard she died. I tried to get in between them and he got me so bad I ended up in the hospital. At that point... well, even though I've only met Nemesis once, she used to speak in my head about injustice and retribution even before I knew I was a demigod. She told me I had to make my father pay." He gritted his teeth and drew in a sharp breath.

"You killed him," Al correctly deduced. Ethan sighed.

"Yeah. It wasn't easy, but I agree with Nemesis that it had to be done. Justice needed to be served. But I promised myself I'd never do something like that again, unless I was absolutely sure the person deserved it."

"Damn," Al said, whistling. "Did you get caught?"

"Unfortunately, yes," he said. "They decided to keep me in a juvenile detention facility until they got me a trial. That's where my satyr found me."

"Wow," Al said. "Okay, you win for craziest backstory." Ethan smiled.

"I wasn't aware it was a competition."

The two of them just sat there a while longer, laughing and talking until they had finished their drinks.

"Okay," Al said. "We should probably find out the rendezvous point and go there. But this was nice."

"Yeah," Ethan said. "It was."

[ddesertmoon]

Batman Fic Recs Feat. Time Travel

My favorite time travel fics with the batfam. I’ll mention if there are any ships :)

-

The View From Jade by lowflyingfruit

“Being transported to the past is not the sort of thing one normally expects. But this having happened, and with no easy way back, Jason's determined to make the most of it. Though the Bat still stalks Gotham's streets, the city's crime is run by the mobs instead of the rogues. There's no Joker yet.

There's no Robin.

Maybe there shouldn't be.”

I love this one! It’s got a lot of interactions between young Dick and Jason and they’re just precious

-

Fairy Godbrother by envysparkler

“What are brothers for?

(Or: some minor dimensional travel, pseudo-kidnapping, and a whole lot of meddling.)”

(I think it’s technically dimensional travel because there are two separate timelines, but one of the dimensions is moving at a different pace so I’m counting it.) Great interactions between the batfam:)

-

The Rule Stands by Engineered

“‘I know what you’re going to say, Batman,’ Damian said, shrugging the hand off his shoulder. ‘You’re going to tell me that Nightwing is dead, and that people don’t come back from the dead. Well, clearly you are wrong, seeing that you were dead and I was dead and Red Hood was dead and even Superman was once dead-’

‘My parents are dead,’ Father interrupted. ‘Nightwing’s parents are dead. There have been a few notable exceptions in extenuating circumstances, Robin, but the rule stands. Everyone can die.’”

Damian and young Dick bond and Damian learns that his big brother wasn’t always the dependable hero he knew him as.

-

A Good Place by LemonadeGarden

“Damian Wayne is kidnapped and sent back years through time. Together, he and Father – who's only been Batman for a mere six months –must figure out how to return him to his own time.

Over the course of the next week, Damian discovers that Mexican gangsters do not mess around, that social workers find Bruce annoying, that Bruce might be a little messed up, and that crystal chandeliers create the fondest memories.

Oh. And Alfred has hair.”

Pre-children Bruce bonds with Damian, who is able to see how much becoming a father changed Bruce.

-

Two Dead Birds by InsaneTrollLogic

“There's some lunatic in a red helmet running through Jason's territory. He wants to think it's a copycat.

He's wrong.”

Jason Todd regretting his past decisions and trying to work with his family? Fuck yeah.

-

show me yesterday, for i can’t find today by indent

“Then: The year is 2013. Jason Todd is alive, fourteen years old, and about to follow Sheila Haywood, his birth mother, into the hands of the Joker. All he wants is to save her life.

Now: The year is 2018. Jason Todd was dead. But now he's a nineteen year old vigilante about to take down the latest C-Lister rogue. Unfortunately for him, its a rogue that specialises in time-travel technology. And what starts as an easy takedown...ends as a time travelling phenomenon.

The two Jasons swap places.”

A reconciliation fic with *jazz hands* time travel!!

-

Take It Back Now Y’all by TimTheToaster (tabletoptime)

“There was absolutely no way this sunshine was from Gotham in April.

Not possible.

Which meant, Tim was no longer in Gotham, in April.

(In which Tim finds himself in the past, and tries to do the right thing. It's more complicated than he'd like.)”

Incomplete

Tim goes back to Dick’s Robin days and fixes shit

-

What Would You Do (To Save a Life) by 12pt_timesnewromanfont

“Here lies Timothy Drake

He lived so others wouldn’t die.

He died so others would live.

Damian scowls at the smooth stone, at the carefully etched epitaph.

He can’t help the fury building inside, rising up and clawing at his insides.”

Major TW for suicide

Tim’s evil future self comes back in time. Really well written.

-

Displaced by CamsthiSky

"Bruce’s vision wavers, and only once he steadies himself does he look up to find—Dick. But not Dick. Because Dick is eleven years old, and this man is clearly only a few years younger than Bruce himself is. If that. But no. Bruce would know those bright blue eyes anywhere. This is Dick. This is his son."

Bruce, who recently adopted Dick Grayson, is switched w his older self… younger Bruce meeting all of his kids again does special things to my sad little heart

-

Mint Chocolate Chip by LemonadeGarden

“Summer vacations have been going on just long enough for Jason to start getting bored, when he gets an unexpected visitor.

From the future.”

The amount of fluff in here… insane. I love it

-

Days of Future Past by Speechless_since_1998

“‘Why are you doing this?’

Red Robin looked at him from above the Riddler, ‘What?’

‘Help us. You don't want to be here. We could help you get back to your time.’

‘No. I have to be here. One week to go.’

‘A week for what?’ he asked, in frustration.

‘You told us you're here to avoid the worst moment in Batman's life, the one that will almost drive him crazy and shit like that. You didn't tell us what it will be, though.’

‘You don't need to know.’

Jason snorted, ‘Don't need to know? We're talking about what will turn Batman from a semi-decent parenting figure into a total bastard. Of course, it is necessary.’

‘For your good, you better not know.’"

Kind of angsty, but really good. Tim goes back to save Jason.

[dzthenerd490]

Hello this is Mortalfan123 and these are my complaints  to the SCP: HMF. I am hundred percent sure that I am going to get blocked after you read this. Screw it,  so here it goes.

I just wanted to say that it is a neat universe. While I enjoy most of these files, there are some complaints I have.

Its kinda weird how some of the files aren’t from Horror movies. Examples (Back to the Future, Assassins Creed, Transformers, Pikmin, etc.) I know they can be anomalies, but they feel out of place.(ironic). I thought we were going to get files on anything horror related. But hey its your au so you do you. 

I also don’t like the Black Queen Insurgency (This is probably the bias in me because chaos insurgency is my favorite GOI). I mean the (BQI) feels like chaos insurgency but multiversal and it kinda ruins the Black Queen. They were neutral in a way now they are just fascists.

I don’t like how in each file I read, like Carrie, Malignant, and elfen lied they all got happy endings. Which is good for them but I don’t like how it just happens. I was hoping they would get contained by the foundation and they would have to struggle through it. 

I once believed that maybe we would get tales or interviews of how they struggle with the reality of being locked up because of their anomalous property,  how the foundation does testing on them, how they would interact with other scps to form bonds and friendships. We the readers will get to see them grow and maybe learn to accept their anomalous property.

But Nope!!! Instead here comes Doctor Plot Device here to save them with their plot device machine or magical power. And boom, now they are living happily and they don’t have to struggle anymore with their anomalous property. Why? Because of Doctor Plot Device that's why. 

“Oh hey guys remember SCP-343, remember how I casually contained him. Yep, that was me. Do you guys also remember how I casually woke up SCP-239 from her coma. That was also me, Doctor Plot Device. I am so amazing.”

 I’m sorry but some OC doctors with op powers just ruin the vibe of what the foundation should be. Like they can be done right, but when its says how amazing they are in the foundation and how the O5- bend just to their will, I am not fan.

I also really hate how cartoonishly evil the foundation can be. Like the foundation is full of professionals, why are they acting like Jerks? I know you probably say it's because they are flawed, but no that's not it. I remember reading a tale about Gate and the mtf were just straight up hostile to anyone that dares to look at them. Then there's Doctors Ego (Egao nice play on words) who just straight up executed a guard because he didn’t want to kill innocent people and apparently Doctor Ego doesn’t get punished because why? Because he is backed up by two O5 members. “Oh great, just great”. And there's the O5 council initiating “bullshit” protocol to kill everyone who learned a very dark secret that we are not to learn.

 Everytime I see the foundation get portrayed as bad guys, I am reminded of this meme.

And if that is not bad enough the scps and certain characters are cartoony too. I remember reading “682 vs AAB'' and I hated how 682 and Moder kept calling each other like they were twelve years old on the damn playground. Especially hated how Morder talked like a cartoon like she was scary when did not talk so to read her the saturday cartoon villain took me out of the tale. (The Director confirms that Moder is female)  I remember Dr. Stevens from the Oracle project acted like a complete moron the entire time with the ACPA. 

Speaking of the ACPA, I know it is needed for the end of the world. After the world is saved, Every group of interest goes back to do what they did before.. Like what? You guys were literally working together, why can’t you guys stay and work together?

I don’t really don’t like Joke object class. Now in the main SCP forum, the Joke class is used for funny articles, sometimes just parodies like 682-J or SCP-____-J . But the way you're using the Joke class is to insult the anomaly.  I’m sorry but I don’t like it. It ruins the professionalism of the foundation. I can’t tell if you’re trying to be funny or serious in the files

Finally, I’m getting really tired of some scps being connected to the scarlet king. Like no offense, but everytime I read that (Insert SCP) is a child of scarlet king, because (Insert SCP that is headcanon to be related to Scarlet King) says “Brother” or “Sister” I roll my eyes. I even find myself disliking the article when it casually states which wife the “child” is born from.  

It's like the foundation is collecting the king's children like it's no problem. No offense to you, but I don’t like it. 

And these are my complaints of the SCP: HMF, I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings because I will hate myself if I did. The Au is flawed, however, I think the SCP:Hmf is overall good. I mean there are some problems I have with it, but then again you are literally just one person writing this AU. So I won’t blame you

 I think it's better if I give you my review on each of the files themselves in the near future. (If I’m not blocked.) I honestly believe it's best if I don’t talk about your OCs because I might hurt your feelings.

If I am going to get blocked, then I just want to say, “Dr. Wicked is just a watered-down version of Dr. Elias Shaw, but without the amulet. I’m sorry but it's the truth.

... Holy shit, I was expecting a few notes but not a whole essay. Well either way we agreed to this so I might as well hold my end. So, let's see what you have to say!

Its kinda weird how some of the files aren’t from Horror movies. Examples (Back to the Future, Assassins Creed, Transformers, Pikmin, etc.) I know they can be anomalies, but they feel out of place.(ironic). I thought we were going to get files on anything horror related. But hey its your au so you do you. 

Ha! Yeah, I also thought it was stupid of me to keep calling it "Horror" Movie Files when it's not all horror. But I honestly couldn't resist adding other stuff on the basis that it was anomalous. Stupid I know but that's the SCP: HMF universe in a nutshell, just a load of nonsense that takes itself a little too seriously. Besides, the real SCP Foundation isn't all horror either, they got a slime that's destined to destroy the Scarlet King, a giant robot that kills kaiju, and even a Cthulhu that just wants to spend some alone time. Also come on, you got to admit these elements are pretty awesome to add into the SCP Universe, right? I'm just trying to see what would happen if I combined them and what kind of scenarios might occur. Like I put on my profile, I got a hundred ideas!

I also don’t like the Black Queen Insurgency (This is probably the bias in me because chaos insurgency is my favorite GOI). I mean the (BQI) feels like chaos insurgency but multiversal and it kinda ruins the Black Queen. They were neutral in a way now they are just fascists.

Yeah, this one can be easily answered with more SCP: HMF lore... which I STILL haven't gotten too yet. God damn it, I'm sorry I'm so slow on getting my tales and action reports done. I swear it will make sense (or at least have an explanation) eventually but I just got a lot on so its going to take a while.

Though if you question is simply why I did this... I hated both GoI's and thought they were stupid, so I just fused them together. Sorry, not sorry.

I don’t like how in each file I read, like Carrie, Malignant, and elfen lied they all got happy endings. Which is good for them but I don’t like how it just happens. I was hoping they would get contained by the foundation and they would have to struggle through it. I once believed that maybe we would get tales or interviews of how they struggle with the reality of being locked up because of their anomalous property,  how the foundation does testing on them, how they would interact with other scps to form bonds and friendships. We the readers will get to see them grow and maybe learn to accept their anomalous property. But Nope!!! Instead here comes Doctor Plot Device here to save them with their plot device machine or magical power. And boom, now they are living happily and they don’t have to struggle anymore with their anomalous property. Why? Because of Doctor Plot Device that's why. “Oh hey guys remember SCP-343, remember how I casually contained him. Yep, that was me. Do you guys also remember how I casually woke up SCP-239 from her coma. That was also me, Doctor Plot Device. I am so amazing.”

... Okay... there's a lot to unpack here. I am going to make tales about their lives and struggles but they're not ready yet so I figured the file alone would be enough for now. You are right, I basically just give a plot summary of what to expect from them in the files but that's the point. The file is meant to display to the reader, who is assumed to be fellow Foundation staff, EVERYTHING they need to know about the SCP. Which the general story is the only thing what most administrative staff would care about.

I'm sorry it's taking so long to get the tales, seditions, and VS done, all of which will help expand on the development of these SCP's and their personal views and situation. I know right now it's just a load of info dumping, but for now, that's all I got. All I can ask is that you be patient.

Though for now all I can give is the basic answer... I hate unhappy endings. That's really all there is too it. I hate things ending horribly for characters and I hate watching them suffer. But of course, it's not going to be all flowers and rainbows, I mean... obviously. It will make more sense once I FINALLY get the hang of posting tales and action reports more often.

I’m sorry but some OC doctors with op powers just ruin the vibe of what the foundation should be. Like they can be done right, but when its says how amazing they are in the foundation and how the O5- bend just to their will, I am not fan.

What do you mean doctors with OP Powers? Dr. Stefansdottir can control any aspect of reality so that's pretty much fair game. Remember when she turned the entire world into a Halloween scenario and made all her friends just normal girls in costumes?

As for other doctors I gave a few some anomalous properties (Dr Wicked is immortal and regenerates form any damage, Dr Corvio can detect lies and has a floating die for a head, Dr Alvik is an Anti-Christ, and so on) but I don't think I did anything to imply they were overpowered. I also don't recall doing anything to state the O5 bends to them? Everyone even the administrative staff and Ethics Committee fear the O5 and it's not uncommon for Foundation staff to call them faceless bastards. Nobody likes the O5, but everyone still obeys them because they feel they have no choice. Ugh... but to be fair it's kinda is my fault this is confusing because, say it with me, THE TALES ARE TAKING FUCKING FOREVER TO COME OUT!

I also really hate how cartoonishly evil the foundation can be. Like the foundation is full of professionals, why are they acting like Jerks? I know you probably say it's because they are flawed, but no that's not it. I remember reading a tale about Gate and the mtf were just straight up hostile to anyone that dares to look at them. Then there's Doctors Ego (Egao nice play on words) who just straight up executed a guard because he didn’t want to kill innocent people and apparently Doctor Ego doesn’t get punished because why? Because he is backed up by two O5 members. “Oh great, just great”. And there's the O5 council initiating “bullshit” protocol to kill everyone who learned a very dark secret that we are not to learn.

First of all, Egao is 笑顔 which means "smile" in Japanese. The irony is supposed to be that he never does and everyone around gets progressively unhappier when around him... or deader either one is fine with him. Also, he is a Foundationist which are Foundation staff members that are inherently fascist and deeply despise civilians thinking they are completely unworthy of life.

You see, a majority of the Foundation was granted immortality thanks to Protocol "The Burden We Share". The O5 claimed they did this out of the kindness of their hearts but in reality, they did it so that Foundation staff would only die from anomalous events, NOT age. As allowing both forms of death to continue would greatly dwindle the staff.

Of course, now that Foundation staff are immortal it meant more knowledge and power for the Foundation. However, this had numerous side effects including some long living Foundation staff developing a new and warped ideology, resulting in them calling themselves "Foundationists". Foundationists believe that those in the Foundation are superior to those that are not in the Foundation and that humanity has lost its right to live being ignorant to the anomalous world. They've grown tired of constantly protecting humanity and getting no thanks for it, now viewing humans as rodents due to pettiness. These particular Foundation staff members are trying to make a ruling towards the O5 to allow a scenario like SCP-5000 occur. And yes, as a result they are all extremely fascist. Thankfully not everyone in the Foundation is like that but since they all work for the same organization that's not a lot that can be done. Especially since the Foundationist's are smart and only act when no one can stop them.

The O5 don't actually care which ideology grows dominant within the Foundation. Either way, it means everyone hates each other and doesn't waste time hating the O5 or calling them out on their ethical bullshit.

Though I am sorry if I made it a little cartoonish, I'll try to improve on that later. Like I said I do like edge but not too much of it. Though, I guess even I can be guilty of using too much and making a mess of things.

Everytime I see the foundation get portrayed as bad guys, I am reminded of this meme.

... okay. I respect your opinion, but I don't agree with it.

And if that is not bad enough the scps and certain characters are cartoony too. I remember reading “682 vs AAB'' and I hated how 682 and Moder kept calling each other like they were twelve years old on the damn playground. Especially hated how Morder talked like a cartoon like she was scary when did not talk so to read her the saturday cartoon villain took me out of the tale. (The Director confirms that Moder is female)  I remember Dr. Stevens from the Oracle project acted like a complete moron the entire time with the ACPA. 

... Acted like twelve-year-olds on a playground? I'm sorry but I don't agree with that at all. I didn't actually know that Moder was a female, thought I don't really think that changes anything. I did know that making Moder talk was going to piss people off I am sorry about that, thought I won't change it. I just it would make sense since both SCPs are children of gods so it would make sense if they could communicate. As to show they're almost on the same level.

Dr. Stevens was scared because he was just told that his oracle project only came to life thanks to aliens, there was a mutagenic virus plotting to infect all life on earth, and on the same night, he was thrusted into room filled with basically the illuminati. I was just trying to portray him as scared and confused, like any person would be if they were put through the same thing.

Speaking of the ACPA, I know it is needed for the end of the world. After the world is saved, Every group of interest goes back to do what they did before.. Like what? You guys were literally working together, why can’t you guys stay and work together?

Difference in opinions and ideals, it's really that simple. The SCP Foundation, Horizon Initiative, and the Global Occult Coalition do agree that humanity must be protected from the darkness, but they disagree on how it should be done. The SCP Foundation believes all think that the best way to deal with anomalies is to contain them. To study and understand them now so they can be utilized later. Global Occult Coalition thinks that humanity will never be free of its constant fight for survival until all anomalies are either understood or destroyed. And the Horizon Initiative want's to only protect "blessed" humanoids and items while destroying everything else.

Similar reasonings apply for other member organizations of the ACPA. The only thing that will force them to work together effectively is if the world and by extension humanity is in danger. Until such events occur, they will always be at each other's throats and rarely work together properly. The same definitely applies for organizations that hate the ACPA but do join up in world ending scenarios like with SCP-AUX.

I don’t really like Joke object class. Now in the main SCP forum, the Joke class is used for funny articles, sometimes just parodies like 682-J or SCP-____-J . But the way you're using the Joke class is to insult the anomaly.  I’m sorry but I don’t like it. It ruins the professionalism of the foundation. I can’t tell if you’re trying to be funny or serious in the files.

... Actually, yeah you got me there it's really just an insult to the anomaly. Like the Object Class Glossary states. If you'd rather throw it in the trash, then its Joke. I never liked Joke anomalies in the SCP Foundation, but I felt it was a little unfair to just deny their existence. so yeah... though that doesn't deny me portraying them the way I did makes me a dick.

Finally, I’m getting really tired of some scps being connected to the scarlet king. Like no offense, but everytime I read that (Insert SCP) is a child of scarlet king, because (Insert SCP that is headcanon to be related to Scarlet King) says “Brother” or “Sister” I roll my eyes. I even find myself disliking the article when it casually states which wife the “child” is born from.  

... Um... Okay? This isn't really criticism this is just your opinion, which I respect! I just don't agree with. I personally thought it was cool to memorize each bride and what they represented but... I guess not everyone likes that. Sorry.

It's like the foundation is collecting the king's children like it's no problem. No offense to you, but I don’t like it. 

They collect anomalies to contain them. It's not just the Scarlet King its everything anomalous. What's the issue?

And these are my complaints of the SCP: HMF, I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings because I will hate myself if I did. The Au is flawed, however, I think the SCP:Hmf is overall good. I mean there are some problems I have with it, but then again you are literally just one person writing this AU. So I won’t blame you.

Oh, you definitely hurt my feelings, but I'll get over it, I'm a writer so it's simply part of the job. Oh, it's not JUST flawed, its absolute garbage, and yet I'm still so proud of it. Though to be fair its mainly just a fanfiction made for fun so of course it's going to be garbage. Thank you for understanding that I am just one person doing this on my own.

I think it's better if I give you my review on each of the files themselves in the near future. (If I’m not blocked.) I honestly believe it's best if I don’t talk about your OCs because I might hurt your feelings.

Yeah, I would prefer if you did that as well. (I'm not going to block you even if at times you were harsher than you needed to be.)

If I am going to get blocked, then I just want to say, “Dr. Wicked is just a watered-down version of Dr. Elias Shaw, but without the amulet. I’m sorry but it's the truth.

... I don't know who that is, so I don't care. but please watch it, I'm not going to block you over something so petty but you're walking on thin ice right now. I don't appreciate you saying you weren't going to give your opinion in one paragraph and then went and did that exact thing on the next just because you want to get back at me for blocking you even when I didn't even do that. Furthermore, you had no reason to assume I would. So, in other words that last part was quite petty of you... still I'm not going to block you.

The only reason you should block someone is if them being annoying, sending death threats, or have proven to be problematic is some way. All I ask is that you don't look down on me like that; of all your opinions and criticism, that is the one that hurt me the most. Please be more mindful from here on out.

[galacticwildfire]

I think the most evil plotline I'll ever write is in Illicit Affairs, the arc in the clone wars when Obi-Wan fakes his death. He tries to give Rhea a heads up but the message doesn't quite come across. She doesn't feel him die when it happens, so she's effectively on her knees screaming that he's not dead with Anakin and Ahsoka both trying to pull her off as the council go to take the body.

Prior to this I'll have the season 2 arc with Mandalore, except Obi-Wan does everything in his power to keep his wife from finding out he's been assigned to see Satine since she knows enough to put together that it was her he was in love with and he doesn't want to cause an argument or upset her. It's a well intentioned but very bad mistake. Nothing happens between them but it's enough Anakin keys into the history along with Padmé.

So she's at Obi-Wan's funeral, having been literally sedated to get her there without a single care about what the council knows, and then Satine is there. It's going to be at her husbands funeral she finds out he'd lied to her and had seen Satine without her knowing. She shelves that considering he's dead, and her and Anakin decide to get revenge no matter the cost. To the point the council has to call Padmé in to intervene.

The council's lowkey always known about them, but at that point it's no longer a look the other way and pretend we don't kind of thing when she's that out of her mind. Eventually her and Anakin track down Obi-Wan when he's disguised as the bounty hunter and it's only when Rhea's about to murder him he slips up and escapes with her realising what he's done. At this point her and Anakin are partners in crime and are horrified and in complete disblief, trauma bonded to the max.

"I can't believe he never told you," Anakin says, that being the one thing I can't believe either. "I'm his padawan, he doesn't tell me anything. But you're his wife."

Hell she's even got Yoda apologising to her once he's realised he has the chosen one and count dooku's former apprentice about to commit murder together and drops the fact that he knew all along about her and Obi-Wan while Anakin keeps his mouth properly shut and his head down.

She's always had a bit of a vengeful streak in her, and she's just saw her husband die, thinks he might have cheated on her (he's innocent but still lied), and now he's suddenly alive and has lied to her to protect palpatine.

Knowing damn well Obi-Wan's in the room she walks into the warehouse on Naboo where Dooku's plotting and swears herself as his apprentice again (she doesn't even know if it's a lie or not at that point) just to hurt Obi-wan a fraction as much as he's hurt her. She is out for pure blood at that point. She's plotting Palpatine's assassination with Dooku and committing treason against the order and the republic right in front of Obi-Wan whose still in disguise and at that point the only thing stopped her from returning to dooku is the fact he tried to kill Padmé because she is just that done with the jedi by that point.

So when she tracks down Obi-Wan the next day when he's in that watch tower she lets all hell fly loose, but still keeps the Satine thing shelved for now (partly because she was that drugged up at the funeral she's still processing if that interaction was even real). And the fact that the whole plot was to protect palpatine, the person she hates more than anyone in the galaxy... she would trump anakin on his worst day, well except for his last one. She's torn between wanting to break down and cry with relief because he's alive and putting him back in that coffin herself. They'll eventually make it up enough to complete the mission, but when Obi-Wan confesses about Satina in the midst of Maul returning that will be the last straw.

He's going to accidentally both drag Padmé and Anakin into it with the "It was innocent, nothing but professional, Padmé even saw us in the senate you can ask her" and finding out Padmé and Anakin had also known and not told her... she's going to take off and they won't work things out for quite a long time.

I've written a lot of angst, but this arc is the worst of it. I'd written it a year and a half ago, then decided to rewrite the story so it was less insta-love and followed canon better. So... that will be a fun one to write again

[ignoramace]

So as someone who grew up in the Traditional Manly Sport Locker Room, I gotta say something about Nate: He does not know how the Locker Room Version™️ of ribbing works. Or apologies.

Let’s talk about how that’s not necessarily a bad thing:

The default mood in a men’s locker room is tomfoolery. Pranking, towel whipping, dirty jokes, the whole lot. The only time a serious conversation happens is when the coach comes in to talk gameplay, or to yell at us if the tomfoolery gets too rowdy. There are no heartfelt conversations when we’re all getting dressed, nothing really beyond gossip about girls and movies and other players.

Nate does not understand this. I’m assuming by his demeanor that he was not really involved with sports at school, or (the most likely choice) he was bullied enough at school that he couldn’t take part in any camaraderie. Men in locker rooms say and do the kind of shit that makes them look cooler, no matter if they’re true or not.

This is shown in the show when Jamie, Colin, and Isaac torment him relentlessly throughout the first season. Not a single person jumps in to say something until Ted shows up because, we’ll, that’s “just how it is in the locker room.” (Side note, I really want to see more of Ted’s former players in the next season, even just a glimpse) It isn’t until Roy steps in and tells them to stop messing about that they actually do it, and even then it’s begrudgingly. Do I think these characters are evil for bullying Nate? No. Was it cruel? Yes. Do I think that they thought it was cruel? No. Do I think that Nate thought it was cruel? Yes.

Here’s another thing about men’s locker rooms: Occasionally, someone’s feelings do get hurt. Someone will inevitably go too far with a joke or a prank and it’ll strike a nerve, and everyone knows when it happens. There are two major options here:

1.) Fight

2.) “Apologize” and move on.

Now let’s talk about male apologies. Men hate to apologize. Many think that it’s wimpy, or that them apologizing means admitting that they did something wrong, which is another thing they hate. So, how does a man apologize to another man then? Well, this comes in many different varieties. The most genuine is pulling the other person aside and saying sorry, and it’s the socially accepted response for the other person to accept it (even if they don’t). Then you pretend it never happened.

Most of the time, however, the apology is nonverbal. It’s a pat on the back, it’s offering to pay for drinks at the bar later, it’s praising them for that Incredible Play They Made, Did Everybody Else See That??? You are nicer than usual to that person for a few days, and then everybody moves on.

Note that last part: Moving on. Once the other person apologizes, you’re not supposed to dwell on it (no matter what it was) If you do, you’re “sensitive” or, “you’re not being a team player.” Eventually, you learn to take what you can get.

And here lies the issue: The team does the second thing with Nate. We don’t actually see any verbal apologies between him and any of the other players who tormented him, but we do see them including him in their outings. Colin and Isaac make a concerted effort to laugh and hug and drink with him at the pub later on, lifting him up and cheering him on when he gets drunk. They also begin to include him on the standard Locker Room tomfoolery: Ribbing him about the Wonder Kid thing and joking with him about his coaching style.

Nate does not know how the locker room apology system works. And the thing is? He shouldn’t have to. Locker Room Masculinity is incredibly toxic, and many of the methods that seem normal to other men are actually harmful to their well-being. These “apologies”, while well-meaning, are not healthy ways to interact with other people.

Nate needed an apology. Nate needed the other players to acknowledge the things that they did to him and promise to never do it again, to ask for forgiveness and actively work on improving their relationships. Nate did not get that. That being said, the things that Nate did in response to not getting that apology were also wrong and needlessly cruel. In his anger, he lashed out at people who didn’t deserve it and was a real prick (more than a prick, honestly)

I think Nate is an incredibly interesting character and I can’t wait to see what the writers do with him next season, but I don’t think that progress can be made until everybody acknowledges the past and addresses the Locker Room Behavior that is normalized everywhere (Dr. Sharon, that’s your cue!)

[familyagrestefanblog]

Theory for “Gabriel Agreste”

Saying that I'm EXCITED for this episode is an understatement, I'm THRILLED! So let me give you my speculation for what could happen in it and how it’ll affect the future, because pieces are literally just falling into place in my brain and I just have to write this down.

The episode is called" Gabriel agreste" because in this episode Gabriel will create a (long time) Sentimonster for himself that'll take his place and cover for him in his civilian life while he himself gets completely swallowed by his Hawkmoth/ShadowMoth identity (which is a direct paralell to the fate Marinette just escaped by telling Alya her secret). He doesn't want to "waste" anymore unnecessary time by having to NOT be Hawkmoth, which then completely separates him from Adrien who very much was one of the last (if not THE LAST at this point) few strings that kept him grounded in his humanity.

The episode takes place right before the middle of the season and since it's season 4 we are talking about here its fair to assume that both Adrien and Gabriel are back at (at least) suspecting each other to be Chat Noir and Hawkmoth again at some point. Adrien is going to be even more rebellious after the status quo break and set up of "Lies" so him maybe (or maybe even confirmed already to Gabriel) to be Chat Noir could definitely be the factor that sets Gabriel over the edge, rips these two apart for good (as I foresaw in my analysis of "Jackady") and brings Gabriel to distance himself altogether while covering his own identity from his son by creating a Sentimonster (bc Adriens secret being discovered by his evil family is already forshadowed to hell and back, just like him ending up getting Homeschooled again this season, mark my words)

---

"Queen Banana" is supposed to take place right before "Gabriel Agreste" and we have a leak where it's seen that Adrien is now kinda taking on Nathalies role since she is (supposedly) still bed ridden.

Seriously, just humour me here and stay with me. This would mean that Adrien would get to see and interact with his father much more often and Gabriel wouldn't be able to ditch everything and turn into Hawkmoth as easily as he was able to with Nathalie.

A cover up Sentimonster was actually already kinda forshadowed in "Party Crasher"

by introducing HoloGabe with the intention of providing Gabriel with alibis and to attend meetings etc for him in the future so Gabriel can invest more time into being Hawkmoth. But a Hologramm is not suitable for every occasion, which is where the Sentimonster comes into play.

At first Adrien wouldn't notice much off about his father and the few things he notices Adrien actually doesnt mind. If SentiGabe is really supposed to replace Gabriel as... Well, Gabriel, that also means as a FATHER and my money is on SentiGabe being created to be a better father than the original. SentiGabe does everything Adrien wanted his father to do in s1-s3: Join Adrien at dinner time, spend more time with him, is in general in better of a mood and not such an unpleasant dick and so on and so on.

Easy to say, Adrien basically welcomes the good change he always wanted in his "Father" with open arms and chooses to ignore things that seem suspicious and the always remaining gut feeling of something just being... off. This will collide with the unveiling of more of the family (+ Emilie) mystery which will for Adrien all continue to point at Gabriel as Hawkmoth because of one event that is likely to happen in episode 4.

I'm currently writing on yet another post about this topic in particular, so I will link it HERE for elaboration once I post it, but in short, I think Rena Rouge and the Grimoire secrets Marinette shears with Alya could be the catalyst of Adrien suspecting his father to be Hawkmoth again.

Adriens memories of the time he went through the Grimoire himself in "Volpina" would be triggered again after seing the Grimoire page Rena (honestly, quite recklessly) brings along into battle and from then on things will slowly pile up until Gabriel deflects from himself with SentiGabe in "Gabriel Agreste" (just like he did in “The Collector”)

People WAY to easily forget how ready and serious Adrien was in "The Collector" when he actually concidered his father to be Hawkmoth.

Keep in mind that Ladybug was only able to tell Chat Noir the weakest reasons of her suspicion against Gabriel (while the Grimoire being Guardian property was NEVER found out by Adrien... til NOW) that being Gabriels mysterious personality and the butterfly logo of his brand.

These arguments are weak because they are ONLY actually suspicious in the specific context of Gabriel being Hawkmoth. Once you have proof against that they hardly hold any ground anymore, hence why both Adrien AND Marinette so easily brushed off these points after seeing Gabriel akumatized. I mean, excuse a designer for choosing a BUTTERFLY as his logo when his last name is literally the name of a butterfly type. The fuck kind of accusation is that??

So I hope you understand that when I say that, yes, these reasons DID trigger further memories/realizations for Adrien in that moment

It simply was only the tip of the iceberg.

The fact that Adrien not only gave Ladybug the fucking benefit of a doubt and heared her out about accusing his FATHER of being HAWKMOTH and took it THAT seriously and wanted to find out if his father truly IS Hawkmoth means that Adrien very much sees his father as capable of being Paris villain Nr 1. This... understanding and acceptance of Gabriels nature already had to be in Adrien much prior to "the collector" to set it off like this. And while normally Adrien chooses to turn a blind eye towards his fathers bad qualities in favor of seeing Gabriels redeeming (and even the rare somewhat GOOD) qualities, Adrien only does so because he thinks Gabriel hasn't crossed the line yet that makes his father undeserving of these loving conciderations. But Gabriel being Hawkmoth IS CROSSING that line for Adrien and he immediately sets aside his remaining/choosen love for his heavily flawed father and willingly sees Gabriel for what he is.

Adrien already did it once with only a few somewhat solid reasons and the Grimoire being kept secret from him altogether,

So he will do it again, just this time the proofs and developments are supposed to stay for good.

---

This development would not only be forshadowed by "the collector"

But also by the episode "Ladybug". There Mayura used a Sentimonster version of Ladybug against Chat Noir, using their love against him. What she didn't know though was that Ladybug actually isn't in love with her partner (yet) which ended up with Chat Noir being put in the situation of having to decide which Ladybug he believes to be real.

Does he believe and hold onto Sentibug who returns the love he so desperately seeks in life or does he let go of his hopeful wish and accept the heartbreaking reality of once again not receiving his love in return from yet another person he holds so dear?

In "Ladybug" Adrien couldn't make that crushing decision yet (and don't clown in the replies about this, not only was the situation vastly different it's also a cruel thing to ask of Adrien) but as we are used from Miraculous by now, that episode was only the set up for future events.

What Adrien couldn't let himself believe about Ladybug and Sentibug he will have to FORCE himself to accept about his Father and Hawkmoth. Same set-up of the Sentimonster symbolising Adriens desperate and hopeful WISH what his loved one were vs the crushing, heart wrenching reality of what his loved ones actually ARE. Just that letting go of his wish for Ladybugs love didnt seem "necessary enough" for the mission to succeed so he just couldn't MAKE himself give her up whereas accepting and seeing that his father is Hawkmoth is going to be one of the most crucial sacrifices of the show, changing the game forever. So as horrible, cruel and soul shattering as this is, putting an end to his fathers villainous reign for the sake of the greater good is a reason worthy enough to force himself through his pain.Which brings us once again back to “The collector” (which seriously forshadows almost everything I love that episode), because there is ONE major aspect that episodes sets up like crazy

And that is:

And thats where we are heading now.

This entire time Adrien wanted his Father to behave more fatherly, spend more time with him and improve his explosive behavior but he always got disappointed over and over again. So how heartbreaking would it be if over the course of the second half of the season THIS would be the very reason why Adrien gets behind Gabriels secret? Because SentiGabe behaved too fatherly for Adrien to truly buy it in his heart and when forced to decide what he actually believes his father to be - like the fatherly Sentimonster or the villainous Hawkmoth - Adrien has to and WILL recognize and accept his fathers true nature and turn against him, as it has been set up for a LONG time now.

This season shit’s about to go DOWN!

[snifflesthemouse]

There's a sense of freedom that comes with anonymity of online interactions. This sense of freedom only exists because of the fact it's difficult for the real world to catch up with you in your real life. Unless of course, you go after the wrong one.

When a person goes after someone else solely because they think differently or have a strong opposing opinion, they often do so with a false gusto and bravery that only exists in the virtual realm. Like many say online, "You'd never say that to my face." And that's true for most people... but not all people.

And because of this anonymity, that affords all internet users the freedom to say whatever, a real life concern spawns from a virtual world. This real life concern is often referred to as "doxxing" where one internet user uses what clues and resources they have available to "expose" another internet user's real life. This has happened to many people I watch on YouTube. Some have even had to involve the real life police, as well as uproot their entire lives and move because of doxxing.

For example, Murky Meg has been doxxed a couple times now. She's had her real life threatened by doxxing. Terrifyingly, she wasn't the only target threatened because the douche flutes also brought her children into it. Yes, the same people who worship the Montecito Madam and preach the mantras of "compassion and kindness" and "leave children out of this" have gone so far as to go after Murky Meg's real life and real life children. And sadly, the threats and attacks never really stop. Especially when articles like the one I wrote about make the rounds. But Murky Meg doesn't allow this all to silence her; she keeps calm and carries on regardless.

Another example involves Yankee Wally. She was targeted repeatedly over copyright infringement on her YouTube channel, as well as having her social media accounts suspended repeatedly over the last few years. And even though Yankee Wally has never pretended to be anything or anyone else than who she is in real life, people have attempted to use her past as a weapon to discredit her. Those attempts are futile, though, because Yankee Wally has always been open and honest about her life. She's also been very clear to the people watching her that she will fight back if need be.

Then there's According2Taz. While Taz has gone through the same ringer that so many others have gone through (from doxxing to threats, harassment, and verbal abuse), she has also been attacked financially. Especially when it comes to her supporting good causes. Some twat waffles have sent her £0.01 via PayPal with notes attached. Notes that are grossly abusive, calling her fat and ugly, and saying her husband is cheating on her. Others have sent requests asking her to pay them £100 with notes attacking HRH Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge and her book. Murky Meg got a similar request, as well. But the most heinous impediment coming from the Montecito Madam's extremists, involved charity. Once, when Taz was raising money for Australian wildlife affected by the wildfires; someone reported her PayPal account and those funds were held up for some time before getting released for the cause. Then, again, Taz was targeted when she was raising funds to help an elderly woman who got robbed. Yes, the very same people, who stand on custom-made soap boxes emblazoned with the Sussex monogram, did everything they possibly could to marginally disrupt charity. Yet Taz does not waiver; she keeps going.

As bad as Murky Meg, Yankee Wally, and Taz have had it, they're sadly not alone. No, they are only three examples from a plethora of examples. Of that plethora, one more example comes to mind. That example involves DanjaZone (Ashli).

Ashli, who started her YouTube channel before the whole Megxit ordeal as a way to keep in touch with family, was even the subject of a blind item from CDAN (crazy days and nights). You see, Ashli and her family lost everything they had in a horrible house fire. Rumors swirled around the fire, but the most heinous comments came from the Sussex Squad's more prominent loudmouths. Some accused Ashli of lying about the fire in an attempt to scam people for money. Others called her white trash and trailer trash. So while Ashli was going through the loss of her home and everything she owned... while she was grieving the loss of family pets and irreplaceable family mementos... while she was down and out on her luck and trying to cope with all the pain and loss... while she was going through all of the attacks from doubters saying she faked the fire or was lying, that she was trailer trash... the disciples of the Duchess were laughing and celebrating her pain as a win. Never once considering the fact that Ashli has been in recovery for years now, and the stress from the fire coupled with the heartless, feckless attacks, could in fact push her over the edge.

No, the very same people, who scream via CAPS lock on social media that critics of Meghan should "leave her alone", that her critics drove the Montecito Madam to "suicidal ideation while pregnant" could care less about Ashli's mental health. Yes, the very same people, who lodged over 50,000 OFCOM complaints against Piers Morgan because he questioned their beloved's outlandish attacks during the Oprah interview, previously found no issues with attacking Ashli during one of the hardest times in her life. Yet, Ashli picked up the pieces and never gave up or gave into their attacks.

Again, these four examples are just the tip of the hypocritical iceberg. There are countless more examples out there. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people who criticize Meghan's and Harry's behaviors can all relate. Nobody is safe or off limits from this iceberg; from Royal Rota reporters, celebrities, and politicians to regular people who aren't rich, famous, or in possession of a global platform.

Yet nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, in the media or in journalism ever cover any of this. You can find articles galore written with the intentions of exposing "Meghan Markle Haters". Articles like the one I wrote about attacking critics and reducing us all to the stereotypes of racist, misogynist, bigot, envious, etc.

What that does is send a clear, prominent message to the people who cling to every word of the Montecito Madam. The people who cling to the wind coming from her mouth, her "close friends" or fake "palace insiders" hear those dog whistles loud and clear. The dog whistles that say "It's okay, keep attacking and hurting people. They're evil, hateful racists. They deserve the abuse. You're on the side of good. Go harder!"

When in truth, the wind they cling to coming from their beloved's mouth or mouthpieces is actually falsehoods, lies, and manifestations of grandeur that is no more real than Netflix's The Crown. No, the wind they cling to really comes from the south mouth of their beloved. But God forbid anyone hold their little cult accountable.

We cannot have a society where sensationalism trumps truth. We cannot weaponize the press and use it against people simply because they criticize the Meghan Markles of the world. It is unacceptable for the press, media platforms, or anyone with a prominent influence on society, to celebrate defenders of the Meghan Markle faith without first acknowledging the truth.

The truth, which is often dream dashing and harsh, is that "Meghan Markle Lovers" could care less about compassion, kindness, charity, children, or community. The truth is, they could care less about forgiveness or loving thy neighbors. We don't have to look to their savior figurehead to prove this to be true. We only have to look at the comments section or Twitter.

Those of us who criticize or dislike Meghan and Harry because of their behavior know all too well the truth will never be written up on the front page of the Sun, the Daily Mail, or People Magazine. The mirage of us being the racists, misogynists, or detesting haters sells papers. And the papers don't want to be in that same category.

Maybe one day the press will tell the stories of people like Murky Meg, Yankee Wally, Taz, Ashli, and countless others in an effective way that exposes the real haters in the relationship. Maybe one day, the victims of the Montecito Madam's cult following will be doxxed, exposed, and sent a new message. A message that says, "We see you for the hypocrites you are. You may repeat the preachings of your Madam like it's the new woke gospel, but you don't practice it. You're a big reason why people loathe your beloved. You make her look worse. You aren't defending her, you are condemning her. Keep it up, because we see you and we will expose you!"

If only...

[ragingbookdragon]

Of Nights So Hollow, Of Legends So Great

Night Culture AU!Batfamily One-Shot

Word Count: 1.8K Warnings: Angst, Uh..Scary? I guess?

Author's Note: This is based on the wonderful @bunnvoid Night Culture AU and I felt compelled to write this at midnight because I couldn't stop thinking about it. Bunn, I hope I did your ideas justice! Honestly, I keep going back and forth between the drawings to make sure! I had fun writing it! -Thorne

**********************************************************************

It was said that at the heart of every legend there was a grain of truth. Legends are just pieces of history fabricated beyond wildest belief, built upon by centuries of retelling, each story sewing a new thread into the tapestry from whence it came. But that’s all that legends are. Threads twined together, woven greater and farther than the original fable.

***

The old castle was a legend. Perhaps not the castle itself, but what supposedly resided inside. Supernatural creatures that skirted down cobblestone alleys and between taverns, seeking out fresh blood in the night. That was one form of the legend, if you believed it. The other form was that of creatures who skirted down cobblestone alleys and between taverns, seeking out evil and destroying it where it plagued innocence.

The chateau lied in the midst of the Devilwood Wilds, just outside the City of Old Gotham. Even during the days when the sun would peek through the gray clouds, it appeared gloomy, blackened stone walls, charred shingles and shutters. The giant Devilwood and Shadow trees prevented sight of the doors of the castle; only the top could be seen, to get the real view, one would’ve had to go into the forest. There was another legend: the horrors of the Wilds.

Whispers on the school-grounds told of a creature, big and terrifying that could be summoned with ritual stones and fresh bat blood; those that summon the beast are never seen again. The adults were less convinced of the idea, though they still forbid their children from reaching even the edges of the forested area. Whilst they believed those that went in were never heard from again, it wasn’t from a creature eating them, but a lack of guidance. Starvation. Wild animals. The freezing fog that made your breath turn to frost.

Timothy remembers hearing those whispers when he passed the old schoolhouse. His mother and father didn’t let him interact with the common children, instead his lessons were taught by private tutors from the wealthiest lands, paid for with the Drake treasure of gold and gemstones.

What more so Timothy remembered was the inhuman being that appeared in his father’s manor, striking down his mother with a slash of black magic, his father following. He remembers the way his father’s eyes rolled back in his skull, fear spreading through his body as he hid in the corner of the room, whimpering and crying. And he most certainly remembered the cold hand of the demon sliding between his shoulder blades before it dug into his skin, piercing his flesh, laughing as he cried out in pain as pricks spread out along his back and down his arms.

Warmth bled down his back as black feathers pushed from his skin and Timothy panted as his fingernails grew in length, sharpening as they darkened. He remembered scrambling to his feet, darting away from the creature as he ran. Forgetting the corpses of his family and staff around him, throwing the door open, bursting into the night, and sprinting down the street, leaving a trail of bloody, black feathers in the direction of the Devilwood Wilds.

***

The first night was the least remembered but the darkest. Violent and corrupting nightmares slithering inside his head as he tossed and turned along the frigid ground in a feverish deathlike state, the wings at his back only growing in size.

The second night was less nightmare-ridden, but much more painful. Timothy had pierced a wing on a stray Devilwood tree, the syrup like poison only infecting the wound. He was hungry and cold. Exhausted and scared. He tried to remember all the books he read as a child of the knights facing the elements for a week in order to ascend knighthood; he couldn’t seem to recall a thing.

The third night seemed to be his last. He lay huddled up against a raised Shadow tree root, the ebony wood providing stability for his wounded wing. Timothy sniffled, dragging his knees to his chest as he lay his chin on his arms, ignoring the grumbling of his stomach as it ate itself in hunger.

A tree branch creaked above him, and he craned his neck up, eyes widening when he saw the glowing eyes of the masked creature. The legends were right. The creature’s head twisted sideways, reminding Timothy of an owl, then the other way, like it was observing him. It made a noise and he scrambled to the floor of the forest, curling his injured wing above his head and over his body to protect himself.

THUNK!

Timothy whimpered, ready to be torn to shreds, but when no vicious claws or snapping teeth came at him, he carefully peered between his open wing. There lie a satchel, as long as his forearm and as wide as his middle was. He looked up towards the tree branch to where the creature had sat, but there was nothing there anymore; he glanced around, it wasn’t in sight.

He blinked and shuffled towards the satchel, untying the drawstrings with fumbling clawed hands. Inside lay a pair of thick wool socks, a small blanket, and another small bag. Timothy pulled it from the satchel and opened it; half a loaf of bread and a chunk of meat the size of his hand were stowed inside.

Timothy forewent the etiquette he was taught as a child, giving into his ravenous desire as he devoured the meat. It was tender and juicy, the glaze a mixture of honey and cinnamon.

A memory flowed to his mind, the dinner after the rising of the first star, his family and staff all surrounding the dining table, a divine feast laid before them. The smiling faces of his mother and father stilled his hunger and he placed the food back in the satchel, uncurling the wool blanket. Timothy lay underneath the raised Shadow tree roots, one wing curled around him, and he fell into a restless sleep with tears frozen on his cheeks.

***

When he awoke the next morning, his wing was no longer torn and infected. A new feather had appeared where the wound had been. Timothy wanted to learn to fly. He’d owned a bird once. A Ruby Firebird, with long, crimson-colored feathers and big ruby eyes. It had been his only real friend and he’d watched it a lot. It couldn’t be that hard.

He stretched his wings out, unable to fight the urge to touch them with a single black claw. It tingled. Timothy blinked and beat them, unsure. He beat them again, this time a little harder, keeping at it until with each beat he was able to blow the long grass flat against the ground. A giddy smile came across his lips when the tips of his toes grazed the ground.

What he had not counted on was how tired he was going to get after only a few brief minutes of trying. His wings felt sore. Timothy would try again tomorrow to rise above the tall grass.

***

The creature would appear at odd times during the night and Timothy had stopped feeling the cold fear in his gut when it did. It never came near him; it just watched with the cocked head, back and forth, then would drop the satchel again and disappear. Sometimes there were scribbles inside. He didn’t know what they meant; but he knew the language. Thaatisgani. An old language his writing teacher had shown him one day. A language long died out amongst the common and even the elite folk.

Timothy wanted to know what it meant. He wanted to know what the creature was. His determination drew him to the front of the castle during the night of the harshest season storm. Lighting crackled across the sky, the thunder rolled along the clouds and the rain came down in torrents. He was freezing and soaked to the bone and the weight of his wings had him crawling up the steps, collapsing at the door.

He weakly raised a clawed hand, one nail scratching the black glazed door and he descended into darkness.

***

His mother liked to wear scented oils. They smelled of Queen’s Briar and Golden Belladonna. Before he was older, she used to let Timothy sit beside her when she would apply them to her wrist and ears. She would smile at him and tell him stories of far away lands.

Warmth spread across his eyes, and he rolled over in what he thought was his dream, only to roll onto the ground, landing awkwardly on his wings. Timothy whined and unfolded himself off the ground, rubbing his eyes, only to see the creature a hair’s breadth away from his face.

Timothy choked on his fear and scrambled away, only for the creature to grab his shoulder.

“Stay.”

He halted, looking back at it. “You speak the common tongue?”

The creature stared at him. “You are Timothy Drake. Son of Earl Drake.”

“I am,” Timothy responded, then looked at his hands. “But my family is…is dead.”

“Killed by a slithering demon from the Farstead realm.”

Tears prickled Timothy’s vision. “It killed my parents and cursed me.” He looked at the creature. “I’m a monster.”

“You’re cursed to believe what you think you are.” The creature waved a glowing hand and Timothy blinked in shock as the wings disappeared and his hands turned to normal. “It’s merely an illusion. You’ve only been tainted with cursed magic.”

It was much too complicated for Timothy to pull apart now. “Can I be healed?”

The creature blinked its glowing obs. “Cursed magic cannot be healed…but it can be trained.” They leaned forward, getting in his face. “I can teach you to control and transform.”

“You’re not going to eat me?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“…Yes.”

“You hesitated just a bit right there.”

A bottle rolled out from the corner of the room and the creature sighed, turning its head to it. “Richard. Jason. Come here.”

Two young boys, not that much older than Timothy appeared from behind a corner, guilty looks on their faces as though they’d been caught eavesdropping.

The creature nodded to Timothy. “Take him upstairs. He is dirty and tired.”

The tallest one, Jason, crossed his arms over his chest. “Just like that, Bruce? You’re going to take the witch boy in?”

“Pot-kettle,” Richard coughed, smiling when Jason elbowed him.

The creature, now known as Bruce, sighed. “Take the boy. He is tired.”

Jason and Richard obeyed, each hauling Timothy up under the armpits, leading him to a dimly lit staircase.

“Are you two going to eat me?”

“Yes,” Jason replied without hesitation.

“Jason!” Richard barked. “Stop.” He looked down at Timothy. “We’re not going to eat you Timothy…we’re going to help you. And that includes having a warm bed to sleep in and hot food to eat.”

Tears once again gathered in Timothy’s eyes, and he lowered his head as he sniffled. For once since that night, he felt safe.

These were the legends that prowled the city streets. They were supposed to be vicious and dark, evil and bloodthirsty, not ribbing and warm.

But then again, what are legends, but threads twined together, woven greater and farther than the original fable?