#but that just made them look even weirder XD

[axewchao]

Decided to draw Thorn & Zeta a couple times to get a better feel of how both of them act.

Thorn's confident and active, with a passion for his craft. If someone messes with his precious plants, he'll be more than ready to chase 'em off, and might even toss the culprit sky high with a root or two. On the flipside, he's not afraid to cool his jets when someone ain't feeling their best. Sometimes you just need to let someone talk for a while, maybe ramble bits and pieces about the weird-ass dream they had while you carry them to a proper bed. Or a couch, at the very least. Just get outta the flower bush, please.

Zeta lets themselves get pulled along for any metaphorical rides without much complaint, but if they don't get the snooze time they need (aka you poke a sleeping bear when you REALLY shouldn't even think to), they're a force to be reckoned with, not helped by their sonic scream ability. An ability they seldom use, mostly because it wrecks their throat if used too many times without a break. And considering they don't talk much to begin with...

...Yeah, they don't have much in terms of "ammo." =3="

[zarvasace]

The last, and probably my current favorites of the bunch: Prince and Mirage, dark Warriors and dark Legend! I keep trying to put the images side-by-side so they don't take up as much room but Tumblr HATES that. Sorry.

My document with all these boys' descriptions on it is over 7k words. Holy heck. Hope you like them. XD Masterpost

More information and art beneath the cut yayyy

Prince

Prince is dark Warriors. 

Cia gave Warriors a lot of unwanted attention, which he spurned. Prince, on the other hand, wouldn't just accept the attention, but would have welcomed it. He wasn't entirely autonomous when he was summoned, but he remembers everything. He knows that he never wants to not be in control of himself ever again.

Instead of championing freedom, however, Prince makes a point of controlling others. If he controls them, they can't control him. Shackle is similar, but they have different methods. While Shackle prefers physical subjugation to be sure they're in his power, Prince uses manipulation. He pretends to be your friend, all the while gaining your trust. His job is made all the easier by his own special talent: Charm. 

Prince’s Charm is a supernatural ability to influence people. Where Madness takes over bodies, Prince sways the mind. His Charm is something he can turn on and off at will, at different intensities. It doesn't work well on any being with too much light, but it does work on criminals or people with guilt and secrets. The other Darks are susceptible to it, though after… an incident… Prince doesn't do it to them. Usually. 

It works like this: Prince identifies his target, which can be an individual or an entire crowd. He turns his Charm on intentionally, and depending on how hard he pushes, his target’s attention is drawn to his face. Because he does not look human, he then has to quickly begin talking, to pour even more Charm on. If he does it right (it does require skill and charisma), the target forgets his appearance is anything out of the ordinary. He needs a minute or two of conversation and rakish smiles to dig his claws deep enough that they don't remember anything unusual once they stop looking right at him. Prince uses his Charm to get information, favors, and generally spread his anti-Link agenda. The riskier or weirder his request is, the more Charm he has to layer on, and some people just straight up won't do some things. The Charm wears off after a while, depending on the target and how long they were exposed to it, which takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks, averaging out at a day or two. 

Prince has to choose his targets wisely, which can be difficult to do because he does not look human and does not have any kind of magical disguise. That last point is a sore spot. He doesn't want a disguise, he just wants people to stop looking at him like he's going to burn their house down, thank you very much. He only has their best interests at heart. Prince is bitter and extremely envious about Warriors winning hearts so easily thanks to his good looks and natural charisma, so Prince does his best to do the same without them. His Charm is better anyway. 

…It's a good thing he hasn't actually been let loose on a population yet. 

(Warriors is a bit of a flirt, but not too badly. Prince makes a game out of trying to make people fall in romantic love with him as fast as he can. (Author’s note: I'm not touching sex. That is not the sort of story I want to tell here.))

Prince doesn't need food, and he doesn't need to breathe, but he does need to use his Charm. Because he magically learns a bit of information about his targets when he's focused on them, his theory is that he leeches from their emotions, or their identities, or something of that sort. He hasn't shared the theory with anyone, but the Dark Chain does know that Prince needs to use his Charm or he starts to get very, very hangry. It's a physical need for him. Of course, pushing too hard or trying to Charm too many people at once gives him migraines. 

Prince considers himself a leader, and it rankles him a bit that Depth is the one in charge. He contents himself with sitting back and letting Depth do all the hard things, though he has Charmed Depth several times into going along with what Prince wants to do. Prince sees Shackle as a sort of protege in the ways of manipulation, and occasionally provides pointers about how to subtly get under people’s skin. Prince and Madness end up working together a lot, since Prince can Charm Madness’s thralls into forgetting they ever lost time, or he can make up memories for them. Sometimes the two of them get migraines at the same time, which spells out lots of “fun” for everyone else. He fights a lot with Mirage and is always trying to catch Agony off-guard to give him a good scrubbing. He's the only reason that Nothing or Dire get baths, too. 

Prince is arrogant and ambitious, yes. He's proud of his appearance and does his best to stay clean and orderly—he doesn't mind the memories of military training that he gets from Warriors, since those routines help him to be efficient. He wears a copy of Warriors’s outfit, but fancier, with a fluffy shirt and a corset on top, and his tunic is purple because (1) it's opposite green on some color wheels and (2) it's the color of royalty. His silvery hair is a little longer than Warriors’s is, and he wears a luxurious red cape.

Sometimes he puts a little too much flair into his moves, but he's proficient with as many weapons as Warriors is, if less practiced. He talks a lot, boasts a lot, and casually jabs where it hurts. He holds a lot of jealousy and hate in his heart, and if he gets a little drunk, he'll go on and on about how much he dislikes Warriors, specifically. 

Prince’s ultimate ambition is to rule his Hyrule as undisputed, beloved emperor. He wants to do that by winning the hearts of every soldier, every servant, every noble. He wants to steal Warriors’s relationships right out from under him without him noticing. Prince knows that he can't rely on his temporary Charm to do that, though, so his plan is to ally with the organizations of traitors throughout Hyrule and add his persuasive charm and Charm to their efforts, eventually rising to become their leader. 

Prince’s best dreams involve him standing over a defeated Warriors on the balcony of the castle, a crown on his head and a queen on his arm (or king. He just thinks stealing Artemis or Impa would make it all the sweeter), with crowds below cheering for him. He has plans to keep the aging Warriors as an honored “guest” in the castle for as long as he lives, doomed to watch his beloved, darkened kingdom flourish under Prince’s ruby eyes. Someday, Prince will change his name to Link, stealing that from Warriors, too. 

Prince Link. Wait, no. King Link. No, even better… Emperor Link. 

Actually, he doesn't like the sound of Emperor. He’ll workshop that title.  

Mirage

Mirage is dark Legend, patterned after the Nightmares that Legend fought on Koholint. He knows Legend will know that immediately. 

Mirage is truly shape-fluid. His form is extremely malleable, though he can't keep up looking perfectly like a human for more than half an hour or so—he starts to melt and revert back to his most comfortable state, which is a close copy of Legend, his matter constantly shifting and dripping and melting. (Most comfortable state, not his true form. Does he have a true form? He doesn't know what it is if he does.) He is best at mimicking nonspecific human forms and small reptiles. He pretended to be a bush once, but wasn't very convincing. 

Mirage’s gooey flesh doesn't have many pain or touch receptors, and he doesn't need any kind of structure beneath the goo to stand up. He's very good at energy dispersion, so punching him means that you're either punching a brick wall or that your fist is getting absorbed. His goo is as warm as flesh and very slightly acidic, so touching him for too long can burn. He doesn't need to breathe, but he does digest organic material or minerals to build on his mass. He's weak against energy-type attacks, like acid or fire or ice, but it doesn't hurt him in the traditional sense and he can always build himself back up. He can drop entirely flat and easily squeezes through small gaps. 

Most traditional dungeon traps do absolutely nothing to Mirage: spike traps don't hurt him, as holes in his form mean nothing; he doesn't really take fall damage, just splatters a bit until he can pull himself together; giant axes that cleave him in two don't actually hurt him, either. There is one small part of Mirage’s matter that is his core. If he gets cut into pieces, the rest of him will shrivel up and evaporate in an hour or two, but his core stays alive and can regrow in a matter of days. If he gets to any cut-off piece before it evaporates, he can reassimilate it. He often messes with his form to take on any physical challenge: looking around corners with an eye on a hand; growing taller to see over a wall; spreading out his feet and legs to float on water; squeezing into cracks in an ice block and expanding in the right spot to make it all shatter. 

Mirage doesn't speak often, preferring to keep quiet. His voice is soft and slithering, with hissing Ss and a pitch that ranges from whispery to shrill. It's the worst voice in the group after Depth’s. He isn't the smartest of the Darks, but he is quite observant and if he does speak up, there's something important to pay attention to. Mirage often just goes with the group decisions, performing whatever role they require, though privately he absolutely resents having to work with anyone else, because Mirage works alone. He doesn't need companions, friends, shopkeepers, or family; he doesn't need vehicles, mounts, money, magic items, or even weapons. When he means alone, he means Very Alone. 

The thing about Legend—despite the masks and attitude he puts on—is that he cares, so so much. He cares about people being happy and safe, he bonds with everyone nice he meets whether he knows it or not, he is self-sacrificing and always working for a better world, even when people don't ask for it. Mirage does not care about much of anything except himself. He would be most content wandering around a mountain, causing a bit of chaos in a nearby town, and using his abilities to traverse impossible paths, especially through caves, just because he can. He doesn't care about the other Darks (that's a bit more of a lie than he thinks it is), he doesn't care about Legend, he doesn't care about covering the world in darkness. He’s just dragged around and knows that they have to finish this stupid mission thing before he can be left in peace. 

Mirage is somewhat fascinated with the way humans work. He's closer to an octopus or other eldritch sea creature himself, and mimics reptilian forms, but the more he learns about humans, the better he can mimic them. He might not care much about many things, but he's curious. He likes to investigate corpses (especially if he can eat them—the Dark Chain’s favorite way of “disappearing” people) and find out new things about their anatomy and chemical compositions, things he knows about and can memorize to reproduce in his own gooey flesh later. As such, he sometimes annoys the other Darks by poking at them or “testing” their senses or limits. 

He gets along best with Lost, who doesn't care much, either, and doesn't get mad at his questions or testing. Mirage responds by taking Lost babysitting duty more than his fair share. (His apathy means he's really patient with Lost and Nothing and Madness.) He makes a good team with Agony, who he sees as very similar to himself, except Agony is clearly more driven. Agony is the quick and sharp counterpart to Mirage’s slow and inevitable destruction. (And it doesn't hurt that Agony is the electricity wielder among them, so if Agony sort of likes Mirage, then all the better.) 

In a normal fight, Mirage is all but indestructible, walking through battle without problems. He doesn't bother attacking until someone hurts him, usually with fire or something similar. Then Mirage will focus to get rid of the threat—and he’s aware that the others expect him to target and take out Legend, so he does that if he has to. He's all but impossible to fight without elemental aid, and while he isn't too quick, he hits HARD and has a lot of tricks up his metaphorical sleeves. 

Still, the fact remains that if you manage to hurt him, you hurt him a lot. Mirage isn't complicated, but he's very flexible and can do things nobody is prepared for. 

(sorry for the low contrast. But hey, my goo-drawing skills are finally relevant! Look at that hat! And the foot!)

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

We need to do most nonbinary cars next. Because it's obviously the NB miata. I mean come on

Alright then, let apostrophe s!

So, we already have one candidate - two if you split them between pre-and post facelift...

...but let's see if we can do better.

The first course of action was to ask an expert in nonbinary, my nonbinary ex. They suggested "that asymmetrical car from the commercial", and I immediately realized, oh right, the Hyundai Veloster!

Literally rejecting the binary between hatchbacks with rear doors and hatchbacks with none, as illustrated by quite a commercial if I do say so myself.

As the ad hints, yes indeed the Veloster's rear door was always opposite the driver's side, including in right hand drive cars - meaning yes, the Veloster's rear door changes side with the market it's sold in...

...a bit like what my ex was actually referring to: the third generation Nissan Cube, another asymmetric vehicle with two symmetrical versions, as explained in my Pike Cars post (and indeed, the Cube also got a spectacular campaign - you really gotta go have a look at that post right there).

So, having gotten their suggestion (and another unrelated pick that they did however approve...)

...I set about hitting up the Discord for completion's sake, where @chevyventure gave a couple suggestions of his own: the Kia Soul.

And let me tell you, the commercials just keep getting weirder.

And this is not even about the commercial itself, it's how long they kept rolling with the idea, and really, how far they took it too. From its debut...

...to its small restyling in 2012...

...to its redesign in 2014...

...and more: that's not even most of them! But I'll stick to suggesting you look them up on YouTube because we still have to get to our friend's other suggestions.

Luckily, the 5th generation Camry will be quick work, since the main argument for its nonbinariness is that swinging either particular way would imply some sort of characteristic, thus violating the spirit of the Camry, a car so committed to the bland that for years the most interesting thing about them have been their dents.

And so we get to the final suggestion, the second-gen Scion xB.

Okay, so, storytime, I was looking to get some pictures of the car going on, right? So I found this one which is of good quality, a well-representing angle and a color that compliments its enbyness, so I clicked on the Car And Driver article this is from to browse its gallery and find a rear shot and what do I not see as the first picture in the album.

I mean, that is on the nose for my standards.

And I'm not the only one who made interesting finds looking for these pictures...

So, what'll it be?

"But wait", I hear you think because not only can I hear the sounds you make yes even the farts but also your thoughts, "what was that Discord you were referring to, does this blog have a- wait even that silent one from a minute ago?". And, setting aside the serious work your definition of 'silent' needs, yes it does!!!! Click that blue link to find out more!

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question - if you liked this post, you might like those!

[haethyre]

X-Men 97 Thoughts

My personal opinions

Okay. So I grew up with X-men The Animated Series. It was one of my fave shows. It always came on late at night on Toon Disney (at times i shouldnt have been awake LMAO) so it has a special place in my heart. I was very surprised that of all things they decided to "continue" it. So, when I heard about it, I did a full rewatch (even that ungodly last season where quality took a nosedive OOF) Anywhoo! Started and finished 97. Those who know me best know at heart I am a big OG fan of my fandoms and am trepidacious of reboots/even continuation reboots, bc lets be honest most of them are all about stomping on the source material, SO I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Xmen 97.

You could really see how much they tried to capture the feel of the old show and the characters. The voice replacements were surprisingly well done. (i mean, Wolverine is a little off, but i'll give the guy a break its been like...28 yrs XD ) The animation looks amazing. Even if i'm taking some points off for the hair hfgjhdf haha

Now the storyline.... The elephant in the room. We all know the one. I have been a Romy fan since I was a kid and yes, when I was a young girl in Borders, I did come across the comic that showed the RoguexMagneto storyline. I hated it then and I hate it now. Its just...weird. (Again, my opinions. If you like it, power to you. Enjoy, but its not for me and this post isn't for you) but its even weirder in the show, and ill tell you why. As a Marvel comic reader, I'm well acquainted with the fact that everyone gets with everyone. That is just a trope of Marvel comics. All ships of imaginable and unimaginable proportions happen. BUT I think when doing this, they really should have thought it through a bit more in context of the show's universe alone . Bc I'll be real, if you're coming in from TAS, this kinda hits you out of nowhere. She had no form of connection with Magneto in the past show. Like....they had a makeshift funeral for him and she didn't even care. She was just worried about Gambit being stuck in space. So, their "secret" just seems so random and out of place. I do like that it was used for her to understand fully her feelings for Gambit, but man was it frustrating to see him just killed off when he was one of the best characters.(even if it was really well done and the animation, again, was amazing)

There's talk of him coming back as "Death" which is a storyline I'm not familiar with but I also heard talk of the original showrunner idealizing a timeline where Rogue and Magneto have kids....so... IDK It all just left me a bit frustrated and disheartened bc Romy was like one of my earliest ships before i knew ships were a thing. To see what happened to it made me sad, even if it could be part of a long game to get them to their HEA. (and thats always an if bc we don't know, even if the original guy isn't in charge anymore)

Other things that bugged me a little but not too much. Gonna bring up Morph. I love Morph. They were always a fave and they went through so much to finally be back on the team again. I really don't understand why they changed their character design tho? I read it was to make Morph look more like the character changeling from the comics but this is again something that doesnt make sense coming out of TAS bc Morph always had that other appearance throughout the entire show. I mean...it could have at least been explained... Also, as far as the feelings for Wolverine, i kinda found it funny XD bc in TAS, it always seemed like it was the other way around jkhfgjkdfh Wolverine was so attached to Morph and wouldn't let 'em go. That being said, I kinda wish they didn't go this route if its only meant to be unrequited and sad. AGAIN. I know. Marvel is all about unrequited drama jfhdkjfdh but hasn't Morph been through enough??? That being said, I love the ship even though I know its doomed. Wolverine is the worst person to be down bad for tho. Mans falls in love at the drop of a hat fhghdfjhsd

Other than these couple things, I really loved the show. Some people said "why are they shoving so much story into such a short amount of time" XD The storyteller in me would like to agree but i will be honest, there is nothing more like Xmen TAS than smooshed storylines jkdfhfkjds with random one-off eps in between. XD So, I was fine with it.

I liked the conclusion with Scott and Jean, as messy as it was. The family fun time was a pleasure to watch.

Xavier and Magneto. They really highlighted their messy, but still devoted relationship from the original series, so that was nice to see. I was glad to see him back in the red suit LMAO bc the one he was wearing all season was weird for me.

I loved Jubilee's journey, and it was cool that they brought Alyson Court back for that one episode.

I was very pleased overall that they didn't tone things down and since censors are different these days, they could show more stuff they couldn't in the 90s. So, I am looking forward to more seasons (and pleeeeease for the love of god give Romy back to me i am begging)

[crystalninjaphoenix]

The Vault

A JSE Fanfic

SepticHeroes AU: Part 26

First Part | Previous Part

This turned out so much longer than I expected. But I really like this chapter so I don't mind as much and I hope you guys don't either XD It's about 7500 words, though, so be prepared for a long haul. Jackie tries to figure out what to do with the tape the guys found in JJ's apartment, and Marvin stops by with something that might help. Meanwhile, JJ is in prison. Yaaaaay :( This Vault place is a lot weirder than he expected, but at least he's not alone in there. Have fun reading :)

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

Jackie had never tried calling the police on the Red Line before. He’d never tried calling any number on the Red Line that wasn’t to someone else in the League. But Lorelai told him that police stations could identify a Red Line when it called in and would treat him like a Hero. Even so, he was nervous as he dialed the police’s non-emergency number. Maybe it was because of this new villain. They could clearly access normal phone lines. But surely they couldn’t access the Red Line as well.

Someone picked up on the other end. “Daindover Police,” they said. It sounded like a young man.

Jackie swallowed his nerves. “This is Windstorm,” he said, sounding much more confident than he actually was. “I need to speak to whoever’s in charge of the Puppeteer case.”

A long pause. “Uhhhh... one second sir,” the voice said. And then music started playing.

They put him on hold? What the hell? Jackie didn’t even know police stations could do that. Well, he could wait. This operator was probably trying to call over a supervisor to ask what to do. Which, if the police call center was anything like the call center Jackie used to work at, would take a while.

He tried to relax while the hold music played. He sat down at his computer and looked through the games on there, but nothing really appealed to him. He tried social media, but nothing appealed to him there, either. He opened up some of his comic books but found they just made him nervous. The battles between Heroes and villains in them were once exciting, but now he just thought about how different they were from the events happening right now in his life. The comics never talked about a Hero’s friend being revealed to be a villain, and then that friend’s sister being revealed to be a hero who the friend was just trying to save. 

... You know, maybe the comics were bullshit. With all he’d learned about the League recently, he wouldn’t be surprised to hear they’d taken some liberties with the fights Heroes had.

Finally, the hold music stopped. Jackie had left the Red Line on speaker so he noticed it right away, and quickly lunged over to scoop it up again. “Hello? Windstorm?” a voice was saying.

“Ace? Is that you?” Jackie asked.

“Huh, so it is you. Yep, it’s me, kid.”

“You’re in charge of the Puppeteer case?”

“Well no, but I am on the case. The guys know that you and I have a rapport, so I’m gonna be relaying whatever you said to Detective Michaelson. He’s the lead on this.” Ace paused. “So. Last I saw you, you were really hung up on the trial thing. Is this about that?”

“Kind of,” Jackie said slowly. “I think I’ve found some evidence that the Puppeteer wasn’t... That there’s more to this whole thing than just the Puppeteer.”

“You mean... an accomplice?”

“I-if anything, it points to the Puppeteer being an accomplice. There’s someone else in charge, a, uh—a mastermind behind this. And I don’t think the Puppeteer was entirely willing.”

“Huh. That sounds like some damn good evidence.” Ace was clearly impressed. “So are you calling to make some arrangements for dropping it off, or...?”

“Uh—not yet,” Jackie said slowly. “I-I want to make a backup of it first. But I needed to let you guys know that it exists. This mastermind villain—I-I think they’re called Anti-Virus—might go after it.”

“Kid, if they’re gonna go after it, you need to get it somewhere safe as soon as possible,” Ace explained. “Nowhere safer than the police station.”

“Villains have broken in there before. And Anti-Virus isn’t limited by, uh, physical space. I think—I think they’re a technopath,” Jackie whispered that last part, glancing at his phone and computer as he did so. “A-and this could be... i-it’s risky. I need to make sure there’s backups.”

Ace was silent for a while. Then he sighed. “I’ll see what I can do with what you’ve said. But until you hand this evidence over, the police aren’t gonna act. You understand that, right?”

“That’s fine,” Jackie said. “I-I just want to establish that I have it.” Then, from down the hall, Jackie heard someone knock on the apartment door. Chase shouted something, probably telling whoever it was to wait a minute. “I have to go now,” Jackie said.

“Alright. See you around, kid. Good luck.”

“You too.” And Jackie hung up.

Just in time, too. Chase shouted down the hall, “Jackie! Marvin is here!”

Jackie was surprised for a moment before he remembered that he’d given Marvin permission to come to his apartment to reach him. That was just the day before yesterday, but it seemed so long ago. “I’m coming!” Jackie shouted, putting the Red Line on the dresser and rushing down the hallway.

It was weird seeing Marvin in his apartment. He was standing there awkwardly, shifting from side to side, one gloved hand messing with the zipper on his jacket. Chase was sitting on the sofa nearby. Frosty had clearly been the one to open and close the apartment door, as he was standing next to it and wagging his tail excitedly. Chase whistled, and Frosty trotted over to him, where he received many scratches behind the ears.

“There you are,” Marvin said, eyes locking on Jackie. “I have something for you.”

“Iiiis it in that bag?” Jackie pointed at the bag Marvin had slung over his shoulder. It was gray and made of canvas, completely featureless.

“Yep.”

“Alright, put it down on the coffee table, then.”

Marvin nodded and walked over, Jackie right behind him. He set the bag down on the coffee table and took a couple things out. A black rectangular box, a plastic bag full of cables (or maybe just one?) and a cloth laptop case that clearly had a laptop inside—one of the bigger ones. “Whoa, what’s all this?” Chase asked.

“This is everything you need to copy that tape we found at JJ’s place,” Marvin explained.

“A laptop?” Jackie said doubtfully. “Uh... I thought we were trying to keep it away from digital spaces where Anti-Virus might be able to access it.”

“You’ve just decided to latch onto that name, huh?” Marvin muttered.

“Hey, it makes sense, doesn’t it? Don’t change the subject.”

“Heh.” Marvin grinned. “Don’t worry, the laptop’s been modified. I got all this from the Dismantler and her family. She personally went in and removed the camera, the microphone, and the parts it needs to access the internet. It can play and record video, but that video can’t be accessed through wireless means. The hard drive was also wiped, so there’s no chance of anything already being on there.”

“Hmm.” Jackie raised an eyebrow. “She’s very thorough. Or did you and your paranoia ask her to do all that?”

“Both. And I’ll point out that my paranoia is very well-founded.” Marvin shook his head. “I... realized recently that... Anti-Virus might know who I am. Not the identity I have now, I mean... who I used to be.”

“You mean your rogue Hero shit?” Chase asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well fuck. That’s bad.”

Marvin laughed. “Putting it lightly, yeah. But this bitch made Jameson control me. They made Jameson do a lot. And they have Timekeeper. I’m willing to risk my identity if it means... making things right for the two of them.”

Jackie wasn’t sure what to say to that. He’d never seen Spitfire Cat act so... selfless. Maybe this is closer to who he used to be. “I didn’t know you cared so much about Timekeeper,” Jackie whispered.

“I always thought he—she seemed like a real hero,” Marvin said slowly. Then he laughed. “And she clearly doesn’t like the League, so points for her in my book.”

Jackie rolled his eyes. “Okay, yeah, sure. Anyway, how do I work all this?”

“Dismantler included instructions,” Marvin said, unzipping the laptop case and reaching inside. He pulled out a folded piece of paper, just confirming that it’s there, and then put it back. “She also told me, but I don’t remember off the top of my head. I think you basically have to connect the VHS player to the computer with this special cable and then, uh... record it. And then you can... transfer it to another tape?”

“I’ll figure it out,” Jackie said. “I’m good with video software.”

“He really is, I ask him to edit my YouTube videos all the time,” Chase confirmed. “Also, uh... who’s the Dismantler? Should I know them?”

“No, uh, you guys have never met and I didn’t really talk about her,” Jackie said. “She’s a, uh... vvvvillain?” Uncertainty made that last word longer than it usually would’ve been.

“I don’t think what she and her family does counts as villainy, just crime,” Marvin said. “Besides, she’s only involved because it’s her family, so I don’t think she should count.”

“Isn’t her uncle Pathos?” Jackie asked.

Marvin started, surprised. “Don’t just say that!”

“Oh yeah, Pathos was that big villain, wasn’t he?” Chase asked.

“Yeah, til I whooped his ass and put him in prison.” Jackie grinned. “That was probably my first big battle as a hero. I mean, it was sort of easy, actually, but he had a reputation! That put Windstorm’s name out there. And all the villains I fought after that, holy shit there was a big spree that time last year.”

Marvin rolled his eyes. “There was a spree because you took out a ‘big villain’. When an organization like Pathos’s falls, two types of people appear. Those who want to be the next big thing, and those who were too scared of the local organized crime to cause chaos until it was gone.”

“...oh.” Jackie blinked.

“You seriously didn’t realize that until now?” Marvin snorted.

“Hey shut the fuck up.” Jackie put his hands on his hips. “It’s calmed down now! I handled it.”

“You did do that,” Marvin muttered reluctantly. “Anyway. Gw—the Dismantler also wanted to remind you about the Puppeteer’s mask. Do you still have that?”

“Uh... yeah,” Jackie said slowly. “I mean, after figuring out this guy was a technopath, I wrapped up the mask in a bunch of my spare clothes so they couldn’t really use the cameras or microphones in it.”

“Nice.” Marvin grinned. “Anyway. Dismantler pointed out that the mask could also be a piece of evidence. You just need to get someone else to notice the weird stuff that she did.”

“The weird stuff that pointed to it being controlled remotely?” Jackie nodded. “Yeah... I should take it back to Dr. McLoughlin for another scan.”

Marvin’s expression darkened. “You’re going to... you’re going to take it back to the guy... who messed up the scan in the first place. Even though he should have noticed it. You... you do realize how suspicious it is that he told you the mask was normal, right?”

“It could have been an honest mistake,” Jackie pointed out.

“Or it could be something else.”

“Don’t be so judgemental, bro,” Chase said, speaking up for the first time in a while. “Aren’t people innocent until proven guilty?”

“I—” Marvin was so surprised at Chase calling him out instead of Jackie that he didn’t have a comeback.

“Look, I get it, it’s weird,” Jackie said. “I agree. But I’m not going to go around being suspicious of everyone. I’ll keep it in mind that he did the scan wrong, but until I find proof that he’s... I don’t even know what you’re accusing him of—”

“I’m saying that he’s probably in cahoots with this Anti-Virus,” Marvin interrupted. “Or maybe he even is him.”

Jackie’s eyebrows shot into the air. “Ooookay. That’s a pretty serious accusation. And it’s one that I’m gonna keep in mind, but I’m not gonna jump to conclusions, okay? I’m gonna give McLoughlin a chance to explain what went wrong. He deserves a chance to do that, at least.”

“Not if he keeps tricking you,” Marvin muttered.

“I’d rather be tricked than go around doubting everyone!” Jackie snapped.

“Yeah, clearly.”

“I’m just saying there’s a line!” Jackie shouted. “I can’t think the worst of everyone, okay? If I thought the worst of everyone, we never would’ve found the tape! Because I would’ve written JJ off as secretly evil the whole time instead of talking to him! But he’s not evil, and he doesn’t deserve to be in jail! So I’m not gonna throw someone else in there based on what could’ve been a mistake!” He stopped, breathing heavily. Marvin and Chase were staring at him, gaping. Even Frosty was staring at him.

“Wow... never seen you go off like that, Jackie,” Chase said.

“I guess this whole situation is... getting to me a little,” Jackie muttered.

“That’s... fine,” Marvin said awkwardly. “Um... understandable. Y-yeah. I’m not... I’ll do my thing, you do your thing. I’m not gonna stop you. Uh... you can keep all this.” He gestured at the stuff on the coffee table. “But this is mine.” And he grabbed the bag. “I’ll... come by if anything happens.”

“Y-yeah.” Jackie nodded. “See you around, then.”

“See you.” And with that, Marvin walked over to the door and left.

Jackie sighed. The apartment seemed strangely quiet.

“Hey, uh... Jackie?” Chase said. “I get it about the JJ thing.”

“I just... I-I hope he’s okay,” Jackie said. “He’s tougher than he looks. But they sent him to the Vault. There’s a whole bunch of dangerous villains in there. That’s where they send the biggest threats. I hope he’s okay.”

Chase nodded. “Like you said, he’s tougher than he looks. I’m sure he can hold on until we’re able to get him out.”

“Yeah... yeah.” Jackie would believe that. He had to.

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

Jameson didn’t remember much of the journey. He knew they traveled across land for a while, and then they traveled across the sea for a bit longer, but the car and boat didn’t have any windows, and so he quickly grew bored. Even though it was uncomfortable to sit straight up with tight handcuffs on, and slightly disconcerting to have people watching him, the lack of stimulation meant he soon fell asleep. 

Was he really worth all this security? He hadn’t caused any trouble while in the police station. Did he really need four different people watching his movements at all times? He thought that, but then he remembered what he’d done, and he understood their caution. A villain who controlled so many people for so long should not be given any leeway.

“Hey. Get up.” Someone shook JJ’s shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked at them. It was one of the League Safety members—people without powers, or with very minor powers, who took care of all the everyday internal threats that Heroes were too busy for. Things like protecting League facilities... or overseeing the transportation of imprisoned supervillains. The LS people wore black uniforms with yellow highlights. Said uniforms included helmets with mirrored visors, bulletproof vests, and utility belts—where their main weapon, a neutrinalin dart gun, hung. But that particular weapon wasn’t necessary. JJ had already been injected before leaving the police station.

“We’re here,” the LS person said. “Get up.”

Jameson nodded, standing up. The LS person grabbed him by the arm, guiding him out of the boat.

So. This was it. Byrthon Vault.

The Vault was situated on a man-made island in the Irish Sea. It was closer to the UK than Ireland but big enough to hold villains from both places. All supers in this part of the world knew about the Vault. They’d heard about its towers and the tall, eight-sided wall surrounding the whole compound. But it was different to see it in person. The wall was a fifty-feet tall barrier of smooth metal, and the towers within rose into the sky like pillars of black rock. Jameson felt dread just looking at it.

A concrete path led from the docks to the wall’s singular gate, sloping up a slight hill as it went. Jameson let the LS person pull him up the way. Another LS guard walked on his other side, and there were two behind him. As they approached the gate—a pair of ten-feet-tall sliding doors with red lights in the center of each—Jameson almost froze up. Actually being here was giving him doubts. The whole thing felt so final. If he walked through that gate, he knew he would never be coming out again. He’d known that the whole time, but the reality of it was hitting him all at once now.

But he didn’t really have a choice, did he? 

If you ever fail and get captured, you are not to say anything about me. You are to accept the full blame and take whatever punishment the law and the League give you. Likely, you will be sent to Byrthon Vault. If you protest this at all, I will terminate her. But if you are caught, I promise you no harm will come to her, and I will work to reverse her condition.

None of his messages with the blackmailer ever stayed on his phone for longer than an hour, but that one had been sealed in his memory from the moment he read it.

They stopped at the gate. One of the LS guards waved at a camera in the corner—or, that’s what JJ assumed that red light was. A panel slid open on the wall. The LS person pressed a keycard to it, followed up by a quick series of taps on a number pad. The camera’s red light turned green, and they went inside.

The area they walked into looked surprisingly normal after the imposing exterior. There was short gray carpet on the floor and white paint on the walls, and a woman sat behind a counter—though the counter was protected by bulletproof glass. “Hi, state your business?” she said pleasantly.

“Transfer from Daindover, Britain,” the LS person holding Jameson’s arm said.

“Right, we’ve been expecting you. Enter your access code there.” She gestured to another number pad sitting on the counter. One of the LS people walked up and tapped in another sequence. The woman typed something on a keyboard, staring at a computer screen. Jameson wondered if that computer was connected to the internet.

He wondered if they knew he was here. 

“Alright,” the woman said. “Jameson Jackson, alias, the Puppeteer?” JJ jumped a little when she said his name.

“Yes, that’s it,” the LS person said.

“Great. Wait here for a moment.”

About thirty seconds passed in awkward silence before a door slid open next to the counter. Two people walked out, wearing uniforms similar to the LS uniforms, though with blue highlights instead and missing the helmets. With them was an older man with a salt-and-pepper beard. Tha man looked at Jameson. “This is him?” he asked.

“Yes sir,” the LS person replied.

“Alrigh’ then. You, Jackson, follow us.”

Jameson hesitated, then walked over.

“Cooperative,” the man grunted. “Good. I’m Daly, I’m in charge here. I hope you’ll understan’ quickly that whatever power you had out there, it’s useless in here.”

Jameson nodded. He felt the urge to laugh for a brief moment before it was suppressed by heavy anxiety. Power? What power? 

They walked through a short hallway to a square room with nothing but two doors and a table that had a handful of items on it. One of the blue-uniformed people—prison guards, assumedly—picked something up from the table. Another neutrinalin injection gun. “Hold out your arms,” Daly commanded. Jameson did so, and the guard rolled up his sleeve and injected him right in the crook of the elbow. Made sense. His last dose had probably worn off.

The other guard picked something else up from the table. A black wand, also similar to something you’d see in an airport. The first put the neutrinalin gun down and took a set of keys from their belt, unlocking Jameson’s handcuffs. “Stand with your arms out,” Daly said. “Don’ make any sudden moves.” Jameson wasn’t planning to. He stayed perfectly still while the guard ran the wand over him.

After that was over with, the first guard picked up a bundle of cloth from the table and shoved it at Jameson. “Get changed in there.” Daly pointed to one of the doors, the one to the left. “I’m told you can’t talk, so knock on the door when you’re done and we’ll start the decontamination process. If you take longer than five minutes... well, don’t take longer than that.”

Jameson nodded. He took the cloth and headed into the other room, a space the size of a closet. He changed quickly into this new outfit—a white shirt, a pale green jumpsuit, and flimsy slip-on shoes—then knocked on the wall.

“Decontamination starting in three... two... one.”

JJ gasped, then quickly recovered when he realized that the robotic voice saying that wasn’t the same robotic voice he’d get phone calls from. But he gasped again when holes slid open in the walls of the room he was in. Jets of mist burst out, smelling vaguely medicinal, and droplets of liquid settled on his skin and clothes. Then a loud WHRRRR started as fans appeared and dried everything. Once the fans calmed down, one of the guards opened the door. “Step out,” Daly called from the room.

From there, the group headed through the room’s other door, down a long set of hallways, until they reached the main area of the prison. The cell blocks. Two of the Vault’s towers were dedicated to them, one for male and one for female. Obviously, this was the male block. It was... bigger than expected. The space was wide open, rows of cells stacked on top of each other, with catwalks reaching the higher cells. JJ counted six floors of cells. Everything was made of metal and plastic, all of it sleek and new-looking. And it was... quiet. So quiet. Pretty much the only sounds were JJ’s and the guards’ footsteps. That... must have been because it was early. Even so, the quiet made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

They took a lift up to the fifth floor and Jameson got a closer look at the cells. The walls were mostly solid metal, with the only exception being the door, which was made of a clear, bulletproof plastic. He glanced into the cells as they passed, but they were all too dark to see inside. It must’ve been lights out. But even so, was no one awake? Or curious about what was happening?

Soon, they stopped at a cell with a number plate reading 525. One of the guards took a key card from their belt and pressed it to a panel underneath that number. The door slid open. Jameson started to step inside, but Daly said, “One moment, 3117.”

Jameson tensed. Oh. Right. The jumpsuit had the number 3117 on the back and lapel. That must be him. He turned to look at Daly, tilting his head curiously. Instinctively he raised a hand to ask What is it? but then realized Daly probably didn’t know BSL.

“Hold out your hands,” Daly said. Confused, Jameson did so—and suddenly Daly snapped something around his wrists. Jameson started and pulled his hands back. These weren’t handcuffs. There was no chain connecting them. But they were two bands of metal now wrapped around his wrists, each about an inch wide but only a centimeter thick. “Congratulations,” Daly drawled. “You get some extra precautions. Those are magnetic pow-sup bracelets. When powered, that purple ligh’ across the middle will turn on, activatin’ power suppression and snappin’ the bracelets together. So don’ try anything, okay?”

Jameson nodded slowly.

“Good. Now, go on. It’s lights on soon enough, so you won’ get much time to rest before the roll call.” Daly made a dismissive go-ahead type gesture.

And with only a moment’s hesitation, Jameson turned around and stepped into the cell.

The door slid closed behind him. It was dark, but as his eyes adjusted, he could make out the cell’s features. It wasn’t too different from the holding cell back in the police station. The walls were metal. There was a single cot to sleep on, along with a toilet and sink to use. There was a small metal shelf jutting out from the wall close to the ground. Some sort of... table? To use while you’re sitting on the floor? Or was it supposed to be a chair? Maybe both?

Well... there wasn’t much to do in here. So even though Jameson had spent the whole journey here sleeping, he lied down on the cot and tried to sleep some more.

But he couldn’t. Now that he was actually here, the despair he felt was too much. This was really it, wasn’t it? Surely the others would have found the tape in his apartment by now. Surely, if it could be useful, it would have been used by now. Right? No. No, he shouldn’t think like that. Maybe the process was just slow. Everything would work out eventually. He just had to be patient.

But it was hard to hold onto optimism like that in the face of this new reality.

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

Over the next two days, JJ got used to his new routine. The lights came on in the morning, and then about thirty minutes later there was an announcement over the intercom for roll call. They happened floor by floor, lasting five minutes each. When your floor was called, you had to hurry over to the central meeting area of your floor—which ended up being a suspended platform for floors two through six. Jameson was glad he wasn’t afraid of heights.

After your floor’s roll call, everyone there moved to breakfast. The cafeteria was in a different tower, connected to the two cell block towers by narrow hallways. The food wasn’t much to talk about. Bland, with a weird plasticky aftertaste. Forks and knives were not allowed. After eating, there was a short period where you had to either go back to your cell or go take a shower. Then a maddeningly long period of time later, it was lunch, which was almost exactly like breakfast.

But after that, you were finally allowed to go somewhere other than your cell or the cafeteria. The afternoon was a sort of free period—though it wasn’t really free at all if guards were watching your every move—where you could go to the courtyard, do chores like laundry and cleaning, or go back to your cell. Jameson wasn’t allowed to do chores, as security on him was still too high, but he could do the other two things. After the afternoon, there was another roll call, dinner, another chance to shower, and then, an hour later, lights out.

The routine didn’t bother JJ. Honestly, even the guards didn’t bother him too much. Sure, they were constantly watching him, but he was being watched all the time before this, anyway. Just through cameras instead of in person.

No, what really bothered him were the other prisoners. 

Not because they were intimidating or scary in any way. In fact... it was kind of the opposite. Byrthon Vault was home to some of the most dangerous supervillains in this part of the world. Jameson recognized a good number of them, either from hearing about them on the news or from helping her on her superhero patrols. These people were supposed to be ruthless, merciless monsters. Either lifelong criminals or people who’d done one thing so terrible that they got sent here right away.

So... why were they all so... quiet?

He’d noticed it from the start. The other prisoners barely talked. Only when answering a guard’s question or mumbling to their neighbors during meal times. And once he noticed that, he began noticing other things. They were all so pale—even paler than expected for someone trapped indoors almost all of the time. Many of them had dark circles under their eyes. And others were very thin, basically skin and bones. Some of them swayed while they stood. Some of them slumped onto the tables during meal times. All of them stared at him, but none of them talked to him.

Jameson didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but he knew he didn’t like it.

He spent the free period of the first two days in his cell, but by the third he was so confused and curious about what was going on with the other prisoners—not to mention extremely bored and tired of napping so much—that on the third day, he finally visited the courtyard.

This was a wide open space, octagonal like the walls around the Vault. A mesh net stretched over the entire top of the courtyard—presumably to deter flying villains from swooping in and rescuing prisoners. The middle of the courtyard was dedicated to various sports and exercises. Around the edges were benches and tables for people to sit at. Everything was concrete, metal, and plastic.

Jameson looked around. Like the cafeteria, the courtyard connected to both cell blocks, so some prisoners from the female block were here, too. He’d noticed that they were just as pale and lethargic as the prisoners in his block. So whatever this was, it wasn’t just affecting them.

There were some prisoners playing basketball or trying out the exercise equipment. But it was only a fraction of the people out here. Maybe a quarter of them. Or less. And even then, only a quarter of those people were really enjoying the activity. Most of them were just going through the motions. Sometimes stopping what they were doing to stand there, or even to sit down.

This was really freaking him out. His plan was to go over and ask the friendliest-looking person what the hell was going on, but he wasn’t sure they’d be able to tell him anything. Not to mention how unlikely it was that someone here would know BSL. So, overwhelmed by the strangeness of this situation, he walked over to a bench and sat down.

He was tired. He wasn’t usually this tired. Maybe something about being stuck in one place and bored all the time made him tired. Sighing, JJ tilted his head back and closed his eyes for a moment—

“Hey!”

Then he jumped and opened them again. That was the first shout he’d heard in here outside of roll call. He looked around—and saw someone approaching him. A woman with dark, wavy hair. Not a guard, as he expected. But another prisoner. She had dark circles under her eyes but was otherwise moving with more purpose than he’d seen most others move with. Slowly, he raised his hand and waved at her, unsure what to do.

The woman stopped in front of him. “You’re from Daindover, right? In Britain?”

JJ nodded.

“Did Windstorm lock you up?”

He nodded again.

The woman scowled. “That bitch. Hope someone puts him in his place one day.” She punched her palm. “So. What did you do? Did it hurt him?”

JJ hesitated. Can you understand me? he asked.

She narrowed her eyes. “What is that? Are you making fun of me?”

He hurriedly shook his head. And then he patted his throat, trying to indicate his lack of voice.

“What? What is that?!” She leaned over him, scowling.

This wasn’t working! Jameson tried to show her the scar on his neck, tracing its faint line with a finger.

“Oh, now you’re threatening me?!” The woman grabbed his wrist. “Listen, I don’t know what kind of fucking bigshot you think you are, but these mean you can’t do shit in here.” She shook his arm, indicating the cuffs on his wrists.

He shook his head hard, started to sign I’m sorry but then remembered how poorly signing had gone before and scrambled for a new idea—

“Angela.”

The woman—Angela, apparently—jerked backwards. While she’d been getting up in Jameson’s face, someone else had appeared. Another prisoner. A man this time, wearing the jacket of his jumpsuit unbuttoned and sliding off his shoulders. He had bright red hair, cut close on his right but longer on his left, and—and purple eyes. Jameson stared at them for a second, at first processing their existence and then admiring their dark shade and how it contrasted the man’s brighter hair—and then he snapped back to his senses. Who was this guy? He looked vaguely familiar. “Soren,” Angela said curtly.

“What’re you doing?” Soren asked calmly.

“This bitch was threatening me!” Angela glared at JJ.

“You mean him doing this?” Soren mimicked the motion JJ had made to indicate his scar—which, JJ is now realizing, looked like the ‘I’ll slit your throat’ gesture people made to threaten others. “I think he was trying to show you that scar of his.”

Angela looked back at JJ, staring at him closely. “Well before that he was making all sorts of hand signals! Probably being fucking rude—”

“He asked if you could understand him,” Soren interrupted.

“How do you know that?!”

“Because I know British Sign Language when I see it. I could translate for you, if you let go of his hand so he can talk.”

Angela looked at JJ... and reluctantly let go of his hand. 

“Right!” Soren said cheerfully. “So what was the conversation?”

“Asked him what he was in for,” Angela mumbled, sounding almost embarrassed.

Soren looked at JJ, who quickly started signing, I ended up taking control of a couple hundred people in my city and got them to commit various crimes. Including storming several buildings belonging to a tech company.

“Jesus, this takes forever,” Angela muttered.

Soren, meanwhile, looked intrigued. “Oh. So you’re the mind controller who came in from Daindover, huh? Is Windstorm still the hero there?” JJ nodded. “Hmm. Wonder if he’s gotten any better. He had the power, but was pretty new to it when I was there.”

Angela’s eyes widened. “Wait. Wait, he’s the—the string guy? Puppets guy?”

Jameson looked down, hiding the guilt on his face, and nodded.

“Oh. Oh, holy shit. I guess I should’ve, uh, realized. Uh—” Angela stood there for a moment, then abruptly turned around and left.

Soren watched her go, then looked back at JJ. “Don’t take it personally,” he said. “Angela isn’t dealing with this well. She’s always had a temper, and now being stuck here and feeling shitty all the time has made it worse. And I think she’s not used to feeling vulnerable. After all, Angela Lewis is the invulnerable Titanium.” He chuckled a bit, then sat down next to JJ. Now that he was closer, he could see how thin and pale he was—pale to the point of being practically paper white.

How do you two know about me? Jameson asked.

“We’re both from Daindover too. Word gets around about new arrivals, and people always listen up for their city.” Soren looked at him and smiled tiredly. “Anyway. What’s your name? Not your alias, I know that. It’s okay to spell it out.”

JJ did so, introducing himself as Jameson Jackson.

“Alliteration. Fun.” Soren held out a hand for a shake. “Soren Moizone. Nice to meet you.”

...oh.

Jameson suddenly realized why he looked familiar. He’d been on the news quite a lot. And that’s not all. A memory flashed through his head, vivid and real, of a past conversation.

I don’t get it. You could easily take down Pathos, Dahlia. Why don’t you? “Because as long as people like us keep him in line, things are better.” I still don’t get it. “If you suddenly take out the head of a big organization like that, the power vacuum can be worse than they were, y’know? See it all the time in comics about Heroes’ early careers. Everyone rises up to take their place.” So you’d rather fight him every month? “It’s not really a fight most of the time, I just show up and look intimidating and he’s like ‘pack it up, you lot, we’ve gone too far.’”

Soren Moizone. The supervillain known as Pathos. The man who’d held crime in Daindover and the surrounding area in his grip—until a year ago when Jackie defeated him.

“Ah. There’s the look.” Soren’s easy smile faded a bit. “The realization. Listen, I can’t really do much in here, unfortunately. Neither can you. Or anyone, really. I think we’re all the same in the Vault. But up to you if you want to be on speaking terms.”

JJ hesitated. Then he reached out and shook Soren’s hand.

Soren laughed. “You have balls, Jameson Jackson. Though I guess that’s evident, from what you just said you did. Daindover really has a problem with mind-controlling villains.”

It’s not really mind control, JJ said. My powers, I mean. It’s... body control.

Soren tilted his head. “Hmm? What’s the difference?”

I don’t hypnotize people, JJ explained. When the strings wrap around their wrists, I can move their bodies with my thoughts. They’re still aware. And it doesn’t just work on people. Anything shaped like a human can be controlled. I used them on dolls when I was a kid. His parents had been mildly surprised the first time they walked in on him putting on a show for his twin. But not too surprised. It ran in the family, after all.

“Fascinating. You’re right, that’s not really mind control, is it?” Soren mused. “But to be fair, mine aren’t, either.”

JJ blinked. Can’t you make people think the way you want them to?

“Common misconception. I don’t influence their thoughts, just their feelings. It’s not the same thing at all, no matter how much people on the news told you it was.” Soren chuckled.

JJ raises an eyebrow. That doesn’t make it any less dangerous. Another brief snippet of a conversation flickered in his mind.

“I swear, James, I’d never felt so scared in my fucking life before. If the feeling hadn’t stopped when I paused things I would’ve been frozen. But instead everyone else was frozen, ayyy. I suppose powers like that don’t work on me when I’m out of time.”

“Well you’re one to talk, aren’t you, Puppeteer?” Soren pointed out. “I overheard some guards chatting about what happened in Daindover. They were shocked. Though it sounds like the rumors were a bit exaggerated.”

JJ tried to laugh in agreement, but he couldn’t quite manage it. Silence fell between them. Jameson turned his attention to the rest of the courtyard and tried not to think about the fact that Pathos—a lifelong villain who she often fought—was sitting next to him. Though as he looked around, it did remind him of why he was out there. Can I ask you something?

“You can ask me, can’t promise I’ll answer.”

Everyone here is so...quiet, JJ said. And... tired. I don’t know how to describe it. But that can’t be normal, can it? Or is this just what it’s like in all prisons?

“What were you expecting?” Soren asked. “Did you think there’d be a riot every day? Like a TV drama?”

I thought there’d be conversation, at least.

“No, you’re right.” Soren’s face turned very serious. “This isn’t normal. How long have you been here, Jameson? A couple days?”

Three days, JJ said.

“So you’re going to start feeling it soon, then.” Soren leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs. “Have you noticed that weird taste in all the food? It’s a sort of... artificial taste, like someone put plastic shavings in everything. That’s neutrinalin. It can be injected or consumed. All the food for the prisoners has heavy doses of it.”

JJ nodded slowly. He’d been wondering that. Nobody had pulled him aside to give him a neutrinalin injection since he arrived. And yet, he still felt his powers out of reach when he tried to find them. Not to use them, just to see if he could.

“Now, neutrinalin is all fine for the short term,” Soren continued. “But if it’s in your system for too long, say three or four days straight, you start feeling a bit sick. Like a bad cold. And until the neut is out, that feeling will just keep getting worse.”

Dread pooled in JJ’s stomach. And yet, he still had to ask, Did you say N-E-W-T?

Soren laughed. “It does sound like that, doesn’t it? No, ‘neut’ as in short for ‘neutrinalin.’ It’s slang. Sometimes people call it ‘the muffler’ too, or ‘the League’s best friend.’ Guess you’re not in those circles, huh?”

JJ shook his head.

“Anyway. The reason why all these great and powerful villains are walking around like zombies is because they feel like shit all the time. Some of them for years straight. I think Havoc Cry has been in here the longest, you don’t see her around often cause she’s too tired to leave her cell most of the time. Which—look, I’m not gonna say she doesn’t deserve it after she basically destroyed London, but... no, I’m gonna say that. She doesn’t deserve it. She deserved to stay here for the rest of her life, just like Avalanche, Dr. Rundown, Death Angel, the Mutilator—” Soren pointed out each villain as he said their name. Jameson had heard of all of them, but he wouldn’t have recognized them like this. “—and most of the others, but the drugging is a bit much.”

Jameson covered his mouth, hiding the horror on his face. All these people... Sure, criminals and villains, the worst of them, but... he couldn’t help but feel terrible about it as he saw them all in this state. Does the League know about the side effects? he asked, looking back at Soren.

“Dunno.” Soren shrugged. “You don’t hear people discussing it, not even in the underworld. Some people in here mutter that the League made it that way on purpose, but I don’t think so. I think they just never thought about it during development. And if they know what’s happening in here, they don’t think fixing it is worth it.”

Jameson shook his head slowly. This was awful. People must not know. If they knew, they’d be horrified.

Soren looked doubtful. “Would they?”

Of course! Even the Heroes would be horrified. Or at least... Jackie would.

“Maybe.”

Jameson scowled. He made to stand up—but stumbled as a wave of dizziness overcame him. He started to fall, but Soren quickly stood up and caught him before he hit the ground. Thank you, he signed shakily.

“Don’t thank me, it’s not needed.” Soren helped him stand upright again. “Let me guess. Everything started spinning?”

That must have been one of the side effects. JJ went pale as he realized that everything was just going to get worse from here on. He nodded slowly. Why are you handling this sickness better than anyone else in here? he asked.

“That’s not something I’m keen to share.” Soren smiled, a bit of mystery to his expression. “Now. If you’re standing up, I’m guessing you’re leaving?”

JJ nodded slowly.

“Try to come to the courtyard as often as you can. Sunlight and fresh air’s good for you. Makes you feel a little better. I’m here most days. Or we could try to meet during meal times—if you want to meet, that is, but I’d love to hear from you some more. Talk about how things have changed in Daindover.”

That would be nice, JJ said. He knew he had to take this chance. Talking was a lot less boring than napping, but not many people in the Vault would be able to understand him. Soren knew BSL. And even though he was a supervillain, so was everyone else in here. So was Jameson. Soren seemed nice, at least. And... he liked the way he smiled.

“Great. I can try to find you. What floor are you on?”

Floor five, Cell 525.

Soren raised an eyebrow. “They put you up high. The higher your floor is, the more dangerous they consider you. I’m on floor three, in 316. So it sounds like I’ll have to wait for you in the cafeteria.”

I don’t know if I’m flattered or not that they think I’m so dangerous, JJ said, frowning.

“I’d be flattered. But they’ll probably move you down later if you don’t cause trouble.” Soren smiled tiredly. “In any case. Later, then?”

Later. I’ll see you around?

“Certainly. Goodbye for now.”

JJ waved a goodbye as well, then turned and left the courtyard. He hadn’t spent much time there, but he needed to be alone. He needed to think about everything that just happened. About what he found out.

He was still hoping that somehow the others outside would figure out a way to get him out of here. But that hope was starting to waver. Especially knowing what was to come with the neutrinalin side effects. But... at least he wouldn’t be alone in here.

At least there was that.

[amazing-spiderling]

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art; 25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

17. There should be more of this type of fic/art:

So, my last two major fandoms/ships were pretty different, right? Otasune from Metal Gear Solid and Spideypool from various mixed Marvel media. The MGS fandom (when I was an active part of things) was kind of like the wild west because we'd go YEARS between games, and each installment wasn't guaranteed to have YOUR blorbos in it, so with such long droughts of canon content to go on, AUs were extremely common. Spideypool arrived at the same destination via a different route. With SO MUCH content for a popular ship, it was the weird AUs that stood out from the crowd.

These days, I'm most active in the Daredevil fandom, which is a comfortable size... but maybe its *too* comfortable. XD I just mean that there's so much (great) fic that is made up of lost moments/in between scenes and other canon compliant or "step to the left" of canon storylines that it kind of makes me wish people would get weird about it. Weirder, anyway. I know it's a fine line to straddle, and a lot of people get touchy about what writers choose to change, but I don't think my opinions about that are as set in stone as they are for other people. Besides my squicks, I read whatever is well written.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

I'll be real, I find fandom complaints to be tedious a lot of the time because a lot of them boil down to people who don't like X making a case for why X is objectively bad, and I think more people need to realize that you just don't have to like everything, sometimes it's for a different audience. So if I start reading a post or something that looks like it's going that way, I just scroll by.

I guess to that end, I'm kind of tired of people being so angry about the current comics run. It sure is making some choices, I'll give you that. But at least it's doing something different. (And I'll be honest, I've seen some specific complaints where I've thought, "you're actually wrong about this specific thing, because you've made a mistake about who is speaking in this moment bc you are seeing the page out of context" but bothering to correct people just doesn't seem worth it when people have made up their minds, y'know?)

Maybe it's because I love a fucked up AU that I'm like "Haha if two Daredevils were on a mountain and one of them went to hell would that be fucked up or what?" or maybe it's because I'm a bit jaded by reading comics for three decades that I'm of the mindset that comic runs (and canon for that matter) are like buses. ("If the one here now isn't taking you where you need to be, another will be along in a little while.") I'm personally having fun with the run and even if there's stuff I would have chosen to do differently, I can't be bothered to expend the energy outright hating something when I can use half of that to find things to like about it. Meh!

[torireactstohdgstories]

Lost & Found by Darkfalli - Chapter 12 : Doll

Click here to see the story

"I could crawl over to my owner. My paws touched the ground. Implant laughed at me the whole way. I couldn't tell why because this was how I normally walked." Huh, I wonder if some hypnosis happened here x)

Evie being excited about her present is just... fohfoyfuitdgjidhcute

"Oh Stars, what if it was a giant plushie of Implant! That would be so cute. I could curl up in a plushie of Implant and then go inside and cuddle Implant at the same time!" That made me laugh x) Man this is cute.

Wait what? A new body?

I'm a bit lost. Was that planned?

Is Evie going to be digitized or something ? How is she getting inside a new body?

Oh, she did get hypnotized! Okay, I got that right x)

Okay, we're talking about how Evie wants to date Implant now. It's really adorable how Implant is making excuses, but can we get back to explaining how the new body is going to happen ???

Aw, look at Evie communicating with Implant and reassuring her and being so patient... Okay, that is precious.

"It wasn't like Implant could get her own implant," OMG can you imagine? XD You give Implant an implant, and then that implant becomes sentient and needs its own implant etc. XDD That would be so weird.

"Coming to terms with existing is… hard." Weirdly deep sentence there. There was something like that in my high school philosophy class.

"Was that an order?""That was me lightly begging." That made me laugh XD

It's very touching, the way Evie has evolved and is now able to help Implant who is almost like another version of herself.

*Gasp!* Omg, having the painting of Implant on the back of the new body is such a good idea!

But then again... Can someone explain how that's going to happen??? I'm still confused here! I just want confirmation!

"Of course, I couldn't say no to my second floret." OMG!!!

"I-I'm not- I'm an implant- I can't be a floret!""That's where you are wrong, little Implant Glacialis-Fir, Second and Fourth Floret." OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!! Implant has a full name now!!! This is so precious, gods, my heart!

Oh, okay, we got some explanations. Surgery, huh? So... They put Evie's brain and Implant in the robot body? Okay. Not sure I love that, but weirder things have happened in sci-fi.

Thank gods Evie is surrounded by good people and has Implant to keep her calm, I can't imagine switching bodies and being unable to move much at first could be a pleasant experience otherwise.

I don't have much to say about the doll-play. It's good! And it was kind of obvious Evie would love it.

I like how free Synna is. She's a floret but I think she's one of the most independant florets I've seen so far. I like that! ^^

I still love the way Dianthus speaks, it's so pretty! So she waited alone with Evie and Implant because she knew she would wake up soon? So she could mark them before anyone else got to see them? Talk about being excited! XD And the way she needs reassurance, even though she's the mistress, is so precious. I didn't think so at first, but I think she might actually be my favorite of the three.

Huh, Dianthus spoke normally. Was she too emotional? That would be understandable.

Heehee, Nilla is so cute!

Such a good ending! There is a post-script too!

Oh, yay, she's finishing the sculpture! And being painted on at the same time x) That's funny.

"I was going to make it so colorful that looking at it would turn straight terrans gay." XD I like that sentence.

Aw, that was so sweet. Going to sleep, cuddled close to her master. <3

~

Okay, so that was the end of Lost & Found, and man was it good! Loved the characters, the fluff, the creative way that Evie just... exists. I don't know, it felt so unique! I'm glad I finally finished it x) Sorry it took so long, that's what generally happens when I finally fall out of a phase x)

The first chapters were angsty, but it really made Evie's thriving and recovering from her trauma so much more meaningful. That's why I love hurt/comfort, just getting to see people feel better is so soothing.

I wouldn't say this last chapter was the most impactful or powerful. It wraps things up, but I feel like it could've hit a little harder. Don't ask me how though, I'm terrible at figuring out endings XD

It was very cute though, and Evie finally getting to finish her sculpture is a nice touch. Maybe letting her finish it completely would have been more satisfying? Or saying something about how there was still so much too add, the same way she still had so much to experience with her masters, as a contrast with her nearly suicidal behavior in the first chapters. Just spitballing here.

Anyway, yeah, that was great!

[asoulofatlantis]

Its so cute to see Estelle go over from the sibling zone to the realization that she has fallen in love zone. Its a nice and slow transition.

It looks like Joshua has given up here but can you blame him? Estelle had that really loud outburst in the hot spring that I am pretty sure Joshua heard, making it look like he was fooling himself believing that she could ever fall in love with him.

Plus, it is kind of funny to see the situation reversed now XD

But Sanktheim is boring!

How are we saved by the very same man that will be our demise eventually? Well almost our demise... but you get what I mean, right? I mean, he is from Ouroboros and all, but isn't it weid that he helps us? Why let us win this fight against whatever happens with Richard just to get Joshua in that awful position?

Oh hunny, you have no idea what this man is capable off. He can put you through hell with his lies... you and us and the whole Trails-Fandom, for that matter XD

Oh for the love of Aidios... Kloe! Please! Save us from him! If he becomes King of Liberl we are all doomed!

Seriously tho... Liberl would be part of Erebonia or Calvard by now if he would have taken over the throne ^^'

*achem* Excuse her. She is as clueless in seeing the value of Oliver hier, as she is in understanding Joshuas, let alone her own feelings.

So... I will do this the right way in her case: "OH GOD! *squeals in fangirlisch* ITS OLIVER!!! ♥" XD This is how we do it, Estelle!

Moving on...

Yeah... no... ^^' I don't think you are quite there just yet Olivert... XD

Where has that flirty attitude actually gone to? I can not remember him actually flirting with any girl in Calvard. Not seriously enough for me to remember at least. Did Killika actually reign him in somehow despite them not dating? Faszinating.

I do not know what to think about the fact that they force me to watch all those fights ^^'

Once again, that man has learned NOTHING under Cassius. As stupid as Olivert seems to be right now and as useless as his prince title as a bastard may look like, he is a force to be reckoned with and I am pretty sure Cassious would have noticed that immediately. So choosing Olivert also Klaudias future Husband to... uh... weaken her position or something is actually a pretty stupid Idea.

All that aside. Can you imagine Olivert and Kloe getting married? I mean... he would have made a fine King of Liberl and all... but they both would have been so unhappy in this marriage and Olivert would never be happy behind the chains of a crown on his head. So thank the goddess that this nightmare never came to fruiten and instead our dearly beloved debaucherous prince could marry the love of his life instead while Kloe... well Kloe... well at least she didn't get stuck in an unhappy marriage ^^'

You say that but... you have no idea of all the secrets this boy has.

URG! I hate stealth missions. I suck at them so darn badly!

Funny... for me it also feels like its been ages ago XD

The trick is to beat Loewe... uh... I mean the second Colonol *cough cough* as fast as you can. As soon as he is out and stays out, you are good to go.

Its not just that. Dorothy made photos she will very likely publish in an official paper. Olivert has no regard for his reputation OR his god damn safety ^^' Poor Mueller. He has it rough.

That is her, right? The one in that Liberl-Shop we found in Calvard, correct? My... there really are a lot of familiar faces in Kuro, aren't there?

This makes it even weirder that Joshua and Estelle are not among the returning characters in Kai. Thats wrong. Just absolutely wrong!

There is a bit of a hole in tha story. The empty seed would have been Oliverts, if he had attended so there should have been another chair for the Colonel. But everyone is wonder who the seat is for, even tho it made absolut sence that there was an empty seat and that they might have put the dishes there because I can imagine not every stuff-member could have been informed of Olivert not attending.

But... oh well...

[scrunglepaws]

So, it finally happened- I had a movie-length Sonic dream that I at least vaguely remembered upon waking up. Unfortunately it faded FAST, so I only remember random details already. Mostly what the setting looked like, and the final battle which... meh, wish I remembered the character dynamics instead! That's the good stuff. q.q Because like, SO MANY were there- the main cast, Blaze, Vector, Ray, Metal, ahhh no point in listing them all. Anyway, the only interesting bits I remember:

Of all people, freaking RAY goes super for the final battle and saves the day. What. xD I'm so proud of him, tho! Flipping Sonic Heroes was playing for the final battle for some reason, lmao. NONE of the main cast were even present, pfft. The tone was really hopeful and badass as you would expect. And after the battle, he turned back normal and reunited with the main cast + everyone else. But once I woke up... it occurred to me that the super transformation was kind of creepy? It made him sort of like a "movie version" of himself- that slightly realistic, fluffy look. But he was sorta.... darker. Just a bit. His fur also almost seemed matted/yucky? ._. I can sorta chalk this up to the fact that I personally find the movie designs a bit unpleasant (not BAD, just... idk, sliiightly off. Uncanny? Mostly for Tails, oddly enough), so maybe the dream was projecting that hard-core. BUT... The super transformation also affected the three people with him. But instead of being an equal transformation, they were grayed out and almost kinda 2d looking. And even though they were powered up, they were like, underlings to the main super person (Ray). They trailed behind him like.... in Sonic Heroes? (I've never played it, idk). But yeah, in the dream, none of these elements struck me as off at all, but they seem hella creepy now that I'm awake. For the life of me, I can't remember who the supporting supers were, though. D: I THINK one was Blaze? Which just makes it even weirder. Ah yes, the incredibly powerful Blaze, supporting character to... Ray. Lmao. (No disrespect to Ray- I like him more than Blaze- but I mean COME ON. XD)

The second thing of note was this separate scene after the battle with Metal. He was all curled up and sad and even in the dream I was yelling "OH NO THE BABY!! T^T" because he was just so. Shbxgdvhhh His design was a little different, namely these tiny movable bits on his head (that curled in a bit just to emphasize the SADness). And uhhh, I think he was suppoooosed to be Neo Metal Sonic? For some reason? Despite the Sonic Heroes music earlier, I don't think they were fighting him as the final boss, at least not as he appeared in the game. Anyway, he was curled up, sad, and in defeat in SOME manner. And he was swearing fealty to some offscreen, unknown villain for some reason. And he talked, which jumpscared me in the dream bc I didn't think he could. xD But yeah, I got the vibe that he had teamed up with the good guys for something, but got the short end of the stick and was discarded. But I saw none of this, it was just feels. Idk, freakin' dreams, man. But one thing is clear, now that I'm awake. Regardless if it was Metal, Neo, or something inbetween... this was def fanfic-Metal. He was so emotional, lmao. Love him.

But yeah, these fragments are an incoherent mess and probably can't even be salvaged for fic ideas/inspo, but I thought they were kinda neat. And into the void they go!

[psych---ologically-deranged]

psych 2x15 Black & Tan, a crime of Fashion. I thought this was way later in the series, it was one of the earlier episodes I'd seen. SF, CH, KK, JRr, DH

I might be able to tell their voices apart this time

nope nvm it has been nearly two months.

kelly is using her husband's name now! <3 Good for her

*asked permission to not have the flashback* *denied* *extended part where shawn gives himself a mustache*

Something sexy & edgy & sleek

Gus not working on his birthday & the complications that ensue when a case pops up

DH: I enjoyed shooting this scene because it was right around the corner from my apartment (I love the "I'm Black, he's Tan" it's so good.)

JRr: Dule Hill's finest hour

"Cheeta" SF's bro knew the names of ALL the laker girls & that was the inspo for Gus knowing the Gooey Girl's name.

SF: How do you know if someone is bulimic? Me: ... Mom don't read this post. *listing off symptoms in my head* SF: The two fingers are chafed but it looks like she dipped them in acid or red paint.

My man was named after a german tennis player. & then he died.

"The names caused a stir in this episode with the network." "American duos had, like, five, but this has eighteen." "I sent them a document with 30 REAL supermodel names, all of which were multisyllabic & weird, & they were like 'yeaaaaaah....',"

Foot model XD ok Gus. & ankle & hand

It's Gus's birthday hence he's not working tonight. *counting down until midnight.*

Why does Shawn think his dad is asleep at 8pm? Wait nvm he fishes early in the morning.

*Chief opens the door* SS: I didn't see anything SF: & then for one moment it gets just a little weirder

Purple shirt

HS: Come on hawn you have an opinion on everything (Funny how it comes off as "I hate you" even while he's asking him for help)

*leave the gate open* *Gus calling himself cinderella*

Pancakes in a diner at 11 at niht? BG: Woah! Six five! Commenters burst out laughing bc Shawn isn't even doing anything

"Every promotional clip of this show should have this" *Gus & Shawn doing the arrow dance thing

The sneeze was so cute

JRr wrote "I'd rather shower with a bear"

"Look at my jaw!" KV: I've seen enough, you're hired.

YES PLEASE BRING THAT CHARACTER BACK! The show's over, nothing I can do now

Heck yeah amanda detner

a thousand dollars over budget & all in wardrobe

... "I got the window" Kelly left it in for once

Sigrand O'o, who he went to college with. Sorry, Gus would kill me if I said that. Let me fix it: with whom he went to college.

Gus is legit hella strong. I love him. *immediately tends to him* (gay) That pillow fight is JRr sticking to his guns; everybody tried to take it out but JRr du his heels in & got ONE shot.

So much debate on what the song for the slow-mo should have been. *winds down* Dad?

"Why was Henry out in an alley knowing where Shawn would be?" There was an earlier version where Henry heard they were going to a bar, but "I was a detective" was fine.

I MISSED THAT; GUS THROWING THE MODEL OUT OF THE WAY, AGAIN HE'S SO SO STRONG

SS: I'm proud of the fact that I've never been in therapy That's true, he didn't even call the crisis line, he made Gus do it. Related fact: his mom was a psychologist. He probably should be in therapy though.

JRr directed this scene! Good for him.

SF: It's taken Gus about 3 minutes to turn into an incipient horror

Heck yeah aotearoa, this kiwi stuff is so funny but so subtle.

Still shocked that they kept "don't be surprised if your pillow smells faintly of my butt" made it through the censor

Soo funny how the models wake up looking ready for the runway & Shawn is there looking like a normal guy (still a pretty actor tho ofc)

She's a vampire? Where did that come from?

*walking by saying horrible things to the head*

The fashion funeral was a great set piece. "You can't dance at a funeral, Shawn"

"Props to my dear friend amanda for letting herself look like this" *weird model fashion*

She died with her eyes WIDE open but it was cut

Gus with NO PANTS ON but still his SHOES

"That's a painting of Bruce Jenner as a fish''

Star filter & the three of them like *eyes emoji*

Ghandi as a fish

Dead, not dead, & this is how the show got around it.

The point of it, besides Gus's birthday, was to see if they could write a show where there was nobody to cuff in the end.

[pwnyta]

Apologies for my mistakes in advance.

Ok, so, I have a question for you.

Some time ago (honestly, it might have been kind of a long time ago) you’ve been talking about Genshin and how you prefer when the mc is not the point of view character but just someone who spectates from afar while other characters living their lives/stories. Tbh I’m not entirely sure that it was the exact thing that you said, but at the very least, that’s how I’ve remembered it xD

(Not trying to put words in your mouth btw, again, that’s just how I’ve remembered it)

So, my question is: do you not like MCs, like, in general? Like I know that it’s a strange question and that mc from Genshin feels more like a self-insert (I think they get better as the time goes on, maybe they’ll be their own characters by the end of the game lol), so it’s strange to question whether or not you like MCs just based on this one answer, but I was wondering about it so I decided to ask.

I’m not gonna lie, I am (kind of) a main character truther, they usually end up being my favorite characters, and if I don’t like mc, then I usually drop the work as a whole (because I don’t want to consume something that’s going to anger/annoy me, and bc MCs are usually a huge part of the story, I would rather just not interact with the story as a whole. Kind of unrelated, but my hatred for Bak*go forced me to drop mha bc he started to gain more and more screen time, and even though he is not THE main character, I still think that’s a good example).

Like. I hope you don’t think that I’m looking for troubles or anything, but as a person who likes MCs and as someone who would rather drop the work if I can’t emphasize with them/don’t like them/feel like they are NOT treated or behave like main characters, I’m just interested in the perspective of someone who doesn’t care for those characters/don’t like them in general.

Sorry if my message was confusing, I hope you got my point.

Well honestly I do tend to find MCs significantly less interesting than other characters. MCs tend to be the most generic character so that people can relate to them… thats just not how I read stories so it does nothing for me.

Like Naruto (& honestly the rest of his team) I found him (them) largely annoying and was always more interested in the stories of other characters with weirder powers (like Shino) & because I like more minor characters I Guess Im just more tolerable of their absence so long as the story is fun (Shino was probably THE most neglected of class but I stuck through Naruto until it wasnt fun anymore.)

But yeah especially in something like Genshin where Aether/Lumine are both the MC… and nothing really changes based on the character you pick... they arent a real character and what they do doesnt really matter because its just a stand in.

Like if you made QIQI the main character things would inherently change because she is her own character and the world would have to change based on what she might do. Her options to choose would be SO much different since shes a child and a zombie and w/e the world couldnt possibly be the same…. or CYNO would be interesting because hes got such a different temperament and also struggles with discrimination from being a desert dweller so there would even be more resistance... Hes basically got 2 personalities the quiet professional who keeps his head down and the goofy little meme boy who likes puns and YGO thats closer to who he really is and only shows to his friends (who hate it… OMG WINDBLUME IM STILL DEVASTATED LEARNING CYNO IS QUITE WHILE WORKING BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE RACIST AND HE ONLY JOKES WITH HIS FRIENDS BUT HIS FRIENDS ARE ACTIVELY ANNOYED BY IT AND DONT WANT TO HEAR IT…. IM SICK. …anyway.)

You can interchange Lumine and Aether and nothing changes because theyre not a real characters with their own personality so I just cant give a shit about them. The only thing that makes them tolerable is that its pretty clear Aether is supposed to be the main character canonically.

That said I wouldnt completely dismiss an MC just for being an MC…. some are interesting or serviceable enough to be somewhat likable. I love Luffy from One Piece, I like Tsuna from KHR and I did like Deku from MHA at first though recently he just feels like he doesnt matter at all (which normally I wouldnt mind since I usually prefer side characters stories but cutting screen time of Deku and focusing on characters who genuinely dont fucking matter or are terribly written like Endeavor or the side villains whos stories are forced and/or dont fucking MEAN anything… its frustrating. As much as I cant STAND Bakugo I actually wouldnt mind him having more screen time because he IS important to the story (or should be)… same with Todoroki but Bakugo is just a FLACCID and stagnant character and Todo was fucking wasted as Hori somehow thought itd be a better idea to build his abusive POS father without him present… DONT UNZIP ME NONNY. IM SO MAD…).

UM…. yeah. I didnt take offense or anything to the question… I actually love having an excuse to bitch about silly shit like this. Fandom discourse used to be one of my favorite pastimes before people started pretending it was serious business because theyre too lazy to do any actual social justice.

[voiceless-terror]

I am so completely enamored with Danny as jons ex and I would be forever in your debt if you finished that

i wasn't expecting people to like this idea so much, its definitely one of my weirder ones xD since im not sure when i'll get around to actually finishing it (if ever) you can have a very rough chunk of it instead. you'll have to forgive any mistakes, im not up to editing it.

In a surprising show of athleticism, Jon ducks under Sasha’s chair before the specter of his past manages to see him.

Sasha swears at the action, backing up in her chair and peering down at Jon in bafflement. “What on Earth are you doing, Jon?”

Instead of answering her question, he backs up even further, tucking his feet out of sight. He thinks Sasha’s umbrella must be under here, and judging from the sharp point currently jabbing at his thigh, he probably broke it. “Is he still there?” he hisses, tilting his head to avoid bashing it into the desk.

“Who?”

“That- that man!”

A pause. “Tall, dark and handsome?”

Jon’s turn to pause. “I suppose you might call him that,” he replies stiffly. And it’s true. The man, from Jon’s brief, panicked glimpses, is at least six foot, with thick, dark hair and a bright grin.

And he looks exactly like Jon’s ex, Danny Stoker.

He’d done an almost comical double-take after a cursory glance; at first he’d thought Danny was the new hire, but this man was more angular, like a sharper, leaner version of his ex. So no, it couldn’t be him.

That didn’t stop him from diving under the nearest object, ergo Sasha’s desk. Not the wisest of decisions, considering his throbbing side, but he’s never been known for grace under pressure.

He’s not exactly sure why this fight or flight mode’s been activated- he and Danny had parted on fairly good terms, each recognizing that although they cared about the other, they simply weren’t compatible in the long term. They’d dated for a little over six months when Jon was a freshman, and he’d fallen hard.

Danny had been his first real relationship, and Jon was shocked that someone like him even looked his way. Impossibly handsome, incredibly fit, desired and envied in equal measure, and he dated scrawny, shy, insecure Jonathan Sims; the rumor mill went wild. They’d met at a party, and not even a good one. In a brief moment of liquid courage, Jon managed to insert himself into a group and fit in one snarky joke that sent Danny into stitches, the rest of the partygoers following his lead. For one second, Jon felt like he truly fit in, like he was someone worth knowing.

Danny had a way of making someone feel special. Big, romantic gestures, surprising him after class, taking him on little expeditions beyond campus. Jon didn’t drive, still doesn’t, and Danny wanted to show him the world outside of their privileged little campus.

But, like all of Jon’s relationships, it came to an end. Jon wasn’t ready for such overwhelming affection (didn’t think he deserved it, quite frankly), and Danny needed someone who could handle his fast-paced lifestyle. Jon was not that man. They broke up amicably, even if Jon shed a few tears in private, saw each other on campus a few times. Danny tried to reach out more than once, just as friends, but Jon’s never been able to handle more than one relationship at a time, and by then he’d met Georgie.

But now it seems the past is unavoidable, and standing near the circulation desk. Well, now walking in his direction, if the steady footsteps were any indication. Jon’s heart begins to hammer in his chest as it hits him that he is, in fact, hiding under a desk because a man who sort of looks like his ex is in his general vicinity. Coward.

“‘Lo!” God, even the voice is similar, if not as deep. “Tim Stoker. Reporting for duty.”

Stoker. Tim Stoker. Jon startles, slamming his head against the desk with a yelp.

Somewhere in his spiraling thoughts and throbbing head he remembers- Danny had a brother. An older brother that he adored. This must be the famous Tim- Danny made him out to be a saint, and though Jon never met him, he felt some fondness via Danny’s descriptions. But Tim’s going to have no fondness for him, especially considering Jon’s current position, hiding in pain under his coworkers desk.

“Pleased to meet you!” Sasha chirps, very clearly amused by the situation. “I’m Sasha James. And this-” she tugs at one of Jon’s legs, dragging him a few inches into sight. Jon buries his head in his hands and wishes he were invisible. “-is Jonathan Sims. We’ll be training you.”

“Excellent.” Tim’s voice holds the same good humor Danny’s always did, and sends a pang of nostalgia through his chest. “Er, you alright down there?”

“Yes,” Jon responds robotically, scrambling to his feet and standing behind Sasha’s chair, unwilling to meet the man’s eyes, lest he be drawn in. “I- uh, lost a pen. P-Probably left it in the copy room, I’ll just be going...there.” With that incredible performance, he fled.

And only tripped once on the way out.

________

So Jon’s kind of cute.

Tim doesn’t normally go for tiny disgruntled academics, but Jonathan Sims is an interesting fellow. He’s got a reputation for being the ‘problem child’ of the Research Department, awkward and prickly and always available with a snide word. He wields his books and files like a little suit of armor, and the only person he’s seen him open up to is Sasha. Besides their little conversations, Jon is all work and no play.

Except with Tim.

Sasha says she’s never seen anything like it, with one of her secret little smiles. Jon’s always staring. Usually, the man can’t hold eye contact to save his life, but he’ll spend full minutes looking at Tim when he thinks he can’t see. The first few times, Tim would turn around and smile, but that practically sent the man into convulsions, dropping his papers and jumping out of sight like a spooked cat. It was funny the first few times, but Tim pitied him enough to ignore it now. He hopes Jon enjoys the view.

God forbid he ask the guy a question. Jon will look around the room, as if waiting for someone else to answer, when it’s clearly directed at him. He’ll blush and stammer his way through every explanation, keeping a wide berth of at least two feet between them. Even when Tim wants him to look at his screen, he’ll squint from far away. Tim starting to think he smells bad, or has some sort of communicable disease unbeknownst to him.

“It’s not that,” Sasha assures him, again with that unreadable smile. “Trust me.”

Time to try something else.

He prints out his latest follow up, a rather elaborate statement regarding mistaken identities and absolutely nothing supernatural. He knows Jon prefers to look at things on paper, as screens ‘trigger his migraines’ if Tim understood his mumbles. Maybe if he can engage with him on familiar territory for the both of them, he’ll be able to hold a conversation. Tim specifically requested his help on this one.

“If you could just look it over, make sure everything’s up to snuff, that’d be great,” Tim says to the top of Jon’s head, as the man refuses to lift his own to meet his gaze. “You know how Dr. Walker is. Always-”

“Finding mistakes where there are none? I’m familiar with her methods,” Jon snorts, and Tim feels like he’s getting somewhere. A whole sentence! With classic Jonathan Sims snark! “I-I can give it a look. I’m rather busy, but -”

“Take your time,” Tim says with a dismissive wave of the hand. “I finished a bit early, so I don’t need it for a few days yet. Don’t want to put you out.”

“You’re not.” Jon meets his eyes for about ten seconds before ducking his head back down.

Progress!

[jess-the-vampire]

Goodness, your art gives me life, I swear. Also, I was wondering how the Belos - Hunter relationship works in your Swap AU. Are they still uncle and nephew or do they just meet randomly like Eda and Luz in the show? Or something else?

for the sake of the au, unless something changes in the show to make me readjust some things....they're not gonna be related. (Though tbf it's unclear even in the show the full extent of their family connection).

And they'll work like Eda and Luz already do, except belos is FAR more reluctant then Eda probably was to have a human in his house (He'll get used to it).

Instead of being abusive and murderous, Belos and Kiki are just like....grumpy hermits who don't like people and keep to themselves a lot. Belos won't leave the dang house really and kiki does most of the work and talking (So basically no different then the show XD).

They're criminals doing their own thing and Hunter's existence literally FORCES them to do things now because if they don't he will find a way to make things worse. XD

Hunter's smart, he's incredibly gifted and a huge wild magic nerd, but he gets himself into trouble because of his want to learn more about the world and having so much more freedom here then he did back home. He'll just stumble his way into danger because he likes to take risks in search of knowledge.

But he's also sarcastic and moody at times, they're a moody bunch.

Hunter never experiences the hard training and serious issues he does in the show, so here he's not as well trained in battle and his mind has yet to be seriously damaged. But his parents are also still like...dead in this au so like, he probably has some issues, he's still trying to cure belos.....which annoys the crap out of him btw but he gets used to it.

He's frequently witty tho, and gets easily annoyed when picked on, so basically he's about the same as he mostly is in the canon series, but with far less of the baggage and not as competent (Yet).

I didn't expect him to be so much of a straight man to luz's shenanigans as he turned out to be, but actually it kinda works better. Everyone just now drives hunter insane at times, and he has to put up with it.

- (Don't mind me, i'm rambling about the uncle stuff down here)

Honestly i figured something like this could happen because i was one of the people who HEAVILY suspected GG and Belos were gonna be related somehow.

Like before GG's age was revealed you were able to maybe assume GG was just some powerful adult general of belos's he had lying around and some rival to lilith and kiki, but when we got told he was 16 years old i knew something was up. (Tho i did suspect him being a kid when the intro came out and he looked really young in it)

He and belos were matching design wise in their outfits, they were both carrying matching staffs with similar magic to them. Belos appeared to have some special level of trust to this teenager in particular that i found too odd unless they had a connection between them.

Not to mention, all the important kid characters have parents we actually get to meet, and it seemed clear to me GG was going to be important to s2 in some fashion because of his involvement in the new intro, new poster, how dana was talking about him-

and it'd be so much weirder for the show to introduce this random kid without him having any connection to any previously established characters. And for me, belos made by far the most sense to be the character he's already connected to in terms of everything else i listed here.

It was either "These two are related" or "Belos is just REALLY attached to this teenager in particular for some reason", which still gave off parental vibes anyway.

So i was expecting this to possibly happen, where i'd have to rethink their relation in the au, but yeah no, for now i still think it works....especially since the show is being so vague about how hunter got into belos's hands in the first place.

I commend my great observation skills paying off here tho, i knew there had to be something familial between belos and GG, especially since they wanna obviously parallel eda and luz.

[twin-books]

Canon Adrien and Zoé

Oh boy... man... you just asked for so many words. I apologize in advance for everything you'll have to read. Here's hoping I don't get too distracted and go on 5 million tangents. But, firstly, thank you for the ask. <3

I have less to say about Zoé than Adrien so I'm gonna start with her.

In short terms... I have no idea what I feel about Zoé. She's... she's not really a character. Like the girl is nice and wants to be an actress. That's it...

Oh yeah, she was, I guess, bullied and has cool shoes?

Speaking of her shoes, let's just discuss the chaos that is Zoé's design. Like, what the freak? Girl has more going on than a party! Why is she so decked out compared to even Marinette??? She also looks like she would be a street artist (honestly I would be 100% down with that).

She's not ugly, by any means. She actually looks pretty decent. It just drives me insane that nothing really matches but it doesn't look bad that's just my personal design choices butting in to complain. There is some things I would just ditch all together so she stops cluttering my screen. I actually used a dress up game I have to design her an outfit I would kind of prefer (game's called Love Nikki btw. Recommend it and it's 3D version, Shining Nikki). But I just couldn't find the perfect stuff I wanted. Maybe I should try again...

These were the best I got;

The game is very detailed so it's still a tad cluttered but I tried to simplify them as best I could. Something like this would be nice but still not the ideal look I was going for. I wanted more actress like vibes, I suppose. I think I failed. XD I also think I would have done better if Zoé actually had a semblance of a character. That's basically how I design, based off the character and then I build from there. Hard to do that when there's no... character.

But the main problem with her design is she sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the other miraculous characters. She has way too much going on compared to most everyone else. The only other designs in the show that even come close to comparing to her are Aspik and Viperion and they needed a lot going on since they both have skin tight suits. (Absolute pain to draw, btw and I still find those two kind of cluttered anyway. Like add a bobble or something, stop painting textures on them. It hurts to try and draw).

I really wish they thought her design out more. Just like I really wish they thought a lot of their designs out a bit more.

Moving on to her introduction... I hated it. It was very weird to me.

For some reason, even though we have never seen or heard of this character before, the episode is mostly in Zoé's POV instead of Marinette's. It's like they expect us to just kind of know her already or she's like the new protagonist or something? That's also just completely unfair seeing as it took them 4 seasons to show the POV of their secondary lead (which sucked, btw, but we'll get to Adrien in due time) but this minor character for some reason gets it for her introduction. Nice to see we're playing favorites.

Because we suddenly get jerked out of Marinette's POV to follow this random girl's POV instead, it felt like I was watching something other than miraculous. I actually thought I was watching an entirely different show despite I knew I had clicked on a miraculous episode. I have no idea why the freak they made this choice. It was so off-putting.

To make it weirder, she feels like um... the best way I can describe it is well... You know those games you play where you start as an main character (usually an unnamed character that you can name yourself though sometimes they have a name already) who's mostly just a blank slate? Like they have a few hints of a personality but for the most part you choose who they really are?

Yeah... That's what Zoé feels like (but just... without the fun and... choices). And that could have been cool if this was actually a new show she was the main character of. But it isn't. It's still miraculous, so it's just weird.

She feels unfinished. Which really confirms what I have always thought about this character... just something thrown in last minute as a peacemaker for the writers who didn't want Chloe to be Queen Bee and the other writers who wanted Chloe to be Queen Bee. Zoé was the compromise. And it really shows. 

Oh yeah, here's an idea, ml team... Maybe show us how nice she is instead of constantly repeating it. Ground-breaking, I know. /s 

The fact that they had to repeat it so many times makes me feel like Zoé's actually secretly evil (which I would also be totally down for). And it solidifies Sole Crusher as yet another prime example of why show don't tell is a very important tool the ml team should use otherwise you get... well... that.

Oh yeah, let's talk about the message of Sole Crusher because I have issues with it. I'm sure that shocks absolutely no one.

So, I like the message I think they were trying to go for. Keyword being, think. Thing is, they screwed it up so massively that I can't be sure if that's what they were really going for. But I think the message is to never assume the worst of people based on their situations and their family relations. I think the message was to get to know someone first before judging them.

Let me just go point by point as to why this message seems unclear to me and poorly executed. I'm going to go from best to worst;

1. They already did this exact same message with Adrien in Origins. Which wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't basically the same thing. They even have the same exact relationship that initially causes people to assume the worst in them. The only difference is Zoé actually decides to play cruel to impress Chloe (for some reason), Zoé shows no real signs of being nice to the people who assumed the worst of her and never really does (beyond maybe two scenes), and it's all dialed up to 11 (for some reason). This makes Zoé feel like Adrien 2.0.

2. It makes literally no sense why Marinette is so convinced Zoé is a good, kind person. She doesn't know her. They just freaking met. There's no way she should even know Zoé was acting. 

They showed us nothing that would make this even remotely believable. Marinette hadn't even seen her do anything that good besides reaching down to help her pick up the crate of apples Marinette spilled all over the place. (Sidenote; How can Marinette confidentially carry a crate of apples? I am actually asking. I still get nervous using knives because I used to be so clumsy I would accidentally cut myself constantly. We sure this girl has low self-confidence)? That is not enough evidence to suggest "Hey, Zoé's a totally kind person".

3. Zoé still chose to be mean. "Acting" really means nothing. She still hurt people but she's played off as being the victim, as if she was forced to do that. She wasn't. Obviously, I feel bad for her but she still chose to hurt people.

Yes, she was afraid Chloe and her mother would outcast and treat her badly. I understand that. But this is an assumption which goes against the perceived message of the episode. Was it a correct assumption? Yes. But you can't have this both ways, guys. Zoé has never met Chloe before. 

Now the show acts as if Zoé has known her mother for a while so her assumptions for Audrey at least make sense but the show also states she has never met Chloe. How does she know Chloe will really be as terrible as she may act? Outward appearances can be misleading.

4. So... Marinette is our protagonist, correct? Marinette is the person we should be following and learning from, right? Cool, so if that's the case then, depending on how the episode is written, she is our example of what not to do and what to do. Hopefully we can agree on that.

So the scene where Zoé enters the bakery, and the rest of the stuff that follow it until Zoé exits, was a perfect example of what not to do with a stranger. Marinette immediately trusts this stranger based on one act of kindness and invites Zoé to a get together with her friends without even asking her friends if that's okay with them. She gives Zoé her phone number despite just meeting her and only knowing her for about 5 minutes, max. This is a great example of what not to do.

Trusting strangers with very little evidence to support them being a good person and offering them your personal information without getting to know them first is very much not a good thing to do. We all agree on that, hopefully. 

Now, here's the problem with it... The scene wasn't written in a way that discourages kids from doing this.

In fact, it shows this behavior as positive and the right thing to do. There's no repercussions for Marinette giving a stranger her phone number. Actually there's benefits and rewards for it. Now, is this a possibility that can happen? I guess, sure. But it's most definitely not worth the risk! 

Now assuming I got the correct message this episode was trying to teach, I get that the message is to not assume. I get it. We shouldn't immediately assume everyone is out to hurt us. But that should go both ways. You also shouldn't immediately assume just because someone seems nice that they are a safe person to invite into your friend group, your home, and your life.

I can't believe this made it past all those people and no one saw an issue with it! This especially upsets me as someone with two young nieces who like to watch this show! You should never ever assume a nice stranger is going to have your best interests at heart. Never. Not even if they are your same age. You should always get to know them first before inviting them over to group parties or your house and way before you even think of giving them your phone number. That's not even being unfair, that's just a healthy and safe mindset!

Now that I have complained enough about that let's move on to Zoé herself. Um... There really isn't much to say about her, is there? There's nothing interesting about her. She was actually more interesting when she was acting evil. At least then she was entertaining. It actually made me wish Chloe and her would switch roles, to be honest. (Side note: ML, I am literally begging you to stop matching siblings' names in "cute" ways in miraculous. Every miraculous character that has a sibling has their name inexplicably match up. The only ones not like that is Nino and Chris and that's only in the English dub. As a twin, this personally irks me. Please quit it).

I guess I could say that I do ship Zoé with Marinette more than I ship Marinette with Adrien so... hey, that's a plus... maybe? Ironic since, again, she is basically Adrien 2.0.

But that's all I got on Zoé. She's like... a 2 out of 10, I guess. She's not too offensive, her episode was mildly entertaining, but overall I think she contributed nothing and her episode only teaches kids to be far too trusting of strangers who happen to be nice. I find her terribly forgettable and you could easily remove both her episodes without much consequence to the plot of season 4. I am speaking as someone who still hasn't seen Queen Banana and literally didn't need to watch any of that episode to watch other episodes. All I needed to know is it introduced Vesperia who replaces Queen Bee and that Chloe was solidified to be bad to the point Adrien cut their friendship off (which isn't much of a change since it was basically nonexistent in the first place). I didn't even need to know that Vesperia was Zoé.

The only other thing I have to say about Zoé is about her last name. I had a friend come to me complaining about her last name, how it seemed kind of fishy a white girl got a Chinese last name. And that's a fair thing to be upset about but Lee is also a European last name. Since Zoé was from New York which is in North America (US) which started with an English background, it's entirely possible for her to have such a last name. I just wanted to clear that up and save the writer's some grief, maybe. ^^

With all that said... I think I need to take a rain check on Adrien as I realized I have way more to say about him and a lot of it is comparisons. I have many reasons for this but spoiler, I suppose... To me Adrien is an incomplete character and shows no signs of gaining any solidification. He's got more personality than Zoé (thank goodness) but that may not be a good thing depending on the writing.

I plan to compare Adrien to a wide variety of characters he feels like but never really seems to be any one of these types of characters. Like they just can't decide. As well as some stories from these characters that are similar to a lot of the "arcs" the show tries to do with Adrien but inevitably fails or comes up short (in my opinion) almost every time.

These may change but so far characters I am considering for this are; Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Archie and IDW comics), Ben Tennyson (Ben 10), Kiro (Mr Love: Queen's Choice), Gavin (Mr Love: Queen's Choice), Luke Pearce (Tears of Themis), Marius von Hagan (Tears of Themis), Eugeo (Sword Art Online season 3), and Corliss (Raven Saga on Webtoons). Maybe even Thoma (Genshin Impact). Hope that gives you an inkling of the mess that Adrien feels like to me.

I'm sorry I couldn't get him done here though. I shall try to get to him soon but he's gonna take a while especially since Adrien as a character personally impacted a large portion of my life so I have a lot of feelings to sort through.

Thank you for reading all that. You're truly a trooper and thank you ever so much for the ask. I hope you're having a wonderful day, night, afternoon, evening, or whatever time it is where you are. Sorry this is so late. <3

Send Me a Miraculous Character

[xo-cuteplosion-xo]

okay here me out

A touch deprived reader but that's not all 😀

They don't understand emotions well.

Like can you do something with bandages, angry ginger, kinda furry friend. (Haven't requested him before XD)

Just like a reader who is crying but doesn't understand the tears a,d is all confused and just gets attention and their just like wtf but end up liking it and crying more as t&ey try to explain?

Emotionless ? | Dazai, Chuuya, Atsushi x normally emotionless crying reader |

Hope you like it friend. I’ve also decided to call me followers peeps :) So you are now a peep. 

Dazai-

He’d never seen your face in anything but a single emotion, numb.

He never saw you show shock, surprise, joy, love, not even amusement.

Even he grasped some emotions. And he considered his ability to be the perfect description of himself.

He’d known you since the port mafia days.

You were one of the many feared people among the mafia, known as the emotionless angel of death. You even killed subordinates who stepped from line or messed up. 

You had changed, but it was near impossible to tell. There was a little more light in your eyes. They weren't as dead now.

So imagine the shock of the former mafia executive when he spots your grip on your phone loosen. When it fell to the floor and your head tilted to the side, he was up from his chair to turn you to face him.

The pure shock would at first scare him.

He’d move away watching as you blinked and touched your cheek over and over trying to form words only for those light whimpers to leave.

He’d hesitantly approach you. He wasn’t all that good with touch and comfort, but he knew you needed it.

At first, your body would be rigid, and he’d argue with himself. Unsure if you wanted him to let go.

It was weird to see your eyes open in shock as you moved your hands to wrap around him. 

It was even weirder when you dug your head to his chest and rubbed it on the fabric as if this was something new.

The tears fell faster as you held onto him. He ran his hands over your back as you cried.

“Please… don’t leave me Dazai.” his heart nearly combusted with your words. He’d never heard such desperation, fear, and sadness mixed in your voice.

“I…” how could he promise that he wouldn't? He was one day going to succeed right? He’d leave this world. “For as long as I live… I won’t” he was careful with the wording, but it seemed enough.

As your body relaxed and you pulled away, his hand cupped your cheek.

Once more your eyes widened before they fluttered shut. When you pressed to his touch with a soft hum, he wiped the stray tears with his thumb.

Were you… touch starved? He knew what it felt like to crave affection from somebody. He too basked in this, but he knew the feeling. He got what he needed from his pestering. This was more fulfilling though. The warmth of your skin on his hand was like touching heaven.

The more you leaned into the small touch, the more he wanted to just hold you until you could smile.

That’s what he did. Until the smallest of light jumped into your eyes as they opened, until that feather of a smile popped on your lips, he held onto you like he was your life-line.

Chuuya-

Chuuya is used to seeing your stoic expression and the drained voice when you talk to him.

He was not ready to deal with you showing emotion.

You were joining him for a drink and without even being all that drunk you looked down at the glass and tears just fell. 

It took him some time to process this. His head would tilt as he watched you sniffle.

He realized what was going on before you did. “Are you crying?” he asked seeing the water land in puddles beneath your chin.

“What’s that?” Chuuya would dead-pan at you. Trying to figure out how to explain an emotion to somebody who clearly had no understanding of how emotions worked was… difficult.

“It’s the reaction to being sad?”

“What’s being sad?”

“What you are right now.”

“I don’t understand it?”

“Of course you don’t…. I… just come here, damn it.”

“Why?”

“I’m just gonna show you what happens when you're sad, stupid dumb-ass!” he’d shout a little.

Another emotion you would likely never get. Why did people get angry? Why did they shout? Was there a point?

You walked to him with your head tilted trying to get the tears to stop. “Am I sad?”

“Well yeah? You’re crying so you're sad. It usually feels like your chest is all heavy and your head gets a little cloudy. You might wanna lash out, drop to your knees, blame the world, idk, there is a lot that happens when you're sad. It happens to people because sometimes it’s how you just stay sane.” he would explain the emotion as he pulled you down.

When he holds your back to his chest you’d freeze in shock. 

He would hesitate and almost let you stand back up. 

When you lean back slowly touching his gloved hands he’d keep you close. Removing one of his gloves, he'd let you hold it. “Soft.”

“Tch.”

You stayed like that for a while before slowly bringing his hand to your face. Putting it against your cheek you began to cry more. The feeling was nice and it filled your chest with a weirdly light sensation. “My chest… it feels light.”

“Happiness.” Chuuya would mumble.

He set his chin on your shoulder enjoying the physical contact.

It had been a while since he’d had somebody so close to himself.

He’d eventually find a way to cuddle. He’s big on cuddles.

It would confuse you at first but you would learn it was nice.

Without much thought, you would snuggle close trying to gain as much physical touch as possible.

He’d hold you like that until you stopped crying.

Out of trust and loyalty, he doesn't press for answers, he simply waits until you're ready to talk.

If you are never ready, he waits for you to leave the cuddles.

If you don’t leave the cuddles, he'll stay until the bar closes or until you two get tossed out, or have to work.

Atsushi- (forgive me if this is bad…. I don’t really pay enough attention to the kitty)

He’s so used to seeing nothing from your face when he’s caught alone with you crying, he's just shocked.

Then he’s scared. He had no idea how or why this happened to you.

Despite the tears, you still look really emotionless. He can’t tell if you're sad, in pain, or happy.

He’ll probably awkwardly waddle around before nervously asking if you were okay.

When your voice is nothing but whimpers, he fears he made you more upset (poor kitty)

He’s good with comfort, but he had no idea how to comfort somebody who rarely shows emotions.

His first reaction is to do what Dazai has done with him a few times. He rubs his hand in your hair.

When it shocks you he backs up.

The moment the touch left your chest felt heavy again.

This time you take the initiative and grab his hand, placing it back on your head.

He looks at you confused before rubbing your hair again.

You feel a comfortable tightness in your chest as well as a small warmth in your cheeks.

You try to put a name to it recalling the definitions of emotions, but it falls under too many.

Eventually, Atsushi would sum it up. The best way to comfort you was to let you know whatever you were holding in or hiding didn't have to be done alone.

The best way to do this (in his thoughts) is to pull you into a hug. It’s more than awkward, and he’s really self-conscious.

When he sees the way your body relaxes and presses to his body, he'll blush but also know he’s doing something right.

He won’t move or anything afraid of messing up or hurting you more.

When your tears stop, he'll smile kindly as he always does. “Feel better?”

When you look at him and think you decide that you were feeling something close to happiness right now. The light flutter of your heart leads you to try and copy his smile.

He’s shocked but chuckles at how you could be cute.

He’ll get flustered after that crosses his mind.

You recognize that one from shows and you don’t understand why you suddenly copy that expression.

You both end up moving from the other, spurting words before bowing simultaneously. 

When you giggle you’re shocked with yourself and press a finger to your lips. He’ll smile kindly once more.

“You should show emotion like this more. I think it’s really uh nice wh-when you… you, uh nevermind!”

“I think… I think I’ll try… since Atsushi-Kun asked so nice I’ll try.” you were back to emotionless again but the feeling you had felt, you held onto them as he waved to you and left.

[artsy-dreamer]

Ok, story time 

So recently, I was shopping on the Target website, and I made a PHENOMENAL find… 

This tea party book I had when I was a kid?? 

I absolutely ADORED this book, read it over and over again until the pages came loose from the cover, and my grandma and I had a bunch of tea parties together and we made all kinds of things from the book 🥺 Very good memories… I hadn’t read it in years since I lost my copy, but I never forgot all the good times I had with this book 

So obviously, I wasn’t gonna pass up the opportunity to buy it… I thought it was maybe out of print or something, but no?? It was just?? Available to buy on Target dot com?? 

And then it got here, and I just?? Oh my gosh?? My CHILDHOOD???? 🥺🥺 

We made these!! 

We made them with flower stickers 😊 I remember that tea party being not as much fun as the others cuz there were bees, lol 

And we made these!! 

My grandma’s had the colors of her favorite team 😊 

And we made these!! 

Though we changed the recipe a bit- left out the butter and the pecans, specifically used cinnamon raisin bread iirc, and strawberry cream cheese! They were super good 😋 The flavors complement each other really well 

And we also made this 👀 

We made it with apple cider mix instead cuz I didn’t like tea… so much sugary goodness, lol :p And it was really good! While I still don’t really like tea by itself, I do like it mixed with other drinks (pomegranate lemonade, and of course boba) so maybe I actually would like this if it was made with actual tea… might have to try that sometime 🤔 

It was really fun being able to relive my childhood… I’d love to make some of this stuff again 😊 

But there was one thing that really threw me for a loop… 

The recipe for flute cookies 

Must be some sort of weird Mandela effect going on, because I specifically remember the recipe saying that Lorna Doone shortbread cookies would be the right shape… in fact, I specifically remember it being how I learned about the existence of Lorna Doone cookies in the first place, and I don’t remember even seeing them in person until years after I read the book

Maybe this is a newer edition and that part of the recipe was removed, since those cookies don’t come in flute shapes anymore? But I looked at the back of the book, and nope, this is the original edition 

And what’s even weirder, Lorna Doone cookies have been around since the 20s, and they’ve NEVER come in flute shapes… 

also apparently they’re not actual shortbread cuz they don’t contain butter, and there was some kind of lawsuit about it?? So that was interesting to learn, lol

So where on earth did this elaborate false memory come from?? It had to originate from somewhere… maybe there was a different recipe from an American Girl book or magazine, I really enjoyed those at that age 🤔 It’s just so weird… also why did I never realize until I got this new copy that you’re probably supposed to use this kind of cookie, lol

like it literally never occurred to me XD

So that was a really fun trip down memory lane… with an unexpected mystery twist 👀 Seriously, it’s such a lovely book