#commonly referring to it as a real thing. our baby.

[foxcassius]

jiwon is so nice.

[starrystevie]

bee… if you have the time, please indulge me in your aries eddie and cancer steve astrology headcanons because i’m so on board for eddie but i’m real curious what you have to say about our boy steve 👀

i finally have time to give this the thought it deserves and still ended up rambling instead of having formulated thoughts, thank you alice for your patience <3

i know there are real astrology girlies out there who know full charts and all that, but i am absolutely not one of them so this is all just for fun and vibes so pls don't destroy me for my take on astrology.

eddie, to me, is so so obvious. he’s a little all over the place, a little wild, a lot loud and a lot of energy. he’s passionate and uses that to judge how he does things. he’s like a star burning bright right before it explodes. he can’t see how anyone would want to postpone hellfire cause he would never do that, especially over something he doesn’t care about. he’s clumsy because his mind is going too fast to care about depth perception and what’s going on around him. 

aries are the baby of the zodiac and he is just such a messy toddler to me that of course he’d be the baby of the zodiac. they’re loveable and fun and so fucking cute but they throw tantrums and don’t understand things outside of their own bubble. they cry and scream for attention but also laugh at the little things and that’s eddie. his fucking object permanence is not there, in the sense of he’ll lose something in his hand but also in the sense that things will roll off him as he moves on to the next bigger and better thing. 

now steve. i base steve off 2 of my favorite cancer suns: myself and sailor moon. cancer suns i think are commonly referred to as cry babies, sensitive and reserved but i know based on myself that it's only half true. yes, we're cry babies and sensitive, but we're ruled by the moon. we're ruled by emotion and show it. yes, we have shells like our crab brethren but we're not always guarded and closed off. we just know when to show our underbelly, when to show our vulnerability. emotional doesn’t always mean letting your guard down. 

and that's steve harrington, baby. i'm not gonna get into his moon sign and rising sign and all that (because as an aries moon, i know that that makes me way different than like a cancer sun with a pisces moon) but cancer sun just fits. steve is emotional, i think we can all agree on that, but he’s pretty emotionally mature and seems almost rational with it. like he pinpoints what he’s feeling and figures out how and why it’s impacting something. he bases his actions on what he’s feeling, whether that be anger or fear or sadness or joy. 

take season 3, when he confesses to robin and gets turned down. he wanted her to know that he liked her cause he was feeling big big feelings and needed to get them out. he perceived her as someone he could let his guard down around (which is correct, platonic soulmates and all) so he told her how he felt. but once he got turned down, he processed his emotions, thought about it, and responded in the way that felt right for what robin was feeling. he took emotion and used it as logic, which i think is something cancers tend to do. we think with emotion. 

which leads me into the most obvious steve as a cancer fact that he is such a parental figure. we cancers yearn to take care of things in the obvious way of keeping snacks around and doling out advice, but also by being in the background as the protector, watching out for others, making sure they feel okay. steve met an asshole who was bullying literal children (one being his own fucking step-sister) and took matters into his own hands because someone had to. he took dustin under his wing because someone had to. he went back into the byers house in season 1 because someone had to. he dove into lovers lake because he knows someone had to. he wants to be the shield that protects them all (which don’t let me get into my sad steve harrington who thinks he’s just a body headcanon) because he needs to look out for others. 

he’s not afraid to be hard, to be this strong outer shell that seems impenetrable, if it means that no one gets hurt. he’s not afraid to come across as closed off if it means that he can protect himself. he’s smart because he knows who and how to trust. 

there’s this idea that cancers are too sensitive, which we are, but it’s not bad to be sensitive. it means we keep an eye open to things that can hurt and we make sure it doesn’t get to us or the people we love. i think my favorite way to explain steve as a cancer is season 2. he knows something is wrong with nancy (and i mean it might not have taken an empath to see that but steve is definitely empathetic) but he isn’t ready to show how it’s affecting him yet. in the bathroom at the party though (where he spends a good bit of time watching over her and making sure she’s okay in the exact same way i do with my loved ones) he drops the facade. he lets his guard down, he gets hurt, and he processes the whole thing with nancy through a lense of emotion. and he may not fully get it (”i’m sorry? what the hell am i sorry for?”) but he knows nancy’s sad which makes him sad.

i think some of this is obviously reaching. i’m aware of that and i’m also aware that this probably isn’t how other people view steve which is a okay! i also love libra steve! but something about cancer steve, this guy who feels things so much and wants to make sure his family is safe, hits me so hard. steve, who is the first one they go to for comfort. steve, who we know would open his house to whoever needed it. steve, who takes on more so that the people he loves doesn’t have to. steve, who lets his guard down when he knows he’s safe enough to be vulnerable. 

idk, cancer steve is something special to me. 

[hillerska-official]

Wille’s LED Lights

So I think a lot of us will recall the colour theory post of yore. I reference this post all the time, but as I am wont to do I put too much thought into a joke and now I’ve read the entire Wikipedia article on colour psychology and am here to psychoanalyze my baby boy.

I think the most important thing to take away about colour psychology is just how shaky it is - eg. the article cites one study which showed men perceiving a RED screen as lasting longer than an equivalent BLUE screen, but notes that another study found the exact opposite result. 

A lot of the reason for this probably comes down to the second and sixth of 6 principles listed in the article: reaction to colour can be either learned OR innate, and the meaning of a colour is affected by context. This means there is a differing effect based on factors like age, gender, culture, and personal experiences, which I think is important in considering how colour will effect a young, queer*, cultural figurehead like Wille - he exists very much outside of the studied ‘norm’.

*unlabeled, but I say queer here to note that he is specifically not straight, and as such does not conform to some gendered rules of society (specifically regarding his attraction to other genders within canon, but also his own identity for the he/they Wille fans out there).

So what do Wille’s red LED lights mean?

There are a few basic observations to be made: red has been linked to positive performances in sports, which is interesting given Wille’s position on the rowing team (as well as his referenced past in riding). It is also linked with skin pallor, denoting things like health or higher levels of testosterone. Extroverts have shown a preference for warmer colours such as red, and seeing how he parties even when he isn’t mid-life-shattering-tragedy, the boy does like to get out despite his sometimes shy demeanor.

Moving on to the real colour theory though, the person in the meme was technically correct in saying red tends to have more positive associations than negative: lust, power, excitement, and love are all things the article lists as being commonly associated with the colour red. We really see all of these crop up at one point or another in Willes storyline, as well as the major negative connotation red has: anger.

(as a side note, the study which connects red to arousal/attractiveness was specifically conducted on straight people which I think is simultaneously unsurprising, hilarious, and totally unhelpful to me!)

Anyways I think that it’s very interesting that red is associated with both good and bad emotions, and is one of the most cited examples throughout the whole article - if nothing else, humans NOTICE the colour red. I think the wide range of emotion connected to the colour is very reflective of Willes complex and turbulent emotions throughout s1 of Young Royals, and the fact that they are most prominently displayed (i.e. they’re on) when he is torn between things,  tells us that in a way they can mean all of these various emotions, even all at once. Red is Wille’s crossroads.

1. When Simon invites Wille to the soccer game (a choice between Simon and rowing practice)

2. When Wille asks Simon to delete his story from Instagram (he’s looking at the school handbook, obviously contemplating what he wants)

3. After he and Simon have broken up and he’s hiding in his room (Changes in their relationship status)

4. When Alex comes by to bring Wille to the Society meeting/party (This is the opposite end of their breakup, just before the football field scene).

(You can see each of these moments, plus the times they appear off, here.)

A fun colour theory bonus to congratulate you on reading this whole thing:

YELLOW, which appears prominently in the lighting of some of our favourite Wilmon scenes (morning after, fish tank, Lucia) is the colour generally preferred by babies before they become cognizant of cultural expectations surrounding colour, which means the golden-yellow light these scenes are bathed in is innately good/pleasing to humans before our and societies expectations weigh us down, as they do Wille and Simon throughout the show.

[theadvitya]

What Does Radha Krishna Symbolize?

The Radha Krishna Statue portrays an image of a couple in deep loves, usually portrayed as a real couple on top of a stone platform. The lovers are also seen kneeling on either side of the stone platform, with one hand holding the other's hand and another holding a lotus flower in front of them; this represents devotion towards each other.

The Radha Krishna Brass Idols has been made and carved into two parts: one depicts Rakhshasas attacking Krishna with swords while he sits on his chariot with his right leg upraised in prayer. The other part depicts Lord Vishnu standing over him, protecting him by placing his left leg between his thighs and pointing out in all directions indicating that he will always be with him.

Radha-Krishna means "The Blissful Couple". In Hindu Mythology, Radha was married to Lord Krishna, considered Vishnu's eighth incarnation. Their union symbolizes the eternal love between God and humanity.

 1. Radha

Radha is known as the feminine counterpart to Krishna. She is often depicted wearing red clothes and holding a lotus flower. Her physical appearance is similar to that of Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity.

 2. Krishna

Lord Krishna is a divine being believed to have been born on Earth as a human baby. He is also referred to as Vyasadeva or Govinda. His birth name was Gopala, meaning 'the dark blue one. He is commonly represented as having long black hair, dark skin, and almond-shaped eyes. He is often seen riding a white horse and carrying a flute.

 3. Love

In Hindu mythology, Radha and Krishna were married at 12. They had many children together, and their love story continues to inspire people worldwide today.

 4. Lotus Flower

Lotuses are aquatic plants that grow in ponds, lakes, rivers, and marshes. They are native to India and Southeast Asia. The lotus is a symbol of purity and beauty.

 5. Divine Feminine Energy

Hinduism believes that women are the embodiment of divine feminine energy. Women are believed to possess the power to create life and bring peace and harmony to the universe.

 6. Spiritual Enlightenment

According to Hinduism, spiritual enlightenment occurs when Radha Krishna Idol Brass achieve a state of selflessness. When we reach this stage of enlightenment, we no longer seek happiness outside ourselves. We realize that everything we need is already inside us.

 7. Peace

Peace is achieved when we live our lives without attachment. We do not cling to things or people and remain detached from negative emotions.

Who is Radha?

Radha Krishna is a male and female god who represents love and passion. They are often paired together in artistic representations of their union, but Radha represents passionate love, while Krishna represents the ultimate goal of spiritual enlightenment. In Hindu mythology, Radha is the avatar of the goddess Lakshmi Hindu god statues, who personifies the female shakti of Lord Vishnu. It is said that Lakshmi is personified on earth as a Radha, who is a cow-herding girl in the village of Barsana near Vrindavan. She was married to Krishna.

Radha Krishna is the Hindu god of love and compassion. He is often depicted as a young man with a loving radiance, wearing a red sari and holding an arrow (paintings are his weapon) that symbolizes his power to destroy evil. In the Hindu culture, Radha Krishna Idol Brass is revered for his compassion and kindness. He is worshipped in India and throughout the world. The legend says that he will come down from heaven to be with his devotees on earth on Janmashtami (the 15th day of Baisakh according to the Indian calendar), known as Radha Ashtami in Hindi.

Who is Krishna?

Krishna is one of the most influential God idols in Hinduism. He is also known as the avatar of Vishnu (the supreme God). His teachings include yoga, philosophy, and meditation. If you don’t know who he is, you should educate yourself before reading further.

The name Krishna comes from the Sanskrit word kṛṣṇa, meaning “dark blue” or “black”. This was given because his complexion was dark brown. He was born into a royal family and was raised in Mathura, India.

Krishna was the eighth avatar of Vishnu. His father, Vasudeva, prophesied his birth, and his mother, Devaki. As a child, Krishna was very playful and mischievous. Brass Krishna Idols loved playing pranks on other children and would often trick them into giving him their toys.

[styafiya-blog]

Black baby mama Culture Queen Master Realized

If you read this message about the black man Baby Mother, it is not a disrespect to my race or any nation of women in society; it is a message to all generations to come. I am going to explain what I see in my community in America and on the Caribbean island where I am from. What most black men don't know is that the block race is under hidden slavery control. You just have to operate differently to see it. For the last fifteen years, I have been taking and writing to get some worldwide attention on the attacking of the corrupt government. What I see them do to me on my family changed the way I see women and choosing one of them to call wife or baby mother when I was working and doing all the right things and all of them were talking, so I could pick up my phone and call them at any time. The relationship between me and them was that we had an understanding: I worked, I sent you money when I could help, and I did when child support took over, I noticed it was the inference of the government because all black men that create and have children are under the law a young Black African couple who are faced with a crisis of identity and their own mortality. Don't understand that in America all black men and their mothers work with the government in some way, which they may have used against you.

When I took time out and checked on the gehtto, who was really confused, and the black women, at first I was in a state of shock and noticed they were under control. That meadow she never went no where in life. Let's take another look at child support and see what becomes of our children. First, let me say in plain writing what percent of children become successful when the baby mother puts the black man on child support. If you check the numbers, it is very low. You can call me whenever you want to hear what I experienced during this time in the early 90s. I see a lot of women using their children to collect money and A "baby mother" is a mother who has given birth to a baby. The term commonly refers to the mother, or to the child's mother, in a phrase such as "the baby is born to the baby mother." Because she is controlling and greedy, she becomes a baby collector.

In the Caribbean, black men don't go on child support as much as in America, but when Caribbean women have babies by a Jamaican man here in America, nine out of ten times they will do child support collection. Strong black women from the yard do the same thing as African American women, but not all black women believe in taking a black man to court to collect baby payment; some readers fight the struggle by themselves. What I found out about that type of black woman is that she is that good one who chooses the wrong black man to have a child with; she is what you call a down to earth woman. If you are dealing with a real black woman, you will never have a problem until you cheat on her. Remember that all the different races of black women have different ways of thinking and doing. I realized culture played a big role in having a black baby mother.

A "baby mother" or "mother of a baby" is a mother or woman who has given birth to a black baby or has had a baby for at least one month. Motherhood is a distinct state of womanhood; there is a corresponding biological state in women, but the biological state is not motherhood. Black women around the world stem from four hundred years of slavery. She is the queen of her black king; she is the light of his life. The roots of her mind are covered up with wrong knowledge; she lost her knowledge of how to build with her black king. To find her way back, she needs to listen to a black king that she feels comfortable around. In the bible, it is written that a strong woman used her hand to uplift her home and a foolish woman used her hand to break it down. She has to be the queen master to have continuous control over evil power.

[study-coffee-chicago]

Seasons of Med: Season 5 & Seasons of PD: Season 7: Necrotizing Fasciitis Scare (A Halstead Brothers + Halstead Sister! Imagine)

Your age: 18

Jay's age: 32

Will's age: 34

"I am going to get you to understand football at this game come hell or high water," Jay told you as you said that you really didn't understand anything about football while Kevin tried to hook up the tv. Kelly threw Jay the football and Jay caught it.

"Hell or high water, huh?" you asked. "Did you just turn southern? Isn't that a southern phrase?"

"I can say whatever I want, thank you were much. Now catch." He threw you the football and you caught it easily.

"Kelly, I can't promise this is gonna be a good throw, so be ready to move," you told him as you threw the football to him. He had to jump to the left and jump high to catch it.

"Y/N, you suck at this," he laughed.

"I know."

"Jay, teach your sister how to throw a football, will you?"

He threw the ball back to Jay.

All of you were currently at Soldier Field to watch the Bears' game on a Friday afternoon. Will was originally going to go with Jay and you were going to study for your biology class, even though it was summer. You had decided to take a summer biology class so then you wouldn't have to deal with it during the fall and winter semesters when you'd be drowning in homework with other classes...and you figured you could do this one in the summer because you had heard horror stories of how hard this specific professor at CCU was. Luckily for you, Will was a doctor and could help you understand those damn diagrams that always gave you trouble.

Anyway, Will was going to come, but he got put on the schedule last minute, so Jay dragged you here even though you didn't know the slightest bit about football. Hell, you didn't even have any Bears gear to wear! Jay had given you one of his hats to wear with the promise that he'd get it back.

"Y/N!" Hailey yelled to you. "Wanna run to Mama Garcia's food truck with me?"

"Yes!" you exclaimed.

"Hailey," Jay whined. "I was just about to teach her how to throw a football."

"Halstead, if she doesn't know yet, I'm sure you can wait a few minutes. Now, I need my Spanish-speaking Halstead to come with me."

You had taken AP Spanish last year and had gotten a good enough grade on the AP exam to give you twelve college credits. This was partly thanks to Mama Garcia. You had been studying in her restaurant one night when you asked her a question about a tense. She explained it and then said that if you ever wanted to practice speaking Spanish and make some money at the same time, that you could work or her under the table. You took her up on that offer and your Spanish improved immensely.

Once you got up to the window of the food truck, you ordered a big batch of tamales in Spanish and then translated how much it was to Hailey. Then, you and Hailey went back to Jay and the rest of all your brother's first responder friends.

Kelly was yelling at Stella, Hailey, and you not to break into the tamales before the burgers were done, but you all didn't listen and each grabbed one out of the box.

You were in the middle of eating yours when you heard a scream.

You went towards the scream along with Jay, Natalie, and Kelly, but Jay made sure you stayed behind him. But, this didn't block your entire view, though.

You looked down at this man's leg. It was red and it looked like there was a giant gash on his shin with puss, blood, and flesh coming out. Things were moving underneath the skin. He was seizing and he kept saying BRT.

It was all too much. You took the Bears hat off.

"Y/N, I need you to get away from this. Whatever this guy has, I don't want you to--"

Jay didn't even finish his sentence before you vomited into that he had let you use, using it as a makeshift bowl for your puke.

He gently grabbed your arm and pulled you to the side after you finished emptying that tamale you had started eating into his hat.

"You done? You good?" Jay asked.

You coughed and then wiped your mouth. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry about your hat. I just- I don't like blood and that was nasty."

"I know. I think everyone's going to Med, so we'll run to the bathroom so we can throw away my hat now and you can rinse out your mouth. I think I have gum in my truck."

"Okay. Be glad I had the smart idea to puke into that hat, though. Or else it probably would've gone on you."

"Yeah, but I lost a nice hat in the process," Jay said as he rolled his eyes and you two made your way towards the bathrooms.

***

"It's necrotizing fasciitis," Will said. Everyone looked at him with a blank expression.

"Flesh-eating bacteria," you supplied.

"Wow, where'd you learn that, Short Stack?" Will asked.

"Can you not call me that? I'm eighteen! And, I learned it by watching Untold Stories of the ER."

"Junior doctor on our hands I think, Jay. And, you're still shorter than me and Jay so I can call you that, thank you very much."

"After her puking just at the sight of that, yeah, no way she's becoming a doctor," Jay said. "Anyway, the victim?"

"Right, sorry. Your victim had necrotizing fasciitis, more commonly known as, as Y/N said, flesh-eating bacteria. And, don't worry, it's not contagious. Only about four in a million people get it each year," Will explained.

"So, how do you get nec..." Kelly trailed off, not knowing the correct pronunciation.

"Necrotizing fasciitis. It enters through a break in the skin and just destroys the tissue under the epidermis. It--"

"The epidermis is the first layer of the skin," you said, reciting something you had learned in your biology class.

"Yes, it's the first layer of skin. But, as I was saying, it would really help us treat this guy if we knew who he was," Will finished after your interruption.

"I can't open a case file without a crime," Jay started, "but I'll see if I can run prints and check traffic cam footage. Maybe make out some sort of ID."

After a few minutes, everyone's panic had died down and you and Kelly were sitting down next to each other. He was trying to explain football to you even though you really couldn't care less. Meanwhile, Jay was about to make a phone call when Will motioned him over.

"Yeah?" Jay asked.

"You or Y/N have any contact with the victim? And, if you did, do you or her have any breaks in the skin?" Will asked, clearly worried about his younger siblings.

"No, we didn't have any contact. Just had Y/N puke in my hat I let her borrow," Jay answered.

"Okay, good. But, as I said, necrotizing fasciitis is rare, so you two should be fine. I gotta get back, but call if you find out anything on the victim."

"Will do. Remember to wear your gloves." Will rolled his eyes. "What? You just said it enters through breaks in the skin."

"You're a real pain in the ass, you know that?"

"One of my many talents."

***

"Hey, I'm leaving," Jay told you around noon the next day, poking his head into your bedroom while you stared at your lab lectures, trying to remember all the diagrams and pictures you'd need to help you identify body parts on your next lab practical.

"Okay, I'm going to the lab around 2:00 to study. That way I can actually see that stuff as I'll see it on the lab practical," you told him, not even looking up from your notes.

"Okay, be safe." He picked up Beary, who was leaning up against a pillow next to you, in a graduation gown and cap outfit. "Beary, can you make sure she takes breaks?" Then, his voice changed into his baby voice, what he always pretended was Beary's voice. "Oh, yes, Jay. I'll make sure she takes breaks while you're gone."

You laughed and reached out and took Beary from him. "Get outta here, you goon."

"Love you, too!" Jay called as he left your room.

You fixed Beary's cap and set him down, remembering when you got the outfit for him as you stared at diagrams.

"You ready, graduate?" Jay asked as he knocked on your door.

"Jay, I swear to God if you call me graduate one more time..." you said as you opened the door.

"You'll what?" he taunted.

"You know what, I don't know, but you won't like it. Are my bobbi pins noticeable?" you asked, referring to the bobbi pins you had pinned down to keep your blue graduation cap in place.

"Nope. You're good. Ready?"

"Ready."

You walked into the kitchen, to be met with Will. And behind him on the kitchen table was a vase of blue and white flowers, which were your school colors, and Beary leaning up against said flowers, wearing a blue graduation cap and gown. Just like you.

You laughed. "I cannot believe you guys."

"Hey," Will started, "Beary got a little backpack on your first day of kindergarten. Only fair that he gets a cap and gown on your graduation."

"Did you use the gift card from Mom?" you asked, referring to the one you had found in the letters to each of you that Will had found when you were cleaning out your dad's house after he died.

"We did," Jay confirmed. "Now, I need you to hold Beary in one hand and hold this picture." He handed you a photo of you with your little backpack on and Beary with his that your mom had taken of you on the front porch on your first day of kindergarten, right before Jay had surprised you by coming home from deployment early.

"Why do I need both?" you asked curiously.

"I saw this thing on Pinterest--"

"Wait!" Will exclaimed. "You have a Pinterest?"

"No," Jay scoffed. "But Hailey does. And she sent me a picture of something she thought you should do for your graduation pictures. You hold up a picture of you on your first day of school when you were little while you're wearing your cap and gown and then I take a picture of you. Since Beary was in that picture, I thought he could be in this one, too."

You grabbed Beary and allowed him to take the pictures. Now it was time to tell the news to your mom and dad.

***

"You won't believe what Will and Jay decided they just needed to get me," you said as you stood in front of your parents' headstone with Beary hidden behind your back. Will and Jay were over by a big tree talking amongst themselves so you could have some privacy. You pulled Beary from behind your back. "They got me a cap and gown for him because they said it was only fair because Beary got a backpack on my first day of school. And, since it's my last day of school, he should get a cap and gown, too.

"Also, which one of you called Will and Jay graduate all day on the day of their graduation? Because Jay won't stop calling me that and it's kinda getting on my nerves. Pretty sure it was you, Mom."

You sighed. "I wish you guys were here. Jay told me all about how you made him a special breakfast when he graduated and then went out for lunch before the actual graduation because the senior all-nighter was after. I don't know where we're going for our senior all-nighter, but I hope it's not boring. I've heard that a few years ago, some kids said theirs was super boring. I really don't want that. But, I'm glad that I could convince Will and Jay not to be chaperones for whatever my senior all-nighter is. I love them and all, but they can be a bit too overprotective at times.

"God, you guys should be here. Dad, I know you weren't the best, but you were trying. And, I'm sure if Mom was here, she'd make sure you behaved, because Mom would say it was a big day and that you couldn't be arguing with Jay." You laughed. "I can only imagine what it would look like with Jay on one side of you, Mom, and Dad on the other and you scolding both of them for fighting. Then, they'd both probably sit back and cross their arms. And, because of this, you'd probably say that I'm your favorite child."

"Alright," Jay laughed as he and Will made their way back to you. "I think it's time to go. We don't want to miss your graduation."

"You know none of us really care about the ceremony, right?" you asked, blinking back tears so that you wouldn't mess up your makeup.

"We know. It's mostly for the parents...or in your case, brothers," Will said.

You pulled out four flowers, two blue and two white, which you had taken from the bouquet that Will had placed on the kitchen table back at home, from the pockets in your dress underneath your graduation gown. "Give me one more minute."

You placed two flowers, one of each color, on top of your Mom's name and your Dad's name on the headstone. "I thought you two should have some, too. They're my school colors." You wiped your eyes as you felt a few tears prick them. "Remember to clap for me from heaven when I walk across that stage, okay?"

You took a deep shaky breath and turned back around. Will wrapped an arm around you as the three of you walked back to Jay's truck. Beary hung from your hand. In three hours, you'll have graduated high school.

You were taken out of your thoughts by your phone ringing. It was the coffee shop you worked at. And, no, it was not the one in your apartment building. But, Jay and other members of Intelligence did sometimes come in there to pick up coffee for them and the rest of the unit. This was only because they knew they'd get the friends and family discount since you worked there. But, they usually tipped you well, so you didn't mind.

Your manager asked you to come into work because someone couldn't come in. As much as you needed to study for your biology lab practical, you needed money for college more. And, you could always go to the lab tomorrow to practice for your lab practical. You also had Will. What good was having a doctor in the family if not to help you with your science homework? So, you decided to pick up the extra shift making coffee.

***

"Voight," Hank Voight said as he answered his phone.

"Hank, it's Wallace Boden. I need you to come down to the CCU science lab right now."

"Why?"

"Because Severide just told me that the victim at Soldier Field yesterday kept chanting BRT. This place is owned by BRT Labs. And, there was a fire set."

"You're thinking arson? You know we don't investigate that, Wallace."

"I know. Office of Fire Investigation is already on it."

"But, you think that the victim yesterday and the fire today could be connected?" Voight asked.

"I think it's highly possible. All I ask is that you come down here, maybe take a look inside, do some interviews, stuff you normally would do."

"Alright. I'll grab Halstead and Upton and we'll head down there."

"Thank you."

Voight hung up his phone and turned to his team, all of whom were knee-deep in paperwork after taking off yesterday to see the Bears game...which they didn't even get to see in the end. "Chief Boden needs some of us down at the CCU lab. There could be a connection--"

"Did you say the CCU lab?" Jay asked, standing up from his chair.

"Yes, Halstead, Upton, you're with me. The rest of you, stay here. We'll let you know if we need you or you need to look up information here." Voight looked to Jay who looked like he'd seen a ghost. "Halstead, we're going."

"Y/N's at the lab."

"It's Saturday," Hailey pointed out. "There's no classes on Saturdays."

"She said she was going there to study for a test. Oh, God. What if--"

"Jay," Hailey said as she walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "You just need to call or text her on the way there. She'll be okay. C'mon, let's go."

"Atwater, come with me," Voight said. "Just in case Jay's gotta go."

***

You finally took your fifteen-minute break after being swamped for a good half hour straight. Who knew so many people wanted coffee at four in the afternoon? The first thing you saw were seven missed calls and texts in all caps. They were all from Jay.

"What the hell?" you muttered as you pressed Jay's contact and brought your phone to your ear. He picked up on the first ring. "Why are you--"

"Where are you? The firefighters said they haven't seen you come out yet," he rushed out.

"I'm at work. What firefighters? What are you talking about, Jay?" you asked, furrowing your eyebrows together.

"You're at work?" Jay asked. "I thought you were going to school to study?"

"I was. But, then my manager called me in. Why? What happened?"

Jay felt so much relief wash over him that he almost fell over in the grass on the CCU campus. "There was a fire in the lab."

"What? Are my friends okay? Did anyone die?" you rushed out. They weren't totally your friends, more your classmates, but you figured that was the easiest thing to call them.

"As far as I know, there weren't any fatalities."

You breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, okay, good."

"Just do me a favor: next time your plans change, text me."

"I can't promise I can remember that."

"Figures. But, I gotta go. Stay safe."

***

"Son of a bitch!" Jay yelled and threw his phone on the couch just as you entered your apartment after finishing your closing shift at the coffee shop.

"What?" you asked as you shut the door and then set your keys down and took off your hat.

"Hailey's in quarantine," he told you. "And it's all my fault."

"What? It's your fault? How'd it even happen? Why are people being quarantined?"

"Turns out that necro thing isn't as rare as Will told us."

"Jay, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Uh, there were a bunch of people at an apartment building who got the disease, so Will and others are there looking for a thing that somebody says they saw spraying the building. Could've been this exterminator person was trying to poison people in the building," Jay told you. "And now everyone in the building is quarantined at Med."

"And Hailey was in the apartment building...?" you asked, not knowing what this had to do with Hailey.

"I had her go to a house to talk to someone who was in the lab the same time as the victim. She, uh, the girl Hailey was talking to, fell over and she had the infection and Hailey touched her.

"Hailey had a hangnail or something—at least, that's the info that Will got from Natalie, and Will passed it on to me—so now she's in quarantine at Med. If I wouldn't have told her to go check out the lead, then maybe she wouldn't be in quarantine right now."

"Jay," you started, "you can't blame yourself. If it wasn't Hailey, it would've been you. Then you'd be quarantining at Med right now. And if it wasn't you or Hailey, it would've been someone else from Intelligence and then they'd be in quarantine right now."

"How did you get so mature?"

"Trauma."

Jay's expression immediately changed. "What? Y/N, if you need someone to talk to, I can get you that."

You laughed. "Jay, chill. It's a psych major joke...even though I know I really shouldn't be joking about trauma no matter what."

"Okay, good. Do you want to watch a movie?"

"I mean, I guess. What are we watching? And, I'm gonna make popcorn, too."

"Okay. We can watch anything but Contagion," Jay told you.

"What's Contagion?"

"It's about this virus that breaks out all over a city...much like what's happening now."

"Oooh, now I want to watch it."

"I knew I shouldn't have said anything."

***

"Hello?" you said into the phone the next afternoon when Mama Garcia called you. Jay was out working the case, Will was trying to find a cure for this bacterial strain, and Hailey was out of quarantine because she was cleared by Natalie. So, Jay wasn't blaming himself anymore.

You quickly spoke Spanish with Mama Garcia and she asked if you could come in because they got a huge catering order last minute and she needed someone to man the cash register while she helped in the back making the order. You agreed and made your way to Mama Garcia's.

***

You were busy working the cash register and speaking Spanish with the friendly customers when you started hearing yelling outside, something about MS-13. You excused yourself and made your way to the back where Mama Garcia was working on tamales.

"They're saying something about MS-13 out there," you told her in Spanish.

"I'm going to need you to say that in English, chica," she told you. "I think you said it wrong because you just mentioned MS-13," she said as she wiped her hands on her apron.

"No, they're saying crazy stuff," you began. "They're chanting that you're part of MS-13. You can't hear it?"

"It's loud back here. Maybe I'll hear it if I go to the front."

She came to the front with you where some customers were leaving the building through the side entrance to get away from the mob. There weren't any customers left in the little restaurant anymore.

"Dios mio," she whispered.

There had to have been at least two dozen or more people outside all yelling and saying that she was to blame for the bacteria. Some even held signs. Some had guns or sharp objects.

You pulled out your phone. "I'm calling--"

You stopped when you heard a crash. You barely had time to register what was happening as the Molotov cocktail flew through the window and shattered everywhere, lighting the place on fire and sending shards of glass everywhere, some ending up lodged in your leg as you screamed in fear and pain.

***

The men and women of Firehouse 51 got a call of a public disturbance at Mama Garcia's. As they pulled up, they saw the Molotov cocktail fly right through the front window towards you and Mama Garcia. Casey started barking out orders and everyone sprang into action.

You were inside and the smoke was getting thicker. Whatever they made this out of actually worked. You pulled your shirt up to your nose and mouth to try and stop inhaling it, but it didn't work very well.

You had been in front of Mama Garcia at the time it was thrown through the window, so you took most of the glass shards. This caused you so much pain that it was hard for you to move through the kitchen and to the door to get out.

"Fire department! Call out!" you heard Stella yell as you kept trying to walk toward the back door.

"Here!" you yelled.

"Fire department! Call out!"

"Back here! Help! Help!"

You heard heavy footsteps coming toward you and then you saw a firefighter and you felt a hand wrap around you.

"Hang on. You're gonna get out of here." Stella. "Casey," she said into her radio. "I need some help in here. Female victim, trouble walking, in the back in what looks like the kitchen."

"Copy. Coming in, Kidd."

About thirty seconds later you were picked up and told to close your eyes. You did, and it was only when you finally got outside, did Truck 81 realize who they had rescued.

***

Will was currently working in the lab trying to find an antidote to this terrible outbreak. But, something about Dr. Seldon was suspicious. He wasn't a detective like his younger brother,  but he still trusted his gut.

Dr. Seldon hadn't noticed that Will was still in the lab when he started pouring chemicals into the samples. Now Will knew something was most definitely wrong.

"What are you doing?" he asked loudly, startling Dr. Seldon.

"Oh, these are contaminated samples," he answered easily like he had rehearsed what he was going to say.

Will pointed directly at him. "No. You know what? You need to stay right here."

Then, Seldon threw a punch and Will caught it easily. But, then Seldon hit him again in the stomach. In the split second that Will was doubled over, Seldon picked up a microscope and cold-cocked Will right over the head, causing him to fall to the ground as everything went black and he clutched his bleeding head.

***

Hailey was now back in the bullpen after being quarantined because she got checked out and everything was fine. She had to tell Jay to stop apologizing and that it wasn't his fault he had gotten into that mess.

"That's a blue hat, right before 2:00," Ruzek said as he looked at the security footage.

"Wait, I know this guy," Jay started. "He works at the CCU lab." His eyes widened as he realized what was going on. "He's with Will. We gotta go now!"

As Jay was sprinting out of the bullpen, his phone started ringing.

"Man, your phone!" Adam yelled.

"Just let it go to voice-mail!" Jay yelled as he ran down the stairs, not knowing that it was Casey calling him to let him know that they had pulled you out of a fire and you were currently being treated at Med.

***

You rubbed your eyes as you woke up a few hours later. You didn't know if it was the meds the nurse gave you to knock you out so she could pull the shards of glass out of your body or if it was from a combination of smoke inhalation and tiredness. Whatever the reason, you were awake now.

You turned to see your brothers and were very confused to see that Will was holding an ice pack to his head and Jay looked like he had gotten new stitches in his forearm.

"The hell--" You roughly cleared your throat. "The hell happened to you two?"

"We found the guy," Jay told you. "But, not before he cold-cocked Will over the head with a microscope."

"Who was he?" you asked.

"A professor at CCU. Dr. Seldon."

"I've heard of him. I think he only teaches graduate classes though, so I'd never end up being in one of his classes anyway. I'm assuming he's not teaching anymore?"

"Not a chance in hell," Jay confirmed. "If he wants to teach, he can teach all the other prisoners at Stateville."

"What happened to your arm?"

"Oh, you know him," Will began. "He's always putting other people's safety in front of his own like the idiot he is." Jay thought about smacking his older brother upside the head but decided against it only because he had just been hit in the head. "He decided that he'd rather be infected with the bacteria instead of the people in a conference room where Seldon was. So, he cut himself."

"You what? Do you have the bacteria?" you asked as your eyes widened in fear.

"No, I don't. Hailey shot in there to distract him and then I disarmed him. Will came in with the antidote anyway, but luckily we didn't need to use it."

"If Hailey got paid overtime every time she saved your ass, she'd never have to work again."

"Tell me about it," Jay agreed.

"Now, what happened to you?" Will asked. "Casey told us you were at Mama Garcia's?"

"Yeah, she called and asked me to run the front since she needed to be in the back to help work on a catering order. I went in and an hour later, there were all these protesters outside calling her a member of MS-13 and saying she started the outbreak."

"How?" Jay wondered. "Mama Garcia's like the sweetest lady alive."

"I don't know. Because people online are crazy? And then someone threw a flaming bottle of something through the window."

"And that's how the glass got in your leg?" Will asked. You nodded. "Well, the good news is that Maggie told me the damage was artificial. The reason you passed out was because of smoke inhalation. They gave you some oxygen and you're good to go once you're ready."

"Then why don't I have one of those nose thingies in?" you asked.

"A nasal cannula?" Will chuckled. You nodded. "It's because you slept long enough with it on that your oxygen is back up. And, the paramedics gave you oxygen, too. That's why you don't need it. Your levels are back to normal."

"Oh. Okay."

"You want your discharge paperwork?" Will asked.

"Yeah, Jay's gotta fill it out."

"Nope. You are not a minor anymore. So, you get to fill out your own paperwork."

You groaned as he handed you the clipboard with the paperwork on it. Now you knew why both Jay and Will hated paperwork so much. There was so much even for one little thing!

"You know, I think since you've achieved frequent flyer status at Med," Will began, "that Beary needs a hospital gown, too."

"No! Don't you dare!"

"Just write it down and give it to her for Christmas," Jay joked. But honestly, when it came to that bear and presents, you never knew if either of them was joking or not.

Everything seemed back to normal at that moment: Jay and Will joking about your Build-A-Bear, you and Jay constantly being in the hospital for whatever reason and life. Life was back to normal after this crazy weekend that had everyone in Chicago on edge and you couldn't be happier.

A/N: Idk how I feel about this one. There was so much going on in that crossover, that it was hard for me to figure out what I wanted to focus on...so, it turned into a shorter imagine. Anyway, thank you guys so, so much for reading! I also start my new job tomorrow, so updates might be a little less frequent (one or two a week, depending on how long the imagines are and how much I have to work). Anyway, please like/reblog and comment and tell me what you think! As always, if you want to be added to my taglist, just tell me and I’ll add you!

taglist: @theambracer88 @virtualreader @kelelas-life @celyndavies @brookerz122493 @musicismyescape27 @anotherfan07 @thexplosivegirl @dreamingwithlens @xoxmariaxox @onechicago18 @iamasimpingh0e @i-like-sparkly-things @herecomesthewriterwitch @liampayne88

[pizzazz-party]

Part 3: Ring’s Biology and Possible Origins

In the world of Ring Fit Adventure, there exist monsters, ghosts, cyborgs, robots, gods, a curious array of animals, human beings of enormous size…and Ring. Ring—a creature so entirely unique, he fails to fit into any of those categories.

Everyone has their own idea as to what Ring is, and as to where he came from. So here’s mine.

(Spoilers for the end of the main storyline. Various postgame dialogue spoilers beyond that.)

If we’re going to talk about where Ring might have come from, it makes sense to look for clues in what he’s presented as. Physically, and subtextually. So let’s take it from the top.

Stepping away from the confines of the game, Ring’s shape is based off a Pilates ring, a piece of exercise equipment who’s history dates back to nearly a century ago, as of the game’s release. It was invented to help rehabilitate wounded soldiers through physical therapy following World War I. Design-wise, though…Ring’s face draws heavy inspiration from depictions of Ancient Inca art. Specifically, he looks a lot like the figure atop this ceremonial tumi knife.

The prominent nose. The familiar jawline. A headpiece bisecting the brow. The blue commonly set into the eyes of the art. The ears—heavy earrings were unisex among the Inca nobility, resulting in long, stretched lobes. But most importantly—the statue is gold. And in the ancient Inca Empire, gold was revered as being sweat from the very sun itself. Metal nowadays is often associated with machinery, with invention. But raw metal has always been a fruit of the earth, as natural as any wood or leaf. The Inca took it a step further. They thought of gold as mystical.

Likewise, Ring’s design is meant to invoke these traits. Despite being made of metal, Ring visibly lacks gears or wiring or nozzles or hatches. His mouth may have a hinge and his flaming little hair piece may spin around. But in terms of “build,” Ring (the magical metal donut) has more in common with Pinocchio (the magical wooden puppet), than with an actual machine.

On a surface level, Ring really is best described as a “magical creature.” He’s obviously not made of flesh and blood. But he’s alive in a way that the closest comparison—sentient robots—just aren’t. Ring sweats, breathes, sleeps, eats. He ages. His metal face flexes and grows and shrinks as he speaks. Ring wields exercise energy, much in the same way that humans do, and more. He crafts, enhances, and stores things with it. Its raw essence flows through him like a fiery kind of lifeblood.

Ring’s not a human or a cyborg. He’s not a monster or a ghost or an animal. He’s made of metal like a robot, and that’s about it. And while Ring may (presumably) have the long life of a god, he lacks everything else. Right down to the proper shape and abilities. Ring, whatever the specifics, is a “magical creature” that exists in a class of his own. We never ever meet another being quite like him.

…At least. That’s what I used to think.

———

The thing with Ring is, it’s hard to tell whether he’s actively omitting facts or just forgetting them. He’s got a terrible memory. But he also as good as lies to us in the beginning, pretending as though Dragaux’s just some enemy to him.

So here is what I understand.

We meet Ring, and he and Dragaux are positioned as these perfect opposites, as perfect enemies. Ring builds others up, and Dragaux tears them down. Dragaux is flashy, an eyesore, the purple to Ring’s yellow, and yet he steals the stage every time. He’s a jerk, but he’s Ring’s jerk. We show up to every boss fight because we are invested in his story, his opinions, his downward spiral.

And that’s our first mistake, really. Because Dragaux’s accent color isn’t purple, it’s pink. Because Dragaux’s opposite isn’t Ring, it’s Trainee. And Ring’s real foil was never Dragaux, but Dark Influence itself.

———

Have you ever thought about how strange it is, this particular parasite. From a narrative standpoint, I mean. As much as it’s referred to as “Dragaux’s influence” or “Dragaux’s aura,” Dragaux is only its latest meal, not its source. And that meal has been lasting anywhere from decades to a century, at least. Dark Influence is, by nature, negativity incarnate. It could be as old as the hills. Older, maybe.

Dark Influence is voiceless, faceless. A parasite composed of pure negative exercise energy, it can theoretically exist on its own. But it thrives best when entrenched in the heart of a host. Its host—a physical creature that, once ensnared, starts exhibiting traits that belong to the Influence: like great swathes of flame in its signature color.

Does that not sound. Familiar.

Because Ring and Dark Influence? Fulfill eerily similar roles, in regards to their syncing partners.

Both of them harness their partner’s exercise energy. Both of them augment the abilities of their partner. But unlike Ring, who’s always actively helping Trainee in precise and creative ways…Dark Influence doesn’t care. I’m not sure if it can give a care about anything that doesn’t include “amassing power” and “spreading itself.” (And I think those are just instincts. I’ve yet to see proof that this thing has anything approaching a complex personality.) But whether or not it cares about Dragaux, it’s fully anchored within his body. It shares its strength with him because there’s nowhere else to store it.

Because unlike Ring, Dark Influence lacks a physical body of its own.

And that thought. How it “lacks” a body. Just sort of stuck around in my head. Because it’s funny, isn’t it? That Ring speaks and this thing doesn’t. That Dark Influence, this wildfire, is so strong and potent and infectious while Ring’s inner flames are so small and orderly and self-contained.

And then I started thinking about coins. Isn’t it funny, that they’re shaped like little rings. Isn’t it funny, that they sometimes just. Spring out of the ground.

How does a free-to-play gym turn a profit. How do all of these gyms, turn a profit.

If NPCs canonically collect coins on their travels just like Trainee… If someone isn’t just throwing away buckets of money into the mountains and rivers and skies… if golden little rings can just spring into existence alongside someone as they’re jogging…

What if it’s not a quirk. What if it’s not just a game mechanic.

What if everything—the coins, the EXP medals, the treasure chests with Ring’s face on them—what if they’re all byproducts that occur when a physical place is saturated with high amounts of foot traffic. With high amounts of exercise energy. People in Ring Fit Adventure constantly expel this stuff as they jog or work out or engage in fit battles. They don’t really direct it anywhere after its release. It just kind of gets absorbed into their surroundings. I always assumed that it helped make the land so lush and pretty, but what if it doesn’t stop there. What if, when large quantities of it gather, exercise energy naturally builds up and condenses itself into permanent, physical solids.

And I thought of Ring. Of the coins that are shaped like him. Of the medals that eerily share his face. Of the treasure chests especially, the way they scream and run and flex as though alive. (And I thought about Dragaux, who’s canonically brilliant, and how even his best statues fell short of capturing that same quality of animation.) I thought about how all three of these byproducts are golden. Just. Like. Ring.

Something like “dark” influence should have a natural counterpart. It’s a tale as old as time; perfect opposites, perfect enemies. But we never meet the Influence’s other half, do we? Just Ring.

Ring, our buddy, our pal. Ring, who’s a person in every way that matters, with hope and dreams and insecurities. Ring the “magical creature,” who, despite all of this, has more in common with Dark Influence than with any other creature in all of Ring Fit.

———

So here is the heart of my crazy theory.

Ring isn’t “partially” made of energy. He’s all energy, all the way down to his every last piece, whether it flows like a river or shines like a stone. And it could be that a long, long time ago, he existed much in the same way as the Dark Influence we fight in the game: as an unrestrained and formless entity. Not as a ring, but as a bright and brainless swathe of flames.

(Because if Dark Influence is insecurity and self-destruction and decay, balance would dictate its opposite be positivity, self-improvement, rebirth. A dangerously Bright Influence.)

And maybe it was just a natural process that got triggered when the conditions were right. But either way, somehow, someway, this particular Influence reincarnated into a shape that could better interact with people, without overwhelming or eating them. And that most natural shape condensed itself into Ring.

A baby Ring.

———

Even if you don’t buy into the existence of “Bright” Influence, Ring fully being some sort of life energy incarnate answers too many questions. It would explain why Ring is so good at manipulating exercise energy; it’s the most natural extension of himself. It would explain why Ring has the unique ability to sync with people; it’s how he originally used to exist, as life energy drifting in and out of living creatures. It would explain the aging. It would explain why Ring never mentions a parent or creator watching over him during childhood; because he came into this world totally alone. (Baby Ring belonged to no one before he belonged with Baby Drags.)

But Ring’s theoretical past life answers a few more questions. It could explain parts of Ring’s personality, his interests. (His dream of spreading positivity across the land.) It explains why there aren’t ten million Rings floating about, when coins and medals and chests are so relatively common. (Because there’s a key ingredient missing). It actually explains his five special powers. (Because I’m betting Influences have human-related origins. It’s either that, or “live humans being consumed” was part of the “perfect” conditions surrounding Ring’s birth. Which, cringe.) But more than anything, it addresses the sheer power imbalance happening between Ring and Dark Influence right now.

Dark Influence lacks boundaries and spreads itself like a virus, thoughtless and instinctive. Ring’s natural weapon against this thing should be to “infect” it right back. (I would expect some sort of sick light show to dance across Dragaux’s body during battle; yellow flames squaring off against purple.) But it doesn’t work that way. Ring the Person no longer works this way.

If Dark influence is a forest fire, then Ring is a fireplace set behind glass. At their core, these two are both energy. But the modes in which they exist divide them into separate skill sets entirely.

Dark Influence is wildfire of brute strength. It’s got range—in the spatial sense. It can spread to as many secondary hosts as Dragaux directs it to, so long as it’s fed well enough to reach for them. Compared to Ring’s measly one syncing partner, Dark Influence can sink itself into whole regions, can simultaneously feed off of so many people. It doesn’t have outright mind control powers; it’s more subtle than that. But its presence as negativity incarnate naturally works like a magnet to draw out the worst in people. There is nothing it enhances in a person that wasn’t already there, no matter how small the weakness. Coupled with the rush of power it imparts in its vessels, it makes bad decisions feel right. Even to good people. It’s, quite simply, a bad influence. (And then it consumes them.)

But other than that, Dark Influence doesn’t really do much.

Our bud Ring may only be able to light one house at a time, so to speak. But as contained as he is—Ring’s powers are more varied and nuanced, because Ring is more varied and nuanced. He’s always actively (and thoughtfully) applying energy to construct, convert, and amplify. For all its fearsome strength, the only thing Dark Influence can seemingly do on purpose, is feed.

———

(If Ring was once a being like Dark Influence, then that solves the final mystery of synchronization. If Dark Influence “infects” its host by sinking into the body, then Ring syncs with a partner by “planting” a piece of his essence inside them. This is why Trainee’s energy signature changes to mimic Ring’s; because she now carries a part of him in her beating heart. This is why Ring can freely access her energy; because this makes her a part of him now, too.)

———

So. Let’s pretend I’m not crazy. Say that all of these little details I’ve collected were intentionally laid out by the game developers. Say I’m correct, and that Ring really is, essentially, the child of Dark Influence’s greatest natural enemy.

The real question is: how self aware is Ring about all of this.

Because unfortunately, Ring not knowing his own backstory could be pretty on-brand for him. I love Ring, but from his point of view, it really could be that he just appeared one day, somehow—as an entirely clean slate. “Dark” or “bright,” these entities are brainless. Literally. No body means no brain. They can’t store memories, so they don’t have memories. Just energy.

Ring must know that he’s made from energy, too. He might even think of himself as one very lucky byproduct. But if this is really what Ring used to be (if there’s even a shadow of a chance that his predecessor used to eat people), then he might not know the full extent of his own story.

And maybe that’s for the best. I can’t imagine him choosing to get close to people otherwise. He loves people, cares so much about every single silly soul that he meets.

This would hurt him.

———

Whatever Ring’s origins may be, whatever he might have once been (if he’s ever been anything else at all)… I do know one thing. And it’s that I prefer him prefer him just the way he is.

Weird comments about my sweat aside, I wouldn’t have him any other way.

———

TL;DR: Our bud Ring has more in common with Dark Influence than with any other creature in all of Ring Fit.

If a flaming entity of negative energy can exist, then why not one made of positive energy? If positive energy condenses into permanent solids naturally and often…if Ring is made of positive energy…if Ring has more in common with Dark Influence than with anything else in this game…

Who’s to say that Ring himself, wasn’t once a flaming yellow mass of energy.

———

This marks the end. I could run wild with all the implications this theory leaves in its wake. But I’ve made my point. I’ve found every answer I was looking for. And they may not have been the answers I was expecting (or even wanting), but they’ve satisfied me all the same.

I’m done. Believe what you will.

Thanks for reading, and for sticking with me all this way. It’s been real.

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DISCLAIMER: My name is Pizzazz and I take this game way too seriously. This is all for fun! At the time of this post, I am on World 36 of the post game. I feel pretty strongly about my conclusions, but I’ll go back and edit this if/when/where applicable.

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RING ANALYSIS

Part 1: Synchronizing—How it Works and What It Tells Us About Ring

Part 2: Ring’s Powers—And What They All Have In Common

Part 3: Ring’s Biology and Possible Origins

[buddiebeginz]

tw: child abuse/other references to abuse

Finally caught up to the current episodes of 911. I have a lot of thoughts on Buck and Maddie and their family situation from Buck Begins (and the episodes before it). From stuff I’ve seen around online I get the impression that most people loved Buck’s begin episode but it’s probably my least favorite of the show thus far along with Eddie’s ep. I love those characters but I don’t feel the show did their origin stories justice especially not when compared to the kinds of episodes the other characters had.

As for Buck’s story I was glad we were able to learn a lot of new information about his past, considering that was one of my big issues with Eddie’s ep that it felt like a lot of repetitive info we already knew. I’m glad we got to see what Buck’s life was like before he became a firefighter and learn more about his relationship with Maddie and that he had traveled a lot. Still as someone who grew up in an abusive home I feel like Buck’s origin story with his parents was handled pretty carelessly at points.

It’s kind of a common thing I’ve seen with shows though unfortunately. It just seems that most mainstream media doesn’t know how to handle abuse storylines (especially abusive parents) unless it’s storylines dealing with more commonly understood abuse like physical or sexual. If it’s abuse like Buck and Maddie endured where their life looked perfect on the surface but underneath there’s neglect and emotional abuse tv shows often give the parents an excuse (like they were grieving) and finds a way for the family to come back together at the end. Because they weren’t really “that bad”. But emotional abuse like Buck endured can sometimes be worse than physical.

It’s clear that Buck’s parents are toxic and that Maddie and Buck should both stay as far away from them as possible. I was really bothered by the scene with Buck and his parents at the firehouse. It felt like the show sort of absolved Buck’s parents of all their wrong doing and made it seem like they cared about him, like they always had when it was clear they never really did. They had him to save Daniel and when he couldn’t it’s obvious they resented him. I mean look at that whole thing with the baby box. That’s how little they cared about him. They didn’t even make a box to remember his important moments. Yes people can grow and change but they don’t do it over night and abusers rarely change.

I know there was a line Buck said (to Maddie) at the end about how he could forgive them because he’s never felt like he had a relationship with them in the first place so it didn’t really matter, which makes sense in theory but in real life that’s never how it is when you’ve grown up with abusive parents. You can try and detach yourself emotionally from them all you want but they’re still your parents, there’s still a part of you that will always hurt from never being loved the way you deserved by the people who were supposed to love you the most. Things like that don’t get wrapped up all nice and neat like like it felt like they tried to do with Buck and his parents. I am glad Buck got to express some of how he felt when they all had that dinner together but he definitely didn’t owe his parents forgiveness.

------------

The part I had the biggest issue with though was at the end when Buck went to see Maddie. Buck had every right to be angry and remain angry for awhile, at the very least Buck had a right to tell Maddie how he felt and express why he was angry and hurt by what she did and I felt like the show robbed him of that.

Buck walked in the door talking about how he had basically lashed out on Maddie because he knew that no matter what she would forgive him. It’s not Maddie who needed to do the forgiving it was Buck. Buck had trusted her his whole life. She had been like a defacto parent for all intents and purposes as his parents refused to be there for him the way he needed and now he finds out the one person in this world who has been a constant in his life (at least before he joined the 118) has lied to him about something huge. It makes sense he wouldn’t just shake that off. So for the show to just have him come in and act like everything is fine with him and Maddie I felt like was a huge problem and major disservice to Buck’s character and growth.

I’m not saying I didn’t want Maddie and Buck to make up, I definitely did. But Buck has never been good at putting his true feelings first and expressing himself. Buck has been selfish at times (plenty in season 1) but he has never been good about speaking up for what he needs and speaking truthfully to the people in his life about things he was dealing with. I mean he barely told Abby how he felt when he saw her again, he mostly stayed quiet and let her make it all about herself when he really should have been like “wtf why did you ghost me for no reason?”. Or when he didn’t tell everyone how hard he was pushing himself to go back to work and then developed a blood clot, or when he was scared to tell everyone he was seeing a therapist. He holds a lot back.

My point is if we’re supposed to be seeing Buck mature into a “better” version of himself he even said something about Buck 3.0 in a recent episode. How can that change happen if the show doesn’t let him evolve and let his relationships evolve. Even with the 118. I know they love him but I feel like they still see him as the hot headed screw up from season 1 sometimes. It’d be nice if they saw how much he’s grown too. (Not talking about Eddie. Eddie sees Buck more than anyone else does. He was the only one who told Buck he had every right to express how he felt and that he didn’t have to forgive his parents.)

Back to Maddie I think it was vital for Buck and for their relationship that we should have seen Buck tell her something like “it hurt that you kept that from me when you were the only family I ever really had (before the 118)”. I love Buck and Maddie’s relationship so I’m not saying I wanted some huge fight or for it to get drawn out on the show but I wanted Buck to express his pain and for him to call Maddie out on how wrongly she handled things. I know that she was also a victim of their parents abuse (not to mention everything with Doug) but that doesn’t absolve her from her lies to Buck once they both weren’t living with their parents anymore.

To be honest I don’t even understand why Maddie called her parents to come to LA. She said something about how because she has a baby on the way she wanted to reconnect with them but there is no connecting with people who are that toxic. And her need to connect with them shouldn’t have had to involve Buck if he didn’t want to see them. I definitely don’t understand why Maddie thought it was her place to tell their parents about Buck going to therapy especially without asking him. She told Buck that he should open up and tell them how he’s been feeling but like why? They clearly never cared about his feelings before and it was obvious when they all had dinner together they still don’t. At the dinner I didn’t like how Maddie seemed to be quiet most of the time or trying to just keep the peace with her parents vs standing up for Buck the way he did for her. At one point their mother got upset talking about the hospital and it sounded like she was going to talk about Daniel and Maddie stopped her. It’s like Maddie didn’t want the secret to get out to Buck either. Yet Maddie had no problem telling Chimney.

I’ve seen people saying stuff like no one better hate on Maddie. I don’t hate Maddie but I have a lot of issues with choices she made and the fact that it didn’t feel like she owned up to them to Buck at the end. It’s altered how I look at her and her relationship with Buck to a extent. Maddie lied to Buck even when she didn’t have to anymore. She told other people something that she should have only been telling Buck. She told her parents Buck’s business. She brought her parents to LA without asking Buck if he wanted to see them. She tried to excuse her parents by saying “they were grieving” . Grief is not an excuse to keep huge secrets from your children, to lie to them continually, and it’s definitely not an excuse to abuse your children.

I have empathy for what Buck’s whole family went through including his parents. I can’t imagine the kind of pain that parents would go through losing their child. But no child should have to bare the burden of their parents pain and that’s essentially what they made Maddie and Buck do.

I know this got pretty long but Buck is my favorite character I relate to him a lot, even more so after watching some of the current episodes. These eps about his family were just painful. I wanted to protect Buck because I felt like no one in his family was. I know what he was feeling in these episodes. Alone and unloved and like he couldn’t trust anyone and like no one in his family was on his side.

The whole montage at the end with Maddie and Buck which was supposed to tug on our hearts and remind us of this great bond they share as siblings ended up feeling kind of hollow to me. I think it could have been a beautiful scene if the show had used it after allowing them to talk about what had happened. It would have shown all they had been through and how they had grown and were moving forward. That they were all the (biological) family they needed and their parents didn’t matter. But since the show didn’t allow that kind of recognition the montage felt more like the show was saying we’re just going to sweep all that drama under the rug now it’s over and done with, here’s some pretty pictures. You don’t instantly move on from knowing someone you trusted lied to you your whole life. I just really wish the show would have done better for Buck in these episodes and better with telling a storyline about abuse. I know this is probably an unpopular opinion but I just felt like I needed to rant about it. If you made it down this far thanks for reading. 💗

[tscaboverse]

Rules for this universe:

For reference, half of our ideas stem from the fact that heats aren’t necessarily sex marathons, they can be just as easily a time for cuddling and bonding. Scenting is between packmates and families, and sometimes friends, and we determined that an alpha or head of a pack/parent could bite a spot right below the ear to claim someone as part of their family, so that it can semi-permanently keep their scent on their child

In this verse heats aren’t just sex things, they’re bonding things, so lots of cuddle time and sleepiness. It can be a sex thing if an omega is mated, but cuddles are more important most of the time. Omegas will make a nest out of pillows and blankets and things that smell like their pack mates. And if multiple omegas live together they usually synch up on their heats and spend it together in a giant nest where there’s room for most of the pack to cuddle with them. Being scented by an alpha definitely helps make the heat better, but that’s part of how it can enforce pack bonding too. And especially when the omega is younger, they just want skin contact and affection to feel safe. And if there are children around they get hoarded, and kept in the center of the nest. And sucking on another omegas nipples can be very comforting to an omega near their heat, or if they are in emotional distress.

Heats when the omega is mated can vary quite a bit. Sex marathon type heats can get out of control, like not walking for a week after, type of out of control, but they aren’t always like that all the time. It more depends on if their mate is doing something specific to make it that way or how badly an omega wants a child, because baby fever can be very real.

Also, because magic is a thing in this verse, betas can take a potion that can either up their alpha traits to help an omega parter through a heat/get them pregnant, or take a potion that will up the their omega traits to help an alpha partner through a rut. And there are potions to induce heats/ruts, that work as contraceptives, and there are suppressants but the cost for taking them is high enough that some choose not to at all. Suppressant potions are strictly for omegas as well, as it mainly suppresses their instincts and heats, which happen 3 to 4 times a year depending on the individual. They have to have one once a year for health reasons, and they go off the suppressant for it. The price for being on it though is once they’re off it all of those instincts pretty much just take over and an omega will be highly suggestible and obedient. And their heat will be completely awful, like take a sleep potion and sleep through it levels of pain.

Ruts happen when an alpha presents and only very rarely if they aren’t mated. The only reasons omegas have heats so often is because they are used to bond packs. Ruts are really just for sex, maybe once or twice a year, usually matches up with a heat but not every heat.

Collars used to be worn by omegas all of the time until it fell out of fashion because it was seen as bad, although plenty of omegas still wore them anyway because it made their alphas jump them. But it has mostly fallen out of fashion by the Victorian period. Only people who were raised extremely traditionally wear them commonly. If someone wasn’t raised traditionally at this point in time, they might even see it as abusive. Leashes on omegas in public really is incredibly old fashioned at this point and rarely done no matter how traditional people are. For an omega to be on a leash is pretty much the equivalent of a flashing neon light of saying that the omega can’t be trusted to behave properly without it, or that they’ve done something very bad and the leash is there to help control them.

Pack bonds can have quite an effect on mortality, so if a warlock is mated to someone mortal for example, and adopted into that pack, then they will share the warlock’s immortality. They might age a bit, but probably not by much.

A female alpha can get pregnant by her male mate/partner, but it is much harder for her to get pregnant compared to a female beta or any omega. Pregnancies are just a bit harder on a male omega as well. A female alpha can get her mate pregnant, whether they are a female beta or an omega of any gender.

Shadowhunters have the easiest pregnancies, faeries have the worst heats, vampires are all betas or omegas on extreme suppressants, and warlocks have the highest concentration of alphas.

Characters and Dynamics:

TID:

Alphas: Charlotte, Jem, Gideon, Cecily, Magnus

Betas: Sophie, Henry, Thomas Tanner, Edmund and Linette Herondale, Tessa

Omegas: Will, Gabriel

TLH:

Alphas: Anna, Jesse, Kit Lightwood, Cordelia, Thomas Lightwood, Charles

Betas: Alexander Lightwood(?), Risa

Omegas: James, Lucie, Alastair, Matthew, Kamala, Grace, Eugenia, Filomena, Sona

TMI:

Alphas: Jace, Izzy, Magnus, Ragnor, Luke

Betas:

Omegas: Alec, Clary, Simon, Jocelyn, Catarina, Raphael

TDA:

Alphas: Julian, Emma, Aline, Cristina, Ty, Malcolm, Johnny Rook

Betas: Annabel,

Omegas: Kit, Livvy, Ash, Dru, Helen, Mark, Kieran

[hi-hey-haechan]

Can I also request 79 with renjun and 3 + 56 with jaemin :)

(I had done the 79 one with my last post). Thank you for requesting!

Prompt list is here.

I write for NCT (all units, but not for Jisung or Chenle), Stray Kids, and Ateez.

3: “You’re not going out wearing that outfit.”

56: “I’m not jealous! It’s just...you’re mine!”

Warnings: It’s really long, and there’s smut, but it’s not as detailed as I usually write it.

The boys had invited you and Jaemin over to the dorms that day, simply for the purposes of being crackheads. With them, you always knew that you’d have an interesting time. “Y/n”, Jaemin called out to you, “Let’s go!”

You had just finished getting ready, so you grabbed your bag and ran down the hall of your shared apartment. “Patience, grasshopper,” you rolled your eyes.

What you heard next shocked you, for it was completely unwarranted and out of absolutely nowhere. However, Jaemin’s eyes were on your body, which kind of made you feel like a piece of meat on display. Before you were about to say my eyes are up here, he said, “You’re not going out wearing that outfit.”

Sure, Jaemin was protective, of you, but hearing him say that, in a voice that was deep yet slightly vulnerable, sort of made you worry. “I-is it bad? It’s just a cropped top and shorts. Does it really look that awful on me?” you inquired back, suddenly insecure about what you were wearing. You felt comfortable in the outfit, but if it really didn’t look good on you, then you supposed you would change clothes.

His stubborn expression softened, and he stepped forward and grabbed your hands. “Baby,” he told you quietly, in a soft voice, which was free of all the harshness it had possessed a few seconds ago, “I mean that you look so damn good that all the guys are gonna be staring at you. You look good in anything, Y/n, but we can’t have the other guys thinking the same thing. Well, okay, they can, but if any of them looks at your ass in these shorts, I’m gonna have to kill them.”

“Jaemin!” you laughed, hitting his chest lightly with your palm. “I’m not changing.”

“That’s fine. It’s ultimately your choice,” he replied.

And with that, you both got into the car. He wasn’t going to fight with you on what you were wearing, even if you looked so good, to the point where the other boys would be thinking the same thing. Even still, Jaemin couldn’t stop staring at your legs, and how perfectly they were being shown off, thanks to your shorts. His eyes also were pulled to the strip of bare skin left exposed by your cropped top. He couldn’t help but think of how soft the skin would be under his skin…

These thoughts consumed Jaemin’s mind all the way to the dorms (which, admittedly, was only a couple minutes away).

The boys were already a mess as soon as you entered the dorms. Jisung and Chenle were trying to see if different parts of the wall would make noise if they threw the same ball at it. You didn’t understand this. Why would they test the sounds the interior of the house would make after lodging a cheap, plastic, red ball at the wall to attempt to make music.

“And this is why I really can’t leave you people alone in the dorms to fend for yourselves, can I?” Jaemin inquired tiredly. However, at the sight of his brothers having fun and being crackheads, he couldn’t help but smile.

“Do you miss them?” you asked him quietly. You were referring to how he’d recently moved out of the dorms so the two of you could get an apartment together.

Jaemin squeezed your hand. “Sometimes,” he whispered back. “But I’ve never been as happy as I am with us together, at our home.”

His answer was difficult for him to come up with, but you understood what he was saying, and what he meant.

And you felt the same way, missing his insane stories about what the boys did at 3 AM, but you were ultimately happy, and that was what mattered.

You walked over to the couch, meaning to sit on it. You almost sat on Renjun’s legs as he was lying down, taking up the entire length of the couch. He seemed pretty immersed in his phone, and his earbuds were in. Just that one time, you decided against kicking him. When you looked up, You saw Jeno staring at you. You couldn’t tell if he was staring into your eyes or staring at places lower down on you than your face.

Clearly, Jaemin noticed, too. He walked right up to you and snaked a warm arm around you, as if to say, “my girlfriend.”

“Let’s play a game!” Jaemin suggested loudly to lighten the odd mood and keep everything as crackheaded as they should be. “There’s a mini basketball hoop in the middle of the room. Let’s put it to use, shall we?”

“Fine,” Renjun sighed, averting his eyes from his phone. “We should do teams of two. Each group has a minute to shoot as many baskets at a time.”

“See, Renjun?” Jaemin inquired. His voice was cheeky, and you knew he was going to say something in the form of a roast. “If you’re not on your phone, you can see my handsome face in real life, and that’s a blessing to everyone.”

Renjun just rolled his eyes but you glanced at your boyfriend teasingly. “Your biggest fan is yourself,” you grinned.

“If Y/n is on Jaemin’s team, they’ll win,” Chenle said, calming down from his throwing of plastic and rubber balls against the wall.

“Then I’ll be on Y/n’s team,“Jeno replied. From where you were sitting, you saw Jaemin’s face fall a bit. He seemed a bit jealous, for some reason, which was so absurd to you.

The six of you divided into teams: You and Jeno, Jisung and Jaemin (sort of against Jisung’s will), and Chenle and Renjun. This was going to be interesting, to say the least.

Jaemin and Jisung were first to go, despite their constant protests. The ball had to be shot from two feet in front of the 3.5 foot machine, a rule made by all of you (except you all decided it in meters, and the author incorrectly wrote it as feet). The sixty seconds was full of Jisung being yelled at by his partner, who was commonly at fault for the things being yelled about. Jaemin pouted and whined for sixty seconds straight, and you were all laughing at him. He missed most of the shots, and for those shots that went over the machine, he made Jisung get them, before scolding him for not being fast enough. In the end, they ended up with eight baskets only, a criteria that didn’t seem difficult to beat.

Right before your turn, you whispered your plan to Jeno. Chenle began the timer, and the round began. Jeno threw the ball to you, which you caught and simply placed in the basket. You tossed the ball back to him, and the cycle continued. Within sixty seconds, you had managed to dunk 24 baskets.

When the timer ran out, you and Jeno hugged celebratorily, jumping up and down. In doing so, your phone fell out of your pocket, onto the ground. It was left unscathed, luckily. You didn’t see Jaemin’s eyes on you. He was looking at your legs, admiring how the muscles flexed as you kneeled to the ground and stood up to grab your phone. He admired the curve of your ass, the way your legs were left mostly exposed in your shorts. His mind flew to the feeling of your legs under the palms of his hands, when he’d carefully caress your thighs to tease you, or how they’d wrap around his waist when he pounded into you...shoot.

And distracted by those thoughts, Jaemin felt some of his blood rush south. He barely even noticed Jisung protesting the score of the game, how you and Jeno had cheated.

“They’re supposed to be behind the line!” Jisung protested.

“Actually, only the shooter is. I didn’t have to be,” you pointed out, secretly pleased with the loophole you’d found in the rules.

“Jisung, she’s smarter than us,” Jeno laughed. “Drop it.” He slung an arm around your shoulder, the both of you unable to hide the smug looks on your faces at Jisung’s defeat.

“Y/n,” Jaemin said quietly, “can I talk to you? Alone?” You looked at him, and saw the not-so-happy expression written across his face. It wasn’t angry, and it wasn’t sad, either. Either way, it hurt your heart to see.

You stepped out of Jeno’s half-embrace and followed after Jaemin. He walked through the room, into a hallway, turning at the bedroom that he and Jisung once shared.

“Are you okay?” you asked worriedly. “You seemed kind of...I don’t know...sad? Ticked off? I’m not even sure.”

“Yeah, just, seeing you with Jeno, and hugging him…” Jaemin trailed off. His confident façade was down, and you were seeing him vulnerable. Despite being his girlfriend of three years, you didn’t see him upset too often. He didn’t seem to know how to finish his sentence. Your boyfriend wasn’t even looking at you, and his eyes were trained at the ground.

“Jaemin, you don’t have to be jealous.”

His head shot straight up, making direct eye contact with you. “I’m not jealous! It’s just...you’re mine!”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you get jealous before.”

“I don’t get jealous; that’s ridiculous. Why would I be jealous when anyone would be whipped for all of my amazing charms, and my incredible charasma, and my hugs, which are so much better than Jeno’s-”

You kissed him on the mouth, really just to shut him up. Him rambling on about how he was “totally not jealous” was cute, though.

The kiss quickly deepened, your mouths slow and sensual against each others’ at first, but growing more passionate and deep by the second. His hands grabbed onto your waist, feeling your warm, smooth bare skin under his hands. With a wrench, he broke away,

“Are you sure you’re okay? Come on, kiss me,” you pleaded in a quiet voice.

“I’m fine. It’s just…” he trailed off again, and decided to let actions speak his words for him. He bucked his hips against you, allowing you to feel how hard he was.

Your eyes widened, and you looked up, making eye contact with him. His warm brown eyes were consumed by the widened, black pupil, showing you how much he already wanted you. “How did that happen?” you asked.

“So you know how I said that the members would enjoy you in that outfit too much? Well, I enjoyed it too much. Seeing the way you move turned me on, somehow.”

“Jaemin, you really could have just said, before we left the house, ‘You’re not going out wearing that outfit because instead of going anywhere, I’m going to fuck you now, for your legs look really good in those shorts and are making me feel some type of way.’ Wouldn’t that have been easier?”

He leaned in to peck your lips, and then he whispered, “It would have been easier. But instead, now that we aren’t home, it looks like I’m gonna have to take care of this problem right here, right now.”

And this, of course, led to a bunch of making out, as well as very clumsy and very lame stripped of clothing.

When his hard length entered you, your back was pressed into Jaemin’s old mattress. Part of Jaemin wanted to pound into you so hard that you’d loudly moan out his name, showing Jeno who made you feel this good.

And that part of him won out this round. He watched his cock disappear and thrust in and out of your tight hole. The sounds of your moans urged him on, and they were like music to his ears. Anywhere his mouth could reach, he was kissing you, biting and sucking any exposed skin until your collarbones. neck, and chest.

Part of him wanted to ask if Jeno could make you feel so good, but it didn’t seem to fit the moment, and you were okay with that. His thick length filled you up so well, hitting your sweet-spot dead-on. With your moans, Jaemin was urged on, thrusting into you harder as you clenched around him incredibly tightly.

When you both came, you climaxed hard. Your walls caved in on themselves, and you saw stars behind your closed eyes. Your moans and cries of your boyfriend’s name rang off the walls, and his fluid was released inside of you.

Due to that occurrence, the boys stood out in the main room of their dorms, rolling their eyes and looking confused, as well as concerned, when they heard your and Jaemin’s moans and voices from all the way down the hall. Jaemin wouldn’t have to worry about Jeno knowing that you were Jaemin’s girlfriend, and not his.

[greeksandmagic]

The Precision of the 'Caul X Percival Murnau' Pairing

I will now prove to you that the 'Caul X Percival Murnau' pairing is both scientifically and literarily coherent.

The Scientific Relevancy

I will now quote bits of a few articles on the science behind relationships, and do some cross-checking.

***

The Article: 'We tend to chose partners who treat us like we were treated in our family, so our adaptations fit.'

The Book: 'Mollycoddled like a pair of princes, they were.'

The Pairing: 'He put the skull back, muttering something about the master will be so pleased with me.'

***

The Article: 'The most important thing to consider in your decision is to choose someone you really like being around.'

The Book: 'I like a man with ambition.'

The Pairing: Marnau's goals and actions in the literal entirety of 'The Conference of the Birds'.

***

The Article: 'It is commonly said that opposites attract, but the data says otherwise. Those differences that initially excite us can eventually create tension and misunderstandings in relationships. Long term happiness seems to blossom when there is more similarity. Basically ‘opposites attract and then attack,’ so finding someone that is compatible is more important than you may have first thought.'

The Book: 'That's right children!' Caul sang mockingly. 'Listen to your headmistress! Ymbryne knows best!'

The Pairing: ''And you,' Marnau said, kneeling down in front of Noor. 'How's the search for Mommy going? Think she's just dying to see you again? Is that why she abandoned you- because she wuves her wittew baby so much?''

***

The Article: 'All healthy relationships require mutual and unguarded trust between partners.'

The Book: Percival literally resurrected Caul.

The Pairing: Caul trusted Percival enough to know that he'd work to resurrect him. Percival trusted Caul enough to know that he'd infiltrate the Library of Souls.

***

The Article: 'One of the best things about being in a healthy relationship is having a supportive partner who you know has your back.'

The Book: Ah, the joys of having a partner that supports you so much that they'd go extreme lengths to summon you from the void.

The Pairing: See above.

***

The Article: 'The participants' sexual orientations must first fall in line for their relationship to develop.'

The Book: 'I like a man with ambition.' (Credits to @ymbrynes-and-peculiarities for this one!)

The Pairing: Whenever Percival refers to Jacob and Noor's relationship for mockery- or something akin- he always refers to the male side of the relationship. I'll quote a few of his dialogues here, as examples.

''The boy rushes to her defense. How romantic.' He sighed.''

''No thanks. You've served your purpose already. But if you try anything tricky, I'll make your mom suffer more than she needs to.' His eyes cut to me. 'And your boyfriend.''

I'm not a professional writer or interpreter, but this is how I'd present someone who had been/is in a male-love-male relationship.

***

There's a lot I could mention, but covering everything would take ages.

The Literary Rationality

I'm now going to compare and contrast this pairing with 'Jack and Jill'. (Yes, I'm talking about the nursery rhyme, and no, I'm not pulling your leg.)

(I'm going to link the article used at the end.)

If you need to be brought up to speed, 'Jack and Jill' is a traditional nursery rhyme.

The phrase "Jack and Jill" existed earlier in England to indicate a boy and girl (forget that, things are much gayer now) as a generic pair. It is so used, for example, in the proverb "Every Jack (shall/must) have his Jill", (AKA, every Jack must have his Percival) to which there are references in two plays by William Shakespeare dating from the 1590s.

A hobby of mine is researching dark meanings in nursery rhymes, but I found the summary of the entire series in this one.

I'll quote the stanzas, and explain how they coincide with the series' general plot. (I'd also like to add that the stanzas may not be in the right order.)

Here's 'Jack and Jill', featuring Caul and Percival Marnau!

'Jack and Jill Went up the hill To fetch a pail of water Jack fell down And broke his crown, And Jill came tumbling after.'

This is the first stanza, and, for me, it talks about how Caul (Jack- which is kind of a coincidence, since his real name is Jack) 'fell' was trying to gain the Library of Soul's power (fetch a pail of water), but, was trapped under a loop collapse (Jack fell down).

Before I continue, however, I must mention that the 'crown' of your head is basically the top part of your head. It is also a 'crown', which is the ornament worn on the top of your head, in a symbol of authority. Caul wanted to crown himself King, but when he did consume the soul in 'Library of Souls', he could only utter gibberish. It kind of sounds like... he injured his crown (And broke his crown).

Anyway, let's fast-forward to 'The Conference of the Birds'. After Percival got his hands on V's heart, he ran head-first into that tornado (And Jill came tumbling after), which, as I've theorized quite a long time ago, represents Caul.

*SLIGHT 'THE DESOLATIONS OF DEVIL'S ACRE' SPOILERS MENTIONED HEREWITH*

'Up Jack got And home did trot, As fast as he could caper; Went to bed To mend his head With vinegar and brown paper.'

In 'The Desolations of Devil's Acre', After Caul was summoned, he retreats to gather followers and rally (Up Jack got/ And home did trot/ As fast as he could caper;/ Went to bed/ To mend his head/ With vinegar and brown paper.).

The compress of vinegar and brown paper to which Jack resorted after his fall was a common home cure used to heal bruises.

*SLIGHT 'THE DESOLATIONS OF DEVIL'S ACRE' SPOILERS END HERE*

'Jill came in And she did grin To see his paper plaster; Mother, vex’d, Did whip her next For causing Jack's disaster.'

We'll need to go back to 'The Conference of the Birds' for this one. The authorial figures brought Percival in, but he didn't seem particularly bothered for the short time he was imprisoned (Jill came in/ And did she grin).

He wasn't in despair about Caul being trapped in Esoteric Sequestration (To see his paper plaster). The Ymbrynes put him behind bars for siding with, working with, and helping Caul (Mother, vex'd/ Did whip her next/ For causing Jack's disaster).

*SLIGHT 'THE DESOLATIONS OF DEVIL'S SPOILERS BEGIN HERE*

'Little Jane ran up the lane To hang her clothes a-drying; She called for Nell to ring the bell, For Jack and Jill were dying. Nimble Dick ran up so quick, He tumbled over a timber, And bent his bow to shoot a crow, And killed a cat in the window.'

This can represent a little behind-the-scenes after Percival had ran into the tornado, since there was a two-day wait before things kicked into overdrive.

These are all the stanzas I've found, but I'll add on to this if I do find more.

This type of poem is made up of 'trochees', which are foots consisting of one long or stressed syllable followed by one short or unstressed syllable.

If you think about it, this is how the entire series goes. The first trilogy is slow and less in action, and the second trilogy is fast-paced and intense.

Anyway, there you have it! The scientific and literary accuracy of the 'Caul X Percival Murnau' pairing!

'Jack and Jill' Wikipedia Article

[ericmun]

Woman Sense - NOV.2020: Refreshing Woman, Na Hye Mi, What's Her Plan for Starting 2nd Generation With Shinhwa’s Eric? + 10 Simple Questions Her Style (English Sub)

The Moment I Discovered Na Hye Mi’s Never-seen-before Charms

" I want to be an actor who is loved not only by the public but also by fellow actors and staff members I work with. For that to happen, I should become a better person, right?

"

I met actress Na Hye Mi. The misconception I had of her being somewhat haughty based on her sharp eyes disappeared completely with the first greeting. Although she was busy filming the drama these days, Na Hye Mi did not look the least bit tired. She smiled the entire time and gave carefully considered responses to each question. She was not super eloquent, but it was charming to see an honest and refreshing side of her. Even her apology for not being used to doing interviews was true to her character.

These days, Na Hye Mi's main interest is KBS1's new daytime drama “No Matter What.” It’s not that she does not have experience doing weekend and daytime dramas, but it is the first time that she plays such a big role. Although she had nerves and concerns about leading a daily drama as a leading actress, the excitement about greeting viewers with a new character was greater.

“No Matter What” is a family drama about the growth of children who have experienced divorce and remarriage of their parents. Na Hye Mi plays ‘Kim Bora,’ a weather forecaster who welcomes a stepfather after growing up in a single-parent household. Not only will there be a sweet love story line but the real relationship among family members will also be presented with colorful charms.

"I'm scared and nervous about the reactions." Na Hye Mi looked very excited for her meeting with Woman Sense, which took place just before the premiere of “No Matter What.”  She still exuded the fresh energy and raw enthusiasm of a rookie. I became curious about Na Hye Mi, a refreshing woman who cannot easily be judged based on first impression.

Q. You’re back with a new drama. Na Hyemi: We only have two days left until the premiere (October 12th, 2020), but I'm still in a daze. I’m also wondering how the viewers will react. We started filming at the end of August and we've been working so hard up until now, but I think I still need to adjust to the set. I've experienced both weekend and daytime dramas, but I still feel like I have a long way to go. (laughs) My current role is bigger than any of my previous works, so I'm spending a lot of time thinking about how to lead the drama. Above all, I try my best to not to become a nuisance on the set.

Q.All of your previous works had high ratings. Na Hyemi: KBS2's weekend drama “My Only One” and KBS1's daytime drama “Home for Summer” both produced pretty high ratings. Sometimes I can't believe I was a part of such beloved dramas, so I feel more gratitude than anything. I was very fortunate. I'm still in touch and maintain good relationships with Lim Ye Jin sunbaenim and Uee unni, both of whom I met during that time. I hope I can also learn and gain new things after finishing “No Matter What.”

Q. This time, you become a weather forecaster. Na Hyemi: Weather forecasts are the voices we commonly hear in our daily lives. I thought I could imitate it quickly, but it turned out to be harder than I thought. I’m practicing very hard to look like a real weather forecaster. I’m even correcting my pronunciation while biting to a pen. It is not easy. In fact, it turns out weather forecasters and announcers have different pronunciations and vocalizations. I gained more respect for them while practicing.

Q. What kind of character can we expect from you in “No Matter What”? Na Hyemi: The character Kim Bora is very bubbly and fun. Since it’s a family drama, you can also enjoy a variety of harmony among the family members. In particular, please look forward to the sister chemistry between Kim Bora and 'Shin Ari' (Jung Min Ah). I only have a younger brother in real life so I really like having a sister in the drama (laughs). The drama is still at the beginning stages, so there hasn’t been much progress, but I hope viewers also enjoy the love story line. I'll be filming the drama until the end of the year, so my goal is to finish it without any trouble. I'll take the viewers’ criticism as interests, so please give us a lot of support.

Q. Coincidentally, your husband Eric will also be back onscreen with a new project in October (Eric stars in MBC's new drama “The Spies Who Loved Me”.) Na Hyemi: My husband started filming before me, but recently, I've been filming more often. That makes it harder to see each other. When I get home, I’m busy washing up and catching sleep, so there’s not much time to see each other face to face. We don’t get to talk a lot because we have to memorize our scripts and we’re busy with our own preparations, but we always encourage and cheer for each other.

Q. Do you ever choose projects for each other? Na Hyemi: We don't really discuss the choice of works with each other. I don't think I'm in a position to pick and choose a particular line of work, so I'm trying to do my best with the opportunities presented to me. The same goes for my husband. Since we are affiliated with different agencies, I think it’s only right that we discuss the projects with our own agency and staff members first. However, I do read the scenario and give feedbacks like “That's interesting.”

Q. You got married in 2017, has anything changed since your marriage? Na Hyemi: I lived with my parents before marriage. Of course I was comfortable and happy back then, but I definitely feel more emotionally stable after marriage. The part that I like the most is that I’m in the same career field as my husband and that we can understand each other. When one of us is having a hard time, we listen and give advice to each other. When we start a new project, it’s not like we can leave and come home at normal time like an office worker. There are times when people are naturally become less attentive in managing the household, so it’s good to be able to understand and take care of each other without saying it out loud. So far, we have had very few projects overlap, so one of us filled the vacancy when one person was away, but this time it's not easy because we’re both busy at the same time.

Q. Do you have any plans for children? Na Hyemi: Not yet. Right now, I'm trying to focus on the current work in front of me. I can’t think about having a baby or childrearing yet. I think I need a little more time. I will discuss it with my husband in the future. (laughs)

Q. Your personal life is behind a veil. You don't even use social media that much, do you? Na Hyemi: I do have an social media account, but I don't use it often. I don’t usually take a lot of pictures. I can’t show my face when I’m resting at home because I’m lounging around so comfortably. They say people appreciate a natural appearance these days, but how can I show myself with my hair in a messy bun (laughs). On my days off, I take walks with my two dogs or watch Netflix while eating snacks. Those are my best ‘small but definite happiness.’

Q. You have very good skin. Do you have any special beauty tips? Na Hyemi: Lately, I've been having skin trouble frequently while filming. I’ve tried various products, from famous beauty items to inexpensive cosmetic products known for having good ingredients, but I haven’t had much results. These days, I take time to wash my face twice because I want to focus on the basics. It's usually hard to wash your face thoroughly when you come home from work because you’re tired. I dedicate around 20 minutes for this. I also try to be as gentle as possible when I rub my skin. I consciously drink water instead of soft drinks or coffee to get enough hydration, and take lactobacillus and vitamins in the morning. My skin started getting better afterwards.

Q. What kind of hobbies do you usually enjoy? Na Hyemi: I started exercising because I've become more interested in immunity and physical strength lately. I’m a ‘hearinyi’ (health+child) who can’t even lift all the barbells but consume proteins religiously (laughs). It’s too much for me to maintain a strict diet at the same time so I mainly focus on muscle exercise using equipment. There are various exercise methods introduced on YouTube so I tend to refer to them. I wasn't the type who enjoys working out but it’s fun because when I do, it relieve my stress. I'm also proud of myself for doing it consistently. (laughs) t/n: *eorinyi = child

Q. Do you meet your friends often when you’re on a break? Na Hyemi: I used to see them often, but we haven't seen each other this year because of filming drama and COVID-19. I don’t enjoy drinking alcohol so I like to chat while drinking coffee at quiet places the most. I have a lot of non-celebrity friends whom I’ve known since I was in school, so we can’t stop chatting when we see each other. Some are married while others are still working, so it’s good listening to their various stories. The day goes by fast when we share our updates or talk about old memories.

Q. Do you seek advice from your friends? Na Hyemi: Truthfully, I don't really have any worries these days. I'm not a multitasker, so I only think about my work when I’m involved in a project. Even now, my biggest concern and priority is how to lead “No Matter What” and my acting. I think about what I can do, and if it still doesn't work out, I'll ask the director or my costars for advice.

Q. You seem to be more active in your work after marriage. Na Hyemi: It wasn't intentional, but I once had a long break from acting. Back then, I had a lot of desire to work. While monitoring other popular dramas, I was eager to do a project as soon as soon as possible. But just because you want to act doesn't mean you get a chance to be in a project. I think in those days, I wasn’t able to get many chances because I was lacking a lot as an actor. I was depressed after going through a hard time, but these days, I'm just happy every day. I'm very grateful to be part of a drama series.

Q. What did you do during your break? Na Hyemi: I felt lethargic and sluggish when I wasn’t doing anything. So I learned a variety of things like Chinese and guitar. It’s actually embarrassing to say I was learning stuff because I didn't really learn one thing intensively so I didn't master anything properly. (laughs) But it was still a pleasant experience back then, and it was a vital factor for me to get through the hiatus.

Q. You debut was in 2001. What's the driving force that made you come this far? Na Hyemi: When I look back on my work, every moment of filming remains a great source of pleasure for me. There were definitely times when I was tired or faced with limitations, but it's a precious memory incomparable to anything else. I think that feeling gives me the power to continue on. I went to auditions with the mindset, 'I lacked these kinds of acting skills. I think I can do better from now on!' You can only check to see if you're doing well based on the works that you can learn from. I think I’ve come this far to get that opportunity. There's no limit for the desire to do well.

Q. Many people still think of the MBC sitcom “High Kick” when they think of Na Hye Mi. Na Hyemi: It’s amazing that it’s still loved by so many people when it was 13 years ago. I heard that related videos are often uploaded on YouTube and it was still airing on TV recently. Some people also tell me they enjoyed it. (laughs) I'm often asked if I dislike the “High Kick” association. I'm so honored. I had a lot of fun during the filming too. It's just embarrassing to see my old self as a rookie again. (laughs) I think I can do better if I were to film it again. I'd like to try a project like “High Kick” if I get a chance.

Q. You probably want to try changing your image through a role. Na Hyemi: Until now, I’ve played many roles where I was haughty, chic or dressed up in fancy clothes. From now on, I want to try a down to earth and comfortable character like the girl next door. I want to show a natural side of me that is not made up at all. I'd like to try out a profession like doctor. Since I haven't been on the screen for a long time, it would be also nice doing a movie. It doesn't matter a romance or comedy genre. I like anything that’s a different from the previous image of Na Hye Mi. I'm ready to work hard on anything. (laughs)

Q. What do you think makes a good actor? Na Hyemi: I think an actor who can express the feelings in the script well and convey their feelings to the viewers is a good actor. Moreover, I want to become an actor who is loved not only by the public but also by fellow actors and staff members that I work with. For that to happen, I should become a better person, right? From now on, I want to encourage myself by telling myself “Let’s do better than I am now.”

Source: Women Sense Translation: EricMun.tumblr

[ENG SUB] 10 Quick Question with Na Hyemi: What's Good About Being Married over Single? Woman Sense Cover Interview

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Original video by Women Sense

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Super Mario Advance Playthrough

Fighter: Princess Peach Toadstool.

Game: Super Mario Advance, Wii U virtual console (GBA). First Released on March 21st 2001.

Fighter Bio.

Princess Peach Toadstool, known as Princess Peach more commonly now is the crown Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. She is famous and well liked both within her Kingdom and in a lot of locations outside of it. Peach’s role in the Mario series varies with her most common role often being kidnapped by Bowser, but other villains have also captured her before. Based on my estimate, I believe she has been kidnapped roughly 31 times so far in the games including all spin-offs. Sometimes these kidnappings take place before the game starts meaning she only appears in the ending, other times she’ll have a role in the game before it happens and sometimes it will be a short part of the game like for a single chapter in one of the RPGs. Often in that last example it relates to another one of her roles, being a playable character who is either a party member or optional character to play as, with her sometimes becoming playable after being rescued. In the cases where Peach is not kidnapped immediately, she’ll often tell Mario and the others what they need to do when a crisis is taking place, advising them where to head to next or setting them off at the start of the game on their quest. Being captured so often, one skill Peach seems to have picked up over the years is her ability to often stealthily slip around her captors, sometimes simply working out a way to send Mario assistance such as items and advice, and other times managing to spy on her captor’s plans. Often due to the location she’s being held in she is unable to fully escape from her captors however, or in some cases her sense of duty to her also captured people will make her not try to leave without them.

The Mario series doesn’t have a solid timeline, so a lot of this is just my own personal ideas, but unless a game is explicitly taking place in the past with Baby versions of the characters, I tend to just go by the order in which the games are released regarding character’s histories in the franchise, something possibly evidenced by a scene in Super Mario Sunshine where F.L.U.D.D. searches its databank and has data on Mario’s adventures prior to that game as past events. I also personally like to consider the Paper Mario series broadly canon to the Mario series as a whole so I will be including aspects from that here. Peach first met the Mario Bros and Bowser back when they were babies, with her first meeting with them being during the events of Yoshi’s Island DS. In this game Peach was one of the babies who the Yoshis are trying to help get home, with her ability when riding a Yoshi being to use her parasol which allows them to ride on high winds. The next appearance of Baby Princess Peach was during the Shroob invasion where her older self went back in time and was kidnapped by the Shroobs. Baby Bowser planned to kidnap Baby Peach, however he was interrupted first by the Baby Mario Bros and then by the invading Shroobs. Baby Princess Peach actually manages to not be kidnapped throughout the game instead remaining in the future Castle with a young Toadsworth who is her caretaker. Following these two events (excluding spinoffs with Baby Peach where she appears but there’s no story such as Mario Kart) the Mario Bros seemingly left the Mushroom Kingdom possibly for New Donk City. Despite their absence, Bowser didn’t attempt any more kidnapping plots for some time, possibly not until the Mario Bros returned to the Mushroom Kingdom following the events of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros seems to be the first time Bowser successfully kidnapped Princess Peach taking over her Kingdom entirely until the Mario Bros managed to defeat him and save her. In the backstory to this game, Bowser apparently used magic to transform the people of the Mushroom Kingdom into various objects and then kidnapped the Princess to stop her from turning them back. It’s due to this as well as Peach’s abilities in some games that it seems she is capable of certain forms of magic, often of the healing variety. It is only rarely however Peach is shown to use these abilities.

When it comes to her personality, Peach was probably the earliest character in the series to have dialogue, with her having lines in the very first game and most others after, whereas other characters like Bowser would more often only have dialogue in the instruction book at most. In the very first game it was fairly basic with her simply thanking Mario or Luigi for saving her and offering them the chance to take on a new quest, which was a harder version of the game. Super Mario Bros 3 however had her show a bit more personality, with her making a joke to her saviour at the end of the adventure based on the infamous line Toad would tell the player in the original game, “Thank you Mario but our Princess is in another castle.” Before telling them she was just kidding. Peach’s personality varies a little from game to game, but usually the main aspects of it are that she’s kind, generous and when not captured is good at advising the others what needs to be done. Despite being fairly reliable, she can sometimes be somewhat whimsical, especially in spin-off games with her often enjoying frolicking and singing, and she can when pushed show a fairly strong angry side, with her either aggressively convincing a character such as Luigi to go and save his brother or reacting angrily to those who mock her. Finally, despite her longstanding friendship with Mario, she’s willing to tell him off if he’s getting too carried away, almost abandoning him and Bowser at one point when they start squabbling and she just wants to go home.

Friends: Princess Peach is fairly popular throughout the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond and as such a lot of characters know of her even if they haven’t met her before. Peach’s subjects seem to all adore her a lot with them often being depressed when she’s absent. Of her closer relationships, her closest arguably is with Mario, with him often rescuing her and sometimes her returning the favour. Their relationship tends to be teased sometimes as possibly romantic, but there are times Peach will find Mario a bit too overbearing. What is clear is that they trust each other entirely and when possible will often work together. Peach is close with Luigi also although not to the same degree as Mario, however she will still in some games treat Luigi the same way she does Mario in the ending when Luigi is the character being played as, such as giving him a kiss on the cheek. Later games have shown she extends this to anyone who helps her as a sign of gratitude, including Yoshi, Toad and Toadette. The next closest relationship Peach has is with Toadsworth her elderly steward who has taken care of her since she was a baby. Toadsworth often worries for the Princess’s safety and tries to accompany her whenever he can. Toad is Peach’s attendant and often fulfils Toadsworth’s role in his absence sticking by her side when possible. Toad is fiercely loyal to Peach despite his cowardice and will often try to help her out however he can.

Toadette is someone Peach gets along with, however the two don’t interact that often with Toadette often doing other roles to help Mario. Peach has a connection to the Yoshis due to them saving her with the other Star Children when she was a baby, however besides this there is only one instance of her ever riding Yoshi, which is in the ending of Super Mario World where she rides Yoshi on the journey back to his house after Bowser is defeated. Of the rest of the cast Peach seems to get along fairly well with most of them, with possibly her best friend being Princess Daisy who she often partners with in various sports and other games and the two will also act as friendly rivals when in competition with each other.

Enemies/Rivals: The relationship between Bowser and Peach seems to have developed over the years. Initially Bowser seemed to aim to capture Peach simply because she was the princess of the Kingdom he was invading and then because she could undo the magic he used to transform her citizens. Eventually however, Bowser seemed to develop an affinity for Peach, one which she does not reciprocate at all. Due to this, Bowser’s aim is always to kidnap Peach and try to convince her to marry him rather than just destroy her as with his other enemies. Bowser also at one point told his son Bowser Jr that Peach was his Mother, which led to her being shocked when Bowser Jr claimed this. Despite Junior revealing later on he knew Peach wasn’t his real Mother, he still referred to her as Mama and seems to like the idea of it, kidnapping Peach sometimes so she can be with Bowser. Although Peach does not get along with Bowser or his troops, she will work with them when needed, and in cases where Bowser helps against another enemy she is willing to do things such as send him a cake as thanks. Beyond this, Peach has had a few other enemies, often them being villains who kidnap her as part of their plan such as Sir Grodus or Cackletta. Peach has fought against a couple of villains herself including Count Bleck’s minions, Smithy’s Gang and Wart, leader of the 8 bits who invaded Subcon.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Being from the Mario series, Princess Peach has had a fair few crossovers, although not as many as the Mario Bros themselves. Super Mario RPG had Peach playable as part of the party, and therefore she was also present when Samus made a cameo in the game. Link’s cameo in the game appears before Princess Peach joins the party, however they are still technically in the same game so I feel it’s still worth mentioning. Princess Peach similarly to Mario appears in the crowd for both the Megaton Punch minigame and Kirby’s Battle in the Boxing arena with King Dedede in Kirby Super Star and the remake Super Star Ultra. Princess Peach is a racer in Mario Kart 8, where there was a Mii costume for Captain Falcon, along with the Blue Falcon as a kart and two F-Zero tracks. In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there is also Link in both his Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild incarnations as well as both default Inklings, two human Animal Crossing Villagers and Isabelle who are playable. Princess Peach is a character in the Game & Watch Gallery games and as such has crossed over with Mr. Game & Watch. In the NES version of Tetris, Pit appeared playing a harp alongside characters such as Princess Peach, Samus, Link and Donkey Kong.  Princess Peach is a character in the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series therefore crossing over with Sonic. Pac-Man has crossed over with Princess Peach in the arcade Mario Kart GP series. Whilst Princess Peach has never directly crossed over with any of the Hero characters from Dragon Quest, many of the Fortune Street games have featured crossovers with the Dragon Quest and Mario series, with many other Dragon Quest characters interacting with her. Finally, and perhaps most notably is a game where Princess Peach has a direct cameo and Mario doesn’t. (There is however a character based on him) In all versions of Link’s Awakening a character named Catherine sends a photo of ‘herself’ to Mr. Write (a character who is a clear reference to Dr. Wright from the SNES SimCity game who is also an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros) with him showing Link the photo which is a picture of Princess Peach. In reality, Catherine is a goat living in Animal Village. Whilst normally I tend to not include pictures or outfits in other games as cameos (Peach’s dress and parasol appear in many other series such as Animal Crossing for example) I felt in this case it was justified as the photo is part of the actual sidequest regarding the character’s identity rather than just being a background cameo.

Why this game?

Princess Peach has been playable in a few games so I had quite a few to choose from, Super Mario 3D World was one contender with Peach playing somewhat similarly to how she does in Super Smash Bros, however she lacked something specific in this game that I went for with my final choice. The other two notable options, Super Paper Mario and Super Princess Peach which was her starring role both had her play in a somewhat more unique way to how she did in Super Smash Bros, with Perry the Parasol being a big part of her moveset in SPP, whilst in SPM Peach only had her Parasol lacking her floating jump. Super Mario Bros 2 was the first time Princess Peach was playable, and most of her moveset in Super Smash Bros originates from the game, with not only her being able to float for a short time when she jumps, but perhaps the most unique aspect from the game being her ability to pull out turnips to throw as weapons, something she only does in SMB2. It was for these reasons I decided to go with Super Mario Bros 2 in this case, especially as those other games will still be covered later down the line on my list. When it comes to the version of the game I chose, I went for the Super Mario Advance incarnation rather than the original NES or Allstars version, however I will detail that more in the next section overall.

My past with this game.

So this game is one of the select few specifically from my childhood. I had Super Mario Allstars on the SNES with this game on it, but also I had the NES version as well. With the NES version the main thing I remember is just having the box with the picture of Mario on the front. Similarly to other games then I never completed this one, however it was probably the Mario game I got the least far playing. I believe I would only ever get to 1-3 before usually not making it past the Phantos to face Mouser. For some time I mostly remembered the game but didn’t really revisit it, it wasn’t exactly in the same class as Super Mario Bros 3 or Super Mario World even if I did have some fond memories of it for being so different. Probably the most confusing thing with the game for me back then was related to the cartoon show. In the cartoon show, Bowser is depicted looking different to the games, with him being mostly green with a crown on his head as opposed to his look in the vast majority of other appearances with orange scales on his body and only his head green as well as lacking a crown. Wart, the antagonist of Super Mario Bros 2 however, was all green with a crown on his head. Due to this, I believed that the King Koopa on the cartoon show was actually Wart (which might not be that outlandish as the first version of the cartoon show was based on Super Mario Bros 2, so it was likely King Koopa was just an amalgamation of Bowser and Wart, although this is DIC so the possibility of them just screwing it up is always the most likely scenario) Another perhaps somewhat unique source of this was my Grandma when I’d visit her as a kid, who would have various games I could play with my Cousins, and one she had was a card game called Super Mario Bros Blockbusting Card Game. Of course, being a big fan of Mario then I would love getting this out, especially as the big cards had artwork of the various enemies, powerups and the Mario Bros. What was interesting was this also had artwork of Wart as well as Bowser, which therefore for me back then looked even more similar, so I just assumed Wart was the King Koopa from the cartoons and Bowser was from the games. What helped with this was there were a fair few of the bosses from Super Mario Bros 2 who were cards in the set.

It was only with magazines I believe that I gradually learnt that Wart was the antagonist of Super Mario Bros 2, and at first I believed this meant he was the villain from the cartoon show till I finally realised the cartoon show wasn’t really relevant to the games at all and King Koopa was meant to be Bowser. I also at this time learnt probably the other most notable aspect of this game, that it wasn’t the original Super Mario Bros 2. Despite having Super Mario Allstars, back then I didn’t exactly look at the Lost Levels as anything else other than a weird version of Super Mario Bros I couldn’t get anywhere on, and it was only later I learnt that that was the game in Japan that was SMB2 and the SMB2 I knew had been another game altogether, Doki Doki Panic. What’s interesting is I believe apparently Miyamoto was more involved in Doki Doki Panic than SMB2 (Lost Levels) overall, so it’s not as if the game becoming a Mario one was completely out of nowhere. It’s also very interesting that so many factors of this game, things like Peach’s movement, Luigi’s distinct character design, Toad being playable and perhaps the biggest one being various enemies such as Bob-ombs and Shy Guys became a huge part of the Super Mario Bros series, with Bob-ombs appearing in the following game SMB3 (Which meant in Japan these enemies somehow went from being in Doki Doki Panic to Super Mario Bros 3.) The reason for this apparently was that they believed the original SMB2 (Lost Levels) was too difficult really to sell outside of Japan, something that tends to be mocked now, but personally I think it makes for a more interesting and unique sequel so I’m kind of glad it happened. It’s also interesting to me that due to this, outside of Japan Super Mario Bros fits a slight pattern I noticed with a couple of franchises on NES, where the second game in the series would be quite different to the first, then the third would end up being more like the first game again but expanded. The Legend of Zelda had Zelda II Adventure of Link which had sidescrolling as a major gameplay element before A Link to the Past brought the series back to how it was in the original game, Castlevania 2 Simon’s Quest was a lot different to the first game, but Castlevania 3 Dracula’s Curse brought it back to the gameplay of the first game, and with SMB2 it was radically different to SMB, but then SMB3 brought it back to the style of the first game.

Another big part of my history with the game, as with a fair few franchises, goes back to my experiences on the early internet, specifically Newgrounds flash animations again. Back then, there was a flash animation at the time called Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom which I really enjoyed. It was bloody and involved Mario dying and Luigi setting out for revenge, fairly tame compared to a lot of stuff on Newgrounds then and with some really nice usage of sprites. It was the second flash movie in this series however that involved Mario setting off to face the real villain behind the events of the first movie (which turned out to have been a dream) Wart that really made me appreciate SMB2 more. At the time I was really getting into messing around with sprites and Games Factory, trying to make my own games, so this flash movie made me look a lot more into SMB2 and all the unique enemies in it, with the various bosses such as Mouser, Tryclyde and of course Birdo and Wart being characters I wanted to see more of. This all led me to finally properly play SMB2 and beat it some time after I had beaten SMB3.

For my final history with the game, it relates mostly to Super Mario Advance, the remake of Super Mario Bros 2 that launched the Game Boy Advance. It was traditional at that point to launch a new Nintendo console with a Mario game, a pattern that would be broken only a few months later with the release of the Gamecube (which instead had Luigi’s Mansion, and the Wii wouldn’t have a Mario series game at all at launch.) This game was the first in the Super Mario Advance series and it’s arguably the version that was changed the most from the original game, with a few changes to the levels such as new giant Shy Guys and a fair bit more voice acting with all the bosses getting lines they’d say when you met them. This is pure speculation I’ve had since then, but I feel like they possibly picked Super Mario Bros 2 as they felt it was the game that they could risk changing most, and also that they changed it the most of the series so as to show off what the GBA was capable of with the voices and sprites. I remember when the GBA was the current console, Super Mario Advance was the game I’d tend to see most often being shown off in stores, even sometime after other games had come out. Despite this, it was probably the last game in the Advance series I got, but I’d say out of the Mario Advance series it’s the game I’d most recommend instead of or alongside the original or Allstars version as it’s the more unique experience. It’s due to this that I chose Super Mario Advance as the version for my playthrough rather than the others.

My Smash Playthrough.

I have actually played through this game fairly recently from start to finish, for a character much further down my list so the game is somewhat fresh in my memory compared to other games I’ve written about so far here. For this playthrough as it was the game I chose for Princess Peach I played through the whole game solely as her. In comparison I’d say she’s one of the characters who I prefer playing as due mostly to her extremely useful floating ability, with her downside (being her power which means she’s unable to pull vegetables or pick up enemies as quickly and a slower running speed) not really feeling too much of a hassle in exchange. I want to focus on Peach mostly, but Mario as always is the all-rounder having no real weaknesses nor gimmicks that make him excel in any area, Luigi has the best jump but is a little slower and less powerful than Mario (this is also the game where he first had his scuttle jump) and finally Toad (the character I played through the game as recently) is the fastest and most powerful but has the lowest jump, often requiring you to charge up a super jump (done by crouching down until the character starts glowing) to reach higher platforms. The plot of the game is that Mario had a dream one night where he went up a staircase and found a mysterious door. Opening the door he saw a vast world before him and heard a voice telling him this land was Subcon and that the evil Wart is causing suffering there. The voice tells Mario that only he can save the land and to remember Wart hates vegetables before Mario wakes up. The next day, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach go for a picnic, Mario tells them of the dream he had and they all say they had the same dream. During their picnic they see a cave and look inside it, finding a staircase leading up to the same door from the dream. When they open it, they are once again standing before Subcon, with them this time entering which is where the game starts.

Probably the most immediate point for most Mario players to notice when first playing this game is how it is very different when it comes to a lot of the standard Mario mechanics, granted when the game came out this was following only the original Super Mario Bros, so it wasn’t quite as unusual. Some aspects remain the same, such as the characters turning small when they have only one hit left, however unlike in other Mario games their health is restored by finding hearts, with any amount of hearts over one bringing them back to regular size. Mushrooms are in the game still, but this time finding one and picking it up gives the character an extra heart (as well as fully healing them) which means they’re a lot less common than in other Mario games. This game also lacks any sort of power-ups such as the Fire Flower, with the only alternate form being brief invincibility when touching a Star. I quite enjoy the main mechanic used to fight in this game, being picking up objects or enemies and throwing them at other enemies to defeat them, it provides a fun and fairly unique style of gameplay to the other games in the series and creates fairly basic puzzles in some cases where you’re required to build a small tower of mushroom blocks as an example to be able to reach a high platform. Possibly one of the most infamous aspects of this game are the keys that are sometimes required in stages to get through a locked door. You are required to carry the keys similarly to other objects to the door, however when holding the key, the evil Phanto Masks will relentlessly pursue you, and only stop either when you use the key on the door or drop the key. Despite their reputation and giving me some trouble as a kid, nowadays I barely find them a problem as just throwing the key ahead of you usually gets them off your back long enough to travel a fair distance before they pursue you again.

When it comes to difficulties I faced playing the game, it’s a fairly easy game, with only two sections I remember really causing me many problems both recently and back during this playthrough. The first is a stage where you’re travelling across the tops of whales in the ocean. The top of them is a fairly big platform, although the middle of the platform will sometimes have water spout out of their blowhole. Touching this water from the side will hurt you which can be somewhat annoying, however jumping on top of the water that’s spurting out provides a platform. Perhaps the most irritating part to me is when you’re required to use the whales tails as platforms, mostly as they are very small and it can be very easy to slip off of them, leading to an instant death. The second and probably most irritating situation in the game for me are parts featuring you digging through sand. In these parts of the level there are layers of sand that you can dig by pulling them similarly to how you pull vegetables out of the ground. The problem with these parts are the Shy Guys who constantly walk from left to right, and will fall down the layers of Sand you’ve removed. Due to how little room you have to manoeuvre when you get lower in the sand, picking the Shy Guys up and throwing them doesn’t really work, often with them catching on a layer above and instantly walking back into you taking off health. The way I describe this sounds like it’s a design issue but it’s more just hard to describe and really makes sense when playing, it’s not unfair or anything, it’s just these sections are the ones I tend to die most at and find the most tedious, possibly simply due to impatience when it comes down to it.

The stages aren’t really ground-breaking, but when compared to the stages in the original Super Mario Bros I feel they have a fair bit more variety. The themes for them are grassland, vertical waterfall stages, desert stages, underground caves and snow stages, with some of them simply being at night. I still find the stages do some interesting things however with them not seeming just like variations of each other but often having a few unique features to them that makes them stand out, for example the very first stage is a fairly basic grassland, but the end of it has you going into a cave to reach the top of some hills, then climbing into the clouds before facing the boss. The levels are longer than those in the original Super Mario Bros, however there are less of them, with each world only having 3 stages, and the last world, World 7 only having two. The game is somewhat challenging, it was probably the one I got the least far in of the Super Mario Bros games as a kid, but despite a couple of issues I find it fairly simple to play through now, especially with Peach.

The Bosses are probably the more interesting of the first three Super Mario Bros games with there being quite a few variations, although some are repeated a few times. This game was the debut of Birdo who appears in a few variations. The most basic battle with Pink Birdo has her shoot eggs from her mouth at you, which you have to grab from the air and throw back at her. Red Birdo shoots eggs also, but varies it with some fireballs, so you have to be careful which projectile you jump onto and which you just avoid. Green Birdo is the final variation shooting only fireballs, requiring you to grab other objects from around the room to throw instead of eggs to beat her. There is a fourth sort of variation exclusive to Super Mario Advance, being the Robo Birdo. This boss fires eggs also like Birdo, however the eggs are giant and it also has a charging attack which requires you to grab one of the chains hanging from the ceiling to avoid. Birdos are usually the bosses of the regular stages in Super Mario Bros 2, with the third stage of each world having a unique boss to fight, Robo Birdo being one of these unique bosses who replaces a repeated boss in the original versions of the game. There are a couple of unique appearances of Birdo in the game however which I find neat personally, one of which is a Pink Birdo who appears at the very start of stage 4-3. This Birdo will always respawn when defeated when you leave the area through a door and return again. The reason why is that the eggs she fires are actually meant to be used to ride across a large chasm to reach the rest of the level, which is probably one of my favourite little gimmicks in the game.

Mouser is the first main boss in the game, a Mouse with sunglasses who likes to throw bombs everywhere, naturally the way to beat him is to throw his bombs back at him. I remember finding this boss a little annoying mostly as he’s on a platform above you, and only gets effected by the bomb if it goes off where he’s standing. Due to his erratic movements this can be down to luck somewhat as to whether he’ll stand in the right spot when the bomb explodes, although it’s hardly a difficult battle overall. What’s probably most interesting to me about Mouser is that he is probably the boss who varies the most between versions of the game. In the original form of the game, Doki Doki Panic he appeared as a boss three times, with a green eared version in stage 3-3 and a white furred version in 5-3. Super Mario Bros 2 replaced the version in 5-3 with another boss, and then Super Mario Advance replaced the green eared version with Robo Birdo, but actually had a second boss battle with the regular Mouser replace a second boss battle with another character. Tryclyde is the next boss faced all versions of the game, being a three headed snake that shoots fireballs and has to have mushroom blocks thrown at it. Interestingly Tryclyde appears again as a boss in SMB2 but in Super Mario Advance it’s replaced in it’s second battle by Mouser. Another odd factor with Tryclyde is in Super Mario Bros 2 it is red, but in the remake for Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Advance it is instead green with red patterns on it’s back. It’s particularly odd in this case as some enemies, Cobrats who are single headed snakes that appear in the game remain red in all versions. Tryclyde is more of a challenging boss than Mouser and caused me perhaps a death or two but wasn’t that tough overall. The next boss is probably the one I had the most trouble with, Fryguy a living flame. Due to being a flame, touching Fry Guy at all causes damage, so you have to throw mushroom blocks at him. What makes this battle more difficult is that Fryguy moves around a fair bit, and hitting him with the mushroom blocks due to this without being hit yourself can be a lot more tricky. On top of this, when you beat the first phase of the boss fight, Fryguy then splits into four smaller versions that can be just as tricky to hit and all need to be extinguished in order to beat him. Fryguy is probably second only to Wart when it comes to how often I’d die to him, and I think in this playthrough actually killed me more than Wart did. Clawgrip the crab is the final of the standard bosses in the game, throwing boulders at you which have to be picked up and thrown back at him. I remember this battle being a little tricky as landing on the boulders properly could be tough, and approaching from the side at all would cause you damage, but overall he was less tough than Fryguy to me. Clawgrip replaced the white Mouser and was the only boss who wasn’t in Doki Doki Panic (besides Robo Birdo.) Every boss is voiced in this version of the game and I find them fun little voicelines overall that make them more memorable, with lines like Mouser going “Here, have some bombs!” or Birdo’s “This is as far as you go!”

The final two levels are the most difficult overall, not being as irritating to me as the digging through sand or whale sections earlier in the game, but more difficult stages overall than the others, with the first having you travelling across clouds with a lot of enemies and pits to overcome and the second being a big palace which is probably the biggest maze in the game. They are both however, probably my favourite levels in the game overall. I tend to have an affinity for cloud based sky stages and I find the palace a fitting final location. Wart is the final boss of the game and is fought in a room with the Dream Machine which he has been using possibly to create the various monsters that make up his army of bad dreams. The Dream Machine seems to perhaps possess some sort of sentience however, as in the final battle it starts shooting out vegetables which can be grabbed and thrown into Wart’s mouth to defeat him. Wart fights by shooting out bubbles and it is only when he opens his mouth to do so he can be hurt by throwing a vegetable in there, which was why at the start of the game Mario was told about Wart hating them as a hint. I remember having some trouble years ago with timing the vegetables so as to not get hit by the bubbles, but this time it went fairly smoothly and I beat Wart I think first time. With Wart defeated you go through to the next room and free the native inhabitants of Subcon from a jar, who celebrate Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach defeating Wart and saving them before seeming to throw the defeated Wart out of the Palace. With this, the scene then switches to Mario in bed, revealing the whole game was a dream as cast credits for all of the enemies in the game go by, which in the original version of the game had a couple of mistakes such as Ostro, a minor enemy and Birdo’s names being swapped, which is corrected in this version. It’s a nice ending and for those who overanalyse these games like me, somewhat interesting as a few of the enemies who first appeared in this game such as Shy Guys and Snifits actually also appeared in Yoshi’s Island when Mario was a baby, so as this is part of a dream those memories might be related to them appearing in Wart’s army of bad dreams, although I know it’s probably nothing that deep overall. So overall, I enjoyed playing through this game, it’s not overly long or difficult and as a portable game back when it came out and the first example of what the GBA could do, it was very good overall I’d say.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Peach in Smash.

I’ve pretty much gone over the main aspects of Princess Peach in this game when it comes to Super Smash Bros, this game was the origin of Peach’s floating jump ability and her pulling turnips out of the ground to throw at enemies. In Super Smash Bros, very rarely Peach can pull other items out of the ground instead of a turnip, one of which being a Bob-omb, which is possible also in Super Mario Bros 2 where some of the tufts of grass when pulled will turn out to be a Bob-omb which has to be thrown away immediately or else it will explode on you. Other than this however, most of Peach’s other moves come from other games I will cover later, such as her frying pan being from Super Mario RPG, Tennis Racket and Golf Club from their respective sports series and Parasol from various other games. There’s nothing really to customise so that’s pretty much it for Peach’s appearance in this game.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to Super Mario Wiki.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using Miiverse before it shut down.

[stark-tony]

irondad and spiderson ft biological son au fic recs part 2

* = incomplete

Close To The Ground  series* by boo_boo_thefool

summary: 

pairings: none

tags: angst

warnings: none

I'll Dedicate Everyday to You series* by sluttytonystark

summary: 

pairings: none

tags: hurt/comfort

warnings: none

Every Breath of Me  series* by doctornineandthreequarters

summary:

pairings: pepperony

tags: fluff, hurt/comfort

warnings: none

i promise you kid that i give so much more than i get series* by geralt_of_rivia

summary: Just short little ficlets of single dad Tony and his son Peter. No chronological order to these or anything - some will be before Tony is Iron Man TM and some will be after, all depending on his and Pete’s age in the fics of course. If you want to make a request, feel free to shoot me one here!

pairings: none

tags: fluff, hurt/comfort, angst

warnings: none

his greatest creation  series* by peterstank

summary: 

pairings: pepperony

tags: fluff, hurt/comfort

warnings: none

5 times Tony showed off Peter, and 1 time Peter showed him off by Webtrinsic

summary: Tony loves to show off his son.

pairings: none

tags: 

warnings: none

The life of Peter Stark* by Malya

summary: Peter Stark's life seen through the media.

(Taking a break due to college)

pairings: none

tags: fluff

warnings: none

Radioactive  by Emily_F6

summary: Things haven't always been great between Tony Stark and his son. He wasn't ready to become a father...didn't even know he had a son until the boy's mother died. Over time, though, he thought he got the hang of it. But that was before his son went on a field trip to Oscorop and was seemingly left fighting for his life. *Written for Iron Dad Big Bang*

pairings: none

tags: angst

warnings: none

Kangaroo Care  by TonyStarkissist

summary: “It is commonly referred to as ‘Kangaroo Care’, sir. The skin-to-skin contact is proven to enhance a child's immune system, calm its heart rate, and increase familial bond between parent and child.”

Irondad Bingo Fic #2 AU: Biological Dad

pairings: none

tags: fluff

warnings: none            

Sunlight by ArdenSkyeHolmes221

summary: “Stop pouting and ignoring me. You’re giving me a complex.”

“I am— I’m not pouting,” he sputters, avoiding his father’s gaze. 

“Oooh, but you are ignoring me.”

***

Or the one where Peter struggles reintegrating in his own life after his dad lived five years without him.

pairings: pepperony

tags: fluff, angst

warnings: none

Twist of Fate by karenninaaa

summary: A single picture triggered Tony Stark to suspect that Peter Parker was his son, biologically.

pairings: pepperony

tags: fluff

warnings: none

An Anatomy Lesson  by stained_glass_heart

summary: Completely self indulgent fluff to start healing from Endgame. No plot at all. Just soft Irondad caring for a baby spiderson. 

Includes broad generalizations of anatomy, a stubborn carseat, Peter Parker being the most chill baby ever, and no beta.

pairings: none

tags: fluff

warnings: none

Father Figure*  by vanillaxo 

summary: Tony was panicked. 

No, scrap that, he was frightened. Inconsolable. Perturbed. Hysterical. Definitely not capable of being a father- much less one overnight to two kids. 

Father. Two. Kids. 

God. It even sounded insane. Was the universe serious? This had to be a joke, right? 

- CURRENTLY ON HIATUS -

pairings: pepperony

tags: fluff

warnings: none

Outsider  by     PinkEasterEggs

summary: “You know,” his Dad mused when they were halfway through the bread and the ducks were all swimming around them. “I used to come here during the 5 years when you were . . . gone.”

Peter didn’t know what to say, he’d half expected his Dad to of brought Morgan.

 “I never brought any bread,” Tony sighed. “I just sat on that park bench for hours. I thought about bringing Morgan one year but . . . i wanted this place to be ours and ours only.”

Peter couldn’t even say how much that meant to him.

 “You’ve changed,” Peter admitted. His Dad had created a whole new life for himself, one that Peter wasn’t really sure where he fit. All of his stuff had been thrown out and the Tower was sold.

 “I know,” Tony sighed, ducking his head down to kiss Peter’s crown. “But i’ll always be your Dad." 

Peter tries to find his place in the world after the Avengers defeated Thanos. As much as he knows he's loved, he can't shake the feelings of being replaced when he comes into a new world where his father is now married and had another child.

(No Spider-Man Far From Home Spoilers)

 #10: Biological Child

pairings: pepperony

tags: angst

warnings: none

The Chilling Realities Of Hunting And Being Hunted  by Buckets_Of_Stars

summary: All Peter and Tony had to do was cross the mountains. That’s it. Just climb a few hills and get to the Convention. They didn’t count on the snow, or the wind, or the fact that neither of them have cell service.

 And they definitely didn’t count on the fact that they would be hunted—stalked—as they sit, freezing and shaking, on the side of the road.

pairings: none

tags: angst hurt/comfort

warnings: none

Scarecrow Pose  by ArdenSkyeHolmes221

summary: “J, you gotta help me.” Tony puffs air like he’s been a chain smoker all his life as he gasps on the hardwood floor. “Pete’s— Pete’s got too much energy.”

 “If I may make a suggestion, sir, perhaps what young master needs is to channel his energy constructively.” 

“Such— such as?” 

“Perhaps yoga, sir?”

pairings: none

tags: fluff

warnings: none

A Pool For Two?  by PinkEasterEggs

summary: Peter Stark knew that he wasn’t allowed outside their Malibu mansion without his father’s approval. But he decided that his dad couldn’t be too mad because all he wanted to do was splash about in the pool for a little while. Last summer Peter hadn’t been all that confident in the water, shying away from the newly built slides and rides. This year, however, Peter was older and far more experienced. And man did he wanna go down those water slides. 

Or

 Peter just wants to go for a swim; too bad his dad stops him-- or does he?

pairings: none

tags: fluff

warnings: none

Better?  by crowkag

summary: While Tony and Peter might be afraid of different things, what they have in common is where they go for comfort: each other.

pairings: none

tags: fluff, hurt/comfort

warnings: none

Two Vodka Martinis: Extra Dry, Extra Olives, Extra Fast  by PinkEasterEggs

summary: “Well, Tony Stark, fancy seeing you here.”

Tony’s expression went blank as he searched the woman’s face, a hand moving out as he took a guess at her name. “. . . Karen.”

“Christine,” she spoke over him. “You have a lot of nerve showing up here tonight. Can i at least get a reaction from you?”

“Panic,” Tony supplied, looking to the side and trying his best not to look at his young son’s confused face. “I would say panic . . .”

 Tony takes his son, Peter, to the Stark Industries' Annual Benefit for the Firefighter's Family Fund where they run into a face Tony would rather forget.

 #4: Gala/ Press Event

pairings: pepperony

tags: fluff

warnings: none

Postage Parenting* by TheLastStraws 

summary: In the silence of his lab, Tony slid the letter out from the envelope, aggravating the permanent creases to unfold it. He read it again. Well, he skipped down to the one sentence, looped in bubbly cursive handwriting, that sent him into a panicked, aggravated, and depressed tailspin these past few days. Just one sentence.

“I’m pregnant.”

(Tony discovers he's father to a precious, eleven-year-old Peter Parker a few months after the Battle of New York. A retelling/AU of Iron Man 3 and beyond.)

pairings: pepperony

tags: fluff

warnings: none

A Bite-Sized Experience  by Buckets_Of_Stars

summary: When Tony mentioned to Peter one time that he knows how to make pasta-- not the shitty "get in a box at the store and heat up for 10 minuets" pasta-- but the real deal, Peter would not shut up about it. Honestly, it had started to drive Tony insane.

Tony's solution: Teach Peter how to make homemade spaghetti. 

(Or: IronDad and SpiderSon make some food and shenanigans result)

pairings: none

tags: fluff

warnings: none

We'll get there someday Peter  by Webtrinsic

summary: "It angered him. His son was not broken. No one would dare tell him otherwise"

pairings: none

tags: hurt/comfort

warnings: none

Damaged At Best (Like You've Already Figured Out) by JolinarJackson, ShoyzzArt

summary: ”Don’t come any closer,” Spider-Man said, his hand raised threateningly, his fingers resting against a trigger mechanism nestled into his palm. ”Alright,” Tony answered. For a moment, they looked at each other – Tony stuck to the wall on one side of the alley and Spider-Man stuck to the other – then Tony opened his helmet to show his face. ”Hey, there”, he said. ”Nice to finally meet you.”

---

The Avengers are left shaken in the aftermath of the Sokovia Accords. With half the team under house arrest at the Compound, Tony finds himself seeking refuge in Avengers Tower and starts forming a tentative friendship with the neighborhood vigilante Spider-Man. A friendship which is quickly threatened by Secretary Ross doubting Spider-Man’s intentions and integrity. Tony is left wondering who to trust, especially when Spider-Man manages to uncover the one secret Tony never wanted anyone to know about: the child Tony had with a woman named Mary Fitzpatrick sixteen years ago.

pairings: none

tags: angst

warnings: alcoholism

[missanthropicprinciple]

personal aesthetic | cunning woman

[★ lengthy description under the cut, do not remove if you reblog, credits and more information under photos★ ]

I’ve been doing a lot of research into the cunning folk of Britain. Cunning folk, both women and men, have many names and existed (and I assume, still exist) all over Europe since the Late Medieval period. They were practitioners of folk or “low” magic, performing spells and charms. They were also more or less employed to function as fortune tellers, detectives (of a fashion), match makers, used herbal medicine, and worked against malicious forms of witchcraft. Their position in relation to Christianity and supposed Devil-worship is complex, as cunning folk were in most cases Christians themselves, yet the Church often grouped them in with Satanic witches. They were semi-literate and often of a slightly higher social position than the average laborer. 

The only depiction of a cunning person that I am aware of is in the television series By the Sword Divided (1983-85) which centers on one fictional family’s experience in the English Civil Wars (1642-51). Created by producer John Hawkesworth, the show was deeply rooted in historical fact. The cunning woman of the household is Judith Crabbe, commonly known as “Minty” for her “skill in herbs.” Although she is a seemingly frail old woman, she lances boils, performs abortions, delivers babies, and is in possession of some deadly poisons. In the episode The Sound Of Drums, she instructs that a woman whose mother has just died of the plague should be stripped and washed and she herself gives the woman ragwort to “take away the poison,” and douses her head with dragonwort in order to “drive away all infection.” Although germs were not discovered until the 1850s, this fictional account implies there was knowledge of needing to cleanse and disinfect to prevent the spread of disease. In one deeply disturbing episode she is brought to trial during a brutal witch hunt, but survives. She explains that she is a cunning woman like her mother and that she knows charms and herbs and potions “all to do good.” Sadly, unlike Minty and genuine cunning folk who had actual herbal knowledge, many supposed cunning folk were profiteers, playing on the innocent and gullible common man. 

In terms of my own identification with cunning folk I have spent a long time considering my connection with their practices. I decided that being a Wiccan is not for me. I have occasionally referred to myself as a witch. I am essentially a total skeptic, raised to question my half Catholic/half Church of England background, and never baptized. I am not a practicing Catholic, I prefer C of E in many ways but I have enjoyed the ritual of Catholic traditions and have found comfort in the Virgin Mary. However, if anyone asks about my faith I am certainly agnostic. I respect everyone’s religion and I stand by the fact that I personally cannot prove the existence or non-existence of a Christian God or any other Gods and Goddesses. I do not believe in or worship the Devil or any other deity. I have respect for many and find inspiration in them but that is where it ends. As a child I repeatedly tried to believe in ghosts, fairies, and God, but I am a non-believer. I do keep an open mind and often consider the presence of spirits and genius loci in terms of biological feedback, and/or other qualities of perception that humans possess that we are not yet aware of. While I am a non-believer I am a highly sensitive person and am learning to trust my own intuitive nature. I also take into account that knowledge of the human brain and body is somewhat limited; who knows what we will learn in the future. 

As for practices, I conduct certain rituals similar to actual cunning folk. Divination is not something I wholly believe in, as I don’t particularly believe in magic beyond ones own powers of agency, instinct, and intentionality. I do, however work with tarot cards which have been in use since the mid-15th century. By all accounts they were based on playing cards, elements in nature, and even Christian symbolism. To me, they are tools with which to unlock ideas, knowledge, and wisdom in one’s own mind. 

As far as crystals go, I do not know if they have any connection with cunning folk. The use of crystals in magic goes back thousands of years - people such as the Ancient Sumerians used them. Each gemstone or crystal is believed to have healing powers and I’m unsure if I believe in that but at the same time the symbolism of each stone is meaningful to me in the sense that it is a connection with a person’s intentionality. In general, intention is one of the most powerful aspects of a person’s journey, spiritual or otherwise. I have often employed nuummite which is an excellent and rare grounding stone. While it is unknown to me if stones have actual healing powers, just holding something that is thousands of years old is incredibly exciting and calming. 

Tea is an important to me on multiple levels. I am mindful of the fact that tea was stollen by the British from India, China, and Japan and so while I am often noted for my “Britishness” when it comes to tea, I understand that it does not originate in my culture. I love Earl Grey, which is a powerful black tea most often made with Assam tea and oil of bergamot. To avoid the high levels of caffeine I usually steer towards camomile and am exploring other herbal options. Tea forms the intersection between comfort and health benefits. (Again, I am not aware that tea is in any way a part of cunning folk practices.) 

Cooking is certainly a part of anyone’s life as we all have to eat, but in our current day a lot of us rely on take-out/take-away and restaurants rather than our own skills. I am lucky enough to come from a family who cooks a lot, or at least, has done in the past. My father was quite good at baking, particularly cheese scones (a WWII era family recipe), profiteroles, and quiche. His mother, from what I remember, was a great cook, making roast meals and cooking lots of vegetables for Dad and the family from the 1940s to the 1990s. My mother is a good cook as well and Dad and I noted how we were very lucky to have homemade meals most of the time, with quality meat and organic vegetables. My mom’s mother was a good cook and both her grandmothers were excellent cooks, especially great-grandmother Theresa. She cooked for her family as well as working as a cook for a wealthy local jewelry family. She specialized in traditional Swabian German and Hungarian dishes from our heritage. We still have her kitchen knife which we use regularly. I’m slowly working up to mastering my great-grandmother’s recipes, but so far I’ve only worked on some baking - popovers, sponge cake, and gluten free cookies. Next I’d like to make sticky ginger cake, focaccia, and other things like salsa and pickles. I don’t know of any explicit connection between cooking and cunning folk but food and healing go hand in hand to a certain extent and coupled with herbs and the like it seems fitting. 

I’m not particularly skilled in herbs as yet but I’ve used a lot of rosemary, basil, and thyme in the last few years. My goal is to become thoroughly familiar with the use of herbs in cooking or in making any sort of mildly curative ointments in things. (However, I am a firm believer in modern medicine and science and aside from exercising great caution concocting any herbal remedies, I will always look to actual professionals if I am in need of serious medical attention.)

In conclusion, my journey to becoming a cunning woman or healing woman has no real end because as humans we never stop learning. As I study more about cunning folk, witchcraft, and herbalism I will have a better understanding of my direction and purpose. 

[pompadorkery]

So whats your version of ABO like? Are there knots? Do omegas have C-sections or is it standard childbirth?

Yay! I’m glad you asked!

@machonachos and I put alot of work into developing our own version of omegaverse!

So I’ll just kinda go through the basics of what we have in our version.

-Alphas are the least represented group with the lowest population. Omegas are second, and betas first.

-Alphas are generally regarded the worst out of the 3 groups. Usually seen as violent, irrational, and volatile.

-Omegas still aren’t treated great by some, but are generally seen as harmless, and fit well into beta society.

-Alpha/Omega pairings aren’t suuuper stigmatized, besides by religious organizations really.

-Pairings like Omega/Omega or Alpha/Alpha are usually the ones that raise brows.

-Alphas naturally have more muscle mass than betas or omegas, and tend to be taller.

-Omegas put on weight easier and tend to be shorter. (Chubby or pregnant omegas are super alluring to alphas)

-Again, these are not always the case, but rarely are there deviations.

-Alphas usually work more blue collar jobs. Manual labor or construction is where they excel.

-Omegas usually are stay at home parents, or work in things like childcare, nursing, or other “nurturing” jobs, because their nature lends well to it.

-Alphas have rut season once a year, but it lasts for about 3 months. Like a mating season.

-Crime rates are high during these months.

-Omegas go into heat once a month from 3-7 days depending. These can be made very mild with the use of heat blocking medication.

-Alphas tend to have more than one omega, but omegas generally only ever have one alpha.

-Alpha/Omega pairs rarely marry, since its more accepted for Alphas to have multiple partners, they never settle with one.

-Alpha/Omega pairs rarely cohabitate long term.

-Children born of Alpha/Omega pairs tend to be very hardy, and hit developmental milestones at a faster rate than beta-born children.

-Alphas are usually referred to with “Father” terms by children, and omegas are referred to with “Mother” terms, regardless of the parents’ genders.

-Alphas do have knots, and omegas do produce slick.

-Children usually present as either alpha or omega around the age of puberty. It presents as severe flu-like symptoms, and usually the child will stay home from  school for about a week.

-There are cases of late bloomers though. Once they present, their heats/ruts/pheromones/etc. tend to be extremely severe and harsh.

-There are many products on the market specifically aimed at alphas and omegas, as well as certain shops or services catered to them.

-The marks alphas give their omegas via biting are not permanent, but do last quite awhile. They need to be remade every 6 months or so, but generally alphas will mark their omegas in the same spot whenever they’re intimate.

-When an alpha knots an omega, they are generally stuck together for 10-15 minutes until the swelling of the knot goes down. This time can be shortened if the alpha has ejaculated recently. (aka: it takes less time to uncouple the more rounds you go, lol)

-Many facilities are wary of alphas, like hospitals and such. Some places need something like “alpha insurance” in case of an incident. Because of this, many hospitals will not allow alphas into spaces where omegas are present.

-Childbirth works the same as it does with betas. Either natural birth or c-sections depending on the situation.

-Alpha/Omega pregnancies are rarely single births. Two or three babies is what’s most common. It’s also common to have multiple pregnancies with the same alpha.

-Afab omegas probably have the easiest time with pregnancy, over afab betas.

-Amab omegas tend to have very rough pregnancies and long labor times.

-Omegas, afab and amab, usually only get pregnant when they’re in heat. Conception outside of heat is very rare, almost non-existent with amab omegas.

-Transgender individuals among alphas and omegas really aren’t looked at differently at all. There’s no real stigma.

-Alphas are protective of their omegas and their children.

-Alpha/Omega pairs do care about one another, but often times wouldn’t say they feel ‘love’ for their mate. It’s a different sort of connection.

-Alphas can usually smell when an omega is going to start their heat, and can narrow it down to a few days.

-There are many birth control options on the market for alphas and omegas.

-Birth control in the form of a morning-after pill is the most commonly used by omegas.

-Specialty alpha condoms do exist, however.

-Things like bite-guards, rut/heat suppressant, Alph-Away(mace, but to keep alphas away), and other such item are stocked at normal pharmacies.

-Nesting is vital for omegas to feel comfortable.

-Nests usually consist of blankets, pillows, and maybe one or two items of a alpha mate’s clothing(if the omega is mated)

-Sometimes an omega’s bed doubles as their nest, but others have designated nesting spaces.

-Alpha/Omega babies usually spend the first month or so sleeping with their omega parent in the nest. If their alpha parent is present, they will sleep in the nest as well.

-Its entirely possible to keep one’s nature a secret from betas. And with the right medications and blockers, sometimes one can even hide it from other alphas or omegas.

-It isn’t uncommon for omegas to pretend to be betas.

-It is more uncommon for alphas to hide their status.

-Betas usually just leave alphas and omegas to their business, and don’t interfere very much in their affairs.

Sooo, its long, and there’s probably stuff I missed, but these are the basics of the omegaverse world we’ve constructed!