#does this cause psychic damage to you all the way it does to me please say yes

[sampegger]

sam winchester // skeleton bones - mccafferty

[hollowboobtheory]

Please rant about the Internet as a lovecraftian force/entity

it causes psychic damage every time you use it but we can't fucking stop. we have structured our modern way of life around it. every day we're exposed to a constant flood of more information being beamed directly into our cortex lobes than a medieval peasant would have to learn in a lifetime. so many names and people and stuff and concepts and things. so fucking many things and it's too much for our little brains to handle but we're addicted. it opens up countless new avenues for human cruelty and we fucking love it. you can be hated with a burning passion by thousands without even being a public figure. west elm the fuck caleb holy shit. every day we encounter a strangers in numbers we neurologically cannot quantify. we're too fucking connected people weren't meant to be this connected.

here's the thing about the internet is that people got along just fine without right? like yeah it has its benefits but lbr, how many problems does it solve compared to how many it creates?

and then the thing part 2 is if the internet disappeared tomorrow could we go back? no i don't think we could. there's a reason the y2k bug was an apocalyptic scenario. it's too fucking ingrained but even on a personal level, could you be fine living an unplugged life now that you've seen The Horrors? or do you know too much to go back?

all that said i'm gonna keep shitposting till i die i have the brainworms now may as well take the path of least resistance. i'm addicted to adderall i don't think it's legal for me to be old man yelling at cloud

[rodismancave]

A reminder to new folks because I feel I need to say this. It's a few specific rules and more of a 'this is how i roleplay' thing. It kinda got away from me fast but alas, I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable for any reason so I just said what I feel i need to say to make that happen.

My muse is mean. It's usually nothing personal but he is Mean if provoked. There is a line and it is Thin.

This extends to his friends, mostly as a show of ease around them and as jokes, its just how he is. a little jokey joke. he says things without thinking and sometimes that leads to misunderstanding or an otherwise "cruel" comment. He normally doesnt mean it like that (unless he does)

this account is like 80% crack. i am here to have fun and be silly. if you take me seriously and get offended by it then I'm sorry but frankly, I have stated this many, many times. I do roleplay serious stuff, I do focus on a little bit of storytelling every once in a while, but for the most part I am silly and quirky. My portrayal won't always be 100% ic, sometimes a little ooc is healthy, for the bit. I stay committed to the bit, always.

Of course. if he's mean to your muse and you don't like it then you can let me know and I'll tone it down. I'll never be an asshole to people I dont know are 100% down to it or who aren't familiar with how my muse acts. However, sometimes being mean is in character with my muse and theres no other way around it. But the more intense, "i want to cause psychic damage" convos I will always ask if its okay for my muse to go hard on yours.

Rodimus is aware of the multiverse. This does not mean he's aware of the history of each multiverse. He may be aware of them, briefly, but he is really not going to dwell on it much and if you expect him to know it he just. wont. He doesn't really care all that much. This is also to say that he may confuse your muse for someone in his crew because of looking alike, and will treat you as such unless proven otherwise.

There are no people who are "canon" to Rodimus' crew, not at the moment. The only ones who I can say with confidence who are in his crew are @weavingmemoir and @stealthfeline, who are also my muses. This is for practicality. If your muse is part of the Lost Light crew in general, though (brainstorm, whirl, megatron, etc) you can respond to my lost light posts as if you were a member of his crew, I dont really mind. Like I said: commitment to the bit, always. The bit is always funnier when more people join.

Don't pretend like your muse knows mine and vice versa without talking to me first. This is mostly about muses outside G1 and IDW, or even people in IDW that Rodimus never really met, as well as OCs. It isn't really towards muses who HAVE interacted with Rodimus at least a few times. It is Awkward having to figure that out, and I'm not particularly a fan of having to dig around for people's relationships to understand what's going on between your muse and mine.

I don't really care if your muse is banging another Rodimus, or anyone else from his crew. Like I genuinely do not care, and neither does he.

I'll always make adjustments if you ask me to. I'll create new verses to fit with your muse, but that requires communication first and foremost. This also goes for events, if you want in on an event just talk to me and we'll see about it together. My events are never 100% thought out because I like leaving space for other participants to have a say in what happens. I just think its fun, like a group project (but less stressful)

When interacting with me I ask to lay off on the quirky colors and varying different fonts in one single reply. I have a lot of difficulty reading things like that and it strains my vision and it gives me a headache. Just, always have the same font throughout, and if there are different fonts, please let them be at least readable. The standard tumblr fonts are fine, except 'lucille', and the small font tends to me specially frustrating sometimes.

This is a g1/idw based blog. I take stuff i like from g1 and stuff i like from idw and i slam it together until I have something I like. Rodimus does not like the prime title, he does not miss being a prime, and he absolutely does not appreciate being called one, unless its doing things for his ego or to make himself look greater than he is. He is an Ass.

[clocks-are-round]

WHAT THE FUCK. After finding that last snippet I did more digging in my google docs. what the fuckk hahaha

it’s titled “april fools” from March 2022, so like exactly two years ago. i have cued it for the next April 1st

some things are best left unpublished but frankly i don’t like to take that much psychic damage and NOT inflict it on the next idly curious RvB fan.

i remember now, i was going to write a fic with the most bastardized fandomy takes on each character possible but i legitimately can’t tell if that psa was a real attempt at that or if i physically could not bring myself to (likely) and went for the easier to deal with ‘react to fandom’ instead

Prepare for lots of Donut innuendos

(it’s not actually that bad, i very much did back out of the initial concept immediately, it just caught me really off guard haha)

——

I’m going t o fucking c r y. this was pain to write. (first thing i wrote. haven’t even written the fic yet)

fandom cringe versions plZ i hate it

Simmons: ;w; anxiety boi

Grif: uwu sleepy boi

Caboose: owo can do no wrong boi

Donut: owo can do no wrong femboi

i don’t know if i can do this. holy shit. i know it’s for april fools but if it causes pain to write aren’t i the fool?

ImPorTaNt RvB PSA

Simmons: Hi everyone, I’m Dick Simmons from popular webseries Red vs Blue.

Grif: And I’m Dexter Grif from the same show.

Caboose: And I am Caboose

Simmons: … Hi Caboose.

Caboose: What are we talking about today?

Caboose: And now, the weather! Spoiler, it is rain.

Simmons: Uh… No idea how to segue that back. So, we’re supposed to read these fan stories. This first one is about me and Grif it looks like, and– Wait, wait what??

Grif: What? What is it, let me see. *starts laughing hysterically*

Simmons: *flustered* What is this mushy gushy romance stuff? I’d just– I’d just like to set the record straight that if I did hypothetically have feelings for a person that I knew I totally wouldn’t do that. I mean, pine for somebody? For a decade? That’s some bullshit, any self-respecting person would move on in that amount of time–

Lopez: [Honestly, you two are not subtle. Even I’ve noticed and I try my hardest to ignore you all.]

Grif: You would! You would act like that around a crush! Holy shit, they nailed you, Simmons!

Donut: Did someone say Donut?

Donut: Wait a minute! Fanfiction?? Those are my people! Let me host this one please please please? I’ll be the hostess with the mostest! I’ll put my Donut whole into it!

Simmons: Yeah, I need to go bleach my eyes, so be my guest.

Grif: And I just wanted to watch Simmons die as he read all this. It’s no fun if it’s you, Donut.

Donut: Well, I’m excited. I can’t wait to read how deep they’ve penetrated into you and Simmons’ relationship! Looks like you two are in a lot of these.

Simmons: Lalala I can’t hear you. I can’t hear anything and therefore do not need to respond to any awkward topics.

Donut: Ooh, they’re all romantic.

Grif: Oh god, yeah, let’s go.

Doc: Could I be co-host? I haven’t helped host one of these in forever!

Donut: I thought you didn’t like this kind of thing?

Doc: Well, we’re keeping it PG, I’ll be just fine.

Donut: Ehhhh

Doc: Donut. We’re keeping it PG, right? *O’Malley* I hope not. I’d like to see some carnage. Shut up, you fool. It’s fiction. *Doc* I didn’t say anything. *O’Malley* You were about to chastise me.

Donut: Depends… does PG stand for pornogr–

Doc: Donut! *O’Malley* Or pussy grande. *Doc* O’Malley! There’s way more out there than just smut! Even in the romance genre there are comedies, introspective pieces, adventure, slice-of-life, drama…

Donut: Well, yeah, but I figured we could do a little of everything.

Lopez: [Jesus christ, just choose one. I’m going to burn this anyways.]

Donut: Good idea, Lopez! Burn it to discs! We can send them out as audiobooks!

Lopez: [I meant in a fire.]

Donut: Yeah, it is a fire idea, Lopez. Jeez, now you’re just fishing for compliments. *clears throat*

Doc: We’re doing a “safe for work” one, right? *O’Malley mutters* You are a wet, wretched blanket. I hope you know that.

Donut: Yeah, yeah. Jeez. Now I have to clear my throat dramatically again! *clears throat*

——

you know what? fuck it. this is about in line with my other fake psas maybe i’ll complete it and post it on ao3. eventually. on an april 1st, naturally lol

[yostresswritinggirl]

With Karkata, I meant more of if they set out a plate because I wasn't sure if we could pretend to feed Karkata, lol. Like, they just look at Karkata's empty plate and feel twinges of guilt. What if... what if Karkata feels left out????? They can't allow that!!! I can't allow that!!!!

Like, Tighnari and Cyno give off "will offer husband services on boyfriend wages" kind of vibes. Dating with intent to marry. Guys you'd know you'd be happy settling down with. DEDICATED TO H*LDING H*NDS IN PUBLIC KINDA LOVE.

Also yes, I see domestic things and Sumeru decides to cause a crazy out-of-season monsoon of flowers blooming. I'm just minding my own business, making something to eat, and then I had that idea with Cyno (there's more actually) and I'm just like🧍in my own kitchen. I demand compensation for emotional and psychic damages, Cyno. I have the right to not be embarrassed from unintentional third wheeling from thoughts about fictional characters, okay? (Smh, is this what Kevah feels?)

Don't even get me started on Scara peeling or cutting up fruit for puppet reader. That's like... a declaration of love (and apologies iykyk).

(But if we talk about angst, I have been thinking about it. If Scara doesn't come home when his banner's here, you will never see fluff again. /j)

bloom anon

Yeah I was kind of implying that Karkata would at least help with setting the table, no need to eat, it's not in his programming so I doubt he'd feel left out in the first - please bloom anon, mechanical crab doesn't even have a mouth!! It might just mess with his parts!

And oh you're right, they do! Especially in Tighnari's end but it's more instinct than full intent, that's on Cyno's end. Although if Reader prefers to not be married, that is also okay, so long as they're all still together that's really all that matters

Sumeru is a wonderful region of blooming and budding ideas for real, you and I hahaha having to deal with brainrots while doing mundane shit, I've already got a collection of ideas like that

And Scara literally just does anything at this point hahaha he might as well feed them, at least can confirm that he's a good house husband (oh man, Scaramouche in the Way of The House Husband anime HAHAHAHA) while Reader's the one who does the he asked for no pickles simply because they don't look like they'll kill everyone they approach (well looks like there's more to look forward to in 3.3 pfft)

[grigori77]

Critical Role, Campaign 3 Episode 52

Another serious NEED to know what's gonna happen has gripped me all this past week and I've REALLY been trying to avoid spoilers across the board ... seriously, these major shakeups are EXHAUSTING ...

But FINALLY ... answers ...

OMAR!!! OMAR'S IN THE STUDIO!!! HELLO CUTIE!!! I love that corgi guys, I love him so much ... awwwwww ... he's ALREADY causing chaos and I love it ... and Ashley cooing over him is just the cutest thing. :3

Sam: "Sometimes we do GOOD things!" Yeah, and we love you guys for it.

HALF of Bells Hells indeed ... oof ... seriously guys, NOW WHAT?!!!

Wait ... WAIT!!! Where are the others? Where are Marisha and Liam and Taliesin? AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! Mercer why are you doing this to us?

Fearne: "What do I smell like?" WAY to give the werewolf ideas, Calloway!

What? WHY does she have to roll a D100 to message Laudna? Oh ... WHAT?!!! FUCK!!! 6 points of psychic damage? Even halved ... oh, that is just CRUEL ...

FCG tries instead ... DID HE roll better? Oh no ... no, it doesn't work either ... oh gods no ... no no no ...

Whoa ... so their magic DOES still work, then ... but does FCG's goddess magic work now? Is the Changebringer still okay? Can he still contact her? Hmmmm ... this is so worrying ...

Oh, so he CAN still use Guidance? Phew ...

The Crystalsands Tundra ... so they ARE in Wildemount! Oh shit!

FCG: "Is it always cold like this?" Chetney: "Oh yeah, it's always pretty ... it's pretty titty!"

Yeah, Ashton has the hole ... why? What do they need?

No Taste of Tal'dorei pot-holder ... yeah ...

She's trying to contact Laudna AGAIN ... shit ... I saw that coming but it was still painful.

Fearne: "What if we're the last ones?" No, really, don't go there, kid ...

FCG tries to cast sending to DORIAN ... oh yeah, that's smart ... BOLLOCKS!!!

More sexy scars for Chet then ... XD

This is all really making me so uncomfortable like back when half the Nein got kidnapped znd then we lost Molly ... PLEASE don't go that way again, I don't know if I can handle it ...

Oh yeah, this place is just UNPLEASANT, isn't it?

Shelter ... need some shelter ... ugh, this is so bad ...

Flying, yes, that's a good idea ... except maybe for the windchill factor ... oof ...

A giant shoebill? Awesome, I love those freaky machine gun beaky dinosaur bird things ... XD

Oh yeah, shoebills are cute in a really NIGHTMARE FUEL kind of way ...

Planerider Chetney rides again ... yeah, that went about the way I expected ... XD

Uh oh ... what's THAT under the snow? Oh shit ... are we all sbout to die?

Detect Thoughts? Really? Hmmm ... AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Oh shit! What the fu ... INITIATIVE?!!! ALREADY?!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Travis: "Oh my god! We're gonna die!" Fuck yeah, that is HORRIBLE!!! Laura: "Oh yeah, I would've attacked that right away!" Matt: "Well then roll so you can see if you DO attack it right away!"

It's not a beast? CRAP!!! Fearne can't dominate it! Aaaaahhh!

FCG: "We don't have our people who do the big damage, so WE gotta do the big damage!" 16 doesn't do shit? Oh fuck ... "Shield of Help?" Ye gods ...

A TORRENT OF FREEZING AIR!!! AAAAAAHHH!!! 42 points of cold damage? Holy fuck!

Frozen faces in the ice? Oh my GODS that is fucked up ...

Lightning Bolt! Yes! DO IT IMOGEN!!! BOOSH!!! NINE D6 of damage? Holy fuck ...

Oh yeah, her arm makings ... hmmm ...

Yeah, Turmoil! Always fun! That's sweet! Boom! Bye bye ice arch! Yeah, flames are good right now!

Oh gods, now what?

TWO shapes? Huh? What?

HOLY FUCK, more players ... AABRIA!!! OH MY GODS!!! HELLO!!! THAT IS SO COOL AND SUCH A WONDERFUL SURPRISE!!!

Christian Navarro is an Aeormaton?! Ooooooooh shit! WHAAAAAAAT?!!! With a blunderbus arm! So cool! So this is like a COOL version of FCG, then?

Aabria is a gnome! Cute cute cute ... I love it!

Scorching Ray! Yeah! Do it Fearne! And she MISSES TWICE?!!! Seriously? At least the third hits ... it takes DOUBLE damage from fire? Interesting ...

Oh no no no ... not that ice breath AGAIN ...

Aaaaaah ... FCG's saw ain't doing SHIT! Spiritual Weapon! Okay ... in the form of NICK JONAS?!!! Really? I mean I guess it WILL hurt ...

The best rule of all in D&D IS the Rule of Cool after all ...

MASS HEALING WORD!!! YES!!! DO THAT!!!

Oh yeah, Mass Cure Wounds WOULD work better ... yeah, 30 HP boost to EVERYBODY!!! Sweet!

Fuck! All that healing and FCG just lost essentially ALL OF IT right away! Fuck!

FINALLY that bloody saw hits it! Oof ... at least it's A LITTLE damage ...

Mystery new aeormaton is BADASS!!! Nice! Action Surge? OH!!! So she's a Fighter! Awesome!

A Lightning Bolt THROUGH its head? Oh shit yeah ... please work ... 31 points of damage! Oof! Nice one Imogen!

Sneaky Chetney, sneaky ...

FCG (to Fearne): "Don't hit Nick Jonas!" Fearne: "Magic's a little tricky, no promises!" Oh SWEET!!! HDYWTDT!!! POW!!! Burns the eyes RIGHT OUT of its head! Awesome! So cool!

Yes! They're Friendlies!

Deanna ... oh, wait ... OH SHIT, so she KNOWS Chetney? Wait ... oh yes! WE DO know that name! YES!!! She's his ex! Yes! And she clocks him! Of course she does!

D? D? Oh yes ... yes, D ...

FRIDA. Cool. This is really something.

Chetney: "I was not planning on seeing a romantic person from my backstory!" No shit, Chet! This is like SO awkward ...

Oh yes, how long HAS IT been?

Deanna's a cleric of the Dawnfather? Interesting ... she's LOSING CONTACT with him? That's interesting in a really worrying way ...

Matt's face when they ask if FRIDA has a tongue ... XD

Wait ... how did THAT fit in her pocket? Deanna knits in the same way Chetney does woodwork ... oh, that is so cute ... this is like adorable AND awkward ...

Imogen (in Chetney's head): "You doin' okay?" Chetney: "Help!"

Yeah, camping might be best ...

Race for Guidance ... :3

Wow ... Chetney is just SQUIRMING so badly ... this is so totally my trash right now ... whoa ... Deanna DIED?!!! WHAAAAAAAT?!!!

She was dead for 200 YEARS?!!! That's incredible! Wow ... Deanna's snowflake analogy is so moving ...

FCG (to Deanna): "You have STEW?!!! (to Chetney) Why did you leave this woman?"

Interesting ... FRIDA's story is ... very moving ... and tragic ... oof ... no wonder these two are so attached to each other.

Aabria: "My first whisper!" Awwwwww ...

Removable face plate! Oh! FRIDA's an acronym! Cool!

Oh, the fake legs ... oh boy ... oh gods YES!!! Get FCG some proper legs! Yes!

Ah yes, the big question with Ruidus ... balls, shit roll futzes any great revelations ...

I love how Travis and Aabria are genuinely competing as players as well ... XD

FCG on needing a god to have a purpose ... oof ... this is troubling ...

Ah, the eternal question of how time passes during a campaign ... have they been together weeks, months or YEARS?!!! XD

Matt reminds everyone that exhaustion has hit them all hard, ESPECIALLY Fearne. Fearne: "I'm so tired." LOL

Imogen's so upset snd worried zbout their missing friends. FRIDA plays Imogen's laughter back to her. "Your laughter is beautiful." Awwwwwwww ...

Oh shit ... Imogen's purple magic marks are turning RED?!!! HOLY FUCK!!! Matt: "And that's where we're gonna take a break!" AAAAAAHHH!!!

Till The Last Gasp ... wow ... Matt and Marisha are clearly having a ball chewing the scenery here ...XD

Morning comes ... okay ...

Deanna does a sneaky Death Ward on Chetney while he's still sleeping? Awww ...

Missing Orym's wake-up exercises ... hmmm ... Deanna tries to contact Orym ... hmmm ... oh, so she's just sending feelings of love from his friends to him? Interesting ... and it STILL doesn't work! Fuck! Shit! Fuckshit!

Imogen takes off the Circlet ... OH!!! So there's genuinely static just THERE underneath everything? Now that is REALLY interesting ...

So the new change in Imogen's markings is CLEARLY connected to Ruidus, then ...

A hard day's trek ... yup ... MOSTLY good rolls at least ...

FRIDA picks up on the Death Ward thing ... hmmm ...

FCG's buttcakes are back! XD FOUR additional temporary hit points with a Natural 20? Cool ...

FRIDA CAN DREAM!!! WILD!!!

Fearne: "That's a great idea, two aeormatons just taking on a dream." Hmmm ...

Whoa ... Fearne can cast Pass Without A Trace now! Awesome!

Chetney trying to make nice with Deanna ... hmm ... oh fuck yeah ... that's right ... she doesn't know sbout the werewolf thing, does she? How's she gonna take THAT when she finds out?

Matt, WHY are you making Chetney roll NOW?!!!

Oh shit ... some weird Solstice thing ... fuck ... Chetney's wolfing out! AAAAAAHHH!!!

Oh, there we go. Secret's out ... and Deanna's tripping out over it ... hmmm ...

"Applebee's Solstice"?

Does Imogen have purple tits? Is this REALLY what we're wondering right now?

There's really nothing to actually be afraid of. This is actually pretty par for the course for these guys ..

AAAAAND now it's suddenly gotten very heavy and metaphorical and fundamental on us ... hmmmm ...

Ah yes. The God Eater.

Oh my gods ... has it just accidentally become canon that FCG can SNEEZE?!!!

Imogen rolls super shitty to just LOOK UP INTO THE NIGHT SKY and find Ruidus ... XD

Hmmm ... no sign of Ruidus? What's THAT mean?

Yes. See if you can contact the others through Imogen's dreams. Yes. SMART.

Fearne's coming too ... okay ... here we go ...

Deanna: "Oh, so it's FUNNY that Chetney's called 'puppy'." FRIDA: "If I COULD feel uncomfortable I believe I WOULD."

All right ... dream-based moment of truth ... AND THE LIGHTS ARE GOING RED!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Whoa! The beam is STILL THERE and Ruidus is LOCKED IN PLACE in the sky? Holy fuck ...

People? NOT people? The Reilora? FUCK!!!

Natural 1? Fearne gets BOOTED out of the dream HARD!!!

Earthbind? Crazy ...

Imogen's mental self is just being DRAGGED IN ... this is SO BAD ... can FCG do ANYTHING?!!! Well he tries ...

Fearne just slaps her in the face and screams: "IMOGEN!!! WAKE UP!!!" Holy fuck ... AND IT WORKS?!!! That is SO WILD ...

Greater Restoration? Nice. And that is SUCH a sweet moment between them ...

Wow ... I love how Matt describes what Chetney's left behind is just a "murder trail". Yeah ...

Okay, seriously, FRIDA what the hell are you DOING?!!! Oh ... fuck, actually that's SO SMART ...

Full on internal struggle ... DAMN guys ...

Fuck this is SO tense ... oooh ... the SMELL THING ... again, that's SO CLEVER ... damn, I love what Matt and Travis are doing here right now. Christian too ...

Oh fuck ... did Chris just full on TANK this awesome moment?

ROLL INITIATIVE!!! HOLY SHIT!!!

FRIDA just full on BOLTS, while firing into the air. Okay ... and of course the wolf GIVES CHASE. Oh shit! NO!!! NOT THE JACKET!!!

Damn, that was SUCH a close roll ... and it just goes SO bad ...

FRIDA: "BAD puppy!" XD

Man ... Aabria really is just quietly PANICKING right now ...

Oh yeah, Deanna just starts running RIGHT AWAY, doesn't she? No surprise there ...

Oooh ... Dazing Shot? Nice ... shame it doesn't work ...

Travis: "The shot, plus the taste of this thing is just ... WEIRD ... but it's FUN!" Oof ...

Christian: "I ... amateur, but I need to pee!" XD

Oh wait ... yes .. Chet, fight it ... oh NICE ROLL TRAVIS!!! Is he out of it?

Oh yeah, shame ... I can see that ... this is such a bad mess ...

Yeah, Wild Shape means you're still YOU inside. Which is good.

Channel Divinity? Sweet ...

Oh yeah, Deanna is MAD and I ain't surprised. At least FRIDA can get through to her. KIND OF. Yeah ...

Deanna: "I am being calmed by magic, and I just wanna LOSE MY MIND."

It's true, like I said this is kind of par fir the course with these guys.

Back to camp and back go bed, then.

Matt, you BASTARD!!! "And that's where we're gonna call it s night!" AAAAAAHHH!!!

Oof ... not a BIG cliffhanger, but still ... meanwhile OKAY, but then shattered does that mean for NEXT time?

I enjoyed this, but I still kind if HATE this shole situation ...

[thekingofthieves]

7A. Would you cannibalise a dead body in a life-or-death scenario? Does your answer change depending on whether they're a loved one or not? (I guess eating humans wouldn’t really count as cannibalism.) Instead for my other question: Can certain demons survive without the consumption of humans? I know raizen died because he didn’t consume humans after a long period of time.

Well, it's actually not uncommon for demons to eat other demons. I've partaken in that on the occasion, even without my life being on the line. I wouldn't eat just any demon, however. Certain ones are definitely more edible than others. Attempting to consume a demon like Genbu I doubt would be possible for me. And one would need to watch out for those that'd be dangerous to eat, like ones with poison running through their veins.

If it came to a loved one's body, however... There's simply no way I could eat them. Not in a million years, not even if I'd end up with a fate worse than death. Seeing their body being mutilated in such a way- causing that sort of damage to their figure- I wouldn't be able to stomach it. I want the last time I see the people I care about to not be such a gruesome sight, if possible...

Though... would me eating a human count as cannibalism now? I don't see why it wouldn't be. Even if I wasn't originally a human, the human anatomy of this form is as much a part of me as my Youko or spirit fox forms. I'm as much human as I am demon, neither of these parts can be separated from me. Either way though, I doubt the Reikai would be pleased with me consuming the body of a human, even if I didn't cause their death... But I'm unsure if it's something they'd arrest over- I'm not even sure if there's precedent for that to begin with. Demons eating humans typically are the reason why they're dead, after all.

Also, at the very base of it all, no demon naturally needs to consume humans to survive. Some end up like that, however, because if they derive most of their diet from humans for a long period, it eventually becomes a necessity. It's desirable for many though, as the consumption of humans causes any reiki they have to convert and meld into the demon's youki, boosting their strength proportional to the amount of reiki. As such, strong psychics are riskier to target, but have a higher "reward" because of how much reiki they have. The same does occur when eating other demons, but the boost in strength isnt as significant- my guess would be that reiki is perhaps more "condensed" in a way? But regardless- after so long, demons become addicted to the different form of energy, and if suddenly cut off or they dont get as much reiki as they used to, their youki becomes desperate to consume and will begin to slowly eat away at their life energy. I may not have met Raizen, but from what I've heard, this seems to be the fate that befell him.

This is partially why cultivated humans exist, it's a minor supplement of human for those who can't access real ones at some point, containing very trace amounts of reiki within them. However, demons can only temporarily sustain themselves on that, and it doesn't help at all if they're used to a much more significant feasting on humans.

Personally, I've only eaten humans a couple times just to try it, as I didn't want to become dependent on eating them. And god am I ever glad that I made that decision. 😅 I don't know how I would have managed eating humans while keeping up my facade as a normal person, especially when I had no ability to escape back to the Makai if things got dire... Trying to keep that secret not only from my mother, but also from the Ningenkai police and the Reikai would have been nothing short of hell.

Actually, Yusuke had asked me at one point if I've ate humans before, which I jokingly answered (but said very matter-of-factly) that I used to all the time. Kuwabara was certainly unnerved by that, haha, but Yusuke didn't seem the least bit disturbed... That boy is certainly full of surprises, I'll give him that. 😅 Since the joke didn't bother him, I just went ahead and told him the truth. Though, ah, I guess my wording accidentally psyched Kuwabara out for a moment, because he was quite relieved when I began to say I was just kidding, and was promptly freaked out again when I said I had only tried eating humans a few times, haha. Hiei had also told them that he's eaten humans before, but I know he was also just trying to freak them out. He admitted to me that he simply never cared to consume humans, and also thinks it's a cheap way to get stronger. But he never told that to Yusuke or Kuwabara, so don't tell them I revealed the truth. 🤭

[damn-oh-dread]

Assorted Chapter 16 - 24 thoughts

GALAD IS A WHITECLOAK NOW!?!?!? I really like Galad as a character. Crazy that he does the right thing no matter what and decided that that included joining the white cloaks.🤡 Very interested to see if he ends up protecting his sister and her friends therefore kind of supporting the Aes Sedai, an organization he is now theologically against, or if he hands them in, betraying the trust of his family which also seems like a big thing for him. Which side of right will win out inside of himself?

Gawyn * rolls eyes * I liked him at the beginning but ever since the Tower coup incident I do not like him at all. He’s so annoying! And the way he thinks he’s right about everything? No thank you. He and Egwene better not end up together or I will commit a crime. He does not deserve Egwene.

I’m really liking how this book has given us a lot of different perspectives! It’s refreshing to see what other characters are up to!

Elayne, Thom is basically your step-dad. Please, I am begging you.

Finally, the Black Ajah are going to be scary and not just a totally useless group of 12 people! I’m excited to actually be afraid of them. Absolutely loving Moghedien!

Glad to get the confirmation that Gaebril is indeed Rahvin.

The mind control/compulsion weave is super unnerving from the perspective of someone under the compulsion. The fact Morgase has months and months of fake memories is terrifying!

I would read an entire book about Morgase though ngl.

LINI!!!! I need Lini and Nynaeve to meet so bad. When she said, when you get to my age all sayings are old sayings, I lost it. I would die for Lini.

MORGASE WAS GONNA MARRY THOM SSFDDFSGSDGGDS

Wildly invested in this Morgase-Gareth-Siuan side plot.

I kind of want Morgase and Gareth to meet up before Gareth and Siuan just because I very badly want to see their exes reunion.

Ngl I have no idea what is going on with Padan Fain anymore. I was so sure he was going to be set up as a foil or some kind of parallel to Mat but he seems to be obsessed with Perrin now? Not sure why, but I’m loving his batshit insane vibe.

Something something Moiriane and her relationship to time. Her being like “I have no time” a couple of chapters ago to now being like your right your right we have time.

The Aiel honour system giving positive points to being Aes Sedai and negative points for being Cairhenin making Moiraine cancel out. Amazing.

Everytime Rand is forced to make a big choice I take psychic damage. Baby no... 🥺😢

I want to know more about Aiel Flower symbolism actually. What kinds of plants grow in the waste?

MAGIC SWORD MAGIC SWORD MAGIC SWORD I LOVE MAGIC SWORDS. The Cairhein sun motif just goes so hard. There better be a cool thematic thing that happens with this sword otherwise what is the point??? Also where is this sword from cause like I really doubt that Laman was a blademaster, man does not give me those vibes. SO HYPED FOR THIS MAGIC SWORD WITH A SORDID BACKSTORY!!!!

Just realized Mats thing has a raven on it. Does that have something to do with the Seanchan maybe? Like maybe the Seeker people with the raven tattoos? Or I guess it could just be cursed by the dark one or something. Mat would become un-possed just to go and immediately pick up another cursed object.

RAND BABY NO

What is up with that other doorway terangreal? WHY DOES MOIRAINE CARE ABOUT IT? I just need to know.

Nynaeve as the carnival book-keeper is everything I did not know I needed from life. Every second of screentime Nynaeve gets, I love her more. OF COURSE she says she's the book-keeper.

Everyone reading into everything Rand does as the madness. Me frantically pointing at mat: "is anyone gonna look at that???"

For real though, I don't think Rand is mad at all yet. The little bits and pieces of information we get from his past as Lews Therin are definitely starting him in that direction for sure but all of his choices have been well thought out and logical so far. A lot of characters are saying he's become colder and/or harder since starting on this journey that has now been almost an entire year and are quick to blame this change on the madness. But really all of his choices and decisions are of someone trying to gain trust and respect from those around them and doing what needs to be done. Like sorry Egwene but Rand has not become harder because of the madness. He has become harder because that's what he has needed to become to survive and gain followers.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

So the discussion over how literally no one even tried to talk James down in V8 or even try to find a way to work together. That got me thinking, and I know you of all people would want to do him justice and treat him better. If you got the ultimate writer privileges for V8 and could handle the storylines there as you pleased, how would you have liked them to happen?

Hey don't give me this kind of power I might go power hungry and abuse it.

Eh-hem sorry I sometimes think I'm funny lolz. Anyways sorry this took so long I wanted to be as thorough as I could take and even tried rewatching some parts of V8 but uh took psychic damage when I did lol. 

But back to the ask, Some of my biggest issues with Volume 8 are: the lack of anyone reaching out to James as you discussed, the lack of an actual plan on the part of the girls, and in general the volume mostly ignoring Salem and what she's doing. I also decided to try and keep close to the major events that happened within the volume that I believe that are important. 

I know this isn’t perfect or flawless and there are some things I am not crazy about but I was trying to follow only changing volume 8. Personally I would rather start changes back at the end of volume 7 if I could. There is just….a lot of stuff in volume 7 that kind of screwed me over big time when trying to do this rewrite. As I will say later on, I had to rewrite large sections multiple times because I found myself stuck in a corner over and over again. It was a reminder of how important having a larger game plan ahead of time before writing stuff because you can find yourself in this situation where you’re running into roadblock after roadblock and it’s….frustrating. It made this ask as I said very difficult to work in. But having to work within the confines of what Volume 7 gave us, here is what I would do.

So to start off Qrow and Robyn would be taken into custody still because they don't know what the fuck happened. But James also doesn't talk to them because he just does not have time to deal with that with Salem on his doorstep. He's trying to figure out a way to get the staff to move Atlas and once it's safe he will talk to them and figure that out but for now they're way in the back of his mind because he has way more important shit to deal with.

One important aspect I would make clear very early on is James’s semblance and how it works. One idea I’ve played with is Ozpin letting Oscar know that James’s semblance is Mettle and that what it does is when it kicks in is it very strongly affects James and causes him to focus in on certain goals and it can be difficult to talk him out of things when Mettle is active. He mentions how normally James can control it and normally has Winter being someone in a position allowed to break his aura if she thinks his semblance is going too far and he’s gone out of control with it. In this case the chess piece caused a PTSD reaction and was extremely triggering which caused Mettle to take over completely. Oscar would ask what could be done to help James and Ozpin mentions that as a passive semblance the only way at this point to stop it is to somehow break James’s aura.

When RWBYJNR is in the happy Huntress's hideout, they are trying to come up with a plan to evacuate everyone. Salem immediately started attacking the shields protecting Atlas but they do not last long under the force of Salem’s magic. The mains quickly realize that with Salem attacking they can’t be trying to evacuate people because their priority needs to be protecting people. They agree that they need to do what they can to help Mantle since the military is focusing on Atlas in anticipation of a much stronger attack aimed towards them over Mantle which the mains believe won’t be true. They ask Dr. Polendina about Amity Tower and if it can be launched and he informs them he isn’t sure and needs some time to think about it. They pause when they realize how big Salem’s forces are and realize they do seem to be mainly focused on Atlas but there are also Grimm coming into Mantle through the hole in the wall so they split off into groups to deal with the grimm. 

In Atlas the group is caught on security footage in Mantle and the soldiers ask James if they should arrest them. James is watching the footage with a frown on his face and says no, they have more important things to worry about. He still calls Penny because he is worried about her because he does care, and Ruby still isn't sure what to think or do and still takes the scroll and asks about Mantle. The conversation can still go mostly the same with James pointing out that if Atlas falls the two relics will be taken by Salem and Remnant will be doomed (I do not understand why the show makes this statement seem cold and heartless like he's kind of sort of got a point there?)

James and Winter talk as in the show but the conversation with the council goes very differently. James, barely able to control his anger, demands to know if the council somehow missed the giant Grimm army invading the city. The council kind of stammer and don't have a good response and James tells them to get out of his way and let him do his job and try and save everyone from dying. The council has no clue what to say and is just hauled out by security while James goes back to work.

In Mantle Oscar (who they did not run into earlier) is wandering the streets trying to find his friends when he is ambushed and taken by the hound. Yang Jaune and Ren sees this happening but can’t get to the hound fast enough before it transforms and flies off with an unconscious Oscar. 

When this happened they make the decision to try and go after and save Oscar despite knowing the dangers because he is their friend and they refuse to abandon him. They contact the others to let them know what is happening. Everyone wants to go after Oscar but they realize that Mantle also still needs protection so they reluctantly split up. RNJ and Penny stay behind while the others head towards the whale. On their way to the Whale they run into FNKI and assist them in taking down a massive Grimm. They ask what happened and why they’re wanted for arrest and Yang begs them to not arrest them because a friend is in trouble. FNKI lets them go and they make their way to the Whale. 

As they are all heading to the Whale, Salem sends Cinder to break out Watts and find and kill Penny. Cinder promises she will kill the maiden and leaves, Emerald chasing after her, begging Cinder to take her with her to kill Penny, but Cinder blows her off, insisting Emerald will merely get in her way. Emerald is stunned, after all she had done for Cinder, Cinder was still brushing her off? Neo follows after Cinder, silently demanding to know when they would go after Ruby and Cinder similarly blows her off, insisting they will get to her eventually, and Neo is not pleased. 

I do not like how Hazels “redemption” was handled. It was sloppy and rushed and especially looks bad next to James and the shows refusal to offer him any sympathy. So in this version of events he does start off torturing Oscar but Mercury see’s and is severely triggered by seeing a child being tortured because it reminds him of what his father did to him. When Oscar mentions Salem’s plan and how she only wants to destroy the world. Initially Mercury wants to doubt this but he can’t help but question everything after what he saw being done to a kid. 

He then goes to Emerald to talk to her and tell her what Oscar said and Emerald starts to have doubts herself but neither are sure if he is telling the truth. Even if he isn’t being honest about Salem, Mercury cannot stand seeing a kid being tortured, it reminding him too much of what happened to him and he still wants to help him escape. Emerald points out if they’re caught Salem will kill them so Mercury says they won’t get caught then.  

Hazel is sent to go with Tyrian to go to Vacuo, leaving Oscar alone long enough for Mercury and Emerald to go and find him. Oscar is confused as to what they’re doing there, and Mercury starts asking if what he said to Hazel was true. Oscar says that he can show them. Ozpin asks what he’s doing and Oscar says he can see that they’re conflicted and he thinks he can sway them. Ozpin reluctantly agrees to trust him and they take Oscar to the lamp. When they find it, Oscar calls Jinn and asks her to tell them what Salem’s plan is. Jinn then reveals how Salem wants to destroy the world and kill everyone and everything. Emerald and Mercury are horrified so they take the lamp and Emerald disguises them so they can escape. 

In Atlas, Qrow and Robyn are still sitting in their cells, Qrow battling with his conflicting feelings about Clover’s death, deep down he knows really he and Robyn are to blame for what happened, but he also is looking for someone to blame because he isn’t ready to accept his part in it. Qrow’s semblance causes his cell to open for him and, emotions raging, Qrow leaves, ignoring the others calls to let them out. He sneaks through the academy and finds Harbinger before going to James’s office, hoping to find him there and confront him with the arrest and everything that has happened. 

Just as expected, James is in his office, coordinating everyone to deal with the overwhelming numbers of Grimm, Mettle pushing down any emotions about the sheer number of his people dying that would have long since incapacitated him with grief. Mettle kept pushing him, it was the only thing at this point keeping him moving. Qrow, upon entering James’s office, quickly realizes how deeply Mettle has taken ahold of him, but he is so lost in his anger and grief he doesn’t think much of it, immediately attacking James who fights back. (In this au James’s eyes turn lighter and lighter as Mettle has a stronger grip on him). Qrow is screaming at him, demanding to know why? Why? Why? James responds that he is doing what must be done for his people. 

They’re both evenly matched, and it is a brutal fight, both of them witling down each others aura’s until both breaking nearly simultaneously. The second his aura breaks, James collapses to his knee’s, the weight of everything Mettle had been holding at bay flooding him, overwhelming him, leaving him crumpled on the floor, drowning in agony over everything that had happened, the girls arrests, Oscar, his students and Clover’s death. Qrow let’s Harbinger fall to the floor and collapses in front of James asking what happened. 

James explains about the chess piece, and how he lost control of everything once he saw it. Qrow asks why Winter didn’t break his aura and James admits he doesn’t know. Probably she was just as scared about Salem’s impending arrival as he was. James admits what he did to Oscar and say’s he deserves whatever Qrow thinks should happen to him. Qrow however, says he’s hardly one to talk, look at what he did to Clover? James asks if Qrow really killed Clover and Qrow says he might as well have. He attacked Clover, he broke his aura and left him vulnerable to Tyrian. 

James says neither of them can change the past and what happened, all they can do is keep going and push through. They had millions of lives in danger and they had to figure out something. Qrow asks if James has a plan to get everyone out and James doesn’t think it’s possible. He lost a massive chunk of the fleet in the chaos of the fight and is barely able to protect the sky’s from Grimm, he has nothing left to continue evacuations. Qrow says they’ll figure out something but first they need to get in contact with the kids. 

As Emerald and Mercury lead Oscar out of the whale, they run into RWBY, Oscar quickly assuring them that Emerald and Mercury are trying to help them. Everyone is on edge, but Oscar convinces everyone they’re all on the same side and that they need to focus on getting out before Salem finds them and that she will likely notice the lamp is gone so they need to move. Reluctantly everyone agrees and they move quickly to leave. However before they can get out Salem finds them, searching for the lamp. In her fear Emerald hides herself and Mercury so she does not see them and the pair flee, leaving the girls and Oscar behind. Salem see’s that Oscar has the lamp and immediately zeroes in on him to get it back. 

A fight breaks out as everyone desperately tries to beat back Salem to at least somewhat keep her at bay. It fails and Salem absolutely wrecks them until Ruby in a moment of terror unleashed her silver eyes, partially immobilizing Salem. Salem however is quickly breaking free and Oscar orders them all to run, Ruby doesn’t want to leave Oscar but he tells them he’ll be okay and to run as he charges up his staff. Ruby doesn’t like it but does as he says, running out of the whale with everyone else as Salem breaks free, Oscar attacking her with his staff, destroying her temporarily. Oscar grabs the lamp and then returns to Atlas.

In Atlas, James and Qrow see the explosion and James comments that it looks like Winter was successful. Qrow asks what he meant and James says he sent Winter and the Ace Ops in with a bomb to try and take out the Whale, see if they can do something to slow down what felt like an endless army of Grimm. James hopes that maybe they’ll get a moment's relief so they can try and plan to get as far away as possible. James wants to reach out to the kids, to see if they would be willing to try and work with him again but he fears that bridge has been forever burned and they would never even give him the time of day. Qrow however believes that with him supporting James they’ll listen. James is shocked by the fact that Qrow would stand by him after everything, Qrow says he knows James wasn’t exactly in a great position and there weren't exactly any great options available with Salem coming. 

Ruby and everyone else make their way back to Atlas, but pause momentarily as they reach the battle lines and see just how many soldiers died in the fight against the grimm. They see so many bodies and as they travel through Atlas, they see so many civilians who could not make it to the subways and Ruby is hit with an overwhelming grief at the realization that she and her refusal to budge caused this. So many people died who could have been safe because of her decision. Everyone tries to assure her this isn’t her fault, but Ruby is overwhelmed with self hatred. 

Back in Atlas, Winter and the Ace Ops return with the bomb, saying that they didn’t get a chance to set it off but something else destroyed the whale and temporarily even Salem and every grimm on Atlas. Qrow and James are certain Ozpin had something to do with this and Qrow firmly believes this means Oscar was not killed like James thinks. 

Everyone’s Scrolls get an alert from the Emergency broadcast system and see James and Qrow standing side by side. James says that with the army temporarily destroyed they have just a little bit of time, and that he hopes to speak to them to try and figure out a plan and begs them to come back to the academy, publicly voiding their arrests and assuring no harm will come. Qrow assures them James is telling the truth and says they don’t have much time and they need to move quickly. The message ends and everyone is arguing about what to do. Nora, Jaune and Blake think that James is holding Qrow hostage and forcing him to say these things to lure them into a trap to try and force Penny to open the vault. Yang, Weiss, and Ren believe that Qrow and James are telling the truth and want to give him a chance. 

Oscar looks to Ruby and asks what she thinks. Ruby however is paralyzed with doubt, questioning everything she had ever done. Drowning in guilt about all of the death she saw as they returned to Atlas. Certain she is responsible and doesn’t feel worthy of making such a difficult decision anymore. A part of her thinking James had maybe even been right to order her arrest. Ruby runs off, overwhelmed with guilt and Yang chases after her to talk. Ruby admits she doesn’t know what she’s doing and thinks that forcing themselves into this war was a mistake. Yang assures her it wasn’t wrong and that they were just trying to do what they thought was best. Ruby argues that maybe that’s all General Ironwood was trying to do as well and Yang says that leaving people behind isn’t what was best, Ruby points out though that he was right, staying behind already has caused so much death and destruction to which Yang doesn’t have an answer. Oscar reluctantly joins them and also tells Ruby that even if she made a mistake, she was following her heart and trying to do good and sometimes, that’s all you can do. 

Ruby realizes that though both she and General Ironwood have very different ideas of what is best and what should be done, they both are after the same thing. Stopping Salem. Even if it is a trap, she decides that they have to try and work together because Salem wants them divided and fighting. That if they work together they stand a chance. She tells everyone they have to talk to Ironwood but she agrees they have to be cautious and start planning. 

At the Academy James and Qrow are nervously waiting, James starting to fear that the girls won’t come and he’ll have to plan alone when RWBY and Oscar arrive in the airship and land in front of them. James is both worried and relieved. He’s so happy Oscar is alive, but he wonder’s what Oscar told them. James starts to speak to Oscar, but Oscar says they’ll talk later. 

RWBY is worried and tense, wondering what James wants. Qrow runs over and hugs them, so relieved they’re okay with what he heard about how many people died in the fighting. Yang and Ruby hug him back and realize Qrow isn’t in any danger and that maybe James really did want to talk. James starts to tell them he has no idea how the Whale was destroyed and Oscar admits he used all of the magic stored in the cane to destroy it and temporarily Salem. James asks if he has any idea how long it will take Salem to reform but Oscar says Ozpin isn’t sure. That’s when it comes out that Ozpin is back and he finally comes out and talks. 

He tells them that the reason he didn’t use the cane at Beacon was because he thought they could get things back under control, but when he realized it was too late and he was killed. He wishes he could go back and change it but he can’t. James, guilt stricken by everything, says that of all of them Ozpin is the least guilty, but Ozpin tells James he was right to question him, that maybe if he had taken action sooner Beacon might not have fallen. He also apologizes to James for not coming out and talking to him sooner. He was floundering trying to put Remnant back together and he didn’t help. 

James asks what they can do now but Ruby herself breaks and apologizes, blaming herself for all of the death that happened. James places a reassuring hand on her shoulder and tells her that as a leader, sometimes we have to make difficult decisions when we don’t have all of the information. A choice has to be made even without knowing what will happen when you do. James then assures her they all made mistakes, but they cannot let themselves drown in what ifs and self doubt. They have to keep moving forward. James also apologizes and admits he lost control, he was scared and the thought of another Beacon happening…he couldn’t think of doing anything but run. He knew they couldn’t fight Salem with what forces they had and thought it was best to leave before they lost anyone else. 

Ruby admits she didn’t even try and come up with something better and she got angry and reacted without really thinking either. She didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s death but she still was despite her best efforts. Qrow assures her that the death that happened isn’t either of their faults, it's Salems. Oscar and Ozpin both agree that regardless of what path they took, anyone who died was killed by Salem and she’s the one who has blood on her hands, not them. 

James asks Ruby if Penny is okay, he has been truly worried about her because he knows Salem wants the maiden powers and knows Penny is in danger. That is when Penny flies into the dismay of the others who had been hiding. James is relieved to see she is okay and James apologizes to her for everything that happened and Penny hugs him. She admits she’s scared and that she didn’t know why she took the powers she just acted. James assures her she did the right thing, Cinder might have gotten the powers instead and Penny bought Atlas time. Penny also reveals that they have the lamp again and James is relieved they’ve stripped Salem of the relic she had. 

Penny asks what they plan on doing now and James admits that he doesn’t know what to do, most of the ships were destroyed in the attack and they couldn’t finish evacuations before Salem reformed. Qrow mentions that they have the bomb still and that maybe that could reset the clock and buy them more time. Ozpin agrees this could work but that still might not be enough time with the limited air support left on Atlas. 

Now….this is the point I struggled for days to figure out what to do. I typed and retyped and edited and changed and deleted so. Many. Times. It hurts. Through this I learned and remembered why I changed volume 7 as well in my planned rewrites. I know some people will use this to argue “See writing is hard CRWBY was in a corner they had to do this be nicer” but this just proves how bad it is that they don’t have a plan and are making this up on the fly. If they made a plan before volume 7 for how both 7 and 8 would have gone they wouldn’t have written themselves into this massive corner and it wouldn’t be so damn hard to fix JUST volume 8. 

Eh hem anyways uh back to the rewrite. So James realizes that first thing first, they need is to get Amity launched and a message to the world sent out to warn everyone about what is happening on Atlas. Penny asks if it is a good idea to tell everyone about Salem if they don’t have any way to help protect the people from Grimm attacks. James admits he’s not sure, but he also knows they can’t keep Salem a secret when she is escalating and the people need to know what happened to Atlas so they can prepare. Ruby asks if he thinks Atlas won’t survive and he says the people will but the kingdom itself likely will fall. Weiss is saddened by this but James assures her that the kingdom is not the land but the people who make up a kingdom. 

James calls Pietro and asks about Amity but initially he ignores James’s calls so Penny calls him and assures him they are working with James again and he and they all want to fix things and make it better. She then asks him about Amity and he admits he’d been working on getting Amity into a launchable state since Salem arrived. James asks if it can be launched and Pietro says it’s almost ready. 

While Pietro works to get Amity launched, James prepares the message to send out to everyone, he questions for a moment if doing this makes sense but ultimately decides it is important. On Amity, Pietro and Maria are working on getting Amity launched and with the work Pietro did, they get it in the air without a hitch and start up James’s message to all of Remnant. First he informs everyone that Atlas is under attack and will likely fall and tells them that Salem is behind it and tells everyone about her. He admits he wishes this was happening under better circumstances, but he wanted to ensure the news got out in case they also lost Amity. 

Ruby says they could use the staff somehow to evacuate everyone but Ozpin points out that the staff is holding Atlas up and nothing else. That is when James corrects Ozpin and says he started building a backup system to take over should the staff stop holding Atlas up and that it can hold Atlas up for a time but will slowly sink down as the gravity dust runs out. James says they could move Atlas to the tundra so when it eventually hits the ground it doesn’t crush Mantle in the process. The way the system is set up, Atlas will slowly sink as it runs out of Gravity dust so when its out it will be on the ground and not crash down because if it crashes down it could set off a dust explosion that could have untold effects on the world and they don’t want to risk that. 

Meanwhile Cinder has broken Watts out and have run into Neo again, Watts says if they can help him get to a terminal, he can get them whatever information they need. With that Cinder, Neo, and Watts return to the academy and as in the show kill everyone in one of the control rooms and Watts gets to work. 

In breaking out Watts, both Robyn’s and Jacques cells break and they are able to escape. Robyn goes to try and find the Happy Huntresses and Jacques tries to get back to the mansion so he can protect himself. He can be eaten by a Grimm or something whatever that’s not all that important what happens to him lolz. 

RWBY James, Qrow, Oscar and Penny struggle to try and figure out how to best do the evacuations, throwing around all kinds of different ideas and getting more and more frustrated as they realize they don’t have plans to make anything that would quickly get everyone out and they’re wasting precious time until Salem reforms. Yang tosses out the idea of using a bunch of doorways leading out to Vacuo and James says that it wouldn't be fair to dump everyone into Vacuo as they already have most of Vale there already. The girls argue that they need to get to Vacuo and James points out that Salem would be heading there next so sending the innocent civilians back into her warpath would be wrong and mentions ideally he would send them to Argus. It is a large town with a relatively intact military. James also starts to explain that with Ambrosius you have to be very specific on what you want and that he takes things very literally, as he’s speaking James trailed off noticing a security camera has been watching them and not moving like it should, catching James’s attention. Everyone starts to ask what’s wrong as James pulls out Due Process and shoots it down. Watts in retaliation decides to use the counter measures James built in against them to start splitting them up. 

He starts by sending false reports of attacks all over the school, James splits everyone up to try and deal with all of the attacks. Ruby, Weiss and Penny make their way to one of the alerts, Qrow and James start towards another, Blake, Yang, and Oscar head to another. The Ace Ops and JNR both head off to check on other alerts. However before they get far, Robotic soldiers ambush them and shields start going up to trap everyone. 

James momentarily freezes, painfully flashing back to Beacon and everything that happened. Qrow is frantically having to defend James who is paralyzed with fear, Qrow frantically crying out to him, worried about being able to keep him safe while frozen in the middle of the fight. 

James snaps back to reality and starts fighting, sending a message to the Ace Ops while Ruby calls JNR to ask where they are. JNR are similarly blocked in and fighting off hacked soldiers and the Ace Ops are all separated and similarly keeping back hacked soldiers. Everyone is asking what’s happening and how, everyones shouting and demanding to know what they should do. In all the chaos, James gets a message that Watts had broken out. 

Realizing Watts is trying to kill time until Salem reforms, James orders Ruby, Penny, and Weiss to get to the vault and use the staff. Ruby hesitates, worried she’ll mess things up even more and is frozen in fear, that's when James assures her that he trusts her, he knows she can do this and orders her to go. Ruby tries to argue she can use her semblance to get to James and Qrow but James says to not waste her time and to go now. Reluctantly, Ruby uses her semblance and flies them into the vents to get to the entrance to the vault room that Penny opens for them, the doors shutting behind them quickly as they descend into the vault chamber. 

Weiss looks over to Ruby and asks what they’re going to do and Ruby admits she’s not sure. Penny brings up the idea of portals again and Ruby wonders if there was a way to make it work. Weiss thinks it’s the only plan they had that remotely came close to being workable. Ruby realizes that they are running out of time and that they have to do something. If Salem reformed with everyone still on Atlas, everyone would be doomed. The three of them make their way to the vault door, the girls looking around in wonder at the chamber. However they realize they can’t keep wasting time and rush to the vault door, Penny opening it for them and Ruby using her semblance to rush them all inside and grabbing the staff, instantly halting time as Ambrosius appeared before them. 

Ambrosius appears and acts exactly as he does in the show because he is pretty hilarious and I love that. Ambrosius mentions his last project was so boring and Ruby says that they need to use the staff but before they can ask him anything Ambrosius firmly lays down that he cannot do anything because doing something would cause Atlas to fall and crush Mantle and kill thousands. They then tell him that they know this and ask him to instead move Atlas over the tundra so no one would get hurt. Ambrosius groans and asks why everything he’s been asked to do is so boring but does as they asked. 

Instantly everyone feels Atlas moving, the people in Mantle see Atlas suddenly moving away and start panicking in mass. Cinder demands to know from Watts what was happening and Watts muses that they must have gotten the staff and are using it, but he isn’t sure what they’re doing. James and Qrow meanwhile also realize they must have reached the staff, and Qrow wonders what Ruby will do with it. James says he knows whatever she comes up with will be the best they’ll be able to do given the circumstances. 

Back in the vault, Ruby resummons Abrosius who is disappointed to see the girls again and asks what they want now. Weiss asks if he can make a bunch of portals scattered across Atlas and Mantle and have it open into Argus. Ambrosius replies that he needs information on how to make that happen given that there would be people coming in from multiple portals landing in the exact same spot and Weiss groans that’s what they expected. Penny then chimes in that what if they had a central location to funnel everyone through before they reach the portal leading to Argus. Ambrosius asks where this central location would be and Ruby says in the same place as the vaults are as they seem to exist somewhere outside of Remnant and would be safe for refugees to use as a way to escape. 

Ambrosius asks for plans on how this central location would work and Penny happily chims in saying it could work like the subway system, carrying lots of people from one place to another and shows Ambrosius the plans and Weiss adds the exit portal would be like a one way ticket to Argus. Ambrosius asks for references to where the portals will appear in Atlas and Penny pulls up a map of Atlas and Mantle and indicates locations all over where she knows James would have evacuated citizens along with the crater where the Happy Huntress’s evacuated citizens still in Mantle along with some key locations within Atlas Academy. She also pulls up the map of Argus and indicates a spot just outside of the city to have the citizens be evacuated to. Penny thinks this would work as Argus can take citizens as well as potentially move any overflow to Haven if absolutely necessary. Satisfied he has all he needs, Ambrosius creates the portals with the openings in the various places Penny indicated. As the girls head to the portal Ambrosius created for them, he warns them not to fall before disappearing. 

Before the girls enter the portal in the vault, they pause, wondering if they should take the staff with them or leave it behind. Instinctively Ruby wants to lock it up again as it would ensure Salem cannot get to it. However Ruby also realizes that leaving the portals open even after everyone is evacuated could be extremely dangerous so reluctantly the girls decide that they need to take it with them. 

As Qrow and James finish off the last rogue robotic soldiers, a portal opens up behind them, Qrow wonders if this is Ruby’s evacuation plan and James says there's only one way to find out and carefully steps through, finding himself looking at dozens of portals similar to the one he just stepped through. Qrow follows shortly after and they all find themselves on the same platform as Ruby, Weiss, and Penny and explain what they did. James comments that it's not perfect but it will have to do. He questions why they took the staff with them instead of locking it back up again and Ruby explains that they feared keeping the portals open would be too dangerous and though James doesn’t like it, he agrees with their concerns and asks to take the staff himself. When they ask why James says Salems people will likely come after the staff and he hopes that if he has it they will focus on going after him instead of the people trying to evacuate. 

Qrow argues that it is extremely dangerous for just him to have the staff but James brushes his worries off saying Winter will be with him. The girls also argue that even the two of them likely won’t be enough to hold off Cinder and Penny offers to go with him. James argues that’s extremely dangerous as she’s the maiden and Penny argues that's why she should go as it would further keep Cinder away from the portals. Reluctantly James agrees.

Ruby says the rest of them will remain in the portals to protect everyone coming through and Oscar suggests Ruby holds onto the lamp and hands it over to her so that they don’t have both relics in the same place in case what remains of Salem’s people attack one place. Qrow says he’ll go find the Ace Ops and take the bomb to where the Whale previously was to have it ready to drop on her before she reforms so they can buy more time to have everyone escape. 

James and the others were worried about Qrow’s plan, but they agreed it was important so everyone splits off going through various portals. James called Winter to let her know what was happening and to ask her to use the Emergency broadcasting system to let everyone know what was happening and to go through the portals. Winter agrees and uses the emergency broadcasting system to tell everyone in Atlas and Mantle what is happening and to immediately begin evacuations. James also tells Winter to leave immediately once the message is out and assists Argus. Winter argues and says she needs to be in Atlas, but James says he will be staying until all civilians have left. Winter argues and says he can’t stay alone, but James says Penny will be with him. Winter wants to argue but James tells her to go and get her family when Winter says that James is her family. James is touched by the sentiment but pushes, saying that Whitley needs someone and reluctantly Winter agrees. Immediately after sending the message out Winter gets Whitley and her mother, kneeling down in front of Whitley, she apologizes for everything and says she wishes she was a better sister to him and that if she could go back, she would have fought harder to keep him away from their father. Whitley hugs Winter as their mother watches them with a sad smile, saying that it wasn’t her responsibility to keep Whitley safe but her own. Winter shouldn’t have had to help Weiss like she did and that she failed as a mother to all three of them. Winter says they can continue this conversation with Weiss later and that for now they need to leave quickly. On their way out they run into Klein and the four of them go through the portals to Argus. 

Before James leaves the portals he kneels down in front of Oscar, unable to look him in the eyes as he apologizes for what he did to him. There is no excuse, and no forgiveness for what he did and he understands that. Oscar, though, stuns him by hugging him, Ozpin’s voice saying that he is so sorry he wasn’t there when James needed him most. That he failed James not only in Beacon but now in Atlas. James is barely able to keep tears at bay as he hugs Oscar back, asking how either of them could forgive him. Oscar says that he knows about James’s semblance and what it does to him. He knows that though James still shot him, he knew James never would have done so without his semblance active and that he never should have gotten to that point, that they all should have been there supporting him more. Oscar says James is better than his worst mistake and that’s not who he is. He’s someone who fights for his people to the death. That he cares and is a good man. That despite everything that happened, James only was trying to save everyone despite how scared he was and how much his trauma from Beacon affected him. Despite it all he pushed forward and that is who James really was. Oscar also tells James to forgive himself for what happened to Atlas, that he and Ruby are not to blame, Salem is. She’s the one who killed and killed. They only tried to stop her. James promises he will not let either of them down and goes through the portal with Penny. The pair make their way to a control room and James sends out a message to Cordovin to warn her of the incoming evacuations. 

Watts realizes through his hack what Amity tower was for, and finds the message James is sending to Argus and immediately gets to work sending out a virus to force Amity tower to crash, knowing how important global communications are and knows it needs to be destroyed. Cinder asks what destroying Amity will do, they need to focus on drawing out Penny. Watts firmly believes James would never allow his precious Amity project to be destroyed and that certainly he would send Penny to save it. Cinder though thinks James would simply hide her away like the previous maiden and it would take something more drastic to bring her out. Watts insists she should go to the tower but Cinder brushes him off and Neo follows along with a shrug. 

As evacuations start, Penny and James are remaining in the control room, carefully monitoring security feeds to make sure evacuations are going smoothly when alerts start going off, something is wrong with Amity and a virus is causing everything to shut down and the tower to start falling from the sky. Penny frantically tries to call Pietro to tell him to get out of the tower as James tries to call for someone to help get the tower back online but everyone is locked out and can’t get in. Penny, terrified for her father’s safety, flies off, James frantically calling her to come back, fearing that it is a trap for her.Penny however doesn’t listen, too worried about her father, flying as fast as she can towards the rapidly crashing tower, Penny praying she can get their in time before it crashes. 

Meanwhile, Cinder and Neo have disguised themselves and have hidden themselves in a crowd of civilians desperately trying to evacuate. Everyone is too distracted by Amity crashing to notice her in the crowd. The girls are all on high alert, searching for any sign of danger. They sent Ren and Jaune ahead to try and use Ren’s aura to mask everyone's fear and keep a Grimm attack from happening in Argus. Cordovin, who heard James’s message, had already sent out soldiers to help get everyone into the city safely. 

Cinder when she sees Ruby carefully makes her way to her, reining in every urge to charge at her and viciously kill her. She knows Ruby could use her silver eyes to bear Cinder instantly and she cannot risk alerting her to Cinders presence. Cinder then grabs the lamp from her and then uses her maiden powers against Ruby to throw her into the abyss, breaking her aura in the process. Civilians start screaming and running away, Yang screaming out in horror and rage at seeing her little sister seemingly fall to her death and charges at Cinder to kill her but Neo intercepts her. Nora calls James to let him know what’s happening, hoping Penny can come and help them. James however tells her Penny went to Amity after it crashed. James then starts to frantically call Penny who is arriving at Amity as he crashes to the ground, the dust mines below exploding as the dust beneath is hit. Penny screams out in agony, certain Pietro is dead but starting to fly towards the wreckage to try and find him when her scroll starts beeping, James calling out for Penny to answer, the fear in his voice making her pause and grab her scroll, James telling her that Cinder has ambushed everyone in the tunnels and they can’t hold off a maiden alone. Penny looks at the wreckage of Amity and then back towards Atlas, torn on what to do. Penny starts to scan the tower, trying to find any signs of life but finding none. She wants to try and find her father, unable to believe that he’s dead, but James calls out to her asking if she’s still there, telling her that everyone evacuating is being killed by Cinder. 

As the Ace Ops and Qrow circle the decaying remains of the whale, watching for Salem’s return, they all hear the screech of a loud Grimm and look over to see a Wyvern flying towards Atlas. With the soldiers assisting with evacuations, the group has no idea how to stop the massive Grimm heading towards Atlas. Reluctantly, Qrow says they need to focus their efforts on the Wyvern and to try and take it down. Harriet argues their job is to watch for Salem and drop the bomb on her when she starts to reform. Qrow argues that will be pointless if that Wyvern stops people from evacuating. He points out that that thing will scare people, and the more afraid people are, the more Grimm will appear. The more grimm there are, the less people will likely be able to get out. Reluctantly the other Ace Ops agree and they go after the Wyvern. However as they fight, they quickly realize that they don’t have the manpower to take it down. That’s when Vine suggests dropping the bomb on it and Harriet says they can’t waste the bomb on a Grimm. Qrow however agrees with Vine saying that dropping the bomb on Salem won’t help anyone if the Grimm kill them all. Reluctantly Harriet asks how they plan to drop the bomb on it. Qrow asks Marrow if he thinks his semblance can hold the Wyvern still and Marrow says it can but not for long so they get to work, flying as close as they dare to the Grimm, Marrow using his semblance to stop the Grimm and then dropping the bomb on it, Marrows aura breaking just as the bomb hits it and explodes, killing the Grimm. The celebration is short lived however as they hear an enraged scream that shakes Atlas, the Ace Ops and Qrow realizing that Salem is back. 

WBY and Nora are fighting carelessly and recklessly, torn up and guilt ridden by Ruby’s death, they’re fighting is sloppier than usual, Cinder egging them on, mocking them for failing to save their leader. Cinder is about to land a killing blow against Weiss, when Penny arrives, screaming at Cinder to leave her friends alone. Cinder sees red when she sees Penny and gets tunnel vision, thinking only that she wants the maiden powers and the staff, screaming at Penny, demanding to know where the staff is. Penny however uses this to her advantage, letting her know that Cinder will never find it. Cinder is enraged and starts wildly attacking Penny who fights back, determined to avenge Ruby. Cinder then starts mocking Penny for Ruby’s death, saying if she wasn’t a coward then maybe her friend would be alive. Penny tries to keep her anger and guilt in check, but Cinder’s goading words and she blasts Cinder with a powerful blow that sends her crashing down onto the platforms. Realizing she can use this to really throw Penny off balance, Cinder sends Yang flying into the abyss while she’s distracted with Neo. Horrified, Penny frantically flies after Yang, Cinder turning her attention to Blake who is crying out, throwing her weapon to try and catch Yang, Neo keeping Weiss too busy for her to be able to try and do anything to help. Penny is unable to reach Yang before she vanishes and while she is trying to figure out what to do, Blake is thrown into the abyss as well. Nora charges as Cinder but she is easily knocked in along with Weiss when she tries to save her. 

Back in the control room, James is torn on what to do. Should he go and risk the staff but try to save everyone? James stares at the staff in his hands, thinking of Nora’s terrified words and Penny's lack of response. People would die if he didn’t help, but if he goes there, Salem could get the staff. James thinks about Ruby’s words and her determination to save everyone. His people were in danger. No matter what he did the staff would be in danger as long as it remained outside of the vault. Mind made up, James starts to head towards one of the portals, freezing as black smoke fills the room, surrounding him and blocking out all of the light as Salem appears before him. James fires Due Process at her, but the bullet holes close up easily as Grimm hands emerge from the ground and pin James to the ground, Salem tisking as she walks over and picks up the staff. She then mocks him saying all of this death would not have happened if James had just complied and done what she had asked. James is paralyzed with fear, thinking back to Beacon and Ozpin and all of his failures, and a part of him wonders if maybe she’s telling the truth. That this is his fault. But then he remembers Oscar's words, he looks up at Salem and tells her that no one is to blame but her. He could not, would not stand by and let her destroy Remnant. Salem is merely amused by his determination and tells him that it all was in vain. 

Before Penny and Cinder can attack again, they both notice that the pathways are disappearing and glaring at each other, they both leave, Penny making it through the door to Argus and Cinder flying through the closest portal. Neo runs after Cinder who can’t be bothered to try and help Neo and the paths disappear before Neo can get through a portal. As soon as Penny reaches Argues, Jaune and Ren frantically ask what happened to everyone, and Penny whispers I’m sorry, guilt overwhelming her. 

Cinder finds Salem easily with the staff and James pinned to the ground still, glaring up at Salem. Cinder drops down to her knees and apologizes, saying that she could not get the maiden powers and that Neo was killed by RWBY but she did manage to kill them before escaping. She then presents Salem with the lamp and tells her RWBY stole it but she doesn't know if they used the final question or not. Salem brushes it off, turning to James with a smirk saying they’ll find out, one way or another, James looking up at her in fear. 

I can imagine an after credits cutscene being something like the Ace Ops and Qrow trying to find James only to find Due Process and no signs of James and wondering what happened to James or we could keep it as seeing Crescent Rose on the Island. 

I had originally typed out some ideas for how to kill off James and Penny if someone insisted they had to die like canon but….the ideas just really were not working too well and I wasn’t really interested in them anyways so I decided to dump them. If someone wanted to kill James and Penny off….well all I can say is please don’t tie James’s disabilities to his death if that makes sense? He deserves to go down fighting and protecting Atlas and Mantle, same as Penny. She should not have been turned into a human, we know Pietro couldn’t rebuild her again so the stakes were already set for her. 

Anyways I hope you guys enjoyed my ideas, if anyone has their own ideas for what they would have done for Volume 8 I would love to hear them! I know there are probably plot holes still and some issues, but I was struggling to find a good balance between keeping the story moving and not making it feel like the hand of the author is the only thing keeping it going. It was extremely frustrating realizing all of my problems were because of the setup volume 7 of RWBY set up that I was stuck with having to contend with. In all of my rewrite ideas, they all involve even changes in volume 7 because so much leaks and influences volume 8 and makes volume 8 a problem.

[scripttorture]

My setting is like the real world but with various mythical otherworlds secretly connected to ours. One character with powers of psychic illusion was raised by an MiB-style intelligence and/or secret police force (tasked with keeping otherworldly beings from causing trouble in our world) that trained her to mentally torture people. I want to make this character somewhat sympathetic, so it is plausible for her to be indoctrinated as a torturer from childhood? Does it depend how young they start?

Anon I don’t think this is a good idea. There’s an awful lot to unpack here about why that is so I’m going to start off with a simple question that effects how you move forward: what’s most important for you about this character?

 Is it that she’s sympathetic? That she’s effective at her job? That she’s highly skilled and trained? That she’s part of a productive organisation that can actually do the tasks it sets out to?

 Because if she’s a torturer then realistically she would be none of those things. And making her any of them is (in my opinion) torture apologia: because it is portraying a torturer in an extremely unrealistic way that favours the torturer and excuses the abuse they carry out.

 You would, literally, be repeating lies popularised by real life torturers.

 Torture does not work. It is impossible to get accurate, timely information by using torture. Here’s an introduction to why. Here’s a post on what torture does to investigations. Here’s a guide to writing what torture does to interrogations. Here’s a list of investigative strategies that actually work. Here’s a post on the damage torture does to human memory. Please read these masterposts and take a look at my sources as well.

 Torturers are not indoctrinated radicals. The organisations that torturers are part of actively try to screen out anything they see as radical, deviant or a product of illness. There aren’t enough studies on torturers for me to give you a break down of their politics but my impression from the anecdotes and interviews I’ve read? Their politics is ‘normal’ and mainstream for the organisation they are part of. Whatever that organisation is.

 Torturers are not taught from a young age because torture is not complex. It does not take months to learn how to hit someone. Torturers learn on the job by assisting other torturers.

 Torture is simple. It is functionally easy. I really can’t stress that enough. The most common tortures globally right now are: hitting people, depriving them of food and depriving them of sleep. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that six year olds could come up with that list.

 Hurting people is not complicated. It requires no skill and no training.

 The evidence we have suggests torturers lose skills as they turn to torture, a process Rejali calls ‘de-skilling’. The basic idea is pretty simple: if you spend all day hitting people instead of practicing what you were trained for (gathering evidence for example) you get so out of practice that you start to forget how to do those things.

 And then there’s the effect that torture has on torturers. They get symptoms. They develop lasting, serious, mental health problems which directly effect their ability to do their jobs.

 I have a list of the common symptoms here as well as a rough guide for how many symptoms you should be considering for torturers and torture survivors.

 Separate to the symptoms is the general pattern of behaviour torturers exhibit. We don’t have a lot of high quality studies on torturers and there are a lot of questions we do not have clear answers to. However the studies and the anecdotal evidence of survivors, witnesses and torturers themselves points to some consistent behaviours.

 Torturers don’t work alone. They form little sub-cultures within larger organisations. These groups are incredibly aggressive, competitive, self-important, hyper-masculine and violent. Torturers look down on everybody else. They are convinced that they are the most important people in their organisation, the only one’s doing ‘real work’. They have an arrogant, puffed up pride that combines with mental illness and seeing their colleagues as competition to create the worst asshole you’ve ever had the misfortune of working with.

 They do not cooperate with other people. They use abuse as a pissing contest, competing to see who can be the most brutal in order to try and ‘impress’ fellow torturers.

 They define strength and group loyalty by hurting other people.

 They have a fracturing effect on organisations, because they don’t obey orders and see their colleagues as competition or useless. At the low end of the scale this means cliques, secrets from the larger organisation and a terrible working environment as they bully and belittle their colleagues. At the high end of the scale there are cases where torturers have attacked and murdered people within the same organisation.

 Does any of that sound sympathetic?

 I like a challenge when I write. I’ve described my writing style as ‘hold my beer’ because I tend to take ideas other people dismiss as impossible to pull off and try my best to make them work. I do this because I love exploring human complexity through fiction.

 A torturer who is currently torturing is not a sympathetic person. They are a bullying, violent, arrogant brute who contributes nothing useful to the organisation they latch on to, sucking up time and resources like a tick. They see other people as garbage. And they lack insight into their own crimes. Which means they do not appreciate or acknowledge the pain and damage they cause.

 Now I have written a character who is an ex-torturer who I think is sympathetic in some ways. But getting to the point where they could be sympathetic meant them having to leave the organisation they were part of on a stretcher.

 Their fellow torturers turned on them. They lost a leg. They changed sides and in the middle of a messy civil war they dedicated themselves to keeping their friend’s children safe.

 And I had to set the story twenty years after these events to get that character out of their own ass enough for them to be sympathetic.

 Even then, I’d say they’re sympathetic in spite of having been a torturer. Because they’re still clinging to that insistence that they did something meaningful. They still can’t accept the extent of their own crimes or the effects those crimes had.

 But their pride broke. And they did keep those children alive. They helped raise them. And the tie to those children is what makes them sympathetic by the time of the story.

 Torturers are not sympathetic people. They are self absorbed abusers who bend over backwards to downplay the harm they did to their victims and to justify their crimes.

 Is that really what you want to write?

 I say that, not to be harsh, but because it sounds to me as though what you actually want to write is a genuine investigator with psychic powers.

 It sounds as though you want to write a character who is good at her job. Who is skilled and dedicated and a great person to work with.

 If that’s the case my advice is to ditch the torture entirely. Look at the masterpost on genuine investigation instead and write a character who is good at interviewing people.

 Have her use her psychic powers to present herself as sympathetic to the criminals she’s interviewing. Because she can walk into a room and know their politics, their religious beliefs, their internal justifications for what they’ve done. And she can use that, may be even manipulatively, to seem like someone the prisoner would like, someone they’d agree with.

 That gets people talking.

 And if you want to show her as ruthless, as having an edge to her, that can still work.

 Imagine someone sitting down across from a suspect, holding their hands, smiling, talking to them gently. Imagine them gradually, kindly, getting this suspect’s life story. Imagine them being sympathetic about the reason the suspect murdered someone, validating the murder’s feelings and may be even actions… Right up until they have the information they need.

 Then they turn on a dime. The persona drops, the false-sympathy drains away. They stand up with a sneer and say they hope the murderer never sees the light of day again. And walk out.

 Think about what you want from the story Anon. A character who tortures, or a character who is competent, smart and sympathetic.

 Because it really is one or the other.

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[batarangsoundsdumb]

yet another ask dump yeehaw!

do you ever think that jay's mother was one of those bitch who believes in horoscope and tarots and things like that and so he believes in these things too, or it is just me projecting?

sheila haywood took one look at jason's birthchart said 'nah this won't do' and left.

Wait, but what happens when the justice league does find out that Bruce and John fucked? Lmao it sounds like it would be hilarious, really, I don’t want a justice league that doesn’t make fun of Bruce for like his entire life.

barry runs out of the meeting immediately and comes back with an entire sti testing kit. diana fully seriously wants bruce to get tested while bruce is sitting there like 'come on guys, you're being ridiculous, i already checked twice'

john is standing in the corner clearly offended while bruce is just like 'don't even say anything, constantine, you fucked a shark'

tim was like "i'm drake now" and everyone was like ahh so your fursona is a dragon and tim was like pffffft no. ducks.

on the one hand, good for him, on the other hand, bro, how do you still have a secret identity when your superhero name is just your last name,,,,

Your fic on ao3 was GOLD PLEASE CONTINUE I loved Dinah's cameo btw ( @purple-vixen

thanks so much! i already continued but this ask is like 10 years old because i'm a notorious procrastinator (also yes! i love dinah so much aahhhhhhhhhhhh)

I've FINALLY been watching the Batman animated series and I gotta say, after watching "the gray ghost" I am CONVINCED that Batman is a closeted super hero geek who was 100% freaking out the first time he met Superman and is just REALLY good at hiding it.

bruce internally: holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit bruce externally: get out of my city, alien

AHHH ur multimedia fic is the only thing that brings me happiness anymore continue it forever pls

uhh thanks, but can't continue it forever because my attention span is that of a toddler on crack on a good day and i can't function without at least 10 things going on at the same time and music in the background

Oi, so I'm getting into dc and watching batman the animated series, and they use fruitcake a lot. Which I thought was very funny and wanted to share w you - Denilla

wait like fruitcake (food) or fruitcake (derogatory) ?

young justice 🤝 teen titans slut shaming batman

tim drake and dick grayson to their respective teams 'you guys stop it, that's my dad'

Happyhoganon: If an eighty year old Batman had fought crime in Gotham City for decades and the only threats to him and the city lately are a wheel chair bounded Penguin, your usual purse snatchers and a few con artists popping up every now and then, how well could the Dark Knight do in maintaining the peace in Gotham despite him being just somewhat fit to do that as an elderly man (which says A LOT given how old he is)

uhh he'll probably do what my grandpa does and that is ruthlessly prank them until they die of shame.

in the death in the family interactive movie there's an ending where Jason is tasked with raising Damian and he decides he's gonna raise Damian to take down the waynes and al ghuls which uh maybe isn't great BUT the idea of Jason raising Damian... PRICELESS. CHAOTIC. I just need more people to know about this :)

yes i saw that wow holy shit but jason would accidentally drop damian on his head one (1) hour in and jason just yeets him into the lazarus pit.

Headcanon: The Penguin has a really hard time fighting any of the Robins because of his avian obsession means there's always a small part of his mind that's like "Birb. Child. Protect" ( @subspacecadet )

as soon as dick becomes nightwing the penguin is like 'you know what, fuck this dude' and shoots at him.

Y'all talking about King Shark dating Constantine, let's not forget about John literally hooking up with Satan

listen there's a clear difference between monsterfucker and satanfucker in that king shark is literally a shark and satan still looks like a normal dude

Does everyone in Gotham think Batman is a teen dad?

everyone in gotham thinks batman has been around since gotham was founded, but they do think that bruce wayne is actually a teen father and dick grayson's biological dad.

why. why would you do that fancast when you know it will only hurt people

what? i loved my fancast it was really well done. i did it with good representation in mind and i really managed that with alfred pennyworth being ✨italian✨

Seeing james charles a jason gave me psychic damage how dare you i need to wash my eyes

well that's a you problem isn't it?

do you think dick grayson thirst tweets about nightwing just to annoy his family/cause problems on purpose in general?

he thinks nightwing is hot, next question.

holy jiminy cricket batman, its as cold as the good lords ass crack in here!!

i- what? this is why i don't fuck with english expressions it's way too goddamn weird

Brooooooo, your teen dad!Bruce au is soooo good. I've got brainrot.

Honestly if you ever write anymore, I'd read that shit twice. Sign me the fuck up. Good stuff, Good Stuff.

uh yeah i'm thinking about writing a fic, but i have exams coming up and i don't wanna fail because that would suck. but after i'll certainly be writing more tho

your teen dad AU is so great! bruce acting like a big brother for all of like a week before he's telling everyone about his son. what if in the AU dick meets the JL because they need to rescue him? maybe he's in trouble/kidnapped at a gala and bruce starts calling for JL. clark finds him and has to fly with dick to bring him home - that's how dick and clark meet and superman becomes dick's fave hero. he goes around the manor thinking he can fly with a red blanket draped around him like a cape.

actually- if you want a young dad! bruce fic with like that kinda stuff(just with damian) go check uhh- in for a penny by cdelphiki. it's really good and bruce is like 24/25-ish. (and dick's there!!!)

This account has solely convinced me that Tim is a trash goblin ( @hamilcat-and-magic-turtle )

because he is. that boy has slept in dumpsters on multiple occasions even if he is the son of a billionaire.

Okay but when you said victory dance I did think of the whole justice league defeating the big bad and then they all start flossing

well that's exactly what hal jordan does and that's why batman uses a gun now. no but the victory dance in my opinion is like the 'we're all in this together' dance from high school musical.

The horrors in Invincible s1 was nothing compared to the comics, I cant wait for s2

oh well okay, i mean i personally react to horror and violence by laughing awkwardly so i can't wait to be called a monster for accidentally laughing at a mass murder.

I'm currently watching Batman: The Brave and The Bold and- Bruce is just talking about Oliver like he's an old love (@nightwings-kid)

okay im going to watch that lmao that's totally and completely in character for him tho.

The invincible comic is like super gratuitous with its violence so much so I'm shocked the show was able to adapt it in a faithful way! Anyway had the show been live action it absolutely wouldn't have the same impact as it does as an animated show and I'm so glad so many people agree with me on that

also because a live action casting would've been like uhh amanda stenberg for amber, the dude- the guy from the supernatural but with a mustache for omni-man, and scarlet johanssen for debbie grayson

Debbie grayson is a milf, yes. You're welcome for the invincible propoganda, now you can questions your life. Bruce def seems like the perfect father next to Omni-man. Like they really took a rip off justice league and I was like well, now I'm attached even tho I was like hah I know who they're supposed to be. And then bam- death gore death gore gore gore sad Mark grayson just had to have daddy issues. Why does every character have daddy issues. I'm sick of the attacks

because daddy issues make a person arguably funnier, that's why i'm not even remotely funny (haha good dad flex). i liked that it was dark contextually, but not in the colouring, bc i hate when it's like 'uh yeah graphic murder and now a shot so dark you have to sit in a dark room and squint at the screen to faintly see the characters. (like dcau ugh)

About the Wayne insurance, for a moment I thought you would put the video with moans over the waves.

i mean- i could've done that, but rick rolling seemed more family friendly.

Its the first time in forever that im surpise rickrolled, i usually expect it. Congratulations (i really should know better this is tumblr)

i get rickrolled so often but i actually like the song so i dont really give a fuck

Actually, my information about Damian and John's kids is outdated because it was revealed that the old men telling the kids stories about the Supersons were actually Jon and Damian the whole time. I was blinded by my thirst for Grandpa!Bruce Wayne but I was wrong... I liked my version better, tbh (@artemisa97)

fair enough. but i'd honestly like to see damian and jon getting together, just because it's a really fun dynamic and their friendship was really cute when they were kids. (also idk maybe it would be nice to have one (1) main batfam/superfam character that's not cishet)

How am i JUST finding your blog skdskfkd you're so fucking funny and ur takes are hot

i thought u were calling me hot :( but youre not :( crime detected (but lmao thanks)

So I have depression and I swear that your memes are one of the few things that have made me laugh so thank you 💛🥺 (@katekanebadass)

aw you're welcome, and i hope you're doing okay!

The metropolis memes are so funny, I love them 💀😌

i think metropolis is also so fucking funny it deserves more attention imagine having your entire police force being upstaged by an alien from kansas and his kids

as an american i feel your complete lack of knowledge of us geography is just so sexy (platonic) ❤️

thanks so much (i also don't know any other geography, i'm not kidding, like you can tell me you're from hungary and it will just blank, there will be nothing that comes to mind)

In the DC universe they don't say "Can't have shit in Detroit" they say "Can't have shit in Gotham"

this just reminds me of that guy whose porch got stolen like the steps to his door, and i'm thinking of people living in gotham and waking up without a front door and going "can't have shit in gotham"

honestly all i know about chicago is the bean, so. what would gotham's famous sculpture be?

gigantic gargoyle statue in front of one of the police precincts because a villain thought it was a smart way to keep the police inside, but it's too heavy to move.

why tf do people go on about how batman "works alone" or how he's the "lone wolf" when he like 38290202 members in his family

bc people think it's cool that a grown man in his 30s has no friends or family instead of calling it what it is (sad)

Bruce is gotham's sugar daddy

why would say something so controversial yet so brave.

my favorite batfamily fanfictions are the ones where they use their shitty codenames, unironically, in any context

dick: gerard way are you in position, gerard way are you in position

tim: for the last fucking time, my codename is 'totally not count olaf' this week, abbafan 3000

dick: shut up my codename isn't 'abbafan 3000'

dick: it's 'abbafan number 1' and you know it

I have a feeling Tim drake is ur favourite batfamily member but okay u don't have favs if u say so ok

i mean he is, i won't deny it. but i love each and every one of the batfam just the same, i just have a weak spot for short dumbass nerds, because i'm a short dumbass nerd.

Omg i fuckin love boy meets world too fam shsjkfk

bro boy meets world was the shit!!! it was just fire and awesome and so fucking great like bro. it was so good im not even going to be accepting criticism

you know I find the whole "joker completes batman" thing a bit disgusting considering the horrendous stuff the batfamily went through because of the joker and let's not get started on the "joker has a point" thing like yeah he's this cool complex villain but he's absolutely batshit crazy

like yes! i get what you mean the joker just fucking sucks man he doesn't do shit for batman's character or the batfam he's literally just annoying as fuck. like the joker has a point' shit is so stupid. i will accept 'magneto was right' because he fucking was and i think he didn't do anything wrong, but joker? he's just like that. he's not even cool and complex he's just a weirdo with a bleach kink at this point.

ALSO YOUR RACISM POST- SO TRUE BESTIE

thanks bestie, i'm glad you agree.

in today's essay of why I think cass should become batman- I was thinking Tim would probably be the most efficient batman in many ways but I also think he wouldn't want to be batman tbh none of the batfamily members would want to be batman because they're trying to outgrow him but cass is the one who wants to represent the symbol that is batman

absofuckinglutely i will say it again and again that cass represents the batsymbol more than anyone in the batfam, in batgirl (2000) she literally didn't care about anything else than bruce's oath to not kill, she thought the batsymbol was more important than anything in gotham. she's just an excellent character because her motivation to not kill is not 'i'm scared i can't come back from it' or 'well my dad says no murder so i'll go along with it' but that she's killed somebody as a young child and she never wants to kill a human ever again and that's so fucking beautiful for a new batman like yes.

need more cass, duke and tim inclusion in gothamite memes

yes yes, a tall order of cass, duke and tim coming up in 1-14 business days

oldest to youngest batfam members cus I'm confused as shit

okay order of being taken in: dick, jason, tim, cass, damian, duke order of age: alfred, bruce, dick, cass, jason, tim, duke, damian (though cass and jason are around the same age general consensus is that cass is a little older)

I'm so confused Steph is a redhead?? like how was it that hard to get this right? the source material is literally right there and free

cw is jared, 19

do you receive anon hate? if so, how do you deal with it

uh no, i'm not remotely popular enough to get anon hate and i also don't say a lot of things that would attract anon hate, but i do send anon hate to @the-real-peter-parker because he forgot about the specialists from winx club

Wait how many languages do you speak??

uhh- 5 if you include latin, but that's a dead language and i'm really bad at it. but english, my native language, german, and french also, tho german and french not fluently.

You can mix aguaepanela with aguardiente 😈 and is tasty

okay but now i'm curious if the liquor deserves the 😈 emoji or if that's a you problem. but i googled it and it looks like something you'd take one sip of and then not remember the rest of your evening.

[mattholicguilt]

cats in the cradle by Duck_Life

Fandoms: Supernatural [Gen, No Archive Warnings Apply] Words: 1,745

Tags: Claire Novak & Patience Turner, Cats, Psychic Abilities, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Friendship, Found Family, claire novak will see a stray animal and be like, is anyone gonna project onto this, and not wait for an answer

Summary: Claire helps Patience hone her abilities. Patience helps Claire track down a cat.

Written for SPN Women Week Day 1. Prompt: "skills"

Bub is missing again.

“Bub” is the name of a mean stray cat missing a chunk from his ear. Claire’s been leaving cat food out for the ugly old thing for weeks now, and whenever he doesn’t come running she panics.

So, for the third time, Patience finds herself enlisted in the search for a cat that Claire doesn’t even technically own. “If it’s gonna bother you this much every time,” Patience says, “why don’t you just take it in? You know, get him his shots, a collar, a microchip.”

Claire makes a face at her before turning back to look at the road. She’s been driving around the neighborhood slowly, scoping out every shrub and checking under every parked car. “Bub doesn’t want to be chained down,” she explains. “He’s a free spirit.”

Alright, well, Patience is too tired to unpack that right now. She lets it lie and looks out the passenger’s side window, alert for any signs of movement. “Maybe he was never a stray at all,” she tries, “and his owner finally tracked him down and brought him home.”

“Do you know that?” Claire asks.

Claire’s always asking if Patience knows things— what happened on Jody’s date last weekend, what Dean’s middle name is, whether or not Alex is the one who ate the last ice cream sandwich in the freezer. Patience keeps trying to explain that she can only see the future. “Psychic” might be a misnomer— her abilities are precognitive, not telepathic.

She basically gets previews, little spoilers about what’s to come. And though she’s been working at it, she can’t seem to get her psychic abilities to do the kind of reading and divination her grandma could do. She gets glimpses with no context, no backstory.

Missouri Moseley could walk into a room and feel every ounce of heartbreak, grief, hope and faith in the people standing there. Patience can barely pick up on it when Alex and Claire are pissed at each other.

Still, Claire brings her along whenever the cat goes missing. Seems to think her ESP can home in on missing animals. Patience keeps telling her otherwise, and yet here she is, once again. That’s the trouble with having no social life and no better plans.

Maybe she should join a book club.

Claire rounds the corner, eyes darting around for any sight of the mangy cat. The first time Bub vanished from Claire’s sight, all the neighbors seemed intent to help. They explained they hadn’t seen the cat, but hoped Claire would find him soon and offered baked goods and platitudes in the meantime.

But these things have an expiration date. You can only lose the cat so many times before the routine gets old and the neighbors lose interest.

“My educated guess ?” Patience sighs. “The cat’ll come back when it gets hungry. Just like before.”

Claire makes a tch sound and mouths “educated guess” under her breath. Apparently, because Patience is psychic she’s supposed to be omniscient. “So which is it?” Claire says. “Is he back with his ‘real’ owners or is he going to come home when he gets hungry?”

“Don’t be a jerk,” Patience says. “I’m here, aren’t I? I’m helping you.”

“... Yeah. You are,” Claire says, ducking her head. “Sorry.” Her eyes scan the road ahead, looking for the telltale streak of a cat darting out from under a parked car or vanishing around a tree trunk. Still nothing. “Hey, Patience the Pet Psychic,” Claire says. “You should write that down, that’d be a great children’s book.”

“Very funny,” Patience says, rolling her eyes. She’s silent for a few moments and then says, “Cla-aire the Monster Slayer.”

“That doesn’t really rhyme.”

“Sure it does.”

When the sky darkens and the streetlights flick on, Claire drives them back to the house, Bub-less and dejected. “I’m sure he’s fine,” Patience tries.

Claire bunches her shoulders, the collar of her leather jacket looking like a cat’s raised hackles. Maybe, Patience thinks, that’s the connection— Claire in many ways resembles an angry cat. She and Bub might be kindred spirits.

“I’m just tired,” Claire says, yanking the keys out of the ignition. “We’ll try again tomorrow.”

Patience considers pointing out that Claire could at least ask instead of just assuming , considers reminding Claire that she has her own life outside of playing “pet psychic.”

But she doesn’t actually have anything to do tomorrow. Or the rest of the week. And as futile as it feels riding around looking for a runaway cat, it is something to do. And it makes Claire feel better.

And… straining her psychic muscles to pick up on any trace of the old tomcat is at least better than doing nothing and letting her abilities degrade. Over the last year, she’s been trying to find ways to train her brain, shape her psychic visions into something useful.

Jody’s supportive, but she, like most people, doesn’t know anything about being psychic. Kaia’s got a fraught relationship with her own special skills and usually chooses not to talk to Patience about seeing the future, and Alex is so entrenched in nursing and hunting that the few “normal” moments she gets at home are devoted to unwinding and relaxing.

Which makes Claire Patience’s most ardent supporter in developing her psychic abilities. A very grouchy, blonde and mostly clueless Yoda. What she lacks in background knowledge she makes up for in persistence.

“Hey, Patience, guess which hand?” Claire will ask, holding the last fortune cookie behind her back. “Hey, Patience, what number am I thinking of?” Claire will ask, perched on the arm of the couch. “Hey, Patience, heads or tails?” Claire will ask, flipping a coin to catch it in midair.

That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of it works— Patience can’t predict things at will. Her psychic visions operate on a schedule of their own, with no concern for Patience’s own convenience or comfort. One minute, she’s watching shitty reality TV while Alex nods off on her shoulder. The next, she’s watching Jody narrowly avoid being bitten by a vampire.

It’s a lot different from just guessing a coin toss. Still. Patience can’t help but think that her grandma would’ve passed all of Claire’s little tests with flying colors.

That night, Patience doesn’t dream about anything— at least, not anything useful. She has an anxiety dream about being lost in Aldi, roaming the aisles with increasing frustration. But nothing about the future. Nothing about Bub the cat.

She’s pouring herself a bowl of cereal when Claire stomps inside, the porch door swinging shut behind her. “Still gone,” she says darkly, grabbing the cereal box and her own bowl. “Food hasn’t been touched.”

“Claire,” Patience says, “why don’t we just go to the SPCA? You can get yourself a cat that’s not, you know—”

“What? Not damaged? Not a lost cause? Not hard to love?”

Whoa, Patience wants to say. “A cat that’s not missing ,” she finishes. “We can get him his shots and a collar and everything.”

“I don’t— I don’t just want some random cat,” Claire says. “I want to find Bub. I want… I want to find him and bring him home. I have to bring him home.”

“I know,” Patience says, and just like that she does . She does know.

She knows everything, feels everything, the aching loss in Claire’s bones that’s both recent and so, so old. Memories of Claire hitchhiking and stealing and conning her way through the country, desperately chasing a mother who was desperately chasing a dead man. Jimmy Novak’s voice in her head, his face seen through Claire’s eyes, Please, Castiel, take me. Just take me. Again, his forehead pressed to hers, Take care of your mom, okay, bub?

Bub.

Patience looks at Claire. Sees her, in a way she hasn’t been able to see anyone before. “Bub… ‘bub’ is what your dad used to call you.”

Claire squints at her. “Uh. Yeah,” she says. “Wait, I didn’t… I didn’t tell you that.”

“No,” Patience breathes, meeting her eyes across the kitchen, “you didn’t.”

Slowly, a grin spreads across Claire’s face. “Holy shit , Patience, you just… ? You just did that. You, like, read me.”

“I, uh, I didn’t know. That I could do that,” Patience says, caught between marveling at this new development and feeling self-conscious at intruding on Claire’s emotions and her past.

Claire doesn’t seem put off at all. She’s actually bouncing with excitement. “We gotta test this out. Oh my God. It’s like a whole new Pokemon evolution for you.”

“It’s not really. Like that. In any way.”

But Claire is already humming the Pokemon theme song. She grabs her car keys. “Alright, well, let’s go look for that cat. I’ve got a good feeling about today.”

“I read you, Claire, that doesn’t mean I can read the cat,” Patience reminds her.

“Yeah, yeah, but you can still help me look,” Claire says. “I don’t need your third eye, just the two on your face.”

“That’s… yeah, fine,” Patience acquiesces. To be honest, she’s buzzing with the knowledge of what she can do with her powers. If Claire’s happy to be her test subject, she’ll spend all day with the girl. “Just let me grab a coffee.”

“Ooh, me too. Wait!” She wiggles her fingers toward Patience. “Do you Know how I like my coffee?”

“Half-and-half. And enough sugar to kill you,” Patience reels off. “But that’s not because I’m psychic. I’ve just seen you fix yourself coffee before.”

“Y’know, I think the line between ‘psychic’ and ‘observant’ is thinner than you might think.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Patience says, and then pretends to stumble backward toward the table, overacting the part. “Oh, oh, I’m having a vision… I see you … making coffee for us…”

Claire rolls her eyes, but she dutifully sets her keys down and busies herself with getting the travel mugs out. “That’s not gonna work for everything, you know.”

“Aaah I see you bringing Jody’s suit to the dry cleaners next week. I also see you driving me to the science museum.”

“Hilarious.”

Patience smiles at her. It’s nice to have someone else get excited about her powers. It’s nice to be allowed to be excited about this, to learn a new skill and have it mean something good to someone besides herself. She doesn’t feel like a freak or a failure. She just feels… like a psychic.

She feels like her grandma would be proud.

[dannyboyzone]

Samuel Seo has BPD and I will explain to you why I think so.

So, before I start this off; Having BPD does not mean you are immediately a bad person. Having any mental illness doesn’t mean you are a bad person. This post is not to generalise everyone with BPD, it’s something I have of Samuel as a headcanon. Not everyone with BPD acts the same. Having BPD is not something you should shame anyone for, they don’t choose to act the way they do.

Keep in mind, Samuel isn’t only traumas and angst, he has many beautiful sides to himself I just enjoy studying him and his behaviour. I myself and around 5-8 of my friends have BPD too, I do not speak without a base.

So, let’s get into it. ↴

To start this off - a second time - let’s talk about the cause of BPD. What makes someone develop it.

Professionals aren’t completely sure about the cause, so I will speak from personal experiences from different situations I have encountered before. I and some of my friends have BPD, I am not just making blind assumptions.

As I noticed, BPD develops in early childhood, most likely before the ages of 14-18. It could probably develop in later days too.

What makes someone have BPD is genetics, psychical or sexual abuse in early childhood, separation from a parent or both, a very neglectful parent.

Now, we don’t know about Samuel’s genetic status but we do know that he didn’t have a father and his mother constantly beat him, to a point his eyes got swollen. Samuel was also very neglected by her, and bullied by the kids in his neighborhood.

- From chapter 312 -

Text that got cut off; My mom always go angry when I brought him up.

Not all traumatised people are the same, but I think it’s obvious that Samuel definitely is. - Which I have stated before in a previous post. - It really is not his fault though, so please don’t hate him for that.

Now, BPD is a disorder having to do with emotions, not personality.

I will go a little more in depth with this.

People with BPD have a ‘different’ kind of brain than usual. Parts of the brain are smaller or have a higher activity level than an avarage humans, such as the amygdala which help to regulate emotions such as anxiety, fear and aggression. The hippocampus which helps regulate behaviour and self control. The orbitofrontal cortex which involve in decisions making. In other words; BPD is a disability.

People with BPD can control their emotions and actions if they get help and/or they are in a healthy environment. Samuel isn't supported by anyone neither he is in a healthy environment. Meaning, his symptoms are more serious.

BPD has many symptoms and you have to meet at least 5. Samuel does meet at least 5 symptoms.

1 Chronic feeling of emptiness

2 Explosive anger

3 Emotions changing rather quickly, mostly anxiety, shame and anger.

4 Dangerous acts such as unsafe sex, drinking, smoking, reckless driving, spending sprees and anything of the sort.

5 Going out of lines to keep a relationship stable if insecure about it, also not understand where or when it had went wrong

+ his weird friendship with Alexander (?)

I am sure there are more things to add as proof, but I think this is enough.

Bpd looks different for everyone, but we all have similar symptoms. Samuel shows extreme symptoms though.

Aside from his heavy anger, what is the most obvious one is his special person.

Most of us have that, it's someone you love, but can't help but have bad thought towards if they trigger you. It can be but it's not necessarily a significant other. One could wish death for the person, or wish them to get hurt and think they mean it but they actually do not. They seek validation from the person, love, affection, approvement and for them to feel the same love, or at least half of it. The person is usually not someone "innocent" but someone that has caused harm. - For example, in my case, it's the person who abuses me. -

Can you guess who Samuel's special person is? Yup, you guessed right. It's Gun.

He seeks validation from him, thinks of him a lot, doesn't understand him, says he hates him but constantly wants his approval even if he has it from other people. He mass murdered just to hear, 'I acknowledge you' from him. Samuel has Gun as his special person, even if he doesn't realise it. Unless something major changes in his life, that won't stop.

His moods also shift incredibly easily, especially when it comes to anger or feeling excited. It's not the main damage in BPD, but it's what most people would notice.

His dangerous acts are looked at as bad habits, and the other's are pretty self explanatory.

I don't mean to make him look bad, or anything. I just notice that even though a lot of people lust over him, they also act very indifferent and judgmental towards him. I don't want anyone to worship him, or force anyone to love him, I just want people to understand him. ^^

Remember, he is not a monster, just someone who needs to fix himself because he had done many many bad things.

END

[wiseabsol]

Some Truth of the Divine speculation, now that I've finally gotten around to reading Lindsay Ellis' Axiom's End and had a blast with it. Seriously, it's the most fun I've had in a while (I stayed up until 4am reading it), and at certain points I put the book down and went, "Oh. Oh no. Ellis knows EXACTLY what I'm weak for. Please send help."

So here are an assortment of thoughts on what might be in book two:

- We know that Cora and Kaveh will be point of view characters for book two, with possibly a third pov. I'm thinking that if we do get a third pov, it will be from Ampersand's last symphyle.

- I think Ampersand's last symphyle will be the "agent of chaos" mentioned in the blurb. I'm also wondering if this symphyle's arrival will kick off the discussion of what genders the amygdalines identify as.

- I also wonder if Cora will gel with this last symphyle, kicking off an on-page poly relationship between Cora, Ampersand, and the last symphyle. Poly relationships do appear to be the cultural norm for amygdalines.

- Alternatively, maybe the last symphyle is doing poorly from losing all of their group except for Ampersand, and is in full lashing out and causing chaos mode. I definitely don't want a repeat of Obelus--because then you really have to wonder how healthy Ampersand's original group was--but the blurb for Truth of the Divine seems to suggest that this new arrival makes the tense situation on Earth much worse.

- Nils is unfortunately probably going to appear in the book and be a charming, manipulative jerkass to Cora, because of course he's going to try to take advantage of her role as an interpreter for Ampersand. On the plus side, I cannot wait for Ampersand to realize how much Nils is hurting Cora, because then he can fulfill the protective monster boyfriend role. It is always delicious, even if I think Ampersand will go a little far with it (there will probably be some blood. I am a bad person and would be okay with this).

- "While asking the question of what constitutes a 'person,' Ellis also examines what makes a monster." So yeah, the monster or monsters in this will probably be humans behaving badly, rather than amygdalines. The blurb mentions hate groups, after all. One of these monsters will also probably be Nils, because he's already been set up as a villain with great PR (and sometimes a point). Also, don't think I don't see that line as a reference to Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Ellis.

- Cora and Ampersand are most likely going to have sex in this book. According to Ellis, there will be smut, but it's not like what we're imagining. I'm wondering if it's not like what we're imagining because it will involve more people than just them? Maybe Cora hooks up with someone and Ampersand is psychically there and possibly experiencing sexual pleasure for the first time? Maybe Ampersand's and his symphyle have the psychic equivalent of a steamy reunion and Cora gets some feedback from that?

- Okay though, so it's supposed to be a darker book. Let's say that Cora and Ampersand do get it on, and Ampersand is experiencing sexual pleasure for the first time through their psychic bond (since that isn't a Thing for amygdalines). Would he get a bit...intense about that? Seek it out multiple times? He's a traumatized adult in the middle of grieving the loss of yet another symphyle, and he WANTS to be close to Cora, and who knows how that psychic bond is going to grow between them (I feel like there are hints that Cora could learn high language someday, it'll just be something that develops over time). So what if that is going on, and maybe they're not as careful with it as they should be, and they get caught on a recording? Which someone, probably Nils, then leaks? The backlash from it on all sides--because I don't get the sense that the amygdalines would be cool with it any more than the humans would--would cause a lot of drama and pain that would need to be dealt with. Also, that would be the ultimate violation from Nils. Do I want it to happen? Definitely not. Could I easily see it happening, given how under surveillance the amygdalines are and how leaky the information about them is? Unfortunately, yes.

- "Questionable use of non-human anatomy" will probably be Ampersand shapeshifting his fingers into...some other things. Given that he's a nervous system encased in a dragon-shaped mechanical body, he will need to get creative to make things work.

- I live in fear of what secrets Ampersand is keeping and what he lied about in the first book. What are his "machinations" that no one was meant to see?

- Is Cora going to call Ampersand out for not asking her if it was okay to fusion bond with her? I'm unclear on how that happened without her consent. Also, the implication that an amygdaline can form a fusion bond with someone whenever, without them knowing about it or needing to accept the invite into their headspace, makes me worried about amygdaline society (unless that was just how it worked with Cora?). I have a feeling that a part of why Ampersand told her to keep their bond a secret wasn't just because it could put them both in danger, but because it's probably something that would be illegal to do in amygdaline society.

- Ampersand is going to have to learn how to not be such a control freak in this book, as Obelus implied he would be. The whole idea that cultural assimilation/fusion isn't possible, only cultural conquest, will also need to be challenged.

- The Genome's body being taken away will come back in a horrifying way, maybe with some cloning.

- Will Ampersand find the people whose brains he damaged and fix them? If he does, I'll bet it's because he doesn't want Cora to be mad at him, rather than from genuine remorse.

- Felix is totally going to run away with Nils and that is going to backfire 100%.

- I hope Esperas has a Pet the Dog moment with Cora, maybe while literally petting her dogs. I could really see him empathizing with Cora over how much of a jerk Ampersand is being.

- Maybe we'll learn how Nils got the Fremda Memo and what Luciana had to do with it.

[tigerkirby215]

5e Katarina, the Sinister Blade build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games. In b4 Tumblr gives me ToS for this picture.)

In my defense I had this build planned since pre-Tasha’s. With Katarina being absolutely nuts in preseason right now along with her just generally being one of League’s most popular champs I’d have to get around to making a build for her eventually.

Look it was either her or Zac. The only other build I really want to do right now is Miss Fortune and truthfully I’m kinda stumped on her. This build isn’t a build it’s a cry for help.

GOALS

Preparation - We’ll need to always be ready for a fight, with a weapon in hand and ways to rush in.

Shunpo - We’ll also need a way to jump on our foes, or jump away.

Death Lotus - When push comes to shove we’ll need to shred through everyone close by spinning and throwing daggers at a rapid pace!

RACE

Katarina is a human but with some special, magical talents. I’m sure by now people know my aversion to Variant Humans and my love of Eberron Dragonmarks so the Mark of Finding is perfect for finding marks and ending them.

With the Mark of Finding you get some Ability Score Improvements but thanks to Tasha’s we can get a +2 to our Intelligence and a +1 to our Dexterity. You also have Darkvision up to 60 feet, and Hunter’s Intuition, letting you add a d4 to Perception and Survival checks. Finally Finder’s Magic giving you some innate spells.

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - You’re an assassin who hops, skips, and jumps around the battlefield.

14; INTELLIGENCE - For whatever reason Katerina does AP damage? I mean she did. Now she builds Kraken Slayer because lol Rito balance.

13; CHARISMA - People don’t only main you because you’re strong.

12; WISDOM - Kata in lore is a bit of a hot-head but Wisdom is attached to many skills that an assassin needs.

10; CONSTITUTION - You’re a squishy midlaner.

8; STRENGTH - We simply don’t need Strength and with your build I doubt you have much. Even if jumping around like that requires a lot of muscles in the legs and chest.

BACKGROUND

So apparently Katerina is part of a Noxian Noble family? Regardless as a Noble you gain proficiency in History but I’d suggest swapping your Persuasion proficiency with Intimidation instead. You also get proficiency with a gaming set and a language of your choice.

Thanks to your noble birth you have a Position of Privilege, meaning that other nobles will welcome you within their circles and common folk will do their best to please you in order to avoid getting a dagger in their throat. You can even secure an audience with a noble if you need to! Perhaps you need to put a knife in their throat? An assassin doesn’t ask questions.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ROGUE 1

Starting off as a Rogue for skill proficiencies also because yeah duh. As a Rogue you get proficiency in four skills from the Rogue list: Acrobatics is an obvious choice, Athletics will help your poor Strength score, Perception will help you spot incoming hooded assassins, and Stealth will let you do Rogue things. Rogue things like Sneak Attack if an ally is near an enemy or you have advantage, granting you an extra d6 on the attack roll.

You also get Expertise in two of your skills: both Stealth and Acrobatics make sense for an assassin. Speaking of assassin Thieves’ Cant will let you communicate with them in a way that your enemies can’t understand. And to top it off Finder’s Magic you can cast Hunter’s Mark once per Long Rest. Smite and Ignite to get First Blood.

LEVEL 2 - ROGUE 2

Second level Rogues get Cunning Action to Dash, Disengage, or Hide as a Bonus Action. "Never play fair."

LEVEL 3 - ROGUE 3

Third level Rogues get to choose their Roguish Archetype and there’s two important things about your knives:

They do magic damage (for some reason.)

You throw them a lot.

With that in mind we shall be going for the Soulknife from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. As a Soulknife you get Psionic Power for a pool of d6 Psionic Energy die that can be used for a variety of features. Psi-Bolstered Knack will let you boost your ability checks as long as you’re proficient, and Psychic Whispers will let you keep assassination plans to team chat.

Of course what we’re really here for is Psychic Blades, a magic d6 psychic damage knife that you can make when you attack which can be dual-wielded and thrown up to 60 feet. You can also attack again with your Bonus Action if you already stabbed with your main action, but the extra attack will only do a d4 instead of a d6.

Speaking of magic: you also get Locate Object from Finder’s Magic. Perhaps not as useful as Find Person, but thievery isn’t beneath you. Your Sneak Attack also increases to 2d6.

LEVEL 4 - ROGUE 4

4th level Rogues get an Ability Score Improvement: turns out Dexterity is pretty important for a Rogue so increase that by 2.

(Artwork by Jennifer Wuestling. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 5 - WIZARD 1

Time for an AP boost. First level Wizards get Spellcasting because what else did you think they got? You learn three cantrips and six leveled spells when starting out as a Wizard, even if you can only prepare a number of spells equal to your Wizard level plus your Intelligence modifier:

CANTRIPS

Instead of making a dinky d4 knife empower it with Booming Blade for some Thunder damage, and even more damage if the enemy moves.

To twirl around with Voracity Sword Burst will strike everyone near one of your daggers with your knives.

For a long ranged damage tool that inflicts Grievous Wounds Chill Touch will let you make sure your lane opponent doesn’t run away and heal up.

SPELLS

Mage Armor will help you avoid a few more hits.

For a Bouncing Blade (sorta) take Ice Knife to hit your target and anyone close to them.

For a shield thanks to Gunblade (like it’s TFT) take False Life to bolster yourself somewhat.

Disguise Self will be helpful for any infiltration missions.

Detect Magic likewise is useful to locate any magical traps.

Every good Rogue has a backup plan: Feather Fall is always useful in a pinch.

You also get Arcane Recovery, allowing you to recover spell slots with a combined total level of half your Wizard level.

LEVEL 6 - WIZARD 2

Second level Wizards get to choose their Arcane Tradition. There is actually a school for magic knives and that school is the art of Bladesinging! As a Bladesinger you get Training in War and Song for proficiency in Performance along with a one-handed melee weapon of your choice: for whatever reason Rogues don’t get proficiency in Scimitars so grab that I guess?

But much more importantly you can invoke a Bladesong as a Bonus Action, which lasts for 1 minute but ends early if you are incapacitated. (Or if you don medium or heavy armor or a shield, or if you use two hands to make an attack with a weapon. I guess.) You can also dismiss the Bladesong at any time with no action required.

While your Bladesong is active you gain a bonus to your AC equal to your Intelligence modifier, your walking speed increases by 10 feet, you have advantage on Acrobatics checks, and you gain a bonus to Concentration checks equal to your Intelligence modifier. You can activate Bladesong a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.

You can also learn more spells like Color Spray for a getaway option, or Cause Fear of incoming ganks.

LEVEL 7 - WIZARD 3

Third level Wizards can learn second level spells like Mirror Image to be everywhere at once, and Misty Step for legally not Flash.

LEVEL 8 - WIZARD 4

4th level Wizards get an Ability Score Improvement: more Dexterity means more AC and deadlier stabs with your knife.

You can also learn more spells like Invisibility for some Duskblade resets, and Enhance Ability (ty Tasha’s) to make sure you’re the best around. And you can learn another cantrip like Prestidigitation for some generic utility sorcery.

LEVEL 9 - WIZARD 5

5th level Wizards can learn third level spells like Haste to up your APM, and Spirit Shroud to make all your stabs all the deadlier.

LEVEL 10 - WIZARD 6

At 6th level you get an Extra Attack as a Bladesinger, but unlike most Extra Attacks you can also cast a cantrip along with attacking! The interesting thing about this is that (rules as written) you can attack twice after casting Booming Blade with this! And depending on your DM you might even still have your Cunning Action!

And on the subject of spells you can learn two more such as Clairvoyance for some Farsight Alterations, and Nondetection to... not be detected...

(Artwork by Atey Ghailan. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 11 - ROGUE 5

5th level Rogues get Uncanny Dodge. When you’re hit with an attack you can use your reaction to halve the damage. Additionally your Psionic Energy die increases to a d8, and your Sneak Attack increases to 3d6.

LEVEL 12 - ROGUE 6

6th level Rogues get Expertise in two more skills: Perception will help you avoid ganks and Intimidation will help you extract information.

LEVEL 13 - ROGUE 7

7th level Rogues get Evasion. If you’re forced to make a Dexterity save you can make some pro plays to dodge, taking no damage on a successful save and half damage on a failed save.

Your Sneak Attack also increases to 4d6, so you can jump onto them after dodging their skill shot.

LEVEL 14 - ROGUE 8

8th level Rogues get another Ability Score Improvement: since your Dexterity is maxed let’s invest in that Intelligence... sorta. The Observant feat will let you increase your Intelligence by 1 along with granting a +5 bonus to passive Perception and Investigation so you can watch those wards, and the ability to read lips! Definitely helpful for an assassin.

(Artwork by Katie “TeaTime” De Sousa. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 15 - ROGUE 9

Hey how about we get your actual abilities at total level 15? Finally with level 9 in Soul KInife you get Soul Blades for two new abilities that use your Psionic Energy die. Homing Strikes will let you add your Psionic Energy die to an attack roll if you miss, and Psychic Teleportation will let you throw out a knife and teleport to it!

Something something read how the ability works yourself because these are guides on how to make a character and I won’t tell you what every class in Tasha’s does. Oh your Sneak Attack also increases to 5d6 now.

LEVEL 16 - WIZARD 7

7th level Wizards get 4th level spells like Phantasmal Killer to make your own jungler (one who’ll actually gank!), and Dimension Door to Teleport into lane. Or out!

LEVEL 17 - WIZARD 8

Level 8? How about an ASI? You may notice that we have two uneven ability scores: increase both your Intelligence and Charisma by 1.

You can also learn more spells but there honestly isn’t much I want from fourth level so hop back to level 3 for Sending. But you can also take Greater Invisibility for some Duskblade resets. Look I just really need a 5th level spell but it’s hard to justify magic on a champion who throws knives and nothing else.

LEVEL 18 - WIZARD 9

Time to finally get the last ability we’re missing: Death Lotus. Or more precisely Steel Wind Strike to hit everyone with your daggers and then maybe Shunpo to them after the fact. Speaking of Shunpo for seemingly unlimited jumps take Far Step, allowing you to be everywhere at once. Just know that you’ll only have one 5th level slot.

(Artwork by Esben Lash Rasmussen. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 19 - ROGUE 10

Picking up our last two levels in Rogue: level 10 means another ASI. Capped off Intelligence woo!

LEVEL 20 - ROGUE 11

11th level Rogues get Reliable Talent, meaning that you can’t roll below a 10 on any skill you’re proficient in. As a capstone skill let’s check what the minimum roll you can get on your skills is:

27 on Acrobatics and Stealth

24 on Intimidation

23 on Perception

21 on History

18 on Performance (Bladesinger lul)

15 on Athletics

And to top it off your Psionic Energy die increases to a d10, along with your Sneak Attack capping off at 6d6!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

They fear my weapons? I am the weapon - Regardless of your choice of tools you are extremely deadly. On one hand 6d6 sneak attack daggers you can apply 3d8 Booming Blade damage to, and on the other hand plenty of potent spells like Haste and Spirit Shroud.

If you run, you won't see me stab you! - You are also incredibly mobile with Misty Step, Far Step, Psychic Teleportation, Bladesong, and just general Cunning Actions. Not to mention that Bladesong gives a big boost to AC which combines well with Uncanny Dodge and Evasion.

A victory is sweetest when it leads to another - Rogues are meant to be skilled professionals and you are certainly that. The skills you are proficient in can be boosted by psionics. Oh and 28 Passive Perception thanks to Observant is just a little bit nutty.

CONS

Ready for trouble? - While you have many a skill you have many more that are lacking. You can put on a mean face sure, but for an important check like Arcana your psionic potential won’t save you.

Better dead than dull - Your spell slots are limited, and quite notably you only have one 5th level slot for Death Lotus IE Steel Wind Strike. While magic can supplement you nicely remember to ration yourself appropriately.

Come on, live a little... while you can! - You know what class doesn’t have a lot of health? Wizards, and half your levels are in Wizard. With a 10 in CON and most of your hit die being d6s your enemies won’t even need to hit you to Power Word Kill you.

But as an assassin you prove why your house is the best in the business. Talk is cheap and you’re always prepared: go in with knives at the ready, take out your target and anyone in their way before slipping out unscathed. You can always reset after a rest; just be sure to remember your cooldowns.

(Artwork by West Studios. Made for Riot Games.)

[riversofmars]

Thank you so much for your lovely comments and encouragement. I honestly didn't expect such a huge response to an opening chapter so I'm absolutely thrilled to have you all along for the ride <3

Chapter 2: The World’s Turned Upside Down

The Library, 52nd Century

River closed the door to the kids bedroom - alone for the first time since the Doctor had saved her to the Library core - and she finally allowed her composure to slip. She pressed her hand to her mouth and swallowed a sob, afraid the kids might hear. She had been proud of herself for staying strong all the way through her final adventure. The moment the young Doctor had turned up  instead of the one her message had been meant to reach, she had realised things would not go according to plan. For the Doctor, it had been the first time they had met. He hadn’t known her yet so she couldn’t tell him why she was really at the Library as she had intended. She also hadn’t been able to take comfort in seeing him though she had so badly needed to. Looking at the Doctor and having him not recognise her was a most cruel trick of fate after everything she’d been through.

At the time, threatened by the deadly shadows of the Vashta Nerada, she had kept her focus on the task at hand: carry out the mission, get access to the Library, get her answers once everything was wrapped up. She had decided she could always fill her Doctor in later; but she hadn’t anticipated this might be a one way trip. When it got to it, when things had fallen into place and she had finally understood how her life had always lead up to this, it had been far too late. Things had been beyond her control. She had to sacrifice her future to ensure her past. The truth of it was only sinking in now that she had space and time to think about it.

River cradled her diary to her chest as she made her way down the corridor to the living room. She dropped onto the sofa and buried her face in her hands as she started to cry; for herself, for her future, for her family. Suddenly, the Doctor’s sorrow at her leaving Darillium made so much more sense. He had known that she wouldn’t return but he hadn’t been able to tell her. Rationally, she knew he couldn’t have told her about her fate, but her sadness gave way to anger regardless. If she had known, she would have made different choices. It wasn’t her own fate she was angry about. As for as dying went, this wasn’t so bad: she was safe, immortal even. Though she was trapped, it beat dying properly. Had she known what was to come, she would not have kept secrets from her husband the way she had.

River trusted Vastra, Jenny and Strax to keep her son safe, and eventually, surely, they would contact the Doctor when they realised she wouldn’t return. He would be angry with her for keeping her secret and rightfully so. But eventually, hopefully, he would forgive her and raise their son. They would be together: Her family. River, however, would never be able to hold her child again. The realisation overwhelmed her and she struggled to breath, her sobs catching in her throat.

Alone with her own thoughts, River allowed herself a moment of weakness; she was dead after all. She could rest from being the strong, self-assured woman she had had to be all her life.

River couldn’t be sure how long it had been when she ran out of tears to cry. She just sat for a while, staring into space that she knew was nothing but strings of numbers. She had been saved to the greatest hard drive in history, everything around her was pure data and so was she.

A realisation came to her like a flash of lightning and she jumped to her feet: She was where she had meant to end up. Quickly, River made her way to the bookshelf on the other side of the room. She was in the biggest Library in the universe with all its knowledge at her disposal. Just because she was dead didn’t mean the forces threatening her husband and child had disappeared.

A new kind of determination gripped her and she pulled book after book from a shelf, that responded to her thoughts of what she was looking for. This was just another stop. Her Doctor was out there still and sooner or later, he would need her help and come looking for her. She wasn’t going to be empty handed when he arrived.

——

London, Late 19th Century

“Jenny!“ Vastra rushed to her wife’s side while the Doctor remained rooted to the spot, trying to work out what was going on.

“Doctor?“ Yaz asked, awaiting some sort of instruction or at least a reaction from her but she didn’t get one. So she hurried to the other unconscious figure. She didn’t recognise what species he was but he seemed to be breathing. They had probably been stunned, Yaz concluded, as there was no blood or other marks of force on their bodies. She took pride in her constantly improving observational skills. This was far better police training than her probationary work ever had been. She looked up to the Doctor who was still staring at the cot, holding on to a stitched piece of cloth. “Are you okay?“ Yaz asked, unsettled by the distinct lack of reaction on her friend’s part.

“Vastra, what is going on here?“ The Doctor’s voice was hollow when she finally spoke. All manner of thoughts were running through her mind but the most obvious explanation couldn’t possibly be true. She tightened her grip around the prayer leaf.

“Doctor, I will explain but first…“ Vastra had pulled Jenny up against herself and pressed a kiss to her forehead, as she tried to gently shake her awake.

“No, explain NOW!“ The Doctor yelled, losing her temper for one terrifying moment that made Vastra and Yaz jump.

“Doctor, let’s look after these people first.“ Yaz stood quickly and placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder, bewildered at the uncharacteristic outburst. The flash of fear across the lizard woman’s face shook her. It was an unwelcome reminder that the Doctor had changed in the nineteen years of prison. Something was weighing her down. They had seen flashes of it in their fight against the Daleks but there had been no opportunity to address it at the time. Now, it became painfully obvious that something was wrong with her. A deep anger had taken root and was bubbling to the surface.

“This doesn’t concern you, Yaz.“ The Doctor bit back and shrugged her hand away. She used her sonic to scan the cot for clues before turning back to Vastra. “Who’s baby was sleeping in that cot?“ She pressed through gritted teeth and Vastra couldn’t bring herself to speak, her throat closing up with sorrow. They had failed the Doctor and River.

“Vastra…“ Jenny mumbled, drawing her attention as she came round slowly. “Someone came… the baby, is the baby okay?“ She asked, her voice weak. Vastra couldn’t answer her wife, she just looked up to the Doctor.

“Doctor, we are so sorry…“ She croaked, her voice full of guilt.

“Doctor?“ Yaz watched and wasn’t following.

“So it worked, the emergency beacon…“ Jenny mumbled, still in a haze. She looked to the Doctor and recognised them from the age of her eyes and the sorrow she found there. A new face was of no consequence.

“You triggered it?“ The Doctor asked.

“Professor Song left it… But we expected you to be…“ Vastra tried to explain that she wasn’t the Doctor they had expected. She was so much older and it only made it harder. She couldn’t bare to think just how long ago Darillium was for the Doctor at this point.

“Where is she? Where is River? Who’s baby is it?“ The Doctor tried her best to keep her voice steady. She needed confirmation. It was so glaringly obvious but also too impossible to believe. How could River have kept this from her?

“Does it really need saying?“ Vastra voice broke and the so did the Doctor’s hearts.

The Doctor hurried down the stairs, she needed space. She couldn’t face the others and she couldn’t keep looking at the empty cot. She tightened her grip around the prayer leaf, her knuckles turning white. She took two steps at a time, running like the devil was on her heels. This was too big, too painful to face and so she ran - until the brittle stairs gave way under her heavy steps and she put her foot through them, crashing through the bottom half of the staircase.

“Oh my God, Doctor!“ Yaz hurried after her, careful not to cause any more damage. She reached under her arms and pulled her up. “Doctor, what’s going on?“ Yaz was at a complete loss, she had never seen the Doctor react like this, not even when they were dealing with the Master. There was genuinely panic and fear in her eyes. The Doctor pulled away from Yaz without a word.

“Doctor.“ Vastra appeared on the landing above and the Doctor’s eyes snapped up to her. “Please don’t run away from this.“ The detective pleaded.

“Don’t talk to me right now!“ The Doctor yelled with anger the likes of which Yaz had never seen. “You don’t get to talk to me right now!“ She struggled down the rest of the stairs without looking back.

“Doctor!“ Yaz called after her as she just carried on, darting to the front door.

“Give her a moment…“ Vastra realised there was no point in trying to stop her, she needed a moment to herself and that was the least they could give her. “In the meantime, would you mind helping me with the others?“

The Doctor slammed the doors of the TARDIS and received a scolding hum for her actions. She ignored it and dropped onto on of the steps in the console room. There she unfolded the prayer leaf again, holding it close as her vision blurred with tears. The TARDIS gave a concerned hum but the Doctor couldn’t speak to answer. She knew the TARDIS understood, their psychic link was stronger than words and the Doctor couldn’t bring herself to phrase everything she was feeling.

She thought back to the last time she had seen River. They had watched the sunrise on Darillium after twenty-four wonderful years there, and then, she had left. River hadn’t been able to keep her promise of return as the Doctor had already known at the time. The Doctor had waited regardless and had set the table for breakfast on the balcony on the off-chance River had managed to trick fate. It had been a long, lonely wait. Eventually the Doctor had busied themselves by fixing up a new body for Nardole when the loneliness was getting too much. For many sleep cycles they’d brought breakfast back to an empty room, setting it on the balcony again and again. The Doctor even did on the day they left Darillium for good and headed to New York to try and clear up the time distortions. It would have been a first step to visiting the Ponds for some comfort after losing their daughter for good, but it had never played out like that.

The Doctor took a deep breath as she considered what River had done after Darillium and before going to the Library. Was this it? Or where they in fact even earlier in her timeline and River had just never told her that the had had a child? Both options were far too painful to contemplate. She was already reeling from imprisonment, the destruction of Gallifrey and learning about the gaps in her past. How was she to cope with this? Her world had turned upside down, inside out, more time than she could count but this was different. How was she to do this without River to rely upon.

“Here we go.“ Yaz helped Strax sit up on a chair in the mostly untouched drawing room.

“I don’t require human assistance.“ The Sonatan protested but Vastra shushed him as she helped Jenny to the sofa.

“That’s quite enough of that Strax, we need to make sure you’re both uninjured.“ The lady of the house stated firmly. Jenny, however, was more concerned with her wife’s wellbeing.

“We’re fine. They only stunned us, but what about you?“ She asked as she reached out and touched her fingertips to Vastra’s cheek brushing off dried scales. Yaz watched the tender gestured as she learned more about the Doctor’s friends. “Your skin appears to be…“

Vastra straightened herself up and rubbed her face to find herself shedding more scales.

“It appears the blast of whatever that bomb was aged me…“ She observed, witnessing the sped up effects of her amphibian skin renewing itself. “Not to worry, dear, I still have a lot of life left in me, perhaps our life spans are more aligned now.“ She gave her a soft smile and her hand a squeeze.

“So you are the Doctor’s friends?“ Yaz spoke up at last as it seemed they had all recovered from the attack they had been subjected to.

“Old friends, yes. By the look of them, it has been a long time indeed…“ Vastra commented with an apologetic smile. They didn’t mean to keep the Doctor’s young friend in the dark but she had to see to Jenny and Strax first.

“So you knew her before she changed?“ Yaz concluded. She had met a few people from the Doctor’s past now, Jack, the Master… she was eager to learn how these three fit in.

“First a young man with floppy hair, then the old Scot…“ Jenny recalled and Vastra finished the sentence for her:

“Now a pretty blonde.“

“Oi!“ Jenny gave her wife’s arm a slap, feeling a lot more like herself now. The after-effects from the stun blast were wearing off.

“Pretty?“ Strax interjected confused. “He looks the same as ever.“ The three women paid no heed to him.

“So when you called for her, you expected her to be a younger self?“ Yaz concluded. Time travel was confusing but she was getting the hang of it.

“Indeed.“ Vastra nodded.

“So what happened here? Who attacked you?“ Yaz pressed on. A child had been abducted so surely, time was of the essence. “And what about the baby?“ She carried on as she looked into deeply unsettled faces. “Who’s is it?“  

“It’s mine.“ The Doctor’s voice made them all jump.

“Doctor, we’re so…“ Jenny attempted to get to her feet. She wanted to apologise, plead for forgiveness as they had failed her, but Vastra gently pushed her back to sit down.

“What?“ Yaz frowned, confused as she watched her friend walk into her room. She looked a lot calmer than she had when she had stormed out of the house but her was expression remained grim. Yaz noticed she was still carrying the green cloth. Judging by the way she ran her fingers along the stitching, it had to bear some meaning to her.

“That’s right, isn’t it, Madame Vastra. River entrusted our child to you.“ The Doctor concluded looking to Vastra accusingly.

“You have a child?“ Yaz was stunned. She looked around the room, into grim but knowing faces, and found that she was the odd one out.  

“I didn’t know, my wife never told me.“ The Doctor answered without looking to her young friend, she kept her focus on the Silurian, excepting an explanation. Yaz was only getting more confused. This was the first time she had heard the Doctor mention a wife. She had so many question but she realised now was not the right time to ask.

“She was pregnant when she left Darillium. She couldn’t return and had to have the child by herself. Then she entrusted him to us before going to the Library.“ Vastra kept her voice calms as she explained, keeping her answer brief.

“Why would she do that?“ The Doctor snapped. Just because she had already assumed as much didn’t mean she understood it.

“She was trying to keep you safe, keep all of you safe.“ Vastra carried on. She couldn’t presume to know the Professor’s mind but she knew what she had told her and what she had read in the notes she had left behind.

“It’s not really worked out that way, has it.“ The Doctor shot back, upset.

“Strax, how about some tea?“ Jenny looked to Strax, hoping to calm the situation before it could escalate again.

“I was quite enjoying being in the line of fire once again.“ The Sontaran retorted but Jenny’s expression left no room for discussion.

The interruption as they left for the kitchen was enough to calm the Doctor for the time being. She kept her eyes on Vastra, her expression making quite clear how disappointed she was in them for having gone along with this.

“Who was it?“ The Doctor said at last. “Who took my child?“ The words echoed through the silent room, their meaning so poignant it made all their hearts ache. So soon after finding out, the Doctor had already accepted that this was her child, her family, they were talking about. And in the same sentence, she had already lost them. It was too painful to contemplate.

“I honestly don’t know.“ Vastra broke the silence at last. “It all happened very quickly. I was going to answer a knock on the door as Jenny and Strax were upstairs looking after the little one. An explosion happened and then you woke me up. I’m afraid that’s all I remember.“ She explain sorrowfully, begging forgiveness in every syllable.

“A chronon mine… that’s Time Lord technology.“ The Doctor said after briefly considering her words.

“I thought you said all the Time Lords are dead?“ Yaz asked, remembering the Doctor’s account of what happened on Gallifrey after they had left.

“They are. The Master killed them all.“ The Doctor nodded in agreement.

“Perhaps not all of them… at least that was your wife’s theory.“ Vastra said slowly and went to the bureau in the corner to retrieve the file River had left. “She left us with this, accounts of what she did since leaving Darillium.“

——

Sheffield, early 21st Century

“Feels weird, doesn’t it.“ Ryan Sinclair observed walking past by the apartment block Yaz’s family lived in. The spot where the TARDIS had been a welcome sight stood empty. The Doctor and Yaz had left a few days ago and the reality of them being out on adventure by themselves had yet to fully sink in.  

“Feels right though.“ Graham O’Brien placed his hand on his grandson’s shoulder as they turned and continued down the street. They had had wonderful adventures but it was time for both of them to carry on with their lives. There were things at home that needed fixing too, not just out in the universe. The most recent misadventure with the Daleks had proven as much.

“Shall we just nip round to the Chippy for tea?“ Ryan suggest when they reached home and he pushed his bike into the garage. The time up in the mountains practicing was starting to pay off. He knew his nan would be proud of his progress and the pride he saw reflected in Graham’s eyes was confirmation of that.

“Sounds good, just let me grab some cash.“ Graham grinned unlocking the front door. “I think I have a twenty in my other jacket…“ He turned into the lounge and jumped with a very undignified yelp. A woman was sitting on his sofa and greeted him with a smile. “Ryan?!“ He called out and his grandson joined him quickly.

“What the…!“ Ryan stared at the woman in shock. She was tall, blonde and altogether far too relaxed for sitting in someone else’s lounge as they returned. “How’d you get in here?“

“Apologies for startling you, Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Sinclair… I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in.“ The woman got to her feet. A empty cup in front of her indicated that she had been waiting a while and hadn’t been shy about helping herself to refreshments.

“We do mind, actually! Who are you?“ Graham tried his best to sound authoritative. Talking a good talk was half the battle, or so they had gathered from how the Doctor approached trouble.

“Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Chief Scientific Officer at UNIT.“ She extended her hand that neither of them took.

“UNIT?“ Ryan echoed with a frown.

“Rings a bell, doesn’t it.“ Graham sensed that they were both thinking the same thing.

“The Doctor might have mentioned us.“ Kate smiled and sat back down, gesturing for them to do the same. Graham and Ryan exchanged confused looks, not used to being told what to do in their own home. They were, however, relieved that the stranger didn’t seem to be here to kill them.

“You know the Doctor then?“ Graham’s relaxed a little as he sat in an armchair across from her.

“Yes that’s right, didn’t the Doctor try and contact you when we found that Dalek the first time round and you didn’t exist anymore, or something?“ The penny dropped for Ryan as well as he perched on the end of the sofa. He couldn’t quite keep the accusatory undertones out of his voice that he felt were justified. Only the UK would dismantle a useful agency in order to cut public spending. If the Kasavan hadn’t taught them a lesson, surely the Daleks would have now.  

“Yes. I’m afraid at the time, UNIT was not operational…“ Kate retorted pressing her lips to a thin line. Clearly the budget cuts were a sore subject for her as well.

“And where were you this time around, eh? Daleks all over the place, straight from the government, all them politicians involved in it, surely that’s the sort of thing you should have intervened in.“ Graham crossed his arms in front of his chest. They had done their very best researching the Daleks in the Doctor’s absence. If UNIT had been about, things surely would never have gotten as far as they did.

“I’m afraid we have had greater concerns to deal with.“ Kate revealed sounding regretful, yet matter-of-factly.

“Greater than an army of Daleks trying to conquer Earth?“ Ryan retorted with a huff and a laugh. He found that very hard to believe.

“With UNIT officially ceasing to exist, it has given us the opportunity to retreat into the shadows and work undetected. We couldn't risk revealing ourselves.“ She gave an apologetic smile. “You might not be aware of it yet but there are far greater forces at work on Earth right now than a rouge strain of Daleks.“

“Don’t like the sound of that…“ Ryan mumbled and Graham leaned forward in his chair:

“Have you spoken to the Doctor about this?“

“Not yet.“ Kate admitted. “Not until we know more. We can’t always rely on the Doctor, they have other things to concern themselves with. Rest assured we will reach out when the time is right. Until then… we are recruiting and Captain Harkness was kind enough to provide your address. Hence the house call.“

“Of course he did…“ Graham shook his head to himself at the mention of Jack Harkness.

“Recruiting for what?“ Ryan asked.

“Humanity’s last stand, should it come to it.“