#esper fiction

[esper-game]

Chapter One Rewrite

Hello everybody!!!! The rewrite for Chapter One is now playable here!

As always, errors and feedback can be submitted to this form! It's also fine to submit them here on Tumblr :)

Original Ch1 word count:

~14,300 words with code

Current Ch1 word count:

~21,100 words with code

~17,000 words without code

WHAT TO EXPECT:

basically the same things as the original

more information on the Triad

and on catalysts + primaries

more stats i am likely going to regret but oh well!

CHANGES TO NOTE:

I's surname has changed to Hoang*

There have been a few minor changes to the ROs

The option for 'default genders' of the ROs has been removed**

With the addition of choosing genders as you meet them.

*When I was initially creating the characters I didn't do enough research that's essentially the reason :)

**While initially it was there as a remnant of the sexuality linked RO genders I have grown to dislike the thought of the ROs being geared to one gender over another, or having a 'set' gender. I view all of them equally as any of their available genders.

That's all, enjoy!!! :)

[elsaedelweiss]

Helloween surprise weeks at the Esper Union

Esper Union's Grand Meeting Room

Discboom entered the room greeting Raven, Pritzker and Gaius. The trio of Hub Directors returned her greeting. Raven wordlessly pushed the tray of beverages towards her. Gratefully, Discboom reached out and poured herself a cup if black coffee. Boomboom, her ever-present companion, approached her. She smiled and gave him a sip.

"Won't that cause problems for your friend?" The four looked to the doorway. Q flew in, greeting the quartet. Behind him trailed Brynn who greeted the group with a salute and wave, Berenice who also saluted and waved, Sieg who saluted, and Drew who bowed. Each took a seat beside Discboom. Said young woman turned to Q. "It won't. He drinks the stuff every morning. Right Boomboom?"

"Absolutely!" Replied the small robot rippling its appendages.

Q smiled. "Ok. Just asking."

He turned to the Hub Directors. "Good Day! What is the cause for the gathering?"

"We will inform you once everyone has assembled! Be patient!" Replied Pritzker.

"Does Q even know what the meaning of that word is?"

Everyone turned. Arcana stood in the doorway, Mona, Tang Xuan, Li Ling and Lewis behind him. The young man's trademark smirk graced his lips. "After all, he's infamous for a lot of things including his paparazzi-level of impatience!"

"I can be patient Arcana!"

"Calm down Mr.Q!" Spoke up Drew. "Mr.Arcana is probably just toying with you as usual."

Arcana smiled. Q glared at him.

"Are you two ruffling each other's feathers again?"

The group turned. Falken strode in, the other three Commanders behind him. Donar and Gabrielle tried not to laugh. Li Xiao brought up the rear tail swaying in amusement.

"When hasn't he tried to ruffle feathers?" Asked Mona, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"Mona! That was harsh!" Cried in mock pain Arcana, mimicking a wound to the heart.

Mona almost rolled her eyes while Li Ling, Lewis, Donar and Tang Xuan barely held back laughter. "You've felt worse!" Replied the young man's squad mate.

"Touche!" He replied as he sat down.

"What's so funny?"

Once mire the group turned. Elliott, Geb, David, Bardon, and Heng Yue entered greeting everyone.

"Just Arcana up to his usual shenanigans," replied Donar with a wink.

"Still ruffling Q's feathers?" asked the Archivist and librarian.

"When haven't I?" Asked Arcana with a smirk.

"Indeed when haven't you?" Asked Ashley as she and the rest of the Union, including the newly requited Ife, entered and took their seats.

The Union's Sentinel turned her gaze to the Hub Directors. "I trust this has to do with the upcoming Helloween holiday?"

Raven smiled. "Indeed it does. As you all know that time of the year is fast approaching. Yet, we can't afford to go by the same ideas as last year as well as they went... For the most part."

"Hey! I couldn't have known Falken, Donar, Li Xiao, Gabrielle and Gaius would have reacted the way they did last year!" Spoke up Q.

"The group took a sip as per the rules of their Drinkalong Cosplay Fear School. On the screen Daniel, the player character and protagonist, used a drill. Falken cocked an eyebrow but said nothing. Next came the copper tube.

"What do you need that for?" Asked Gaius.

"Just watch!" Said Mona.

Then came the needle.

"This doesn't bode well..." Said Gabrielle, a sense of uneasiness twisting in her gut just as she and the others took a sip once more...

Sips that ended up on the screen of the console.

"What. The. F***!""

"That was just one such instance, Mr.Q!" Said Raven. "And I would appreciate it if you don't bring it up..."

"So what do you suggest we do this year, Ms. Raven?" Asked Discboom.

"Another playthough only without the nasty bits?"

"That would be banal."

"A Karaoke involving Helloween songs?" Suggested Geb.

"We already did that for Christmas."

"A masquerade, perhaps?" Offered Q.

"That's too stuffling."

"I know!" Offered Brynn. "Why not a blend of all ideas! We can each write a suggestion, add them to a bowl and whichever ones come out together or in quick succession we can mix them!"

"That sounds like an interesting idea!" Said Raven after some consideration.

"Plus everyone can enjoy something they like doing!" Added Pritzker.

"But... Who will be in charge of the selection process?" Asked Gaius.

"We can take turns!" Suggested Drew. "Each of us sticks their hands in the bowl and pull out a slip of paper. If they pull two or more they can mix them, if they pull one... They can choose which unoccupied ideas to blend from the ones pulled after or before them! That way it will be fair!"

"Good thinking as always Mr.Drew!" Approved Falken.

"Are all ok with this idea?" Asked Raven. "Raise your hands for yes!"

All hands shot up. "Ok then!"

"Brynn, Drew! You two are in charge of the bowl! Let me know at the end of the week about the idea combinations!"

Both Espers bowed. Raven turned to the others. "Everyone think about something you'd like to see as an implemented idea! You have the right to only one so choose carefully!"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"Meeting adjourned!"

Somewhere in the distance...

"This will be good!😈"

"Shall we keep tabs to see where we can do the most damage? 👹"

"You bet! 😈"

Even further away...

A young man gasped. "We can't let this happen! 😤"

"Cousin it's not like we can do much!"

"We can! We owe it to them! Let's not forget who helped you acquire those ratings even if you were the one to lead them by the nose..."

"What do you suggest we do?"

"Hmm..."

Happy Halloween 🎃! Hope you like the first part of a series dedicated to the holiday! Let me know how you would like me to continue the stories!

And a special shout out to @seharuuchan , @olliedislytereal @milky-rozen @latenightdislyte @moonhealing715 @lexa-hippb @chiakiirl @capital9 @dislyteconfessions @palettemonster! You guys rock! ;)

[nerdylilpeebee]

So, I have this story idea. This is basically the summary of what will be the start of the story. I'd love any feedback. :)

The story follows the Half-demon, half-mortal Daughter of Bee-lzebub, the Demon Prince of Gluttony. This daughter, named Thalia, is an Esper, due mainly to her demonic/human blood mix. At her current stage, she can move things with her mind (including herself, allowing herself to fly basically) and create and control fire to a small degree.

Thalia is the only daughter of her mortal mother, a rich aristocrat in the Telen Empire, one of the many countries on the Planet Sera (an alternate Earth, basically). She lives with her mother and their fairly large staff of servants in a mansion a few miles outside of the city of Jula, one of the largest cities in the Empire. She's basically a bit of a shut-in, having rarely left the mansion's grounds, spending most of her time engrossed in books and researching the various artefacts her mother purchases to satisfy both her and Thalia's, well, gluttonous desire for forbidden knowledge. Particularly around demons.

One day, her Mother returns with an Urn. An artefact she claims Thalia's father had delivered to them. This immediately catches Thalia's interest and she gets to work researching the Urn. However, she doesn't find much about it. Too curious to stop tho, she decides to remove the Urn from the case it was delivered in, in order to see what might be inside. Upon touching the urn, her mind is immediately assaulted by images, Memories and information. So fast and so numerous she barely perceives them, and nearly falls unconscious.

Once she recovers from the daze this puts her in, she realizes she's still holding the Urn. It's just resting in her hands like she didn't fall to the ground, nearly unconscious. Her curiosity and interest is now through the roof. She looks inside the urn, finding it filled with Ashes. There doesn't appear to be anything beyond that, but as soon as she sees the ashes, she hears a voice.

It's a woman's voice, beautiful but reeking of danger. She introduced herself as "Abaddon," claiming she is the "Archangel of the Abyss." This sends Thalia's heart racing. She has a million questions, and immediately gets to work asking them. Abaddon is very happy to answer.

They spend hours talking. She learns that Abaddon is a demon, that she herself is part demon, that her father is one of the Demon Princes... But oddly, Abaddon refused to say which one, instead choosing to insist that someone like her should be able to figure that out on her own.

Suddenly tho, Abaddon herself asks a question. "Do you want to see me?"

Thalia of course, ecstatically answers "yes." One of the library shelves opens on it's own, revealing a long, dark hallway. Thalia briefly considers grabbing her mother or one of the servants, to help her carry anything interesting she finds inside (not a cautious bone in her body), but ultimately just enters alone, carrying the Urn.

She travels deep into the long hallway, ever beckoned to go deeper by both her curiosity and Abaddon's voice, which now echoes through the hall. When she finally reaches the end, it's just a wall. "Push on it" Abaddon tells her, and she does.

But on the other side is just... The library. Exactly where she left. The books she had scattered around her during her research were even still in the same spots. Only, strangely, everything feels colder, and the books are covered in dust. Abaddon chuckles as she looks around confused.

Thalia then begins calling out for her mother or the Servants. No one answers. She exits the library (leaving the Urn on the ground inside), expecting to find some servants cleaning in the hall like they usually are, rationalizing they maybe just didn't hear her. But as soon as she opens the door, she's hit with a blast of ice-cold air. It takes her a moment to recover from the shock, but when she looks out into the hall, it's empty. The windows are covered in ice, and the hall is dark and empty.

Fear finally begins to creep it's way into her. She begins frantically calling out for someone, anyone, rushing out into the rest of the mansion, but it's all empty. There is no one inside and the windows are frozen over.

Out of desperation, she returns to the library. Maybe this is some trick, or illusion, after all, and she can get back to the "real world" by travelling back through that hall. But when she gets there, the library shelf has closed itself already. She pushes on it, pulls, grabs all the books off the shelves... She tries everything to get it to move, even using her Esper abilities to try and knock it over or burn it. But all that does is show that... It's not a door. Behind the shelf is just a wall. Pushing on that doesn't even reveal it to be false.

Abaddon finally speaks again, beckoning her to go outside. Seeing no other options, she retrieves the Urn from where she left it, and goes to the entrance of the Mansion. She expects it to be frozen shut, but Abaddon assures her it will open. And it does, easily. Thalia is immediately blasted by even colder air, plus a mix of snow and ice. The world outside is covered in snow, and blizzard rages outside.

Thalia asks where she is. Abaddon tells her "don't worry, this is still your world. I have simply... Entered it."

Thalia asks what she means, and Abaddon responds, "oh my dear little half-breed, I must thank you. It's because of you that I was able to do this. It's because of you that I have returned."

Thalia's confusion just grows. What does she mean? She repeats her question, practically begging for clarity. Abaddon simply continues.

"Soon all will be me. Soon you will be too. Soon, I will be everywhere. Everyone. There are many with great power in this world, but all will fall to me. All will be Hive."

The fear Thalia feels grows exponentially. What did she do? What's going on? Where is her mother? Her butlers and maids? So many questions pass through her mind, but Abaddon interrupts them with a dark laugh, dragging her back to reality.

Then she simply says:

"Come and find me, my little Pandora. Let us see which one of us wins this little game we have started."

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Ann Maxwell - Change - Popular Library - 1975

[fueledbyfantasyx]

Esperance

noun; the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.

WotD Short Story

“And done.” I sigh with relief as I set my brush down. My painting for the annual art show is finally finished! It’s beautiful in everyway and when you look at it, you can feel the emotions it was painted with; the heartbreak, the anguish, the relief. My instincts tell me to share the finished product with my friends and family until I remember what everyone had been saying this past week. No one believes I can win the art contest but for what reason? My art is good. Sure it’s abstract, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it has meaning and emotion. Hindered by their words that won’t stop repeating in my head, I sit adjacent to my window, doubting my abilities. Suddenly, I notice an illuminous streak shooting across the dim night sky. A small smile makes its way onto my face before I squeeze my eyes shut and I quickly make my wish. Some may consider this childish but, my Grandmother always insisted shooting stars would make any wish come true. Any time she would see one, her eyes would light up with ecstasy as she stopped everything to have that moment. Slowly opening my eyes I was graciously met with yet another sign of luck as a ladybug crawled across my window, just under the star. Suddenly, I could feel my grandmother’s presence and I was filled with esperance.

[luupetitek]

First sticker from the bunch! :D Ace was the only character in our rpg whose design didn't change, as he was just perfect 😌👌 You can see the full set of all characters form the game on my blog under the #nonary tag~

-------- SPOILER ALERT! Zero Escape game spoilers below --------

Ace - Waylon Harvey (55). He used to be an accountant, but as his company wasn’t doing great, he took a loan from the worst organization possible. Not being able to pay back, he found himself in a deadly game, having to fight for his life. However, after winning, he’s been accepted as a member of said organization, to become a CEO of hospital chain, preparing to create a new game, Nonary project. Focused not on punishing the debtors, but to study a strange phenomenon called Morphogenetic Field, and people, espers, being able to connect to it, to communicate telepathically with their close ones. That’s why after a careful selection, the organization kidnapped 18 kids as subjects, to test the theory, and as danger and epiphany were said to strengthen their abilities, the games took form of a very dangerous and deadly escape rooms, filled with traps and tortures. He’s a cold-blooded and ruthless man, who’ll do whatever it takes, even kill, to achieve his goals and survive. Though as he suffers from prosopagnosia, he has quite a hard time recognizing people he knows.

_________________________________ You can find me on: (@Luupetitek) Deviantart | Instagram | ArtStation | Ko-Fi donations

[neopronouns-in-action]

Neopronouns in Action #051: Neither Nor

Neopronouns: de/ad/ath/adself, used the same way as he/him/his/himself for this story.

Replace he with de

Replace him with ad

Replace  his with ath

Replace himself with adself

EX:

"He is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as he gets a fence set up around his yard so the puppy can go outside without him having to walk it. His uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting him use, since he lost his. He's going to buy toys and train the puppy himself.”

Becomes:

"De is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as de gets a fence set up around ath yard so the puppy can go outside without ad having to walk it. Ath uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting ad use, since de lost ath. De's going to buy toys and train the puppy adself"

Repurposed because it's mine and I say so >:)

= = =

Patricia climbed the basements stairs one tired step at a time, juggling more than an armload's worth of mugs, and trying to make sure she didn't drop any. She'd finally used up all the mugs in the house for her coffee, and now she had to get the kids to wash them so the cycle could start all over again.

She always made herself coffee as soon as she got up in the morning, brought it down with her into the lab, drank it, and then left the mug to sit somewhere out of the way, forgetting to bring it back upstairs with her to be washed. And then the same thing happened the next day, and the next day, and the next day, until she'd used up all the mugs and they were all down in the lab in some forgotten corner.

The good news was that there was so much ambient ectoplasm in the lab after all the years of experiments and explosions that protoghosts spawned at a fairly regular rate, and, created in the real world as opposed to the Otherworld, they seemed to be attracted to food rather than ectoplasm. Every time it was time to bring the mugs back upstairs, she was sure to find at least a dozen different forms of postconciousness inhabiting the mugs, slowly consuming the dregs of coffee that had been left behind, and replacing it with the ghostly equivalent of guano.

The protoghosts themselves were mostly useless, but their guano was valuable- -it could be converted into extremely efficient ectopowered batteries that were then used to power their weapons, shields, nets, and other prototypes.

Granted, allowing the protoghosts to colonize her used coffee mugs wasn't the most efficient way to collect their waste, but setting up a proper containment area and making sure safety procedures were actually in place would be expensive, and time consuming. It was far easier to just put the kids in charge of it. They kept ectoplasm containment units in the pantry with the rest of the tupperware, and this had been one of Barb, Leonard, Paul, and Tanner's chores since they were old enough to lift a spoon. Since Barb was with her friends at their book club, and Paul and Leonard were at their mini science camp for the week, that left only one option left for the job.

But that was okay with her, because having a high ESP rating seemed to help retain power in the guano in some way she hadn't figured out yet, and out of everyone in the family, Tanner had the highest ESP rating, even higher than Tracy's. Even higher than hers.

She pushed the basement door open with her hip, calling out, "Tanner- -!" Only to stop in surprise when she saw he was already in the kitchen, sitting at the island with a red notebook. She smiled widely. Now she wouldn't have to go through the effort of dragging him out of his room. He was always locking himself in there these days. "Oh, there you are, sweetie! Perfect!" She lifted the mugs, then went over to dump them into the sink, saying cheerfully, "You know what time it is! I want these mugs squeaky clean by lunch time, and I want all the guano sorted by ectotype and recorded on the computer, and when you're done that, you can help- -"

Tanner tried to interrupt her. "Mom- -"

She resolutely carried on like she hadn't heard him. He couldn't weasel his way out of his chores, not if he wanted to get paid for them. She sorted the mugs in the sink from most ectoplasmically contaminated to least while she continued, "Clean out the garage, since your father's already collected more junk, so I need you to sort through it and make a list of what's there so I know what's salvageable and useful, what's actual trash, and what we can cannibalize. We need some more space to store the new cores I collected, and we're running out of room in the fridge, so we can use the old chest freezer out there. And when you're done that, we can --"

"Mom, can you just pause for a minute?" Tanner's voice was louder this time, more insistent, and she huffed in exasperation while she turned around from the sink, prepared to scold him for being rude, only to stop when she saw his expression. There was a seriousness there she wasn't used to seeing on her youngest son's face. She felt her heart skip a beat in alarm.

"I'm not trying to argue about my chores," He said, hunching his shoulders defensively in his too-big, black shirt, his dyed-purple hair hanging down over his eyes, "I just need to talk to you. Can you -- can you sit down?" He gestured at the island in the middle of the kitchen, surrounded on all sides by the family's mis-matched stools.

Her mind immediately ran through all the possibilities of what he could be about to confess -- failing grades, being suspended from school again, being in trouble with the police, or worse, the psi-police...The possibilities were both endless and terrible. Tanner had been acting strange for the past year, and she thought was prepared for all but the absolute worst possibilities.

Tanner had once been such a good, quiet boy, but ever since their last annual camping trip, he'd been acting out, misbehaving at school, skipping classes, having a temper at home, not turning in his homework, not completing his chores, hanging out with that strange new girl with the bad reputation, running around at all hours of the night and refusing to say where he'd been…and his aura...

She had always had trouble seeing his, or anyone else's auras, but the few times she'd glimpsed it before the problems began, it had always been a bright, sunny yellow.

Now, though it gave her a splitting headache to try and look sideways enough to see it, it...it was different. But not in any way she could described. It was still yellow, but there was another color there too, somehow, one that defied her grasp of language to describe.

She'd been hoping it would change back on its own. And lately she hadn't been able to see it at all to check on it, and she'd been so busy lately with work and her experiments...

And Tanner hadn't said a thing to her, or to Tracy. A change in your aura was not something to be taken lightly, and there was no way Tanner wouldn't be aware of it. But he'd never come to her or his father for help, so she'd let the problem lie, waiting for him to trust her.

Auras were very personal things, and you didn't just go around interrogating people about theirs, even if they were your own flesh and blood child.

...And now she wasn't sure she even wanted to know what Tanner had done, now, that was so serious he finally felt the need to come to her about it, after all the months she and Tracy had spent trying to convince him that he could come to them with any problems he had.

But she didn't say any of that out loud, she just regarded him suspiciously while she took the proffered seat. She really wasn't sure she actually wanted to know. "Alright, Tanner," She said, trying to get her mind to stop imagining horrible scenarios. Even if it would lead to her being pleasantly surprised when it wasn't that bad, she still didn't like thinking about all the horrible things her son could have gotten into to put this expression on his face. "I'm listening."

For a moment, there was silence in the room, except for the soft humming of one of the protoghosts over in the mugs, the sound reverberating off the stainless steel of the sink.

Tanner shifted in his seat, then grabbed the red notebook that was on the countertop in front of him, lifting it so the back was facing her while he ran his fingers along the spine and creating a soft ziiping sound from his fingernail hitting the metal.

She looked at the cardboard backing, raising an eyebrow at the many black and blue scratch marks in pen where things had been written or drawn, with some of them crossed out in thick black marker, leaving only some shiny outlines still visible in the black ink. There were many drawings of eyes, some simple, some more detailed, in blue and black ink, and a few in purple or blue glitter gel. Some of them were colored in with marker or red pen, all different. There was no space on the back that didn't have some sort of drawing on it, in some shape or form.

It didn't give her any hint about what this conversation was going to be about, besides that Tanner really shouldn't be covering his notebooks in drawings. That was another thing his teachers had been complaining to her about lately, more than usual, and now she could see why.

More silence.

She was beginning to wonder how long they would have to sit here before Tanner got the courage to say whatever it was he needed to tell her, when he finally opened the notebook and flipped the front over the back, and, stared down at a page inside, his eyes distinctly scanning rapidly back and forth over whatever he'd written while she watched him.

Then he glanced up at her again, biting his lip.

"I, I- -uh, this is going to sound like a weird question," He said, his face flushing bright red, "But do you know what pronouns are?"

It took her mind a few seconds to catch up to what he'd actually said. The way he'd started blushing, she'd feared for a few terrible seconds that they were about to have The Talk whether she was prepared for it or not.

"What?" She said, trying to figure out what he was asking. Was this some sort of new slang? He was still blushing furiously. That was not a good sign. "Pronouns, you mean like in grammar?" Dear gods of the Otherworld, she hoped this wasn't some sort of slang for sex. She was not prepared to have that conversation on a Saturday morning when she hadn't even had any coffee yet.

He nodded, still blushing, and now unable to meet her eyes, which only increased her confusion.

But she began to relax though the confusion, some of her worry slipping away. Maybe he wasn't in trouble, maybe he just needed help with his homework and was embarrassed to ask. Had she really made it seem like he couldn't come to her with questions about his homework?

She said, trying to keep herself from laughing with relief so he wouldn't think she was making fun of him, "Do you need help with your English homework…?"

Tanner looked up, and stared at her like she'd grown a second head, the blush slowly fading from his still-red skin.

"What?" Then he stammered, laughing a little as his eyes widened, "Oh, no, no, oh my gods, no. I don't need help with my homework. We aren't even learning about grammar, we're reading a book." He shook the notebook at little, for some sort of emphasis.

"Oh." Now she was confused again. "Okay…? Then why are you asking me about pronouns? Help me out here, kid, you're confusing me."

Tanner didn't say anything right away, but his shoulders tensed as he stared down at the notebook, fiddling with a corner of one of the pages.

Then he said, his voice tense and stilted, "Because I want to change mine."

Patricia felt her eyebrows raise themselves up to her hairline. "Huh?"

What did that even mean?

"What are you --" she started to ask.

He interrupted again, his voice determined. "I'm nonbinary."

She took a moment to process that, but came up with nothing but confusion. She stared.

"What does that mean?" She asked, shaking her head, trying to fit the pieces of this conversation into something coherent.

First she thought he was going to tell her he was on the run from the police or something, then she thought he needed help with homework, and now she just had no idea what was going on. "I don't understand."

Tanner set the notebook back down on the table, flipping the cover back over so it was shut again. She noticed that the front was just as covered in drawings, some of them scratched out or painted over, as the back.

He tapped his fingers on the cover, as though reminding himself it was there, before he said, his voice hesitant, "Do you know what the word transgender means?"

Her eyebrows raised even further, even as a slowly dawning realization and memory began to take root. "Yes…" She said slowly, trying to keep her tone of voice normal and calm despite the way it suddenly felt like her heart wanted to leap out of her chest.

Now she knew how Tanner must be feeling, from the look on his face. "I knew a couple people back in college who were like that. Actually, one of my roommate's friends was trans. She asked us to call her Riene instead of her birth name, and asked us to use female...oh."

Oh. Oh. That was why he'd asked if she knew what pronouns were. He wanted to change his pronouns. Her son -- no, wait, daughter -- no, wait --

Tanner looked at her, his expression hopeful. "So you'd be okay if I changed my pronouns?"

The words "Of course, sweetie." were out of her mouth before she even processed them. Now her mind was racing for a whole different reason. She would have to start practicing calling Tanner by female pronouns right away, she would have to tell Tracy, and Barb if she didn't already know, and Leon and Paul, she would have to- -

"Okay, well, that- -that's good. I want to change them to de, ad, ath, and adself."

Her thought came up short like a record scratch, or a train crash.

She blinked. "What? I thought you meant you wanted- -"

She stopped.

Now she was really confused.

"I thought you would want to use female pronouns? Don't you want me to call you 'she' and 'her' from now on?"

Tanner grimaced, shaking his head. "No. I mean, they aren't really female pronouns, but that's- -" he shook his head again, and waved a hand dismissively. "No. I don't want to use she/her pronouns. I'm trans, but I'm not a girl. I'm nonbinary -- I'm not a boy or a girl. I'm…"

He shrugged. "Not binary. I'm neither. I'm something else. That's why I want to change my pronouns."

Patricia wracked her brain, trying to remember what he'd said he wanted to change them to. Something with a D…? She'd never heard of them before.

"What did you say you wanted to change them to?" She asked, mentally shoving all other thoughts away so she would remember them this time. She was determined not to mess this up, even if she was extremely confused.

This was what she got for not drinking her morning coffee.

"De, ad, ath, and adself." Tanner said, flipping open the notebook so he could rip out a page and push it across to her, trailing little bits of paper on the table from where the edges had gotten caught in the spiral.

Written on the page in black marker, the hand writing so careful and perfect she could almost feel the nervousness in it, the paper read:

De/ad/ath/adself:

he = de

him = ad

his = ath

himself = adself

Example:

Tanner is my child, and de is nonbinary. This means de isn't a- -

The sentence continued further, but Tanner spoke again before she could read more, drawing her eyes back to his and away from the paper.

"I know it might seem complicated," He- -de!, she reminded herself at the speed of light -- started to say, lifting a hand to the back of -- she glanced down at the paper – ad? Ath? yes! -- head in embarrassment, "But you just replace what you used to call me with the new ones. If you would have said he, you say de. If you would have said him, you say ad. If you would have said his, you say ath, and if you would have said himself, you say adself."

She was doing her best to memorize this, burning the pattern into her mind as quickly as she could, and she nodded seriously to show she understood. 'De, ad, ath.' she thought to herself, 'de, ad, ath.' Easy enough. 'De, ad, ath.'

But h -- de must have seen something in her expression to sow doubt, because de crossed ath arms defensively over ath chest, and said, as though to counter an argument de assumed she was going to make, "Matt and Alice have been using my pronouns for two whole months now."

With the unspoken insinuation that if she tried to protest that it was 'too difficult' or 'too complicated', then she was admitting that a pair of highschoolers were smarter than her.

She didn't know what it said about her as a parent that her child's first assumption was that she would hate ad for being transgender, but she needed to do something to fix that ASAP.

"Okay," She said, hoping her tone came across the way she wanted it to-- calm and accepting and not angry at all, "So I just want to make sure I'm saying this right. Um, okay --”

She closed her eyes to concentrate, and said making up the sentences as she went along, “Tanner and I are going shopping today, since de needs some new clothes and school supplies, and afterward, I want to bring ad to Nicko's, since I know its ath favorite restaurant, and it's just the two of us while everyone else is out having fun, and they shouldn't be allowed to have all the fun.” She opened her eyes again. “Did I get that right?"

Tanner was staring at her, ath face slightly blank. Then a smile quickly began to spread across ath face, until de was grinning widely. "That was perfect! How did- -wha- -" De looked shocked, and more than a little confused. "I thought you'd be…"

De trailed off, obviously not wanting to say the words 'screaming at me' out loud.

Patricia felt the disquiet in the pit of her stomach sink deeper.

Her child thought she would hate ad for being transgender. Her child thought her reaction would be to scream and yell and punish ad.

As though de could sense what she was thinking, Tanner said softly, looking away, "We thought, well, I mean,I thought you'd be mad." De laughed nervously, still not looking at her. "I actually wondered if I should pack a bag before I came down to talk to you."

And it suddenly occurred to her why de'd waited until now, specifically, to tell her this. It was just the two of them in the house, and it would be for the next three days. Tracy would be picking Barb up from the school, and they'd be going out on their father-daughter-bonding camping trip.

If she'd reacted badly to Tanner's revelation, de only had one person de needed to run away from, and three days to figure out how de was going to deal with the reactions of the rest of ath family.

The urge to ask ad where de would have run to was strong, but she kept her mouth shut. There was no point in asking, because de probably wouldn't tell her, and she could already guess.

De would have gone to Matt or Alice's. Probably Alice's, since the Shearmans were rich enough that if she or Tracy tried to press the issue, the Shearmans could probably just sue them for child abuse and have all of their kids taken out of their custody faster than she could cry 'kidnapping'.

So instead of asking questions neither of them wanted to answer, she leaned over the table, reaching a hand out, and said, "This is your home, Tanner, and you will never be forced to leave just for being yourself."

But Tanner was still looking towards the living room, and either didn't notice, or was pretending not to notice her offered hand.

"How do you think dad will react?" Ath voice was quiet, ath voice rough like de was trying to control ath emotions.

Ath eyes were closed, she suddenly realized. Tanner had ath eyes tightly closed, and ath fists clenched on ath knees. De was breathing slowly and deeply, and she suddenly realized that as anxious as she felt, it couldn't begin to compare to how Tanner had to be feeling. She bet if she could see ath aura right now, it would be roiling.

De was just a kid, coming out to a parent, with no way to know how she would react. She couldn't imagine how terrifying it had to be to not know whether your parents would still love you, or whether or not you would still have a home to belong to when the conversation was over.

Her parents hadn't approved of her choice to study ghosts, even with her confirmed status as an esper, something they were supposed to be proud of, but that was her choice. She could have chosen any other field of study, and while her parents were dismissive and disappointed, she'd never feared for her safety, never feared for even a second that they would disown her.

Were Tanner's eyes closed because de was fighting back tears?

How could she have raised her children to fear her?

"Tanner…" Her voice struggled not to break. She couldn't cry right now. This was about her child, not herself. "Your father loves you just as much as I do. He's still going to love you no matter what. You don't even have to worry- -he's the one who taught me how to use our friend's pronouns back in college--

"You see, I kept messing up because I never thought about it until I was right there talking to her, and it was so embarrassing and frustrating for both of us, especially because I always made such a big deal out of messing up, but he pulled me aside to explain that I needed to practice with her pronouns if I wanted to get them right.

"He'd been friends with her longer than I had, he knew her back before she asked people to change what they called her, and he gave me sentences to practice in my head so I wouldn't keep messing up, and it helped so much.

“I stopped embarrassing myself and Riene, and…" She trailed off, unsure where she was going with this, besides: "Your father and I love you. We aren't going to kick you out, or disown you, or anything like that. Your father will be happy to use your new pronouns, and I guarantee you that he- -and I - -will destroy anyone who tries to cause you problems."

Something in Tanner's face twitched, and she took it as a sign that she was on the right track.

"We're going to support you, Tanner, no matter what pronouns you use, no matter that you're...what did you say it was called? Nonbinary? I'm not judging, I just never heard of it before now."

De nodded, still keeping ath eyes closed, though ath breathing had calmed down a little. "Yeah, I'm nonbinary. Non-binary, as in not binary. Which in my case means neither girl nor boy, neither male nor female, neither…" De trailed off, then shook ath head.

"It just means I'm your kid instead of your son." De said, "Or, well, Alice suggested you could call me your sprout, because vamp likes plants so much, but I'm not very good with plants so...yeah, you can just stick with kid for now, if anyone asks." And still, ath eyes were closed.

Patricia pulled her hand back, since de still hadn't taken it or noticed. The fact that he had referred to Alice as 'vamp' didn't escape her notice. "Okay, nonbinary. That makes sense." She said, mentally face palming at how obvious it was once she thought about the word. Nonbinary, non-binary, not-binary. Neither male nor female, girl nor boy, son nor daughter. "Your father will understand, probably even better than I do, since he knew a lot more trans people back in college than I did."

And knew them better, too.

...Should she ask about Alice? The fact that de'd said anything at all meant de would probably want to share more, and she felt like it would be better to just get all of it out in the open at once.

"So, has Alice changed- -" She hesitated for a moment, then forged on, "Pronouns too? It sounded like you said 'vamp'."

Which definitely sounded short for vampire, and from what she knew of Alice, that fit the bill perfectly, though she wasn't aware of any pronouns in any language that sounded like vampire. But then, she'd never heard of de, ad, or ath, either.

Tanner had finally opened ath eyes again, and this time de was looking at her, looking much more relaxed and normal. "Yeah," De said, "Alice has a few different sets, and Matt and I cycle through them." Ath eyes narrowed a little."Do you want to know Alice's pronouns?"

There was definitely a challenge in ath tone, and were it not for the situation, it would have annoyed her. But she knew de was only sticking up for ath friend, making sure her support wasn't conditional on the person in question being a member of the family.

So she smiled, glad she was going to pass the test. After the reaction Tanner'd thought she'd have, she needed to restore ath faith in her. She couldn't believe she'd ever let it slip so far, couldn't believe she'd allowed her kid to believe she could ever hate ad. "I would love to learn Alice's pronouns." She said.

Tanner's expression stayed suspicious. "Alice uses vamp/pyr/pyrs/vampself, ghost/ghosts/ghostself, bat/bats/batself, and thorn,thorns,thornself. And before you complain, bat started using ghost/ghostself specifically to annoy thorns parents, so if you start complaining, it'll just make ghost even more spiteful."

That was a lot to take in, but Patricia nodded, having guessed that much for herself. She didn't know any of Tanner's friends very well, what with the fact that when they were over, they were always in Tanner's room playing on the Vasdeck, but she'd picked up enough about Alice to know that...vamp did not take kindly to authority figures.

Since Tanner had been kind enough to write down ath pronouns, she could guess how the others were meant to be used. Just replacing she, her, hers, and herself with the words Tanner had listed. Though she was going to have trouble remembering which ones Alice used. She tried to remember...definitely the vampire ones, and the ghost ones...but the others, she was drawing a blank.

"It might get a little confusing if there's a ghost,” She said, wanting to not let on just how confused she was, “but I don't think it should be that hard to get used to." She hesitated, wondering if this next question was going to make her lose those precious parenting points she'd been earning throughout this conversation. "Could you write these down for me so I don't forget?"

To her surprise, Tanner smiled widely, ath eyes finally opening to positively sparkle up at her with clear happiness. Apparently, that had been the right question to ask.

De opened the notebook again, and pulled out another piece of paper, and slid it across the table to her.

She looked down at it, and saw all of the pronouns de'd listed out for Alice. De'd already had all of them written down.

Then de pulled out another piece, and passed that over as well.

"Matt uses tech/techno/techs/techself. Both their parents know about their pronouns, and Matt's are fine with it, Alice's..." De shrugged, but smiled. "Not so much. But that's the way ghost likes it."

Patricia took both pages and studied them, seeing that they were in the same format as the first, showing the old pronouns and the new ones, with an example sentence to show how to use them, with each letter written out so neatly it must have taken ten minutes just to write out a few simple words.

She wondered why de hadn't just used the printer. But then, that would have required asking to use the printer, and of course she would have wanted to know what de was printing...so, no, it made sense for why de'd hand written them.

But there were other questions she should be asking. She remembered dealing with these questions way back when in college. "So, is there anyone I shouldn't use your pronouns around?"

She really didn't want to phrase it as "am I one of the last people to find out", but she was having a hard time figuring out a better way to phrase it... "Like if we're out at Nicko's, or if I need to talk to one of your teachers. Do you want me to use your pronouns, or…?" And she hadn't even asked if de wanted to change ath name yet…

Tanner nodded. "I want you to use my pronouns. Now that I've told you, and I'll tell dad and the others once they get back, I want to use them all the time. I want everyone to use them. It just- -" Ad smiled widened. "It just really makes me happy, I don't know how to explain why. It just feels right."

She nodded, trying and failing to understand, but accepting it anyways, knowing it was more important that she supported ad rather than that she understood perfectly.

She didn't need to understand it to respect it- -that was one of the things she'd had to learn quickly in college if she didn't want to lose all her friends and husband-to-be.

Realizing what sort of people she would have had to make friends with if she chose the wrong path had set her straight almost immediately. She'd always thought of herself as open-minded, and her days in college had been the first time that conceptualization had actually been stress-tested in the real world.

She was just glad she'd been willing to listen and learn instead of cementing herself into the mindset of a bigot- -she'd seen the sort of people who mocked Riene for being trans, and they were the exact sort of people who would mock any woman for not conforming to their perfect ideal of womanhood, whether they were trans or not. They were the conservatives and republicans, hateful bigots to their core. They hated the poor, they hated the disabled, they hated women, they hated people who weren't straight white Christians, and they hated queer people.

She hated that she could have so easily become one of them if she'd only made a few different choices. If she'd believed the lies that had told her that people like Riene were trying to infiltrate and destroy feminist spaces, trying to lull her into a false sense of security. Riene wasn't dangerous, wasn't trying to infiltrate anything, and neither were any of the other trans women and men that she'd met thanks to Tracy.

And it was only now, decades later as she looked back, that she realized that people like her kid had been back there too. There had been Skit, who'd always rejected being called a man or a woman, and Jesse, who'd gone back and forth and in between and was always changing pronouns...

Every now and then, she talked on the phone or shared emails with her old classmates, the ones who were still the kind of people to stay in touch, but between studying the natural ghost manifestations that Port Free Haven was a hotspot for, building prototypes for their own new-age shrine in their basement, preparing for and then raising five kids, and now hunting ghosts as a full-time job, there wasn't much time left in the day to chat with old friends, let alone make new ones.

She knew Port Free Haven had its own thriving Queer community, but she'd never had time to join in on any of the events, though she knew Tracy had been making the time.

But maybe she should make some time, too.

But there was one more question she should be asking, just to be sure. "So do you want to change your name?"

De sat back a little, brow furrowed. "Um..." De shrugged again. "I'll have to get back to you on that, since I haven't decided what I'd change it to if I did. You can still call me Tanner for now."

Well, that was one thing she didn't have to worry about. Setting up appointments with Port Free Havens' legal courts was like pulling teeth since the ghost incursion began, since they were so backed up with insurance claims and all manner of ghost-related problems.

It would take months, if not a year to get an appointment to legally change Tanner's name if de chose to change it, though that wouldn't have stopped her from calling in to the school to make them change it on their files, or from telling people to use ath new name.

Tanner was tapping ath fingers on the notebook again. De was smiling again too, she was glad to see. And it seemed like the redness was fading from ath eyes even as she watched.

"I really didn't expect this conversation to go so well." De said, shaking ath head a little to get ath hair out of ath eyes, "Thank you, mom."

She shook her own head. "You don't need to thank me," she said firmly, "I am your mother, it is my job to love you. I'm sorry I ever made you think I wouldn't love you just for being yourself. That is my fault, and I take responsibility for it. I've known about trans people since I was in college, and I made the mistake of assuming that you, and your brothers and sister, wouldn't be, couldn't be. I should have known better, and I'm sorry for never talking about these things with you when you were younger, so you knew what they were and that I knew what they were.”

She wanted to say, 'I guess your father and I have been too busy with work to talk to you about our friends', but she didn't want to make excuses.

“But I want to support you, and I want to try to fix my mistakes. I still have Riene's phone number and email, and, I mean, if you want, I can call her and see if she'd want to come over. I know you said you're not trans in the way she is, but she's really nice, and she might be able to answer any questions you have, and it'd be nice for me to catch up with her, it's been a long time since we spoke, and she lives over in the next city, so it's not too far of a drive. We could even go to visit her if she doesn't want to deal with the ghosts."

Tanner had frozen like a deer in the headlights, and she wasn't sure why. "Your friend...from college? Was this the same college where you met, uh, uncle Kurt?"

She winced at the reminder. "Ah, yes, but I promise she's nothing like Kurt." She reassured.

Kurt had always been Tracy's friend, not hers, and he was the one exception in her husband's impeccable taste in people. He had wanted to date her since he first met her, and no matter how many times she turned him down, he just kept trying to convince her in small, subtle ways, and Tracy was completely oblivious. She loved her husband, but he had a blindspot the size of Texas when it came to Kurt and his behavior.

She'd tried talking to him about it a few times, but he always brushed her off, insisting that she was reading things wrong, or it wasn't a big deal, ect ect ect. It was the strangest thing, too. He always listened to her with any other topic, always took her concerns seriously. But not when it came to Kurt. If she didn't know any better, she'd think he was being psychically influenced, but she'd checked, and Kurt's aura was so dim he probably wouldn't feel a psychic wave if it slapped him in the face.

She'd stopped bothering to bring the problem up with Tracy, and now just tried to stay as far away from Kurt when he visited as she could.

Fortunately, he lived several states away, so avoiding him was easy for the most part these days.

"Are you sure?" Tanner pressed, still on the question and looking nervous. "Kurt's... really creepy."

"No, Tanner, I promise it's not another Kurt situation. I know your father is...very attached to Kurt, but he'd always been...well, he's always been a bit of a creep.” There was really no nice way of putting it. Kurt didn't care who saw him flirt with her. He even did it in front of her own kids, and they were old enough to recognize it for what it was, and tell it wasn't just a joke. “Your father just doesn't want to acknowledge it. But Riene, I promise, is nice, and completely normal, and not in any way a creep, I promise. In fact, she disliked Kurt as much as I did, and it was lucky he never really hung out with the rest of us, or he would have been kicked out. I promise not all of our friends from college are creepy. Kurt is the outlier."

Tanner still looked extremely skeptical, but after a few moments de said, begrudgingly, "Well, if you're sure, then yeah, I guess it'd be cool to meet her. Could I invite Alice and Matt over too?"

"Of course,” She said quickly, “I'm sure she'd love to meet them! The last time we spoke, she told me she was running a sort of summer camp for young queer people, and I'm not sure if she's still doing it, but would that be something you'd be interested in? Not this year, obviously, but maybe next year?" She was thinking of the for-parents groups Riene had also said she ran, to help queer parents, and parents of queer kids, learn more so they could better support their children.

Tanner laughed nervously. "Um, how about I let you know after I meet her?"

"That's fair." She conceded easily. Kurt really had set a bad precedent for introducing their old friends to their kids. She would have to make sure to look up some better friends, see what they were up to. Maybe she could find out what Skit was up to these days.

They sat in silence for a few moments, then Tanner asked, "So, uh, I was going to invite Alice and Matt over after I talked to you if it went well, to tell them the good news. Can I, or do I still have to wash the dishes?" De was warily side-eying the pile of mugs she'd put in the sink, and the faint sounds the protoghosts were making.

She'd almost forgotten about them entirely.

She shook her head, willing to let it slide just this once. For now. The longer the protoghosts were inhabiting the mugs, the more samples that could be collected, and she could go without coffee for a day. The lack of it hadn't failed her too disastrously, it turns out. "You can do those tomorrow, go ahead and invite Alice and Matt over. If you still want to go to Nicko's --"

"Yes!"

"– we'll go for dinner instead of lunch, and Alice and Matt can come with us if they want, my treat, then you can clean out the garage and wash the mugs tomorrow, and we can go shopping then too. You get the rest of the day off. Does that sound fair?"

"Yes!" De was practically vibrating in ath chair, and beaming so widely it had to be hurting ath face.

Suddenly, de bolted out of ath chair, and flung ath arms around her in a hug, almost causing her to fall backwards off her stool. She caught herself on the edge of the table with a laugh, then hugged ad back tightly.

"Thank you." De said softly, ath voice slightly muffled in her shoulder so that it came out sounding a bit strange.

"You don't need to thank me." She whispered back, hugging ad tightly, "I'm your mother. It's my job."

De let go, she released ad, and de stepped back, still grinning from ear to ear. "I'm gonna go call Alice and Matt!" De exclaimed. Then de spun around, bolted out of the room, and sprinted up the stairs.

She heard ath door slam shut, and thought to herself, 'at least this time it's from excitement instead of anger.'

She looked around the kitchen, then, trying to figure out what she should be doing now that she wasn't going to be getting those guano samples until tomorrow. Or coffee.

She'd been planning on building the first in a series of new ectoweapons, which, if they worked the way she thought they should, should cancel out a ghost's ectosignature once it gained a sample from it, which would either destroy the ghost outright, or at least reduce it to such a weakened state that it wouldn't be able to take on any form except a puddle of inert ectoplasm. She would only find out the exact results after she tested it.

It was something to look forward to.

She smiled to herself as she pushed out of her chair and headed back down into the lab, taking the pieces of paper Tanner had given her with her, knowing that she had multiple sets of pronouns she needed to practice if she wanted her kid to continue trusting her with important information about adself.

She swung into her chair in front of the computer, and thought, 'de, ad, ath, adself' as she loaded up the program she used for laying out the microchips. 'Tanner is my child, and I love ad very much. I hope de knows de can trust me with anything, and that I will love ad no matter what.'

If she started now, and worked until it was time to bring Tanner and ath friends to the restaurant, then continued working on it when they got back, the new ectoweapon would be complete by the time Tracy and Barb got home from their trip, and Leon and Paul got back from camp, and she and Tracy could patrol together to test it after Tanner talked to everyone.

Maybe if they were lucky, they would even be able to hit some of the notorious Legion of Park Street.

She smiled to herself, and thought, 'de, ad, ath...'

[pseudonymsocial]

Friendships begin and bloom aboard the Opal Star over some laughs and a discussion of home.

And Nell continues to be a chaotic instigator.

[schlock-luster-video]

On September 11, 2020 Plan 9 From Outer Space, Reefer Madness and Sex Madness were screened as a triple-feature on TCM Underground.

[oceanusborealis]

Fallout: Season 1 – TV Review

TL;DR – This is a series that shows you how important it is to get the vibe of the work you are adapting correctly. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this series.End Credit – There is a mid-credit sequence. Fallout Review – Like many people, I had a bit of trepidation when they announced that there would be an adaptation of the video game…

[stressfulsloth]

I've seen a couple of takes about Disco Elysium being copaganda going around recently, and beyond the fact that DE is relentlessly critical of the police force in general and makes explicit reference to the failures of the system that allow the officers in game to abuse their power, I also think it's important to note that there very literally is an in-world version of copaganda that the writers of the game use to parody that romanticised view of the brutality of policing. The RCM at their inception were structurally inspired by in-world copaganda- their culture, their "fashions, even weapon preferences, borrow heavily from classic Vespertine cop shows." Every investigation is it's own little drama, every officer imagining themselves to be the bad-ass hero of their own crime serial. Detectives name their cases like they're naming episodes of a TV series in a "robust but literary system"; a title that "draws inspiration from snoop fiction and Vespertine cop show staples". They give themselves nicknames to sound like cool, suave fictional officers- Ace, Dick Mullen, etc.- from the cool, suave world of copaganda.

The legend of the RCM's inception, the "point of contention" over its uncertain origins, is even an extention of that; the whole organisation is shrouded in this self-fictionalising mythos that allows for distance that in turn obfuscates much of its violence to the officers that participate in it. They get to convince themselves that they're not abusing their power; they're the hero of the story! The dichotomy of "good guy" taking out the "baddies," a manifestation of the libertarian fantasy of the "good guy with a gun" who does what it takes, just like in Annette's detective novels, and at the same time who rails against oversight bodies like Internal Affairs/'the rat squad' because due process slows down the immediate satisfaction of Swift Justice, despite Internal Affairs existing to protect the citizens from overreach on behalf of the police. "Wanton brutality" from police in their real world is a cold bitter reality but Dick Mullen was "made to crack skulls," "bend the rules and solve cases no one else can," and which version of that story is more comforting to the overworked, underfunded officers of the RCM?

The level of fantasy and detachment required for the cops to still see themselves as the good guys after everything that they do in the line of duty mimics The Pigs and her breakdown too; she parallels Harry so clearly. Both "did right by the kids" in the past, hoping for a better future- Marianne (The Pigs) by looking out for Titus and the Hardy boys when they were young, Harry in his role as a gym teacher. Both abandoned and left behind by the system that the RCM uphold- a brutal capitalist landscape with no safety nets. Both turning the source of their trauma into a costume, a performance, a shield, shaped by "radio waves and cop shows." The Pigs uses RCM items scavenged from the Esperance where they'd been thrown away, while Harry uses the Dick Mullen hat that Annette gives him but both are essentially in costume.

Harry identifies himself with the fictional detective as a kind of wish fulfilment; Dick Mullen is "wicked smart." He doesn't fuck up his cases and when he's sad it's not pathetic; it's effortlessly cool brooding and everyone sympathises. Everyone loves him. His violence- "skull crack[ing]"- is justified because he's a "good guy" enacting that violence against the victims of police brutality sorry "bad guys". He doesn't ever face repercussions; "Dick Mullen won't be sent to the clink for the sake of some legal niceties!" So if Harry is Dick Mullen then his failures, his breakdown, they're all just a part of being a "bad-ass, on-the-edge disco cop." He's not wrong, he's a hero! This idealised fictionalised idea of the police force, this "new, sadly better, reality" that both Harry and The Pigs cling to is "escapist stuff," "receed[ing] into a ludicrous fantasy world," so far removed from the brutal material reality that they're in.

My point is, idk. Disco Elysium is so far from being copaganda. It is a multi-million word long dissection of it, of the purpose of policing, of state sanctioned violence and its interaction with capital and the fallout experienced within the wider community as well as the trauma cycle created for individual officers. A dissection of how copaganda interacts with RCM culture and perception, and by extension how we interact with irl perceptions of police through that lens.

[gittetj]

You've mentioned that you hc Reigen as ace, can you elaborate?

I agree w/ that but can't sort my thoughts out well enough to make a coherent analysis ;w;

Yeah, that's the vibe he gives me. No concrete "evidence" and I don't care all that much about the sexual orientations of fictional characters, but I guess for me, the headcanon comes down to three things:

1) Reigen is super disinterested in other people being attracted to each other. I feel like there are several small examples of this, but first one that comes to mind is that case with the esper who can astral project and uses it to stalk his neighbor. When they discover this, Reigen has such a non-reaction. I've seen a lot of people bring up these panels

which, yeah, but when they find the culprit, Reigen also doesn't express much of an opinion. It's just "it's a stalker, stalking is bad and illegal, this is a job for the police." No more introspection from him, he immediately moves on, it doesn't interest him. Mob is the one doing all the reacting.

2) Reigen never resorts to flirting despite how he's known for bullshitting his way through anything else to complete a job. Like, no matter how horny Studio Bones is for the guy, they can't change this. He could deliberately capitalize on the fact that a considerable amount of his income comes from massaging middle-aged ladies who find him attractive, but he doesn't. It's accidental. It does not even seem like something Reigen thinks about.

3) Reigen's a self-conscious person, yet doesn't act like it bothers him that he's seemingly never been in a relationship before. He explicitly has a crisis over being lonely in the confession arc, but it's about friends and connections and doing something meaningful with his life. Romantic relationships don't factor into it, even though it easily could, considering it has great thematic relevance for Mob who spends the entire story being in love. Not that you can't fall in love with someone if you're ace, this goes a little bit into aro territory I guess, but either way.. it just gives me that vibe. The indifference. I mean, even in chapter 99 when Mob point-blank asks Reigen for advice about Tsubomi, Reigen first asks Serizawa, then looks it up on his phone, exactly like he would with any other topic he doesn't know jack shit about.

Also, at the end of the scene, he muses about what's important in a relationship, and his conclusions just.. don't sound like he's talking about romance? To me?

I don't know, that entire scene gives me flashbacks to being younger and not yet knowing what asexuality (or aromanticism) is and having to navigate conversations like that without giving away that you fundamentally can't relate to this thing everyone else is so preoccupied with.

Them's my takes, I don't have much else to say about it.

[moon-and-seraph]

Directory of Tag Game Friendly Blogs

This is a list of original fiction writers who are open to being tagged in tag games by anyone, whether you're mutuals or not.

If you're looking to make new friends, struggling to tag enough folks, or want to share the tag game with more of the writeblr community, check back on this updating directory to find people you can tag!

How do I join the list?

To be added, reblog this post and let us know somewhere in your post or tags that you’d like to be added. (If you'd like to be removed for whatever reason, you can reply to this post or send us an ask/message!)

Look through the updating directory below!

Tag Game Friendly Blogs:

(Please be aware that some of the blogs below may belong to minors and some may be 18+ only. It's up to you to ensure you're only tagging those you're comfortable interacting with.)

(updated as of: 1/24/2024)

@saintedseraph

@anoelleart

@mysticstarlightduck

@avoidingcertaindoom

@new-royston-cursebreakers

@silviathebard

@goinggremlin

@fleurtygurl

@fire-but-ashes-too

@holdmyteaplease

@kooperation1101

@athenswrites

@loopyhoopywrites

@skyderman

@cat-esper

@stesierra

@justnerdy15

@sparrow-orion-writes

@phynewrites

@alnaperera

@galactic-mystics-writes

@sam-glade

@aether-wasteland-s

@wingedcatgirl

@bellascarousel

@void-botanist

@nascentmorimur

@everthewip

@dancinginsepia

@cosmo-lexies

@serendipminiewrites

@1legitconnor

@valentinerose529

@innocenthedgehog

@koala2all

@harleyacoincidence

@ghostreader16

@the-ravens-requiem

@scmalarky

@elliot-the-writer

@serotoninshift

@reading-by-the-pale-moonlight

@worldsfromhoney

@maddstermind

@halleyuhm

@bassguitarinablackt-shirt

@forthesanityofstorytellers

@dontjudgemeimawriter

@eli-writes-sometimes

@lynsterswritingblog

@iambecomeabook

[dragonclaw29]

Top Ten Manga

It’s been a minute since I last uploaded a top ten of any kind, Grad school will do that to you. However, now with my studies almost over I thought I would revisit my top ten manga and see what new titles have amazed me! 

-Note I am not including Webcomics so if you want Manhwa and the like let me know and I will make a separate list. 

10. Sakamoto Days

Starting off with a bang we have Sakamoto Days. In a world of assassins even a mild mannered fat store clerk could be a tough challenge. That is definitely true for Sakamoto the former top assassin in Japan. Watch as Sakamoto is targeted by Esper's, Triad members, and old friends as he battles to protect his home and his daughter. It’s a fantastic read and great for the action lover and comedian a like. 

9. Claymore 

Claymore tells the tale of an elite class of women tasked to fight off monsters who plague the land. Clair the last member of this group must protect the peace, her new friend Rakka, and her self. However, dark secrets lurk in this world and the shadowy organization that dispatches the Claymores may not be as kind as they appear. 

8. A Story about a Droid 

I debated about including this because it is such a short read. But it is also a very good and cute read. This story is about a droid who finds a baby and decides to take care of him. In order to care for the child the droid puts on a human disguise. The story follows the droid and her child as she raises him in a post apocalyptic world. 

7. Berserk

RIP Muria I will always be heartbroken that you passed before finishing this wonder of a story. This manga has always been one of my favorites and for good reason. The art is fantastic, the story is gripping, and the characters are dynamic. However, this manga is shocking, cruel, and depressing- not for the faint of heart. 

6. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki Kun

Monthly Girls Nozaki is the tale of a girl in love. Chiyo has been in love with Nozaki for a while and she finally decides that she has had enough. Working up the courage she confesses to him, only for him to give her an autograph. Turns out her class mate is world famous in the realm of shoujo manga and has never been in love. Chiyo’s confession goes right over his head leaving her dumbfounded but not hopeless. This manga is a great romantic comedy including some of my favorite characters in fiction. Definitely worth a read if you want to laugh a night away. 

5. Dungeon Meshi

Have you ever been playing DnD and been like “hmmm I wonder what a Mimic tastes like?” If so I have the manga for you! Dungeon Meshi or delicious in dungeon follows a group of adventures as they venture into a dungeon to save the main character Laos’s sister. However, with no supplies they are forced to eat their way through to survive, much to the disdain of the party except for Laos he loves it. 

4. Sousou No Frienen

We all know elves live a long time but sometimes it doesn’t hit an elf until they have seen their old comrades fade away. Frenen is old even and has wandered the world in search of rare magic, and I mean rare not necessarily useful. Only after being recruited to aid the hero’s party and defeating the demon king does she come to realize that human relationships are complex and that time is fleeting. This is a great fantasy manga with great magic and quirky characters as I write this I am rereading the manga for the fourth time. 

3. Yotsubato!

Man aren’t five year old's hectic little animals?! Yotsuba is a young girl in a new neighborhood who isn’t afraid to wander off, get into trouble, or of anything except for maybe scary statues. This manga follows her life with her dad living every day to the fullest. If you are feeling down this is a great pick me up. I reread during finals and it really helped. 

2. Tongari Boss/ Witch Hat Alter

Witches are born with the ability to use magic and normal people aren’t. At least that’s what they say but what happens when a young girl gets a glimpse at the secret of magic. What if the reason magic is solely for witches because of the great danger magic can place not only yourself but the world in. Witch hat alter is one of the best fantasy manga out there right now and I want the next chapter to come out already!!!

1. Chainsaw Man

I remember the conversation that led me to read chainsaw man years ago. It went something like 

“Hey dude you should totally read this manga it’s badass!”

“Really? What’s it about?”

Insert a few seconds of silence 

“Well.. It’s about a dude who turns into a chainsaw and kills devils” 

“That’s insane” 

“Trust me it’s sooo good you have to try it! It has a section where he rides a shark into battle while on fire!” 

And with that fateful line I decided to give it a read. All I can say is thank you for telling me to read it because I love this manga. It is so funny, and crazy, and sad, and mind bending, and so many other things. I never thought a story about a dude who literally has a chainsaw growing out of his face would make me cry but life works in funny ways. 

Well that’s my list. I hope you find some of these recommendations helpful. If you have any questions, or want more let me know!! Have a great Summer!

[stephschoices]

❤️❤️❤️Steph birthdaygirl,❤️❤️❤️ what about a present for us? Let us celebrate your person and your endless passion for interactive fiction together! 'cause we all know you have the best taste! I mean .. El? OMG, #gayboysimpingsofuckingmuchomgpleasetakemenowEL!! Which if are you mostly looking forward to? - which if with a demo? - which if without a demo? can you tell us why?

❤️❤️❤️ sincerely, a secret admirer of your art

Ahh this is so nice thank u for the question 🥰

And I’m so glad you like my el art 🥰🥰🫶🏻

Ifs I’m most looking forward to without a demo:

@pavedinashes-if

@dereliction-if

@ellawrites-if (whisper in the mist)

@dyingstars-if

@offseason-if

Ifs I’m most excited for (at the moment) with a demo:

@theunseelieif

@fallenlightsif

@disenchantedif

@reapersbayif

@circuit-if

@esper-game

@barbwritesstuff (thicker than)

@fateunwritten-if

@yuveim (the spirited: origins)

@kalorphic (novaturient)

@unwilling-souls-if

@sekhmetswrath-if

@amsc-if

And the answer why for all of them is I love the tropes all of them have, either the main plot or my fav ro in each 🥰 highly recommend checking them all out!!

[luupetitek]

Another sticker from the bunch ;) I liked her color pallet so I left most of it, but the rest was modified x'v You can see the full set of all characters form the game on my blog under the #nonary tag~

-------- SPOILER ALERT! Zero Escape game spoilers below --------

Black Widow - Elise Evans-Finch (42). A professional programmer, a hacker and IT specialist. Smart, calculating person, always to the point, but she can be lay-back and jocular at times. She's fascinated by metaphysics and likes to listen to podcasts about it. She used to work in a cyber security firm, but after she became a mom and divorced with her husband, she decided to take a freelance career, to be more home for her twin daughters, Lucy and Riley. Especially after her daughters' kidnapping, after which they came back home quite traumatized. She used to date Ace about 20 years ago, but their relationship didn't last too long and after that they lost contact. Since that day she never really found anyone she'd like to spend her life with... until she's met her hero, that not only helped escape and took care of her kidnapped daughter before, but helped her in the same game years later.

_________________________________ You can find me on: (@Luupetitek) Deviantart | Instagram | ArtStation | Ko-Fi donations