#except instead of a talk it's a tidbit

[tei-to-tei]

"Guess I can't give you a hand with your projects anymore, Donnie."

"...Sometimes, I wish you came with an 'off' switch."

[lytmeowtif]

Calamari Inkantation is a Big Deal.

Splatoon 3's campaign has a WHOLE LOT of lore in it, a metric fuckload, and in there are some tidbits that make me really REALLY emotional. But one major facet of the backstory 3 introduces retroactively makes the climaxes of both Splatoon 1 and 2 resonate with me so, so much more.

This is gonna be super super detailed and has MAJOR spoilers for Splatoon 3's campaign, so don't click Read More until you've gotten all the logs! (except the postgame one, I haven't read it yet lol)

So. to get to Calamari Inkantation we first have to discuss literally all of the Alterna Logs and the backstory they present. Namely, we have to talk about the liquid crystals, and about humanity's desire for freedom.

The small pocket of humans that escape the effective end of the world take refuge and build their new home inside a flooded volcano crater. They survive by eating the sea life already living in that crater, particularly the squids and octopi. They manage to build a thriving society, and are safe in their cavernous home of Alterna. But they always long for more. They miss the outside world dearly.

They discover that they can make liquid crystals out of the body fluids of the cephalopods native to the crater's waters. When screens are made using those crystals, like modern LCD displays, they react to the thoughts and emotions of those near them. They set them up throughout the entire cavern, covering the walls and roof completely.

Those crystals could display anything, anything at ALL that humanity had on its mind. But the desire to return home to the surface is so strong - so overwhelming - that every single liquid crystal reacted to it and let them see the sky they longed for, the sky that they had been without for 25 long years.

Humanity of course fucks up, and the crystals all overload when humanity tries to escape their tunnel system via rocket and cave in almost everything, destroying Alternan society.

But their desire doesn't fade with them. Their desperate need to see the sky, their longing to escape out into the world again, is still stored in all those billions of liquid crystals which have now collapsed into the ocean. All that longing for freedom, all that desire to see the sun again, is now polluting the waters and over centuries is gradually absorbed into the sea life of Alterna.

Little-by-little, those desires become the desires of the squid and octopi and assorted sea creatures that live there, and they adapt. Their evolution is accelerated by their desperate need to see the sun and the sky.

Humanity never achieved their desire to escape the caves of Alterna. But their desperate longing was soaked up by the life of the sea, and the squid and octopi followed their new calling and found freedom. They absorbed the feelings and memory and hopes and fears of humanity and built an entire society just like the one that humans had left behind.

(From here I could diverge and talk about the tragic irony of Tartar wanting to eliminate inkling and octoling society for things that likely were also inherited from humans, but others have covered that ground.)

Instead I'm going to talk about humanity's desire for freedom, and about Calamari Inkantation.

Calamari Inkantation isn't just a really cool bop that everyone loves, written by the Squid Sisters. It borderline has magical powers; it dispels the last of Callie's mind control in Splatoon 2's story and is described as having "blown the hearts and minds" of anyone who witnessed it in Splatoon 1's finale. Marina heard it, said "This changes everything", vanished and immediately made for the surface. Agent 8 was similar, as Marina recounts:

DJ_Hyperfresh > I could tell right away that Agent 8 had also been touched by the Calamari Inkantation. DJ_Hyperfresh > Once our souls have been freed, there's no way we can continue to live under the oppression of Octarian society.

The parallels are there for sure, but how can we be sure of what's going on? This scroll from Splatoon 1:

"The customary chorus of Calamari County. Nowadays, this song and dance may as well be carved into the very DNA of all Inklings. It began as a way to celebrate and show respect for the bounty of the sea."

That heavenly melody that makes you wonder what's out there, and break past the artificial sky.

It's that same feeling, passed down for thousands of years. The longing of humanity, that desperation to escape their confines and see the sky, to break free!

It endured in Inklings and Octolings, for all of time, passed down in their blood and in their culture and song and dance, and that desire was so STRONG that hearing it in musical form was enough to bring those feelings flooding back to every Octarian and immediately make them defect and seek the surface world.

Humanity may be long gone, but their hopes and desires and dreams were so strong and rang so true that they live on even now, aeons later, withstanding the passage of time.

That's it. That's Calamari Inkantation.

[it-happened-one-fic]

Ink and Magic-The Watchman of the Underworld

Author Notes: Part 6 of this sort of halfway non canon compliant what if with the overblots and their aftermath! A lot of what I said for part 1 counts for this section too. This isn't exactly romantic. in fact, I would say it counts as more platonic, but it certainly can be taken as shippy. This will also be a series, though the Diasomnia section won't come out until that entire matter is resolved in game. As per usual, reader is gender-neutral. I hope you enjoy!

Spoilers for Book 6: The Watchman of the Underworld!

[Heartslabyul] [Savanaclaw] [Octavinelle] [Scarabia] [Pomefiore] [Ignihyde: You're Here] [Diasomnia: To be released]

Type: Gender-neutral reader/ fic series/ Can be platonic or romantic/ fluff/ angst/ comfort/ Spoilers for Ignihyde overblot.

TW: Character death mentioned.

Word count: 1504

Vil was barely able to haul Idia and Grim up and to safety with me, Rook, and Epel, all surging forward at once to help the now-aged model as soon as we could.

 Rook managed to catch Vil as the Pomefiore housewarden stumbled, all but crumpling to his knees before Rook grasped him. Grim fell from Vil’s arms, with Epel catching him desperately. 

I reached out, wrapping my arms around Idia’s prone body, which all but fell onto me and pushed me down and toward the ground under the weight of his limp body. His armor was already fading away, though, and turning back into the dark Styx robes.

Idia himself was still out cold, but he curled almost instinctively around me, with his hands knotting themselves in the long sleeves of my robes. Smearing the dark ink that still clung to his hands in a gruesome reminder of his overblot all over the once pristine Pomefiore robes.

I strained to look around his lanky form and at Vil and Grim, but I felt myself going oddly numb as the others looked over at me. Epel’s eyes widened with alarm as the world started to blur, and I felt myself buckling under the weight of both Idia and the exhaustion that swept over me. 

“Oh no! Rook, look! They’re-!” Epel’s panicked cry was one of the last things I heard before I succumbed to the darkness without hardly any fight. All other sounds faded away until there was only silence.

But the silence was almost welcome after everything that had just occurred. I found myself glancing around the empty space nonetheless, though. Waiting for the film of Idia’s life to start, just like I knew it would.

But before there was any brilliant flash of light, I heard Idia’s solemn, quiet voice from right next to me.

By now, I knew better than to search for him; I wouldn’t be able to see him anyway. I never could find those who shared this dark world with me.

So instead, I just listened to his morose narration that came from somewhere within the darkness, “My life has been set in stone even before I was born. ‘The Island of Woe’s Gatekeeper.’ That was the path laid out for me.”

A scene flickered to life, briefly blinding me as people from Idia’s past began to talk excitedly. Slowly unraveling the mystery of what exactly had led up to Idia overblotting.

“Young Idia is truly exceptional. He excels in both magic and his studies. He’s even impressed experts with his technomatic engineering work. That boy’s a bona-fide genius.”

“It’s true. Styx’s future is in good hands.”

A bona-fide genius… Yet another weight description for someone as young as Idia seemed to be in this scene from his past.

I found myself frowning already, but it was beyond clear even without Idia’s somber, apathetic words that no one even bothered to wonder what this young genius might want to do for himself.

No one… except for maybe one.

I found myself smiling at the sight of a young Idia and another boy, the original Ortho, playing games alongside each other. It was obvious the two had been beyond close, even from just this tiny tidbit of their lives together.

The perfect image of two little boys who were each other’s favorite playmates.

It was also obvious that, even at this young age, Idia already thought highly of himself. A side effect of being a so-called ‘bona-fide genius’ I suspected.

It was jarring, though, to realize that I'd never really seen Idia smile with such genuine, innocent joy. 

I frowned slightly though as, snickering mischievously, the two boys began to sneak out as Idia’s narrated ominously. His words putting me on edge as I listened to him, “It was just childish curiosity. We wanted to go on an adventure. I didn’t think of the consequences. I didn’t know what would happen.”

My hands were soon flying to my mouth in helpless horror as everything played out in front of me. The security went down and monsters broke loose, immediately finding the two young boys. And then….

Idia didn’t have to say anything. Ortho’s panicked little voice, followed by the inhuman growl of the monster and then jarring darkness as the scene went out like a candle in a gust of wind said everything.

But he spoke anyway. His voice hollow with numbness as I slowly pulled my hands from my mouth, “I didn’t remember much after that. Ortho was already gone when I woke up.”

At first, I watched in silent, almost stunned horror as the researchers discussed what happened.

“Unbelievable… A 10-year old managed to hack into the world's most reinforced security system…”

“He was too smart for his own good. His intellect brought such tragedy about…”

“The escaped Phantom was apparently sent to the Underworld.”

“Sadly, the inevitability of the event can’t erase the tragic truth…”

 The scene shifted back to young Idia, and I felt tears start to well up in my eyes as he begged for someone to give him back his little brother. All but screaming in a raw voice that was perfectly at odds with the numb, quiet tone the Idia I knew usually spoke in.

“Give him back…. Give Ortho back to me… I want him all back… His body, his personality, his memories…. GIVE HIM BACK!!”

I felt myself going still, my eyes widening as the thoughts of the young boy played out before me, though. Almost like they were predicting the future that I’d already known would come.

…I know. If they won’t give him back, I can just make a new one….

The next thing I saw was an adolescent version of Idia introducing his creation. The new Ortho. 

This one was more stilted than the one I got to know, as it spoke in an undeniably robotic, monotone voice and recommended rest as the adolescent Idia broke down in tears.

A part of me wanted to reassure him. Tell him how much further he’d come and how the Ortho I knew couldn’t just be written of a robot. Not when he was so real.

But I knew it wouldn’t help. Not only could I not speak to him, it was obvious that he already knew perfectly well that no matter how groundbreaking this Ortho was, it couldn’t change the past.

His brother had died.

Slowly but surely, everything began to fade back into a darkness that, now, after having seen all of that, felt comforting. 

Soon the only thing present in this abyss was Idia’s voice. Lamenting his past choices with an apathy that practically had me wincing. 

Had he been this unenthused about everything… about his very life, ever since the tragedy of his youth? The only sign of emotion, of the pain that I now knew rested deep beneath it all in his memories and guilt, was the way his voice faltered and he corrected himself.

“How did things end up this way? I just … We just… We just wanted to be like everyone else.”

Even now, he was bearing far more than what he himself wanted. He also bore Ortho’s wishes with him, never forgetting his brother’s dreams, just as he never ceased in blaming himself for his brother’s untimely death.

I still couldn’t agree with his choices, but I did understand them now. I had no doubts that everything me and everyone else had just gone through was rooted in the wish to give his brother another chance to realize his own dream.

I opened my eyes slowly, finding that I was still lying on my back from where I’d fallen. Idia was stretched out with his head resting on my stomach. His arms curled around my waist, tight enough that I doubted I could pull myself free.

He was still past out, murmuring Ortho’s name in a pained tone that had me swallowing thickly. After everything I’d seen, I understood why Idia was the way he was.

He’d gone through a tragedy, and apparently those around him had failed him. They’d let him lock himself up as he poured all his efforts and genius into recreating Ortho, even though deep down he knew he could never correct his past mistake.

I looked over to see the Pomefiore trio resting, my eyes slowly meeting Vil’s. And even despite his appearance, those amethyst of his were the same as ever.

And my heart broke a little as he smiled at my wearily before speaking in a voice that was raspy with old age that should not be, “I see you’re back.”

Rook and Epel both looked up wide-eyed as soon as he spoke. Both of them smiling in relief and standing as soon as they saw me looking at them.

I smiled slightly as I did my best not to cry simply for Vil’s sake.

But at odds with my emotions, Vil merely looked down at Idia with characteristic distaste, “Now to wake this one….”

[mariacallous]

My father was a short-order cook, a strictly stovetop kind of guy. Israeli salads and scrambled eggs. I never saw him approach the lower half of the oven, except to clean it within an inch of its life. It would take me until my 30s to realize that he did not grow up with anything like the ovens we had in Canada, and that there wasn’t much in his childhood home to place in a stove. 

He was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1936 to Yemenite parents, who themselves were born in Ottoman Palestine. All four of his grandparents left Yemen in 1881 in what was known as the First Yishuv. 

For my father, an oven was a primus — a portable camping stove that uses kerosene or paraffin oil. As a 12-year-old boy during the 1948 War of Independence, he ate grass and weeds (mostly mallow, known as kubezeh) that he had to forage for himself. So, on balance, his short-order cooking made sense. 

When I grew up and moved to Israel and other new immigrants asked me about my background, my father’s lack of culinary skills became a source of repeated disappointment. 

You must have had tons of jachnun and zhug? 

More like zero. 

I thought you said he was Yemenite. 

My father did put an awful lot of Mexican salsa on everything from spaghetti to chicken, and ate onions like apples for breakfast, but Jewish food for me was Ashkenazi all the way. Well, you can’t go back.

Recently, I introduced a new dialogue project with my EFL (English as a Foreign Language) college students (anything to get them talking). Each student had to film herself discussing her favorite family recipe. I teach in Jerusalem and my students come from a range of backgrounds that include Morocco, Algeria, Syria, Ethiopia, Russia and France. 

Occasionally I have a student with a Yemenite background. This particular student, we’ll call her Shira, introduced her recipe by stressing how often she eats it at home, and how delicious and nutritious it was, particularly for keeping on weight. This made sense as Yemen was (and still is) a very poor country, and many of their recipes are inexpensive and calorie dense, something important in an undernourished population. 

Then, to my amazement, Shira described my father’s “hot cereal” recipe, as I had always called it. He used to mention that his mother made it for him year-round, including on Passover, but I took that to mean it was a family recipe, not a Yemenite Jewish one. 

My father made this for me on the rare winter mornings when he was not off to work before I woke up. I remember the satisfied look on his face as he stirred and stirred groats, tossing out tidbits about his mother and his life in pre-state Israel like rare coins while he watched butter melt into the milk. He wasn’t much of a talker when it came to his past, but perhaps the familiar smell loosened his tongue. 

For a few minutes, I would be drawn into his world of a mother who sold her own saluf (Yemenite flatbread) and zhug to passersby for extra money and chatted in both Arabic and Yiddish, rather than my usual stance, which was “Why can’t he be like all of the other fathers in my Jewish school and pull out the AlphaBits and Fruit Loops?” Nowadays, this recipe is a family favorite, particularly on Passover and if we are having sleepover guests on Shabbat. 

I remember Shira’s surprise when I told her I was familiar with this recipe and thanked her for choosing it as her assignment. Turns out my birthright wasn’t entirely lost to me, it just took me longer than most to realize it. Better late than never. 

Cooking notes 

This recipe is endlessly adaptable:

My kids prefer it with half a cup less water and half a cup more milk. Some people omit the milk, just as they would for oatmeal. 

I’ve seen recipes that add a teaspoon of sugar and margarine instead of butter, though I’ve never tried it. 

On Passover, we substitute crushed matzah for groats or wheat. 

On Shabbat, we bake this mix in a jachnun pot on a low heat (225°F or 100°C) overnight in the oven for cold Saturday mornings, which yields a very soft mixture.

[righteousdelusions]

Yoshida language tidbits.

Yoshida is the surname, it's the 11th most used last name in Japan. His name is Hirofumi. He has never introduced himself with his full name, only using Yoshida.

He uses ore (俺, オレ) as a personal pronoun. Not only with people of his age, when he presented himself in the international assassins arc, he used ore too.

He calls Denji kimi (キミ). And "Denji-kun", of course.

Denji calls him anta/teme.

Kimi is written in katakana, not kanji.

Addendum: Denji uses ore of course. Mostly it shows in kanji, however, around Yoshida, it's in katakana.

According to the internet, a writer is implying different things if he uses kanji, hiragana or katakana for personal pronouns (though i suppose that's true for any word). Girls might use hiragana more often, because it has cute / elegant / childish connotations. Katakana is more manly, used in scenes of informal or friendly contexts. But also, in the case of Yoshida calling Denji kimi written in katakana -> it can imply friendliness and novelty, but also condescension and fakeness.

(Makima also called him kimi in katakana).

Basically, they talk to each others like dudes, except Yoshida is super annoying about it.

This is a personal interpretation of me, but he uses a flirt stock phrases. "nakayoku shiyouze" instead of the usual "doumo" or "yoroshiku", "ogoruyo". If you google those phrases, you get flirt manuals, date phrases and hentai (don't click on it, trust me).

Thanks to liatreppe for inspiring me to make this list.

[sofasoap]

Miss Sunflower

Pairing : Kyle “ Gaz” Garrick x F!reader Summary:  Gaz and you started long distance… friendship? Sequel to Miss Sunshine

Warning: M theme.

Gaz route for my Mini MacTavish verse, I just love the photo of Elliot Knight big cute smile! As always, Thanks to mother of my Mini MacTavish @saltofmercury for lending me the character “ Mini” from her story. <3 Go read her  “The Favorite MacTavish”  !

“Masterlist” for other stories to this Mini MacTavish expanded verse.

Gaz gasped and dropped his phone.

“Everything Ok?” Soap asked as he started bending down to pick up the phone for him. Gaz was quicker to snatch the phone off the floor.

“ No, yes. All good. Um, Price wants me to see me in his office, I’ll talk to you later.” Gaz made a quick retreat from the common room, ducking towards the opposite direction of the office, leaving a very confused Soap behind, while pointing to Price, who is currently sitting by the window, chatting to Ghost. 

He can’t let Soap see what was on his phone. 

Not that it’s some risque picture or anything. Well. Not quite. But it’s a selfie picture of you, in a beautiful sunflower pattern dress, LOW CUT DRESS, wearing a cap very similar to his, except with a St Andrew’s cross instead of Union jack on it. That beautiful smile again.

“ Look what I found! Now we have matching cap :) Well, I can’t get a Union Jack one otherwise Johnny will be angry with me.” you wrote in the caption. 

Your brother will kill me. Gaz thought. 

He wasn’t quite sure if it was the alcohol that did the talking when you slipped him the phone number that night.  Took him a week of self-deliberation to finally summon up the courage to text you. Your response was immediate. Which gave him great relief. It was a start of blossoming friendship, constant messaging back and forth, occasional phone calls when he is in the privacy of his own room back at the base.

He started sending you photos of all the places he has been to on mission, letting you travel through him, all stemmed from you complaining one day;

“ I am very envious of Johnny and you boys.. Getting to travel all over the world.. Sorry I know it's to war zones... But I have never stepped outside of The British isle before.. Ma claims she took us to France once, but I don’t remember a thing. I was only one year old!”

How he wishes he can take you with him, by his side, showing you the famous sites of the world. Reality is a bitch. He is always out for work, not pleasure. Saving the world, just like the superheroes. You teased him once. 

In return, you update him about little tidbits of your life, what happened at work, the new ER doctor everyone is drooling over, (he denies a burn of jealousy rising when heard about it), little gossips you heard, new food you tried out. “Sorry my life is boring compared to yours.” Gaz loves it though. It gives him a sense of normalcy amongst the blood sheds and killings, and getting to know you more. What your favourite foods are, your irks. Even though you two haven’t met again physically after that night, he always feels he is close to you, by heart. 

He loves hearing your voice just before they had to go dark for missions. Even with the time differences, you will always answer his message, picking up the call.

“Stay safe please.” That whisper of yours. Always laced with sadness. 

“I will.” I will stay alive. To come back to you. He wanted to say. 

Where is the relationship at? You two never discuss it. The feeling of trapping in this friendzone, both of you waiting for each other to step over that little boundary line, to finally take the relationship into the next phase. He’s been with other people before. But no one else ever makes him so nervous like a teenager again. What is stopping him from making the move? Wrath of Soap? Not wanting to disturb the peace of the team, jeopardising missions. Or people are going to judge him for going after his friend’s younger sister? 

Or people are going to call him selfish, for leading you on, entering into a relationship that is heading to a tragic end, with a high possibility that he might not return from mission one day, leaving you heartbroken.

Or he is just finding excuses, because he is damn scared. Scared of your rejection, and losing you entirely.

He just can’t help it. He is falling more and more for you. He wants to confess to you. His Miss Sunflower.

“Come on Mini, I dare you, send him the picture! Maybe he will finally make a move on you.”

“But… but… isn’t this showing a bit too much of my…. this…..”“ OH hush, you look very cute in that dress. DO IT.” 

Gaz ran back to his room afterwards, trying to dispel any ungentlemanly thoughts out of his brain. Failed miserably.  

I seriously suck at writing long chapters, I think short little  bits really suit me. Thank you for reading, comments and reblogs always appreciated :) 

taglist: @deadbranch

@voxyin

[911onabc]

Tease Tidbit Tuesday/WIP Wednesday

tagged by: @thewolvesof1998 @honestlydarkprincess @king-buckley @wildlife4life @disasterbuckdiaz @messyhairdiaz @rewritetheending @giddyupbuck @wikiangela

tagging: @bucks118 @rogerzsteven @diazass @cowboy-buck @alyxmastershipper @buddierights @paranoidbean @hippolotamus @jeeyuns @loserdiaz @the-likesofus

this is a longggggg bit of alien mpreg au featuring buckmay bickering and technophobe eddie. put most of it under a read more so i'm not destroying your dash lol <3

“Why is there a bike on your wall?” May asked Buck, sitting on his kitchen island. She was chewing on a slice of pizza. When Buck had teased her about not really helping, she claimed that was why she brought her boyfriend–who was in fact moving boxes out to the van. 

“It keeps it out of the way,” Buck explained. “I don’t have a ton of storage.”

“Do you ever actually use it? Or do you just leave it on the wall?”

“Well, it’s kind of a hassle to take down.” Buck admitted. It wasn’t like he was frequently being invited to go on bike rides.

“So why do you even have a bike?” May asked. 

“In case I ever want to go biking,” Buck sighed, then nudged May’s arm. “Pass me a slice of Hawaiian.”

“Gross,” May chided, but passed the slice of pizza to him anyway. “I don’t know how you eat that stuff.”

“And I don’t know how you came to my house just to insult me,” Buck rolled his eyes, taking a bite of his pizza. He didn’t look at May as he spoke to her, instead placing his gaze on the parade of people carrying boxes through his front door. “Though, I guess it’s not really my apartment anymore, right?”

In a few hours, nothing of Buck’s would be left in the loft, and he would hand over his key to the building manager. And then he would never be able to come back.

Maybe he cared a little bit about saying goodbye to the loft.

“Are you sad?” May asked, her voice no longer teasing. Buck wasn’t all that surprised–she was an observant young woman. “I mean–to give up your apartment? It was the first place that was really yours, right?”

“Uhhh-” Buck started, but before he could answer, Eddie appeared in-between them. 

“May, do you want this?” He asked, shoving a tangle of wires and a block-shaped speaker in her arms.

“Hey!” Buck exclaimed. “That’s my alarm clock.”

“That thing listens to everything you say,” Eddie said. “Even when you don’t talk to it. It’s creepy. And dystopian. And I already have a perfectly good alarm clock that doesn’t try to track my every move and sell me name-brand groceries.”

“Name-brand…Eddie, I already explained this to you. It’s called targeted marketing.” Buck sighed. 

Eddie ignored him, instead fixing his eyes on May and awaiting her answer. 

“I mean, I already have an alarm clock, but my roommates and I did want a speaking for the living room, so–”

“Perfect,” Eddie smiled at her. “It’s yours, then.”

“Eddie,” Buck said. “You can’t just go around giving away my stuff.”

“Not your stuff,” Eddie said. “Just that thing. It’s not coming into our house. Non-negotiable.” 

Buck was a little shocked at how naturally the our house came rolling off of Eddie’s tongue. Shocked enough that he couldn’t think of anything else to do except sit there, dumbfounded. And when Buck failed to come up with a response, Eddie nodded–a stupid, smug look across his face–and turned walked away to continue to do whatever it was he was doing before. 

Probably giving away more of his stuff, Buck realized. Only he couldn’t really find it in himself to mind that much.

“No.” Buck finally said, once Eddie was out of earshot. 

“No?” May parroted. “No, what? Sorry, do you want this back? I can–”

“You can keep it,” Buck said. “I was just answering your question from earlier. Uh–no. I’m not sad. To be leaving the loft.”

“Oh,” May said. “Well. That’s good, I guess.”

Buck took another bite of his pizza.

[yakool-foolio]

I honestly wish Rain Code’s final act was involved the other NDA detectives a bit more. It did feel a little cheap that the only time they showed up was as staged deaths, and in the epilogue you find out they where OK all along lol. And then everyone fucked off. :/

We were robbed of the NDA detectives helping out with the final investigation. The damn notes left behind weren't even theirs! I get that leaving the final showdown closed off to everyone except Yuma adds to the tension, but at the same time it misses out on a lotta potential final interactions to finish off each characters' arcs cleanly. I propose my personal fix of chapter 5 to actually involve the detectives in some form:

Yuma sticks with Kurumi throughout the entirety of he investigation like normal. However, instead of the NDA detectives being locked up in Kanai Tower, they're all at the abandoned village. They woke up before Yuma, so they all remain out of sight as they begin their own individual 'field research' while also trying to find each other. Instead of fake-out corpses, the detectives leave behind notes from their research and scraps of their clothing/accessories for Yuma to find (Halara leaves one of their earrings, Fubuki leaves a bracelet, Desuhiko leaves a pin, and Vivia leaves a bandage). It still shocks Yuma into thinking they may be in danger, but there's always hope that they're alive.

When Yuma and Kurumi reach the bathhouse, all the NDA detectives are there. There's a healthy amount of time spent with them embracing in one big group hug as they express their worry and relief that they're all alive and okay. They spend some time talking amongst themselves, sharing more tidbits about their investigations with Yuma while also ending each of their character arcs on a good note. When they turn off the rainmaker (wouldn't be surprised if Fubuki turned it off out of curiosity), they're confronted by Makoto. With no one else to turn to, Yuma helps Makoto and he turns the rainmaker back on. All the detectives are wary, and their fears are proven right as Makoto holds a gun to Yuma, threatening to kill him if they don't keep the truth from getting out. Yuma quickly calls on Shinigami as the detectives and Makoto are at a standstill, and the Mystery Labyrinth ensues.

Bonus Viviakou route cause I couldn't contain myself: When Yuma follows Yakou's voice and later finds him at the broken down test facility, he's startled to find two figures cloaked in shadow walking beside one another. Upon closer inspection, Yuma gasps at the sight of Vivia accompanying the zombified Yakou. Vivia notices the trainee's presence. The ghostly detective tells him that he found Yakou wandering alone and decided to stay and try talking with him. He mentions that Yakou wishes to give something of value to Yuma, in which the zombified chief hands him the disk. Yuma thanks the both of them, and Vivia ends off their conversation by reassuring him that he'll regroup with him soon, but he wants to spend more time with Yakou first. As Yuma agrees and walks away, he momentarily turns back to see Vivia looking at Yakou with a silvery glint in his eyes. He sadly smiles as he reaffirms in his mind how much Vivia cared for Yakou.

[smilingbuckley]

Tease tidbit tuesday except its still Monday but I got a busy work day tomorrow

I managed to write some for my teacher AU, though with a few breaks. First I could feel the writer slump slumping so I rewatched The Rookie instead, and now I can feel a migraine coming up. (Been having them a lot, probably should go to the doctor cause the doctor assistant said I take too many ibuprofen for my age but paracetamol just doesn't help)

Here you have a new snippet.

There’s a moment of silence and then Eddie clears his throat, “Anyway, uh, that’s why I have medical knowledge.”

Buck nods, “Got it.”

“Your turn, what’s up with that firefighter keychain?” Eddie asks him.

Buck laughs softly, “Ah. That. I got it when I was little. I, uh, got hurt a lot. I was stubborn, mostly desperate for attention, good or bad. One day I climbed a tree, loved doing that, so high up I was afraid to go down. Neighbors called 9-1-1 and firefighters showed up. One of the firefighters talked to me up there. I was really sad that day. My parents were out of town, Maddie was gone. I didn’t really want to go home. But he was nice and convinced me to come down with him. He gave me that keychain before they left. I wanted to be a firefighter after that, but life got in the way.”

Eddie laughs, “I can’t imagine you as a firefighter… Or maybe I can. You like helping people.”

Buck takes another bite of the monstrous food. “Maybe in another life. But I’m happy as a history teacher.”

“Me too. That you’re a history teacher, I mean. If you were a firefighter I would never have met you.” Eddie says, cheeks tinted pink.

“Yeah you would’ve,” Christopher says, suddenly in the doorway. He wipes at his eyes and yawns, “You would’ve set the kitchen on fire one day. Mr. B would’ve probably saved you.”

Eddie laughs, making Buck laugh as well. Christopher has a satisfied smirk before he opens the fridge.

Tagging @thewolvesof1998 @watchyourbuck @jamespearce9-1-1 and @steadfastsaturnsrings for Tuesday

Now I'm gonna prepare from monday. My sleep schedule is still shit from Christmas break and I've got two meeting in a row in the afternoon.

[alpaca-clouds]

Daily things in historical settings

I am listening to a lot of the DnD audiobooks right now and I am kinda drawn back and forth between being amused and kinda annoyed with some of the stuff that those books get wrong. Because... Okay, DnD is not a real historical setting. The historical technologies and such are all over the place. But... I am going to assume that at least horses travel at the same speed than actual horses.

So, let me talk about some little tidbits that might be interesting to people writing (pseudo)historical settings. Be it fanfiction or your original fantasy books.

Historical Travelling & Information Speed

Some things that people struggle with has to do with how fast travel was - and how fast information could struggle. And great news: For most of human history this did not change a lot. Like, from the moment people first created wagons to put behind horses, till the invention of the car (well, and in regards to information the sign posts) this didn't change.

Historically speaking a lot of travel happened on foot. People travelling by foot would usually make 15-40km (so about 8-20 miles) per day.

People travelling on horseback would cover about 30-50km (15-25miles)

Messengers, who had faster horses and switched them out, might manage 70-80km on one day (35-40 miles).

Stagecoaches would also have high speeds and switch out horses, managing between 50 and 70km. Please note: If you wanted to travel with a stage coach, you usually would have to give message ahead.

Someone just leasurely taking a horse wagon might cover between 30 and 40 miles usually.

Armies (that moved slower, due to the number of people and the stuff they took along) would most of the time cover between 15 and 25km (8-13miles)

Big exception were the Romans, who would often march between 40 and 50km a day (20-25miles) when they moved their army.

River travel obviously depended on whether you would travel upstream or downstream. Usually upstream would not be more than 20km (10 miles) a day. Downstream it could be up to 60 or even 70km a day (30-35 miles).

Sea travel depended a lot on the weather and the ship. On good days they could do 150km a day, but on bad days they might only cover 40km.

Food and Drink

Okay, I talk about medieval food and drink a lot. I am not gonna go into the more detailed things what was eaten and what not, because I did that enough. (And if you do historical stuff, sure, maybe your fantasy world has different food.) Instead I would rather like to talk about some logistic and technological things.

A lot of historical houses did not have a kitchen. Rather the people would just good food over their fireplace. Usually they had some way of hanging a pot over the fire (like seen above), which might be adjustable for height and closeness to the fire. Which is why a lot a people often ate soups and stews. Because you could cook those with just one pot.

You know the phrase "best thing since the invention of sliced bread"? Yeah, that is because for the longest time, bread wasn't sliced. People just pulled it apart and dunked it in whatever they were eating.

Historically speaking there was no running water, so people had to go out to a pump or well to get their water. (I really just wanna see people getting water more often in fantasy settings.)

In some areas of the world, people might actually drink beer instead of water, mostly for the fact that they noticed that folks would get less sick from it. But please note, that this beer was very thin. So rarely more than 1% alcohol.

Hygiene

Alright, let's be honest Hygiene is something people usually to not address in their fantasy settings at all. For a plethora of reasons. But let me talk about it either way.

Toilets often were outhouses or just holes in the ground. (Technically speaking outhouses often were just holes in the ground with some extra stuff.) Only few historical settings had a proper sewer system. If you were travelling, you would just dig a small hole, do your business, and then fill the hole back up.

If you needed to do your business at night, you would usually do it in a pisspot that you would empty in the morning

Contrary to popular believe: Yes, historical people did bathe. There were bathhouses in most parts of the world - and people would bathe in open waters. Bathing at home was less common, because it was just such a fucking bother. You needed to get water from a river, pond or well in buckets, needed to fill up a tub with that and then heat it. So... bathhouses were more sensible. But even if you did the work at home, the family would bathe in the same water one after another.

Outside of India people did not figure out shampoo until the 20th century. So rather than shampoo people would use oils to clean their hair.

Washing machines were obviously not a thing either. Instead laundry was done doing washboards and it was very exhausting work.

There was no central garbage disposal. Now, a lot of places relied on pigs on the street to clean up. (My city here has been called the "city of pigs" in medieval times for that reason, lol.) But stuff folks threw away might litter streets in cities. And yes, this might also include dead animals.

Very little is known with how people being curses with an uterus dealt with the more or less monthly problem. But it is assumed that people wore a special kind of underwear for this to soak up the blood. (In some parts of the world, women of course were considered unclean during their period...)

[entomolog-t]

Got an Idea

In the world of "Bite Me" vampires are real tiny parasitic things, right? But they're still vampires. Does that mean there are people like paranormal hunters or something? There's so much potential in these...

THIS IS A GREAT QUESTION!

So to avoid spoilers I'm going to be pretty vague-

Vampires in the Bite Me universe are abnormal but not paranormal (though I will be doing a paranormal au because there is SO MUCH potential so by all means I can try to answer some more trad vampire stuff if talking about the potential au).

THOUGH- that doesn't mean that the tiny lil bloodsucking activity has gone completely unnoticed right? I mean, Aedes can't possibly be the only vampire who's been caught...

A BIT MORE ELABORATION

Vampires are completely normal biologically speaking, in that they don't have supernatural powers. The vampires in the Bite Me universe are essentially just a type of well adapted parasite. Some lil tidbits about their biology-

⚠ Nerd Alert ⚠

They are nocturnal- and hunt at night. Their eyes are adapted for low light conditions, though they can still move freely in the light.

They have an instinctual fear towards light (feels open, the feeling of being watched etc...) essentially to avoid predation by animals or being spotted by humans

Vampires have keen senses (hearing, smell, taste, sight) and phenomenal reaction time in order to help hunt. With their processing speed and keen senses, unless you catch one in the act or manage to corner/trap one, vampires are extremely hard to catch by just grabbing (cough cough, unless a certain lil someone likes to be grabbed) His senses dull when not in active "bloodlust" in order to keep the mind from being perpetually overwhelmed by everything all at once, though even dulled they are remarkably keen.

They are stronger than humans (relatively speaking), and quite durable. They have a high density of fast twitch muscles that helps further bolster their reaction time.

I've dabbled with the possibly of them having mild electroreception (basically in order to have a 6th sense towards heart beats as the muscle contracts) BUUUT I want to play around with the speculative biology with that. Mammals don't typically have an electrosense (more of a fish thing) but there are exceptions- yet those are still water based (with the semi exception of the echidna) so I'd have to do some pretty hefty playing around if I wanted to make it work.

They're allergic to garlic (along with a lot of other foods). Carnivorous, especially blood based parasitic diets leave an organism with an extremely reduced gut (Fun fact, theres actually a reason behind Aedes' slutty lil waist 😭) so they typically lack the ability to digest some harsher irritants, garlic being a big one. The smell is also extremely pungent so, yes, it absolutely will keep Aedes away (though it would have to be crushed)

Vampires in Bite Me do have one ability that feels almost supernatural- they are natural mimics. Vampires have incredible vocal control and ranges. This is incredibly useful to both ward off predators and lure in prey. Because of this- there are some typical tactics they use to avoid being caught (Some in more remote regions will mimic a rattlesnake rattle to deter a person from coming closer if they get spotted- and are usually able to slip away while the human calls pest control). This skill has led to both folklore and urban legends, about weird sounds occurring in strange locations. With their speed and skills in avoiding detection, a person would likely assume their house is haunted well before thinking theres a little vampire running around their house

Typically their bite is mildly numbing- though a very small number of people have a mutation that makes the numbing nearly completely ineffective (June being one of them). In that case, the numbing tends to work against its intended purpose- the numbing instead being noticeably tingling, and without the numbing agent, the anticoagulation factors and vasodilators within the saliva increase sensation in tandem with the increased bloodflow to the bite area, as well as giving the overall area a warm sensation.

WHEW

That was a chunky lore dump.

[heroesspirit]

Can we have any little lore tidbits about Hyrule? He's usually my favorite in AUs so I'm excited to meet him in HS! ⚡

Yes absolutely! Hyrule in HS does go strictly by they/them, and their given nickname is Sparks. They are aromantic as well, so they’re not interested in their Zeldas in a romantic capacity.

They are a survivalist, and have most of their gear from their adventures. With the exception of the raft. Not even for a lore reason, I simply did not want to draw it.

They’re extremely reserved and don’t talk all that much, when they do it’s typically something a tad unhinged. They’re also the type to assume anything is a threat, and they deal with that via fighting instead of speaking.

I think in the original reference I made for them, I wrote that they were the healer/mage. That’s since been changed, Sparks doesn’t know anything about healing. While yes, they do have a life spell, they don’t know basic first aid. Their favorite spell is Thunder, which I think says a lot about their personality.

While they do come off as standoffish and debatably uncaring at times, Sparks does care about their people and their friends. They are not from Hyrule originally, so they value acceptance and camaraderie. You scratch their back, and they’ll scratch yours. While they are quite touch aversive and unlikely to hug you unless you’re super close, they will comfort you in other ways, such as offering you a really cool rock they found, or making you a little bead bracelet.

Extremely important, their favorite food is white bean soup.

[pynkhues]

Hello ! I absolutely love your thoughts about shows and characters! this is such a random question. Do you think Rio would be super into movies? Not like a film bro necessarily but I do think he would be really critical, particular of the type of movies he enjoys 😭. Maybe a little judgey n amused by Beth’s fav movies. Though maybe they would enjoy the same films .What are your head cannons?

Hi! Oh, anon, I have long had the personal headcanon that Rio's an enormous snob, haha.

I tend to see him as more of a book and music guy than a film or TV guy tbh, in no small part because he had a record player but no TV in his apartment in 2.11, but I think it checks out with what we know of his character too. I do like the idea though that when he does watch movies, he does so in two capacities - firstly as a sort of bougie trait (he only watches films at the cinema, and probably arthouse ones at that), and secondly that he might enjoy watching b-gangster movies to talk shit about all the things they're doing wrong, haha.

I can see him and Beth doing both together when they're in an established relationship? And I think they'd both posture a little with going to the cinema but actually have more fun with laughing together at b-gangster movies. I also kind of love the idea of Beth secret-squirreling away tidbits of information when Rio was talking shit too, because he'd reveal more about his experiences and the crime world than he meant to for the sake of tearing a movie to shreds, haha.

I also love the idea of his snobbery kind of extending to the kids sometimes. Like him trying to stop the kids from watching Frozen for the 1200th time and trying to get them into like, communist Hungarian folklore animation like Son of the White Mare instead which most of the kids would hate, except like, Jane, who liked all the new ways it taught her how to be a little evil (also, y'know, maybe she'd like the bonding time and the fact that pretending to like the weird movies Rio played them got her extra dessert).

As for Beth's taste - - I think she'd decide early that she'd keep watching the things she actually wanted to watch with Ruby and Annie, haha.

[chatonarya]

I was having Goat Feelings.

(Written post "Blade Catcher" release)

It truly astounds me how much emphasis HG has placed on the Karlan Trio with the release of Degenbrecher. I won't have the full scope until RS releases on global as I prefer to read the official translation (story and Degenbrecher's op file and voice lines), but with each new tidbit I coincidentally learn despite largely attempting to avoid big spoilers, I'm simply bowled over by it.

Ever since BI, it's been implied that the reason Degenbrecher sticks around Kjerag is not money, but rather because she approves and supports Karlan Trade's endeavors. She talks a bit about how she didn't like Kazimierz, and she thought she wouldn't like Kjerag, but she does, and it's quiet. My guess was that she stayed there because she liked the peace after nine years of arena fighting and being hunted down, and she possibly even felt she owed Enciodes for saving her life, and maybe she found it (and them) entertaining. This was given further fuel by Enciodes's second oprec where he states "Degenbrecher keeps herself deliberately uninvolved," doesn't care, and views much of what he does as simply inviting trouble for himself.

But what's abundantly clear now is that Degenbrecher cares a lot about Enciodes and Gnosis on a personal level. Parts of her EP are clearly addressed to them as they appear in the background of it, emphasizing their bond, and through the lyrics she's swearing to protect them with her life no matter what. "I will be your wall, I'll take it all;" "It's a blizzard of fear, but you're safe here;" "Won't let you drown." Even the name of the song "Blade Catcher," aside from being another reference to her name, implies that she will catch the blades that come towards them. She is the blade catcher; the swordbreaker. She speaks of the "blade, heaven made" deep inside of her, and how she is "the creature born to fight" but she fights for them. (Deeper reasons I presume will be elaborated on in her file/RS, but if I were to guess, it's because they "melted the snow" and saw that "blade" inside of her and didn't try to use her or judge her. "Don't ask who would I be," she says, refusing to allow "the shadow" of her past to shake her, instead making it "the key to the fortress"; perhaps it's that sentiment that links all three of them together.)

What amazes me is not the fact that she cares, because that was hinted at (one of the first things I noticed was that she addresses Enciodes by his first name), but by how much she cares and how boldly and openly it's stated. It's not just a mere fondness, just an amusement: they're her friends, and she would kill for them. Oh, she might complain about them being annoying, or comment about wanting to smack them around a bit, but that doesn't change the fact that she still has their backs and she's not shy about it. She's not just a bodyguard, she's never been just a bodyguard, but she's so much more than I expected. I anticipated her to be cool and standoffish, speaking of Enciodes (and Gnosis to a much lesser extent) with some detached fondness about how good he's been to her; I expected her EP to speak of her pain-filled childhood and how she found herself in battle to make herself from something defective into something exceptional; I did not expect her EP to wholeheartedly declare her loyalty and dedication.

[naffeclipse]

You know, there is something I keep thinking about the hunter that won't leave my mind.

In the werewolf chapter, as they tell the story with the demon, they say "I used to love cryptids".

Thing is. I feel like they really still do. Like it's a love hate relationship, except they don't seem to have much hate either. Yes, they have the very firm believe that Cryptids are dangerous and *must* be dealt with, or innocent people will pay the price, but their approach really doesn't seem very personal (and this despite the fact that it was the constant fear of the demon that put them in this path). Their main motivation is not to kill, it's to protect. They refer to a lot of cryptids as if they were rabid animals rather than creatures with actual thoughts and understanding (which they don't think they have), with evil and pain being an instinct to the cryptids instead of a reasoning, even feeling a bit of compassion for the vampires at the start, offering to let them rest rather than live with a cursed existence. And that's just about the hunts themselves!

We see time and time again how they love filling their life with cryptid merch and how it brings them joy! The novelty T-shirts, all the little decorations in their airstream, the fact that the first series they wanted to show Sun and Moon is Casper, the friendly ghost! Not only that, they are so enthusiastic about the real life cryptids almost from a scientific standpoint! They love it when Sun and Moon ask about this or that creature, because then they get to share! They get to talk about all they know about them and what is an effective way to deal with them!

If they stopped loving cryptids, I swear the way in which they act about it wouldn't be as excited. More like Vanessa seems to be, which from the small tidbits the hunter has provided, seems to be much more aggressive, much more personal, and much more filled with hate for all these creatures. Their expression darkening when talking about them instead of lighting up.

Just a small thing I find interesting about y/n, since they claim that their love for cryptids is over and yet there is so much about their choices that says otherwise!

*rattles you* Yes! A thousand times yes! I'm gonna smooch ya on your big beautiful brain *mwah*

Y/N thinks that if they're scared of something, they can no longer love it, but that's not the truth. They love cryptids, but it's been so terribly overshadowed by the fear of their first encounter and the subsequential night terrors and other side effects that they think they've lost that joy. Like a child growing up and seeing the world for the first time, their view on cryptids—the one thing they have been fascinated about and chasing for as long as they can remember—has been tainted by harshness and reality. The idealization is gone, but not the love. They have a difficult time acknowledging that something can be both good and bad, bring both joy and horror, and that's okay. That's something to work through. Y/N can have both a love and a fear for cryptids.

Perhaps a certain cryptid will allow Y/N to understand that.

[calamari-minecraft-corner]

Alright, what’s the deal with Reset Loop AU? What causes c!Karl to go sicko mode?

OKAY SO! Long post ahead! And I want to preface that this was made over 2 years ago so this was way before when Eret talked about the finale— also it’s a bit edgy so I’m sorry in advance

*

The basis of the Reset Loop AU is that Karl, the boy tm, wants to figure out a way to help others in the server. As well as learn more about the gods that inhabit it (yes, gods, there’s more than just DreamXD in this au :3). Along the way he realizes the power that DreamXD holds since he is the most powerful one on the server, and in a last ditch effort, thinks that the only way to protect everyone is to take DreamXD’s godhood.

However it doesn’t go as planned.

To reach DreamXD he had to go through the In-between and the Other Side, which resulted in his memories getting jumbled and messed up. However he persevered and once he went through the realms, he finally encountered DreamXD. There was a fight and Karl *somehow* got the upper hand against the god, which instead of killing him he basically absorbed all of his powers. This resulted in him basically going sicko mode and mad with power. As well as that he had absorbed part of the other two realms which resulted in his well— look. Now that he had the power of a god, he could do whatever he wanted! The thought of wanting to protect the server and his friends left his mind and he realized he could just reset it over and over and no one will notice!

For the most part.

That’s the basis of how Karl goes sicko but some more tidbits—

Each of the members of the DSMP have more monstrous attributes- except for Karl. For example, Eret was the embodiment of a Lich king and George was a fungus Zombie.

DreamXD is NOT dead. After basically having his powers taken away, he was sent to the mortal realm to basically be a player in the server. He’s a mortal and can die, but he hides himself away from everyone in fear of that.

After XD got dethroned, the other gods basically turned away from the server— not wanting to deal with whatever was going on.

Karl pretends to be friendly on the server, acting like how he usually would in the server but obviously it would work up to a point.

Sileo, the OC i made for this au, is the only one that knows about the loops in the beginning of when the story starts. She wouldn’t realize until she feels a horrible case of deja vu and it freaks her out.

This would result in Karl basically terrorizing her a lot, since she’s a Thorn in his side when she’s trying to figure out how to stop the loops.

The Eggpire is slightly different- the only difference is that when the Egg absorbed Skeppy, the egg turned into a white Diamond. It still Functions as the egg otherwise though.

It is possible for other members of the server to remember the loops, it would just take time is all.

Dream would be the next person to realize something’s wrong, but he would handle it in his own.. way HDJSKSKS

Philza also attempted to stop Karl but it didn’t go as planned and it basically resulted in the Colorzas existing as well—

That’s all I can think of, but I’m glad to answer any more JDJSKSSK again it’s edgy and very outdated, but it’s an AU I hold close to my heart.