#five vanished and traumatized everyone

[rottenpumpkin13]

Everyone comes back one morning to discover that someone (Zack Fair) has turned the entire SOLDIER Floor into a massive ball pit overnight. What chaos ensues?

Sephiroth: Stands motionless at entrance for 5 minutes straight, face completely unreadable. Attempts to wade through "professionally" before ungracefully tripping and vanishing entirely despite being 6'7". Has adapted to ball pit life with concerning speed. Occasional flashes of silver hair move under the surface like a shark fin. Surfaces periodically like a hippo, only mako eyes visible, hunting for Genesis.

Genesis: Initially tries maintaining dignity by perching on a high surface and lecturing the rowdy Thirds throwing balls at each other. Until Sephiroth's hand shoots out and drags him under with terrifying efficiency. Emerges periodically screeching about betrayal while pelting balls at Sephiroth's hand before it drags him under again.

Zack: "Okay so... funny story. Was trying to order some training equipment and saw these awesome balls on sale. Only meant to order 100 but turns out I maybe added five zeros? And hit confirm twice? And they were having a buy-one-get-one deal... So technically this was fiscally responsible? Also, anyone seen Cloud? He sank about 20 minutes ago :("

Angeal: Attempting to deliver a lecture on military etiquette and responsibility while dodging rogue balls, but is visibly losing patience.

"Seriously, guys, we're SOLDIER. We're supposed to set an example—*gets smacked in face by Third Class*—THAT'S IT. ZACK, START RUNNING. NOW." Proceeds to chase Zack through the pit like an enraged bear, still somehow still lecturing despite murderous intent.

Lazard: Barricaded in office with chairs against door. Alternate stages of hysterical laughter and sobbing while calculating budget impact. Has started drafting resignation letter.

Cloud: Last seen being sucked into a ball pit whirlpool. Occasionally surfaces looking more traumatized and disheveled, armed with a baseball bat, before attacking the dragging hand and being pulled back under.

Kunsel: Already selling "I Survived the SOLDIER Floor Ball Pit Incident" t-shirts.

[jasmineandcedar]

In the absence of shadows

I've been reflecting on Azriel's shadows while working on a piece of writing, naturally reminiscing about what SJM has given us so far. This is nothing new, but the behaviour of his shadows is to me one of the most beautiful ways in which SJM has shown just how much Elain means to Azriel.

Because, is it really a coincidence that Azriel uses his shadows to hide, to conceal his inner world and emotional state (“the shadows, whatever the hell they were, hid too well. Too much,” as Rhys said), and yet around Elain, they behave differently? She is the one around whom his shadows tend to vanish, and who understands his emotional state without him having to put it into words (“Elain’s large brown eyes flickered, well aware of all that. Just as he knew she was well aware of why Azriel so rarely came to family dinners these days”).

And is it a coincidence that Azriel’s shadows serve as his source of intel—“the news brought to him on his shadows’ whispers,” and so on—yet around Elain, they tend to vanish? That with her, he doesn’t need them to understand her?

His understanding of Elain isn’t born from the observational skills honed through his magic or his role as Spymaster. He isn’t just Azriel the Spymaster doing his job. It has nothing to do with duty, the duties that stand in the way of his happiness and well-being.

When it comes to Elain, it’s simply Azriel the male, stripped of magic, powers, and titles, seeing and understanding Elain the female. No shadows. No duties. No veil. Not Azriel the Spymaster, nor Azriel the shadowsinger. Just Azriel.

None of this is coincidental, of course. SJM didn’t accidentally write such a beautifully poetic circumstance. I think it’s a testament to how important Elain is to Azriel, and how his character development is wholeheartedly tied to her.

Without Elain, he is stagnant. He has been stagnant for over five hundred years.

The vanishing of his shadows, the absence of his need to hide and his need to stay informed about his surroundings, shows just how much peace and quiet she offers him. A kind of peace and quiet I don’t think he has ever known.

I often focus on the Elain part of Elriel, her choice and agency, but the Azriel part is just as beautiful. They fit together like notes in a chord. Because it is quite frankly monumental for the shadowsinger, who has kept everyone at arm’s length for centuries, who has never truly felt he belonged anywhere, to not only let his guard down but to be received the way Elain receives him.

As if he belongs there, unhidden and exposed before her.

When she, who sees the version of Azriel unhidden by shadows, looks at him, she breathes “beautiful,” at the sight of what he’s most insecure about. Whereas others have only ever said “scarred” or “brutalized” about his hands. When she looked up at him on Solstice, he saw someone so “trusting and hopeful and open” he was stunned anyone could look at him like that.

And here’s another beautifully poetic circumstance—because SJM becomes a poet when she writes Elriel:

We all love the image of Azriel, the boy robbed of sunlight, being chosen by Elain, who is basically the sun incarnate—glowing like the sun at dawn, in his eyes. But there’s more to it than that.

How did Feyre describe Azriel when she saw him bathed in sunlight, free of shadows? “More human than I had ever seen him.”

The first time we see Azriel and Elain together after she's Made, he flies her to the townhouse, “no shadows to be seen”, and takes her to the garden, “sunlight bathing them”. Elain experiences beauty again, after the trauma of being Made, when she breathes "beautiful" about his outstretched hand.

Elain, the very embodiment of the sun, who was traumatically robbed of her human life, gets to see and be cared for by the truest, rawest version of Azriel. The version of him that appears almost human.

Because his shadows vanish in her presence. Because he doesn’t need to hide when he’s with her. Because he doesn’t need his shadows to understand her. Because he finally belongs and is safe.

Azriel’s final destination is Elain.

Elain. Elain. Elain. Elain.

Elain.

There’s nothing else for him. No more satisfying or complete resolution of his character arc. She isn’t just part of it—she is his whole character arc.

And together, they fit into each other’s stories like the entwined stems of a flower crown. To me, they are the two most stunning character arcs SJM has ever woven together. Which is why I’m still thinking about them, seven years after I started anticipating Elain’s book. Because I just cannot let them go until they’re finally home.

[5five5five5five5five5five]

au where everything is the same but five is able to go back in time at 13 but to the date where everyone is adults. the world is saved bc now all of them don't have time to be upset bc they have to take care of and baby sit there freshly traumatized brother. viktor wouldn't have any energy to be mad, let alone get a toxic boyfriend.

like there once cocky brother who vanished 17 years ago is a scared, shaken wet cat who saw everyones dead bodies and just now learned about ben's death, assuming he died with everyone else. whose going to fight in front of him? he deserves a blanket and hot coco and a sandwich.

[zeke-fanfucs]

PART THREE:

Oh there’s a baby

Teehee teehee final part

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The days passed, and Baby Kamor had finally reached the toddler stage. Unfortunately, that meant maximum chaos—but only when Albus or Mahatma/Attila were watching him.

The second Hipswitch had him? Perfect little angel. Barely made a peep. Just sat there, all cute and innocent, like he wasn’t the menace they all knew he was.

But when anyone else had him?

Pure. Unstoppable. Chaos.

Incident #1: The Fire

Mahatma had been so sure that Kamor was happily playing with some random gears on the floor while he prepped food. That was, until the overwhelming smell of burning hit his nose.

He turned around.

Flames. Small ones—but still flames.

“OH MY GODS—”

Attila, instantly alert, took over. “How the hell did he—WHERE DID HE EVEN GET FIRE?!”

Kamor, standing proudly by his tiny fire, clapped his hands and giggled.

Mahatma panicked and grabbed the closest thing—his drinking glass—and chucked the water over the flames.

Crisis averted.

Except now Mahatma was traumatized, and Attila swore Kamor was laughing at him.

Incident #2: The Porn Discovery

Albus, ever the worst babysitter alive, had left Kamor alone for five minutes while he got a drink (yes it was alcohol).

Just five.

When he came back, Kamor had managed to somehow locate and spread out every single Porn tape that Albus had irresponsibly left hidden around the place.

Albus dropped his drink. “Ohhh, NO, NO, NO—”

Kamor, completely unfazed, was holding one upside-down, tilting his head like he was deeply analyzing the content. (There’s pictures)

“OH, ABSOLUTELY NOT—”

Cue Albus scrambling to snatch up everything before someone (like, Gods forbid, Hipswitch) walked in and saw. Kamor? Just sat there. Smug. Like he knew what he was doing. Albus swore right then and there that this kid was doing it on purpose.

Incident #3: The Bolt Snack

Mahatma had foolishly assumed that, since Kamor was now a toddler, he had outgrown the whole “put everything in his mouth” phase.

He was very, very wrong.

Mahatma turned away for one second, and when he turned back, Kamor was chewing on something.

“Wait, what—what are you—”

Mahatma pried Kamor’s mouth open and nearly screamed when he saw the bolt lodged in his little teeth.

“WHERE DID YOU EVEN GET THIS?!”

Attila, utterly unimpressed, just sighed. “We should’ve let Albus hold him. This problem would’ve solved itself.”Mahatma glared. “Not. Helping.”

Incident #4: The Great Escape(s)

Kamor had somehow—somehow—figured out how to crawl out of the house. Twice.

The first time, Mahatma had turned his back for two minutes, and when he turned around?

No Kamor.

Cue absolute panic. Mahatma ran around frantically, only to find Kamor sitting outside, happily watching a bug crawl across his hand like he hadn’t just given Mahatma a heart attack.

The second time?

Albus had dozed off for ten minutes. Just ten. And when he woke up? Kamor was gone.

He swore so loudly that Hipswitch actually kicked down the door, gun already drawn. Hipswitch found Kamor casually toddling toward the market like it was no big deal. Kamor took one look at him, blinked, then held his little arms up expectantly.

Hipswitch sighed, scooped him up, and—just to rub it in—gave Albus the most disappointed look imaginable.“You had one job,” was all he said before walking off. Albus groaned into his hands. “I am never having kids.” (TOO BAD YOU HAVE KERANO)

⸻

The only one Kamor never misbehaved with?

Hipswitch.

With Hipswitch, Kamor was calm, well-behaved, and oddly clingy. The second he was in the cowboy’s arms, all his energy vanished. He’d just sit there, quiet and content, while everyone else suffered.

Mahatma knew Kamor was messing with them.

Attila knew Kamor was messing with them.

And Albus? “That little shit is doing it on purpose!”

Hipswitch? He just smirked, rocking Kamor gently as the toddler nuzzled into his shoulder. “Ain’t my problem, partner.” And Kamor? He smiled—smugly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The teen phase was short-lived, thankfully.

Hipswitch had expected some level of rebellion, but compared to Baby Kamor’s chaotic toddler days, Teen Kamor was surprisingly… manageable. Sort of.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t a menace.

His two biggest crimes?

1. Stealing Mahatma’s chocolate.

2. Drawing on Albus’s face.

The chocolate theft was constant. Mahatma would go to grab a piece, only to find his stash completely wiped out. Every. Single. Time.

At first, he thought Albus was behind it. But then he started noticing things.

Like how Kamor never denied anything.

Like how he always had this subtle, amused little smirk whenever Mahatma opened an empty drawer.

Like how he would be just casually chewing on something whenever Mahatma started complaining.

The final straw was when Mahatma caught him mid-theft, hand in the chocolate tin, completely unbothered.

Kamor simply made eye contact, took another piece, and walked away without a word.

Mahatma: “Are you—KAMOR, YOU LITTLE—”

Meanwhile, Albus had his own problems.

At some point, Kamor had developed a talent for sneaking up on him while he was asleep and drawing all over his face.

The first time, it was just a small mustache.

The second time, it was a full-on goatee.

The third time? Kamor had gone all out. Eyeliner wings, fancy swirls, some kind of symbol on his forehead—Albus woke up looking like a villain from a fantasy novel.

And the worst part?

No one told him.

So he spent half the day walking around, flirting with women in town, completely unaware. (LMAO)

When he finally saw his reflection, his yell could be heard across SpringRock.

“KAMOR, YOU LITTLE SH—!”

Kamor, sitting at the table and enjoying Mahatma’s stolen chocolate, just gave him a lazy thumbs-up.

Then, Just Like That… He was Back.

One morning, with no warning, Kamor simply woke up as his adult self again.

No big transformation. No bright flash of light. Just—back to normal, sitting on Hipswitch’s couch like nothing happened.

Mahatma, who had just walked into the room, screamed. “OH—OH, GODS, OKAY—” He nearly dropped his tea. “YOU’RE BACK?!”

Kamor blinked sleepily, stretched, then casually signed, “Guess so.” Hipswitch, who had long since stopped reacting to weird nonsense, just grunted. “’Bout time.”

Albus stormed in still scrubbing off marker from his face. “GOOD. Now I can kick your ass.” Kamor just smirked.

Then Mahatma, now slightly more composed, asked the big question. “Do you remember anything?” Kamor tilted his head. Then shrugged. He signed, “Nope. No memory at all.”

Total. Bullshit.

Mahatma narrowed his eyes. Albus immediately called him out. “Liar!”

And Hipswitch? He just smirked, adjusting his hat. “Uh-huh.”

But Kamor? He just kept that smug little grin, casually stealing one last piece of Mahatma’s chocolate.

Yeah. He totally remembered.

And he absolutely loved it.

[rose-of-oz]

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆… 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀 𝐀𝐂𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐘 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

❝ On October 1st, 1989, forty-three women who had not been pregnant when the day had begun suddenly gave birth to forty-three children who would shortly begin to display superhuman abilities. After this event, eccentric billionaire Reginald Hargreeves had made quick work of trying to adopt, or buy, more accurately, as many of the children as possible from their traumatized and confused mothers, looking to develop their powers as they grew and hopefully use them to change the world.

He managed to acquire eight of those children. And Robin had been one of them.

Like all her siblings (with the exception of Vanya, not that it had ever made Robin love her any less), Robin was also blessed, or perhaps cursed, with amazing abilities. Similar to how her brother Diego could manipulate the concept of trajectory itself, they could toy with the concept of force, able to make a light tap of her fingers hard enough to shatter someone’s ribs or turn one of Luther’s superstrength-enhanced punches into little more than a tickle. And their so-called “father,” of course, had never hesitated to make sure she would use it to the advantage of his little Umbrella Academy. But Robin had hated the whole thing, hated being made into little more than a weapon and having to live in a house where they and her siblings were barely allowed to acknowledge the two brothers they’d lost, even as Reginald erected a goddamn statue to Ben and the mystery of where Five had disappeared to that fateful day when they were all thirteen haunting the place like an uncertain spectre.

And so, the second they’d turned eighteen, Robin had run. She’d left their goddamned stupid Academy uniform in her bedroom closet and stormed out with a single bag over their shoulder and a bird flipped to Reginald, heading out into the city determined to make her own life and never step foot in that house again. Sure, it meant that they mostly lost contact with her siblings, especially since Luther resented them for leaving and everyone kind of turned on Vanya after she published her memoir (with the exception of Robin, who had texted her asking for a signed copy and read the thing cover to cover several times), and she missed them all, along with their robot mother figure and the loyal biologically engineered ape that had cared for them all these years, but it was a small price to pay, she told themself, for being able to escape the painful memories of that house and the simmering rage towards her father and the way they’d been raised that she almost felt like they’d been born with. Out here, in the real, child superhero-free world, she felt like they could forget all of that.

Until, that is, Robin, who has made a solid life for themself as a martial arts instructor with no true friends but the stray cat she regularly feeds these past years, receives the news that that the bastard who “raised” them has finally kicked the bucket. Against her better judgement, they find herself returning to the mansion they swore she’d never see the inside of again for the funeral, reconnecting with the siblings they’d only reluctantly admit to missing - although, of course, that reconnecting winds up involving nearly coming to blows with three separate siblings, defending Vanya against pretty much everyone, and trying to make Luther see the truth of his sycophancy to their father. And then, to make matters worse, her long-disappeared brother falls out of the sky, looking barely worse for wear than the day he vanished, only to tell Robin and Vanya in secret that the world is going to end and they’re all going to die in nine short days.

In order to try and stop the apocalypse, Robin is going to be forced to do the one thing they swore at age eighteen she’d never do again: work with their siblings to save people and, in this case, the entire world. And she knows it’s going to be an almighty mess, of course, because there has never been a family more dysfunctional than the Hargreeves are… but maybe they’ve missed getting to fight alongside the only people in this world who truly understand her, and maybe, just maybe, their merry band of misfits can succeed in saving the universe. If they can manage to not kill each other first. ❞

General Taglist: @hiddenqveendom,

@auxiliarydetective, @foxesandmagic, @artemisocs,

@reyofluke-ocs, @endless-oc-creations,

@stanshollaand, @ginnystilinski-reblogs,

@luucypevensie, @ginger-grimm, @oneirataxia-girl,

@arrthurpendragon, @surebrecs, @gabbysdawsons,

@dancingsunflowers-ocs, @eddysocs, @stelstellakidd,

@manyfandomocs, @lapinaquarelle, @partiallypearl, @welcometotheocverse,

@juliaswickcrs, @kendelias, @ocappreciationtag.

[destinygoldenstar]

As a kid watching Ninjago, I was just interested in the flashy powers, and the heroics of the main characters, like any kid would. Like, 'Aw these guys are so heroic and selfless and awesome'

But now as an adult, when I recommended my GF the show, I specifically said "This is Family Issues: The Lego Cartoon"

Honestly, Jay likes to complain and hide his upbringing, but he's probably the ONLY ninja with any resemblance of a normal happy childhood and backstory. He has two loving parents who supported him, and was an aspiring inventor.

You could argue Fritz Donegan rectified it, but Jay didn't know this, so how would this affect how is childhood turned out?

At worst, he was dirt poor, living in a junkyard and all, but compared to what the rest of his team went through, I think they'd WANT what Jay had.

Nah, instead most of Jay's trauma and emotional baggage is in the present.

And who else do we have?

We have a robot who didn't even know he was a robot, or had any idea of his identity or memory, so much so that he was just... wandering around the land with amnesia. (Then, you know, everyone thought he was weird)

We have Cole, who grew up in a harsh family background where his dad forced/pressured his kid to be a musician, and canonically suffered depression and bad violence habits after the loss of his mother/during her illness. (Idk about those other Royal Blacksmiths if they are in the family or not, but either way they didn't seem supportive)

Kai and Nya's parents up and vanished from their lives at ages five and three, and they had to raise each other all by themselves with just a blacksmith shop. Basically means they were forced to end their childhoods right there, especially Kai, because older sibling. And there's no indication they had any friends or anyone to help them in their town, at most there was that one lady that they hated, so... ouch.

And... Lloyd.

Just Lloyd.

Half of the show is just Lloyd suffering.

Born as the son of a man forced into an evil oni maniac, said father ditched his entire family.

Mom decided it was a good idea to abandon her kid in a boarding school about villainy. (That's like, the ONE thing I genuinely think the movie did better than the show.)

And that school heavily bullied Lloyd and even exiled him, forcing him on the streets, basically

Everyone hates him and doesn't help him (until Pythor)

Gets tricked by Pythor

Gets kidnapped by Serphantine

Nearly dies in lava

Is given a destiny as the savior of all of Ninjago where he's forced to be on opposite sides of his father, and part of said destiny involves him needing to kill him

AGAINST HIS WILL MIND YOU

Was LITERALLY forced to give up his childhood for this destiny

Was tortured by the Overlord for his golden power

Ice Ninja died

He got his father back, and then he died.

Was possessed by an evil ghost tyrant and was forced to do horrible stuff with no control over himself

Was also physically strained to his limit with that possession

Lost his uncle

Fell in love, and then said crush turns out to be a twist villain who wants to TORTURE him, resurrect his father and steal that fatherly love from him, and have said father try to KILL HIM

Which he was very close to succeeding at

Has to live in hiding for a week thinking all his friends are dead

Twist villain crush dies in a building collapse

That traumatizes him and haunts his trust and empathy towards people for A LONG TIME

Gets cubed in a video game (idk if that counts as trauma)

He's also a dragon oni hybrid, and his oni hide haunts his mind for his entire life, and is terrified to even think of a part of himself

Merge. For weeks he thought all his friends were dead. (Again)

And you know, physical beatdowns from being the Green Ninja, one of the most responsible jobs as the savior of all of Ninjago.

And that is not even everything, I'm sure there's a lot of stuff I didn't mention.

This poor, poor Emo Child.

If this wasn't a Lego show, this would have a Clone Wars tone, I'm convinced.

So yeah, 'Family Issues: The cartoon'.

At least they all have each other. They're a happy found family, and the light in each other's lives. They're here for each other. Their dynamics are precious to me.

[sonicasura]

Transformers Earthspark: Personal Changes

I figured I should write this as I plan to write stuff on it. Transformers Earthspark, an show with interesting concepts despite the mixed execution. I honestly like some of the ideas proposed by it in Season 1 as they aren't actually bad. We rarely get a post war setting for the series since most writers prefer the standard formula and the Terrans hold potential when you remember that Cybertronian are an endangered species whose numbers have only decreased due to war.

This is mainly a simplified list on what changes you'll see in my work involving Earthspark. Points with an asterisk * are new.

Dot doesn't allow her kids to become child soldiers. She wouldn't have a problem if it was self defense lessons as there are people who don't like Cybertronians or will harm her family for the Terrans' nature. Otherwise, the Maltobots are allowed to learn about Cybertron's history and culture.

Megatron is a rogue with the personality of an asshole cat. (Murderous nature partly fizzled out for causing problems to people he dislikes.) The Decepticons had fallen apart after a nasty dispute and gone their own ways. Megatron vanished once GHOST began to hunt any bot not aligned with them. He hides out at the Maltos upon discovering a massive plot that would put all Cybertronian life in danger.

Bumblebee remains rogue as his trust in Optimus is in tatters. He gets involved with the Maltos under the same reason Megatron does and is responsible for the Terrans' self defense training. (Megs handles their history/culture.) Tendency to have war flashbacks.

No Emberstone saves or Prime reverence. Mo is traumatized by Quintus' false reality dream and doesn't like the Cyber Sleeves anymore. Jawbreaker alongside Thrash help with her trauma. Scars are prone to occur alongside the chance of life changing injuries for everyone.

GHOST Autobots have a tense relationship revolving Optimus. This only grows once Bumblebee's current location becomes known. Optimus often questions if he made the right choice as he looks at the unanswered orders involving his rogue Autobots.

Decepticons begin to reform under a new cause. The preservation and protection of the Cybertronian race as GHOST attacks intensify. Starscream leads them under an anti-hero alignment since they will do things the Autobots won't to keep themselves alive. (Think Venom or A-Team.)

Fighting between siblings specifically Robby vs Mo, Twitch vs Thrash, and Jawbreaker finally snaps. I seen potential conflict involving these five that no way in hell is gonna be ignored under my watch. Nightshade and Hashtag act like mediators at times but some fights can't be dissolved so easily.

More enemies for each respective group alongside painful clashes such as Bumblebee vs Optimus. Flora/fauna mutated by Energon, bad Autobots like Pharma/Sunder, and more volatile Decepticons like Astrotrain. No one is having fun when shit hits the fan.

Disabilities like Dot's prosthetic leg are on display. Mandroid slowly gone insane due to Energon poisoning through his experiments as once neutral views regarding Cybertronians were corrupted. First exposure is creation of the Arachnamechs. His students' death amidst the friendly fire tips him over the edge. *

Experiments involving humans and Cybertronians herald by Mandroid. Most of his Energon induced is a result from trying to hybridize both in some way. He eventually forgets about Alex after the second confrontation. Examples: Synthetic blood that boosts healing, skin which repairs through Cybertronian nanites, etc. *

Karen and Agent Schloder are distant with each other. The former isolating herself despite the latter's attempts to reach out. He works at GHOST to keep an eye on her but soon realizes Croft is a lost cause. *

Alex begin to tone down his obsession involving Bumblebee after awhile. He realizes it makes the bot uncomfortable and bring back awful memories. Bumblebee is still Alex's favorite but it is on a healthy level. *

Dad #2 is addressed properly to the Terrans. They learn that not everyone would be okay with the term or might not be someone they can trust. Parental figures is a concept the kids want to understand better so any further issues and discomfort are avoided. *

Terrans are taught Escrima alongside various aspects of Filipino culture. Everyone has their own different style towards the martial art and interests in other cultures were broaden. Dot often picks up books for them. *

The Emberstone is a chaotic manifestation of evolution without proper containment. It often causes trouble for the Maltos by spawning monsters, mutate nearby wildlife or producing twisted visuals for them to adapt against. The last disturbance results in Wheeljack showing up to contain the artifact. *

After the season finale, Twitch remains half blind as her body rejects any replacements offered by both former factions. She learns to live with her disability and alters her Drone alt mode to add a visual guide to further help. It takes quite a while for Twitch to thrive after multiple mishaps. *

That's all I could think of at the moment but will expand the list should more be added or changes are needed.

[crossroadsdimension]

Friend, amigo, fam Plz tell me about your OC, I'm all for that stuff 🙏

@metalmewtwo-kxb, I hope you know what you have unleashed.

Time to talk about the two characters I've made for FFXIV!

To preface -- you can have multiple characters attached to one account for this MMO without paying extra per character slot. Since I'm paying the Entry-level of that, I can have a total of 8 characters, 1 per server. I really don't need more than that, since I was planning on having just my main and that's it, but then I got interested in a defunct FF mobile game, and I needed to play through the story on a fresh save. So that's where #2 came in. (He'll get a separate post, if people are interested in him, too.)

Anywho! Let's get this ramble rolling -- under the cut cause it's gonna get long.

First, I'm gonna talk about my "main" character, the one I've been playing for the last two and a half years and have done...almost everything on, at this point.

I don't have any screenshots of her because I don't mess around with gpose that much and only figured out recently how to take screenshots on my PS5. Sooo -- here's the profile picture from the Lodestone for reference.

Behold, Cross Sylvan!

I didn't come up with a lot of backstory for her when I first started the game back in October 2021, right before Endwalker's release. Because miqo'te -- or cat people -- have naming conventions that have an apostrophe in their name after a "clan letter" (i.e., Y'shtola is of Clan Y, and is only Shtola to her friends), I wanted to pick something that would have something of a pun involved, and I like the word "Cross" too much to leave it out.

So she's M'Cross (pronounced Macross), but dropped the tribe letter for her own reasons. Her parents were booted from the M tribe, you see -- her mom married a male miqo'te who wasn't the leader of the tribe, and because the two of them broke tribe rules, they were kicked out.

(Further context -- the leader of a Sun Seeker tribe, the Nunh, gets to lay with every single female miqo'te in the tribe. Yes, they get a harem; no, I'm not making this up. This is in-game lore. Moon Keepers, a different group of miqo'te, tend to do it in reverse.)

Anyway, Cross' parents left their home in Gyr Abania and moved to Thanalan, a desert region located at the southern region of the continent of Aldenard, which contains the region of Eorzea (If it helps you picture the region, the continent is basically shaped like Africa, with some differences in climate). They raised her there, and Cross' father eventually left to become an adventurer, while her mother stayed at home and focused on becoming a half-decent merchant in the Silver Bazaar.

And then the events of FF14's 1.0 happened. I'm not gonna go into detail here because I didn't play 1.0 before they shut down the servers and restarted them with 2.0 as the starting point, but suffice it to say that Cross' father either died or vanished during a big battle in a place called Carteneau. During that big battle, something happened that wiped out everyone's memory of how that battle ended. It had the side-effect of preventing everyone in Eorzea from remembering certain people clearly. Including Cross' father.

So you can imagine how confusing and distraught she would be to not only realize Dad wasn't coming home -- but also that she couldn't remember his face, his voice, the sorts of things he liked to do...very traumatic.

Cross leaves five years later -- the start of 2.0 -- to become an adventurer herself. Mom got overprotective and more than a little overbearing after the Calamity, and Cross wanted to get away for a bit. She still likes her mom, she just wanted space to breathe. That, and something's driving her to travel. See the realm that her barely-remembered father sacrificed himself for.

And then the game starts, and Cross gets rapidly pulled into events that...might have been what her father had been involved in before his disappearance. She wouldn't know, much less remember.

Backstory out of the way -- time to talk about Cross as a person!

Cross is a sponge when it comes to absorbing knowledge. She's naturally curious and wants to get her nose into everything -- different jobs, cultures, food, history...you name it, she's probably got a cursory knowledge of it. As a result, that means I can say she's at least picked up every single job in the game, but she has her favorites.

Her parents taught her archery from a young age, and she has some magical talent as well. She prefers Black Mage over Bard, and between fighting melee and ranged, she'd prefer ranged. She didn't have a healing job that really clicked with her until Sage, and out of the tanking jobs, she prefers Dark Knight and Warrior. Paladin is in a strange position with her, because she believes that's how her father used to fight, and she made an effort to learn the style, but it hasn't sat right with her.

She's also picked up all the crafting and gathering jobs, but she prefers the hard work of botany and miner over the patience of fishing, and likes weaving and leatherworking more than the rest of the crafters.

As Viper and Pictomancer are the newest jobs added to the game, I haven't figured out if they're going to be among Cross' "favorites" yet, but since I like Pictomancer a lot, she's probably going to like that one, too.

Cross has a little bit of snark, a little bit of a temper, but neither really show up unless you've pushed her buttons (temper) or she's comfortable enough to let down her walls around you (snark). She's been known to trade banter with the young twins who are a part of the NPC main cast, for example, or join in the berating of other characters if her fellow miqo'te mage (another NPC) is unleashing a rather nasty burn in someone's general direction.

She likes writing music based on her surroundings. More than a few orchestrion rolls have shown up in shops based on some of her scribbles and playing around on her harp and the like. Some of the songs based on strange, faraway lands have gotten the attention of those who are too young to travel, making them want to follow in her footsteps.

She has a chocobo. His name is Cloudstreak, and she's considering changing his feather color to sky blue (yes, you can do this in-game, I just haven't done it yet). Cross has other mounts, too, but Cloudstreak is her first and favorite of the bunch.

Over the course of the first "book series" in the game (A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, Endwalker), Cross grew from a young adult who was somewhat inexperienced with the world outside Thanalan to a worldly woman who has traveled extensively, and grown in confidence, knowledge, and strength as a result. She's become a hero of the realm. The Warrior of Light in more than name, because she got that title way back in A Realm Reborn and has only reshaped its meaning repeatedly since then.

She is a Traveler, and Travel she will. There's a desire to see the world beyond what she's already seen, and she will see every nook and cranny of her planet.

If you get into the game and want to see a somewhat shortened version of her journey through A Realm Reborn...I've got a fanfic going for her. The Chronicles of a Young Adventurer is the first part of her series, which I'm separating out according to main expansion and patch content. It's mostly journal entries, letters, and the occasional scene that's been more written out, but I like what I'm doing with it so far!

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

okokok i know Literally Nobody Asked but I NEED to get this down. some more about my “metal sonic makes his own sonic oc” AU I’ve had since I was like nine.

I’ve made a post on it before, but here’s a quick summary bc like, I do not expect you guys to hunt down my old posts lol. Basically, the idea is that instead of going for the whole dramatic take over the world thing in Heroes, Metal Sonic instead decides to go with a more subtle approach, instead disguising himself as a normal organic hedgehog (who, as mentioned, is basically his original character) to infiltrate Sonic and his friends from the inside and steal their data while they’re none the wiser. They’re Nova, here’s the drawing I’ve done of them, they’re based on a mixture of Neo Metal Sonic, classic Amy, and like every Sonic OC I saw in the early 2010s (I love them this is not meant to be a dig at them it’s an affectionate homage).

(As you can probably tell, he does not know what gender is. This will be a plot point.)

Anyway, so he ends up staging a scene where “Nova” is being attacked by Badniks (that he “repurposed” from Eggman- Eggman has no idea what’s going on except that Metal Sonic inexplicably vanished), knowing full well that Sonic's recklessness and thirst for adrenaline will stop him from questioning how strange it might be. This works, for approximately five seconds because Metal Sonic is terrible at acting like a normal person. He goes from faking fear to eerily calm to eagerly violent to exchanging snarky banter in the span of a minute, speaks in weirdly technical and verbose ways (he very much enjoys having a voice and refuses to shut up for five seconds), and seems completely unfamiliar with most aspects of human life.

Thankfully, he’s terrible at roleplaying his new OC in such a way Sonic's first reaction isn’t suspicion- after “Nova” responds with sheer terror at the idea of returning home, bursts into tears when shown mild concern, and isn’t able to answer basic questions about his life, Sonic instead comes to the conclusion that Nova is a runaway of some sort from a horrible background, and is concerned for them. This, mixed with genuinely enjoying trading banter with them means he initially genuinely trusts them- he’s not stupid, he picked up on something being suspicious he’s intuitive and smart, but his inherent disdain for those who pick on the weak and oppress them means he’s more inclined to trust someone who he believes to be running from some sort of traumatic situation, so he assumes that Nova’s just very sheltered and acting weird bc he literally was just “attacked”.

Now, Metal hates his organic disguise. He views organic beings as inherently weak, stupid, and disgusting, and even mimicking them is something that is unpleasant and wrong to him. He hates expressing his emotions, and finds it deeply humiliating that not only can he not hide them, but also that the algorithm he programmed for it is way overcalibrated, so he’s grinning at the slightest feeling of satisfaction or bursting into tears over any frustration or confusion. Basically every bodily function- down to breathing- is something he finds incredibly disgusting to even fake, and being around multiple people who eat and blink is beyond uncomfortable. He views basically everyone around him who isn’t Sonic as repulsive creatures he wants to destroy on sight, not pretend to be friends with. But it is necessary to prove his superiority to Sonic- he initially just wanted to steal their data, but he cannot help but view this as a competition. Sonic, he reasons, must be as disgusted with the inferior organics around him as Metal is, since he’s the only one who matters out of them, so if he can pretend to tolerate them better he’s proving he is the better Sonic even while he’s not actively trying to kill him.

So, like, as far as anyone’s concerned, Nova is just… kinda weird. He talks oddly, he’s very loud, he’s often confused, but he’s never anything but accommodating and kind. Tails thinks he’s cool and wishes he could dress like him (which leads to her realising she’s a trans girl sorry I believe in trans girl Tails supremacy) and Nova helps her in engineering, Amy enjoys having a friend who also has an interest in fashion (albeit a very different style), and in general things seem chill.

In his own way, Metal does get attached, too. He has a fundamentally different way of viewing the world than they do, but he’s also unused to being treated like a person or having social interaction and fun outside of violent maiming and killing, and it’s something he immediately latches onto. He still sees all of them bar Sonic as inherently lesser in importance to him, and sees them as more like useful tools rather than actual people, but that means he does want to keep them alive, and that’s a pretty big thing for a robot designed solely for violence and destruction.

With Sonic, specifically, he becomes determined to not only prove that he’s better than him but wants him to reach his full potential- so that he can prove, even if Sonic is at his absolute best, he’s still inferior to Metal. Destroying Sonic is his purpose, it’s not something he can ever stop aiming for with his programming, but he’s grown to heavily respect him, and, in his own way, enjoy his company.

But, of course, his mission is still the same. He has some organic beings he wants to spare, but he still views most of them as inherently disgusting and pitiful, and he’s still determined to become the ultimate overlord over all things. And there’s one piece he finds he needs for that- Shadow. Metal wasn’t able to properly copy his data while he was in stasis, and so he just so happens to mention hearing something about a secret treasure somewhere nearby where he knows where that base is, when Rouge is listening…

And now we’ve gotten back to the part of the timeline Heroes takes place, though obviously it happens… quite differently. Eggman has no idea what’s going on and just is very much blaming it on Sonic bc he hates him and he has no clue why his robots (and one ultimate life form) keep disappearing, which drags Team Sonic and Team Rose in turn into another round of beating the shit out of his badniks for a reasonable amount of fast paced platforming levels, Team Chaotix were hired for the aforementioned “Eggman’s minions keep Inexplicably Vanishing” issue, and Nova is there bc Metal Sonic is literally just living out his own self insert OC fanfiction of his own making. Heroes doesn’t have too much plot, though, so there’s not too much to mention…

Until, when in the final battle, Sonic gets a bit too overconfident, and ends up getting seriously hurt. Immediately, “Nova” jumps in, because Metal is not going to let his target die at the hands of anyone else, and takes what was meant to be the final blow. The sheer force is just enough to rip a chunk out of his shoulder, causing him to revert to his Neo Metal Sonic form.

Things immediately stop. Everyone is baffled, everyone has questions, and obviously hearing “I spent months infiltrating your friend group to kill you painfully” is not a… particularly fun answer? Everyone is angry, Eggman included bc his creations aren’t meant to go against his orders and running off to do an insane assassination plot is not something he ever ordered. So, overwhelmed and honestly confused, Metal does what he knows best- he runs. Sonic’s too injured to follow, and no one else is fast enough to catch him, he knows that much, but it still somehow feels more wrong than anything else.

Over the next few months, he will repair himself, and shift back into his Nova form- after all, if he failed so badly, he deserves to feel horrible and disgusting. He will wander aimlessly until he enters an unfamiliar city on the eve of a certain alien invasion. But this is long enough as it is, I am Not writing another…fourteen paragraphs what the fuck on the Shadow the Hedgehog timeline for this (though I wish I could it’s got the Metal Sonic and Shadow content I always wanted it’s what I Meant to talk about but then I rambled on way too much about the Basic Premise.)

[smolwritingchick]

You Did Everything You Could

Author's Note: This is a Marvel related smol brainstorm. Nothing BTS related. It's regarding Jennie's Marvel Character, Arjana! Working on the other requests and random brainstorms too so stay tuned!!

I wrote this years ago regarding her Marvel Character. I like the fact that I took a break from writing and got back into it because my mind has come up with new ideas while rereading and editing. 

This gets a bit angsty so warning here. 

I was thinking Jen's character, Arjana, would be a former member of the Dora Milaje. She'd have a chip on her shoulder and have some sort of rivalry with Okoye. Okoye becoming the leader of the Dora Milaje would be the cause of it. I even thought the reason she was chosen as leader instead of Arjana was because Arjana cracked under pressure during a mission and made a bad call, choosing to disobey an order in the process. The way she'd get scolded and suspended from her duties for a while, and have to see Okoye become leader instead would frustrate her. When back after suspension, she'd try to endure Okoye as a leader while going on missions until it became too much. Fed up, she decided to leave the Dora Milaje and Wakanda to live life in South Korea, settling for Seoul.

So, when I write her scene in Black Panther, I want to write the tension between Okoye and her. T'Challa would still want Arjana to come back to Wakanda but she'll refuse. However, she will still be there to assist him in any way she can while in Seoul. There will be a point when she finally comes back to Wakanda, and Shuri will be happy and request for her to be her guardian since the two are great friends. 

I also thought her character could have a bond with Bucky and become friends with him when he's in Wakanda. She'd be requested to watch him by Shuri, which she'd complain about but does it anyway. Despite not wanting to act like a babysitter, the two end up bonding and have a close friendship while smol feelings start to grow but nothing develops. 

For this smol brainstorm, I would like for her character to deal with Survivor's Guilt during the whole Infinity War and Endgame movies. The reason is that she felt like she failed to protect Shuri and watched her fade to dust in her arms. Traumatizing af...but Captain America finds her and tries to talk some sense into her.

Now when Jennie is told that she would be filming with Chris Evans...her dramatic ass is going to literally faint lmfao.

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

Five years after Thanos’ snap, Natasha debriefed with Captain Marvel, Okoye, Rocket, Nebula and Rhodey. After their discussion, Okoye stayed with Rhodey while everyone else signed off.

“Any update on Arjana’s whereabouts?” Okoye asked.

Natasha nodded. “We found her. She was sighted in Japan, recently.”

Okoye sighed out of relief but then shook her head at the thought of her being absent from Wakanda after all these years. 

“That stubborn woman…hiding like a coward. All we want is for her to come home. And for her to get through that thick stubborn skull of hers it is not her fault,”

--------

Arjana laid her back on the couch as she stared up at the ceiling. She managed to find a place in Japan to try to move on and forget about the blip. But dreadful thoughts would creep up on her now and then about Shuri fading away in her arms. How traumatizing it was to watch helplessly the person you've sworn to protect vanish into the air.

A series of knocks were heard at her door and she quickly sat up in alarm. 

She had been extremely careful about not getting tracked. Did Wakanda find her? 

Grabbing one of her sais, she got off the couch and slowly approached the door. And when she looked through the peephole it was Steve Rogers patiently waiting for her on the other side of the door.

Her stomach dropped.

Rogers was the last person she expected to come to see her. Letting out a deep sigh, she contemplated opening the door as she set her sai down on the table.

With a sorrow-filled expression, she slowly opened the door to meet the blue eyes of Steve Rogers as he greeted her with a sad smile. It seemed like he was trying his best to move on too after they failed to stop Thanos.

“Why are you here?” she asked softly.

“It’s nice to see you too, Arjana,” he greeted kindly.

“Sorry…” she shook her head. “I didn’t mean it like that…“

“Don’t worry about it. You’re a hard person to track down,”

“Well, I didn’t want to be found and yet here you are,” she responded dejectedly and let him inside.

"Are you all right?” He asked as he sat at the dining room table.

“I’m gettin’ by. You?”

“Taking it day by day,”

She made her way to the kitchen and grabbed two cups. “Tea?”

“Sure,”

Steve watched as she began to pour hot green tea she made not too long ago into the cups. Arjana looked different. Her hair had gotten longer. He then remembered Bucky had talked about what she would look like with long hair and confidently said it would suit her.

It did.

Usually, she would keep it trimmed and short but this time maybe it was because Bucky had suggested it to her that she decided to try out long hair.

After smiling at the fond memories of Bucky, Steve then thought about the reason why he came here.

“Okoye has been asking about you,” he informed her and watched as her body visibly tensed at the name.

She carefully placed Steve’s cup in front of him and sat across from him at the table.

“…how is she and Wakanda?” she asked.

“She misses you. She asks about you a lot. She felt less uneasy when she found out that you did not vanish. Wakanda is holding up and trying its best to move forward. They need you,”

Arjana felt a pang of guilt set within her as she thought about her home. It was selfish to leave abruptly like that after the blip. She used to be heavily a part of the Dora Milaje many years ago, even before the situation with Thanos but then chose to leave to enjoy life in different ways.

“You haven’t been in Wakanda ever since…that day, right?” Steve’s question interrupted her thinking.

She cringed at the thought. Ever since the effects of Thanos’ snap, Arjana couldn’t stay in Wakanda. Not after she failed to protect Shuri and had to watch her fade to dust. Not after she lost to Corvus Glaive as she tried to watch Shuri’s back. What kind of guardian is that?

After taking a long sip of her tea, ignoring the burning sensation on her tongue, she answered, "That is correct,”

“Why?”

“You know why. I can’t go back there,” she frowned and set her cup down.

"Yes, you can. No one in Wakanda will blame you. It’s not your fault,”

“I still couldn’t protect her. It was my duty and I failed,”

“You did everything you could to protect Shuri,”

“And it wasn’t enough!” she exclaimed with pain in her voice. “Because now she is gone. Faded away. It should have been me,"

"Don't do that to yourself,"

"I can’t even bear to understand how Wakanda is doing right now or what it looks like. I failed...”

“We all failed,” he shook his head.

They sat in silence for a moment, deep in thought.

“All I keep thinking about is that it should have been me. Not her. And not my king. They are both gone. The people we love and care about are gone…never coming back…” she whispered in the last sentence.

“You’re right…the people we love and care about are gone. But not forgotten. I wanted to thank you,”

She stared at him with confusion. “Thank me for what?”

“For taking care of Bucky while he was in Wakanda,”

The sound of his name gave her butterflies as she shook her head, “…that was all Shuri. Not me. She helped him with the brainwashing and everything. Her role was much bigger than mine,“

“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Arjana. The change of scenery and Shuri’s doing helped but also your companionship. You two were close, huh?”

She chuckled sadly as she felt her eyes burn from tears. She then began to wipe the tears away.

“Sorry… every time I think about him I start crying…but yes…we were. During his time in Wakanda, he began opening up to me. Slowly but then as we spent more time together, things flowed naturally. I wasn’t expecting him to do that but he had a lot of trust in me. And I appreciated that. There are just a lot of things I wanted to say to him…and when I spoke to him before he went on the battlefield in Wakanda, perhaps I should have said everything then if I knew all of this was going to happen. I deeply care about him. I just wish I could have told him how much…”

“When we get him back, you can. We are thinking of a plan to try to get everyone back. I want you to be a part of it. We need all the help we can get. And when we do get everyone back, he can tell you the things he has told me,”

“Which are?”

Steve smiled softly. “That is not my place to tell,”

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

Actually, I have reblogged that "not the socks" post before and you know what?

I am the sock gremlin, and not by choice.

Every time I had roommates they would leave straggler socks in the washer or drier, and when I asked them who owned the socks, NO ONE wanted to "admit" it might be theirs.

I wasn't asking in a way that should be even read as anyway agitated, it was always very much "I found a sock, who want's it back?" kind of deal... But it's like every single roommate I ever had was so conditioned by their parent figures to fear and deny any potential "failure" that everyone would deny owning any sock in the house no matter where I found it.

Yeah sometimes it was left all over the living area again, but very often it was just the bottom of the washer [under the base of the spinner], or tucked into the front seal of the drier [clean those big seals out!]...

Even when I had a roommate who had like size 4 feet, I'd be like "hey Fine I think I found your sock?" And she'd be like "WHAT SOCK, I'm not missing any SOCKS, I don't know what you're talking about!!".. and then I'd hold up this sock that's only slightly too big to belong to a child and she'd be like "Oh, I guess it must be mine D:" and just look guilty? Like...

Are we all THAT traumatized by our parents?

Anyway, that's where your socks probably are. Under the edge of the agitator, IN the DRIER SEAL or under the front edge of the couch, if you didn't leave them where you take your shoes off.

They don't actually vanish, they get left behind easily. I don't actually have a problem with missing socks myself. Instead I slowly collect socks that other people energetically deny owning.

When I lived in a family of five, we had a sock basket. Whenever we -and by we I mean I- did laundry and I couldn't find the pair right away, I'd put it in the sock basket... Eventually the pair would get found under a bed, or chair or in a shoe and make it down to the basement where I could wash it.

Periodically, I'd go through the sock basket and match all the pairs. There were often a hundred socks or so, especially once people learned that if they just left their socks in the laundry room willy-nilly, they'd get washed, paired, folded and delivered to them in a stack once in a while. Like a gremlin gathered your socks in a neat clean pile and left them like a stack of logs outside your bedroom door.

This is also why I ended up with such a collection. In a household of 3 young men and myself, I am not going to argue and fight and guess at who owns which socks, or carefully observe people's feet to best serve everyone... If you can't admit to owning the socks they are mine now. They're all generic young man socks, it's not like novelty personality socks where I can go "oh that'd be Nelson's and he'll be missing those..." [picking on him because I don't think he ever actually did leave socks around and I bet he would hide owning novelty socks <3] Their parents are going to buy them new ones anyway every x-mas.

Anyway you should have a sock basket too if you have an issue losing socks, and you should clean out the front seal of your drier. Socks and underwear will disappear into that big rubber thing. So will a collection of lint.

[scarletwix]

PJO au where Bianca di Angelo doesn't die

Send me an AU and I'll tell you five fun facts that would happen in a story

Bianca lives aus my beloved~

Nico stays at camp, this is the obvious one. Without Bianca's death, he doesn't have the catalyst that sends him into the spiral at the end of the book, which means it likely takes much longer for his powers to manifest and for him to be claimed. I like to think that Bianca already had an inkling of who their godly parent was, if only because she was older and more likely to be able to extrapolate whatever she could do, demigod-ability wise. For a little added flavor, I like to think she keeps this knowledge VERY close to her chest.

Weekly Iris-messages between Bianca and Nico. You cannot tell me that after 70-odd years with only each other for company, Bianca would not want to know how her little brother is settling in at camp. He might be her annoying little brother, but he's her annoying little brother (<- not speaking from experience or anything).

Bianca spends a while (probably a LONG while) fairly listless. She spent her early years in the 40s, so she probably has some time-appropriate skills, but those wouldn't always translate, and the remainder of her time alive has been spent looking after Nico, so she doesn't know what sort of person she is outside of those restraints. Joining the Huntresses was her first big personal choice, and I want her to get the time to find herself, whoever that is.

Eventually, they have to be claimed as Hades's children. This probably comes out in a suitably dramatic manner at camp. Nico murder-boarding up the Hermes cabin to try and prove to everyone that Percy isn't dead because "trust me, I can feel it." Followed by the battle of the Labyrinth, and the stress of that situation causing his abilities to manifest as a pseudo-cavalry would be fun. For Bianca, I think it would just be a matter of "she's already a huntress, so once she's claimed, she's still theirs" but there's a heavy debate about returning to camp to warn everyone about Nico.

Most importantly: Nico is no longer a vessel for Percy's guilt complex! Yay!! Instead, Nico probably stays pretty excitable and happy for the first little while, then starts to grow quieter and more introverted as More Shit Happens, but never to the point of avoidance of others that we see in the books. He really comes out of his shell in the HoO/ToA books (I must confess I haven't actually read all of them. I got to Tower of Nero, I think, and stopped), and I think he'd end up more like that without the raging grief, betrayal, and depression clawing at him after Bianca's death. (Thinking about it now like. Who let this ten year old vanish? Chiron that child was in your care. Why would you listen to the traumatized teenager telling you it's all gucci? Send some folks after that boy and convince him to at least stay during the school year when Percy isn't there so he can EAT.)

TY for sending this Mo!! <3 This was a lot of fun to think about. I don't read many Bianca Lives AUs, and the ones I do tend not to really go into it.

[rhetoricandlogic]

Wind and Truth - Brandon Sanderson

Wind and Truth sticks the landing for The Stormlight Archive's first arc (SPOILER-FREE review)

The fifth book in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive is here at last. We've read it and are here to give you a SPOILER-FREE review of what awaits you on Roshar.

Book review: Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

Let's start with the set up. At the heart of The Stormlight Archive is a growing conflict between the Knights Radiant — led by characters like Dalinar Kholin, Shallan Davar, and Kaladin Stormblessed — and the forces of Odium, a deity who has bent the indigenous Parshendi people of Roshar to his will. Over the course of the first four books we watched the Knights Radiant return after they'd vanished in ancient times, and ultimately Dalinar agreed to a contest of champions with Odium to settle the fate of Roshar once and for all.

The previous book, Rhythm of War, largely covered the occupation of the Radiant tower of Urithiru. After Odium's forces were ousted from the place, Dalinar and Odium agreed the cost of this war was becoming steep enough to warrant a contest of champions: in 10 days time, they would bring their chosen heroes forth, and the lines of conquest would freeze on the map. Whatever the two factions had managed to capture by that point, they would keep. And whoever won the contest would receive an extra boon: if the Radiants were victorious, Odium would return several precious kingdoms to humanity; if Odium was the victor, Dalinar would be forced to become his general on a campaign to conquer the wider Cosmere beyond Roshar.

Those are some pretty lofty stakes to kick off Wind and Truth, and that's not even getting into the minutiae of characters like Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar's son Adolin, and the assassin Szeth. Kaladin began the series as a fairly typical Chosen One hero, but Sanderson flipped that idea on its head in Rhythm of War by having Kaladin try — desperately — to retire from fighting after years of it have utterly traumatized him. Instead of being the war hero everyone expects him to be at this crucial moment, Kaladin essentially becomes the world's first therapist, because he's suffered so long with depression and trauma that it's given him an innate understanding for how to help others with their own darkness.

Meanwhile, Shallan finally made peace with the fact that she has multiple personality disorder while journeying through the Spren dimension of Shadesmar, her husband Adolin at her side. Szeth embraced his path as a Skybreaker and swore himself to serve Dalinar Kholin. And atop it all, Odium shed his previous incarnation and inhabited an even more dangerous avatar.

With a new Odium on the rise as the contest of champions nears, Wind and Truth has a great starting point. The book only gets better from there, with an ending that is among the best Sanderson has ever written. I won't lie to you, I cried at one point. It's emotional to see big conclusions to this chapter of The Stormlight Archive, and Sanderson took some frankly wild risks as he sets up what comes next. It's hard for me to imagine any Cosmere fan being disappointed with this book.

The Format

Something that is very interesting to me about Wind and Truth is the format, which in some ways is indicative of the larger ethos of this work. So far, The Stormlight Archive is probalby the most static series in Sanderson's catalog from a format perspective. Each book is broken into five distinct parts, with interludes peppered in between. There are lots of little formatting traditions Sanderson follows in Stormlight, right down to the titles: when they're all put together they roughly form a "ketek," a symmetrical poem unique to Roshar.

Wind and Truth shows that, despite how entrenched he has gotten in his way of constructing stories in the Cosmere, Sanderson is still willing to take some risks. The format for Wind and Truth is different, which I don't feel is a spoiler since it's been talked about openly at this point, including at Reactorwhere they've been sharing sample chapters from the novel. Instead of the usual five-part format, Wind and Truth covers each of the 10 days leading up to the contest of champions, with the usual interludes between.

The downside to this is that this novel takes place over a fairly short amount of time compared to, say, The Way of Kings, which spanned years. But thanks to some pretty bold narrative choices, it doesn't always feel like it takes place over that short an amount of time. These are 10 of the most important days in the history of Roshar, and Sanderson makes the most of them.

The Plot & Characters

Now let's touch on some of the most important elements for any story: the plot and characters. The Stormlight Archive is known for huge sweeping arcs that leave readers in awe by the end, full of twists and turns, betrayals and battles. They also feature many of Sanderson's most iconic characters, like Kaladin Stormblessed and Shallan Davar. Does Wind and Truth live up to the rest of the series?

What I'll say is that Wind and Truth is an interestingbook in more ways than one. I am firmly of the opinion that it's one of the best novels in The Stormlight Archive, but some aspects of it might divide fans a bit, similar to the fourth book, Rhythm of War. My journey with this book went something like "wow, this is incredible" followed by "oh, this is a little weird. Do I like this?" followed by "oh my god, this is incredible." This book is a journey, and I expect readers' feelings will shift as they read. But overall, I'd say that Wind and Truth managed to bring this first arc of The Stormlight Archive to a head in admirable fashion. I was left extremely satisfied by the time I finished. And the "Sanderlanche" — the bombardment of climactic events Sanderson tends to put at the end of his books — is very real here.

As for how Sanderson handles the characters, once again, he nails it. The Stormlight Archive isn't always even-handed with its characters; different books pull different ones to the forefront, which means others linger in the background. For example, Szeth played a relatively small role in Rhythm of War while Navani Kholin became one of the main characters. In previous books, Navani played a much smaller role while others got more page time.

Since Wind and Truth is the end of this arc and there's a 10-year time jump around the corner, Sanderson couldn't get away with that quite as easily. Instead, he strikes a balance between all of the major players introduced so far, giving each of them time to shine. He also spends a lot of time building up some other characters who will presumably be even more important in the back half of the series. And he takes some of the more unexpected character developments from previous books, like Kaladin becoming Roshar's first therapist, and builds on them in a way that feels reverent to their entire character arc from the beginning of the series. So while I do anticipate fans having some complicated feelings about some of the plot decisions in Wind and Truth, personally, I think Sanderson knocked it out of the park.

The Writing

Another thing I was curious about heading into Wind and Truth was, obviously, the actual writing itself. Now, if you're this deep into the Cosmere, you know what to expect from Brandon Sanderson; he can be a bit goofy with his sense of humor, throws in some modern parlance, etc. I don't hold any of that against him, because if you're on book five of The Stormlight Archive, you should already know whether you like his style or not.

The gauge for me is how Wind and Truth stacks up to Sanderson's own previous works and standards. I always thought that the prose in the third book in The Stormlight Archive, Oathbringer, was a little looser than usual, perhaps because Sanderson wrote it while coming off an insanely exhausting tour schedule for the previous book, Words of Radiance, that was so bad it made him "physically ill." For whatever reason, that's something that has always stuck out in my mind; Oathbringer was a solid book, but is still probably my least favorite in The Stormlight Archive.

Wind and Truth is the opposite. This is an immense novel, and it's obvious Sanderson tried really hard to get it right. The prose in this is among the best Sanderson has ever written. It can get a little weighty and philosophical at times...but honestly, that's something I've always enjoyed about The Stormlight Archive. He strikes the balance really well between those moments and others where he unleashes his full capacity to write thrilling action scenes.

The Setting

The setting itself has always been one of the strongest aspects of The Stormlight Archive; there just aren't any other fantasy worlds out there quite like Roshar, with its shelled plants, highstorms, crab-like animals and dramatic vistas. Obviously, returning to Roshar will always come with a certain amount of wonder.

However, this is one aspect of Wind and Truth where Sanderson spends a little less time than usual. We've already spent ample time getting to know the world of The Stormlight Archive, so there isn't as much of a need to describe the landscape as in the previous books. For the most part, I didn't mind that, but I did miss some of the wonder those early books gave me with their focus on just how strange the little details were compared to our own world. A large part of Wind and Truth also deals with the Spiritual Realm, and while Sanderson does describe that setting really well, by its very nature it's a much more nebulous place. So while the setting has always been a highlight in Stormlight, I found it to be a little less so in Wind and Truth.

The big exception to this is Shinovar, which is easily my favorite setting of the novel. In Wind and Truth we see this new location from Szeth's native perspective as well as the perspective of someone who is used to the rest of Roshar's rockier landscape. I devoured every second of the Shinovar storyline and think Sanderson did a wonderful job portraying its landscape, history, and culture.

The Flashbacks

Another aspect I want to shout out is the flashbacks; so far, we've learned about a different character's past in each book. It's no secret at this point that the flashbacks in Wind and Truth are from the perspective of Szeth-son-Neturo, the mysterious assassin who kickstarted the events of the series when he murdered Dalinar's brother, King Gavilar. Szeth has undergone a lot of change throughout the series, and at last, we get to find out how he became the morose assassin we met at the start of The Way of Kings.

Szeth's flashbacks are something which have a certain mystique about them in the fandom, because Sanderson originally planned to include them all the way back in the third book. Then they got bumped to book four, and then finally to Wind and Truth. "It felt natural not to delve into his story until I got to the end [ofThe Stormlight Archive’s first half]. It matched what I was planning to do in this book for reasons I won’t say," Sanderson told Esquirein a recent interview.

Roshar & the Cosmere

The last aspect of Wind and Truth I want to discuss is how this book relates to the wider Cosmere. Since this is the culmination of the first part of The Stormlight Archive, and we're now at a point in the Cosmere where things are starting to cross over a bit, you might be wondering if this is a novel you need to have done a lot of homework to understand. Will this have an Avengers-level amount of references and easter eggs? Will it still be comprehensible if you haven't read all seven Mistborn books, Warbreaker, Elantris, and all the various short fiction of the Cosmere?

My answer to that is yes...and no. Sanderson has long held that each discreet series in the Cosmere is meant to stand on its own, without requiring you to read everything else. But if you do read all the rest, you'll get more out of them. I think that's especially true of Wind and Truth. I vascilated between feeling like this was a very Roshar-centered book (as it should be), and one which felt like a gateway to the story of the wider Cosmere. It has a lot of references to other Cosmere books, but even if you miss them, you'll still absolutely be able to enjoy Wind and Truth. This is, first and foremost, a Stormlight Archive book, and that is what gets the main focus.

However, Wind and Truth also feels like the book that finally brings the conflict of the wider Cosmere into focus in some pretty major ways. The deep lore of the Cosmere has largely been confined to fan wikis and interviews with Sanderson, but at long last, it's starting to become relevant. Even better, it's becoming relevant in a way that feels organic, rather than just tacked on so Sanderson can expand his MCU-style book universe.

If that intimidates you a little, I'd say don't worry. I'm going to give you two specific examples of how my own ignorance didn't impact my reading experience at all. The first is a reference to a name from one of Sanderson's other Cosmere books, which I read years ago. When I hit that reference in Wind and Truth, I knew on some level that I should know what it meant, but couldn't quite remember which book it was from. But I kept reading, and after I finished, I circled back to the internet and did some digging. Then my mind was absolutely blown. But in the moment, it didn't impact my reading experience whatsoever, aside from knowing a few sentences were more important than I could fully wrap my head around.

The other is that, I am ashamed to admit, I haven't yet read The Lost Metal, the final book in Mistborn Era 2 (I was waiting forever for the mass market paperback release, because they need to match on my shelf, damn it). Even though I haven't read it, I know The Lost Metal has important implications for the wider Cosmere, which undoubtedly have relevance to Wind and Truth. But my enjoyment of Wind and Truth was in no way diminished by not having read it; if anything, it just makes me more excited to get to The Lost Metal now.

Verdict

At the end of the day, Wind and Truth is a special book. We live in a time where dozens of new fantasy and science fiction books are released every single month...which just makes The Stormlight Archive stand even further apart. Sanderson is a master storyteller, and here he brings every tool in his arsenal to bear to create a massive epic that can stand alongside the genre's best. This isa dense fantasy book made for people who love big dense fantasy books; it's not trying to pretend it's more mainstream just for broader appeal. Since I'm one of those fantasy nerds who loves a door-stopper, that just makes me love it more.

Wind and Truth sticks the landing for the first arc of The Stormlight Archive, while opening new doors for the bold next chapter of the Cosmere. If you've been enjoying the journey, I think you're going to be really pleased with this destination.

[iviarellereads]

The Shadow Rising, Chapter 5 - Questioners

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Silhouettes icon) In which no, not THOSE Questioners, different ones.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene suggests that "they" should be back by now, fanning herself. Moiraine had promised them an hour, for the first time in days, then disappeared with Elayne after just five minutes. Egg feels a little guilty that they've been letting everyone think they're fully trained Aes Sedai and not just Accepted, but Moiraine hasn't contradicted them about it.

Nynaeve mutters the name Tanchico, and there's nothing for it but to go there. After half a page of narrative musing on what they’re each wearing,(1) Egg says she's not convinced.

They have Joiya and Amico in the room, the two Black Ajah they'd captured during the siege on the Stone. Amico was fully stilled, but they still have a shield weave on Joiya. Amico tells them (apparently not for the first time) that they should go to Tanchico, that none of them knew more than two or three others in the Black before they left the Tower. There's something in Tanchico that could bind Rand.

Nyn says she's heard enough, let's see if Joiya has anything new to say. Egg is grumpy that Nyn is still acting like she's higher ranked than Egg, and this time Elayne isn't there to smooth things over.

Amico submits to being bound again, and when she is, Aviendha, who also seems to have felt Egwene channeling, asks why her face looks different, is it because she was stilled? Egg looks closer at Amico, and has to agree: she looks younger, but not the agelessness of Aes Sedai any longer.

Egg, pretending to be Aes Sedai, hates to admit that she doesn't know if it's related or not, and Nyn rescues her from having to come up with some reasoning by saying that so few women have ever burned out or been stilled, it's hard to know. It's not something that you'd choose to study. It's accepted to be irreversible, and it's a traumatic experience: those who lose the ability to channel rarely live more than a few years.(2)

They free Joiya to talk, and she starts spouting repentance, too smoothly. Egg commands her to tell her story again, and use different words. Joiya says that Liandrin plans to free Mazrim Taim, declare him the Dragon and have him go by Rand's name elsewhere, and unleash destruction on the world. Rand would be blamed for the damage, and there will be no satisfactory proof that they're different people: who knows what the Dragon can or can't do? Even those who would declare for false Dragons before would hesitate at indiscriminate slaughter in Rand's reputation. Nations will unite against him, the Dark One can break free unopposed, and win.

It was a plausible story, more plausible than Amico’s tale of a few eavesdropped sentences, but Egwene believed Amico and not Joiya. Perhaps because she wanted to. A vague threat in Tanchico was easier to face than this fully fleshed plan to turn every hand against Rand. No, she thought. Joiya is lying. I am sure she is. Yet they could not afford to ignore either story. But they could not chase after both, not with any hope of success.

The door banged open, and Moiraine strode in, with Elayne following. The Daughter-Heir was frowning at the floor in front of her toes, lost in dark thoughts, but Moiraine. . . . For once the Aes Sedai’s serenity had vanished; fury painted her face.

=====

(1) First, a "wrist-thick" braid on Nynaeve makes me so jealous. Mine's not much more than two fingers thick at the top, about the thickness of my thumb near the bottom (classic length, aka "covers the butt when loose"), and when I tie it off it's about as big as my little finger. This is considered pretty average, wrist-thick is either fluffed intentionally to look thicker, has hair pieces added in (unlikely, though courtly types probably would be using hair rats to puff up their volume as that's extremely well historically founded), or is like, several standard deviations out from average or median. Second, Egg wishes she were wearing Berelain's gauzy barely-there gowns because they look cooler than the linen she's wearing. Shame on you, Robert Jordan, linen's as good a fabric for cooling as any natural fiber, and historical women's fashion keeping everything covered (even to using a kerchief on any open neckline when they were outside or working) served to keep them cooler and sun-protected. Even wool can be woven into a summer weight. And in linen? A full dress in a light colour like Egg's "pale red" would have air movement in the skirts like your own personal breeze around your legs, and the more of you is covered, the more that linen is wicking away the sweat and keeping you cooler in the absence of air conditioning or electric fans. (It's a pet peeve I've picked up since starting to watch more of sewing YouTube.) (2) Rough. But, it makes some sense, same as the monitoring of "gentled" men as we saw with Logain. And, it's generally accepted to be impossible, especially after failed attempts… but, this is an era of upheaval looming before our heroes, who's to say what might happen in a whirlwind like the end of the world?

[mariacallous]

It’s been nothing but grim news for the Chinese economy this year. A hoped-for COVID-19 recovery never materialized after years of repression left the public wary of spending, giving it a case of what economist Adam Posen dubbed “economic long COVID.” (Hear him discussing that idea on FP Live.) Real estate giants have been on the brink of collapse all year. Even the Communist Party has reluctantly acknowledged the scale of the problems it faces, although officials claim that things can only get better. And Chinese dictator Xi Jinping needs someone to blame for everything going wrong.

The sharp slowdown has hit hard in a country that has experienced three decades of uninterrupted high growth. (It would have been four, if not for the interruption of the protests and killings of 1989.) Like the European “30 glorious years” of the postwar era, the notion that each year would be better than the next came to be taken for granted; those days are over.

Here are five perspectives on the Chinese economic crisis—and the impact that it’s left on the public.

1. The Chinese Communist Party Wants the Property Bubble Back

By Robert Foyle Hunwick, Jan. 10

The Chinese growth story has been about property and construction—especially for an urban middle class that was given its homes by the state in the 1990s and watched their value rocket. For years, the government tried to deflate the property bubble, but now it’s desperate to reinflate it. “With unreliable and government-fiddled stock markets, 70 percent of Chinese wealth is held in real estate,” writes British author Robert Foyle Hunwick, an expert on crime in China, “while land sales remain the main source of income for those same corrupt provincial administrators.”

Corruption helped fuel the real estate market as officials bought up valuable property, but it was also a massive source of corruption itself. Real estate deals were greased by bribery, and local leaders grew fat off the proceeds. Everyone else got sucked in, too, and may be left holding the bag. When it comes to presales, for instance, which are the mortgages that most Chinese homebuyers take out on as yet unbuilt apartments, “there’s a local legal twist to it that has caused further headaches: In China, the lender can go after the borrower, as well as developers, if they wish to reclaim any unpaid debt.”

2. How China’s Education System Trapped a Generation

By Helen Gao, June 22

China’s youth unemployment has reached such high levels this year that the government stopped publishing the statistics. For a generation of college graduates raised in cutthroat educational competition against their peers, the discovery that promised rewards have vanished has been traumatic. As Gao, a writer and reporter in her 30s, describes it, “When I read news about state crackdowns on the private sector, I feel a sense of déjà vu. The industries under assault—private tutoring, property, tech, and finance—employed the country’s best and brightest.”

Young Chinese have turned instead to “lying flat”—giving up on the rat race and working the minimum that they can in order to survive. As Gao says, she was taught to sneer at the slackers among her peers, but now she thinks they had the right idea all along. “As my generation’s once-bright prospects fade, the truth comes out: We thought we had left school behind when we graduated. It turns out school has followed us into adulthood and makes us its pupils still.”

3. Xi’s Policies Have Shortened the Fuse on China’s Economic Time Bombs

By Zongyuan Zoe Liu, Sept. 6

China’s economic problems run deep, writes political economist Zongyuan Zoe Liu, from sluggish consumption to a demographic crisis to a housing bubble. But Xi’s policies have taken existing fault lines and deepened them. “Economically, Xi has been a bull in a china shop. His economic policies have often shifted focus but always emphasize the party’s overarching control across nearly all dimensions of China’s economic and financial activity.”

Xi’s obsession with top-down control has wrecked the chances of thoughtful reform. While there was once room for policy experimentation at a local level that could be scaled up later, today the pressure to appeal to the man in charge is stronger than ever. “Chinese policy thinkers attempted to compensate for the absence of prudent economic strategy under Xi by ceaselessly leaping from one grand idea to the next under the banner of national rejuvenation,” Liu writes.

4. China Prefers Guns to Butter

By Jacqueline N. Deal and Michael Mort, Sept. 7

As the economic crisis bites and cities struggle to pay pensions or welfare, there’s one institution that rarely goes short in Xi’s China: the military. Defense spending has kept soaring upward in the hope of winning a confrontation with the United States—or out of fear that Washington might strike first.

“Of course, the history of PLA [People’s Liberation Army] entanglement in China’s domestic economy makes it difficult to discriminate between defense investment for military purposes and internally oriented stimulus spending (i.e., make-work),” Deal and Mort, who run a Washington, D.C., consultancy, note, but “in the event that China continues to fail to transition to sustainable consumption-based growth, Beijing will be left with one of the biggest hammers in the world, and recalcitrant parties abroad may all look like nails.”

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a temporary slowdown in spending—but the economic crisis hasn’t. “PLA investment stalled during the height of COVID on the mainland in 2020 as Chinese shipyards switched from building PLA Navy vessels, a traditional cost center, to building commercial ships—potentially because constructing warships requires tighter working conditions than constructing bulk carriers, and health concerns were paramount. But the spending increases appear to have resumed by last year and to be outstripping GDP growth once more,” they write.

5. Maybe China’s Economy Isn’t So Doomed

By Bob Davis, Oct. 17

Amid all the bad news, some analysts remained bearish on China’s long-term prospects, pointing to the way the country had successfully ridden out previous crises, such as the global crash of 2008 or the peer-to-peer lending scandals of 2015-2018. Veteran China economy reporter Bob Davis took a long look at the optimists. “The optimists’ case relies on a close examination of Chinese economic data but also reflects the view that while President Xi Jinping and the rest of the Chinese leadership are hard-liners politically, they are economic pragmatists who want to follow in the tradition of Deng Xiaoping, who led China’s opening to the West,” Davis writes.

There’s certainly been a tendency to read any downturn in China as doom for the Chinese Communist Party—and it’s worth remembering that states survive recessions, or even depressions, all the time. “Every time the Chinese economy stumbles, there is a tendency to say that finally the end is near,” Cornell University economist Eswar Prasad told Davis. “The optimists’ view might be too optimistic, but it provides some grounding, so we don’t get too carried away every time the Chinese economy stumbles.”

[gryfflepuffinthetardis]

Trauma Henderson Masterlist (Steve Harrington/Emilie Henderson)

Summary:

Emilie Henderson was damaged. Everyone knew what happened to her. Or at least, they knew enough. When she was thirteen she went camping with her father and they both went missing for nearly two weeks until Emilie was found barely alive with deep wounds from an unknown origin and her father was found with his eyes caved in and his bones cracked.

She was in a coma for thirteen weeks when she came back she had no memory of what happened. Doctors said the trauma was so great that the young girl blocked it out. But ever since then, she kept having nightmares of a place. Like this world but cold and dark. She lived with the Byers as she became friends with Jonathan and was like a daughter to Joyce until her brother and mother were able to move to Hawkins with her due to complications.

She's now known at the traumatized girl of Hawkins High with the freak brother, yet somehow she is Steve "The Hair" Harrington's best friend albeit their relationship has gotten rocky. She deals with normal things along with her nightmares and trauma-school, bullies, insecurities, and being in love with her best friend.

But when Will Byers goes missing and odd occurrences start happening, Emilie's memories start coming back.

Pre-Season One:

Prologue (Early to Mid September of 1979)

Season One/November 6, 1983 to December 12, 1983:

Season One Cast

Emilie Henderson 1983 Bio

The Vanishing of Will Byers (November 6 to November 7 of 1983)

The Weirdo On Maple Street (November 7 to November 8 of 1983)

Holly Jolly (November 8 to November 9 of 1983)

The Body (November 10 of 1983)

The Flea and the Acrobat (November 10 to November 11 of 1983)

The Monster (November 11 to November 12 of 1983)

The Bathtub (November 12 of 1983)

The Upside Down (November 12 to November 13 of 1983 + Epilogue taking place on December 12 of 1983)

Post Season One/Pre-Season Two

Season Two Prolouge: Summer of 1984

Season Two/October 29 to December 15 of 1984)

Season Two Cast

Emilie Henderson 1984 Bio

MADMAX (October 29 to October 30 of 1984)

Trick or Treat, Freak (October 31 of 1984)

The Pollywog (October 31 to November 1 of 1984)

Will the Wise (November 1 to November 2 of 1984)

Dig Dug (November 2 to November 3 of 1984)

The Spy (November 3 to November 4 of 1984)

The Lost Sister (November 3 to November 4 of 1984) ???

The Mind Flayer (November 4 to November 5 of 1984)

The Gate (November 5 of 1984 + Eplilogue taking place on December 25 of 1984)

Season Three/June 28 to Unspecified Time Between September or October of 1985)

Season Three Cast

Emilie Henderson 1985 Bio

Suzie, Do You Copy? (June 28 to June 29 of 1985)

The Mall Rats (June 30 of 1985)

The Case of the Missing Lifeguard (July 1 of 1985)

The Sauna Test (July 2 of 1985)

The Flayed (July 3 of 1985)

E Pluribus Unum (July 3 to July 4 of 1985)

The Bite (July 4 of 1985)

The Battle of Starcourt (July 4 to July 5 + Epilogue Taking Place on Unspecified Time in September or October of 1985)

Season Three Epilouge Flashback/Prologue: May to June of 1985: Camp Know-Where (Flashback)

Season Four/March 21 to March 29 of 1986)

Season Four Cast

Emilie Henderson 1986 Bio

The Hellfire Club (March 21 of 1986)

Vecna's Curse (March 21 to March 22 of 1985)

The Monster and the Superhero (March 22 to March 23 of 1986)

Dear Billy (March 23 to March 24 of 1986)

The Nina Project (March 24 to March 25 of 1986)

The Dive (March 25 to 26 of 1986)

The Massacure at Hawkins Lab (March 26 to March 27 of 1986)

Papa (March 27 of 1986)

The Piggyback (March 27 of 1986 + Epilogue Taking Place on March 29 of 1986)

Season Five (Rumored to Air in Late 2025 or early 2026; Time Jump Length Currently Unknown)