#granted I do often wonder how they would go about like. dealing with this post canon. like they’re all what 15 what are they gonna do

[empressgeekt]

Trolls/Batman Crossover - Branch Wayne

Okay, so I've kind of been making little fic prompts where Branch falls through the walls of canon as a child and is raised in alternative universes. Today, lovely people of tumblr, we are going to send our wonderful little grumpy bean into the care of one of fiction's most notorious adoption addict, Bruce Wayne.

Not entirely sure on when it happens, but considering that Branch is around 24 at the time of modern canon, that would put him in the same age range as Dick Greyson (I'm going by Wayne Family Adventures, because that's the most wholesome batfam in canon, and likely this post i made a while ago pls read it for context), so, he and Branch would be taken in around the same time. Maybe Gotham first left Branch with the Flying Greyson, before going with Bruce along with Dick.

In this world Batman would have two child side-kicks, Robin and Meadowlark (I was going to go with Raven but that was taken and Meadowlark are birds that mean the end of suffering). I'd imagine that Branch wouldn't be as vengeful as little Dick, but he'd still follow Dick to make sure nothing bad happened, and did agree to training when Bruce offered as he wanted to protect himself.

For the next few years things are peaceful, for Branch. He loves going to school, he loves his foster father, Dick is the best brother he's ever had, he loves being Meadowlark, Alfred is a saint, and the Batman's legend continued to grow. The trio really leans into the spirit garden accept of their mysterious nature, half the city thinks their demons. And all the rogues say it's true, because it's less embarrassing to get their butt kicked by demon's of dark justice then just a guy and two kids in furry costumes.

Of course all goo things must come to an end. While Branch can put up with Bruce's overprotective nature as he got older, Dick cannot and so he and Bruce are constantly butting heads. The hostile home environment, eventually boils over with Dick striking out on his own, but Branch does not take it well. Once more a brother has abandoned him, and it climax's in a total panic attack where Alfred gets the story of how Branch lost his bio-family, and he's terrified that it was happening again. All this Alfred, does tell Bruce and they both work to assure to Branch that he'd always have a home at Wayne Manor. Branch is one of the kids who didn't move out after he moved in.

When the other children come along, at first Branch is worried about doing what Dick and his brothers did and screwing up the littler ones even more, but eventually he finds confidence as his role of one of the oldest in the Bat's brood.

Jason is the one who has to deal with Branch's awkwardness the most, but the kid didn't really mind. Both of them were academically inclined and were often found cuddling after falling asleep from reading too long. Jason's adoption also prompts Branch to Ask Bruce if he could be adopted too, and when his request is granted he's nearly brought to tears. Because of all of this, Jason also grew much more attached to Branch then to Dick. Mostly because Branch was there, and wasn't fighting with Bruce every time they came in contact.

Speaking of post move out, Branch and Dick. After Jason's death (a crushing blow to Branch that forever solidified the joker as his least favorite rogue), Dick tries to come around more at Alfred's request, and well, Dick is heartbroken when he learns that Branch thought he wouldn't ever comeback. In Branch's mind, Dick fought with Bruce, left and wasn't ever going to come back. Dick will spend years trying to make it up to Branch, but they will never be as close as they were as young kids.

Tim had to deal with a grieving Branch and that Branch was mad. Mad on Tim's behalf that is. The Drake neglect hit all to close to him, making Branch remember the neglect that Troll village had for him. It like looking in a mirror, watching Tim go above and beyond to prove himself, as Robin. Branch is also pissed at Bruce, he gets it, Jason's death hurt him too, but that's no excuse to treat Tim like shit, when the kid was only trying to help. Knowing what it was like to have no one in his corner, Branch would do his best to be in Tim's both in and out of the Mask. They would bond over trying to solve famous cold cases, and sci-fi movies. With Branch, Dick, and Branch knocking some sense into Bruce earlier, Tim flourishes.

When Cass shows up, Branch's awkwardness returns, after all he's never had a sister before, and she doesn't talk. However, Branch would join in on the sign language lessons, and over time learns just how sweet of a girl she is. He teaches her to cook, and help her find herself.

Stephine (Yes, I count her, she might not be Bruce's kid, but she's definitely a bat-sib), is a little much for Branch. Her boundless energy is a lot like a certain pink Princess', but Branch can see the difference, Gotham knows Poppy would never be able to kick butt like Spoiler. Their not the closest but they know they can count on each other.

When Jason comes back as Red Hood, its bitter-sweet for Branch. On one hand Jason is alive, but the Red Hood is not same person that was once Branch's first little brother. Still Branch tries to get Jason to come home, it takes a while, after all Pit Rage is no joke. But Branch does help clear up a lot of the misconceptions between the stupid people in his family who won't communicate (not that he's any better at it).

For Damian, Athanasia, and Mara (The latter two are Damian's bio-sister and cousin/ Bruce needs more daughters people), Branch's job is simply, "Don't let them kill each other or anyone else". Athanasia is sweet enough, and is the least trouble maker out of all of them, but the other two? Mara seems to think she needs to compete for her place in the manor, and Damian is constantly trying to kill Tim, as he thinks that the middle child is after the batman title, which Damian wants for himself.

When Terry, Matt, Dana and Max, universe jump to save themselves, Branch is just there. He helps them adjust, but his role isn't that major.

By the time that he turns 24 in Gotham, Branch has a college degree (nothing about a bachelor's since, most masters/phd's holders become rogues and have been banned from the cave/manner), a father, a step-mother who cares (Selina), two loving Grandfathers (Alfred, Thomas Wayne [flashpoint]), Three badass aunts (Kate, Harley and Ivy), what ever the heck Luke and Babs are, and a gaggle of siblings he'd seriously maim anyone for (Dick, Jason, Cass, Stephine, Tim, Duke, Cullen, Harper, Damian, Athanasia, Mara, Terry, Max, Dana, Matt, and little baby Helena [also Keith, Zuko and Jet, if you count the other crossovers in the mentioned linked post at the top]), who all come over on Tuesday for a family dinner. His life is seemingly perfect.

However, for his bio-brothers things are very much not. By some miracle, they pull together to save Floyd, but it was a really close call. They all (+viva and poppy) make it to Gotham, via a very disgruntled John Constantine and a letter that Gotham left in Peppy's care.

I'm not entirely sure plot wise where it would go. I think they would probably land in Crime Alley, and be horrified by the place. The trolls world is bright and colorful, and Crime Alley is not. Maybe they'd come across some of the Alley kids and they would point out some grafiti of the Batfamily. Though, the would definitely get jumped once the sun goes down. Jason likely coming to their rescue.

Brozone's reaction to the Batfamily is a mix of shock and confusion. Branch has his own new family, and his new siblings aren't making it any easier. The adults (Bruce, Selina, Alfred, Kate, and Thomas) are civil, but still intimidating. The children however? Branch is their big brother, they are going to get a little petty revenge for him. Jason and Tim would just off the hand mention how dangerous their lives are and how Jason died. Cass would sneak up on them. Mara, Damain, Matt and Attie would openly threaten their lives. And the rest of them would totally flaunt how close they were as siblings even if they literally have tried to kill each other in the past.

A breakout would definitely happen at one point. Not sure when, but i'm tempted to pump up at least one of the Brozone members on Fear Toxin.

Also Bruce Wayne and TBruce meeting would be weird. Like two guys by the name of Bruce with over ten children each? Yeah, BW would take the possibility of them being multiversal counterparts way too seriously.

So ya'll thoughts? I have people from both of these fandoms watching my account, so I'm interested in what ideas ya'll have.

[max1461]

So, many people take for granted that there has been a huge increase in the prevalence of egalitarian and pacifistic ideals over the last few centuries. I don't actually know if this is true. It certainly looks true on shorter timescales, e.g. the world seems to me more egalitarian today than it was 1000 years ago, but I'm really not sure how we'd evaluate it on longer timescales. Are we more egalitarian on average than 20,000 years ago? I have no idea. I think it's clear from the archeological evidence, though, that society is much less violent than it was 20,000 ago, so at least that gain can be sort of confidently claimed.

And the question, then, is... why? My first pass at an answer would be technology; because of technology we live lives less governed by fear an want, and thus can afford to be kinder to one another. We have material security that we once lacked, and in light of this security, fiercely guarding what little we have is less necessary. Or something in that vicinity. But I think there's also possibly another effect, that of mass trauma. I believe @tanadrin suggested this in a post somewhere. If you're living in a world where 4/5 of your siblings died in childhood, where people around you are constantly at risk of death by a simply infection or the common cold, where the majority of your own children will likely die... I think that's likely to really mess you up, by modern standards. Make you far less sensitive to death and suffering—because, you know, you have to be.

Anyway, I think this is reflected in the way many historical texts talk so cavalierly about death and killing. To me, and to I think a lot of people today, losing someone we care about is unimaginably painful. But if you listen to the way death is talked about in e.g. the Norse sagas, it's discussed as a practical inconvenience, a financial burden, an affront to the ego. But a tragedy? Almost never. Because, I suspect, you can't consider something a tragedy if it's happened to you time and time again, and also to everyone you know and everyone you've every heard about forever. At that points, it's just life.

I have two points here. One is that this is a parable against falling into the naturalistic fallacy. There are many struggles that we today consider "just a part of life", that people are reflexively dismissive of trying to alleviate with technology. But for most of human history, this same thing could be said of massive child mortality. Now that we have the benefit, at least in the developed world, or not having to deal with that, we can recognize it for the horrific tragedy that it was. We can recognize it for the horribly traumatic thing that it was, this thing that filled everyone's life with needless suffering for centuries upon centuries. When medical technology allows us to e.g. prevent natural aging, I am nearly certain we will look back on it the same way. We will wonder "how did they all get by, knowing they had so little time on Earth, knowing the approximate age of their own death?" And the answer will be twofold: "they just did" and "they really didn't".

The other point is that this all suggests against the narrative that suffering makes one virtuous. I think the reality, as hard a pill as it may be to swallow, is nearly the opposite: comfort and luxury make people more virtuous. The greatest source of hate and anger in the world, I strongly suspect, is fear, and being free from fear allows one to be free from hate and anger in a way that the fearful are going to have a far harder time doing. As far as it goes, through the various ups and downs in my own life, this has been my experience to a tee. I think @balioc suggested something like this somewhere, and while I think they went a bit too far (I have definitely received some benefits to virtue from the harder times in my life, namely a strongly increased desire to ameliorate similar conditions for others), I think the gist of their idea ("struggle often makes you a worse person") is pretty accurate. It's not always true, but it certainly seems to be true a fair amount of the time.

I suspect that the idea that luxury corrupts is mostly a selection effect: that is, in a harshly competitive society, the people most able to win luxury for themselves are likely to be the most ruthless. So it appears that the luxury is causing the evil, when in reality the causality is exactly opposite. At least, that would be my guess.

Overall this paints a rather grim picture of the human experience. Suffering makes us less kind, most of us are condemned to suffering, and those most likely to escape it are those who were least kind to begin with. And I'd really like to hear from anyone who's had a different experience, who feels they're a better person for the hardships in their life, because that has really not been mine.

I don't know where I'm going with this. A dose of pessimism to cut the usual utopian-optimism of this blog. I suppose I think these features of the human condition are fundamentally escapable, and that's cause to feel good. But in order to escape our problems we first have to understand them, so, here's been one attempt to do that.

[12pt-times-new-roman]

c3e81

As a reminder, because I sort of missed it in my last post: Fearne absorbing and re-activating the shard also awakened Ashton's shard, and they were both transformed.

"What if every so often an ancient stone titan surfaces on Ashton's face and he goes, 'oh, the ancient times!'" boy that is RICH coming from Laudna--

On the bright side, now that the shard has been absorbed, Delilah's want for it has subsided.

Chetney talks about his family. He doesn't blame them for leaving, not at all — they were fleeing a red dragon — but he's considering making a deal with Nana Morri for his youth.

Outside, Ashton and Fearne are figuring out their new powers. While in their transformed state, Ashton can glide through unworked/loose earth or stone freely, and it sounds like their speed is increased. They can use this to run up sheer cliff-faces, and by submerging themself only halfway in the stone they can carry people up with them like an elevator. Their pain is gone in this state, and when it returns, it feels welcome.

For Fearne, while in her transformed state she's immune to fire damage, a creature that hits her takes 1d8 fire damage, and her fire spells are more powerful now. She also floats about a foot off the ground, so her movement ignores difficult terrain, and when she touches the ground she leaves little black scorch marks. Even in her un-transformed state, she has a slight smoke drifting from her hair, and a little flame in her pupils.

Both Ashton and Fearne have abilities that they can unleash that will exhaust them significantly. It's unclear how long their transformed states last for and how many times they can use them per day.

Meanwhile, Chetney goes to Nana Morri to ask about a "wish."

Monsters, frost worms, opening bottles, wind, fire — whatever. I will always be impressed by the quality and variety of Matt's hinge creak sound effects.

Morri reveals that she doesn't grant wishes, she makes deals — there has to be collateral, and if people don't hold up their end of the deal, they become like the topiaries in the garden.

Chetney very, very carefully proposes a deal: he gets imbued with some of Morri's power, in exchange for the ability for her to exert more of her power over the mortal realm. (Chetney's shadow touched feat suddenly makes a lot of sense — a suspicious amount of sense, actually.) Morri changes the scenery to a dark, empty space with a single table.

"What is it that you want specifically? Tell me your dreams." "Well, I would love to never die, but that seems a little much. So — I was wondering... do people ask to return to their youth?" Both are things she's granted before, but she cuts to the root: Chetney came in here with a singular desire, greater than either of those requests. "I want to be the most famous toymaker the world has ever known." "Now that just requires a little bend of fate, doesn't it?" Morri pulls a golden thread from Chetney's chest, it stretches from dark to dark, and as she pulls on it a cold sensation courses through Chetney. "And what will you give me?" "What would you want?" "Bring me a piece of what you hunt. Bring me a piece of the God-Eater." "Let me do some simple arithmetic here — it's a deal." As it is stricken, she runs her hand over the lantern, alights her palm with white fire and clasps Chetney's hand with it — the cold touches his palm and that golden thread seems to twist and tangle a bit, then she withdraws. "Very well. Make me proud, and you'll be notorious."

(god this is going to backfire so badly — like, if Predathos is anything like the Lovecraftian horrors it's very clearly modeled after, a piece is all it needs. am I the only one thinking of a color out of space here?)

They start their long rest and have the campaign's first heroes' feast! FCG feeds the Bells Hells plus Allura, Pate, and Mister. Their HP max goes up by 13, they are immune to being poisoned and frightened, and they make all wisdom saves with advantage for the next 24 hours.

For the first time in many, many days, they set up their dream ritual. FCG brings everyone except Chetney and Fearne into Imogen's dream.

Imogen's intent with this dream is to enter the beam and travel to Ruidus, to see what happens when she does. She glides past clouds beneath the starry sky and eventually finds herself in a corkscrew, drifting — all five of them are already gliding along the Bloody Bridge, hurtling upward toward the Moon of Ill Omen. Sparks pulse through it and almost catches them up in it — they're shunted, dragged through, like a rollercoaster. Before long, they untether from the beam and start free-falling toward the dusty surface of Ruidus. There are mountain ranges, chasms, and slivers of silver carving through the landscape — before they arrive at the core of the Ruidian storms. In this lost space, there is no sense of up or down, just the storm, the wind — they're lost.

Imogen opens her mind, and for a brief moment she feels like she's tapping into a greater consciousness, minds like background radiation that flicker beyond reach; the storm clears like she's in the eye and she sees Exandria above. The ground itself is vibrating like there's a stampede, it's warm, the stones seem to shift. And she lets go.

The only thing that's kept her dangling above an abyss, Imogen allows it to snap. She tumbles into the ground and the black warmth envelops you; to the rest of them, the dark is rough, jagged, scary. They see and feel nothing except for dread, and an alien presence that washes over and through them — but Imogen feels comfort, sensations of running into Liliana's arms, Laudna's arms, memories of hugging her horses, a sense of belonging. They pass through rock, flashes of color — cavern networks that snake like a labyrinth beneath the crust of the moon. Glimpses of teal crystal and subterranean rivers, water, oceans — alien, red life that swim through it whose green eyes track them. But darkness, still. A distant voice calls — "wait, Imogen, no—" and it's gone.

Their descent stops. The rest of them drift into suffocating darkness, Imogen is gone — the shared dream spell ends.

Imogen senses a presence unlike anything she's ever experienced. It's so immense that her entire being vibrates with power, she worries as it suffuses her that she might be pulled apart — that white flash she saw, these moments where the world rent itself around her, that power pulls to rend her but she belongs here. She is home. This is the womb, and she wishes nothing more than to return to this place with her entire core — but she wakes, then. Moments later.

This is an excellent setup for this, especially because it's giving Laudna and Imogen conflicting information and motives. Laudna, FCG, Orym, and Ashton all know that this darkness is rough and lifeless and it will shred them, suffocate them — but Imogen is being supernaturally coerced into selfishness. This feels like a big red flashing sign that says "some powers are not worth embracing, sometimes giving in to power will change you irreparably and you will not like what you see in the mirror anymore" and yet they're still pushing her to embrace it against her better judgment.

I am once again begging someone to acknowledge that FCG does not, in fact, need to sleep and can keep constant watch with no detriment to themself

Their long rest passes without issue, but in the middle of the night, when he's sure no-one is watching, Orym knocks on Nana Morri's door.

"The way I understand it, from what Fearne tells me, you can help people. You make deals. Well, um... my friends are all pretty amazing, the things they can do, I can't even fit it all in my head, and I'm really good with a sword but I'm a little nervous I'm not ready for what we're about to do tomorrow. [None of you are ready.] The point is, I feel the least ready in our group, and I wanna see this through, I wanna get it done, and I wanna get them back. I wanna get Fearne back, and all of them. So... if you can somehow make me better at protecting them, or stronger, more capable at what I do, I might agree to a lot."

Morri's eyes look past Orym, beyond, and when Orym looks back he's in the same dark space, with the same white lantern on the same table. "Your passion is to protect your friends, yes?" "My friends, your granddaughter — I don't know if there's a friends and family discount, but...?" "And what do you have to offer, little Ashari?" "Well, if I see them all through and we get it done, I'll serve you." "You smell of the touch of divinity. That makes you enticing. Well, now that Fearne's all grown up and might be finding her own way, it does get a bit lonely here in the manor. Maybe it'd be nice to have a caretaker." "These have to be worded just right, Imogen said — that's if we see it through. Every one of Bells Hells makes it back and we see it through. That's an easy trade. Back alive, happy, safe, and healthy." "Well, you have to leave happy to return happy, and health is in varying states at least. Return at least as you are." "Return alive." "Very well."

Morri grants Orym the ability to call upon her when he's in need (and probably some other abilities, too) in exchange for his service to her, provided that every one of the Bells Hells returns from Ruidus alive.

They get a long rest, but Imogen falls asleep missing that sensation she experienced at the core of the moon.

I have 3 primary thoughts about Orym's deal. First is that there is a Laudna-sized hole in Orym's insistence that everyone returns alive — in fact, he specifies that against Morri's stipulation of "returns as they are," so it sounds like Orym was working in a loophole. Second, this has the potential to be a big act 3 setup centering around breaking or finding a loophole int hat deal. And third, FEY PALADIN ORYM !!!! (he doesn't have the stats to multiclass into warlock but ancients or devotion paladin?? yeah.)

In the morning, they have a meal, then head back to Exandria. It's hardly been an hour since they left. They arrive in the familiar Hellcatch Valley, where there is a strong reddish hue to the entirety of the landscape. Ruidus hangs above them, larger than they've ever seen, silent and consuming the air above them. They're miles away from the Tishtan excavation site, and as they walk towards the west encampment (where Allura's allies are), then can see numerous legions, signs of battle, skyship wreckage — there has been warfare here, skirmishes, sides testing boundaries but nothing all-in. There's an air of held breath.

As they enter, Allura is met by three authority figures: Myth-Taker Qi Mandozi, an older orcish man, of Ashanedoor; Guardian Tofur Bratoris, a silver Dragonborn woman in full plate armor, wearing the symbol of the Council of Tal'dorei; and Dawnmarshal Earthbreaker Groon, the most muscular grandpa they've ever seen, leader of Kord's temple in Vasselheim.

All of them carry a presence, but Groon has a force that carries a massive weight; he is an individual who walks with the strength of the gods. "Underestimation is a powerful thing."

Into the war-tent!

Ohohoho, Earthbreaker Groon has some kind of Ruidus-born radar — Fearne catches him staring at her and Imogen like a parent looks at a child who's done something wrong.

Also inside the war-tent are Percy and Keyleth! They explain that the reason the Bells Hells are so important in this endeavor is because they are not being watched, they are not being paid attention to — "because so few, for now, know of you."

The Ruby Vanguard is trying to divide the world. Doomsday cults are rising in response to recent events, and the Vanguard is taking advantage of them to raise support for their cause; in doing so, they are waging ideological war on the home-front in addition to waging a militaristic war around the Malleus Key.

Percy unveils one of their distraction attempts: "butcher wagons," cloaked with illusions to look like a massive assault but instead stocked with buckets of blood; the Vanguard's forces will be drawn away and the wagons will be detonated, creating the illusion of an actual battle to keep them occupied for up to 30 minutes. That's how long the Bells Hells will have to get to the key. Luckily for them, the Vanguard's most intelligent members are already on the moon.

The Bells Hells will enter from the opposite side and slip in unnoticed during the battle. Because of their sabotage of the key earlier, the dispelling field is not present, but there are a significant number of Reilorans on the ground who can sense their minds — the scrolls will help with that.

"If you are discovered, ensure there are no witnesses. Whatever that means to you — whether silencing them or taking them with you — this is war. This is about all of us. All of us." Groon speaks with the voice of Kord on that last line.

Allura advocates for redemption and rehabilitation of the members of the Vanguard, if possible, when Laudna questions what the threshold is. But again — this is war. Keyleth, without eye contact, pipes in. "Save who you can, but do what is right."

Their mission while on Ruidus is to learn what they can. Who the Reilora are and what they want, whether they have a leader who can be parlayed with, what Ludinus' intentions are and how long he needs to achieve them — anything they can get, until they feel it is too dangerous to continue.

Fearne approaches Groon and asks about the look he gave them. "These eyes do not look anywhere; I sensed you. You are Ruidus-born, both of you." The entire tent knows, now. Keyleth advocates for them in good faith, not knowing what Imogen just did the night before.

They had tried to work with Ruidus-born before, and at a certain point, they just forgot what they were doing and joined their new friends. "Well, that's not gonna happen with us." FCG, you fucking wish, buddy—

Allura advocates for them too, and Groon looks back at them. "I trust they are capable, for they know that if they turn, the storm will find them. But you are of the storm, are you not?" "I am the storm, baby." "It seems your friends have more faith in you than you have in yourself. Be prepared to rely on them, when the time comes."

"You are the tip of the spear, and we are everything to follow. We just need you to guide us." Keyleth turns to Percy. "Why does it always take a bunch of assholes to get anything done?" (Ashton, reading Percy like a book: "He likes us!")

And here we go with Laudna enabling Imogen in literally anything even when it means giving up everything. "What if it is your calling? I don't want to stand between you and what you really want—" I am going to s c r e a m

But Laudna goes and asks Keyleth about what was distracting her before: it's Vax, trapped in that orb. "We need to set him free." She also confirms that the bridge is the only connection Exandria has to Ruidus; the moon is completely shielded against divination, teleportation, and everything else. The bridge needs to stay, Vax needs to keep screaming, until their business is done.

Before they leave, FCG casts telepathic bond — y'know, that one spell that allowed the Ring of Brass to hear each others' last thoughts as the ground came up to meet them and that eventually enabled the escape of a flighted scion who carried their memories into the after-times?

Earthbreaker Groon puts a hand on Imogen's shoulder, and she sees a flash of Kord in a roiling storm, and she hears his voice, growling. "You have my eye. There is greatness in you. Do not let us down." "I won't."

something something about how Ruidus being tethered to Exandria may have opened it up to the influence of Exandria's pantheon and the one who would have the greatest influence over the surface and of Imogen's dreams would, of course, be the Storm Lord

But as the preparations end, the two fronts roll out.

Allura, Qi, and Percy accompany the wagons, while Keyleth brings the Bells Hells in close. She casts gaseous form on them all, and they begin their trek toward the Malleus Key.

From above, they can see the illusions overtake the butcher wagons: a charging wave of gargantuan armored beasts, thirty feet high and four arms each, like massive gorillas; rhinos, armored; an entire frontal assault, flanked by massive elementals with flaming rock-wings, the married imaginations of two high arcanists working in tandem.

Their bodies reform at the edge of the crater and Keyleth turns to them. "You have a few minutes to gather your thoughts; then, be on your way." The clouds above her grow thick and dark, flashes of lightning break, and the entire vicinity is as if a thunderous hurricane has touched down in the center of Marquet. Lightning strikes clear a path for them as they don Ruby Vanguard robes, but they can already see the entire perimeter guard doubling as the attention is drawn to the surface, then to the wagons.

Gaseous form lasts for 8 hours, so it could be of use to them down the road — not just now, though, because of how long it takes to transform into and out of the form.

They begin to approach, and horns sound from inside the site — the first group stealth roll of the encounter rounds to about 28-30, so I think they're in the clear for now as dozens of crawlers and Reiloran warriors collide with the illusion. Spells are being flung from inside the illusion, Percy's contraptions fire cannons and explode payloads, the illusion shapes and reacts — it's a magnificent display of arcane prowess as they crest the edge of the Tishtan site.

[much-the-millers-kid]

Is the WAA broke?

Those who have spent a semi-decent amount of time in the Ace Attorney Fandom knows that it's a common joke that the attorneys of the Wright Anything Agency don't get paid, but how accurate is that?

So, @inbarfink posted this wonderful analysis about how often the WAA gets paid (which I highly recommend you look at).  It is highly focused on the financial stability of the client and willingness to pay. However, I am still curious about some things.

First, inbarfink was not focused on which attorney got paid, and I want to know who is doing the best on average based on what we see in game (assuming they got paid individually and not some sort of collection pooling where the agency WAA gets paid and then Apollo and Athena are given regular salaries).

Also, how do cases where they’re likely to get paid correlate to how lucrative they are? As inbarfink explains, attorneys get paid whether they win or lose. However, I have never heard of attorneys being paid a flat rate for the case. More often, they document hours, and are paid on an hourly basis.

So cue me being a spreadsheet nerd and seeing what I can find out.

First: Who is the most likely to be paid?

As far as who is “Paid,” I’m just counting the “Lead” Attorney, unless it really is a full team effort. As an example, The Cosmic Turnabout has two Trial Days: one with Apollo and one with Phoenix. Given It was Apollo’s case initially and Phoenix was covering for Apollo due to injury, we’re assuming Apollo was the one to get paid; same for Trial of Dhurke Sahdmadi, where yes, Phoenix was behind the bench, but Apollo was the main one making arguments and is the one you play as.

I’m pretty sure the only “full team effort” is just the last case of Dual Destinies, which I’m leaving out for that, and because as Inbarfink explains, it is Phoenix defending one of his own employees due to a hostage situation. No one is getting paid for that.

The only other case not being included is The Trial of Zak Gramaraye, for the simple reason that Phoenix lost money. As Inbarfink points out, Phoenix is given a child and loses a badge, so they rightfully gave a score of -1. As accurate as this is, it kinda messes with the numbers and averages, so as an outlier, it is being left out.

After putting Inbarfink's Probability Ratings in a Google Sheet, I color-coded some things to help me notice some trends, and boy did I notice some things.

First of all, on the probability ratings, “Wright” fills up the majority of the lower end, and as they get higher, there’s more and more “Justice.” Not surprising, Apollo seems more likely to make sure he’s paid.

But also, Phoenix’s name is throughout the whole list. There’s only three cases that have a probability rating of 0.9 or higher, and Phoenix was lead on two of them. Granted, one of them is Turnabout Goodbyes, where Phoenix would possibly be the most likely to do it for free because it’s Miles, so that could be less Phoenix insisted on getting paid and more Miles refused to let Phoenix NOT be paid, although that’s debatable because while Larry didn’t pay, Phoenix did expect him to.

Still, the point stands that Phoenix isn’t quite the bleeding heart everyone makes him out to be.

Okay, so that’s first glance perceptions: What about what the numbers say? Who is the most consistently likely to be paid of WAA? The answer is…

*(drumroll)*

ATHENA! With an average probability rating of 0.7!

… Okay, that’s a little unfair to Phoenix and Apollo, given that Athena has only been “lead” on three cases that we’ve seen. She’s the newest; she hasn’t had the challenge of dealing with a Larry that’s going to try to get out of paying or being expected to defend another member of WAA like Phoenix and Apollo have. Although, she also hasn’t had a canon confirmation of payment, and 2 of her 3 cases were childhood best friend Juniper Woods so she may do a friend discount, so those bring her score down a bit anyway. Ah, the importance of sample size and knowing how the statistics come to be.

But yeah, as expected, Apollo is the next to be most consistently paid with an average probability rating of 0.68, and Wright trailing behind him at 0.44.

(Also, likely not super accurate because we only saw two of her cases, but Mia came in last with an average of 0.4).

That brings us to...

Who is making the most Bank? (aka: who is getting paid the most?)

We've seen who was most consistently paid, what about what those paydays were worth? Again, this is based on the time the cases took: Inbarfink covered the financial status of the clients in their likelihood to pay, so we're saying there is no change in rate for if someone has the wealth to pay it or not.

Now, admittedly, a really accurate depiction would look at all the time stamps at the beginning of each scene and count the hours that way. However, I don’t care enough to put that much effort into this (... at least for now; I may revisit this in the future and decide to go into more detail).

So for simplicity sake, I looked up how many “Time Units” a case took, with one unit being an Investigation or a Court Session. (ex. Tutorial Cases skip investigation and usually only have one court session, so they have one time unit, whereas a final case with three days of investigation and three  days in court would have six  time units.)

For the most part, this is relatively simple to figure out. Go through the wiki, count the number of investigation and trial days. Except, while doing this, I had a moment of “What the heck?” Because unless I am reading the Wiki wrong or there’s inaccurate information, there are no three-day trials after the first game.

Sure, the gameplay is longer because the games get more challenging. And yes, sometimes there is a day where something happens, but it is not officially time “On the Clock” as far as the case is concerned ... But I don't think there's and three-day trials after Rise from the Ashes.

For example, in Farewell, My Turnabout, Maya is kidnapped and Juan Corrida is killed on March 20. However, the investigation doesn’t begin until March 21. Also, there’s only two days in the courtroom, March 22 and 23, giving the case 4 Time Units: 2 investigation and 2 court. 

There are similar situations for a lot of cases where there is something going on where it is only 2 days officially, even if it plays like longer, especially for final cases of the game. Phoenix has a whole day at Hazakura Temple investigating Iris before anyone actually dies; the MASON System shows Phoenix’s follow-up investigation after Zak disappeared; Turnabout for Tomorrow shifts from Phoenix and Miles debating Athena’s innocence to all WAA and Blackquill going after the Phantom; Turnabout Revolution has the civil case with Apollo vs. Phoenix AND Apollo going up against both Nahyuta and Ga’ran. Something happens to make gameplay three days or multiple cases in one, but as far as payment goes, it’s one two-day case.

I could have sworn there were more three-day trials after the first game, but I guess maybe I was wrong.

Then, to get the “Pay Rate” I multiplied Inbarfink’s Probability Rating by the number of Time Units.

So here’s the interesting thing: Phoenix is the only member of WAA to have had 3-day trials. He only had three of them, but he’s the only one to have them. Also, two of those are also two of his three with a Probability of getting paid that’s higher than 0.75. If Phoenix budgets well (which I kinda want to assume he does given that last we saw he still had a Nokia brick), he might have gone at least the rest of the trilogy on Turnabout Samurai and Turnabout Goodbyes. I mean, on a scale of one to six, Phoenix is the only one with cases over four, and he has two of them.

Now, Apollo is still ahead when it comes to “how much do they get paid per case” on average. However, it is a much tighter race. 

Probability is ranked from 0-1, with Apollo at 0.68 and Phoenix at 0.44. Convert to the percent of what is possible (68% and 44%, respectively), and Apollo is in the lead by 24%.

However, the Pay Rate is ranked from 0 (not getting paid) to 6 (a score of 1 for definitely getting paid, times 6 Time Units). Apollo has an average Pay Rate of 2.04 out of 6 (34%) and Phoenix has an average Pay Rate of 1.94 out of 6 (32.3%). So as far as how much they’re getting paid on average, Phoenix is only behind Apollo by 1.7%.

Also, so far, Athena with her three cases, two of which didn’t have an investigation (that we saw at least), is still doing pretty okay with a Pay Rate of 1.73 (28.8%), and as far as Mia with her only two cases also not having investigations has a Pay Rate of 0.4 (6.7%), so… oof.

So there you go: Despite Phoenix's bleeding heart reputation, Mia is actually the broke bitch of the attorneys that have worked in that office. (Joking, obviously we only saw two of her cases so we don't have an accurate measure).

Apollo is the most likely to get consistently paid, and because of that he gets paid the most. However, while Phoenix has the most cases where he has a low expectation of getting paid, whether from someone trying to get out of paying or the goodness of his heart or just having too many other things on his mind, Phoenix also has some high clientele and he is the only one to end up with the on-the-wire three-day trials.

And of course, all this is based only on the cases we see in the games. Maybe if we get AA7, we'll see Athena or Apollo get their first three-day trial, or maybe being the only defense attorney in Kur'ain Apollo will have to do more pro bono work. We shall see.

Oh, and here's the full spreadsheet in game order, if anyone wants to make any other interesting observations.

Each Game and Lead Attorney was given their own color.

For the number color keys:

Probability Rating: Less than 0.25 is red, 0.25 to 0.5 is orange, 0.51 to 0.74 is yellow, and greater than 0.75 is green.

Investigation and Court Sessions: 0 is red, 1 is yellow, 2 is turquoise, and 3 is green.

Time Units: 1 is red, 2 is orange, 4 is turquoise, and 6 is green.

Pay Rate: Less than 1 is red, 1 to 2 is orange, 2 to 3 is yellow, 3 to 4 is purple, and greater than 4 is green.

[mirror-imaged]

idont think anybody understands sheffbrien the way I do (insane) I'm sorry they're literally so bad for each other (affectionate) I could go on and on forever. I will actually. sheffbrien post be upon ye. thanks to ashe for talking about this w me on discord. this is a kinda obrien centric post bc of that loll but I'm obvi getting into sheffields whole deal too

having reread tc22 again and done some literary analysis a few days ago on a plane at 2 in the morning (I'm out of the country rn helloo ^_^) I picked up on a lot of thematics for them I find very interesting. long post ahead!

1 - the dynamics in their relationship are so wildly interesting. I think their characterization in tc22 does wonders for them. firstly, there are a lot of false differences id say? they seem so different, but when you boil it down they have a lot in common. sheffield is affluent and intelligent but has a spiteful and hotheaded side, obrien is seen as angry or rude but is taken for granted with his intelligence quite often by others. he got into an ivy league school at 17. there's also how sheffield seems so charismatic while obrien is abrasive and lonely, but they both really have no other friends when you get down to it? and last example for now, sheffield sees himself as divine while obrien seems to have renounced religion, but he really hasn't done the work of removing his mindset from a catholic(?) framework. expanding on that,

2 - obrien has religious trauma and this is heavily established. he doesn't actually ever move past religion as a concept though, he just moves on from God. he replaces his concept of God with his concept of his sister. more on this later. sheffield also has a relationship with religion, but more in the sense that he inherently sees himself as something unlike humanity, something greater and to be revered. he refers to himself as an angel in a way that doesn't strike me as being ingenuine the way he does in other places. I need to draw art about this it makes me abnormal

3 - for obrien specifically, there are some insanely interesting threads left about his trauma creating a savior complex within him. obviously shown at the start of the story with professor harris, but there are also the times he mentions going into genetics due to his guilt and wanting to entirely eliminate the disease that disabled his sister and when he says he feels an involuntary sympathy for stella when he found out she didn't mean to kill harris. it also makes me wonder if that plays into his protectiveness of sera later on.

4 - obrien has some severe internalized ableism going on that I wish more people actually picked apart. I know tc22 is a small scale story and a lot of people haven't read it, but it's fascinating stuff. he obviously grew up with the mindset that his sister was somehow contagious and describes how he felt he would somehow fall ill because of this, and that sort of mindset does a lot to dehumanize somebody in a person's mind. after eventually passing on an illness to her that results in her death, he is driven entirely by guilt as a character. he becomes certain that if God were fair and true, he would have died instead of her. but, like I mentioned before, he never really renounces religion in any specific way aside from this. he even mentions how he now prays to his sister instead of God, which I think is so fascinating. he never saw his sister as a person, and by elevating her to this status of somebody he needs to grovel to or even just uses as a holy figure in his life, he continues to see her as inhuman. he recognizes his past ableism, but he never does anything to deconstruct and rebuild from it. much like with his relationship with religion!

5 - obrien is treated by dds2 as the morally virtuous character, but he's really not (if you get the context from tc22). my boyfriend put it as him being just on the right side of history, which I absolutely agree with. I know tc22 was probably written after dds2 and doesn't necessarily inform the writing decisions for the games, but it definitely adds juicy layers to me. obrien is seemingly not motivated by any true desire to help sera or the nameless sufferers of CATCH22, he is motivated by the guilt from his sisters death hanging over him like a shadow. not to say he doesn't care at all, but it seems more like a quest to make up for his sins in the eyes of his sister than a desire to do good, which seems awfully catholic to me. this is absolutely the most interesting part of his character presented by the narrative. God I wish they did this better in the games.

6 - moving on to sheffield, sheffield is actually one of the most interesting and real depictions of a character with NPD traits I've ever seen, hands down. I know I talk about this frequently, but it's especially strongly done in tc22 and one of my favorite parts of his character. to start, he's mostly presented with extremely minor and often-masked aspects of the disorder a lot of people don't really pick up on. vouching personally. he quickly becomes passive aggressive and seemingly personally offended when challenged, like by inspector Harvey for instance. he is a practiced and seemingly compulsive liar, able to make things up on the spot that nobody but obrien questions due to his confidence. he seems to get along swimmingly with people he doesn't know well, charismatic and understanding. he pays exceptionally close attention to other people's emotions, expressions, and demeanors to adjust and match theirs. he also is debatably depicted with real delusions of grandeur. he only seems to be able to let his guard down around obrien, actually. and my absolute favorite moment of his, really relatable for me, is that when he stops masking he does not become dangerous. he does not go into a rage, he just goes blank. entirely and visibly unable to express emotion "normally", and obrien is initially scared, but realizes he just doesn't understand sheffield as well as he thinks he does. this is incredibly accurate to real life for me. it's actually insanely well depicted. and what I really appreciate is that sheffield is never presented as truly malicious [IN THIS STORY]. with dds2 context, he can be seen that way for sure, but he isn't actually shown being morally reprehensible. he's dubious and seems to have trouble understanding where he crosses a line, but that's also very true to real life for me. he isn't necessarily trying to be evil, he's just nosy and invasive of boundaries on occasion. they also never actually label him as or call him a narcissist, which is so good?? props to tadashi for once?? I think he is one because I have the disorder and can more accurately assess this sort of thing, but labeling every character who's like Abusive as a narcissist is so tacky and distasteful to me. it diminishes the harm they inflict on other people as being something born of mental illness, which isn't necessarily true. he is definitely abusive to sera, but that is not related to his narcissism.

7 - sheffield is just such a good character in this. I raved already about his npd stuff but I want to get into other things a little too. firstly, he does seem to genuinely view himself as inhuman, which is something I also believe contrasts obrien a little. obrien has this deep internalized self hatred, while sheffield has this genuine belief he is on a different level from other people. despite this, he sees obrien as being his Equal in some way. as being worthy of his presence, his assistance, his friendship. the pizza scene really really drives this home for me. (that's another subtle npd ass trait but I've said enough). in addition, sheffield tries so desperately to present himself as worthy of something more, maybe backed by doubt, or maybe even just true belief. he tries to appear intimidating, has knowledge of how to get into people's heads, etc. maybe this is because he's young and people see him differently for being so ahead of his grade, but I also see it as a display of insecurity in an implicit way. his delusions of grandeur also play into this characterization, because delusions of grandeur are often born from extreme and severe self doubt (at least in those with mental health disorders, which I've already mentioned I believe he strongly aligns with). him coming from a wealthy background in Portland of all places would not help any of that kind of thing.

8 - i don't even know what else I could say about them. they make me so abnormal. not even a toxic romantic relationship between them (which I do like think about but obviously post tc22 I don't like their age gap) but simply their dynamic as two characters. sera is a figurehead for their conflict, really. all the things we learn about both of these characters really makes me question how much BOTH of them care for sera, not just sheffield's two-faced lies. she is representative of their ideological dispute. she is a small child who has the potential to save the world, but obrien is too scared of letting another child die as a result of his inaction and sheffield is too focused on his end goal of getting what he believes he deserves, divinity and becoming a revered savior of the world, no matter who falls along the way. they are built to contrast each other. you even see this through heat and serph to a degree, with how sera mixed them up. heat declares he is on the same level as God during the jp text of the vritra fight, while serph inevitably sacrifices his own life for the sake of sera.

9 - what happened between tc22 and the dds2 flashbacks? I actually need to know what caused their relationship to split so heavily. I'm fucking obsessed with them. post over please join my sheffbrien Island there's like 2 other people here

[somecallmejohn]

Random thoughts on Wish

Since I generally make lots of posts about Wish, either because of something I thought or cause of an ask, I thought I’d share some random thoughts that I’ve either shared before or that I don’t feel like they deserve their own posts

It’s the first animated movie in a long time whose Greek dub I really liked just as much as the original one. Maybe it’s that I’m older or whatever, but most modern Greek dubs don’t seem to have the quality they once had where the voices just matched the characters and sometime around 2017 and onward I just stopped watching movies in Greek unless I was at the cinema and they stopped showing the subtitled version. Granted Disney movies were usually the only ones with a decent dub and some really good ones like in Luca, Moana and Coco, but still they weren’t the same as the dubs for older movies like Hercules, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Aladdin and Mulan whose dubs are so good that I can’t watch them in their original dub and with Wish I often switch from one dub to another. I’d also argue that the Greek version of “This is the thanks I get” is better (sorry Chris Pine)

Speaking of songs, I actually really like the songs in the movie(except for “You’re a star”, I don’t like that one). Granted this movie’s soundtrack isn’t one of the best ones like Encanto’s, Frozen 2’s or Hunchback’s (or literally any from the renaissance movies), but I still like it fine. This wish, this wish(reprise), Knowing What I Know Now and At All Costs are songs I like to relisten to even when I’m not watching the movie

I forking hate Valentino, he’s like if they took Olaf from Frozen 2 and multiplied him 10 times and combined them into one character and he makes way too many butt and fart jokes than there need to be in a Disney movie. If I were to ever do my own rewrite I’d delete him completely.

Id like to remind to the people who prolly weren’t paying attention to the movie (you know who you are) that Asha suggested Magnifico to return the wishes he wasn’t going to grant, she never suggested him to grant them all, she just wanted people to have a chance to make their own dreams come true and not live without the most important part of themselves, because again wishes aren’t just some piece of clothing that you can give away and never miss (despite what she said earlier in the movie because she didn’t know how big their importance was and she just lived believing the partial truth Magnifico gave to the world) but they’re literally part of one’s soul and yes they did give the wishes willingly but under the promise that they would be granted but even if there wasn’t any promise Magnifico withholding the most important part of each citizen of Rosas like he’s some hoarder doesn’t make it any more ethical either and him being (implied) traumatized still doesn’t make what he did right, especially the things he did after he for his ego bruised by a 17 year old. Also before any of his defenders reblog to argue, why don’t you tell me first about how Ariel was a selfish brat who should have paid the consequences of the deal she made and that Ursula was the real hero of The Little Mermaid because she was so kind as to give Ariel a chance to be human.

I’m 70% certain that if the movie was about 20-30 minutes longer, it would have been better as one of the issues I personally saw is that things were happening too fast and plot points felt rushed.

The 7 teens should have had more screen time considering how much they were marketed as well.

I’m fine with the fact that Amaya didn’t end up as a villain, I really like her as she is in the movie.

I think Asha and Starboy work better as a Peter Pan and Wendy type of duo rather than a (movie)Howl and Sophie where there’s an implied romance, but ultimately they’re not meant to end up together but still work great as a duo,

I lowkey wonder why Asha and the teens hang out with Gabo, he doesn’t seem like a fun person to be around with his constant pessimism tbh

I genuinely believe that despite its flaws, it’s not a bad movie

I also believe that in like a decade and a bit, that it’s gonna be looked at more fondly like Treasure Planet, Atlantis and Black Cauldron are

Bazeema and Hal’s designs are so pretty it’s a shame they didn’t have more screentime

Those are enough for now, of if I think of more I might do another one.

[eriquin]

The Prophetic D&D Game, part 10

Fuck it. I just finished this chapter. I'm posting more parts of it.

(master post)

Part 10

“Okay, so you’re bluffing your way past the doctors. How, exactly?” he asked.

Grant explained his plan to use Maya’s illusions to make them look like staff members. She could handle the disguises and Natalia’s background as a former cleric would mean she could do some healing if they needed to really sell it. They’d be able to infiltrate the place and figure out where to find Sir Englund. Then they just had to arrange for enough time to talk to him about the murders and get away. “Easy, right?” Gareth said. 

Eddie smirked. “Better get your dice ready.” 

They rolled very well for the initial infiltration, but then they discovered that their target was in a high security wing. It slowed them down a bit, as he increased the difficulty of their checks. They were near the final cell block, where they knew Sir Englund was kept, but they had a problem.

“There are two guards here at all times,” Eddie said. “You can spend some time watching them and figure out their schedule, but there aren’t any other ways to get in. Do you have any other ideas?”

Grant and Gareth looked at each other and nodded. “We’ll observe for a little bit. How often are the guards checked?”

Eddie rolled some dice, though it didn’t have any impact on his answer. “Frequently. Looks like there are people by to look in on the guards very often. Lots of changes and activity nearby. Someone will definitely notice if they go missing.”

Gareth frowned. “Maybe it’ll be less busy at night?” he wondered, more to Grant than to Eddie. 

Grant shook his head. “We don’t have time to wait. We’ve got a cursed party member, remember?”

“Okay so... If we can get rid of the real guards, I could make the illusion of two guards outside the hall, but I’d have to drop the illusion on us to do it.” Gareth shrugged and glanced at Eddie to confirm this was right. He nodded.

“Well, we don’t need the disguises inside the hallway,” Grant said. “It doesn’t matter if the prisoners—I mean, patients—see us.”

“There might be another guard inside,” Gareth said.

“We’d have to take care of him anyway in order to talk to Sir Englund. Yeah, here’s the new plan...” 

With a little bit of luck, they managed to knock out the two guards and put illusions of them in their place. There was a guard inside the hallway, so they had a quick fight with him as well. His players rolled well, while Eddie rolled poorly. It was a little disappointing, but it moved the story forward. 

“Okay, so you have some time to chat with Sir Englund,” Eddie said. “Think up what you’re going to say. I’m going to go see if the other group is doing anything.”

He already had Englund’s backstory written up in parts in his bag. He’d been keeping it there since the last time they played, and it had that wrinkled and worn look of all the other papers that took up long term residence in his backpack. At least he hadn’t spilled anything on it. He pulled it free while Dustin and Lucas told him that Sadie was going around, trying to talk to all the people she was closest to and make amends. 

“Is Caleb on that list?” Jeff asked. “Are they going to reconcile?” 

Lucas grimaced. “I don’t know if I want to role play that with you,” he said.

Jeff laughed heartily. “Don’t worry. I don’t think my dude would let her get all mushy on him, anyway. He wouldn’t let her make any last requests, just keep promising that they’ll figure it all out when the fight is over.” 

“What’s the deal with her curse, anyway?” Dustin asked. “Did we figure out what’s causing some people to get cursed and not others?” 

“I think that’s what Grant and Gareth are finding out,” Jeff said. “What do you guys think? Got any theories?” 

Lucas kept his lip buttoned up, and Dustin didn’t have anything to add. But they were both going through Sadie’s backstory for more people that she could talk to. They were wondering if one of them might be able to help, or have some ideas about why she was cursed. 

“You going to tell them about the demonic influence that once plagued the town?” Eddie asked with a grin. “Not worried someone will find out that you’re breaking your vow of secrecy?” 

The three boys groaned. “You’re railroading them,” Jeff said. 

“I’m just reminding them of their responsibilities,” Eddie said, trying to sound innocent.

“The only people that Sadie knows who know anything about the demon are already in the party,” he said. “Or they’re dead.” 

“Wait, who does she know who’s dead?” Dustin asked.

“That thing with the pod people? The first one converted was her cousin.” 

Eddie furrowed his brow. “Wait, her cousin? Did I write that?” He held his hand out for the sheet and Lucas handed it over. It definitely said cousin, with some details on how she’d watched him perish in the last demonic invasion. He scratched his head. 

“Is that wrong?” Lucas asked. He sounded worried.

“No,” Eddie said, making a snap decision. “I remembered it as being a closer relative, but cousin is fine.”

Lucas glanced at Dustin, who looked suspicious. “Closer, how?” Dustin asked. “Like, immediate family?” 

Eddie shook his head. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Are you doing anything with it, or are we moving on?” 

“I mean, we could try to speak with the dead,” Jeff said. “If you think her cousin could give us info on if the demon’s still alive, or up to something.”

Jeff and Dustin started to argue, with Dustin saying that they needed a cleric for that, and Jeff pointing out that they could just get a scroll and have their bard or paladin wing it. Or they could wait until Natalia returned and have her cast it. 

“We don’t know how long they’ll take,” Lucas said. “Sadie’s cursed and wants to act now. Let’s get to it.” 

“Okay, so we’re winging it,” Jeff said. “We’ll get a scroll and go to the graveyard to see if Sadie can speak with her cousin’s ghost.” 

Eddie gave them some guidelines on how to pick an appropriate level scroll and let them argue about who would cast it. He reminded them that they had a paladin to work with. Jeff waved him off and told him to go work with the other half of the team, and that they would figure it out.

Across the room, Grant and Gareth had come up with a list of questions for Sir Englund. He took on the old madman’s personality to talk them through a terrible story. He told them of his happy family and young children, and how one day they had been attacked in their home. He told of his wife being cursed, and trying to escape with his children, but being cursed himself before he could.

“What was it like?” Grant asked.

“More importantly, how did he escape it?” Gareth asked. 

“From his place in the shadows of his cell, he laughs,” Eddie says. He adopted the old man’s voice again. “‘I was taken to my darkest memories, forced to relive the worst days of the war. It was as if one minute, I was in my home, and the next, I was walking through the burnt out shell of an enemy village. Everything was completely real. You could smell the burning flesh of our enemies. My men were all around me, looking for stragglers in the ruins. We went into the ruins of a farmhouse and saw them... The bodies all huddled together. But they weren’t knights in armor sent out to fight us. They were a farmer and his wife, trying to protect their children. And the next house was just the same, and the one after that...’”

“Jesus Christ,” Gareth muttered. Grant crossed his arms and nodded for Eddie to go on. 

Eddie switched back to his regular voice. “Then, just as he was about to give in to the despair of being trapped forever in his worst days, he heard an angel singing to him. It pulled him back from the brink, and he awoke from his cursed state, unharmed. But he found that while he had been frozen, the demon had killed his two children. And so he went mad.”

Grant was deep in thought, muttering something about ‘divine intervention’, but Gareth was frowning. “I don’t know, man. He doesn’t sound all that mad.” 

“Do you say this?” Eddie asked.

Gareth shook his head. “No. No, I do not,” he said.

“Good, because then he starts talking about how he tried to join his children,” Eddie said. “He steps out into the light, saying ‘but they stopped me!’ and you can see that his eyes are nothing but scars.” Eddie made the motion of stabbing his own eyes out.

Gareth flinched away. “Gah, quit it,” he said. “Enough. Christ. I’m gonna have nightmares.” 

Eddie grinned and turned back to Grant. “You hear a commotion in the distance. Do you want to keep questioning him, or make a break for it?” 

“We should go,” Grant said. “I think that’s all we’re going to get out of him.” 

“Agreed,” said Gareth. 

“Better start rolling well to escape, then,” Eddie said. 

The two boys had a narrow escape from the asylum, and started trying to figure out how to get back to the rest of the group. 

Tagging: @weirdandabsurd42, @10moonymhrivertam

[multiplicity-positivity]

Hi, i have a question:

Would popping your eardrum at the age of 2 or 3 count as a traumatic enough event to cause plurality?

(For context i have Inattentive ADHD, anxiety, No siblings, and I suspect myself to have maladaptive daydreaming & am planning to bring it up w/my therapist next time i see them. I also a writer with a vivid imagination)

I have several parts of my childhood that i do not remember, cant place exact dates to, or remember them as if im watching back a home movie.

The entire event of popping my eardrum, as I remember it, is entirely different from how my parents describe it to me. I remember the seconds before I popped it & me starting to scream followed by literal nothing. And my parents describe me in an entirely different setting than what I remember.

I have no memories of ‘switching’ with anyone, granted i can’t remember a lot of what most people typically do (first day of middle school, anything of first or 4th grade apart from what I learned, my 5th birthday, etc) which makes me suspect i may be a median system if a system at all? Or at least one where the host is ‘front-stuck’.

Im going to bring this up w/my therapist when i see them next but i would still appreciate your input. (Especially since i live in a small rural town in the south & am still getting used to talking to said therapist)

Thank you for your time -🍏

Hi! So here’s our honest opinion -

If you have reason to believe you may be plural, you very well could be! However, in order for a dissociative disorder like DID, P-DID, or OSDD-1 to form, the trauma from childhood must be repeated.

The reason for this is, it takes multiple instances of dissociation for a child to separate into parts. A one-off instance of trauma may certainly traumatize a child, but if the trauma is not chronic, and the child does not regularly dissociate to escape, they are not likely to develop alters as a coping strategy.

Does this make sense?

Alternatively, you may be a traumagenic or adaptive system who is still plural without having a dissociative disorder. Or you may not be plural at all!

From what we understand, memory issues and amnesia are often symptoms of ADHD. There are other things that can cause dissociative amnesia to occur besides dissociative disorders, and you can learn more about that in our post on dissociative amnesia.

There is more to being a system than just having amnesia. This is why we bring up symptoms of other disorders as potential explanations. If you haven’t had any occasional interactions with another headmate, don’t deal with identity confusion, depersonalization, or derealization, and don’t feel like you’re not alone in your own mind… it very well may be that you’re not plural.

Of course, you still could be plural despite all of these things! Plurality is a framework, and if that framework benefits you, you’re more than welcome to use it! But if you’re wondering about DID/OSDD specifically, it’s true that repeated trauma in childhood is necessary for this disorder to form.

You can learn more about dissociative disorders and other forms of plurality in our resource post for questioning systems.

We hope this helps! Also our words shouldn’t be taken as absolute truth - we’re just a system sharing our opinion based on our experience with DID and our time in this community.

Thanks for reaching out!

🌸 Margo and 🐢 Kip

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

my friends are putting linda’s dad in my brain lately so i’m going to blame them despite linda’s dad always living in my brain all the time every day. anyway im putting him in a cupboard with herc for a bit

A line check is an inevitability for any line captain; it’s not that Herc is surprised by it at all. Or that he’s unprepared; he studies, and despite his little habit of making Linda do a lot of things ‘for the practice,’ he is pretty sure he still knows how to fly a plane after all these years. Nor is it that Herc hasn’t been expecting a line check, either—they weren’t to go more than a year and a half without one, and he is due. He’d merely noticed the little code scheduling had put beside a brief trip and the absence of Linda (who’d, as usual, bid with him for it), sighed, and went about his day.

Having been a line captain for long enough, Herc had indulged in maybe half a thought as to who the check airman would be, before shrugging it off and forgetting about the whole affair until he had rolled up to Bristol (his and Linda’s still-quite-new domicile), signed in, and was given a very vertigo-inducing greeting in a briefing room by Linda Fairbairn if Linda Fairbairn had, that morning, woken up in her newly acquired ground-floor converted flat as a middle-aged man with glasses and a mustache.

As soon as Herc gets in his seat next to the airline Chief Pilot, lead line check airman, and father of his favorite coworker, he resolves to never again take that little three-number code beside any of his trips for granted.

The take-off goes as usual; the post-takeoff checks are started and completed with ease. Herc’s stomach, however, is nowhere near that state; so much of how Captain Fairbairn acts seems to parallel his daughter—or, well, wouldn’t that be the other way around, Linda matching her father’s mannerisms? How much of that was nature and how much of it was nurture? Was that little side-to-side head rock they both did to stretch out their necks before the takeoff roll something she had copied from him, or did she come out of Mrs Fairbairn’s womb doing that?

Fairbairn had made no comment on the performance as they ascended to cruising altitude; Herc had done all the right checklist items, turned off the seatbelt signs, then undid his own shoulder straps only when he spotted his superior doing so out of the corner of his eye.

They sit, now, side-by-side, Herc on his second cup of coffee and Captain Fairbairn thoughtfully nursing a cup of tea brought by one of the flight attendants, who had fairly glowed under his genuine ‘Thank you.’

(Herc wonders if Captain Fairbairn’s mother must have made some deal with the sun, for him to leave everything he touched with warmth.)

From Herc’s many years of experience, cruise could lay bare either the commonalities or the sheer irreconcilability of a pair of pilots previously unmatched in a flightdeck—but this time is certainly… different.

He can’t really ask about his family, because—well, he’s even been to their house, a few months ago, where Captain Fairbairn’s younger siblings and Linda’s cousins had looked at him a little funny for maybe half a second, then shrugged and shouted for him to get into the group picture. Linda talks about her parents often; and Herc maybe knows more than a little too much about Captain Fairbairn’s only child.

Captain Fairbairn, however, spares Herc the need to initiate, and turns an affectionate smile on him that looks way too much like his daughter’s. “I know it’s probably not the greatest of circumstances under which to do it, but I do enjoy how scheduling’s lined up so that I’m able to catch up with you at last.” His voice doesn’t quite match his looks; it’s like the tessitura hasn’t quite got the message that it belongs to a Scottish airline veteran in his fifties. Clear and high. “How have things been going for you, Herc? I know the last time we spoke…you weren’t feeling your best. I do hope things are better now.”

The divorce. Well, he isn’t sure why he’s forgotten that Captain Fairbairn knows about it; it’s why he’d invited him to the Christmas party, after all. Maybe the divorce had been more his fault than hers, because, well, he hadn’t been one to stay, all those times before—still, a divorce wasn’t a pleasant thing to go through for either party, most of the time: the paperwork, the resentful looks, and—all that.

Herc almost goes for a shrug, but realizes he should probably make the effort to respond to what is effectively his boss. “Things are,” he says resolutely, as much to convince himself as it is to put a positive spin on things. “The reassignment—I think the newness of it has made the worst of it easier to bear.”

Captain Fairbairn nods, solemnly, and waits for him to continue, which Herc doesn’t expect; he flails for a response and lands on a question that slips from his lips without him really meaning for it to. “But, well, I’m just—I don’t really understand.” His superior tilts his head to one side in question, staring attentively at him. It’s another surprisingly Linda gesture; and it’s a little creepier than the other ones, since Captain Fairbairn’s eyes seem to match hers in shape, size, and color.

Herc looks away to make it easier. “I just,” he says to the instruments, then clears his throat. The question didn’t mean to come out. He’s almost embarrassed to say it—it’s not even out of his mouth yet and he knows it sounds really stupid, maybe even a little mean, but—he can’t just say Oh, it’s nothing and hope Captain Fairbairn will drop it. And it’s not just Captain Fairbairn, his boss; it’s Captain Fairbairn, his friend’s father, and—he has the feeling that just dismissing himself is not going to make this interaction end well. Yet, it sticks in his throat.

“What don’t you understand, Herc?” Captain Fairbairn asks, patiently, and Herc can’t hold it back any longer. Seems like he never can, with a Fairbairn in the seat next to him. The father and daughter both seem to be elixirs of truth, the way they tease it out from him.

“How you care,” he says quickly, to get it over with, and then realizes it could be worded a little better. “Why you���d care.”

If Captain Fairbairn thinks negatively of Herc’s question, he doesn’t show it; his utterly familiar face remains as placid and unbothered as ever. “Why wouldn’t I?”

You’re respected, and it’s deserved. Everyone speaks of you the way they’d speak of a myth. Your daughter tries to be like you in every way that matters and in all the ways that don’t. You and I have lived the same life of a pilot, but only one of us is still married. Only one of us has a family. Only one of us seems to have the capacity to stay. I betrayed a friend and I still get grief for it; do you think I don’t hear the whispers in the crew lounges? Do you think I don’t notice when people whisper that I’m taking advantage of your daughter because of what they’ve heard from someone who doesn’t even know me anymore?

“We could not be more different men,” Herc says, a little bluntly. But. “And I could learn far more from you than you could ever learn from me.”

“Do you know how old my daughter is?” Captain Fairbairn counters, though Herc’s not initially sure how it follows.

“Almost thirty,” he says, reflexively—shit, that’s got to look weird, the fact that he knows that about her—but his superior only nods.

“Right, she won’t be twenty-nine years old for much longer. Neither will my career as an Air Cal pilot.”

Herc raises an eyebrow.

“I’ve been flying for Cal for more than half my life at this point,” Captain Fairbairn continues frankly. “Been a check airman for maybe a quarter of my life. Chief Pilot, less than that. But the airline is still the same, more or less, as it was when I missed my first flight to watch my daughter take her first breaths.”

Herc nods, still not quite following.

“Cal is a family, Herc. You may be an Englishman, you may be our only direct hire in the millennium so far—but you’re part of it now. So,” and Captain Fairbairn’s tone takes on an air of serious finality. “Why wouldn’t I care?”

As usual for checkrides, Captain Fairbairn has Herc fly a visual landing into Frankfurt without instrument assistance; when they land and set up the aircraft for the next flight, for the new crew, he says lightly, “By the way, Herc—you can consider that a pass.”

[themculibrary]

Outsider POV Masterlist 3

part one, part two, part four

Access Granted (ao3) - Suaine bucky/sam T, 22k

Summary: Redwing comes back to life with an upgraded AI and has opinions. Especially on Bucky.

A Quiet Morning (ao3) - iam93percentstardust bucky/tony G, 751

Summary: Natasha figures it out on a Saturday. She hasn't known up to this point what brought Bucky and Tony together but she figures it out on a quiet morning

As Subtle As Cognitive Recalibration (ao3) - petroltogo T, 8k

Summary: “Your sole job as Director of SHIELD is to keep track of global threats and you’ve narrowed down the whereabouts of the mad god with mind-control Jedi tricks to the planet Earth,” Tony summarizes flatly. “What’s the plan? We wait till he blows up another super secret facility whose mysteriously undocumented existence doesn’t make me suspicious at all?”

“Germany!” Rogers blurts out, interrupting Tony’s epic stare-down with Fury.

In which the surviving Post-Endgame Avengers find themselves back in 2012, trying to stop Loki from invading the Earth. Without tipping their not-in-the-know team members off. Things go— sideways.

At Home With Captain America (ao3) - WhiteRoseCottage sam/bucky G, 7k

Summary: “What can you tell me about how you got to know the Winter Soldier?”

Wilson chuckles. “The first time I met Buck—Sergeant Barnes—he ripped the steering wheel out of the car I was driving on the freeway. He got on the roof, punched through the windshield, pulled the steering wheel off. Just like that.” He mimes with his hands as he describes it.

This doesn’t sound like an auspicious beginning to me, but Wilson is laughing.

Avengers Ameliorated (ao3) - whitchry9 T, 25k

Summary: a·mel·io·rate (verb)- to make or become better, more bearable, or more satisfactory; improve

Miranda thought she was done with dealing with ridiculous patients after Sherlock Holmes died. But apparently word of her medical prowess has spread, even across the ocean. And when Fury shows up in her flat one night, basically telling her that she is going to New York to be the go-to medical person for The Avengers, she figures they can't be too much worse, right? Hint- she's wrong.

Captain America Finds His Fella (ao3) - PR Zed (przed) steve/bucky T, 5k

Summary: When she reached her eighties, Audrey though she was done with change. She thought things would continue as they always had.

Instead, Steve and his friends have brought her more change than she'd gone through in the twenty years before. She gets used to one routine, and then a new one crops up.

Or what happens when an elderly USO showgirl helps her super hero friend and his boyfriend.

darken your door (ao3) - chaosy steve/bucky G, 6k

Summary: A series of visitors to the door of Rebecca Barnes, over the years.

home for wayward (genius) youths (ao3) - ikarakie G, 1k

Summary: there is a kid on tony's couch. it is not peter, and rhodey is having a breakdown.

How do you solve a problem like Maria? (ao3) - orphan_account steve/bucky G, 26k

Summary: Maria knows that the Winter Soldier was a ghost story, and nothing more.

Papa Hawk's Collectibles (ao3) - anarchycox clint/phil G, 27k

Summary: Tommy likes the memorabilia shop that opened a few months ago and he really likes the grumpy owners who love to bicker with each other. Clint and Phil are such dorks. He just wonders how they have such cool Avengers collectibles in amid the baseballs and jerseys.

Reasonable Suspicion (ao3) - Laimelde clint/phil T, 8k

Summary: Clint's new neighbours are a friendly bunch, and enjoy having him and Phil over for drinks on occasion. But pretty soon they notice that Clint often comes home with bruises, and start to worry.

Sauced (ao3) - ABeckoningCat G, 742

Summary: Clint encounters three drunk girls in a hotel elevator.

The Practical Application of the Lives of Saints (ao3) - Sassaphrass G, 1k

Summary: James Barnes and Steve Rogers have just started going to the local Catholic school.

One of the nuns watches in amusement as their friendship forms.

The Public Perception Game (ao3) - Amerna background darcy/steve T, 2k

Summary: Bucky Barnes' return from the dead and the Winter Soldier revelation could have quickly unraveled into a PR disaster for the Avengers. But thankfully they have Darcy Lewis on their team to play press and public like a fiddle.

The Scoop (ao3) - hollimichele G, 5k

Summary: The week after I moved to New York City, aliens invaded. Which is pretty much typical.

User Since (ao3) - rageprufrock

Summary:

To: PC (loyaltothedream@hushmail.com) From: Buck (bucky1956@yahoo.com) Subject: Report! Date: May 10, 2012

Phil — where the hell are you, man? Let us know if you're all right, or if there's anything we can do to help. HQ's freaking the fuck out.

[sixosix]

I know it's been a while since Sleight of Hand was posted but I wanna ramble about something I noticed during a recent reread now that I have knowledge of 4.1 quests.

The raw panic he has when he catches up to the reader makes me think that it falls in line with how he acted in the fortress in regard to Freminet and Lynette: his family. Which is insane considering the short amount of time they know each other as compared to his family. This guy falls in love so fast and hard that he is the world record holder for those categories by a vast margin.

In both situations is the fact he is losing someone close, someone important; granted he is losing them in different ways. His family and the person he loves. Both times he is not composed/ hiding behind his act (or just barely) and is (or at least appears) to be almost single-minded driven to get them back. With his family, he was absolutely willing to go up against the Duke to fight for them back (granted he could have just accepted the deal to contact the Knave but that's a whole different thing about Lyney shhhh) and with reader he ran frantically across the city just for the slim chance he may be able to make it before they leave. That uncertainty/unclear target to focus on (unlike the duke who he could focus on fighting/stopping/convincing, not to mention he may be in a mission mindset as well) may even be a reason why he is so panicked and frantic as compared to what happens in the Fortress. Not to mention the whole falling in love thing prob isn't something he does often, so that's a whole new variable thrown into the equation.

Not only does this new connection make me giggle because wow look at this man speed run falling in love but also makes me wonder what his thoughts could have been when he found the empty room and even as he was trying to catch reader before it was too late. He is smart, so he absolutely figured out the truth but was his first thought wildly off course? Did he assume the worst(hurt in some way) due to what he had seen as part of the Fatui and his past? Did he have an instant rush of relief knowing he made it in time? Was he even calm enough to try to string together a few ideas of what to do if he made it as he was running? Or did he come tunnel-focused with the singular goal of just 'find them'? It's interesting to think about.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

i havent played the latest archon quest myself and only learned the lore secondhand so i havent rlly thought about it? honestly i wrote that long fic barely knowing ANYTHING about lyney and how he handles situations—it felt like i was just guessing everything and my only clues were a dialogue or two LMFAO

but this is so interesting to think about!!! my intention with ‘ lyney visiting an empty room ‘ was that he walks in there like a kicked puppy and comes out frantic and wild. he is very smart and hes definitely remembered you insisting that you never planned on staying so he pieced it together immediately

and yes youre ABSOLUTELY right. the reason why hes so frantic and all over the place when he caught up to you was because he didnt even know if you were still there, if he didnt make it in time. the entire time he was thinking ‘no no no please’ he was not at all calm while running lol. his mind would have most likely blanked when he saw you still there and he couldve just dropped on the floor in relief

“the whole falling in love thing prob isnt something he does often” YEAH EXACTLY!!! i see lyney as a romantic but in that fic i like to think hes never been infatuated in that way ever before and it snowballed into something wayyy more when u started getting close

ITS SO JNTERESTING to think abouut the connections youve made WOW thank you so so much for sharing im always down to hear your thoughts!!!!

[sunnyrosewritesstuff]

Congratulations sunny for this top 5 writing! You're awesome writer! I'm curious about God AU (Haddotin) you write. I'm crazy about Haddotin fics and I really like this one! I can't wait to find out what's next for this fic!

Thank you! 😵😍 YES! I'm so excited about the Gods AU. I thought I was ready to post it this last year, but...my inner perfectionist had to go back and replot because I didn't like the beginning. 🤣 I have a few Tintin projects to unveil this upcoming year though! So far from done with this ship. 😉 But I'm in a mood to promote so here's a little excerpt from The Wind That Pulls Back the Tide:

Once, all mortals knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that their world was ruled by immortal beings with supernatural powers. Guardians brought to life by the wishes and prayers of those they protected. Gods, goddesses, titans if you will. And there was a period of history where these gods were loved, praised, and lavished with mortal offerings from gems to silks to decadent foods and wines. As time went on, the humans below began to explore the world around them and use “science” to explain the precious gifts the gods bestowed. And no matter how much they used their powers to prove their existence, less and less people believed in them leading to fewer and fewer gods of the world. 

Vent, or Tintin as he liked to be called amongst the mortals, was a fairly young god at just a little over two centuries old. His boss, Madre Natura, loved to tell the story of how she found him. It was ‘the year without a summer’ as the mortals referred to it. And she was doing her best to clear out the lingering clouds of ashy fog that dropped the temperature drastically. With so much of the world affected though, people began to pray. Pray for a wind that would free them from this terrible blight, and thus Tintin was born. 

He was not the first god of wind. After all, wind, weather, storms, these were always mentioned in the prayers and wishes of mortals so the need has always been there. However, he was probably the first wind god to have been adopted under Madre Natura’s tutelage. It was normal for young gods to answer to an older one, and Tintin knew several older gods that still remained under their patron’s wing. In fact, Igor and Irma still worked for Mama Bianca, and they had been for millenia. Tintin was just reaching that age where he didn’t want a ‘mother’ so to speak. He was ready for the independence of the job he had been granted, and the upcoming gods’ meeting was the best chance to bring up his desire for a promotion.

Gods’ meetings didn’t happen often. Maybe once or twice a century. Since Tintin’s birth, this would be his third. The meetings usually served one of the three possible purposes: a crossover in territory, birth/rebirth of a god, or the rare and disheartening occasion of the death of a god with no rebirth. Sometimes it was all three, and they would be trapped together for months trying to address everything. Tintin really hoped this wasn’t one of those kinds of meetings.

“Come on, Snowy!” Tintin called back to his companion.

The icy cloud gave its best imitation of a whistle as one of Earth’s animals would, skating along Tintin’s ankles. The young god laughed in response as he sprinted along the airstream he was on before taking a massive leap, letting gravity pull him faintly, before he caught the next wind current, skating on it like the mortals did on the ice Snowy created for them. When the wind started to veer just a little too far to the north for Tintin’s liking, he wrestled it back into place. Dealing with wind was a lot of pushing, pulling, and shoving, but he liked the physicality of the act. Mama Bianca always complained that he was a very active boy, but Tintin wondered if that was because of who he was or what he was.

Before long, the outline of land finally began to stand out against the large expanse of blue. Gods’ meetings had been held in many various ‘neutral’ locations as sometimes it was impossible to be neutral to everyone. Tintin wished several times he had been alive to go to the meeting in Pompeii before it’s eruption, or even see the wonder of Atlantis before it had sank below the sea. Instead, nowadays gods’ meetings took place in an office building in Brussels, Belgium. It was fine, but it wasn’t like the old days of getting drunk, and going out and drawing the Nazca Lines. 

Dipping the current he was riding, Tintin jumped and landed on the roof allowing himself to appear in his mortal form. A lanky ginger young adult, although many mistook him for a teenager much to his annoyance. You would think as a god, he would be able to change his appearance and maybe add on a few years…a beard at least, but unfortunately it didn’t work like that. One of the many mysteries the universe still had to offer.

“Snowy, here boy.” Tintin called upwards.

The cloud quickly dropped towards Tintin, and as it got closer to the earthen plane, it began to take the shape of a white terrier dog. Its whistles turning into yaps and whines as Snowy fell into Tintin’s arms. The god couldn’t help but laugh as Snowy licked his face and wagged his tail like a true dog would.

[snom-pixelates]

uh- so i saw your post about the prosthetic eye and i was wondering — since i see this a lot with art and comic and stuff but never really got a change to look into this or ask anyone — does the eye fall out sometimes? is that a thing that happens? can you just pop it out? and also, since you’re half blind do you have really bad depth perception or is that a myth?

thanks for being so open and letting people ask questions, and thanks for taking the time to answer these ones if you do, if you don’t that’s 100% okay with me, just wanted to say thank you

-💛

Hey, it's no problem! Go ahead and send as many asks about it as you like!

The eye doesn't just fall out, no, especially not if it's properly fit! That's why ocular prosthetics get replaced about roughly every 7 years, because your eye sockets change shape over time.

Right now, my eye is a bit on the small side because I've had it for about that 7-8 year time period. I'm actually about to replace it sometime next month. However, even with it not perfectly filling my socket right now, the prosthetic falling out isn't ever a problem. The closest it'll come to doing that is if I pull the bottom eyelid too far. It'll start trying to slip out, but that's something you can easily feel and correct by pressing it back in before it can completely escape the socket. I've never had it fully fall out by accident before.

However, I can remove it on purpose whenever I like, yes. I just grab it with my thumb and index finger and pull. It doesn't hurt or anything, just sorta feels funny, in the way that I'm sure anything coming out of your body feels funny. Just an "oh, weird" feeling, lol, it's hard to describe.

However, just because I can take it out doesn't mean I do it often. It's recommended by my doctor that my prosthetic stays in at all times--walking around, sleeping, showering, everything. It's always in. The only times I take it out is if something gets underneath/behind it, like an eyelash or sand or something, if I'm getting it cleaned and polished, or if trying to show someone what the prosthetic and empty eye socket look like, because people get curious and I like showing them if they aren't too squeamish.

As for the bad depth perception, I wouldn't call it a myth. I do genuinely think my depth perception might be worse than a fully seeing individual, but the thing is, I've been half-blind all my life, so I don't really know what a two-eyeballed perception would even be like. However, I do often misjudge the distances of things right in front of me by about half an inch. Like, if someone were holding a pen out to me, it might take me an extra try to grab it from them. It's not super annoying, and I'm used to it since I've had two decades of adapting and living that way. But yeah, it's a thing.

I hear people who've lost an eye more recently in their lives have a harder time dealing with the difference of depth, and they might be able to give a better comparison than I could, but for me? I don't really know anything else besides this, so I can't give an accurate account as to exactly how much worse my depth perception might actually be.

However, this grants me an opportunity to talk about something! See, I've noticed there is a huge focus on depth perception when it comes to talking about people with one eye, and for me, the depth perception isn't really the worst part of my situation. Like, it's manageable. The worst is missing something by an inch or two and being really bad at playing catch. I think the thing I wish people put more emphasis on wasn't what you CAN see [like the depth perception thing], but what you CAN'T see.

Like, I would say dealing with my blind spot is way worse in comparison to dealing with my depth perception. My blind spot means I have to put more energy on looking around when I'm in unfamiliar places. I have to be more aware of my surroundings and people. My blind spot is the reason my shoulder still bumps corners even in my own house, where I'm very familiar with the layout, and why driving is so terrifying for me. Half the world is unavailable, and that's much scarier than the question of if something is one inch further away than I think it is.

Not that I'm saying putting any emphasis on depth perception is wrong, of course. It's still apart of being visually impaired in the specific way that I am! I just wish I also saw more people also talking about blind spots, too, in addition to depth. These two things--blind spots AND depth perception--go hand-in-hand with having one eye; they're issues that layer on top of each other.

[tacit-semantics]

It’s 3am which means it’s finally time. Dirk OCD posting under the cut. cw for in depth descriptions of compulsive behaviors regarding scrupulosity (moral), violent intrusive thoughts (alluded to, non-graphic), and contamination, as well as mentions of self harm. If you’re prone to picking up obsessions or compulsions through reading about them, I would suggest skipping out on this one

So first of all I wanna say that this is not intended to function as a set of assumptions/inferences that point towards dirk having ocd in canon so much as a set of ways in I, as a person with ocd, saw myself in him. It’s a very… enthusiastic headcanon of mine though so this switches back and forth between long winded babbling and then its canon inspiration depending on how excited I am at any given moment. Also, disclaimer: ocd can manifest in a whole bunch of ways, and a lot of them are super specific to the person in question, which is to say that I’ll be drawing a lot (but not entirely, on account of the fact that there’s very much a limit as to what I’m willing to discuss regarding me specifically) from personal experience for the sole reason that that’s how I best understand the disorder. Now, getting into it!

- first things first: he’s got scrupulosity obsessions, I think, specifically moral. Very, very afraid of hurting the people close to him, which in turn manifests as a sort of hypervigilance in everything he says and does. I think that in this context the knowledge of Bro would be equally devastating and necessary in that he’s concrete proof of the worst case scenario, and acceptance of that possibility is necessary to overcome ocd, but also like. I don’t think theres much in the way of mental health accommodations on post apocalyptic earth (much the same as current earth actually), so in practice this would just be Bad.

- speaking of hypervigilance: his attention always being split between his physical body and his dream self reminded me a lot of how a solid chunk of my brains processing power is always devoted to various bullshit, even if the rest of me’s working on autopilot. I also think he’d be the sort to assume that not anticipating a threat to his loved ones counts as a failure, so he’s always on guard/trying to stop things before they start/jumping at shadows, effectually. For me this manifested as a contamination fear but I don’t think that would track here I think he’d be more along the lines of trying to predict his loved one’s actions and putting out imaginary/preemptive fires accordingly

- this would also work well with his fear of manipulation I think. Like he’s so worried about his actions being controlling that he tries to prod at THEIR actions to ‘protect’ them from him which ends up as a sort of bizarre self fulfilling prophecy

-information hoarder. He’s taken the tests, he’s read the articles, he knows what’s wrong with him (he thinks) but also doesn’t want to use it as an excuse (he thinks) and also gets thrown into spirals when his actions don’t match up exactly with the information he’s gathered. I also think it would be fun to try and puzzle out mental health bullshit through the juggalo-internet. Not fun for him, but for me thinking about it

-hal is basically an extended study in rumination. Dirk needs definitive proof of himself and his motives, and well. Hal is not that, but I can see how he might have been intended to serve that function

-reassurance seeker but like in the way where he continually asserts to other people that he’s bad. In his mind this functions as a warning so that they know to be on guard around him. He worries about this being a sort of manipulation too, of course. Nothings ever easy.

-this gets more difficult when he goes from living alone and isolated to living with other people, I think, because now there’s an added layer of ways he has to worry about hurting them.

-if you didn’t know, a super common way for ocd to manifest is (unwanted and frightening) intrusive thoughts about hurting others in one way or another. I think it’d make sense for him to develop obsessions like these once he starts sharing physical space with other people. Like meals and the like he’ll just be sitting there zoned the fuck out because he’s monitoring every single urge and thought he has so he can ‘restrain’ as necessary

-also think he’d still be Constantly Aware of Everything, Always, even when he’s no longer splitting his consciousness in the literal sense. The thought process might start with something like noticing a chair is slightly wobbly and immediately having to fix it because otherwise it might fall, and if it falls when another person sits in it it’ll be his fault because he knew it was wobbly and didn’t do anything to fix it, and then he applies that thought process elsewhere and it escalates

-the thing is is that all this escalation happens pretty quickly because it’s a very intense set of feelings that you’re sitting with 24/7 so like cut to a month later and he’s pushing cups of water to the center of counters because otherwise they might spill and someone’ll slip and it’s HIS job to make sure they don’t, he’s repeatedly checking food over to make sure nothing’s wrong with it, he’s mapping everything he’s touched in the past week to see if he’s done anything bad or wrong, etc etc. these just keep getting increasingly more disconnected and bizarre like shit gets weird and frankly it might not even register for him that what he’s doing is irregular like from the inside things can seem as reasonable as they’re not

-that said, once you take that hyperawareness and ramp it up in reference to like everything, you realize that it just… isn’t sustainable, which means that at some point he inevitably‘fails’ and that goes as well as you think it does. Like on a good day he dismisses an ambiguous dot on a piece of bread as an obsessive quirk (maybe because he’s tired from other compulsion sets or something it happens) and then two days later someone accidentally eats a bit of bread before realizing there’s mold on it and well now dirk can’t get up from bed for the next three days sorry

-I think there’s a lot of really interesting things to say in terms of control here too. It’s all a bit ironic of course, as in something out of your control making you feel in control even if just for a second, fear of imposition taking a turn into imposition with a different motive, the distance between motive and action for that matter. I am getting off track.

-also dirk strikes me as the sort to have a comprehensive list (either written or mental) of every bad and ‘bad’ thing he’s done, ever. Regularly combs through his memories to see if he can think of others, and considers them obsessively both within and outside of context

-also just. That one convo he has where he’s talking about drowning in himself. I love that one

-physically, think he might scratch himself during panic attacks. Lot of self harm urges (head banging, eye trauma) but those don’t bother him nearly as much as his fears of hurting others. He’s unsocialized as fuck, and I think that as such he might not necessarily realize that he processes distress and anxiety in harmful/irregular ways

-I also wouldn’t be surprised if there was like this super noticeable gap between how he perceives himself and how other people perceive him too that’s pretty common. I don’t think he would have a fear of people finding out that he’s ‘bad’ by his standards though for the sole purpose that he assumes they already know

-Anyways from there it’s just like a various grab bag of related bullshit/uncategorized neuroses and obsession/compulsion sets. I think he has trich and maybe dermatillomania too. Autistic, definitely. Probably some other stuff. Comorbidity king. Sometimes he has to finish a compulsion set to sit down but he just finished a different one and is too tired to start again so he just stands on his phone for an hour. Has weird stress dreams. Bites his nails.

-all in all, ocd tends to latch on the things you care about- hence why so many intrusive thoughts are so ego dystonic, hence the fixation. Dirk, in canon and in this spiel here, loves the people he loves very much and just does not want to see them hurt and- unfortunately- sees himself as a threat thus. Well all of this.

-this concludes OCD dirk hour. If you have anything to add, please feel free! But also please be respectful about it, especially considering the subject matter.

EDIT: wrote a sequel to this, found here. It's not as put together as this one, but it's definitely a thing that exists

[faeryarchives]

Hello Can I get a headcannon for Kaeya like mc/reader for the Octavinelle Trio?

i am BACKKKK IN UPDATING WOOOOO ill try to post the others tomorrow after our research defense ueueue wish me luck 😭🤲

octavinelle with a kaeya-like gender neutral reader

a strategic accomplished swordsman who is outwardly confident and charming individual with a flair for drama. they are sometimes seen as overly laid-back and even lazy, but they takes their work seriously.

: ̗̀➛ azul ashengrotto

if the school would host the most charismatic student, you two would be the last two players standing.

the octavinelle dorm leader had never met someone who can rival his businessman skills! even he would fall for your tricks!

azul would definitely fall for one of your tricks before you even got to fully get to know each other

"do you know once you visit the lost island it will grant you any wish but you would never be able to return?"

"wait really? like people really go to the lost island?"

"no of course not. how would they even know the lost island if it's lost."

"lmao (nickname) got you azullll~"

"grr, floyd be quiet!"

despite being known to be the sneaky and mischievous type, the octopus admire how you do your tasks very well even if you were just doing it at the last minute of the deadline

having a paper due tomorrow? no problem just cram it overnight and then you are done! a test tomorrow? easy, just skim through the notes and you pass!

i feel like the two of you would often play chess and ends up in a tie lmao 😭 insert angry octopus noises

azul would also notice how you would always deal things and ends up in your favor regardless what methods you use while drawing the line of boundary

he could never hold any secret from your observant eyes - you would immediately be right at his side whenever you saw the dorm leader being troubled or bothered by something he can't control

"a little birdie told me our beloved octopus is being troubled with something ~ may i offer my help?"

even though you are similar yet differ from one another, it didn't became a problem to the two of you having each other's backs especially when you got a common goal in mind

deadly mastermind duo me thinks 💀

: ̗̀➛ jade leech

once everyone saw the two of you with that unreadable smiles on your faces, might as well start running especially when that person has a grudge on you

being the most trusted aide of the acting grandmaster in your previous world - you also share the sympathize with jade whenever the workload is too much + having a not very nice day just takes a toll

"woah there, jadey, you look so out of it today!"

"my apologies, i haven't got a nice rest these few days."

"that's because you are so overworked. i already told azul that you are taking a day off, let's go to the mountains!"

for sure you would go accompany the vice dorm leader whenever you had the time and chat his ear off with interesting talks about your home

you would often find yourself exchanging stories about your brothers despite their contrasting personalities and wonder if its your personalities got switched instead

"i can't imagine myself with your personality."

me either, if i would have your personality i would already plan a domination with floyd."

please spare azul and floyd from your trickery, your tandem reached to a point that the two doesn't know if you are telling the truth or another prank 😭

: ̗̀➛ floyd leech

you and floyd would be the menace duo 😈

being expert in handling children, you are one of the people who can really endure with the eel's mood swings and even join him sometimes!

whenever you two are so bored, it will end up in a friendly training with him trying to avoid your blade and icy moves

"well, looks like i won again, better luck next time feesh."

"booooo 🤬 shrimpy, you cheated!"

cue the gasp "i am very offended! 🙁"

"aaaah~ i feel like doing basketball right now. 😤"

even if you put up the best facade that you can, this eel would always see through you don't even try to hide it from him!

he would openly hug or rather squeeze you out of nowhere to show his affection 🤗 and floyd would light up like a christmas tree whenever you gave him a hug back

of course your day wouldn't be completed when you two haven't tease anyone at all making your friends pray that they are not your new target

the sleep with one eye open type of threat through pranks and all please 😭

"hey (name), do you think that sea crab finally discovered it?"

"i think give it a few minu-"

"what the fuck is this?!"

"wow you are right~!"

"see?"

overall, being friends is like a rollercoaster - you would never expect what kind of fun and interesting moments you will experience with the playful eel

[thebibliosphere]

So I'm currently unemployed because I got fired for taking too much sick leave (it was legally sketchy blah blah blah but in the end I just can't work and take care of myself and investigate my mystery health problems at the same time). So I've been spending more time writing!

I really admire your writing and loved Hunger Pangs. I'm looking forward to the poly elements developing and I'm wondering if you have any advice for writing about poly. I've made one of my projects a snarky take on "write what you know" ... Apparently what I know is southern gothic meets Pacific northwest gothic, chronic illness pandemic surrealism, and falling back-asswards into threesomes.

I know this is a very open-ended question and I don't expect an answer, I'm just curious about it if you have the energy. As a writer, trying to write honestly / realistically about polyamory/enm, I'm curious if you have any thoughts on what's different about portraying monogamy or nonmonogamy in books, romance or erotica or otherwise.

I'm trying to read examples but it's hard to find examples that fit the niche I'm looking at. Excuse me if this question is nonsense, it's the cluster headaches.

I'm sorry to hear you've been dealing with all that and solidarity on the cluster headaches. But I'm glad you're finding an outlet through writing! And I hope you're happy with an open-ended ramble in response because oh boy, there's a lot I could talk about and I could probably do a better job of answering this sort of thing with more specific questions, but let's see where we end up.

There's definitely a big difference between writing polyamory/ENM (ethical non-monogamy) and what people often expect from monogamous love stories.

Just even from a purely sales and marketing standpoint, the moment you write anything polyamorous (or even just straight up LGBTQIA+ without the ENM) you're going to get considered closer to being erotica/obscene than hetero romances. It's an unfair bias, but it's one that exists in our society. But also the Amazon algorithm and their shitty, shitty human censors. Especially the ones that work the weekends. (Talking to you, Carlos 🖕.)

So not only do you start out hyper-aware that you're writing something that is highly stigmatized or fetishized (at least I'm hyper-aware) but that you are also writing for a niche market that is starving for positive content because the content that exists is either limited, not what they want, or is problematic in some fashion i.e. highly stigmatized or fetishy. And even then, the wants, desires, and expectations of the community you're writing for are complex and wildly varied and hard to fit into an easy formula.

When writing monogamous love stories, there is a set expectation that’s really hard to fuck up once you know it. X person meets Y. Attraction happens, followed by some sort of minor conflict/resolution. Other plot may happen. A greater catalyst involving personal growth for both parties (hopefully) happens. Follow the equation to its ultimate resolution and achieve Happily Ever After. 

But writing ENM is... a lot more difficult, if only because of the pure scope of possibilities. You could try to follow the same equation and shove three (or more) people into it, but it rarely works well. Usually because if you’re doing it right, you won’t have enough room in a single character arc to allow for enough growth, and if ENM requires anything in abundance, it’s room to grow.

And this post is huge so I’m going to put the rest under a cut :)

There's also a common refrain in certain online polyam/ENM circles that triads and throuples are overrepresented in media and they may be right to some extent. Personally, I believe the issue isn't that triads and throuples are overrepresented, but that there is such minuscule positive rep of ethical non-monogamy in general, that the few tiny instances we have of triads in media make it seem like it's "everywhere" when in actuality, it's still quite rare and the media we do have often veers into Unicorn Hunter fetish porn. Which is its own problematic thing. And just to be clear, I’m not including this part to dissuade you from writing "falling back-asswards into threesomes." If anything, I need more of it and would hook it directly into my brain if I could. I'm just throwing it out there into the void in the hope that someone will take the thought and run with it, lol.

I’d love to see more polyfidelitous rep in fiction, just as much as I’d like to see more relationship anarchy too. More diversity in fiction is always good.

Another thing that differs in writing ENM romance vs conventional monogamy is the feeling like you need to justify yourself. There's a lot of pressure to be as healthy and non-problematic as possible because you are being held to a higher standard of criticism. Both from people from without the ENM communities, and from the people within. Granted, some people don't give a shit and just want to read some fantastic porn (valid) but there are those who will cheerfully read Fifty Shades of Bullshit and call it "spicy" and "romantic," then turn around and call the most tooth-rottingly-sweet-fluff about a queer platonic polycule heresy. That's just the way the world works.

(Pro-tip for author life in general: never read your own reviews; that way madness lies. I glimpsed one the other day that tagged Hunger Pangs as “ethical cheating” and just about had an aneurism.)

And while that feeling of needing to justify yourself comes from a valid place of being excluded from the table of socially accepted norms, it can also be to the detriment of both the story and the subject matter at hand. I've seen some authors bend so far over backward to avoid being problematic in their portrayal of ENM, they end up being problematic for entirely different reasons. Usually because they give such a skewed, rose-tinted perspective of how things work, it ends up coming off as well... a bit culty and obnoxious tbh.

“Look how enlightened we are, freed from the trappings of monogamy and jealousy! We’re all so honest and perfect and happy!”

Yeah, uhu, sure Jan. Except here’s the thing, not all jealousy is bad. How you act on it can be, but jealousy itself is an important tool in the junk drawer that is the range of human emotion. It can clue us in to when we’re feeling sad or neglected, which in turn means we should figure out why we’re feeling those things. Sometimes it’s because brains are just like that and anxiety is a thing. Other times it’s because our needs are actually being neglected and we are in an unhealthy situation we need to remedy. You gotta put the work in to figure it out. Which is the same as any style of relationship, whether it’s mono, polyam or whatever flavor of ENM you subscribe to* And sometimes you just gotta be messy, because that’s how humans are. Being afraid to show that mess makes it a dishonest portrayal, and it also robs you of some great cannon fodder for character development.

Which brings me in a roundabout way to my current pet peeve in how certain writers take monogamous ideals and apply them to ENM, sometimes without even realizing it. The “Find the Right Person and Settle Down” trope.

Often, in this case, ENM or polyamory is treated as a phase. Something you mature out of with age or until you meet “The One(tm).” This is, of course, an attempt to follow the mono style formula expected in most romances. And while it might appeal to many readers, it’s uh, actually quite insulting. 

To give an example, I am currently seeing this a lot in the Witcher fandom. 

Fanon Netflix!Jaskier is everyone's favorite ethical slut until he meets Geralt then woops, wouldn’t you know, he just needed to find The One(tm). Suddenly, all his other sexual and romantic exploits or attractions mean nothing to him. Let's watch as he throws away a core aspect of his personality in favor of a man. 

Yeah... that sure showed those societal norms... 

If I were being generous, I’d say it’s a poor attempt at showing New Relationship Euphoria and how wrapped up people can become in new relationships. But honestly, it’s monogamous bias eking its way in to validate how special and unique the relationship is. Because sometimes people really can’t think of any other way to show how important and valid a relationship is without defining it in terms of exclusivity. Which is a fundamental misunderstanding of how ENM works for a lot of people and invalidates a lot of loving, serious and long-term relationships.

This is not to say that some polyam/poly-leaning people can't be happy in monogamous relationships! I am! (I consider myself ambiamorous. I'm happy with either monogamy or polyamory, it really just depends on the relationship(s) I’m in.) But I also don't regard my relationship with a mono partner as "settling down" or "growing up." It's just a choice I made to be with a person I love, and it's a valid one. Just like choosing to never close yourself off to multiple relationships is valid. And I wish more people realized that, or rather, I wish the people writing these things knew that :P

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled enough. I hope this collection of incoherent thoughts actually makes some sense and might be useful. 

----

*A good resource book that doesn't pull any punches in this regard is Polysecure by Jessica Fern. It's a wonderfully insightful read that explores the messier side of consensual non-monogamy, especially with how it can be affected by trauma or inter-relationship conflicts. But it also shows how to take better steps toward healthy, ethical non-monogamy (a far better job than More Than Two**) and conflict resolution, making it a valuable resource both for someone who is a part of this relationship style***, but also for writers on the outside looking in who might have a very simple or misguided idea of what conflict within polyam/ENM relationships might look like, vs traditional monogamous ones.

** The author of More Than Two has been accused of multiple accounts of abuse within the polyamorous community, with many of his coauthors having spoken out about the gaslighting and emotional and psychological damage they experienced while in a relationship with him. A lot of their stories are documented here: https://www.itrippedonthepolystair.com/ (warning: it is not light material and deals with issues of abuse, gaslighting, and a whole other plethora of Yikes.) While some people still find More Than Two helpful reading, there are now, thankfully, much, much better resources out there.

*** Some people consider polyam/ENM to be part of their identity or orientation, while others view it as a relationship style.It largely depends on the individual.