#he's not bad at listening his brain is literally preventing him from getting everything

[keets-writing-corner]

Thinking a LOT about Lucifer in the latest Hazbin episode. Idk what I was expecting but not this??

As I was watching my immediate thought was just "huh... Lucifer is kinda of weird..." but as the episode went on I realized the issue

the dude is off the chain depressed, like he says it as a joke but holy cow it is SO BAD

He's manically just creating rubber ducks cuz his daughter really like it that one time but it's empty, it's never good enough but he keeps doing it, maybe cuz he doesn't know how to pass the time otherwise.

like I get the feeling he HAS better things he SHOULD be doing than making rubber duck after rubber duck. At first I was like, "Bruh why isn't the king of hell doing anything?" aaaaand then it became clear...

The dude is disassociating so bad he can barely hold a conversation let alone remember information. He clearly WANTS to, he wants to be involved with his daughter so bad, he wants to care about the things she's doing so bad, but his depression keeps interfering. It's like he can only hear every other word and he grasps onto the ones he does hear semi-out of context. Like you can see every time he catches something that he hadn't before and he just "well shit I didn't catch that part"

and that's why he reacts so weird when people talk to him. He is struggling so bad to engage with the conversation he's only getting 50% of it

does that look like the face of a man who knows what the hell the conversation is even about??? he is STRUGGLING

like Charlie spent so long telling him about the hotel, and he STILL didn't understand what she wanted. Yeah it comes off as ditzy but literally I've been in that position where your brain just "nope, not doing this right now" and nerfs your conversation comprehension. So as someone who's BEEN in that position, to me it feels exactly like what he's dealing with. He's sorta engaged with the conversation, but only as much as his brain will allow

For example, when I'm dealing with this, this is what someone talking to me feels like this where the crossed out parts are what I missed and bold is what I catch, "Hey! You know I was thinking for dinner we could either make some chicken with rice? But if you don't feel like cooking, pasta is super easy and you love that right? What do you want to do?" you can kinda get that someone is trying to talk to you about dinner, and towards the end you get the impression that they asked something that needs your input so you can decently put 2 and 2 together and try and pass off, but crucial bits were left out, I would have no idea that either chicken or pasta is in the conversation only having heard "rice". When someone is just talking at me, I can decently pass off as being engaged but the second I'm required to participate in the conversation I'm screwed. Seem familiar? At which point I have 2 options, try to give a bullshit answer, or admit that I missed what they were saying and ask them to repeat

Lucifer, unfortunately, is trying so damn hard to hide that he's dealing with like 24/7 dissociation, so he can't admit that he's missing entire chunks of the conversation, hence his really weird replies. He does eventually get the full picture and then he and Charlie start having the real conversation

Also, the Alastor/Lucifer rivalry was hilarious but also really indicative of more of what Lucifer is dealing with

Alastor is, unfortunately, really good at picking up people's insecurities, and thanks to Charlie's description earlier and watching Lucifer clearly trying to overcompensate, he immediately picks up on the fact that Lucifer KNOWS he struggles to be a good dad (we know cuz it's cuz of the depression, hard to be engaged when your brain keeps turning off) and decides to rub salt in the wound by pretending he's been acting as a surrogate father to Charlie. Now why Alastor decided to pick a fight with the king of hell is beyond me, I do not understand Alastor (and I LIKE IT) (maybe it's cuz Alastor thinks he's hot shit and was expecting Lucifer to at least have heard of him but Lucifer just treats him like a nobody? who knows)(why would Lucifer listen to radio anyways when he can't even pay attention to a conversation it'd just be white noise)

But yeah I just was expecting someone who oozed either charisma or presence and instead I got a depressed dad who's dissociating so bad he can barely function and be present in his life. The only thing it seems he CAN do is make rubber ducks cuz his daughter really liked it that one time

Idk Lucifer is tragic to me. Whatever the full details of what heavan did to him absolutely broke him and he can't deal with it. He's aware of it, and he doesn't know how to fix it, so he tries to over compensate and sorta makes an ass out of himself but no one says or does anything cuz this guy is supposed to be THE king of hell

Suddenly it's making a lot more sense why he just rolls over and lets heaven do what it wants and even told Charlie to go in his place the start of the show. He's not in any headspace to hold a basic conversation let alone negotiate! He didn't even know who Alastor was, he's been so out of touch

idk I like him, he seems sweet, I hope Charlie brings some light back into his life. He really needs to get out of that rubber duck room

[glamnessaaumisc]

FNAF/Banban Shitpost

Based on something @aarcade said when they were streaming Garten Banban IV in a Discord VC.

Update: They played Garten of Banban VI when it came out as well. I will hide a long-ass (and VERY cringe) text post regarding my opinions about the game (re: 95% about Bittergiggle) underneath a read-more link.

In my opinion, the game was pretty much what I expected from a Banban game. However, Bittergiggle is such an unexpectedly amazing and complex character coming from a game that only a four-year-old could enjoy. Not only does his voice actor stand above the rest of Banban's voice cast, but he has a really great motivation behind his actions, and you can understand why he does everything he does, both good and bad.

In Garten of Banban IV, Bittergiggle is established as a character whose raison d'etre is his comedy career. He was, quite literally, born to be funny. However, the world he was thrust into prohibits him from making any jokes whatsoever lest it literally be destroyed. This is so because Queen Bouncelia, the de-facto ruler of some LARP-kingdom underneath the kindergarten, holds the "Naughty Ones" at bay within her pouch and may accidentally let them loose, should she ever laugh. (Did I mention Banban's story is stupid af?) Thus, Bittergiggle is ostracized from the Kingdom by Sheriff Toadster, forced to take his comedy career even more underground than it already is. Due to this ostracization, he begins to question the notion that the Queen's laughter could lay waste to the Kingdom and even rebels against Toadster's self-assigned and often overreaching authority. (Note: Toadster is technically in the right by preventing Bittergiggle from getting to the Queen, but he also arrested most of the original cast of Garten of Banban for seemingly no reason at all. He's kind of like a Discord/Reddit moderator who flexes his authority by being a tyrannical prick.)

But eventually, Bittergiggle finally does it, the madman! He makes the Queen laugh...but that end-of-the-world conspiracy he denied so vehemently is proven to be true! The Naughty Ones escape and lay waste to the land he called home. When you next meet Bittergiggle in Garten of Banban VI, he apologizes profusely for his lack of foresight and pledges to help you out with fixing the problem he created. His life starts turning around. He gets together with some other characters - Banban, Nabnab, and Kittysaurus (I am losing brain cells) to name a few - and goes on a quest to find the Queen's scepter, which IIRC is a weapon that can combat the Naughty Ones or something like that. He even gets an audience to listen to his jokes! That's right, in one part of the game, Bittergiggle admits to you that he sometimes says his jokes aloud and the Naughty Ones laugh at them from the darkness. It makes him really happy, and he feels as if he is finally fulfilling his life's purpose. In fact, his newfound audience makes him so happy that at the end of the game when you're escaping the leader of the Naughty Ones, he stays behind because he wants to keep his audience and continue to fulfill his purpose.

The next (and last at the time of writing) time you see Bittergiggle is in the ending cutscene of Garten of Banban VI. The Naughty Ones' laughter was but a ruse, and when he embraced his "audience" they corrupted him and turned him into their thrall. Truly, Bittergiggle is the most tragic and well-written character in the content-farm-friendly clusterfuck that is Garten of Banban.

My IQ dropped into the single digits when I was writing this, and I hope yours does the same as you read my incoherent rambling about the worst mascot horror series.

[wilbursoot-updates]

Interview: Lovejoy Are Taking the World by Storm, One Show at a Time

Lovejoy is in this article!

Lovejoy kicked off their highly anticipated Across The Pond Tour in May. The British rock band, who recently released their third EP “Wake Up & It’s Over,” played shows to adoring fans throughout the U.S. and Canada—wowing audiences with their rambunctious guitars and tell-all lyrics. Before their show at Boston’s Royale on June 2nd, Staff Writer, Elle Dickson sat down with the band to discuss new music and the highs and lows of tour.

SO HOW ARE Y’ALL DOING TODAY? 

Ash Kabosu: Doing good. We’re just plotting world domination at the moment. 

THAT FEELS RIGHT. HOW EXCITED ARE Y’ALL TO BE IN BOSTON?

Mark Boardman: We’ve never been.

AK: Joe loves Boston.

Wilbur Soot: It’s his favorite place in the world. 

AK: Which is why he’s not here, he’s off enjoying Boston. 

LOVELY, SO HOW HAS THE TOUR BEEN SO FAR FOR YOU GUYS?

WS: Very good. Very tiring.

AK: Wild. Yeah, really cool. Just like every end of the spectrum—it’s been amazing, but it’s also been awful at times. Yeah, it’s just been a big mixed bag.

WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR FAVORITE PARTS OF THE TOUR SO FAR? 

AK: I really liked San Francisco! I think it gets a bad rap because everywhere else we went in the country, we’ve been telling people where we’ve been going, and they say, “Oh, be careful in San Francisco!” and we got there and it couldn’t be finer. There was nothing wrong—it was very pleasant, very green, a lot of fun, and there were lots of cool places to eat. I had a great time! 

MB: I think mine was [San Francisco] too. We have a good friend that lives out there, so it was nice to see them again.

AK: They showed us around, showed us some good food, and we got to see the sunset in a field overlooking the city.

MB: Then, the next day, they secretly opened for us—did an amazing show. They absolutely smashed it!

AK: Yeah, that show was great. It was a really good crowd... Austin, Texas was really cool. I think that was maybe my favorite show, just in terms of crowd and energy and everything. Yeah, it was huge. 

WS: It was daunting. 

AK: I had loads of fun in Nashville as well. That’s where we first went. We were there for a few days. We just went out to Broadway and went to a bunch of bars to listen to the country bands play. They were all just incredible—like it made me aware of the caliber of musicians and it made me nervous. I was like, “Fuck, we really gotta prove ourselves.” 

WS: Yeah, Nashville was really cool. 

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING TO KEEP THINGS FUN ON TOUR? 

WS: I attack Mark. 

MB: He’s been doing that since before tour. 

AK: Let the record show that I’m actually sitting between them now to prevent Will from harming Mark any further.

YOU GOTTA KEEP HIM SAFE BEFORE THE SHOW!

AK: Just his legs, he could probably beat the drum with your head. 

MB: I don’t know. I feel like I’d get brain damage first. 

THE EP IS STILL PRETTY YOUNG. HOW HAS THAT IMPACTED THE TOUR? 

AK: I’m very impressed with how the crowds have already learned the songs. I did not expect that. I thought there would be one or two stand-out songs or choruses that really resonate with people, but they’re singing every word and that's nuts. Like, that’s dedication that we don’t even deserve, and that's wonderful. 

WS: Yeah, it’s crazy. 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE ONE OF YOUR SHOWS TO SOMEONE WHO’S NEVER BEEN TO ONE?

MB: Loud.

WS: Yeah. Very loud. It’s not even the sound system or the music—it’s literally just how loud the fans scream. 

AK: Our record was 120 decibels I think, in Texas, which is the equivalent of standing next to a jet engine. We have molded in-ears that we wear for playback while we perform, and if at any point I take mine out, it’s almost deafening.

WS: Every crew member that works in the venue has no idea what to expect then our sound guy tries to tell us–

AK: He tries to tell them, “It’s gonna be loud,” and they’re like “Okay.” Then they go, “Oh fuck, my ears!”

WS: They all put their earplugs in as well. It's ridiculous. 

WHAT ARE Y’ALLS FAVORITE SONGS TO PLAY?

MB: It’s gotta be “Portrait of a Blank Slate” for me. I think it’s really fun.

AK: Yeah, I really like playing “Portrait of a Blank Slate,” but it’s really hard for me to play, so the chances of me playing it well are low—but when I do, it feels really good. “Scum” is also really fun. It has our biggest build. The crowd also always goes wild for “Sex Sells,” so that’s really cool.

WS: “Call Me What You Like” is my favorite because I get to do a fun thing where I just talk.

[cluescorner]

Randomized Robins AU - Ages + Worst Trait Exercise:

Steph (25):

Says her worst trait is her murderous rages (she is exaggerating for dramatic/comedic effect, she’s killed 3 people tops and for very good reason)

Thinks her worst trait is her spitefulness (one of the few traits she definitely got from her father + one that prevents her from fixing her relationships and living her best possible life. She’ll refuse to interact with someone she dearly loves after an argument (happens significantly less after Tim’s death) or will say things she knows are hurtful just for the sake of having the last word. This trait will worsen in some ways as the list of people who have wronged her and those she loves grows, but will also ease up as she matures and realizes the harm it’s doing to her relationships with those she loves most.)

Her worst trait really is her spitefulness

Cass (26)

Says her worst trait is her self-righteousness (she believes that her goals are righteous and, as a result, she is righteous. Cass becomes very defensive whenever someone questions the mission and often does not second-guess herself. This is a trait she only develops later in life as she grows closer to Bruce/learns to understand herself more/starts to love herself more. But she knows she isn’t perfect and when somebody she trusts criticizes something she is doing she is willing to listen. She just usually isn’t the one to START the introspection.) 

Thinks her worst trait is her self-righteousness. 

Her worst trait actually is her obsessiveness (she gets it from Bruce and, while not as bad as him, she will easily become preoccupied with her night-life and the mission if someone isn’t there to pull her back. She will do this to the point of self-destruction and it hurts her relationships with the people she loves, especially Steph.)

Tim (24)

Says his worst trait is his spitefulness (he actively rejects the idea of mending his relationships with the older members of the family and this causes him to also lack good relationships with the younger ones)

Thinks his worst trait is his obsessiveness (similar to Cass, if he gets fixated on a task or idea he will neglect everything else in his life in order to dedicate more time to it. Unlike Cass, he will almost never be dragged away from it unless Pierrot snatches control of the body and forces them to take care of themself.)

His worst trait actually is how manipulative he is (the KING of guilt-tripping and using people’s emotions against them. He’ll do whatever he needs to do to get what he wants, he’s not above crocodile tears. And he will do it to whoever he needs (or wants) to with little care for how his actions impact others.)

Pierrot (Insists: “Age doesn’t apply to me! And even if it did, I'd probably be the oldest. Or the youngest! I’d never be a middle child, though.” Mental assessments by the Bats have put him around 21, with a margin of error of 3 years. Pierrot has called this “blatant character assassination by my eternal rival!”)

Says his worst trait is that he is an irredeemable psychopath without any regard for the wellbeing of others (this is a lie and everyone who's important to him understands this). 

Thinks his worst trait is his parasitic nature (he literally would not exist had Tim not suffered the way he did. Plus he is a living reminder of one of the worst things that happened to many of his loved ones. He is a parasite injected into a functional person's body and contributes to his continued suffering. This is also a largely incorrect judgement of himself, caused by his actual worst trait.)

His worst trait actually is his limited sense of self (he doesn’t really know who he is outside of ‘inheritor to the legacy of the Joker (a man he despises yet also views as a father)’ and ‘chip in Tim’s brain that became sentient’. He slowly develops an identity over the course of his life and relationships with other people, but he lacks the foundations of identity that most people have. Pierrot will often almost become a caricature of himself and what others perceive him to be because it's the only person he knows how to be. This causes wild swings in how he behaves and relates to others, sometimes to the detriment of himself and others.)

Dick (17) 

Says his worst trait is his clinginess (he is a very extraverted person who likes to be around others, which mixed with his fear of abandonment after his parents died means that if he goes a few days without seeing/talking to a friend he will get very anxious.)

Thinks his worst trait is his anger issues (he gets ticked off very easily and will explode on people. He’s kind at his core and is usually very nice, but he has a temper that can escalate significantly. Spoiler (and later Twist) help him channel this anger into something positive.)

His worst trait actually is his anger issues.

Barbara (18)

Says her worst trait is her disability (internalized ableism, she thinks of herself as less valuable than the other Bats because she cannot be out there in the capes like they can. She will grow out of this as she matures and as she learns how invaluable her support for the team is.)  

Thinks her worst trait is her disability 

Her worst trait actually is her overly-independent nature (In an attempt to overcompensate for everything she can no longer do, she has resolved to do literally everything that she possibly can without any help from others. This results in many instances where she either takes on too much and winds up not being able to fully realize any of her tasks or where she makes her life and the lives of others significantly harder by refusing help when offered/not asking for it when she needs it.)

Damian (16)

Says his worst trait is his perfectionism (he is overly critical of both himself and others, taking any flaw or problem and amplifying it to an absurd degree. This is due in part to his life with the LoA (where even a brief misstep could lead to death), in part to how others treated him initially as Spoiler (any flaw was fixated on and used as a reason to either mistrust him or portray him as unworthy of the mantle), and in part due to the fact that he is Bruce’s son (the only person with worse perfectionism problems than Damian). Gradually, Damian has improved in this regard but it’s still a massive barrier to both his own happiness and his relationships with others.)

Thinks his worst trait is his perfectionism 

His worst trait actually is his perfectionism

Duke (16)

Says his worst trait is his definitely-real secret evil side (says this as a ‘my dad is a villain so who knows??’ joke)

Thinks his worst trait is his impulsivity in his words (Sometimes he will crack a joke or say a remark without thinking it through, leading to a LOT of hurt feelings and drama. He’ll say something without thinking it through and wind up seeming insensitive. This isn’t done because of malice, rather because Duke is someone who’s quick to act and speak. But while the mantle of Insight and his awakening powers have helped him with his actions, they do not always help with his loose tongue. As such, Duke gains an unfair reputation in the media as an instigator and will accidentally cause family drama through what he says.)

His worst trait actually is his impulsivity in his words

Jason (14)

Says his worst trait is his bad manners (he grew up on the streets and has no idea how rich-people society works, which he’s pretty insecure about considering he’s now the youngest kid of Bruce freaking Wayne). 

Thinks his worst trait is his reactiveness (Jason never got the privilege of planning ahead for various events in his life, so he instead needed to rely on being swift and harsh in how he could react to situations. It’s saved his life on multiple occasions and helps significantly in his role as Spoiler, but it can also lead to extreme overreactions (accidentally causing kidnapping scare after Jason ran away following a fight with Dick) and a struggle to plan things out ahead of time. As he grows more secure in his place in the family and in life, this trait will lessen but never fully dissipate.)

His worst trait actually is his reactiveness

[dirgeforthedead]

On the matter of Dirge & Enver // @dirgeforthedead & @banefulbenevolence

I think one of the things that I love so much with Enver and Dirge with this iteration is that, objectively, on face value, before they meet they are two absolutely terrifying and awful people.

They have both done horrifying, terrible things. They both have very few scruples, if any, about what they are and are not willing to do, particularly in any 'ends justify the means' scenario. They literally meet because Dirge has been sent to kill a patriar for disrespecting her father and Enver was there working on his 'seduction for power and wealth' angle. The only reason he doesn't die is because he's good at talking himself out of things and convinces her that he's someone worth knowing.

[ She decides she needs to figure out more about him to see if he's a threat to her father and his plans, to know if she can kill him or if she needs to find out more first, eliminate other threats, and then kill him. ]

It's about the way you would expect two absolutely horrendous people to meet and become associates of necessity.

[ Enver needs to at the least buy time so he isn't killed on the spot, and Dirge needs to know if he's an isolated threat or how far the spider web goes. ]

Now, you would assume, when they meet, they would also, quite decidedly, make each other all the worse by one Bad enabling and 'Yes And-ing' another Bad about every terrible, wicked idea that either one of them can imagine.

Which they do on one level, at least in the beginning because they cook up this plan together about the Elder Brain and the Crown and the tadpoles, the Absolute religious hoax, and everything they need set into motion to really Sell It--murder and mayhem in the streets, distrust of outsiders, and an army of cultists marching for the city.

But, over the course of knowing each other, they also??? make each other better??? in other ways???

Enver helps Dirge to find herself, to help her realize she's more than just an instrument of death and obliteration. He quite literally helps her find her voice, her ability to express her thoughts, opinions, desires, and needs, which is why her language in the 'Prayer for Forgiveness' is so similar to his own, honestly. She listened to him and then she would parrot things she had heard him say but in regards to whatever she wanted to express, and slowly she began to speak for herself, but always with a bit of a slant from his influence. He shows her patience and understanding and compassion--where almost no one ever showed him as much--while she is figuring herself out, and it means the world to her for reasons she can't even begin to explain.

What's more, both with this matter and in many other ways, he shows her that she has value beyond her ability to Kill Something Really Well. He values her opinions. He values her expertise in her fields. He values her.

She says that he is her heart, because she didn't have one before him.

And Dirge, of all people, shows Enver absolute and unwavering loyalty and devotion. Gives him ONE person that he knows would never betray him. Who respects him exactly as he is, even if/when the pretenses and performances are set aside. Who he doesn't have to seduce or flatter or charm to have in his corner. Someone who has never INTENTIONALLY or KNOWINGLY hurt him and is absolutely beside herself the times that she has. Who does everything she possibly can to prevent it or at least mitigate the damage--from managing her bloodlust to getting him charmed rings and trinkets she finds that protect from certain types of damage to giving him a cane with a hidden blade in it so that he has another way to protect himself from her or others.

Even if she doesn't speak and has difficulty expressing herself when first they meet, it's evident to Enver that she's simply been neglected in some regards, but not that she's any less intelligent.

In fact, he says that she is his equal, which is something he's never felt like he had prior to her.

And, over time, they both end up stumbling and fumbling their way through learning what it is to love and be loved, truly, unconditionally, beyond explanation or words--without wax, as Enver is fond of saying [ even though the saying confuses the hell out of Dirge for the longest time until he explains the origin of the phrase; please do imagine his amusement when she begins to sign letters to him 'without knives, Dirge' ].

At the end of the day, against all odds and expectations, even if not in every regard, they are both better for knowing each other, for loving each other.

I also think, from Dirge's standpoint, that whatever her 'Prayer for Forgiveness' might say to the contrary, when it would reach the tipping point and it was time to make a decision, even if the tadpole matter never happened, the path she chose the moment she chose Enver would always lead to her death because she would always defy Bhaal and refuse to become his Slayer, refuse to end the world.

After all, she finally had someone that she couldn't bear to lose.

As much as it pained her whenever her urges overtook her and she caused him harm, the idea of killing him becomes intolerable, inconceivable. She would have destroyed anyone and anything to protect him.

Including herself.

Now, was she on a path to Redemption, prior to the tadpoles? I don't think that I'd call it that.

But a path to Defiance? Absolutely.

And all because two terrible people met and became at least slightly better as a result.

[bonefall]

are there any cats youve assigned music to/assosciate with certain songs?

What you mean like, the fake AMVs that play in my head on long bus rides? Sure why not, I'll bite and have some fun. Bonefall Rewrite playlist lmao

I'll try not to share music that I picked up from AMVs because hopefully you guys know that Firestar's actual, factual theme song is Bones Shatter

(Below the cut is 10 videos worth of music. Most of my music tastes involve killing and stabbing and murder and biting, be forewarned.)

I wrote a whole essay once on how To The Blade by Everything Everything is the perfect song for Ferncloud and Cloudtail in the wake of learning that Ashfur is the imposter once, but then deleted it lmao. The song is about the limitations of empathy in understanding the actions of a monster, how you'll drive yourself insane thinking of everything you could have done differently, and the intense feelings of helplessness and shame in losing someone you cared about to extremism

It's lost a little bit in the Rewrite... though I am thinking of making Cloudtail Ashfur's mentor to preserve it a bit because I really sitting there and thinking about this song with them in particular.

I think Whole Lotta Rosie is just a delightful song for Tangleburr, and AC/DC in general. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, also. She's just my little hard AC/DC girl I love her, this kinda rock music just fits her so perfectly

Literally every single time I think about Reedwhisker, the beat of Hard Knock Life (2014) comes into my head... and also the Spiderman video. Reedwhisker is my favorite butt monkey.

For Brokenstar I imagine a lot of different things, Barbarism Begins At Home by the Smiths is a common one, but I also gravitate towards Goat by Man Man for how the whole song feels like a chaotic fever dream. Something about it captures the way his whole life feels desperate and overwhelming, like something is deeply wrong and he knows it, but can't figure out what it is until after he's dead.

And on that note, Runningnose, all his schemes with Brokenstar, his whole story, I literally can imagine the animatic in my head to Snuff Out the Light, the villain song cut from Emperor's New Groove. I can see the ENTIRE thing. God had to nerf me by preventing me from being able to focus on anything because the minute I can do one task for more than 30 minutes it's over for the entire world

Breezepelt just after Bonefall OotS and how he's desperately looking for meaning in anything, how he DOESN'T settle down with Heathertail right away, him joining The Kin and getting himself in trouble and feeling like he dug himself into a deeper and deeper hole....... Beat Down by Mr Heavenly

Darkstar and Little Dark Age by MGMT also lives in my head

I vibe with Cruel Summer by Bananarama of all things for Hollyleaf so hard that I am actually considering changing the season of the last book of Bonefall Po3 to Summer. I don't share every reason for all my random worldbuilding changes because sometimes, it really is just "this song made me imagine something so vividly I've Gotta Do It Now"

Uhhh Aro/Ace Rosetail and love related songs my beloved. I don't even have a deeper reason. I just associate this song with Rosetail.

This one's for canon Tawnypelt as well as Bonefall Tawnypelt; do you guys realize the untapped potential of Tawny and Lady Gaga? The fact she denies all Tigerstar's attempts to get in contact with her?? How she shows up in a dream ONCE to yell at Hawkfrost and Brambleclaw about how much of a bad idea it is??? BEYONCE???? Come ON, GAY PEOPLE, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THIS LIKE 10 YEARS AGO

Tawnypelt x Telephone by Lady Gaga my beloved

Aaaaaand also, there is an internet where they were supposed to put my brain so I did listen to Dark Souls boss music when I wrote Speckletail's Bulldozer.

[ansixilus]

@humormehorny Eh, close enough. You did ask, even if it wasn't via the ask function, so it works for me.

Keystone Research

When I was a teen, my friends and I were quite fond of the games Second Sight and Geist. The paranormal that creeps all too close to home, the morally bankrupt corporation researching supernatural weapons, and the lonely, haunted feeling... perfect recipe for firing up the imagination. I wanted to turn this into a video game, but alas it's rather quite beyond my scope. And so, I wrote down some of it, bits of lore and character concepts.

A sprawling, underground research facility, seemingly with endless staff and yet clearly a skeleton crew for something of this size. Security checkpoints and scanners everywhere, yet the place has glaring holes for simple lack of manpower. Streams of new equipment somehow don't dispel the pervasive feeling of slight grime, as if everything is just slightly outdated and had to have the dust blown off a moment ago.

And of course, the test subjects, the prisoners, the victims. They who would be the player characters. Captured and stolen from their lives for no greater crime than their psychic potential, imprisoned and experimented upon without justice or recourse.

There's the boy who can start fires. At first, he was grateful to be somewhere that his powers couldn't hurt innocents, couldn't hurt his family or friends. Couldn't kill anyone else. His opinion changed all too quickly. Once they knew how to prevent him from burning them, they had no need to be gentle, nor kind. At least complying is less painful than resisting them... for now. Who knows how long it will be before they decide to biopsy his brain. He wouldn't be the first.

There's the girl who can see the future. They think she's telekinetic, which she is a little, and a mind reader, which she also is a little. But she's been trying to figure out how to escape. Death after death, gunned down or beaten or victim of grenade, caught in a flamethrower a couple times, once she fell into a chasm and broke both legs. She hasn't escaped yet. They think she's plagued by nightmares, and that's why her mental health is deteriorating. If you acknowledge that her life is a nightmare, then they're right about that too. They don't know she's trying to escape. They don't know she knows they'll kill her before too long. They don't know she's both desperate and resolved to live.

There's the man who's telekinetic. They don't experiment much on him. He doesn't trust them. He's killed more than one so far. He knows there's no getting out of this for any of the test subjects, not without violence. He just doesn't want to abandon the other subjects, but he doesn't know how to break them all out yet.

There's the woman who's blind, but can see through other people's eyes. She's not used to being blind, she's always had other people to see with. People, cameras, animals, bugs, and even plants to a small degree, she's always had a way to navigate. Being in such an empty place is new, and would be bad enough without her looming doom. She can hear the girl who sees the future, so she knows that they all have so little time.

... I hadn't gotten so far as to figure out the third act yet. There's got to be some reason for the seriously short time limit, some reason for why this corporation is killing their golden geese. I just haven't figured out what yet. The demon curveball from Geist always struck me as way out of left field.

Semiautomagic

What happens when you play video games while listening to audiobooks? Your brain invents crossovers, of course! The Dresden Files crossed with, of all things, Terraria.

If you take it as canon that the player characters from Terraria are fundamentally different from NPCs, and that this is common knowledge, worlds of possibility open up. Literally, perhaps. If "heroes" are the few people who can return after death, who have the power of Creation, and who can jump between different worlds... then what happens when one comes to the Dresden verse?

This is clearly a Quiet World. Heroes have little power here... well, little compared to the power in a Fated World, though most heroes could well be heralds of apocalyptic destruction in a Quiet World if they set their mind to it. But heroes have no need for power in Quiet Worlds either, their name is for a reason: Quiet Worlds are not besieged by corruptions, or undead plagues, or incomprehensible monsters from beyond the stars. They're quiet. The only things the people in such places have to fear is each other, which prospect doesn't much scare a hero. These are the places heros go to take vacations.

So why does this world have a wizard in it? Why does this world have monsters? Why are the people here doomed and fated? Why are they hunted by creatures of night, why are they besieged by evil? There is something terribly wrong with this world. And heroes confront the wrongness, destroy that which is evil so that which is good may flourish. This Wizard is clearly the fated champion, whom the hero must assist. No matter the sharp limits this un-Quiet World puts on their power of Creation, a hero can fight through any attrition and win in the end.

Now if only the fated wizard would stop being quite so suspicious of them.

The Monarchs

In the mid 90's, there was a game called Total Annihilation. It was quite successful in its own little strategy niche, and wound up being able to launch a spin-off, which was just... odd. It was fantasy instead of sci-fi, it was in many ways simplified in bizarre directions, and it was largely unknown for a host of reasons. That said, it still left a fair impression on those who played it, especially the surprisingly good story.

But I thought, "Well, the story is good, but it's very high scope. It's about kings and generals, and other grand bits of history. Can we talk for a moment about people? Spare me for now the story of the Trojan War, the heroes and sieges and tallies of the dead, and instead tell me about a complicated man. Let me see the moment when the messenger from Queen Thirsha, a bold and cunning harpy who has never til this day needed fear any human, truly realizes the enormity and power of the sorcerer-king before her. Let me plumb the motivations of King Lokken, let me explore the mind of a well-intentioned extremist, truly understand this man and the doom he sought to avert."

And then we moved and I couldn't find the dang game discs for several years, so I couldn't actually finish the story to write the fanfiction. I recently purchased it from GoG, but getting a twenty-four year old game working on a modern computer's alien OS is a challenge which has thus far bested my modest computer skills.

[holocephal1]

I posted 1,917 times in 2022

That's 1,317 more posts than 2021!

61 posts created (3%)

1,856 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@argentavis

@fandoms-of-a-random-existence

@tgirlgerard

@goths-eat-electricity

@milfcarmilla

I tagged 1,634 of my posts in 2022

Only 15% of my posts had no tags

#<3... - 223 posts

#ghosts - 216 posts

#tlt - 61 posts

#mcr - 53 posts

#&lt;3 - 42 posts

#yeah - 37 posts

#sandman - 35 posts

#im so. tlt - 34 posts

#ocean - 32 posts

#starwar - 32 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#which is made of copper and rust. you are from a war-ridden planet and the cause of your first death was a starship crash. you sing and pla

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

overthinking kitty's "she hit me!" "she can't!" "well, she wanted to!" interaction about lucy again.

i think its a really good reflection of her experiences and how she's learned to handle things tbh, because its something she says to try and make the others listen to how she's feeling. and i figure a lot of her life was not being listened to about her feelings or experiences, so she resorts to last-ditch exaggerations to try and get her point heard.

102 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#4

im obsessed with just how much of the captain is about theatrics. because when it comes down to it, he's not... put together. like at all. the flashback we see is meant to be his Element, (and you can put this down to gay panic, or the Everything Else if you like), but he sucks at it, a bit. more than a bit, a lot. he's completely flustered, and doing completely arbitrary things, and its very clear that Havers is the competent one in that situation, especially because he gives functional orders and then is like 'go on listen to your CO.' and its something that comes through with Cap all the time. as much as he's continually reasserting his rank, he's so clearly not in charge. at all. and he's continually trying to prove the Cool and Powerful Leadership part of his identity to the other ghosts- eg. him interrupting in The Thomas Thorne Affair to basically just be like 'look how cool and functional id be if this were me'. and in insisting that he'd wear his uniform even if given the chance to do literally anything else. being The Captain is so integral to the false existence he puts up, and i'd guess he probably used it in life to hide other aspects of his reality from both himself and others, to prevent any sort of questioning. how dare they suspect their CO, and how could he possibly be 'that kind of person' when he's a well respected, high ranking officer?

157 notes - Posted September 21, 2022

#3

thinking about the fact julian died with a wedding ring on and pat didnt..

pls ignore the photo quality in favour of the amout of sad this makes me

195 notes - Posted November 9, 2022

#2

totally unfounded ghosts theory

SO . i was thinking about this image:

a little too hard. and about people saying the thing in the captain's hand might be a tissue. and the idea of cap dying at his medal ceremony has been bouncing around my brain for a while, but i THOUGHT, what if the captain died at a funeral/memorial service? it would explain why he's in uniform, and at button house (given the people stationed there) despite the war likely being over and all by the time of his death. i cannot justify this at all, because my brain isnt working enough to research it without just getting current war memorial events, but! its an idea.

222 notes - Posted September 16, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

i feel like we as a fandom don't talk about pat referring to himself as 'the big bad butcher man' enough

270 notes - Posted November 5, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[muses-of-kira]

update 5 - 10 - 22

Hi. 

My brain won’t shut up and as per usual I’m hiding everything underneath a cut because I feel like my feelings are a bother to people.  And I get it. There’s going to be at least one of you who tries to tell me. “Your feelings aren’t a bother Kira!” I know that logically, but it does not stop my brain and my heart from feeling that way. 

So now here I am ready to explain my existence to you because my brain won’t let me write and it won’t let me draw either and today I feel like a failure of a human being because I can’t handle stress and worse I can’t even cry to cope.  So here we are. 

So all that personal shit I don’t talk about. 

I almost lost my migraine prescription this week. 

So context for those unaware:  I have a lot of medical issues.  I take a monthly preventive shot to contend to my migraines and I have for well over a couple years now. It doesn’t make them go away completely but it does make them less and I haven’t had to go to the ER recently because of them so I mean 😀 that’s a plus. 

The downside to this is, while it helps control my migraines pretty well, if I fall off it, as I did a couple times last year because of pharmacy screw ups - I end up out of work for however long it takes to get back to me and in urgent care because I get migraines so bad that I get so dizzy I’m unable to stand.  So I mean fuck driving at that point right? 

So I almost lost it because I got a text message telling me that my prescription had been changed / canceled and I freaked out and called the hospital like it told me to and they told me they didn’t know what I was talking about and didn’t have a record, etc. I basically had to hold my breath for the lady who fills my script to call this week, thank god she did. That was a mini-heart attack. 

As for work, I’m on burn out. My Lead worker / direct Boss told me in feb. that he was getting ready to retire Spring 2023 and he needed to make sure he was getting everything around so I could take over. Today he says “I dunno when I’ll retire, haven’t decided yet maybe if Chris (his boss my boss-boss) pisses me off. Rumor some how got around that he was planning on retiring and because it got back to him he pulled back all plans out of spite.  I have no idea when he’s going to retire now. 

For those of you who have listened to my work rants (for many years now) know how devastating of a blow this is for me. There was a plan and he reneged on me. So basically long story short when it comes to work -> I’m still stuck doing almost all the manager work but not getting paid for it. And Chris - my big boss - knows it’s going on and does nothing about it.  I’m burnt out. My boss, Terry, literally looked at me and was like “it’s chill day, just do whatever.” because he didn’t feel like working and knows I will keep busy all day on my own. 

What the fuck. 

So I’ve been fighting the depression side of my bipolar for a little more than a month and half now: 

Look I am over 1400 entries solid into this app. It is accurate to the day.  I haven’t missed a day since 2018.  Things have not been good. I keep trying to claw my way out of it. I have using every tool I have in my tool box but nothing is helping. My SOS is busted.  Nothing works. 

the kick in the ass is this is from before my idiot physiatrist started taking my anti-convulsant away: 

But it’s not “doing anything” he says. I have taken anti-seizure medication for four years to help mood control  and this fucker who barely talks or sees me since Aug 2021 decides that all the doctors before him and in my 13 years of being diagnosed with this suddenly decides I don’t “experience mania” and “Are you sure it’s depression? I haven’t really seen you sad.” SO he decides to look at one of my two mood stabilizers (the other is an anti-psychotic) and just go “yeah it’s not working let’s get rid of it.” but knows nothing about what I'm going through or dealing with - you know things that effect my mood - and just starts trying to take me down on it.   He already tried to rip me off the other one that controls my mania and proceeded to throw me into a two week manic episode as a result. 

“I think you were having a manic episode.” I wanted to scream.

ANYWAY.  

So that’s all going on.  Away from the medical and work bullshit. 

Here’s the thing I don’t think I’ve ever been clear about, so me being me - who instantly feels like a disgrace of a human being and the scum of the earth when I think I’m not being clear and I think I’ve been misunderstood again -> 

If I’ve never said this to you before I’m autistic. There is no such thing as High Functioning / Low Functioning so don’t ask me that or even say it to me. I’ll scream.  

So to get that ableist bullshit out of the way -> 

High Functioning + Impairment = I’m going to deny you care because I don’t see your disability as valid enough to give you consideration or accommodation.  Low Functioning + Impairment = I’m going to deny you validity because I see your disability as so aggrieviously detrimental to me that I’m not only going to refuse to help you with it but I won’t acknowledge you as a fully functional human either.  

Just don’t fucking say it to me. 

So with that out of the way, I need you to know, sometimes I go nonverbal. Sometimes it’s partial. Sometimes It’s completely. Sometimes it’s text. Sometimes it’s verbal. Sometimes it’s both.  

Sometimes I can only speak / type in few words and that’s it

Sometimes all you’re getting out of me is GIFs and Emojis.  

I need you to bear with me for this.  I need you to bear with me. Sometimes I simply cannot talk and I also need you all to know and realize for me that talking and writing a post / story is not mutually the same.   When I am IC that is my muse writing, not me. I am simply conveying a story through a muse, I am not processing real world shit.  

Guys, if you’re new around here or I haven’t said this to you before.   I write to cope.  It’s not the same.  

And for the new people, the rest of my medical issues include: C-PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar 2 rapid cycling, insomnia, chronic migraines

I take a lot of meds, and there is a small patch work system of people holding me together. 

I am also a survivor of:  Abuse, isolation (the act of being; not self imposed) , sexual assault, martial rape, gaslighting, and weaponized silence. 

Do I owe you my life story? No. Do I feel like it helps me know someone as a person if I know a little of what they have going on? Absolutely. Do expect people to tell me what they got going on? Nope. Absolutely not. 

But I have been misunderstood and dismissed and passed over and talked over and ignored etc so many times I have become an information dumper and I do this because my brain is begging to be seen clearly for once and to just have someone accept me even if they don’t get it.  

Guys I have been in shut down all week  day and I’m fighting so desperately to get out of his hole but here we are. With the ground breaking out from under us again.  This isn’t a pity post, to clarify. 

Nothing lights my brain on fire faster than pity.  I will tell you right now my brain little instantly light to “I don’t want your fucking pity” just so you know it’s a trigger.  This also isn’t a “tell me how strong I am” post because every time I’m told I’m strong my brain shuts down and stops working because the minute I hear the word ‘strong’ in relation to me my brain falls into that’s all you’re allowed to be mode and I shut down every emotional function and process I had currently active. 

Guys I can’t grin and bear it anymore. 

Can I get off this ride?  This roller coaster is 0/10. Do not recommend. I’d like to stop now. 

If only I could actually cry. 

[getmemymicroscope]

Apparently this is based on the Hayden Christensen/Jessica Alba-starrer Awake, which I have never seen. ... And if that movie takes as many stupid "liberties" with the medicine as this movie does, I have no interest in ever watching it either.

But first, the "good." I really liked some of the songs back when the soundtrack first dropped back in 2013/2014 - Main Dhoondne Ko Zamaana (which recently made a surprise re-entry into my brain and my 'repeat for a day' playlist at work), Mashooqana, and Soniye - and they're still pretty damn good (Mashooqana is sung at a much higher pitch than I remember, which threw me for a second). And, uh... honestly, that might be it.

And the bad. Man. First, of the good songs, two of them play in quick succession right at the beginning, leaving little to look forward to as the movie progresses. And the songs after that point are just downright bad. ... That entire opening scene was just so dumb. ... Shekhar Suman playing the friend of our 'protagonist' is a bit jarring since they seem to be trying to portray them as similar in age, as in reality he is this actor's father. ... Our protagonist was passable, for a minute, until that ridiculous bullshit with the wine glasses. Like, he immediately went to unlikable - and making everyone else more unlikable doesn't suddenly make him likable. There's not good people in this movie. ... Not even the mom, who is fucking annoying throughout - even if she's right, her approach is 100% wrong. Keeping such a tight grip on your son, even if he has a heart problem; it is no surprise he didn't listen to you. Or that he fell in love on literally the first day he had the slightest bit of freedom away from you. And making her 'right' in the end doesn't fix the fact that she's overbearing, uncaring in her ways (hell, look at how she reacts to "our workers are overworked"), and all-in-all, not a friendly figure at all (the ending doesn't change that either). ... Our hero's narration at the beginning of the surgery, done so that we know he's aware and is in pain, is just bad. Sure, he's screaming cuz he's in pain, but it is so fake that is never anything more than comical (and "turn the volume off" annoying).

And the medical stuff. Oh my god. And a pre-movie title screen saying you're taking some 'liberties' should only be referring to the fact that he's under surgery and yet having the ability to have his spirit wander into the hallway and hear the conversations out there - not the actual medical stuff!

When they all enter the OR, their masks are down. And then they use their gloved hands to raise their masks. Which immediately makes their gloves unsterile. This is why the masks go on first. This is a very common mistake in movies (Dr. Strange comes to mind), but in that case, they're clearly doing it for dramatic reveal of actor (for anyone that hasn't seen the trailer and has literally no idea what they're getting into). Which is still stupid and wrong, but I guess a movie has to movie. But in this case, we've already met our doctor multiple times. There's no dramatic reveal of his full face upcoming. So there's no need to be this wrong on it.

The anesthesiologist that shows up and tries to shake hands. He doesn't, because gloves, but that's not even a funny joke. And it risks contaminating everything.

That entire clairvoyant or whatever episode. I'm not denying that he is having 'anesthesia awareness,' which does exist, but for him to be out listening to a conversation between his wife and the temporarily-out-of-the-OR anesthesiologist is a bit much. So much of the stuff happens in the OR, preventing such; why not just make it all take place there? And then it keeps happening - he's in the waiting room, the hallway, even back at home. And then he literally meets his now-dead mother at their house. Make it stop!

Literally everything involving Ria in the OR. First she, somehow, just simply enters the OR room - no one sees her, let alone stops her. That's not how ORs work. Then, after the 'twist' is revealed and she fails to convince Sam to go through with the plan on his own, she injects the transplant heart with something - WITHOUT WEARING GLOVES! She literally just takes the to-be-transplanted heart in her bare hands!! There's so, so much wrong with this! And they gowned her up, why couldn't they just throw the gloves on as well? Even if you ignore everything about her entering the OR up to this point, this final bit destroys it all.

When Sam, in the middle of this whole Ria thing, has a moment of crisis, he goes and sits down and puts his gloved hands (bloody gloves, at that) up to his mouth. Yuck. Also, contamination.

The first defibrillator scene is all wrong. It isn't 'shock shock shock.' There has to be breaks to see if it actually works. To their credit, they do it better the second time around.

I know this is more about the line than science, but the whole "the heart that loved you is gone, the heart I now have is my mother's and it won't forgive you" is obviously medically incorrect. The heart doesn't actually store emotions like that. But yes, I know this is more about having a more impactful line, so we'll let it go.

Honestly - if he's got anesthesia awareness and is still under anesthesia, his mom's decision shouldn't be a surprise to him.

The scene where he asks her to marry him. I can forgive the fact she's super dressed up while sleeping, because they're at his friends house and just came from a party. But how the hell does she wake up and immediately know that it is 5am? No looking at the time, nothing - just immediately "it's 5am." I don't buy it.

The ending has shades of that Pulkit Samrat/Yami Gautam movie Sanam Re (and not in a good way), with the whole 'heart from a loved one thing.' Also, the boat scene - the mom did everything to save the kid (all the yelling and pointing), but when the father was in the water, she just looked on as he drowned. What is this, the door from Titanic?

I guess the movie is supposed to be pro-mom, but like, it would be nice if the mom was even slightly likeable as person when they're trying to sell us on that.

This movie might not be as bad, medically speaking, as the Aftab/Celina Jaitly/Amrita Arora-starrer Red, but god is it a mess. Which all works wonders to offset any good will brought forth by the couple of good songs at the beginning. And the best song, Main Dhoondne Ko, is saved for the literal end - the final credits - and by that point, you just want it to be done so you can wipe the medical horrors you've just seen from memory.

[megkana209]

Ch 1

I lay there in my bed listening to the crickets gentle song. It's a normal summer night, quite and uneventful in the outskirts of Kansas city. We'll it's almost a normal night, by most standards anyways. The dishes are done, laundry put away, cats are fed, everything is right and we're it should be, except for this voice in my head.

"So what shall it be tonight poetry or a good story?" The voice reverberates through my skull. A gentle baritone masculine voice. Not my inner voice at all.

"And when are you planning on letting me sleep tonight?" I reply back in my mind, my own voice. The one I have control of.

"Come to think of it I think I'm going to keep my promise and ignore you until you tell me your name." I add a moment of silence later. My body snuggling further into the covers, making a point only I will register. Hopefully.

"And as I told you I'm merely a figment of your lonely minds imagination. Made up for your need of a friend after that horrible day at work weeks ago." He replied sardonically.

As if a bad day at work could make me go this crazy. This was one theory of mine, that I had literally gone crazy. The first night the voice came to me I was so surprised and scared I grabbed my bedside old bat and did five rounds throughout my house to look for intruders. The voice taunted me a little throughout my terrifying experience. He also reassured me I was safe but the sarcastic taunting is what stuck with me. I now have a security system, and a plan to see a psychiatrist if this doesn't end soon.

"OK figment of my imagination. I am Hella good at making poetry apparently. Maybe that'll be my next job." I smile to myself. "But I think my brain is tired of it maybe a story."

The voice grumbles in my head, the sound reverbating from one ear to the next. "Fine. I asked you what you prefer and I'll give you a story. This one is about a girl who tries to threaten a not so giving man."

My eyes go from one bunny on my sheet to the next, counting the surrounding flowers. "Ow I'm shaking. This man wouldn't happen to only be a voice would he?" I challenge back.

"Close your eyes now and listen. I think you'll like this one." His voice goes gentle in my mind.

"I just hope she wins in the end. She has to be daring." I snuggle now fully for comfort into my bed, readying for a sleep full night as he begins his story.

"Your horrible at being quite and listening by the way." His voice breaks out in the middle of his boring story.

"Maybe if you added some adventure I wouldn't feel the need to interject." I reply.

The next day I wake blerry eyes and groggy from another night of listening to the voice. I might have only listened to about thirty minutes of the story before I passed out but that's besides the point. I still woke tired from several nights of less sleep then planned.

"I should just go to sleep earlier I swear." I mumble to myself, pulling back the sheets and slipping on my slippers.

"Do you want some pancakes cassie?" I hear my husband call out from the kitchen.

"Sure" I call back in a less than enthusiastic voice as I begin to make my way downstairs to our kitchen.

I emerge to the smell of grease and sweet bread in my favorite robe and bed tossed hair.

"Did you sleep well today?" My husband's considerate voice asks. He's been concerned for me these last few weeks as my sleep schedule has prevented me from sharing a bed, and instead opting for the spare bedroom.

"Like a lamb." I lie as I sit at a bar stool at the island overlooking the stove top. "I'm more concerned about those pancakes then my sleep." My husband Aaron wourles around hurriedly and peers down at the now slightly burning chocolate pancakes.

"Crap!" He exclaims as he begins flipping again. I smile at him as I stretch out my stiff joints.

"I'm going to get ready for work while you continue flipping." He hmmms back at me in response.

I'm a nurse working at the Mayfield nursing home. My second home really it feels like. For someone who has always felt a stranger to there family many of the residents there began to feel like one. At least a little bit.

Ready to go to work I deseand the flight of stairs to my breakfast and awaiting husand. Hes already flying about grabbing for his keys and wallet in his black work shirt and pants. Stove off and door open to let out the smell of cooking.

"I have to run or I'll be late." He greats as he kisses my cheek. "A plates on the kitchen table for you." I hug him goodbye and finish my own work ritual. 

[fandomwriterstuff]

“We’re a well-oiled team of military-grade kindergarteners,” his best friend, and the only other human on the ship who would understand what kindergarten was, continued chastising him and his companions. “The level of education and training among the three of you eclipses that of the entire rest of the members of this operation,” Annabeth continued, pointing her finger individually at himself, his pilot Jason, and his Chief Science Officer Nico. “You know, I’m not that surprised with you, Percy, but you are our XO so you should really be more responsible,” he winced at that, still feeling a bit of imposter syndrome at being the Commander of the USS Olympus. “Jason, shouldn’t you be piloting a ship or something?” At that, he saluted her and did an about face before scampering off to get into more trouble. “And you, you’re definitely way too responsible to have gotten mixed up with this Seaweed Brain and Sparky, so what’s in this tomfoolery for you?”

Nico, the only Neptunian on the ship, shifted his large black wings self consciously under the scrutiny of their Chief of Operations. Percy, as the Commander of the vessel, felt obligated to protect his usually stoic and well-behaved… acquaintance? Di Angelo was reserved, almost standoffish, and resented anyone who tried to stick up for him for some reason, but that didn’t stop Percy’s stupid seaweed brain from doing so. Hence the acquaintance. Percy was 99% sure Di Angelo didn’t consider him a friend. But he was nice to Percy and a great officer, so Percy considered him his friend.

“It was my fault, Annie,” he used her childhood nickname carefully, not knowing whether it would soften her up or piss her off more. He was hoping for softening. “It was just another one of Jason and my dumb ideas that we thought we would need a scientist to help with, and we didn’t want to piss off Leo by involving him in it. You know how he is about his engineer and warp cores and whatnot,” Percy held his hands up placatingly. “Leave Di Angelo out of this, he has sciencey things to do, isn’t that right?” Percy side-eyed his companion who (not surprisingly) rolled his eyes.

“I try not to get involved with human pranks or even Jovian mischief, but Officer Grace and First Officer Jackson were about to be meddling with my linguistics team. It isn’t my duty to tell my superiors what to do, so I sought out the next best option, supervising and ensuring no lasting damage was done to the physical or emotional state of the linguistics team. Now,” Here Percy held in a smirk as Di Angelo shrugged. “If they caused interference with the machinery of the ship, that wouldn’t be my expertise, so I allowed it to happen and-” Percy held back a laugh as the other male started speaking even faster to get everything out as Annabeth turned redder and redder. “I’m very sorry about that, truly, but I had no control over the situation.”

“No control over the situation? You three broke our LIT machine and now we have to go back to Earth as soon as we pass close enough to fix it. Soon enough nobody on this ship will understand each other,” the woman across from them crossed her arms and Percy shrunk back a bit.

“I want to make a joke about a machine being called “LIT,” but I feel like it isn’t the right time,” he muttered. “I know the Linguistic Inhibition Technology is important, but most of us have a working understanding of at least one other language, so it shouldn’t be a huge issue, right?”

“You know it works by connecting to the implant technology in our brains, so as it shuts down one by one, members of this ship from spaces stations and planets far and wide will have no clue why they suddenly can’t understand their XO, or their Chief Officer, or their best friend. So you better explain this. And you have to tell them that we’re going straight back to Earth to fix it because no nearby planets have the same brain implant tech as us. Damn Terrans and their brand name technology copyrights,” Annabeth grumbled and finally turned around to walk off.

“Hey, you’re Terran, too!” Percy shouted after her, but she just flipped him the bird.

“She can do that?” Di Angelo asked, side-eyeing Percy.

“Yeah, she’s been my best friend since we were twelve. As long as she doesn’t undermine my authority in front of everyone else, I don’t really care. I’ve done way worse to her,” Percy laughed at the other man’s frown. “Nothing bad, just pranks and things of that sort. Maybe when we get back to Earth we can show you where we’re from. You never set foot off of the training grounds while you were in school.”

“I would… like that,” Di Angelo paused and gave Percy a soft smile.

“Great,” Percy patted the younger male on the shoulder and made his way to the Command Center.

Percy sat himself down in the rotating chair and pressed on the comms device.

“Gooooood evening crew of the USS Olympus, this is your Commanding Officer, Percy Jackson, speaking,” he smiled at the engineering crew that was scuttling by, only for one of them to pause and look at him like he was speaking a different language… Whoops.

“There was a malfunction with the Linguistic Inhibition Technology and we will be returning to Earth henceforth to repair it before the damage becomes problematic. You may experience glitches with your implant technology and may revert to only understanding your first language and those you have studied extensively. If somebody looks like they’re not understanding what I’m saying right now, please escort them to the linguistics team in Science Bay 3. Carry on. Jackson, out.” He clicked again and the mic turned off.

He sighed, this would be one of his bigger mistakes. They were supposed to be exploring, but they couldn’t do that if nobody could speak to one another. One trip home couldn’t hurt him, and he was sure Annabeth would be happy to see her father.

It wasn’t until later after the Chief Officer meeting when someone finally asked Percy about Earth. For many of the non-humans on the ship, Earth was a place to get education and training to go out in the star fleet, and they never set foot outside the campus grounds, just like Di Angelo. But people had stopped asking him questions because Earth was basically “Space Australia,” as Annabeth had explained to him. The adaptability of humans and their need to pack bond astounded many and horrified many others. So, he stopped talking about home.

It was a new member of their ship, Novax (a Vulcan who was a part of Leo’s engineering team), who asked him about it first.

“I hear Earth is 75% made of pure salt water, and is filled with animals of all kinds. Do you have a favorite water animal?” he asked Percy excitedly.

“Definitely dolphins, though they aren’t underwater creatures. Like humans they need oxygen to breathe, and come up for air very often. My favorite actual underwater species would have to be a hippocampus from Neptune. I’ve always wanted to go and see one, but my human anatomy prevents me from going on-planet,” Percy explained and sipped on his hot tea.

“There are a million creatures in the ocean and you pick one that doesn’t breathe underwater?” Clarisse grunted. His Chief Tactical Officer was a brutish Martian, but very specialized in weapons. “And your second favorite isn’t even Terran.”

“What else do you know about the ‘ocean’?” Novax breathed, leaning forward.

“Eh, not much,” Percy shrugged.

“I’m not sure I heard that correctly, maybe my LIT unit isn’t functioning well,” another member of engineering asked, Nyssa. “Your planet is 75% water and you don’t even know what is inside it?”

“I could tell you about the people who spend their life learning about what survives in the deep depths,” Percy looked up, knowing he had all of the non-Terrans hooked on every word. Even Di Angelo had paused in his note taking and was staring wide-eyed at Percy. “But I don’t know if you’d want to know.”

“No we do!” Nyssa exclaimed. “There are people who dedicate their lives to a place that’s literally not navigable by humans, the main inhabitants of the planet?”

“Well as you said, most of the planet is water. Which means that coastal communities are filled with fisherman, whalers, swimmers, and more. I could tell you about some of those. I could also tell you about the scientists that spend years of their lives building bots that can’t even come close to withstanding the pressure at the deepest depths without imploding, or I could tell you about those that do come close,” he shrugged.

“What happened to those?”

“The video feed cut out after only seeing multiple rows of sharp, jagged teeth,” Annabeth answered, her sharp grin frightening those who hadn’t noticed her. Some forgot that she was Terran, because she was also half Minervan.

“I could tell you about whales. Beautiful, they come in black and white or grey or blue. But they can be as big as almost 100 feet long. That’s as long as most pirate ships. And they could fit about 400 average sized humans in their mouths. You don’t want to cross one of them. And they only live on the surface. The things that live in the deep,” Percy shuddered for effect. There were no Neptunians on the ship, so there were no natural water dwellers there, so all of his rapt listeners were shocked by this information. “There’s the anglerfish. They light up the dark with an antenna on top of their heads, and the light lures in prey. But it’s so dim elsewhere that you don’t see their big sharp teeth until you’re right up against them,” he murmured. “Giant squids are almost as big as whales but not nearly as peaceful and beautiful. They have eight arms and two tentacles that could wrap around any boat and crush it.”

“Ten limbs?” Nyssa whispered, clearly disturbed.

“Plus, the Portuguese Man o’ War,” Percy shrugged nonchalantly. “Also known as the floating terror. It’s like a big blue jellyfish that sits innocently on top of the water with huge blue tentacles that sit just underneath with a sting strong enough to kill a full grown human.”

“Don’t worry,” Annabeth grinned that shark grin again. “Percy won’t tell you about the stories of the old days. He doesn’t want to scare you.”

“That was the not scary part?” Novax gulped.

“Anyway, I just got notified that we’ll be back on Earth in a few days, so brace yourselves,” and with that, she stood and left them all staring after her. When the door clicked shut, Percy had all eyes back on him. He shrugged.

“Don’t look at me. I wasn’t going to tell you about the kr- nevermind,” he stood. “Di Angelo, with me,” the younger officer stood, back to business and was at Percy’s side again in a moment. “Clear your schedule, you’re spending shore leave with me, pal.”

“Great,” came the deadpan reply.

“Don’t sound so somber,” Percy rolled his eyes. “I’m just going to show you the beach and maybe a good gay bar. You need to let off some steam my dude.”

The other male reddened.

“That is so… That is…” he huffed. “Highly inappropriate.” he glared down at the ground and Percy felt a little bad, maybe the guy wasn’t out? But it was clear he had a preference for males. Oh well, that foot was already in Percy’s mouth.

“Fine. But I will be attending and I am a great dancer so you’re missing out,” he winked at the flustered officer and made his way back to his cabin. It would be an interesting few days.

He made a plan with Annabeth. Day one before shore leave, Percy would spread a rumor to Novax about the kraken. Bigger than a giant squid and meaner. Known to crush entire pirate ships in the olden days.

Day two, Annabeth would mention sirens to Nyssa. Hideous creatures that could lure you in with their voices and lead you to believe you were bringing your ship in to everything you ever wanted, when in reality you would crash your ships and then drown.

Day three, Percy would tell Leo about the Megalodon. A definitely very real shark so big you couldn’t even imagine it. Percy shuddered at that one.

“But, there are some good things,” Percy was speaking to Nico Di Angelo from his Commander chair, in ear shot of some of the participants of the conversation a few nights prior. “Mermaids, the siren’s nicer cousin species. And the lost city of Atlantis. Known to be a great and bountiful city, lost to the sea and cursed by the gods to be stuck down there forever. Some believe it still exists, but it’s within the Bermuda Triangle.”

“What, pray tell, is the Bermuda Triangle,” Clarisse sighed.

“Hard to explain. Ships just… go in… and they never come out,” Annabeth shrugged. “Planes go down. Ships wreck. People who go in don’t come back out, so we don’t know if Atlantis is really there or not.”

“That’s… terrifying,” Novax whispered as he walked by.

Percy was sure he had created a healthy fear of Earth’s oceans in his crew. And he meant to, because while he loved the beach and swimming, he did want to make them shy away from the depths. They wouldn’t do well to explore it.

[douxie-casperan]

Rise of the Titans and the assassination Hisirdoux Casperan’s character development

I’ve been ranting so much since Wednesday morning that I finally condensed by thoughts of WHY this one subject keeps setting me off namely the utterly diabolical way they handled Douxie and Archie’s relationship in Rise of the Titans and how it wasn’t just enough to hit him with the nerf bat.

Please note I’m at the point where I literally cannot tell the difference between Aaron headcanons, Teny headcanons and my own they are all mixed together in the blender that does funky things. I also apologise for typo/weird wording it’s half 1 in the morning and I’d rather sleep than edit.

~

If asked to sum up Hisirdoux Casperan there are certainly several things that come to mind:

Sees the value in people as a whole and will find do anything if there is a chance of help someone out

Prefers tactics that disable/banish rather than kill an enemy yet willing and able to pull the trigger if circumstances become forced

While not academically inclined he is very capable of thinking on his feet and outside the box calling back to his time on the streets where a split-second decision making is the difference between being caught and not

Terrible at planning he’ll be in there figuring it out as he goes along which is what makes the previous point so vital to literally how he goes through life

A natural charmer that would let him talk his way out of trouble 9/10 providing a perfect cover for his distrustful nature and reluctance to be touched by random people

Very down to earth, humble and never one to brag unless outright sassing someone

Will bang out some hot tunes at the drop of a hat, his love of music has never wavered once since he caught the bug despite instrument hopping ironically becoming a jack of all trades much like his magic style

The earliest memories he can recall are him as a young boy lost in the woods where he was for an unknown amount of time before his soon to be familiar finds him amongst the roots covered in dirt and drying tears, there is nothing before that. Unbeknownst to him is the colour of his magic matches the blue of a lost mother’s eyes and the song that haunts his nightmares as much as fire could well be hers though there is no way to be sure. From that moment on Archibald, shortened to Archie, would become his entire world and their friendship only becoming closer during the years they prowled Camelot together trying to keep themselves in one piece until the fateful day Douxie tricks the wrong person leading him straight into the path of the famous wizard Merlin Ambrosius.

It's no real secret that Merlin is a very closed off person who keeps his emotions as well guarded as his secrets, prefers the style of negative reinforcement over positive encouragement and is a very strict perfectionist in his. At this point in his life he can be very easily described as a disaster that is genuinely doing his best with every little mistake held of his head and his future self when brought back to that time period is belittled by Lancelot (Errand boy) and Arthur (Boy) too meaning it’s hardly a wonder his confidence was very fragile revelling in the times where he could do things without being told off for it. With Morgana largely ignoring him too (Though personally I like to think as he got older she’d occasionally take an interest until the blistering arguments with their master started to talk over daily life) a certain disguised dragon would have remained a lifeline and give that physical affection he craved much like being told he’d done well never seemed able to earn.

With Killahead he’d lose that home and family he made leaving just the two of them behind struggling to figure out their place in the world that had abandoned them.

There wouldn’t have been the words for it back then but the way he had been treated prior was outright abusive instilling very bad habits into Douxie yet by irony he was always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt and help those in trouble without thinking earning a reputation as the Shepard of Fire. He refused to become like him seeking to be better, perhaps not as a wizard (Even though he was learning new charms and spells along the way) but certainly as a person. Despite everything he suffers through or witnesses in the intervening years, the loss of friends and kindling of far newer ones he never loses his good heart 

That said is it any wonder that after rightfully sassing Merlin for resurfacing, ignoring his existence despite being in the same town and only visiting him to run a finding errand that all the confidence he’d managed to build completely from scratch after Camelot wavered causing him to fall back solely into trying impressing his old Master who was acting like his humble apprentice must have coasted the past few centuries who himself fell back into old habits of belittling? It’s only when Merlin started to truly listen and acknowledge that this was not the same Moppet he once knew after Excalibur was fixed that their relationship finally started to become more like equals. After the defeat of Janus the changeling that broke into the castle he touched Douxie’s shoulder with a genuine smile and for a second he simply didn’t know what to do because the old man never did this before his brain kicked into gear and realised he’d finally earned that one thing he’d been so desperate for his entire life: That in Merlin’s eyes he could be more than a failure who only caused problems for the closest thing to a father figure he’d ever had, never solved them.

A staff will be earned, history would be set back on trap by banishing Morgana tag teaming with Archie because they know one another inside and out, as promised he’d get the kids back to the present but soon after things would go badly wrong. They’d lose Jim and because of his very nature he’d make a gamble to try and get him back because that life is worth trying for just for in a moment of surprising selflessness Merlin would be sacrificed to save him. The only constant in his life apart from Archie would apologise, openly express pride and how the greatest thing he’d ever done was saving this orphan, call him son for the first and final time before turning into ash in his arms. There would be no time to grieve for things will barrel into the crescendo of Douxie sacrificing his own life to buy everyone time to escape because if they did that everything he’d ever done would be worth it with one last whispered goodbye.

(Zoe sees him fall, so does Archie – His heart would break if he was conscious just like theirs does when his body crumples into the ground)

On the very fringes of the Light Realm he is gifted one more conversation with Merlin in a truly heart-breaking sequence (THANKS TENY) where they can just talk without any fear of consequence or politics and just be completely honest. Douxie is allowed to stand equal to Merlin, to have the hug he’d needed since he was a child and be allowed to simply let go of every pretense and cry his heart out because this can never happen again. He’s allowed to say goodbye to both his master and Morgana who had both shaped so very much of his life but like the painting he’d always remained firmly in the long shadows of until that moment.

When Hisirdoux Casperan finally leaves Wizards if we just accidently deliberately put the shawarma back in along with checking in with Zoe before departure, it is with having learned to live during his wandering years but this is the point of true freedom because he can finally escape into his own light with Archie by his side to keep Nari out of the hands of those that would see the world harmed. It won’t be easy but it feels possible somehow even with the knowledge everything is simply running on borrowed time.

Then Rise of the Titans happens.

At first everything is genuinely fine! No more running, they engineer a solution shut the Order’s magic down to make them a lot less dangerous and potentially at least incapacitate them until they can come up with a longer-term solution but all the best laid plans and all that. Douxie’s quick thinking stops the train from crushing any of the people below and it’s a very him style move to switch places with Nari to stall for time because for some reason the plot disabled Claire from portaling her or any of the threatened people/heroes to safety. He openly sasses the Order despite knowing the consequences will be bad for him because once again he’s managed to trick them, buy time that at the other end isn’t even slightly utilised until he’s forced back into his own body in excruciating pain. Archie immediately mobs him with comfort just as he has done every single time the wizard is distressed or collapsed with exhaustion without thinking because that is what their bond is like, incredibly close and far more than the Soul Bond mark that connects them together. They’re very alike in that regard, you have to earn the right to touch while equally knowing exactly what form the other needs the most in that precise moment in a way very few others could.

Bar the moment of figuring out that an illusion is in place to hide where the Order is opening the Genesis Seals and the brief insistence on reconnecting with Nari somehow Douxie manages to forget everything that makes him who he is after this point choosing to stand in the background being very no thoughts head empty or can only use the most basic spells of his youthful days not the seasoned master wizard he should be. Nomura is treated like an innocent slip rather than an outright death he did absolutely nothing to prevent (Not to mention the stupid daytime thing) nor seems to care particularly about afterwards yet with Nari’s he’s allowed to openly grieve in a gorgeously animated visual showing how he’d failed to keep her safe despite everything. He did nothing to help here either mind despite allowing himself to be tortured in the same piece of media to keep her safe, just watched another loss happen right in front of his eyes in his conga long line of them.

Then there’s Archie, oh god then there was Archie.

The dragon who even here he’d been shown to have an incredibly close bond with him decides you know what sod that tell him goodbye I’m going to make a joke about having a kingdom now dad and me are trapped in here forever. Douxie on his part looked sad for all of three seconds saying that he hoped he’s happy like it's a pet that wandered out into the world one day and never came back instead of a lifelong companion that has been there for as long as he can remember. He was now completely alone in the world since Zoe was also written out entirely and because every bit of his background had been forgotten about it somehow meant nothing. This wasn’t “I know you miss him, I know you need to grieve but you are running out of time” moment like things had been with Charlie, this was “cool shapeshifting dragon cat is now stuck in a plot hole that’s a shame” with zero pay off or any of the genuine reaction that should have been there or hell even trying to Ohana him back that very second because it never should have happened in the first place. Then even this wasn’t enough somehow, they managed to de-power Douxie even further into uselessness bar the (Admittedly nifty!) sticky feet stunt, the one who fought Skrael and Bellroc to a stalemate was shunted aside with barely a thought and his head would somehow get even emptier.

The one person who knew the danger of time magic the most stood by and said nothing.

The one person who would suffer the most by a reset because the lynchpin to his issues would be asleep if you got it wrong and should have drilled it into Jim’s head the best time to aim for stood by and said nothing.

The one person who had just suffered the loss of his familiar, best friend and only family along with the almost sister like Nari stood by and said nothing.

Then to add further insult to injury the caption when Douxie and Archie is shown says Some go their entire lives living an existence of quiet desperation because every drop of his character growth, his ability to finally start addressing his trauma instilled back in the 12th century, the staff he longed for was instead openly mocked by going “Aww he got his cat friend back how nice!” Everything he’d rightfully earned and had now would be unable to progress until certain criteria are met because it hinges entirely on the Trollhunter going to Merlin’s tomb and there’s only so much your support network of two (One if she’s written out) can do, the root of the majority of his issues all stem from one man.

And this folks is why I’ve been going on multiple rants about Douxie in particular, everyone was hit with the out of character bat to some degree in this film but when they came for him they didn’t just stop after they took his legs out because they wanted him to suffer from something he’s never had any control over to begin with all over again. Abuse survivors deserve better, these characters deserve better and we as viewers deserve far far better writing than we were forced to endure.

[amethystpath-writes]

You Can’t Be Here

NOT A PR0MPT

Could you do a villain who just had surgery. Hero gets him out of the hospital the minute he is out of surgery because she is worried or something. But at her home, he is all drugged up, delirious and scared.

******

Where am I? Where am I? Villain knew he was in the hospital before, but now…now…now. He wasn’t in the hospital- not where he was supposed to be. Not where Supervillain wanted him.

Unless…was this Supervillain’s home? Had he finished the procedure and wanted Villain to be relocated afterwards? Where am I? Supervillain’s home, or- or lab, monastery (as if), whatever it was, wherever Villain was, it belonged to Supervillain; it must have.

“Villain. Villain, hey, you’re awake. Here-”

The voice was familiar, but not familiar enough in Villain’s state. Drugs. He had been drugged before the surgery. They must have been still wearing off. “No,” Villain groaned lowly, tiredly. His ribs were hurting so badly; there was no way he could go through another surgery already.

“Here, I brought you some water; you need to get hydrated or else you’ll get sick.”

Did Supervillain give him a new nurse? Did the other one do something wrong?

“Hey, listen to me. Listen to me, Villain. It’s me. It’s Hero, alright? There was- there was a report on the television, on the news. What happened?”

What hap- Hero? No. No, that wasn’t possible at all, now was it? Hero couldn’t be with Villain, because if she were with Villain then that meant Supervillain would-

“You can’t be here. You can’t be here, Hero. You can’t. You can’t be here. You can’t be here.” His mind was a frenzy, one which wouldn’t stop. There were sharks in his head, his brain the chum being torn to shreds. Goodness, it hurt, but Villain didn’t care. He needed to tell Hero- needed her to know that she needed to leave. Leave while she was still in good health.

“It’s okay. It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re not at the hospital anymore. We’re at my place, okay? Nothing- nothing is happening, Villain, but I need you to drink some water.” Please.

Hero’s voice was becoming more worried, Villain could tell, but why? It must have been because Supervillain was returning. Maybe Hero wanted Villain awake so he could prepare her for what would happen if she couldn’t escape before Supervillain collected her for a procedure.

“If you’re lucky, they’ll numb you first,” Villain muttered.

“What?”

“It isn’t so bad when they do that, but…but when they don’t-” He couldn’t finish. “It’s okay. It’ll be fine.” But Villain wasn’t sure whether he was talking to himself or Hero at this point. He was just as worried for himself as her. It was selfish, btu Villain couldn’t help being sorry and scared for himself. “Don’t hold your breath when it begins. It will make it harder to think about anything else.”

“What are you- Villain, tell me why you were in the hospital. Tell me, please.”

He couldn’t do that- because doing that would make Hero panic, and panicking was terrible before the surgeries. Of course, they would usually put one to sleep beforehand, but not always- and certainly not for one’s first procedure. Supervillain wanted everyone to know what he was capable of if one didn’t cooperate.

“Villain. I just want to help. Please help me understand what happened to you so that I can help, Villain.”

“He’s targeting self-healers.”

Who were the self-healers? Very few people in the world possessed such a spectacular ability. Both Villain and Hero just so happened to be a part of these few unfortunate people.

Unfortunate.

It shouldn’t have been unfortunate. Hero and Villain should have felt lucky to be blessed or have felt lucky to have received such a mutation. Hero did, at least for now. Villain, not so suddenly, wished he could have passed on from his first surgery, if only it meant he wouldn’t have to go through those ten thousand more.

Maybe ten thousand was an exaggeration- not to Villain, though.

“He’s harvesting us,” Villain explained, feeling more and more awake, but no less panicked than before- even as he took in the safety falling from Hero’s caring tongue. “He- he wants to be a super-human, or- or something. I don’t know. He would-”

Hero interrupted, “Hold on, hold on. Who is ‘he?’”

“Supervillain.” Villain’s hands were beginning to quake, buzzing like a prank ring. “The hospital is his. How…” He shook his head, sitting up on what he now realized was a plush, and regrettably white couch. Had he really been laying down all this time? And had he really been staring at his eyelids- the ceiling, the fan, anything but the rest of his surroundings? Was he so used to waking up from surgeries that his instinctual casting gazes had been rid of? “How did you know where I was?”

Piecing everything together was difficult for Hero. She wanted to admit to herself that she knew exactly what was going on, but she didn’t. Villain was in such a delirious and panicked state, that nothing came out with a logical consistency, nor a reasonable plot. It was just pure-blooded panic, frenzy, delirium, madness.

“The news. There was a reporter who had gone missing months ago,” Hero began to explain. “An investigation ensued, and all the while you had been gone- no crimes, no taunting phone calls or texts, nothing.” Was she over-explaining? Hero didn’t know. She was feeling as anxious as Villain was after the statement ‘He’s harvesting us.’”

“Anyway- um- I kept tabs on the investigation.” Hero walked the glass of water she’d brought in so long ago to Villain, who, gladly yet hesitantly, took the glass. “Turns out that one reporter had learned everything, but she was- she was killed. I saw your name in one of the files she created about the hospital. I didn’t know if you were still alive or not.”

Saying he was alive would have been a lie. Of course, Villain was adept at the craft of lying. He spun truths like silk until he had single strands, which he tied into others- like a web. Now, though…it was easier to admit he’d feel better being dead than to lie and say he was happy to be alive. It was such an odd feeling- the duality of gratefulness of being saved and the dread at being alive, available to Supervillain to steal for vital organs.

“Are you okay?”

Villain took a breath, then a sip of the water. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to answer that question,” he told Hero. “My mind is…” Villain shook his head again, allowed a shudder to take control of his body for a moment. His head twitched at the thought of his brain being picked at- literally. With- with scalpels and tweezers, and all the like.

A tear fell from Villain’s eye. Hero never wanted to be so near him as in this moment.

“We have to hide, Hero. We should have never been so naïve as to think our blessings weren’t actually our curse. He’ll hunt us.”

“What did he do?” Hero’s voice was timid, like she was afraid to ask such a question again. It wasn’t her intention to force the trauma into Villain’s active mind. She only wanted to be prepared. Wanted to know what happened so that she could predict what would happen, and furthermore so she could prevent the would-be’s of the future.

“Supervillain wants to achieve immortality. What better way to acquire such a trait than to steal the organs of people who heal perfectly and within days?”

[kanene-yaaay]

Go to Sleep

Kanene’s note: Gosh, having a schedule is weird. I just wanna post everything I already wrote and ramble non stop about it asdfgtyujkigfdo. XD

Well, this was suppose to be a drabble, but it’s very long so sdftyujikgfred. I hope you like it!

Warnings, fun facts, random things and stuff:

* This characters don’t belongs to me! They all belong to Thomas Sanders from the serie Sanders Sides.

* This is a SFW tickle fanfic. If you don’t appreciate this kind of content, please, look for another blog. There are a plenty of fabulous arts in this site!! ^w^)b

* This is Lee!Virgil with Ler!Roman. Around 1.500 words.

* Sorry for any spelling, pontuation and grammar mistakes! Any and every advice is very very welcome! \(-w-)/

* Listen a bit to the birds today. Changing the way you think is not a bad thing. Drink water, sleep, eat and love!

[~*~]

Roman growled, missing by a few inches the button of his thunderous, infuriating alarm before finally hitting it. Staring and blinking lazily at the numbers his brain struggled to discern and recognize, only to confirm it was really time to wake up and start the day. He grabbed his pillow and squeezed it with all the strength he could muster, rolling from one side to other on the mattress, trying to wake up his body as quick as his mind and almost falling from the bed a reasonable number of times during the process.

 He got up, yawing, stretching and humming as the first lyrics of the day stuck on his head, hand rubbing at his eyes as he followed the kitchen’s direction with slow steps and tired sways on the beat of the song.

 Two dark, wide eyes stared right back at him, their owner completely frozen on the spot with his hand inside the cabinet, probably already holding some sort of a snack. Roman also stopped mid-step, gears running inside his mind, gaze locked on the other, his brow progressively furrowing.

“Virgil,” he began, voice slightly hoarse “What the heckty heck are you doing up? It’s barely seven in the morning!” Virgil only stared back, slowly closing the cabinet’s door, as if afraid the movement would startle the other. Roman proceeded to get some eggs and other cold ingredients from the refrigerator for the breakfast, his words growing more awake and vivid as they spilled with no filter or whatsoever from his lips. “You got an early shift again or something? Those are absolutely hellish. A bunch of people exhausted, tired and glaring at you as if you are the holder of all their problems and their solutions can only be achieved by being insufferable pieces of- Urg. I can’t believe they would give you one right after you got the night one. Damn, I didn’t even see you arriving here yesterday!”

 He turned his attention back at the other, looking for a kind of frustration in the place of the still startled, wide gaze which continued to be directed at him. Virgil nodded slowly, stepping away and putting some physical distance between him and the confusion on Roman’s features.

 Then, between the strings of sleepiness that clouded his brain, it clicked.

 Suddenly more details on the other’s behavior started to become clearer: the way Virgil’s hair was messier than his usual ““style”” (Roman scoffed mentally, thinking that if he rolled his eyes any harder they would never come back to his normal place again), his wary, yes, but way too much slow movements, the way he seemed to be unable to stop blinking at every millisecond and, above it all, the final piece of the puzzle.

 Virgil wasn’t wearing his pajamas.

 “YOU DIDN’T!” Roman gasped, as if Virgil’s life choices were a personal attack. “YOU DIDN’T GET ANY SLEEP LAST NIGHT!!” A turn of heels and he was again fixating his glare on the other, his free hand accusingly pointing in his direction, receiving an annoyed hiss as immediate answer.

 “Shut up!” Virgil snarled, practically growling back at him. “It’s fucking seven am don’t be so freaking loud.”

 “Don’t change the subject! Why didn’t you go to sleep?”

 The one being questioned just snorted, half amused. “Bold of you to assume I’d ever sleep in my whole life.”

 “That is it.” Virgil didn’t even have the time to wonder the meaning of his friend’s sentence before the aforementioned picked him up, resulting to a not very contained shriek escaping from his lips and his hands not much gracefully – or gently, although since they were keen on just jumping on each other out of nowhere to play fight Princey would be fine - meeting his friend’s face.

 “Roman! What the he-”

 “Did you just SLAP me? My beautiful face?! Before my own beautiful eyes??” Virgil Storm always got, even if he would never admit this out loud, surprised with Roman’s capacity of doing a series of offended incoherent noises which evolved to words before being carefully metamorphosed in weird noises all over again, and in the end still managing to form comprehensible sentences. His surprise did nothing to quell the grumpy snark immediately flying from lips, though.

 “And I’m going to do it again if you don’t let me go in this exact instant.”

 “You go and try to help and that is the acknowledgement you get,” The one wearing pajamas with little crows printed on it huffed, mumbling in a lower tone as he noticed the sharp gaze being thrown in his direction. “fucking unbelievable.”

 “I still can hear you, Princey. You’re literally carrying me.”

 “I sTiLL cAn HeAr yOu-OW! Ow! Ow!” The sentence was interrupted when the sleep deprived one punched Roman’s shoulder. “You’re insufferable, you know that?”

 “Let me fucking gAAH!” In a way his wish was granted, one could say as they watched his protest being cut as Storm was impolitely tossed on his bed, Roman quickly following his friend on the mattress, arms hugging him from behind, and physically preventing him from escaping his current soft predicament. “Prince, you’re dead.”

 “Shhh, no talking. We’re sleeping.”

 “We are not. You are being a pain in ass and I am about to defenestrate you.” Despite his fervent protests, his sharp, flaming glare began to lose its heat, his body not doing any actual effort to free himself from the other’s – strong, good - grip, muscles starting to relax against the great warmth involving him in a comfortable and secure blanket.

 “Sure, sure, mister Grumpy Pants, you can do that when you wake up.” He tightened a bit his hold around Virgil, yet being the most careful as possible, actively ignoring the annoyed hiss his friend gave him. His hoodie was really fluffy at the touch, slightly remembering his stuffed animals he frequently hugged to sleep.

 For a moment, everything was pleasantly quiet. The one with smudged makeup, since he hadn’t time to get it off before being trapped by his roommate and best friend, felt the tiredness becoming sleepiness as the seconds went by.

 …That was until an electric sensation shot across his spine, leading him to almost jump in the same place 

 “S-stop nuzzling me!”

 “Hm? Oh sorry.” Virgil pressed his lips tightly closed, preventing the wobbly giggles to escape as Roman speaks, not realizing how close his mouth was from the base of his neck, every breath sending tickly shocks across every nerve. “You’re just too much sooooft.”

 Roman opened an eye when realized that no snark remark from the other followed his words, the figure in his arms shaking too much to be asleep. A frown painted his feature as he readjusted the position of his hands, trying to get a bit more of balance to look at Virgil’s face when suddenly a high-pitched yelp escaped, cutting the air and immediately catching their attention.

 “Did you just squeal?” He questioned as his glare assumed a playful shine seeing a blush spread on his now frozen friend.

 “It was NOT a squeal! It was a yelp.” Virgil’s words came so fast that they almost tripped on themselves. Roman snorted, a smile taking over his face. “Get off me!” and, in the moment the one wearing a hoodie tried to pry his hand from the spot on his right side where it was resting, the pieces finally clicked in the right place and his smile quickly submerged, giving space to a smirk.

 ‘No WAY Doctor Doom and Gloom is ticklish!’

 However, the red lover only blinked as the true personification of innocence and naiveness, his hand firm in its place, fingers starting to slowly move, light pokes being delivered on the sensitive skin. “But why that, Knight Mare? It’s cold and all I could ever want is just to hug my bestest friend!”

 “You already hugged me, now go aWAY!” His voice trembled in the last second, the exact moment his thumb experimentally scratched the spot right under the lowest ribs, leading a surprised squeak to leave Virgil’s mouth.

 They both stared at each other, gleaming, filling their wide eyes.

 “No.” Virgil said, trying to squirm away but finding himself stuck between Prince and the wall. Roman didn’t even attempt to hide his smug grin, anymore. This was going to be so much fun

 “Don’t you dare! Don’t you freaking dare!!” His friend only laid down again, now carefully, yet firmly, pulling him one more time against his chest, growling playfully. Years and years fighting for the Tickle Monster title on his family, battles and battles against Remus only sharpening his skills, which showed by the way his fingers seemed to find every single weak spot on Virgil’s skin, wiggles, scribbles, pokes and scratching exploring everywhere. “No! Nononono! You fucker, you moron, you bitch, you-” A few chuckles cut his curses as he one wearing pajamas squeezed his side a couple of times, the tip of his fingers also teasing his ticklish stomach. “Roman!!”

 “No, no, my so dear, so ticklish, friend. Roman is no longer here, this is…” He paused for a dramatic effect, basically beaming at the giggly giggles and wiggly wiggles from the other. He shoved his face on his neck, the next words vibrating almost as bad as the spidering on his ribs. “The Tickle Monster!!”

[aitarose]

SUNSHINE | MAKO

PAIRING: Mako x Kya’s Daughter!Reader [fem]

PLOT: Mako’s always had a little crush on Y/N. After all, who wouldn’t? But admitting it to himself? Yeah, no. Just the thought of admitting it to her? Even bigger no. He’d never consider confessing..right? based on these requests by anons

WARNINGS: fluff, mutual pining, friends to lovers

WORD COUNT: 2.3k

A/N: i love mako sm like you guys don’t even know. this man OWNS me fdjafdlsjk. also i got a little carried away with these requests and i took them to the next level so please enjoy :)

MY MASTERLIST

Mako was living his absolute worst nightmare. 

Stuck aboard an airship with his two exes, his brother, his boss, and his boss’ ex with no opening window to jump out of?

The day was definitely not in his favor.

Every hour seemed to be the same.

Radio a call..hear about a new airbender..find the map..use the map..go to the town..get kicked out of the town..return to the beginning.

While Mako did love having a routine—he was bored of this one.

The only thing that made his day even slightly interesting was Y/N.

It wasn’t long ago when he had met the water tribe girl. They’d first spoken during the Glacier Spirits Festival in the Southern Water Tribe.

He had been introduced to her mother, Kya, through Bolin. His younger brother was so starstruck by Avatar Aang’s only daughter, that he couldn’t help but drag along her own daughter with him for the entirety of the festival.

Bolin spent the rest of the night proudly walking alongside the teenage girl, who had to have been at least two to three years older than him.

He went around and showed her off to all of their friends from Republic City, even if they already knew her.

“Don’t make a show of it, but I know the Avatar’s granddaughter. You don’t need to be wowed or anything, it’s no big deal.”

“Bolin, I’m literally her uncle.”

Mako was one of the very last people to meet the infamous Y/N.

It was right after his argument with Korra about the situation between her father and Unalaq. His emotions were all over the place, confusion and annoyance dominated his mood.

But all of his anger dissolved with one look at her smile.

It was at that moment when Mako decided that Y/N had a gift.

She could lift someone’s spirit with a single glance. Her eyes always glowed with positivity and her soul was the purest one he had ever come across.

Y/N could be compared to the rising sun. Just by existing, she radiated more light and goodness than the greatest man on Earth could ever achieve.

It had been a very brief introduction. 

“Mako, my man!” Bolin slapped his palm over the firebender’s shoulder, a cheesy side smile pointed at the teenage girl standing next to him. 

“This is my good friend, Y/N. Y/N meet my big bro!”

Y/N beamed, her teeth sparkling under the moonlight. She held out her hand in a friendly manner and looked straight into Mako’s eyes, unafraid of making eye contact. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Mako.” She spoke whilst shaking his hand. “I’ve only known Bolin for an hour and I feel like I already know everything about you.”

Mako groaned in embarrassment. He was always flattered by how much Bolin looked up to him, but sometimes his little brother went a little too far.

“You had an hour? Let me guess..” Mako pointedly looked at Bolin, shaking his head in amusement. “He must’ve told you our entire life story by now.”

When she laughed at his blunt attempt at a joke, Mako’s heart soared right then and there. 

It was like the fire inside of him had been ignited with gasoline. but instead of her water smothering his flames..they made the grow. Made them stronger.

Though Mako hadn’t realized these lurching feelings at the time. He did have a girlfriend after all, and he liked to think he would never intentionally cheat on her.

That didn’t stop him from admiring her from afar.

Platonically of course.

There weren’t many moments after the festival where Mako found himself alone with Y/N. 

He had chosen to follow Korra to open the spirit portals and Y/N went off to tour the air temples with her extended family—and if he was being honest, he hadn’t had much time to think about her between fighting off evil spirits and breaking up with his girlfriend.

It wasn’t until after Team Avatar defeated Unalaq and Vaatu, that Mako’s mind returned to his unresolved and unrealized feelings.

With the spirit portals open, the world was new again.

Thousands of people were traveling, discovering places they never knew existed, and migrating to different nations.

Luckily for Mako, Y/N had been one of those people.

It had taken her about a week to move into her apartment in Republic City.

Her flat was quaint but cosy. It had views overlooking the busy downtown and bustling people, and she had easy access to stores and shops in the neighborhood.

There was nothing wrong with her new home, but it wasn’t like the South. In fact, it was nothing like the South.

Y/N missed her friends and colleagues. She missed the chilly wind that would slice through the air and freeze her cheekbones. She missed the animals and the overall energy that the South had.

But she was open to new beginnings and new friends—and her open mindset was exactly what led her to join her family and Team Avatar on the search for new airbenders.

Which is right where Mako had left off. 

The airship was dreadful, dreary, and just plain boring. 

His main source of entertainment was watching a cloud disappear from his view, and then preceding to find another one for his eyes to chase.

Luckily for him, Y/N was also bored out of her mind. She had no one to talk to on the ship.

Korra? Tempting, but intimidating.

Asami? Sure if Y/N was less hippy and more business mogul.

Bolin? Yeah, she didn’t want to go down that path again. 

Lin? No way.

Her actual family members? Good option—but Tenzin was boring and all Jinora did was read old scrolls.

Y/N was at a loss, and the only person that seemed remotely interesting was the brooding firebender staring out of the window.

When she approached him, Mako was at a loss for words.

He had been thinking about this moment for awhile now, and had a pun filled pick-up line ready to go, but when it came down to crunch time, he stalled. 

“Hey,” Y/N smiled, gesturing to the seat next to Mako on the iron bench. “Mind if I sit?”

Mako’s mouth opened to respond, but no words came out of his mouth. He sat there like a fish out of water, nodding his head silently.

Y/N shrugged her shoulders and happily sat next to the nineteen year old. 

With her being so close in proximity, Mako’s brain flashed exe.error messages through his thoughts.

They sat in a comfortable, yet also awkward silence for a long time. 

Every time Mako tried to get a word out, he stumbled. His nerves overcame his speech, preventing him from sounding the least bit cool.

Scratch that. They prevented him from sounding like an actual person and not a toddler that just learned how to speak.

After what felt like generations, Mako was saved by none other than his ex-girlfriends.

“We just landed,” Korra said, waving to the former probender and his companion. A confused look flashed across her face at the sight of them so close yet so uncomfortable.

Asami then poked her head around the corner, coming into view. “Are you guys going to come out or what?”

Y/N was the first to jump up, nodding her head enthusiastically.

She nearly sprinted to the exit—not because she wanted to get away from her encounter with Mako, she was just really excited to meet new people.

Mako heaved a deep sigh when she was completely out the door and out of earshot. It felt like he could finally breathe again without the stress of being in her presence.

“You like her?” Korra crossed her arms over one another, leaning against the wall as Asami stood by her side.

“What?” Mako stuttered, his face flooding with hues of red and pink.

“Why would you say that?”

“No Way!”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”

Korra and Asami loudly laughed at Mako’s rambling, while they had both been hurt by his actions in the past, they had come to forgive him—and they wanted nothing more than for him to find his special someone.

“Okay, then.” Korra shrugged, pulling Asami out of the room with her, “Whatever you say, Mako.”

Mako dropped his face into his hands, pulling at his hair as he mentally beat himself up.

“But if it matters,” he looked up to see Korra still standing at the door. A genuine smile shown on her face. 

“I think you two would be perfect together.”

As Korra finally left him to himself, Mako couldn’t help but think about how lucky he was to have a friend like her. 

She was everything he didn’t need in a relationship, but everything he could’ve ever wanted in a friendship. 

Eventually, Mako did manage to force himself off of the airship. He helped with the little show the airbenders put on to influence others to join the nomads and even fought a few bad guys while he was at it. 

He was finally having a good day, until the little punk tried to steal his wallet.

“Wait,” he ordered, pulling Kai back by the neck of his shirt. Mako held out his hand expectantly and gave the younger boy a hard look. 

“I think you might have something of mine.”

Kai smiled sheepishly before pulling out the firebender’s stolen goods. 

“It must’ve fallen into my pocket, my bad.”

Mako glared at the new airbender. The stare he was giving Kai was so cold, it could intimidate a pack of polar bear dogs.

“Now listen here,” he bent down to Kai’s level. His tangerine eyes meeting Kai’s green ones. “I know your game. I used to be the master at it, actually—and let me tell you that it gets you absolutely nowhere.”

Mako sighed, he already saw so much of himself in the kid that he didn’t want him to go down the same hard path that he did.

“All I want is the best for you, kid.” He patted Kai on the shoulder before sending him off to join Jinora on the ship. “Don’t mess up this opportunity.”

There were times where Mako enjoyed being the big bad cop or the authoritarian figure, but this was not one of those times. 

He just wanted Kai to have the best life he possibly could.

The life he had always wanted for himself.

Unbeknownst to Mako, his secret crush had witnessed the whole ordeal.

His pure-hearted intentions touched Y/N. Acts of kindness and wellbeing always found their way into her heart, and his act of good caught her attention in a very positive way. 

It caught her attention enough, that she found herself standing right behind him.

“That was really sweet what you said back there.” She told Mako, who jumped in surprise at her soft voice.

“Yeah, I tried. I’ve been where he is before. I know how it ends.”

Mako felt much more comfortable now that Y/N had started the conversation. He wasn’t afraid to give his thoughts knowing that she was the one who wanted to talk to him.

Y/N let out a low breath. Her hair willowed in the breeze, her eyes shining under the sunlight. She looked like a lost spirit.

A beautiful lost spirit, Mako thought. 

“I try, too.” She whispered to him. Mako could barely hear her voice, it was so faint.

“Sometimes being there for everyone else has its downfall.” Y/N’s sparkling eyes turned dim, sadness drowned her usually uplifting features.

“I spend all my energy making sure that everyone I love is happy, but then there’s never anyone looking out for me, you know?”

Mako did know.

He knew exactly how she was feeling. He’d raised Bolin since they were children. 

If anyone knew the pressures of holding onto another person’s burdens, it was Mako.

“I’ve noticed that,” Mako said, stepping closer to the girl. He could see that her eyes were welling with tears, all he wanted to do was wrap his arms around her and make all the negative energy go away. 

So that’s exactly what he did.

Y/N melted into Mako’s embrace. She felt his body radiate heat, he warmed not only her body, but her heart in an instant.

“I see you, with Tenzin’s kids.” Mako ran his hand down her back, comforting Y/N as best he could. “They look up to you more than they do anyone else. You’re really amazing, Y/N. I’m surprised you don’t hear it more often.”

Right then and there, Y/N realized exactly what she needed in her life—and it was Mako.

If she was being honest with herself, he hadn’t exactly caught her eye before.

She thought he was somewhat bland at the Glacier Spirits Festival and the whole double girlfriend situation definitely didn’t spark her interest in the firebender, but now here she was..

Crying in his arms, confessing her insecurities, and feeling heard.

She had never felt heard before.

“I think you’re really amazing.” Mako blurted out. 

He cringed at his confession, hoping that she didn’t take it the wrong way. If there even was a wrong way to take it.

Mako felt Y/N grow still in his arms. His heart pounded in anticipation for what her next words would be.

To his surprise she pulled away..

Before pressing a deep kiss to his lips.

Mako immediately responded. His mouth moved languidly with hers, connecting in the most perfect way, as if they were meant to be.

His entire body nearly combusted. Her bright spirit combining with his fiery one.

Mako felt like sunshine was running through his veins.

She pulled away, giving him one last chaste kiss.

“I think you’re amazing, too.” 

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