@reversescale asked:
(What would it be like if Ratio got the acknowledgment of Nous? Would anything change? Furthermore, what if he was invited into the Genius Society? Would he accept it?)
Sleepless nights had grown more frequent as of late, with the addition of the Divergent Universe to Ratio's workload. None of it had been obligatory, none of it at all. But, not for the first time, he finds himself strung up in a strange sense of restlessness -- almost anxiousness -- as he parses through the compendium he compiled, again and again and again.
...Why?
Not even Screwllum, with his far superior ability to take in information on a page, would read through this entire document, and he'd told the Trailblazer this himself. Realistically, the likelihood of even half of the data within making it into the Divergent Universe was slim at best. It would take an entire Amber Era to even get through all of the pages. So why did he?
...Not for the first time, the thought crosses Ratio's mind about how disproportionate his visible effort is to his declaration of involvement. Yet how could he settle for anything less? Screwllum, surely, knew he would receive more than he asked for by enlisting Ratio's aid. The doctor was never known for half-assing anything, after all. And still, it was not enough. He hadn't done enough, compiled enough, found enough of the evidence Screwllum he needed.
It is not his project.
He sighs, rubs his temple (his headaches seem as though they're growing worse with the sheer amount of data he'd been sifting through lately), and rolls the tension out of his neck as best he can. There is no need to get worked up. Thankfully, the sky is clear tonight; he'd already taken a bath recently, so laying on the grass to trace the constellations would surely be enough to quell his mind.
But the red glow outside indicates otherwise. A glance upwards is more than enough to rob all the breath from Ratio's lungs, leaving him choking on nothing. All at once his head expands, compressed by the confines of his skull -- it shrinks to nothingness then expands once more, splitting and breaking down his skull to encompass the planet, the galaxy, reaching to the outer stretches of the universe -- who he was and what he is no longer matter, Veritas is as much an ephemeral, minute, pitifully small concept as Andreas -- he knows so much. He knows too much. And as that thought concludes a new one is born, a new path stretching outwards -- everything and every life that will ever come to be and has come to pass is known to him, but not by him, far more than he could ever fill a book with, or ten books, or a thousand books -- lives and people and worlds flash past his mind, too fast for him to take hold of and look at any single one -- there is simply no storage system in the known universe large enough to record it all -- he is ignorant in the wake of the mind and might of THEM, and he feels so strangely detached from the muted despair he vaguely acknowledges is his own and suddenly he is slingshotted back into his body, gasping for air and gripping onto his windowsill so hard his knuckles turn white.
"You..." Andreas' knees threaten to buckle as another pulse of pain lances through his skull. Something hard and cold clinks against his palm as he clenches his hands into fists. A divine, shimmering key lays nestled between his fingers, only tangible in the barest definition of the word. Should he look away, should he let it wane from his mind, the key would fade, too. It takes all his effort to keep his hold on it. "You," he repeats, mouth dry, mustering up all the willpower and strength he has to glare at the impossibly massive entity that had manifested in the sky. He is shaking, trembling from head to foot. "After all these years... after all this time, now you show yourself?" He can feel the absence of that sudden pressure of knowledge like an abyss separating his brain from his head, and his heart beats too quickly, too loudly, too softly in his own ears. Every second is a fight to remain in his own mind, and it feels like mockery of his own insignifance, or perhaps a test -- but the Aeon does not respond to him. THEY do not do anything but simply wait, and stare back at him.
It becomes unbearable to hold Nous' gaze, and as Andreas looks away the key slips from his grasp. He realizes, then, Nous did not come for the boy who spent his nights looking to the sky. Nous came for Veritas. THEY will only respond to Veritas.
"Keep your key," Andreas spits around a closing throat. Veritas will not speak. "I want nothing to do with your Temple. I have no place with the likes of Kuwabara or the Lord of Silence."
Nous holds THEIR silence, and THEIR gaze, for a moment longer, then fades. The oppressive noise lifts and Andreas feels himself fill the space his body takes up and only that and he can breathe, finally, and his lungs expand and contract with every breath as a human's should. He feels all ten fingers and toes and the wind on his skin and he is, once more, unremarkably and inconsequentially human. Except...
An invitation to the Genius Society is not something that can be refused. It is not a request, nor an inquiry, nor some offer that can be turned down.
It is a claim.
So No. 85 of the Genius Society requests a temporary leave of absence from the Intelligentsia Guild. He visits his hometown. He tells his parents the news. His father, quiet as ever, beams with pride. His mother weeps, not only with joy, but for the sudden shock of sheer white that has woven itself into his hair. (How strange -- he is only 38, but this fails to bother him in the slightest.) He visits Herta's Space Station once more, and the eyes on him are different; numerous as always, yes, full of awe, certainly, but full of ignorant admiration, worse than he'd ever experienced before. He feels those eyes even through his headpiece. He is to be the newest member of the Simulated Universe project. Screwllum introduces him properly to Herta, Ruan Mei, and Stephen, and he can't help feeling slightly sick as they look into his eyes with recognition. Stephen isn't there in person, but he shakes the puppet's hand, then Ruan Mei's. They're both cold. The sensation doesn't leave for hours. Screwllum's hand on his back, meant to be reassuring, makes him want to remove his skin instead.
He lays in his bathtub for hours upon his return home, half-drowned in steam and bubbles until his skin prunes and his bathwater cools to a temperature he can scarcely feel. He should get out; he will get cold.
He doesn't know what to say to Aventurine. If he should say something to Aventurine. Given the speed of the IPC's news network, Aventurine probably already knows. The next time he meets Aventurine, he will no longer be a Mundanite. He, realistically, has no need for Aventurine any longer. But Aventurine -- the IPC -- has all the more need for him. His value has fundamentally increased. The unfairness of it makes him sick. Eventually, he resigns from his job as a professor. There is no point in a genius teaching that intelligence does not belong only to the elite. The irony behind it is nothing but cruel.
Occasionally, the Key of Wisdom surfaces in his mind; it appears on his desk, under his pillow, beside his chisel.
He refuses to touch it.
He is unable to let it go.
8 notes
·
View notes
mylene is so interesting to me bc like. she just chucks elico out as soon as she gets a mechanical replacement with macubass. and i think she's the only villain so callous about their guardian bakugan???
most villains still care about their bakugan and usually actually share the same goals and are on the same wavelength, birds of a feather and all that. like even characters like kazarina, cruel as she is, still are fond of their guardian bakugan. and theres characters like spectra and barodius who's plans center around their guardian bakugan, and are actively encouraged by those bakugan.
even characters who's guardian bakugan dont necessarily get along with them all the time, like avior and mason's constant bickering, are still friends. meanwhile mylene just. throws elico out. and also takes brontes from volt and throws him out as well. i think whats also interesting, since the show likes to bring up spectra and mylene parallels, is how spectra uses machines to upgrade and evolve helios, while mylene outright replaces elico with a machine.
but it's not like she's shown to be like. completely heartless either. she calls volt her friend even though she threw out brontes beforehand. she stands up for hydron when zenoheld takes his anger out on him. she has some weird friendship with shadow prove.
i think she was the vehicle to show the general vestal opinion on bakugan, since mylene only sees her bakugan as weapons and when she loses she blames the loss on them. (meanwhile i think volt is supposed to show that not all vestals are THAT bad, even if they are part of the king's entourage of fucked up teenage celebrity theatre kids). and i think she's very interesting bc of that. anyways i love mylene.
29 notes
·
View notes
Hellooo!!! I was wondering if nemesis & nike is ever going to be updated?/gen not in like a snotty update now way!! I was just wondering if it has been discontinued! I’ve been daydreaming about it for a couple of months now lol, and was just wondering if I shouldn’t keep my hopes up for it to continue. I know you are working on a book (wow)! And obviously that takes priority, so I was just wondering if it was on hiatus? Or potentially discontinued? Either way is completely alright, I was just curious! 🥰
IT IS JUST A HIATUS DO NOT WORRY MY FRIEND!!!! ive been rotating nemesis & nike in my head like a rotisserie chicken for like a week now, although writing ANYTHING rn is genuinely super hard for me because i have the worst work schedule known to man 😭
no matter how many fics i inevitably start, i fully intend for finish them all one day!! im way too emotionally attached to them all to just leave them to rot unupdated on ao3 forever. the biggest L in the world is my adhd is basically the ratatootie rat piloting me like a meat puppet between hyperfixations, and i can genuinely only write for something if im hyperfixated on it. but i also have no control on what im hyperfixated on. because my brain is evil.
i actually have the first part of chapter 10 of nemesis & nike just chilling in my google docs :3 i have an eighteen day vacation coming up in august, though hopefully ill be able to write SOMETHING before then, that im praying ill be able to kick back and just go to town on one of my projects. writing is genuinely a passion for me, and my favorite part about it is sharing it with people, so i dont intend on stopping anytime soon. whether or not i will update one of my current fics or just say fuck it and start a new one is the real question, but eventually, nemesis & nike will get an update. one day. i dont know when, but itll happen. mark my words anon.
2 notes
·
View notes
Do you ever wonder how exactly there came to be such a transphobia problem in British feminism?
Not really. Pretty straightforward IMO.
Britain is highly patriarchal and pretty much just an oligarchy at this point, given the majority of people in charge were born rich and went to one of a handful of private schools. Fair amount of them are also journalists to some degree, or work with journalists on the regular, so when those pesky feminists wanted to dismantle their little boy's club, they stoked up a culture war to give them a new target.
A great example is the NHS. There's been issues lately with supply of oestrogen. I have a former classmate who is a raging transphobe and in her fifties. She's constantly on twitter talking about how the reason she can't get her hormone replacement therapy for her menopause is that trans women are taking all the oestrogen. Her source? A right wing newspaper linked to half of the current PM's cabinet. The real issue? The Tories have been systematically gutting and selling off the NHS since they came into power, which is causing shortages now, because the Tories want the NHS to fail so they can say 'see? NHS doesn't work. Time to privatise the whole thing' and make a mint doing it.
So basically, the minority we should actually be worried about - the 1%ers who have had everything handed to them on a silver platter all their lives, including some of the highest powers this land has to give, and are using that power to take our country apart for profit in the houses of parliament - have convinced a decent portion of feminists that a minority with basically no power is the root of all evil.
And so, using their institutional power (being the law-making elites) and their influential power (clickbait articles they've usually written themselves), they've convinced a portion of feminists that the upper-class, born-rich, bred for rule, blue-blooded bullies who thrive off the patriarchy aren't the problem, trans people are, and so the sect of feminists they've successfully turned against trans people are now fighting to uphold the patriarchy on behalf of the Conservatives and calling it feminism.
14 notes
·
View notes
i think emily was known to be a bit of an eccentric, and lively as she is in death as she was in life. which isn't that out there to think about, but when compared to victoria— who was taught that music was too improper for a lady, too passionate. and for us to see emily using the piano to make herself feel better —she probably was given a lot more freedoms. most likely due to her being more upper class, since it's mentioned in an older script that her father is an earl or a duke of some kind, i don't remember which.
but i dont believe she was looked upon kindly, or at the very least, judged. most likely it meant she had very little friends. she often only had herself and her parents, but mostly herself.
she was still very desirable by men as mentioned in the song, but it was obviously/mainly for her status. and i think on some level she was aware of that, even if she didn't want to admit it.
she struggles so much to make meaningful connections that i think she tended to let herself pretend that it was for real sometimes. and sometimes people are real convincing that she started to believe it, ala, barkis. :[
4 notes
·
View notes