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frobin · 3 years

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Hi! Ok, I know it isn't very related to Frobin (except if you decide to mention them in the answer), but I am curious about your opionion on this thing. If the end of One Piece have someone of the Straw Hat crew that can die, who can be? OBVIOUSLY I hope nobody, that this thing doesn't happen, but never say never. There're people who say Luffy to recreate Roger's connection. Someone else Usop (but I miss the reason). Or Jinbe, who has also some problems and enemies from previous experiences?

Hey there anon!

No worries about asking questions. This is a FRobin blog but it's also a One Piece blog so it's fine to ask all kind of questions about One Piece. Even though I wouldn't consider myself much of an *expert* so everything I write is very much influenced by my own impressions.

But you're asking for my opinion anyway so that disclaimer is not necessary in this case. XD

---

Okay, first of all: I'm no fan of death flags. I never see them and when I read about them I feel like people pull them out of nowhere.

So I don't think any of the Strawhats will die before or even while the big end fight. Also it's not like they will reach their goal and then just drop dead (don't forget the dream are very different too but more about that later). Like what kind of life would that be?

Also we can't forget that Oda still believes he is writing this story for 14 year old boys. So, even though death is and will be a theme I don't think he will kill off the main crew.

That would not be very clever story wise and is not how to tell a story about adventure and fulfilling dreams for young boys.

Right now it's very "fashionable" to let characters die for shock value. But the more it's done the more annoying it becomes and less of a shock and Oda won't stoop so low to use this kind of element. Why do I think that?

So far we had three deaths in OP and they all shocked us a lot. But they were also used as motivator for other characters. Whitebeards death was a motivator for a whole new Generation of pirates, as well as his crew to try to save Ace and his little brother. Ace's death was a launch of character development for Luffy, Sabo, Garp and even Sengoku and probably more. Pedros death was a motivator for Carrot and other Minks. (Even the fake death of Pell was a huge motivator for Vivi. Interestingly compared to other deaths his sacrifice did not stop the war, which would have been an adequate impact. So him coming back alive actually makes sense.)

But look how few and far between they are. Of course there was more death but the important ones are kept as those.

Why am I talking about that? Who would benefit from a Strawhats death?

Literally no one. They are all already motivated to go until the end for each other. It's more likely that a death would cause Luffy to just give up, him becoming catatonic again.

Who would Luffy fight for if he even loses one of his crew mates? Or maybe two?

If I were a Marine I would try to make Luffy think that his friends are dead and then catch him but that is beside the point.

But for One Piece, a Strawhat death it would not move the story further. There is no additional motivator needed and that would be the only reason to kill one of the crew.

Killing a Strawhat makes no sense in my opinion.

A death would only make sense after they reached their goal.

So it is possible that we see the Strawhats die but long after the story came to an end, them reaching Laugh Tale (if that is the end). And yes, I think all of them will die of natural causes and/or sickness. Most of them at an old age. I think Luffy, Zoro or Usopp being the firsts because of the trauma their bodies had endured would make most sense.

I hope that answered your question anon... and anyone who does not want to read even more about my nonsense can stop here.

But let me break down why I think that all Strawhats have plot armor against death flags, behind the read-more.

-> It is very important that I think the huge clash with the Blackbeard Pirates, which will be the end fight, will happen right before Laugh Tale. And Laugh Tale is the end-goal and the end of the main story. (I MIGHT BE WRONG!!!)<-

Everyones own story can only end after they reached their goal so let's look why I think that these dreams give the Strawhats Plot Armor.

Luffy: Become the king of the pirates. That means he has to reach Laugh Tale. I often hear that Luffy will die early because of the parallel to Roger. That does not mean he won't reach his 40s or 50s. Even after reaching Laugh Tale Roger lived a bit longer and even had time to "make a child" so, killing off Luffy in the end fight makes no sense. So maybe dying after the fight, on Laugh Tale? That could happen and would be the earliest death of any Strawhat imo.

Zoro: Become the strongest sword fighter. That means he still has to kill Mihawk. I don't think Mihawk will go and look for Zoro. So, Zoro has to survive and then return to Mihawk and have his duel. No sense in killing off Zoro. I am 100% sure that he will survive until then.

Nami: Drawing a world map. For that Nami has to travel the world many times more. After they reached Laugh Tale, Nami has only finished part of her dream. She has to visit all of the Blues, travel the Grand Line and the New world multiple times. Drawing a Map of the world will take a lifetime. Her dream will take the longest to be fulfilled.

Usopp: Become the great warrior of the sea. Now here we have a dream that is not really tangible. Usopp will be a great warrior as soon as he realises that he is one. In my opinion he already managed to become a great warrior. Time and time again he has shown how amazing he is but this is all about his own self image and so hard to grasp. This actually makes Usopp the most likely to have a death flag BUT we can't forget that he still has to return home and tell his stories to Kaya and the Usopp pirates. It's part of a promise that is only secondary but for me it's enough to think Usopp too is safe until he did that.

Sanji: To find the All Blue. Sanji thinks that the All Blue is something physical. We can't know that and if it is physical we can consider that it's maybe a part of the New World near the Red Line where all seas somehow come together. So again, until Sanji found that place he hasn't fulfilled his dream. And since I think that would be BEHIND Laugh Tale, again I think Sanji is safe. Alternatively the All Blue is just a metaphor for something completely different but I can't hink about what.

Chopper: To cure all illness. Here too, this is something that takes time. Chopper is still only at the beginning of his career of being a doctor. Finding a magical cure for every illness that exists is not something that just happens. Logically he would need to talk with many other medical experts and together they might be able to find it. When and how and if that happens is impossible to say but again that would be something that would fit best in the time after reaching Laugh Tale.

Robin: To find the truth of the void century. Right now we figure that she will find that at the end of their travel, on Laugh Tale. Maybe it will happen earlier in case the Strawhats storm the World Government. Either way she will learn the truth. But that will not be the end to her. After learning the truth it's up to Robin to bring it to the world, to write it down, to teach, to make people understand that they can't erase history and that they have to learn from it. Again, that is something that takes time and so, truly fulfilling her dream.

Franky: To travel the world in the ship of his dreams. Again that is a vague dream. But it would mean to at least return to Water Seven, so that Sunny has traveled the world once. But even then it's only been a small part of the world and traveling the world would mean to visit at least every of the seas. So far, Sunny had been in two to four, depending on how much you take the movies into account. But to fulfill Franky's dream he needs to survive a bit longer and so does Sunny.

Brook: To meet Laboon again. This is simple. But for that Brook has to reach the end of the New World and then get over the Red Line again. What he will do after that is hard to tell. But again, the Red Line is behind Laugh Tale and so I'm sure Brook too, has to survive... even though he is already dead YOHOHO!

Jinbe: Equality between merfolk and humans. Again this is something that is no easy feat and will probably take more than one generation. Also it is not only up to him and more to Shirahoshi and the World Government. This dream is about teamwork too, but who could be a better ambassador for the merfolk than him? Losing Jinbe would be a huge backfire for the cause. Jinbe too is safe in my opinion. If you have reached the end of the post, let me tell you again my headcanon about FRobin: After the main adventure Franky and Robin return to Water Seven where Franky helps to turn W7 into a boat and after that is done, they travel to the island where Ohara used to be and there they rebuild the island. More people return and it again becomes a hub for scholars and history.

#Not FRobin #One Piece meta #One Piece Fandom #One Piece Theory #One Peace Death Flag #Long Post #Text #Some Frobin at the end #ask #Meta #In my opinion no Strawhat will die #kon

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 4 years

Text

Humans Are Space Orcs, “The Press.”

I have been wanting to do this for a while. Commander Vir deals with fame, and the good and bad parts of it. I hope you like, sorry I am so late today :)

“Why exactly am I back on earth? My tour doesn’t end for another six months, and we were just getting ready for our first exploratory mission since before the burg war.”

“Look, commander, I understand this isn’t what you thought you were signing up for, but since the movie dropped recruitment has Gone up 45% and another 20% after merchandising, we need to get on this quick,”

He sighed

“Besides, you will only be touring one or two weeks. That’s one or two weeks paid vacation while you talk to celebrities, pose for pictures, and maybe do a press conference or two. Bring along a couple of friends to keep you company and it won’t be that bad.”

“Alright, alright, I get it, but I’m not a dancing monkey. I didn’t sign up for this, and it’s not going to becoming a thin.”

“Yes commander, now The UNSC is taking you first. You are their poster child after all, and they want your face on the recruiting posters .”

“Very well, ma’am.”

***

Wednesday, June 3

“This is good work commander, but we are going to bring in an expert to make it just right.”

Commander Vir stood in an empty hanger bay surrounded by reflective panels, directional lights and a multitude of camera equipment. Sunny and Krill were playing a guessing game he had taught them earlier in the day to keep them occupied, and Waffles -- his dog -- was curled up by one of the set technicians taking a nap.

“An expert?”

“Yes, we’re bringing in one of the guys who used to be a guard in Arlington. The uniform looks good, but is it perfect?”

The answer to that question was answered simply few minutes later

He was a slob, a big fat slob who didn’t know how to properly wear his socks. The guy even whipped out a tape measure to determine the exact distance that a pin should be placed from the crease in his collar.

Commander Vir didn’t see the difference on the small scale, but in aggregate, he found that the difference was actually quite startling. He blinked, “Wow.”

“Excellent, now, we’re going to have you stand over here while we adjust the lights, and then when we give you the cue we want you to follow the order to a T. We will have parade rest attention, present at attention and then contemplatively looking off into the distance. We will have someone with a marker to tell you where to look.”

“Stare contemplatively off into the distance. I don’t remember learning that one.”

“Ahh we got a smartass.”

He stepped into place doing as the cameraman ordered, trying to look serious and imposing as directed, though Sunny and Krill had decided to make faces in the background. He actually did loose it at some point as Sunny started doing some weird improvised dancing in the background while krill stood there like it offended his sensibilities.

Eventually they got what he wanted, and they showed him some of the prototypes.

There were a few that he liked but only because they looked like vintage movie posters from some badass naval war movie.

Thursday, June 4

The three of them walked into the studio watching as bodies flowed past them hurrying off in all directions. Obviously their presence caused quite a stir, and Adam thought he recognized a few faces peering from the crowd, other movies stars and celebrities, but he couldn't be sure what he was seeing. And then there were the women, and men who hurried about, tall, statuesque like greek gods given life, with jaws so sharp they could cut paper, and pouty lips under wide dark eyes.

Looking at them and then at himself, well, he felt like a dump truck next to a sports car.

Sunny on the other hand didn’t seem impressed, “I could snap them in half…. Like twigs.”

“Fighting isn’t the point Sunny, they’re just supposed to be hot.”

Krill eyed them, “Their single job is to profess the perfect mating standard?”

“Ur yeah, I guess.”

Krill snorted, Sunny shook her head ,’ What is the point of being hot if you’re also useless besides you don’t look all that different.”

He rolled his eyes. Leave it to an alien not to be able to tell what super hot humans looked like.

“I’m serious,” Sunny insisted, “You’re as tall as most of them, and more muscular than some of them, and you have a cool eye patch, so that means you win.”

He couldn’t help but smile shaking his head, “Alright, Alright, I’ll shut up.”

At that moment a woman appeared from nowhere and held out a hand, “Commander! So glad you could come, so glad.” She looked him up and down with a frown.”

“That bad huh?”

“Nothing a little wardrobe and makeup can’t fix.” She announced clapping her hands together and motioning others over as he frowned.

He frowned.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing “

“Do I tell you how to do your job commander, no, now over to wardrobe .”

He blinked in surprise, “Ok, yes ma’am.”

He found himself sidling over to where racks and racks of clothing was hanging suddenly surrounded by the tall, statuesque people with their big eyes and pouty lips. While they were busy looking hot, he got nervous and nearly knocked over an entire rack of clothing, blushed till he was beat red, and then decided after this was all over he was going to bury himself under a rock and die.

He was mostly ignored for like twenty minutes until someone walked over, “Commander,” He was a portly little man with hair dyed frost white though his roots were growing in black. The man grabbed him by the hand and dragged him across the room, “Alright, alright, what do we have.”

He looked him over prodding t his shoulders and arms, making him turn in a circle, “Not bad, not bad at all. I can work with this. Tell me commander formal, or casual.”

“Uh casual?”

“Exactly what I was thinking! The provincial small town man feel. I like it.”

“Well I mean ok…” the little man grabbed him aggressively by the arm and pulled him around to a rack of clothing. In the end he had a pair of jeans black boots a black T-shirt and a brown leather jacket.

He frowned, “I hate to point this out, but this is literally what I am wearing.”

“No it isn’t. Yours is frumpy and sloppy and ours will make you look acceptably rugged.”

He frowned not sure if he was supposed to be offended or not, “And where am I supposed to change.”

“Right here.”

“Right here!’

“Commander, these are models, they show their bodies off for a living, none of them need a changing room, so take a leaf out of their book and stop worrying.”

This was worse than a high school locker room. Humans had never reached light speed, but he was pretty sure he at least broke the sound barrier while pulling on the new pants.

When he walked back over pulling on his jacket sunny and Krill had made themselves comfortable in a couple of the stage crew chairs, “What are you so nervous about, you looked fine.” Sonny said looking down at her implants to change music.

“You were watching me>”

“Was I not supposed to do that.”

He felt himself turn a nice shade of cherry red, “No!.”

She shrugged, “Whatever.”

Krill just shook his head, “You forget that neither of us wear clothes, so we do not understand your issues.”

He sighed, “Nudists.” He muttered walking towards the set, though he was immediately diverted by another person who led him over to a set of chairs and mirrors. He was pushed down into a seat and spun around and an aggressive group of stylists moved in on him. This is honestly not what he had expected when he joined the army.

He was even less impressed when they started to stick brushes in his face causing him to blink and his eyes to itch. Someone wetted down his hair and put product in it that smelled like strawberries, which, honestly he wasn’t entirely annoyed about.

From there he was finally let go and walked onto another photo set, though this one had way more lightning, way more cameras and way more props.

And of course like the awesome badass commander that he was, he stood there like a complete idiot as stiff as a board, caught like a deer in the headlights. The photographer seemed more than a little annoyed at his inability to look like anything other than sasquatch caught on a hunting camera.

“Relax.”

“This is kind of out of my element.”

“Being capture by aliens and going on space walks where you might suffocate, and you cant relax enough to take a picture.”

“To be fair, no one sees me when I am doing badass stuff, so I don’t have the social pressure of preforming well.”

They tried some more.

They told him he was smiling awkwardly, or like he was being threatened at gunpoint.

It wasn’t until Sunny started doing stupid dances behind the camera-man, again that the photographer finally started to like what he was seeing. Every time he turned to look at what Vir was smiling at, Sunny would stop dancing trying to look all innocent.

That just made him laugh.

At some point one of the people had a great idea to involve waffles, and -- like the good girl that she was -- she promptly stole the spotlight, which he was totally cool with.

Photoshoots were definitely not his thing.

He was about 100 percent sure when the photos came out they would look like his last middle school yearbook picture.

Even thinking about it made him grimace.

Friday, June 5

“And please help me to welcome our next special guest, Commander Adam Vir of the UNSC.”

His legs felt like jelly, and it took sunny nudging him to finally get him moving onto the stage. He wondered if people could tell just how bad his legs were shaking.

And there was a twitching going on in his right cheek that he just couldn't stop.

He wanted to go back to the hotel and watch dumb TV With Sunny while krill complained about the medical inaccuracies.

But here he was listening to clapping and cheering from an assembled studio crowd. He was sure he was going to do something massively stupid, like trip off the stage, or rip his pants or forget his own name, or something.

The host stood up, he was blanking on their name right now though he knew they were ridiculously famous.

He shook hands with them.

“So glad you could come commander.”

“A pleasure to be here.” He responded robotically hoping that his smile was at least somewhat convincing.”

He took a seat on the couch, resting a hand against his shaking right leg.

He was going to puke.

“So, i Heard you have been on tour for the past two days, how are you enjoying the celebrity circuit.”

He rubbed his hands against his legs, “Do you want the real answer or the fake one?”

“Lets hear the real one.”

“Er, well it turns out I am really bad at…. Pretty much everything that’s not captaining a ship. Yesterday I did a photoshooot where I am ninety percent sure I looked like an awkward cryptid most of the time. People are going to be looking at those photos and wondering in what swamp they found me.”

There was laughter from the crowd.

He wasn’t entirely sure if that was funny or not.

“I am sure they aren’t as bad as all that.”

He shook his head, “Pretty sure my face was like this…” He raised his hands making a wide-eyed shocked expression that had the crowd laughing again.”

The host smiled, “Commander, Forgive me for asking, but how old are you.”

He smiled sheepishly, “Um, lets just say too young and leave it at that.”

“I was sort of under the impression that commanders and admirals were….”

“Old wrinkly dudes?”

“Yeah.”

He rubbed the back of his head, “That’s mostly true, the reason I got this position has to do with my experience with extra terrestrials.”

“I’ve heard rumors that you have aliens on board your ship. Is that true.”

“Those shouldn’t be rumors, that is entirely true. We have a twenty….three person Drev clan, a Vrul medical officer, a starborn, and some miscellaneous others.”

A muttering from the crowd, “But you were part of the Drev war, and Operation Steel eye. How did an entire Drev clan end up on your ship?”

He shrugged, “The story is complicated, but the long and short of it is, I made friends with some Drev after the war, and they adopted me into the clan.”

“Can we…. See, the prosthetic I mean” He held up his hands, “Not to be disrespectful.”

He shrugged, “sure.” Reaching down and tugging up his pant leg so the bright blue carapace glittered in the bright studio lights.

The man leaned closer, “Wow…. What…. What is that?”

“Drev carapace.” He dropped the pant leg.

“Why?”

“That is actually the reason I am adopted. A drev has to give you a gift that contains a piece of their own armor, so my best friend made this for me some time ago.”

They talked about that for a little while. They talked about the war, they talked about his first moment on an alien planet.

“I was actually on the original mission to land on Proxima b. I was the shuttle pilot behind Captain Kelly, though I don’t know how many people knew that.

There was a murmuring around the room.

“I know it was broadcasted live, but luckily the cameras were pointed away because when I was getting out of the shuttle, my foot slipped on the stairs.” The crowd gasped and giggled, “And I face planted right onto the surface.”

More laughing.

“That is my legacy, the first man to take a nose dive on an alien planet.”

“I would say that your legacy contains a lot of strange instances. There are reports that you recently escaped from kidnapping by a prodigum by… Singing? How did that work?”

He rubbed the back of his head, ��Well that is… that is.” he laughed nervously, “Yes that is a thing that happened. I and my friend Sunny were captured by a criminal overlord for entertainment in his little criminal syndicate. They had cages lined all along the ceiling and inside them were other humans. Turns out the Prodigum react to human singing like a drug, so I was asked to sing, luckily for me one of the woman in the other cage was a voice coach, so a few days of starving and being miserable, she taught me how to sing properly, or a little more properly, and then I sang a super sad song, distracted everyone long enough for y friend to escape and call for help.”

Gasping and more laughter around the room.

“Wow…. Your life….”

“Reads like a strange cartoon doesn’t it.”

From the crowd, “Sing for us!.”

The call was taken up a few more times.

He shook his head, “No no no, no I am not going to sing on international television. I have embarrassed myself enough this week.”

“You now commander, you wouldn’t want to disappoint the public.”

He could feel the heat rising into his face as the rest of the crowd took up the chant.

He tried to protest, but that didn’t seem to be working.

Eventually he held up his hands “Ok, ok, but if my voice cracks…. Just don’t laugh.”

“And you were without accompaniment.”

He sighed, “Yeah it was a Capella. They didn’t exactly give me a soundtrack.” he stood taking a few deep breaths and humming to himself. His legs were shaking even worse than before.

He rubbed his hands nervously together.

The studio went very quiet.

He felt sweat trickling down his back between his shoulder blades.

He took a deep breath and….

His voice came out loud and clear, though it quivered slightly. He tried to shore it up as he continued, taking deeper breaths trying to get more control. He tried to find that place where he had been back in the cage. The sort of hopeless anguish he had tried to convey. His voice did quake a few times, but he was ok with that.

At least he didn’t do something super stupid like fall off the stage.

He cut it off hallway because his legs were shaking so bad, he thought that any worse might cause him to fall over.

The crowd began to clap as he collapsed back into his seat taking a deep breath.

“Wow, that is pretty impressive for someone who says they don’t sing. Bet the person who wrote that didn’t think it would be used to escape alien kidnappers.”

“Whatever it was, it worked. But” he lifted his hand, “I’m shaking so bad right now.”

The man shook his head, “That form someone who doesn’t shake when he flies jets at thousands of miles per hour.”

He smiled, “The jet isn’t going to judge me if my voice cracks. I think you will find aliens and airplanes are a lot less scary than humans. Don’t get me wrong humans are great , you guys just scare me half to death.”

Saturday, June 6

A flight demonstration over the beach, which was pretty good

Sunday, June 7

Dinner with a few important famous people

Monday, June 8

Dinner with some politicians.

Tuesday, June 9

He visited some UNSC bases up and down the western coastline talking to servicemen and visiting some other people

Wednesday June, 10

The magazines came out, and they actually managed to make him look pretty good to his surprise, though he was pretty sure the picture had been taking while Sunny was doing something with her hips that Drev hips had not been designed for, which eventually made him laugh so hard he had choked.

Thursday, June 11

This was his last day, and he had one more press conference to attend, than he could go home. He was wearing his formal uniform, captain’s cap, cords, gloves and everything else. There were at least ten microphones on the lectern in front of him, and a crowd of reporters below. Lights blinded his eyes.

Behind his back, the UNSC flag outlined him in bright blue.

He was getting ready for more questions about the Burg war or wearing the steel eye armor.

He nodded to one of the reporters in the front.

“Commander, do you want to explain to us why, on UNSC time you were reported as supporting an LFIL protest when you were supposed to be acting as neutral crowd control.”

He felt the blood drain right out of his face.

He was not ready for this.

Inside his brain went blank. He stammered for a second, suddenly feeling like a little kid giving a class presentation while all eyes stared at him. More cameras flashed, “I…. I was doing what I thought…. Needed to be done to keep the protest civil.”

“That was not your job!”

More yelling until the crowd was shushed, “Look, the GA wasn’t seeing any of their representative. I simply explained their side of the story to the GA, and they decided to lift the ban on their own.”

“Directly going against the policies of the UNSC was a gross breach of your contract commander, and we are all having a hard time understanding why you have not been disciplined for it.”

“You have no idea what is on y contract. My job is to foster peace throughout the galaxy, and THAT is what I did.”

“Some people see it as a direct attack on our way of life. You are helping spread disease poor moral values throughout the galaxy.”

He felt his face burning, “What makes you think their relationships have anything to do with you NONE of them live on earth or on Mars. They do not interact with you, they do not bother you, they do not THINK about you. And no they are not spreading disease because every person who leaves earth receives a full disease panel. You are more likely to have communicable diseases than they are.”

Uproar.

He shouldn't have said that.

“You are spreading extrial propaganda, and now that you are the face of the UNSC you are having an impact on our children, so t is your duty to uphold the values of the Human public.”

His hands were gripping white onto the lectern, “It is my job to uphold MY values and if the UNSC doesn’t like what I am doing they will fire me, so that is none of your concern.”

“Commander Vir, are you an extrail.”

The room went very silent suddenly. His heart was hammering in his chest.

“You are out of line. My personal life whatever it may entail has no bearing on my work, so you will either ask me professional questions or we are done here.”

“But you haven't denied it!” Someone else shouted.

“That question doesn't deserve an answer either way. If i tell you, that means I am justifying myself to you, which I have no desire to do, and if I were to confirm the other way, I would be bringing a personal issue into a political light, which would also be inappropriate. Either way I will not answer you. Unless there are any more questions that involve my work and not my personal life…”

He wouldn’t budge forcing them to change the subject.

His hands were shaking again, but this time it was out of anger. He had to breathe very slowly to keep himself calm enough.

***

Headlines

Commander Vir Extrail or Normal

SCANDAL: UNSC’s Golden boy involved with aliens?

Press conference turns to barbed comments.

LFIL Propaganda

287 notes · View notes

willowaudreykeyes · 4 years

Text

Okay: I’ve watched it 4 times and here’s the things about the episode that I find interesting. Or that I’m looking too much into. You guys can all decide because idk.

- Roman seems to make alliterations when he's shocked? He's done it before, but now he's done it again and when he's surprised that Thomas 'lied' or 'tricked' the ticket person.

- Virgil has resting disappointed face even as he eats popcorn.

- Roman is very dramatic about the age thing. "He's in his thirties, he may as well be in his sixties." "Can't think of new excuses quick enough in his old age."

- "I love you" is very big words. Do not use them, or forget them, lightly around Virgil.

- Have they always been on his back so much about lying, or was it only after Janus was introduced?

- Possibility: Romans eyes actually change into hearts when cute guy appears?

- Also: Roman goes into Shakespearean when cute guy appears.

- Roman is so optimistic when it comes to love! But not about other Sides? He's rather pessimistic when it came to Virge (at the beginning) and Janus. And kinda Remus too.

- Roman has used "We don't know if he's not gay" more times then the three can count.

- Pins equals introverts way of talking apparently. I guess that makes sense, since there’s pins for almost every kind of hobby, and Virgil knows this too.

- Roman sounds rather happy when they found out that Nico likes Paramore. Supporting his emo friend and his hobbies right there.

- “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is and will always be a Prinxiety thing. Did you see those star eyes Roman gave? And how happy-surprised Virge was?

- Virgil does think about romance too. “You can live like Jack and Sally, if you want.” Kind of cute.

- Virgil has eyes like a damn hawk. He saw those pins and went full on x10 zoom on them.

- Roman’s got some adorable music happening when more clues appear.

- Sticker/Button System must be followed or Virge no happy.

- Roman is almost as good as Patton with puns, except he has to explain it. Has he done that before? I feel like he has. I feel like this is a thing but I’m not sure.

- Roman and Virgil have about the same wavelength when it came to the creepy stalking-ish part. They both cringe when Thomas goes off to the side.

- If you use a word at the end of a sentence that sounds like a name at Roman, he thinks you got his name wrong. He did it at some other point I can’t remember when but he does this. Kind of feels like a autism and/or ADHD trait? (I know I for sure get confused sometimes)

- “Great... he’s gay” “Great indeed...” “GREAT INDEED” I love them. Just gonna say that again.

- Roman has this big thing about his name and it doesn’t seem like its a thing he’s faking? He seems genuinely confused. The one that’s two above mentions it, and the way he spelt it at the trial? And how he seemed very defensive when Janus spelt it wrong? This is a thing.

- Virgil is a self-proclaimed expert of anti-social etiquette and I say he deserves that title.

- Virgil also really likes non-verbal ways of communicating.

- Roman does the thing where you put your two pointer fingers together and its adorable.

- Fast head nod of agreement coming from Roman here. Over dramticness? Or actual quirk?

- Roman very much freaks out when flirting goes wrong. Not just a Virgil thing.

- Virgil be scaring Thomas with zero regrets when he lost his test that the Universe gave him.

- Virgil be very glad to admit when he’s panicking. He also has admitted when he’s anxious in the past. He knows it, acknowledges it, makes Thomas and the others deal with it because dealing with it isn’t in the job description.

- Roman’s fine with compromise! Virgil gives an idea that attempts to help the romance part, Roman’s not 100% happy but rolls with it. Besties right here (even if they don’t know it). He does have a limit though.

- Nicknames are forever with Roman.

- Virgil is on Thomas’ left side, the more ‘thinky’ side of the brain. Roman is on the right, the more ‘feely’ side of the brain. It’s kind of more obvious in the scene where they grab Thomas a lot.

- Roman really slips with his feelings when he’s stressed. He says stuff that’s usually more about his self-worth. “You’re making a mistake.” “If I am, I’ll add it to the list.” That was said under a lot of stress and frustration. He’s done it before and he’s done it again; except now they don’t address it and it’s just a passing sentence.

- pLaNt

- Virgil would rather embarrass Thomas by making him talk to a stranger, instead of the guy that he thinks is cute? I mean, its very embarrassing by the end of it and Virge barely seems affected by it.

- And now Virgil is compromising. He works with Roman to make sure that Thomas looks okay (the “check your teeth” line).

- idk wtf the sty’s thing is about. Weirdly placed anxiety over it? Or something?

- Roman is very impulsive and basically throws Thomas into the trash can when a bad thing happens in front of a lot of people. Ego was definitely hurt there. Why hide instead of run away? Did Virgil sorta influence that?

- Plans help anxiety. Pretty sure they’ve covered that topic before, but lets just do a recap in this I guess.

- Virgil is half the people on this platform “Cyberstalking... but real life”. I mean, everyone makes a metaphor that has an actual word behind it sometimes.

- “Try Speaking from the heart” ... I expected Patton, but there has been moments before where a Side who is expected to be there, isn’t there. Logan showed this in “Moving On” when he physically left but he never REALLY left. Patton showing up to add his own words to this may have been too much for him? Or he thought it would be for the others?

- Ah crap here’s the monologue-

- First off, it’s very honest. Full on honesty. With no holding back. And it really hit the feels; but is it realistic though? (Genuinely asking I’ve never been in that kind of situation)

- Very rambly too “I honestly don’t know what I’m doing at the mall today. I don’t know what I was looking for... I guess that answers my question- The mall is where you go when you want something but you don’t know what it is because the mall has everything.” Very rambly, very nervous, very honest.

- Roman and Virgil are very... in awe? Shocked? What is this? Roman looks so contemplative as he looks at himself in the mirror and I wanna be in his brain and know what he’s thinking.

- “I don’t know a lot about anything. Least of all, myself.” Okay, Janus just pulled all the way away for a full minute and forty-eight seconds (this is 99% accurate) to just let Thomas talk and feel didn’t he? This is just complete honesty.

- Anyone would be awkward with the guy coming out of that stall. I’m awkward thinking about it and seeing it again. Moving on-

- “I gotta stop wooing strangers in bathrooms” just a 3000 word fic of at least one other time that he’s done this and I will be yours forever

- Virgil is a dramatic emo who dislikes lying. Crossed arms, waiting outside for him, looks up when he says “you know what I meant”- They’re all part of an actor your at least a LITTLE dramatic.

- Virgil has a big thing about lies and relationships. This has to do with him and Janus’ relationship somehow- It’s about Thomas’ relationships with friends and his romantic life too. He didn’t seem as annoyed about them in the ‘Lies’ song way back when which didn’t mention lying about any type of relationship.

- “Can’t have true love if the relationship isn’t built on truth.” Is this what he was thinking about in the bathroom? Its a cute line either way.

- Okay, Roman and Janus have some kind of... something. Cause a lot of Roman’s talks about his goals for Thomas pushes Thomas into relying on Janus until Roman realises that it’s morally bad OR (as seen in the talk after the bathroom scene) when he realises that it’ll be bad for Thomas in the long run.

- “Will (D)deceit continue to be the answer to all of your problems? Is that fair to him?” HIM WHO!? Janus or Nico!? Both!? AHHHH! This could mean so much in any direction you throw it but I can’t find the dang words!! “No, he’s better off without me.” This could just be Thomas misunderstanding the ‘him’ Virgil means too or he does understand idk-

- “I was afraid you left!” *INSERT TWO SIDES SCREAMING HERE* Hahaha he’s literally screaming on the inside omg-

- “He fears things too!?” Virgil doesn’t understand how people work when he’s worked up. Duly noted.

- Roman and Virgil equals A Gay Panic

- Thomas’ first thought when panicked is to ask the guy, that he thinks is cute and has been trying to get the attention of for the last while, ‘what is wrong with you?’ ... 10/10 Thomathy

- .Roman seems... a little resigned that another ‘chance at happiness’ is walking away? I mean, he’s super sad but resigned to his fate. That’s sad as hell. He’s USED TO THIS and I don’t like that 😢

- Virgil’s scene where he looks between, NOT Thomas, but Nico and Roman, is really well done and filled with... a lot. He psyches himself up first of, taking in quick breaths before pushing Thomas, obviously afraid but still doing it anyway. And the look he gives a very resigned Roman looks like its both guilt and sadness. Could just be me thinking that he has a ‘this is my fault’ thing.

- Full on surprise on Roman’s face when Virgil pushes Thomas. No one was expecting that.

- Carrots. The carrots brought them together. Thomas... you don’t have to eat carrots, but at least say ONCE that they aren’t all bad.

- “I like songs” you’ve also written some and sung x5 as many but okay, go with that I guess. (Is this to not brag about being a singer right away? I guess so?)

- If Nico was writing about something that happened midway through his visit to the food court, what was he writing about before that? Did he have nothing until Thomas tripped over the bin?

- “I tend to waste a lot of opportunities in my life” Then cuts to Virgil. Ouch. Direct hit on Virge...

- BRAVERY. (i’ll get back to this-)

- “Shut up, emo.” No complicated nicknames; just the easy picking. Very cute. Very yes. Roman your a sap and its great.

- When Thomas is telling Roman to ‘get out’, he sinks down and is he biting his thumb? He’s still excited. And I’m adding ‘biting’ to his list of stims.

- Virgil claps his hands. Roman and Virgil both cover their mouths. Both yell. Manic hand movements. Virgil gets Thomas to walks around and flappy hands. (And the nervous pee too I guess?)

- OKAY. EYESHADOW. Big thing, also new. I believe that it may be him ‘growing’ as a Side. First, he believed that he was JUST Thomas’ anxiety. Then comes to term with being more then that, which helps him become a ‘Light Side’. And now, he’s learnt that ‘fear’ and ‘bravery’ can both be present at the same time and is now growing from that as well. So, his back and forth between black and purple could mean a back and forth of the ‘fear’ and ‘bravery’ aspects. Thomas about to send a bad tweet? Black. Optimistic about things ‘never being the same again’? Purple. Thomas bringing up that they just met? Black. Its a promising start? Purple again. Purple when something optimistic, its purple. Pessimistic, its black. There’s a thing happening there.

- And also, lots of smiley Virgil when he goes purple. Brave enough to smile? Or optimistic enough to be truly happy about it?

- “Join me! No thinking!” Okay, all the ‘Roman Himbo’ stans have already gone nuts over this so I’ll keep going XD

- Roman’s first date idea is to go to France immediately and I love him for being so honestly over-the-top

- Dogs are the demons of anxiety its now a fact. They even bring out the Tempest Tongue, despite hearing the dog “thirty times a day”.

- Do not tell Virgil to relax. Black eyeshadow. Very on brand tbh. He does not relax and you should know this by now Roman.

All in all; I love them and the entire episode ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜

#ts spoilers #sanders sides spoilers #sanders asides spoilers #roman sanders #virgil sanders #roman headcanons #virgil headcanons #i guess?#tw caps #willowkeyes for reference #willowkeyes rants #*throws at Tumblr* imma go rb art now

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jwillowwolf · 3 years

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Magic and Miracles - Chapter 3

Sanders Sides Big Bang fic, Chapter 3! < Previous Chapter | Next Chapter > | Masterlist Summary: “Remy? Remy? Remington? Oi, Remy, wake up!” Virgil said, shaking the snoring man.

“Huh? Where’s the dragon?”

“Here,” Janus answered.

“Eh? Oh, hey Snake-Eye, Wolfie, Lo, Violent.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “You weren’t responding to the gentle shaking.”

“That’s no reason to make a man think there’s an earthquake.” Warning/s: food mention. Characters: Logan, Remy, OC, Virgil, Roman, Remus, Patton, Janus. Tag List:@theimprobabledreamersworld @remy-please-come-back

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3 | Lessons Begin

Waking up, walking to the dining hall, and eating breakfast had been uneventful. Logan felt like the atmosphere was relatively peaceful despite the tension from last night. Then again, everyone was still rather groggy from sleep, so he wasn’t going to make any assumptions yet.

Once the seven students had reached the classroom though, they seemed much more awake, aware, and eager to learn about the mysteries behind magic. They all sat at the desks they had claimed the day before and waited silently as Remy came into the room. Remy looked at them with a raised eyebrow.

“Are you all in trouble already? I’ve never known kids to be quiet without adults shouting for them to be so… never mind, let’s get this lesson started. The first spell that all young magic users should know is Stat Check. Do you know what that is?”

The class shook their heads no.

“Good! Because it’s meant to be a closely guarded secret. Never written down or spoken of among anyone but wizards and their first-year apprentices. Before I can even teach it to you, you need to solemnly swear to me that you shall guard this secret as fiercely as all mages before you.”

“That seems rather dramatic,” Janus commented.

“This is magic we’re talking about! Of course, it’s dramatic,” Remy said with a grin. “Now, swear that you’ll keep this secret locked inside your soul.”

The class did as Remy asked, with a bit of speculation but agreement all the same. Unfortunately, I can not repeat the spell, but I can tell you that it is activated by holding a finger to your wrist and saying the ‘activation’ word which I shall from here on censor as ‘stats’.

Remy demonstrated the spell and once he said stats a sheet of light projected from his wrist. Written on the sheet of light was:

Remington Animosni

Titles: Lord Animosni, Friend of the Crown, Expert Wizard, +...

MP: 52 - Full

HP: 100 - Full

Skills: Magic, Potion Making, Charisma, +...

“So this is your main status board,” Remy explained. “It shows your name, titles, MP aka magic points, HP aka health points, and skills. You can interact with it by tapping on whatever to expand the information on it.”

Remy demonstrated this by tapping on the title Expert Wizard, which caused the screen to change to this:

Expert Wizard.

Title earned by increasing MP above 45. Perks: increased HP. Drawbacks: none.

“This is how you can better understand your own magical capacity and skill set. If you want to view your stats privately, then just say S stats. If you want to see someone else’s stats then say X stats while pointing your wrist at the person you want to check. You will only be able to see their name, HP, and MP, but that’s still good to know if you’re perhaps fighting them.”

“Why would magic-users fight one another?” Patton asked.

Remy sighed. “The world is a complicated place, Pat. But never mind that. Try checking your stats, everyone.”

The students nodded then tried out the spells for themselves. All opting to view their stats privately. Logan opened his and read it critically.

Logan Picani

Titles: Loyal Friend, Loving Son, Apprentice Wizard.

MP: 10 - full

HP: 40 - full

Skills: Magic, Baking, Student, +...

He raised an eyebrow curiously and tapped on the skill Student.

Student.

Level: 23/100

Rare Skill. Perks: faster reading and comprehension, easily picks up new skills. Drawbacks: none.

That seems like a good skill to have. Logan wondered if it was the reason for his ability to teach himself so well. He tapped the word again and the screen changed back to the main status board. Then he tapped onto the title Apprentice Wizard.

Apprentice Wizard.

Title Earned by unlocking the skill Magic. Perks: MP access. Drawbacks: HP conversion.

“Um, Mr Ainmosni?”

“It’s Remy, kid. What’s up?”

“What does the drawback HP conversion mean?”

“Ah, well, if you run out of MP during casting a spell, then your HP will automatically be turned into MP. This is a drawback because it can mean draining your HP to below five, which causes you to fall unconscious and die if it reaches zero.” Remy explained.

“Isn’t there a way to stop that from happening?” Willow asked.

Remy shook his head. “It’s an automatic drawback that comes with becoming an apprentice wizard. There’s no way to stop it apart from being conscious of what spells you’re using and how much MP they take. Calculating this will hopefully help you to keep from draining yourselves, so keep that in mind when you’re trying out new spells, kay?”

Everyone nodded.

“Okay, now that you’re more familiar with your stats, let’s do a quick assessment of your magical knowledge, shall we? What are the basic magical categories… Virgil?”

“Rock, animals, water, plants, fire, air, healing, and mind.”

“Correct. Logan, why do these categories exist?”

“They are the eight-core magics. All spells fall under at least one category, and depending on which there will be a different Initiation Word.”

“Correct. Willow, what are the eight Initiation Words?”

“Mowntayn for rock, Pawyng for animal, Ignyght for fire, Groh for plants, um... Rayne for water, Stahwynd for air, Embraes for healing, and... Wysdome for mind.”

“Right. Janus, how is a spell cast?”

“You say the initiation word, draw whatever runes are necessary, then end off with the sealing word.”

“Good. Patton, why do we use runes?”

“The runes represent what specific spell you want to cast.”

“Yep. Remus, how many runes are there?”

“A million?”

“Close enough. Roman, what is the sealing word?”

“Solhart.”

“Correct! Now,” Remy grinned. “Let’s get to the tough stuff.”

The following days were pretty much the same as this one. The class either revised what basics they knew or Remy explained what they didn’t know. They practised pronunciation, studied runes, and learnt about different potion ingredients. Within the first month, the kids had pretty much memorised the basics of magic.

Logan had visited home every weekend and told his dad and Everleigh about it all, but his eagerness from that first week seemed to be slowly wearing out as the class did nothing new. He had thought that today was going to be the same, but instead of leading the students to the classroom this morning, Remy led them to the gardens.

“Uh, Remy? Where are we going?” Roman asked.

“Today, you kids will be going on your first quest,” Remy announced.

The group perked up. “Quest?”

“Yep. I’m confident in your understanding of basic magic, so I am going to let you go off on your own to find some potion ingredients for our first potion making class.”

Remy pulled out seven different pieces of paper. “I’ve made each of you a checklist for what we will need, and while you all have different items, I hope you’ll work together to find what you need. Oh, and before I send you off, I need to teach you a new spell. Inventory.”

Remy stopped and the kids circled around him to watch as he demonstrated the new spell. He picked up a stone and held it in front of him. “Stawynd.” with the indigo light that flowed from his fingertip, he drew a rune that looked like a locked box onto the stone. “Solhart.”

The rune turned white and then vanished with the stone, causing the students to gasp.

“Where did it go?”

“Right here.”

Remy opened his status board and showed the kids a small icon in the corner of the screen that looked like the rune he had drawn. He tapped on this icon and the screen changed to show a bunch of different slots, mostly empty apart from two. One with a picture of Remy’s flask and the other a picture of the stone from before.

“This is an inventory,” Remy explained. “You can put different items into each slot, and depending on your proficiency you will have more or fewer slots. To add items to your inventory, you do as I did to the stone. And to take them back out, you just double-tap,” Remy tapped the stone and it reappeared in his hand. “Tada! Okay, you try with your lists.”

Everyone tried out the new spell and practised it a few times before Remy let them all go on their quest. They went out a gate by the fence that seemed almost hidden and set off into the deep dark woods. Of course, it wasn’t very dark since the sun was shining brightly in the sky, and filtered through the trees to light their way.

“Should we check what each of our individual lists says?” Logan asked.

Patton nodded agreeingly. “Yeah, then we can keep an eye out for the different things.”

“Actually, I think we should just look for our own stuff. More things to look out for means we might miss our own.” Roman said.

Willow frowned. “But this is meant to be a group project.”

“Technically, Remy said he hoped we’d work together.” Remus pointed out.

“I have an idea,” Janus suggested. “Let’s work in teams.”

Roman rolled his eyes. “I just said that would be hard.”

“I mean smaller teams. One team works individually and the other works together, then we’ll see which way is better.”

“How are we going to split up though? There are seven of us.” Virgil pointed out.

“We can have a team of four for the working-together group. That’s four people working together but also the team of three will have fewer things to find, so It works out fairly.”

“Well, how are we choosing teams then?” Patton asked.

“Well, obviously I would be one of the team leaders. I’m a natural-born leader.” Roman declared.

“Yes, the leader of the losing team, because I’ll be leading the winning team.” Janus states.

“Remus and Patton are with me, and we’ll be the individuals.”

“Sounds good. We’ll see you three later then.” Janus said before walking away from the group.

Virgil, Logan, and Willow followed after them till the four were out of earshot. “So, lists?”

“I have blackroot, ginfleck, and wild ginger,” Willow reported.

Virgil frowned. “What’s ginfleck?”

“A medicinal herb used commonly in potions for stomach aches,” Logan replied. “It looks like a sunflower but pink.”

“Why not call it a pink sunflower then?”

“Because… I honestly don’t know.”

“Logan, you live nearby here right?” Janus asked.

“In town, but yes.”

“Any idea where we could find some of this?”

“Well, I think I remember seeing a ginfleck patch somewhere along the road.”

“Let’s go there first then. We can keep an eye out for everything else along the way.” Virgil said, turning in the direction of the road.

And so they went and collected the pink sunflowers and everything else on their lists. It was only late afternoon by the time they returned to the house, but they found Remy lying on a hammock in the garden, napping in the sun.

“Remy? Remy? Remington? Oi, Remy, wake up!” Virgil said, shaking the snoring man.

“Huh? Where’s the dragon?”

“Here,” Janus answered.

“Eh? Oh, hey Snake-Eye, Wolfie, Lo, Violent.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “You weren’t responding to the gentle shaking.”

“That’s no reason to make a man think there’s an earthquake.”

“Whatever. Have the others come back yet?”

Remy shrugged. “I think the twins are in the house.”

“Patton wasn’t with them?” Willow asked.

“No. Did you all split up?”

“Yes, but we didn’t think they would split up. We divided ourselves into two teams.” Janus stated.

“Well, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about and Pat will be back soon. Why don’t you guys head inside and get some lunch.” Remy suggested.

The kids exchanged anxious glances but nodded and headed off to the dining room. While they were not exactly a close group of friends, the one person who’d befriended each of them was Patton. He was a kind little ball of sunshine and no one wanted any harm to come to him. Once they were inside the house, the four found Remus worriedly pacing by the door and Roman gloomily watching her from the corner.

Remus paused. “Did you guys see Patton?”

“No. Did the three of you split up?”

“I thought we could cover more ground that way,” Roman answered. “This is all my fault.”

“Let’s not go jumping to conclusions just yet,” Logan said. “Maybe he couldn’t find one of his items?”

“No. I saw Pat’s list before we split up. They were three common types of wild berries that he could have found easily.” Remus declared.

“You’re sure?” Willow asked.

“I saw them all over while I was getting my stuff.”

“He must be lost. It’s rather easy with how thick these woods are,” Virgil said.

“We need to find him,” Janus declared. “We’ve got to go back and look for him.”

“Where and how though? He could be anywhere,” Roman said with clear fear in his tone.

“Willow can track him. They’ve been trained in finding lost people.”

“Yeah, but I’d need a scent to go off of.”

“Like from clothes?” Remus asked.

“Clothes, or a personal item he keeps close.”

Remus ran away then returned in record time with a teal blanket. “Would this work?”

Willow took the item and smelt it. “Yes, this is perfect.”

“We might have to sneak past Remy, in case he tries to stop us.” Janus said.

“There’s another gate that’s closer to the house that we can get through.” Virgil declared.

“Who’s we though? We’re going to need to choose who is a part of this rescue.” Roman pointed out.

“I don’t think any of us are willing to stay behind, not if we could help. Patton may be in danger, and his getting lost is evidence enough that no one should venture off on their own. We need to work as a team here. A real team.” Logan stated.

Janus looked at the twins. “I’m willing to call a truce in the name of teamwork if you are.”

Roman nodded in agreement and Remus grinned. “Let’s go save Pat!”

The group followed Virgil outside and through the second hidden gate. From there, Willow took the lead as she sniffed out Patton’s scent. The group grew anxious the further Willow led them. Patton had gone quite far, from the looks of it, but it felt like something was wrong.

“Why would he have gone so far?” Logan wondered.

“I hate to suggest it, but something may have chased him,” Janus said and Willow nodded agreeingly.

“Wouldn’t that leave a scent of its own?”

“Yes, but I can’t discern anything. There are a lot of smells out here.”

“Can you smell anything?” Roman asked Janus.

“No. I can’t smell at all.”

“What?”

“I’m a dragon. We don’t have a sense of smell like humans do. We use a special organ on the roof of our mouths.”

“Aren’t you half-human?”

“That just makes it easier to shift between my humanoid and dragon form. There aren’t many other differences.”

“Wait, do you hear that?”

The team paused and listened. The only sounds Logan could make out were the normal ambience of the forest. But then he heard it.

“Hello? Is anyone up there?”

“Patton?!” Remus bolted towards the voice, the others followed him close behind.

He came to stop at the edge of a hole and looked down. “Patton? How did you get down there?”

“Remus! Hi! I jumped.”

“You jumped? From this height?” Janus asked, eyeing the drop disapprovingly.

The hole looked like the beginnings of a well, around three stories deep and some stones piled like a wall around the one side. Either the well-maker had abandoned their project halfway, or half of the well had mysteriously been taken away. That wasn’t important though, because right now the team had to figure out how to get Patton back up.

“I’m fine! The water was here to break my fall!”

“Why did you jump in the first place?” Roman demanded.

“I was being chased by some bees.” Patton sheepishly admitted. “My mom always told me, if that happens then you should get below water, quickly. Bees don’t like water.”

“How did you antagonise these bees?” Logan inquired.

“I was trying to get some honey for Remus.”

“Aw, Pat, that’s really sweet. But I’ve been worried sick about where you went!”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. You’re safe now. Um, how do we get him back up though?” Remus asked the group.

“I can grow a long strong vine to use as rope for us to hoist him up,” Roman suggested.

Janus nodded. “Well then, get to growing. We don’t have all day.”

Roman quickly did as he was told and once the vine-rope looked long enough the team tossed one end down to Patton. Each of them lined up and held onto the other end then pulled to get him out of the hole. With all six of them working together, it was a quick and easy task. Once Patton was clear of the well, Remus attacked him with a hug, and he thanked everyone for coming to rescue him.

The entire group was relieved to have him back. So relieved that they didn’t feel any worry, until they returned to the manor and came face to face with Remy.

“Do you have any idea how worried I was? You didn’t even suggest you were going out! And what do I find? Not only one of my students is missing- all of them are! Gone without a trace! Like, poof, never there! What were you thinking? Actually, scratch that were you even thinking?!”

He went on like that until dinner time and the kids decided that among all the lessons they’d learned today, ‘Don’t Freak Remy Out’, is now at the top. Also, maybe it would be better to stick together than separate. They made a good team when their prejudices weren’t getting in the way. But above all, they should never freak Remy out.

---

A/N: thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this. I'll be posting two chapters a day until the full fic is up, so if you want to be tagged, you can just ask.

I'd love to hear what you thought about the chapter if you wouldn't mind commenting. Thanks again for reading! Here's hoping you have a magical day 💜

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citrineghost · 4 years

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100 Humans on Netflix

So there’s this neat Netflix Original show called 100 Humans. I immediately got interested in it because they take this group of various humans from different backgrounds, age groups, and so on, and they use them to conduct experiments to get answers to interesting questions.

So, right away I had concerns about this show because

If you know anything about data and statistical research, you know 100 people is a very small sample size and does not breed accurate results

However, I’m very curious and wanted to see what they came up with anyway. I watched all 8 episodes and, honestly, I enjoyed watching it for the most part. However, I have a LOT of issues with the show and how it was conducted and I want to list them out here.

If you’re interested in watching 100 Humans or have already watched it, please consider the following before taking any of the show’s data as fact.

100 people is a very small sample size. This is because, the more people you have, the more weight each increment in your percentages has. With 100 people, each person represents 1 entire percent. That’s a lot. That means even a few people giving incorrect answers, having off-days, or giving ridiculous results (such as you can see in the spiders georg meme), can sway the entire result of an experiment into unreasonable territory. This is why most scientific studies attempt to get data from many hundreds or even thousands of people. The bigger the sample size, the more accurate it is to the entirety of the world.

I’ll put the rest under the cut because it gets long

The 3 hosts, who I’ll refer to as the scientists (regardless of if they actually are, because I’m not sure and don’t feel like googling it) repeatedly make false statements. For example, in one episode, they told their humans to “raise your hand if you believe you’re less bigoted than the average person here,” to which 94 people raised their hands. One of the scientists then made the statement, “If that were true, it would mean only 6% of Americans are bigoted.” This statement is entirely false. The only way to actually determine a true meaning to that would be to determine at what percentage of bigotry you are considered a real bigot. You also must consider that believing you’re more bigoted than other people in a small group, who you already have an impression of, is not necessarily indicative of how you feel you measure up to America as a whole. Anyway, I could go on and on. The only way to accurately summarize the results of that question would be to say that 44% of the humans had an inflated sense of righteousness or something of the sort.

The 3 scientists, both in person and in narration, for the sake of entertainment (if that’s what you call it) continually made “jokes” that poked fun at different groups, implied men are shit, etc. Maybe that’s fun for some people, but the kind of jokes they were making to amp up the hilarity of their host personas was genuinely just uncomfortable and made me feel even more like they couldn’t be trusted to go about unbiased research.

The scientists continually drew conclusions where the results should have been labeled inconclusive

The scientists made blanket statements about certain groups based on 1 element of research that would not stand up to further evaluation. For example, when explaining that ~93% (i think it was about that number) of Americans have access to clean, drinkable, tap water and yet some large number of single use bottled waters are sold every year, one scientist said it was because people believe bottled water is safer and cleaner than tap water. I am going to do my next survey on this to see if my own perception is flawed, but I simply don’t believe that all of the people who buy bottled water do so because they think its cleaner than “tap” (as if all tap is the same.) I know there have been studies about people drinking unlabeled bottled water and tap water and not being able to tell the difference, but this neglects to account for the fact that different houses pipes can affect the taste of the tap water running through them, people can use disposable bottles of water for certain activities or events too far away from tap for people to refill their reusable bottles easily, and so so so much more. Anyway, it just really bothers me to see “scientists” making these kinds of generalizations when they’re the ones whose results we’re supposed to trust.

The show was incredibly cisnormative. There was an entire episode based on comparing men and women that made me extremely uncomfortable with its division of people by men and women. There was the implication that all men have penises and all women have vaginas. There were implications that reproduction is a necessity in picking a partner. It was just a shitshow. There was one comment by one subject who asked, when being told to separate by men and women, “What if I’m transgender?” Obviously I can’t say for sure, but this person didn’t appear to be transgender and the sort of tone it was asked in makes me think it was literally something they asked him to say in order to get inclusivity points with the viewers and to “prove” that they’re not transphobic by having them divide up, because they said to go to the side you identify with. This whole thing is a) harmful to nb folks who would not have had a side to go to and b) completely negating the fact that the way we were socialized can have an effect on our social responses. That means that for a social experiment, a trans person could sway the results of one side due to their upbringing and the pressures society put on them before/if they don’t pass. This is all assuming they had any trans people there, which is potentially debatable. I also take issue with this entire fucking episode because just, the amount of toxicity in proving one sex is better than the others is really gross and actually counterproductive to everything feminist and progressive. Not to mention, them implying that they’re trying to support trans people only to reinforce the notion that a trans man is inherently lesser for being a man when even prior to hatching, he would have also been force fed propaganda and societal pressure implying he’s less than for supposedly being a woman is really gross and makes me angry. The point of what I’m saying is that it’s actually not woke to hate men as a way of bringing women up because there are men who are minorities who are being hurt by the rise of aggression being directed at them for their gender. Anyway enough about that.

The tests drew false conclusions because they did not account for how minorities adapt to a world that’s not made for them. This is specifically directed at the episode where subjects were asked to match up 6 people into couples. There were 3 women and 3 men and the humans were asked to put them together into pairs. they could ask the people 1 question each but then had to match them up with only that information. The truth is, the people brought in were 3 real life couples already, which the humans didn’t know until after they matched them. The couples were m/f, m/m, and f/f. I think that’s great, but the problem is, literally none of the humans asked any of them their sexuality as their question and most people didn’t even consider they could match up same-sex people. One girl even thought that they had told her to make m/f pairings, even though they didn’t. The scientists concluded from the experiment that the humans have a societal bias toward people, and assume they’re all straight, even if they, themselves, are not straight. I personally believe that was the wrong conclusion to draw. You could see some of the queer humans were shocked that they hadn’t considered some of the pairings might be gay. But, I don’t think it’s because they believe everyone they meet is straight, I believe this says more about what they expected from the scientists themselves. If someone is in a minority and they go to do something organized, like a set of experiments, they are going to be judging the quality and setup of the experiments by those designing them. I feel that the lack of consideration that the couples might be gay has a lot more to do with queer people having adapted to a world where queers are rarely involved or included in equal volume to the cishets. The queer humans taking part in the experiment and failing to guess gay couples shows that they have adapted to a world where they are excluded rather than a belief that every random person that they meet is straight. My point is further supported by an expert they had on the show who explained that, statistically, it was entirely likely that they were all straight and that even queers will account for being minorities by going with what’s most likely. The truth is, we are surrounded by a whole lot of straight people. It makes sense to assume only 6 people are all straight and that, if any aren’t, they may be bi.

The scientists frequently broke an already small sample size into even smaller groups. The group was very frequently broken in half, in thirds, or into sets of 10 people. These sample sizes tell us almost nothing actually conclusive.

The experiments/tests frequently were affected by peoples abilities, unrelated to what was being tested. For example, one test that was broken down into 6 people and 6 control people competing at jenga was meant to show whether needing to pee helps or hurts your focus. first of all, sample sizes of 6 are a fucking joke. Second, this completely ignores these 6 people’s actual ability to play Jenga. If someone sucks at jenga with or without needing to pee, them losing Jenga when they need to pee says exactly fuck all about whether needing to pee affected their focus. They should have tested people’s Jenga skills beforehand, counted the amount of moves they made before the tower fell, and then did it again after hours of not peeing to compare their results. This test made no logical sense at all.

The scientists ignored the social effect of subjects knowing each other as well as duration of events during their last experiment. They were testing to see if people with last names near the end of the alphabet get a shittier deal because they go last in everything where things are done by name order. They tested this by doing a fake awards ceremony where they gave out some 30 awards to people, gauging the applause to see whether the people at the end got less hype and therefore felt worse about themselves than those in the beginning who got the fresh enthusiasm of the audience. the results showed that the applause remained fairly consistent throughout the awards. The issues with this test are numerous, but here are the three I take most issue with. 1) the people here all got to know each other very well over the week it took to make the show. People who know each other and have become friends are much more likely to cheer for each other with enthusiasm, regardless of how long it’s been. On the other hand, polite applause from a crowd at, say, a graduation, where you are applauding people you don’t know, WILL start off more raucous and grow very quiet except for individual families near the end. 2) the duration of the test was a half hour, which is not very long at all and doesn’t say much to test the limits of enthusiasm. Try testing the audience at a graduation with a couple hundred graduates that also involves the time it takes to walk all the way up to a stage a hundred feet away, accept a diploma, and then wait for the next person. These kinds of events take hours and nobody keeps up their enthusiasm that long unless they’re rooting for someone in particular. 3) this study tested only one of many many ways name order affects a person. Cheering and applause is only one factor. It does not take into account people having their resumes looked at in alphabetical order and therefore people at the beginning of the alphabet being picked before anyone ever looks at a W name’s resume. It doesn’t take into account a small child’s show and tell day being at the very end of the school year, after 6 other people have brought in the same thing they planned to. No one cares about their really cool trinket because they’ve seen a bunch like it already. This test doesn’t take into account how many end-of-the-alphabet people just get straight up told, “we ran out of time. maybe next time,” when next time doesn’t really exist. I feel genuinely bad for the girl who suggested this experiment because the scientists straight up said something akin to, “lmao her theory was bs ig /shrug” even though it was their own shitty research abilities that led to their results.

They did one experiment intending to see how many people have what it takes to be a “hero.” The request for this test was made by someone curious about the effect of adrenaline and if it really works how some people say. The scientists thought it an adequate method to determine an answer by testing their reflexes with a weird crying baby sound and then dropping a doll from above while they were distracted with answering questions. The scientists looked up before the doll dropped to indicate a direction of attention. While this does give some answers about peoples intuition, reflexes, and ability to use context clues, its entirely an unusual situation, makes no sense in reality, fails to take adrenaline into consideration literally at all, and has a lot more to do with chance. The person dropping the doll literally couldn’t even drop it in the same place from person to person. Some got it dropped into their lap and others almost out of arm’s reach. This, like a few of the other mentioned experiments, was during the last episode, which felt lazy and thrown together last minute, with very little scientific basis to any of the results. The last episode was weak and disappointing overall.

One of the big issues I have with this show is actually their repeated use of the same group. They said at the end that they had done over 40 tests. Part of doing studies is getting varied samples of people in order to get more widespread results. Using the same 100 or less people (already a tiny sample) repeatedly is a terrible research method. You’re no longer studying humans at large. You’re studying these specific humans. You can’t take the same group with the same set of inadequacies, the same set of skills, and the same set of biases and then study them extensively and in many different ways like this. Your results are inherently skewed toward these specific people and their abilities. I expected them to at least get a new group each episode - every 5 or so studies - but no. They keep the same group all week, which makes the entire season. This is inexcusable in research imo.

The next issue is contestant familiarity. The humans all getting to know each other is great, socially, but it also destroys the legitimacy of many of the studies that involve working together or comparing yourselves and your beliefs

Many tests had issues with subject dependency. One study, meant to compare age groups and their ability to work together to complete the task of putting together a piece of ready to assemble furniture had each group with members they relied on entirely. A few people built the furniture while one person sat across the room, looking at instructions with their back to the others. They had to relay the instructions through a walkie talkie to another contestant and that other contestant had to relay it to the people they’re watching build the chair. You cannot study a group’s ability to build something with instructions by the ability of one single person to communicate. You’re testing that individual and the rest of them on two completely different capabilities. One person fails at being able to communicate and everyone else becomes unable to build the furniture. Even if everyone else in the group is more effective than all the other groups at building ready to assemble furniture, they might end up falling in last because of their shitty communicator who is literally not able to convey simple instructions. (yes, this actually happened in the test)

One test judged the subjects at their speed of getting ready, to see if men or women are faster at getting ready. While most elements of this test were just fine, the part I took issue with was that they did this test without regard to social convention. They told the subjects they were going on a field trip and to get ready by a certain time. Then, they gave them many things to get distracted by, like refreshments to pack with them, a menu to preorder lunch from, and so on. The part that upsets me about this test is that they ignored social convention entirely, to the point that subjects were judged based on their conventional actions and expectations more than their actual speed at getting ready. The buses promptly shut their doors and left at the time they were supposed to but there was no final call to get on the buses. In general, when a group is to be taken somewhere by bus, there will be an announcement to load up and leave. You could clearly see many of the subjects were ready to go and were just standing around talking while they waited for fellow subjects to finish getting ready. I have no doubt that, if given a final call, most of them would have loaded up within a couple minutes. However, they were relying on the social convention of announcing departure and were therefore, left behind entirely (for a nonexistent field trip). These people who were left behind were counted as being late and not making the time cutoff. If one were to look at the social element of this situation, if everyone there believed there would be a warning before departure, the fact that 24 to 14 women to men were loaded onto the buses at departure doesn’t necessarily indicate the women were faster to get ready. It seems to me that it’s more likely to indicate anxiety at being late and a belief that they need not impede on anything lest they be reprimanded or have social consequences for taking too long - something women are frequently bullied for. There’s also the chance that many who boarded without final call are more introverted or antisocial. Plus, we can’t forget to include the people who have anxiety about seating. If someone is overweight, has joint pain, or has social anxiety, they will be more likely to board early to get a seat they feel comfortable in. If they had counted up all of the people socializing and waiting on the sidewalks nearby, they may have found that there were more men who were ready to board up at a moment’s notice. I’m not saying I think men are faster to get ready, I’m just saying that we can’t know based on who boarded without a final call. If people believe they will have a last minute chance to board, a large number of them will take the last few minutes to socialize with their new friends until they’re told they have to board. Therefore, this test cannot be considered conclusive without counting and including the people who were ready and not boarded as a third subset.

Honestly, I could go on and on about how sensationalist and unscientific this show is, but I just don’t have 6 more hours to contribute to digging up every single flaw with it. There’s A Lot.

My point is, if you feel like watching this show, which I don’t necessarily discourage inherently, I just beg you to go into it with a critical eye. Enjoy the fun of it and the social aspects, but please don’t rely on the information provided and please don’t spread it as fact, because it’s not.

It’s entertainment, not science.

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reidssmile · 5 years

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s h o t || s.r.

pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

warnings: angst, mentions of being shot at

word count: 1.8k

summary: the reader is office bound due to a shattered tibia after a shoot out with an unsub and she’s getting frustrated with not being able to help in the field.

Fourteen days. Fourteen god forsaken days since you’d been shot in the leg. They’d only kept you in the hospital for a few days to check vitals, and Hotch made you take a few days of rest. Seven days. Seven days of not being able to be in the field, and it was killing you inside. To say having you desk bound sucked would be an understatement from the team, you were one of their best field agents so losing you, even just for a couple weeks, really put into perspective how important you were.

The team could also tell that this was taking a greater toll on you, than you were letting on. You had become quiet, not being your normal, bright, sunshiny self and it worried them. Spencer, your dear Spencer, had been worried the most. You two had been dating for several months now and you confide in him for almost everything, so when you started to become withdrawn, he was amongst the first to notice. He also noticed small details, like the way you pulled your sweater over your hands-- a sign that you were feeling insecure. When he tried to confront you about it, you’d just responded with “Babe, I’m fine. You’re reading too much into it,” and then tapped him on the nose, something you did when indicating that you were done with a conversation.

Just thinking about it made him frown. It’s not that he liked analysing you, but as the days dragged on with you seeming out of it, he just couldn’t help himself. He missed your smiles that seemed to light up a room, he missed your witty remarks when Derek teased you about him, he just all around missed you. Y/N Y/L. His light in the darkness. Spencer decided he’d try and cheer you up.

“Hey.” He mumbled, leaning over you so that his hands were on your desk, looking at your computer with you. He kissed your temple, which caused you to flash a ghost of the smile that he knew. You sigh at the thought of not being in the field, not being able to protect that man that you love so much. It’s not so much you didn’t think he could protect himself, rather, you found comfort in the fact that you could help him and watch his back. You missed being his partner in crime fighting. “Hi.” You pushed out, trying to sound content, even through your sad thoughts. “So I was thinking…” He started and you turned your chair to face him. “Uh oh,” you teased, a playful smirk making its way onto your lips, making Spencer smile in return. “What if we go to lunch tomorrow, then maybe I could take you out to a nice dinner?” He asked the last part sheepishly. A real, genuine, sunshine-filled smile plastered itself onto your face. It felt good to feel sincere happiness, it felt even better because it was caused by the man you loved. It’d been a while since you and him have had a date, simply because work wouldn’t allow for it, cases popping up left and right. “I’d really like that, Spence.” You replied, nodding your head to confirm what you were saying was true. “Great,” is all he said before he planted a sweet kiss on your lips.

←♣º•º•º♣→

You grabbed your crutches and stood up, slinging your bag over your shoulder. Spencer had texted you last night about lunch, and the plan was to meet at the elevators at 2:00 and then head to both of your guys favorite cafe, which was just a few minute drive. You waited by the elevator for a few minutes and when you saw Spencer, a smile made its way onto your face. “Hey, baby,” you said, as he leaned down to kiss you. “All set?” he asked, scanning you over. You nod, and you and Spencer make your way to the car. Being in the car with him made you think about getting calls and riding with him to crime scenes, making you ache to be back in the field even more. You felt practically useless sitting at your desk filing paperwork about cases you weren’t even there for. It’s not like you could help Garcia, you weren’t nearly tech-savvy enough, and while Hotch offered to let you sit in on briefings and help, it just didn’t feel the same to you. The doctors said that the healing could take anywhere from three to six months and the fact that it had only been two weeks, was killing you inside.

You were lost in thought, and don’t think an expert profiler like Spencer didn’t notice how quite you’d been, or the fact that there was a pained look in your eye, or the fact that there was a frown on your face and a soft sigh escaped your lips every once in a while. Even though it only took 10 minutes to get to the cafe, the ride felt like an eternity to him, especially with you not being talkative. It’s not like he didn’t try to talk to you, he did— but you would always just give dry responses or not notice he was talking. He decided not to push you to answer anything, so he just dropped it, though it did linger in his mind. He pulled into a parking spot close to the entrance of y/f/c. “Y/N/N, we’re here,” he said, when you showed no indication you were getting out. His voice snapped you out of your thoughts. Now noticing your surroundings, you mumbled an “oh, thanks,” and got out of the car.

Once seated, Spencer decided he would try and make small talk while you both looked over the menu. “What were you thinking about in the car?” His question was bold and caught you off guard. Looking up from the menu, you stared at him with curious eyes. “It was nothing, Spence,” you reached across the table and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, “I promise.” You tapped him on the nose. He sighed. “You’ve got to stop doing that,” he said, gaining a questioning look from you. “Doing what?” “The whole ‘not being truthful’ thing,” you took a sudden interest in the shrimp omelet, but he wasn't done, “the whole ‘acting like you’re alright’ thing, the whole ‘cutting off a conversation before we’ve actually talked about a topic’ thing. Y/N, we have to talk about it, we can’t just pretend it didn’t happen or that it’s not affecting you.” You felt like a kid being scolded by their mom for not doing the dishes, but you weren’t just going to sit there and take it.

You bit your lip and opened your mouth, “Spencer, you are the one person who I thought would get it,” you chuckled sarcastically, “You have an IQ of 187, but you can’t seem to be smart enough to pick up on my so very fucking obvious frustration.” “I’m not following…” You laugh again, “Yes, I’m lying to you and the team about being alright, but do you want to know why? Because not only am I trying to convince you that I’m okay, I am trying to convince myself just as much! You don’t understand not being able to do anything, you don’t understand how absolutely unimportant I feel right now. I am out for six months, six fucking months, Spencer! It’s only been two weeks and I already feel like this, do you realize how absolutely miserable I’m going to be? I might as well just take off for a while, because then at least I’ll be at home and not sitting around at the office, doing nothing to contribute to a case. I am the BAU's least valuable asset right now, and at this point, I’m just in the way.” I finish my speal and Spencer’s staring at me like a deer in headlights.

“Y-Y/N… I never knew you felt like that.” He stutters, he’s trying to find his words. You roll your eyes, “Obviously.” “Y/N I want you to know that you are important, whether you’re in the field or not, doesn’t matter. You’re still one of our most valuable profilers and we need you on cases. You don’t have to pretend to be okay for us, the team, I mean… it’s alright to not be at your best, we’re not going to judge you for it…” He trails off, trying to find more things to say. Go figure, the one time the genius needs his words the most, he can’t seem to find the right ones.

“Being at my best is literally my job description, Spencer. Sure, maybe the team won’t care, but if word gets back to HR that I’m not 100%, I can kiss my badge goodbye. This isn’t just about being alright, it’s about my job and right now, I’m pretty fucking useless. God, I’m sick of it. I’m sick of being useless!” You vent out, your frustration causing tears to prick your eyes.

Spencer was shocked that you’d even say something like that. Sure, you didn’t seem super happy for the past couple weeks, but you never let on that you were feeling this bad.

“Y/N L/N, you are not useless. I don’t ever want to hear you say that about yourself ever again, okay? Because you are the strongest, most amazing woman I know, hell-- I don’t know a single person who could plaster a smile on their face the way you do after getting shot. You are a lot of things, but you are most definitely not useless.”

By the time he finished his speal, you were a sniffling mess. You grabbed his hands across the table and just held them in your own, leaning your head against them. “I love you,” you sniffed, “I love you so goddamn much, Spencer Reid.” He brought your hands to his mouth and kissed your knuckles. “I love you so much.” He whispered in between knuckle kisses.

It was such an intimate moment, but of course, all of those had to be ruined by a phone call. Spencer reluctantly answered it and sighed after a few seconds. “Be there in ten.” He said before he ended the call. “Case?” He nodded. Our waitress hadn’t even been around to get our drink order, so we just got up and left the diner. Once we were situated in the car, he grabbed your hand.

You chuckled. “What’s so funny?” He questioned, smiling while keeping his eyes on the road. “We didn’t even eat, and somehow, I feel re-energized. I think getting all of that out really helped me. So, thank you, Spence.” You smiled over at him, the smile never left his face as the parked the car in the parking garage. “Anything for you.”

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #criminal minds #criminal minds x reader #angst #fluff #reidssmile

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uraharasandals · 4 years

Text

It may be surprising to y’all but I’m actually going to be in my last year of high school next year and university applications are in fact, a thing. Anyways, to all of you out there who need this like me, hang in there and let’s get through 2020 as well as we could :)

Also this turned out to be way longer than I thought it would be so I decided to divide it into organisations!

How BSD characters would help their S/O through college apps (Part 1) [ADA]

[Kunikida]

- This man is a sweetheart despite his short fuse towards Dazai. When he sees you freaking out in front of your computer, he quickly rushes to your side with a mug of chamomile tea (yes he has done his research; Kunikida knew which tea is the most calming and soothing). Once you manage to calm down and let him wipe away your tears of frustration (if you had any), he asks you what was wrong.

- Kunikida lets out a sigh of relief when he heard that it wasn’t something life-threatening. However, he still recognises that college applications are extremely important, so he resolves to help you as best as he could.

- Kunikida has been to university, so he knew that the process was quite difficult. However, when you list out your problems with a lot of terms and jargons that are specific to the college application system, his head went up in confusion.

- He quickly figured out the basics through Google though, and did research on a lot of applications that did get the applicant into the universities that you were looking at. After leaving him alone for five hours and stressing through it by yourself, he came back with a stack of information that would help you, and talked you through it slowly, making sure you understood all of it.

[Dazai]

- Dazai tries to cheer you up with jokes and his frolicking around, as well as snacks and maybe even something romantic. But when you start breaking down into tears of frustration, he starts to mildly panic. He asks if there was anything he could do to help and you really didn’t know.

- So he decided to look at what was scaring you so much. Dazai has to admit, he was a little surprised at how complex the entire thing was. But he manages to educate himself on it to try and help you for once (yes, Dazai can be helpful when he wants to be thank you very much)

- Once he’d checked you have calmed down, he presents you with a whole new host of options; do you want him to help you threaten or bribe your dream university so they would accept you? After your shock at his proposed solutions faded, he starts to offer actually useful advice.

- Dazai is a strategist and he knows it. So he laid out his plan to ‘conquer’ this complicated game of ‘entering university’ (because after all, it’s still a situation where brains would help; there were set rules and people had manoeuvred around it. He would simply do the same and play dirty). Amazingly, his plans were strategies that you had seen people talk about on Youtube -- and once again Dazai took the opportunity to brag about it and act cute around you.

[Atsushi]

- Atsushi isn’t sure how important university really was, but then he saw you having a breakdown in front of your computer and knew it was serious and competitive business. After panicking for about ten minutes, he calmed down enough to ask whether you were okay and whether you need anything.

- After getting you a glass of water, he tries to reason his way around it; after all, a lot of people had got through life without university, so it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Besides, you can always join the ADA! But when he saw it was going nowhere, he decided to call in the expert - Dazai.

- Dazai gave him shit advice as always, so he turned to Kunikida. Kunikida rambled on for quite a while, but he summarised it at the end by simply saying ‘Try to figure it out yourself before you can help her, brat.’

- So somehow he decides to try for university himself as well, despite not having had any qualifications before. Atsushi decided to try getting into a vocational training institute (where you learn practical skills rather than going for an academic/professional degree), and you ended up helping each other to your dream universities :)

[Yosano]

- Yosano-sensei is another one who doesn’t understand the need to go to university. She herself became a healer through her abilities (and her past which we won’t go into), so she thought that it was ridiculous you needed to go to medical school.

- But when she realises the gravity of the situation she immediately sobers up. While she knows that she can’t help on that end, she offers as much moral support as she could; ushering you to bed whenever she sees you staying up too late, making you meals or getting takeout whenever you want to stress eat, or comforting you. She was there for every step of the way, and available for hugs all the time.

- When you had to go for an interview, she made sure you were dressed properly for the occasion. Even if it was an online interview, there were no excuses; you absolutely cannot wear a formal shirt and shorts just because you were at home.

- Once you were done and finally finished with the applications, she drags you out on a shopping trip with her. It didn’t matter that there wasn’t anything you guys needed, she made up her mind that it was better for you to get out of the house and take in some fresh air. Besides, it was the better alternative to sitting in front of the computer and continuing to fret.

[Ranpo]

- The third one that doesn’t give a crap about university. He decided to pick a fight with you, stating out about 100 reasons why it was pointless to go and why you shouldn’t go because 1) it was useless and 2) he needs you by his side.

- He had meant to rile you up in a fight, but that just resulted in you being more stressed and attempting to push him away instead of seeking him for comfort. When you started giving him the cold shoulder (because you really needed to concentrate), Ranpo threw a fit and there was a cold war in the house for a few days.

- Eventually, he asked Kunikida about what was so important about university, and realised that it may actually mean a lot to you. But being Ranpo, his pride was still there and he didn’t want to apologize just yet. He decided, however, to be as helpful as he could be.

- And every time you sit in front of the computer, there was a different kind of sweet sitting there waiting for you. Sometimes it was your favourite, sometimes it was his favourite, but it didn’t really matter; the intentions did. When Ranpo saw you accepting the sweets, he took it as a sign that you forgave him and started to stick to your side whenever you were working on your applications. He doesn’t really say anything, but you knew he was there as best as he could.

[Tanizaki]

- Somehow he found you in one of your breakdown sessions and immediately panicked. However, instead of being in panic mode for ten minutes like Atsushi did, he asked hesitantly whether he could approach you, and when given permission, he held and hugged you until you were able to calm down significantly.

- Tanizaki admits that he doesn’t really know how to help; he was a student formerly but quit to join the ADA. However, Naomi was still in high school, so he decided to approach his sister for help regarding this.

- Naomi gave him loads of tips which he shared to you, but eventually he invited her over and you two had loads of studying sessions and university application sessions, which helped you a lot, especially when you had a friend together. Naomi was also motivational because she gets things done easily, and gives you a lot of advice.

- Tanizaki knew that he would be interfering if he was part of the circle, so he just lets you and his sister get it on. He does provide mental support and food though, and cooks dinner, and makes desserts whenever you two feel stressed or are studying late into the night.

[Kenji]

- Kenji is a country boy. He doesn’t know what this complex university system is, because back in the country you get plucked out of school every so often to help with crops and most of them don’t make it to university. (please tell me if I got this incorrect!)

- Being innocent and carefree as he was, he kept asking you questions about how things were done. At first you replied to get him away from you, because you needed peace and quiet, but while answering him, you realised you answered some of your own questions.

- Kenji was also a kind boy, so he asked the people he helped around Yokohama how he could help you. Some of them offered genuine advice, but he just messes it up when he tries to offer it to you, but it does make you laugh. Sometimes, however, he comes back with sweets and offerings from sympathetic parents; he once came back with a kitten, which made your stress decrease a LOT.

- On weekends, he insisted on you taking a trip with him to the countryside even though you protested it; you had a lot on your plate. However, these trips often help clear your head and you were able to write more once you get home. The fresh air does do wonders for your stress.

[Kyouka]

- Her first response was to kill someone, obviously. However, once you persuaded her that it doesn’t work, she told you, with a deadpan face, to trash the computer. That wouldn’t work either.

- She tried to bring you all sorts of cute things to cheer you up. That did, temporarily, but she soon realised the fundamental problem of ‘not enough space’. So she decided to cook for you instead, which helped a lot.

- Kyouka doesn’t really understand how university works, so she had you explain it to her. Once she learnt all of it, however, she started offering advice on her experience as an assassin, and tried to put them in context of university applications.

- You weren’t sure how, but it somehow worked. Kyouka also asked Atsushi for help, who asked Kunikida. At the end, she dragged Kunikida to your place and helped you, while staring at your process. Whenever you get stressed and wanted to throw things, she offers her ability as target practice.

[Fukuzawa]

- Fukuzawa did go onto higher education. But back in his days higher education was much, much simpler. He just stared on in disbelief when you tried to explain the current university application process, and had to tell you that it was ridiculous.

- However, he tries his best to help. Being an avid reader of literature, he introduced books that he thinks might help your preparation; if you didn’t have time to read them, he gives you ten minute crash courses on them (despite his dislike of people not reading what he recommends), and helps you out on how to summarise them properly on your applications.

- Fukuazawa also helps you proofread your essays or applications. He points out what he thinks as incoherent or lengthy; basically, after his scrutiny, your application was beautifully polished in the only way he could help.

- He also makes sure you gets enough rest and sleep in the midst of all this. Fukuzawa remembers to usher you away to bed at the appropriate timing and to wake you up whenever you decided to operate on sleep deprivation alone. He was the only thing keeping you to a reasonable schedule and timetable, but you could get out of it if you waved a cat in front of his face.

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 5 years

Text

Disability and Loren

@zarohk asked for my thoughts on a Disability Studies/Media Studies perspective on the disability depictions in Animorphs. Which was foolish, because I’m teaching an entire dang class on the subject of superheroes and mental health, so I have Many Thoughts. [PLEASE NOTE: I am nondisabled, so if I err, please tell me so.]

Loren’s role in #49: The Diversion does a lot of things right, and a lot of things wrong. She incurs a traumatic brain injury that results in memory loss and blindness a couple of years after Tobias is born, and lives with said injury for about ten years before Tobias finds her and gives her the ability to morph, which restores her sight but not her memory.

A few places where I commend the depiction of Loren:

It gets into the massive underemployment of disabled Americans. Loren is smart, canny, athletic, compassionate... and working a call center job in exchange for state benefits. Said state benefits do not afford her a decent standard of living; Tobias notes that she has few possessions and almost no time for leisure activities. Americans with disabilities are twice as likely to be unemployed as those without, and those who do have jobs are ten times more likely to be paid less than minimum wage, e.g. in sheltered workshops.

It shows how inaccessible a lot of systems are in the U.S. Tobias notes that Loren accidentally grabs an expired quart of milk — because nothing on the label is printed in Braille. Putting raised text and/or Braille on food packaging is a health and safety issue, one that the U.S. ignores even though it violates its own laws (e.g. the ADA) because companies tend to do what they want and “what they want” is usually not to spend more money on packaging. The call center and bus system are both marginally more accessible, especially when Loren has Champ to help, but they’re still clearly spaces set up for sighted people that don’t take blind users into account very well.

It shows some of the workarounds that help deal with accessibility problems. Loren’s house is set up so that there are clear paths to and from all of the relevant spaces. She’s doing that to allow herself to move around comfortably in that space, because she’s made it accessible for herself. She memorizes the layout of the local store, and uses that to get around as well. All of those details help show that she’s adjusted, and actively interacting with her own circumstances.

It drives home the difference between service dogs and pets. This distinction is extremely important, and it gets ignored all the time by entitled ableists who want to bring their pets into stores. Tobias and Marco both assume from the outside that it can’t be that hard to become a service animal — just do what Loren says to do, right? — but it takes Tobias 0.02 seconds to realize that it’s not that simple and that he cannot imitate Champ’s lifetime of training on the fly. He says that he manages to get his mom home in one piece, and that that’s about all that can be said for his sad performance as a guide. Champ has skills like ignoring interesting smells and applying exactly the right amount of pressure to the harness that most pets don’t have and also most pets can’t learn. Champ is not a pet, at least not while he’s in that harness; he’s a gainfully employed expert assistant.

It rounds Loren out as a character, and definitely does not just make her into a lesson or problem for Tobias. Loren is gently humorous, tolerating her coworkers’ teasing and Ax’s attempted juvenile delinquency with an eye-roll. She’s compassionate, listening to other people’s problems on the phone with genuine concern and not swatting flies if she doesn’t have to. She’s tough-minded and stupidly brave, chucking rocks at Visser Three’s head and flying at attack helicopters as a three-pound bird. She’s fallible, unable to support Tobias emotionally even when he asks her to do so and unwilling to check in on him after leaving him with her sister. She’s a fully rounded person, one whose personality is informed but not defined by her disability.

It talks about some of the unromatic aspects of a Traumatic Brain Injury. Too often in other works of fiction, we see a person get bonked over the head and wake up with no episodic memory but all other brain functions intact (*cough* Rachel in MM1 *cough*). Loren actually gets into the fact that she forgot huge chunks of language, forgot how to brush her teeth, forgot how to walk across a room. She obviously lost her sight as well, and she mentions lifelong balance and coordination problems. Even her amnesia isn’t absolute — she has some traces of recall, but can’t make anything coherent of her impressions. Her injury isn’t 100% realistic, but it’s more so than many TBIs we see in fiction.

It focuses on the intersection of disability and social class. Tobias notes that Loren is under a compounded threat because of her inability to move to a more secure neighborhood and her obvious vulnerability. He feels a lot of disgust with himself when he and Marco and Ax are harassing Loren, because it’s so clear that this isn’t the first time she’s been harassed. Tobias understands that his experience with poverty as a nondisabled male minor is different from Loren’s for those reasons.

A few places where Loren falls into the common traps of implied ableism creeping into fiction, as written about in Narrative Prosthesis:

She gets “cured.” Loren falls into the “kill or cure” dichotomy, like most of the other disabled characters in Animorphs. In her case, it’s that she gains the power to morph and in the process regains the ability to see. It isn’t a complete cure, true — she still has no memory — but it means that she’s no longer blind for the rest of the series. Having the occasional character no longer be disabled sometimes isn’t automatically problematic; having every disabled character get either “fixed” or killed off inherently treats the disabled body as a problem that needs to be solved, through sci fi nonsense if no other way is available.

She implies that she’d rather die than continue to be disabled. When injured by dracon burns, Loren initially refuses to morph out even though Tobias tells her she’ll die if she remains a bird, because (they both assume) to morph out is to return to her blind human body. This moment buys into the stereotype that it’s better to be dead than disabled, again inherently devaluing the lives of actual blind individuals.

There’s a certain amount of mystery around how she became disabled. It’s interesting that we never actually get a definitive answer on that one — Loren says she was told it was a car crash, but there’s also an implication that she was attacked by controllers, and we don’t know for sure. However, the fact of her disability is treated as an aberrant state that needs to be explained, the book inherently asking “why are you like this?” By contrast (for instance) she doesn’t ask Tobias “why are you in the body of a hawk?”

She views herself as a burden, and the narration doesn’t do enough to contradict her. Loren says that she couldn’t possibly be expected to raise a child while also blind and coping with a TBI. Real blind people raise kids all the time, however, including blind single parents, and it’d be nice to see some evidence in the story that Loren’s assumption is wrong. Loren also apparently assumes that she can’t begin to play a role in Tobias’s life even now that Tobias is more self-sufficient, again because she views herself as relatively helpless and non-contributing due to her disability. There are some hints that she’s wrong, but we don’t really see her either begin to contribute to the resistance or build a relationship with Tobias until after she’s become un-blind.

Tobias’s view of Loren is often pitying. As much as Loren doesn’t initially view herself as a potential maternal figure to Tobias, he doesn’t view her as a potential mentor either. He repeatedly expresses horror or sadness at her life circumstances, and assumes that her life must be barren due to the spartan nature of her home. (Of course, that begs the question of why the hell a blind woman living alone would ever bother hanging pictures on her walls or putting doilies on her coffee tables, but Tobias doesn’t consider that angle.) Again, Tobias is allowed to assume that her life must be meaningless if she’s disabled, but it’d be nice to see some contradictory evidence in the form of her having close friends or inane hobbies or some other proof that to lead a disabled life is not to automatically lead a lonely one.

Loren expresses bitterness and desperate desire to be nondisabled. Again, it’s fine for any character to say “I wish my life was different,” and it’s a common consensus among blind writers/bloggers that being blind is often a pain in the butt. However, views as extreme as “you need vision to have a fulfilling existence” or “vision is part of what makes us human” are ableist crocks of shit. Loren doesn’t go so far as to espouse those extreme views, but she also doesn’t seem to view herself as having a well-rounded life in spite of her disability. It’d be nice to see Loren talking about sight as handy or enjoyable or a thing that the designers of 99% U.S. environments assume everyone must have, rather than a necessary precondition for a minimum standard of life.

Loren’s disability is somewhat medicalized. Same caveat as above: disabilities are by definition medical things that some bodies do or have that other bodies do not. However, discussing disability primarily through “this is how your body is different from Implied Normal of Nondisabled Body” and focusing on doctor’s notes, diagnoses, physical differences, etc. can serve to disconnect the lived experience of the individual from their body. It also tends to focus on the ways that the body is “the problem” rather than focusing on the ways that environments and attitudes are problematic, which then prevents anyone from asking hard questions about the environments and attitudes. Loren’s doctor’s note, discussion of scarring and loss, and repeated physical descriptions are somewhat more medical than social. It’d be nice to see a little more emphasis on the social factors that make blindness a disability (e.g. improperly labeled milk), and less on “your eyes are different from those of Implied Normal Nondisabled Person.”

#animorphs #animorphs meta #long post #loren fangor #ableism #disability studies #disability representation #accessibility #social model of disability #animorphs criticism #blindness representation #49 #the diversion

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arkt-nehrim-archive · 4 years

Note

For the asking thing: Thoughts on Lexil Merrayil? :3

I adore Lexil. He’s -brilliant-, and he felt very genuine to me compared to other characters. He was always happy to see us, -thankful- that we came back in one piece, and sets himself up to be trying as hard as you are even while not giving himself the credit of -honestly carrying nearly this whole thing himself-. I really feel like more could’ve/should’ve been done with him. And I don’t just mean for like, content that could’ve been added in Forgotten Stories, I mean from a -total- narrative sense too. This might get lengthy. And also spoilers, so many spoilers.

The Star City, for example. Lexil clearly showed interest and ability in being able to go along for that trip, but instead his mentor/mother figure Yaela gets shoe-horned in as a random expert in Starlings, when if -she mentored him-, Lexil could’ve have just as easily been. “Didn’t he need to stay to work on the Beacon?” Development on the Beacon was at a stand-still at the time, he would’ve been free to go on the trip with you. Cue actually getting to speak to him on the ship, and the opportunity for a romance dialogue -if- there had been one as an option for him (providing us tall ass Aeterna players with a not borked cute scene). Carrying forward into the journey where -he- would’ve figured out the everything, with -all- the relevant data running amok in his head since he’s basically been doing 90% of the work here and it -could’ve- been a stressful thing. Not this “GASP! I FIGURED IT OUT! -barfs exposition out of nowhere coming to conclusions for the sake of plot convenience over it actually making any sense to magically know these things off of some pictures that could definitely be interpreted in like 20 different ways-”. Lexil, you, and Jespar/Calia could’ve spent that 12 hour window to explore and get back to the ship smacking your collective heads against the wall to figure this out, having another moment that Enderal prizes so much to truly -discuss- and potentially argue your points, before Lexil (after hearing all the counsel) could more -realistically- come to the conclusions that Yaela came to. Oh no! The big dragon boss reeeee! Now there’s a character defining scary moment where you can CHOOSE to either leave Lexil behind to hold the line while you escape -OR-, if you got the chops for it, -fight the lvl 100 Steel Dragon- with your best pal Lexil, getting to finally show him in -combat- for once, paired up with your choice of bestie. “But wait, if we chose to let Lexil die, how would we finish the Beacon-” YAELA! Who could be JUST as sad about losing her basically adoptive son to Tealor’s magical adventure quest to be famous save the world, and -she- could finish the Beacon. Or Yuslan could, I mean he contributes quite a lot too, especially when we hit snags. Oooor, we beat the boss and Lexil is proven a total badass that we -all know him to be-. But wait then why would they have any reason to flee in the drop pods? Easy! The steel beast still destroyed the ship and there’s no other way down, plus the alarms are still in play at that point (thanks Kurmai), so it’s not like it isn’t still dangerous to be there. It could’ve given him -such- a deeper role to play even if that was the only quest we got to really -do- with him out in the field. Alas~ Such is only the dreamy realm of headcanon. Before I stop, I want to add in that Lexil had an effect on me that’s -never- happened in a videogame, ever. And that was at the -end-. Already striking was just -seeing- the Cleansing happening, but it’ll be forever burned into my memory seeing that subtitle at the bottom of my screen, “Lexil Merrayil: -wheeze-” I whirled my camera around trying to find him, and by some awful luck, he was -centered- in my camera in such a way that took my damn breath away. He looked like he might’ve been running for the very place I was going, before he collapsed. Took the few steps needed to get closer to him, in which I saw just how awful he looked; the shivering I remember the most. It froze me solid, I just couldn’t -do- anything for -minutes- while the Beacon roared in the backround and that heart-wrenching music played, and somehow, for whatever reason, -all- of my failures and triumphs up to this moment in the game did not feel like -this-. I felt awful that I didn’t even -know- a healing spell, in the off chance that would help. I couldn’t bring myself to try to put him out of his misery, despite the obvious terrible pain he was in. I don’t honestly remember what happened after, at some point I had to have moved, because I finished the game. But I legit barely recollect between waiting there with Lexil aaand waking up in the Star City for the Brave New World ending, it’s all a haze. Maybe it was the fact of anybody I’d encountered, he well and truly -did not deserve this-. It made me wonder what sort of writer would -want- to write that. And y’know, some people think that helplessness expressed in their stories is provocative and -good-; and for some it -is-. For me it’s...overdone and unnecessary, as its so often accompanying other tragic circumstances that are already bad enough on their own. Lexil’s situation was obviously no different, I mean. The Cleansing and all that. Yes, some writers desire to load their stories up with grimdark awfulness, that’s tragedy as a genre in a nutshell, some kind of reminder of “real life” where bad things happen and you can’t do anything about it. Buuut... Lexil was a bit much in a game with several other prior character deaths, one of which is a -suicide-, another a -child-. There’s a point when it is -too much-, even for a tale of that genre, -especially- in a conclusion that just ends in -everyone- dying. Lexil’s fate required such a disconnect that I don’t really remember the end, as I said, and I still haven’t been able to go back and play again, because everytime I see that Beacon at the beginning, I think of Lexil and the fate that awaits him and me; it puts this firm -stop- into it that questions what about another trip through could possibly be worth it when -that- is the end? And it -sucks-, because Enderal is such a fun game! I genuinely -loved- it, up until that. It’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, but man... Lexil. How’s the saying go? Straw that broke the camel’s back? Maybe one day I’ll manage to play again, but so far I never make it past that first meet with Jespar.

Huuh. Wow, that got long winded. So uhm, to answer the question. Lexil Merrayil left quite an impression. He’s very special to me; if not just for being a solid, under appreciated character, than for the emotions he invoked. I really wish he got a better hand dealt to him, but, alas.

@cat-with-a-keyboard Thank you! Apologies for the feels trip!

#Vyn #Enderal #Enderal: Forgotten Stories #vyn-spoilers #Lexil Merrayil #answered ask #also Tumblr hilariously broke this so it pushed the Keep Reading up out of the actual text box and now I can't fix it #apologies for that xD

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nightklok · 4 years

Note

if you feel like it, i would absolutely love something w/ knubdensen with #56 or #86 of those love prompts 😭

Yes to both!! Gotta love them! And apologies for this being late!! I really needed to write fluff tonight so this helped me finally finish it so I hope that this was worth the wait!

100 Ways to Say I Love You Prompts[Open]

56.) “It Brings Out Your Eyes.” Word Count: 962 Words

There was always something nice about being able to have enough time to actually dress for an occasion and not throw in something lazily like the other boys. Time was valuable in the music industry. Friends had mental breakdowns and quit because of it. Projects that couldn’t meet the deadline were shelved away, never to see the public eye. Luckily for Dick though, he never had to go through any of those things personally. Time was still young for him but all he needed was to remember those cold nights in jail and that became his driving force for not falling under like the rest of them.

Working with Dethklok had shown how much power time was given. A little too much power if he had to be honest. Despite all the planning ahead and schedules and meetings, everything was crammed to the last possible minute and somehow, they managed to pull it off. It left him with a sense of euphoria and exhaustion each time they worked and finished on a song. Thank God that he managed to fix up the album with just minutes to spare to the deadline. And now, he got to celebrate the product of caffeine pills, sleepless nights and whatever else he managed to get his hands on.

The fun part with working with Dethklok was the manager. And the parties. But mostly the manager. Specifically, it was the quiet moments whether it was at the recording studio or in one of their bedrooms and it was just the two of them. The times were few but were a delight when they did. Charles did try to put time set aside for him. He was easily able to mask it as ‘work matters’ and what they did afterwards was certainly not worked related but nobody needed to know that.

Putting on their final touches for their outfits to prepare for the album release party? Definitely something that was work related. They didn’t necessarily need the help with their outfits; they had their own tastes that neither was willing to give up. But having a person give in some comments such as ‘You’re looking handsome’ was far better than just staring at a mirror.

With just an hour to go until the release party, they were almost done with their outfits. He had insisted to help with Charles’ tie, not because he couldn’t do it but because he honestly liked doing it for him. With how much he was able to do things so efficiently, it felt nice to be needed for something even if it was as small as tying a tie.

Dick finished with his tie in just under a few seconds. He stepped back just to make sure he did the correctly and he obviously did as he was an expert at ties (but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use it as an excuse to take a good look at him).

“How do I look?” Charles asked.

“Handsome, as always.” Dick responded with a smile as he reached up to kiss him. He was careful to not ruin the suit he had meticulously helped straighten.

Charles kissed him back, “Thanks for the help, Dick. Now, why don’t I help you with your tie now?”

Dick rummaged through his drawer. He chose to live outside of Mordhaus as he had other bands to produce but he was given a room just for those long nights. It was honestly a blessing because it brought less baggage and less chances of forgetting to bring certain things. Unfortunately, he had to take his ties out to the cleaners, and he must’ve left them at his home. He had no ties now and this was not good at all. If he had no ties he wasn’t going to show up; that was honestly worse than having to go to jail.

“Dick, are you alright?” Charles asked as he noticed his frantically searching.

“Uh...yeah, totally, babe! Just have one teeny tiny problem.”

“And what’s that?”

“I forgot my ties at home.”

“Oh. Well you can borrow one of mine. Hold on for just a moment.” Charles answered. Before Dick could say another word, the other already left his room.

Charles came back a few moments later with a few different colored ties, “I ah wasn’t sure which color you would have preferred but I think one of these would look best on you.”

Dick smiled as he took the ties. He went to the mirror to decide which color tie would look good on his suit. His suit was a dark grey and the colors Charles provided were a dark red, dark green and a navy blue. He honestly would’ve gone with something a bit more vibrant but it felt nice to get to wear something the other picked out. It was the little things that kept their relationship as colorful as it could be, “What color do you think would look best?”

“Ah the green one. It really brings out your eyes.” He answered with a soft chuckle and Dick laughed.

“Very funny; all the ties would match my eyes anyway. You wanna help?”

“Of course,” Charles helped with his tie. He was a bit slower compared to Dick but he still carried the swiftness and efficiency that came with experience. Pretty soon, he finished with the tie and stepped back.

“How do I look, babe?” Dick asked.

“Handsome, as always.” Charles said with a smile.

They shared another kiss. They had about 45 minutes until the celebration began but nothing would hurt about sharing a drink as they watched guests arrive. They could take their time. Wow.

Dick managed to look at the mirror before they left. The dark green really did go with his eyes after all.

86) “You’re important too.” Word Count: 1044 Trigger Warning: Depression (But there is a bittersweet/happy ending)

It’s hard to remember it, honestly.

Charles knew he was important, but it was hard to realize that sometimes. After all, he had an image to maintain. And such an image meant that he had to do certain things, behave a certain way and talk to the right people. He knew what to do. It wasn’t like this was his first day in the music industry and he had almost every golden contact amateur would be begging on his front steps for. He had everything he could possibly want.

He knew how to take care of himself. He made sure he had time for his personal life and for the most part, he was successful. He was able to take breaks and have time to himself alongside time with his friends and his relationship with Dick. He kept to the schedule and even with Dethklok’s usual antics, he was able to keep up with it well.

Sometimes life just happened to disregard all your careful planning anyway and throw in all sorts of problems/emotions that you simply can’t control anymore.

Charles was aware of it. He understood the feeling of waking up with a numb feeling and feeling almost emotionless. He understood the days where it felt longer than usual, almost wanting to put a stop to it and the lack of motivation that was just slowly beginning to eat at him alive.

He couldn’t let it effect his work. No. He had something far more important to do.

And so he simply took Prozac to let the feelings subside until the effects wore off and he was left feeling those God-awful feelings again. He had to continue working and had to continue doing so. He wouldn’t take a break over feelings that would eventually pass. Though nearly a month later, they really didn’t and his work was now just starting to pile up.

It didn’t really help that he had been forced to cancel plans due to him slowly slacking off. Friends were understandable at least (if they hadn’t then, they wouldn’t be his friends now), Dethklok were fine with him having to postpone meetings though not without asking if he was okay because he rarely had to postpone meetings so last minute, and Dick was just getting a bit worried. Okay, a lot worried.

He hadn’t seen Charles in almost a few weeks at least and any plans of hanging out were immediately cancelled because he just lost track of time and got so busy. It wasn’t even hell week or having to prepare for a press release or a new album. Something was wrong.

He found Charles in his office, going over mountains of paperwork. He almost didn’t acknowledge that Dick was in the office until he spoke up, “Hey, Charles?”

He looked up, almost a bit surprised to see him, “Oh, Dick. I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Well yeah, we haven’t seen each other in a few weeks! I was getting a bit worried!”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to avoid you-work is just getting a bit ah hectic right now.”

“Well, can you take the night off, babe?”

“I’m sorry, Dick, I have work to do at the moment.” Charles answered apologetically.

“Alright, I’ll stay then.” He answered with a shrug.

“You don’t have to. I don’t want to keep you here if you don’t want to.”

“Well I offered myself. Besides, I just wanted to see you. It’s been so long, anyway.” He took one of the office chairs to sit next to him, “But are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He answered almost automatically. One look from Dick and it was clear he didn’t believe in the answer, so he caved in, “I’m just a little tired, is all. I promise when I get this done, we can do something together.”

“How long have you been feeling tired?” Dick asked.

“Just for a small while. It happens, it’s nothing to worry about. I just need to sleep better.”

“Is that really all you need? To sleep more? Are you sure it’s not something else?” Dick may have never been a therapist (and why would he be one?) but he knew Charles and how humans worked. Adults especially often hid what they often felt by using words that were safer. ‘I’m tired’ could mean a multitude of things and it was something that he needed to figure out.

Charles paused with his work momentarily before setting the pen down, “I guess. I just don’t know, honestly.”

“Well, take a few days off to figure it out. It’s not like its tax season or anything important. You can just leave this to your assistants, right?”

“Well, yes, but-“

“Then do it, please.”

Charles wanted to argue. It meant giving up and caving into whatever he had been fighting so desperately. He didn’t want to just take a few days off, but he knew Dick was right. It was enough incentive to get him to agree, “Alright. I’ll call them in the morning to help me out.”

Dick smiled, “Great, let’s get you to bed now.”

Charles was honestly at his complete mercy and he didn’t protest when Dick dragged him to his room. God, when was the last time he slept honestly? He was afraid to know the answer.

Dick, thankfully, didn’t press further which Charles was glad about. He didn’t want to explore emotions that he wasn’t ready to express or talk about things he wasn’t ready to talk about. He did the talking for them both and it worked out well as they got ready for bed.

“You’re important to me. You know that, right?” Charles said finally as they laid down. He had been uncharacteristically quiet since they were in his room but if that was the only thing Dick managed to get out of him, he was fine with that. He was fine to help him out however he can. They’ll get through it.

Dick smiled and kissed him gently before pulling him closer, “Of course, I do. But you’re important too, babe. Don’t forget that either.”

The words wouldn’t cure what Charles had been feeling for over a month. But it did help him sleep peacefully for the first time in a while.

#plasmacandle #metalocalypse #Dick Knubbler #Knubbdensen #knubdensen #Charles Foster Offdensen #Not on AO3 #depression tw #Caffeinated Insomniac Writings #Was really cute writing them ;-;#Thanks again and I'm sorry about the long wait sd;jklf #To other people waiting for their prompts i'll get to them!!

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inspirationdivine · 4 years

Text

And Cut! || Lydia, Simon, Winston

Timing: Thursday afternoon

Parties: @inspirationdivine, @inconvenientsimonstrocity, @danetobelieve

Summary: Winston has a possible solution to Lydia and Simon’s sticky problem

Lydia paced backwards and forwards in the living room, her heels clicking on the wooden forward. She’d started when Winston had messaged them, and had barely even spoken to Simon in the interim time, except to tell him that they were going to solve this, tonight. She could hardly wait. The doorbell rang, and Lydia jumped, looking to Simon with an inconsiderate eagerness. “They’re here. “ She barely waited for him to begin moving with her before she darted to the front door excitedly. The door swung open so fast it rattled on its hinges. Lydia clasped her hands. “Come in, come in. What have you found?”

Winston was glad that they had taken Natalia’s offer on working at Castillo’s Crafts. It gave them access to resources that they would’ve previously never dreamed of and more importantly it gave them the ability to act when they needed to. “Oh hi Lydia, nice to see you too, yes I did come with a solution to your problem,” Winston raised an eyebrow and shook their head in exasperation, “do you want me to just tell you or should I tell the person you’re also bound to, that seems pretty fair.” The stress of the whole third eye situation had proven pretty overwhelming and it was nice to have a distraction of some kind. The air between the two of them was filled with an unnecessary tension as Lydia and Simon waited for Winston to arrive; suffice to say, she was a lot more high-strung about this than he was as she paced around. He attributed it to his being a calmer person altogether. When the doorbell rang and she looked to him expectantly, he got to his feet in a manner he hoped was quick enough for her and she virtually pulled him to the door in her excitement. Fortunately, it seemed Lydia had the conversation under control though he easily remembered Winston from their incident in the Morgue and he gave a small wave with an equally-small smile.

Lydia pursed her lips, nonplussed. She was hardly apologetic for skipping right past the small talk. Stepping aside to let them through, she looked back at Simon with a small shrug. “I am not so interested in you telling us as I am in you doing it. Do you need a work surface? We can use my work stations, my kitchen counter, or we could go outside if you prefer it.”

Spotting Simon, Winston couldn’t help their bemused smile and wave in their direction. “It’s Simon?” they asked somewhat surprised. Quite the unlikely duo. Looking around, Winston frowned and nodded. “I need to assemble a few things and then we can cast the shape of the scissors, fortunately we won’t have to melt anything.” Luce wasn’t here to be a human furnace this time. “Do you have like a garage or somewhere you don’t mind us making a bit of a mess in?” Adjusting their glasses, Winston shrugged the bag into a more comfortable position and looked at Simon. “So, how did this happen?” Though he was literally strung along for the ride, Simon felt the need to speak up at Winston’s request. “Uh, sorry for… asking but--” He cleared his throat and scratched his neck. “Oh, um… We walked past each other then we suddenly couldn’t.” He felt like he should’ve gone into greater detail but that was exactly how it happened how he recalled it and there wasn’t anything else TO mention. “We’d only ever talked once before, and it was online.” He looked at Winston as he explained, hoping they would be able to tell that he wasn’t withholding any information from them.

“Yes, the pottery room,” Lydia said, leading them both to another side of the house that she hadn’t taken Simon to before, this time on the ground floor. It was a converted garage, effectively, with carefully crafted ventilation system to accommodate the huge kiln. “It’s rather frustrating. It was like we were lassoed together by something, like we stepped onto a trap or something.”

“The pottery room?” Winston couldn’t judge too hard, Ricky had set up a workshop that was essentially his own personal sculpting studio. “Oh, so, that’s kind of weird, usually these things don’t happen spontaneously, I didn’t find a bunch of info on that but I guess it would be worth a second look if you want to know how this all happened, guess it doesn’t change anything”. Following Lydia through to the pottery room, they nodded and began unpacking their bags. Pulling out a large vial of a silvery liquid, a mould for scissors, a number of powders and other such similar items that you’d expect to see in your standard fantasy kit. “Okay, I need water and I need like a hook or something because these are going to literally be invisible and although I’ve got something in mind to help, probably a good idea we keep it on one thing.” Simon was good at definitely good at keeping up with Lydia at this point though he had to admit, it was a little unusual for her to be so quick about her movements this time. He understood, of course but he still found himself curious when she took them to yet another room he hadn’t seen before… it was like one big surprise box sometimes. He paid attention to everything Winston said though he couldn’t keep his eyes from wandering and he took small steps here and there to observe the area, glancing over at Lydia when they asked for the few things they needed - he hadn’t been there before, obviously, so he didn’t know where anything was or what he was allowed to touch.

“I certainly hope that doesn’t change whether the scissors work or not,” Lydia replied, raising a sharp eye brow. Although she knew Winston didn’t immediately know the answer for that. Lydia watched him unpack anxiously, bouncing her knee until Winston asked for things. Lydia picked up a nearby bucket and handed it to Simon. “The sink’s over there, if you don’t mind. There’s a hook in this cupboard, I’ll grab it.” Just about nine feet apart. Perfect.

“I’m not exactly an expert, so I guess we’ll just have to try and hope for the best.” Winston didn’t really see any alternative and it wasn’t as if this could end them up with any additional body parts that they may or may not have full time. “Simon, grab me the water please, I’ve got to start mixing this stuff together.” Their hands were already unscrewing caps, popping corks and mixing together various ingredients. They crushed some brightly coloured minerals into a fine powder, adding it to the silver liquid which was actually mercury. This was apparently a recipe for quicksilver which they would then enchant. “Lydia can you please measure out three tablespoons of sulphur, two teaspoons of salt peter and 100 ml of the mercury.” Winston nodded towards a small ring of kitchen measuring spoons. They’d changed everything to cooking weights, it was easier.

Once he had the bucket and was told what to do, Simon acted accordingly, making sure not to pull on their bond too much to reach for the faucet to retrieve the bucket of water - there was a little bit of stretching involved. As the water filled the bucket, he listened to the ingredients Winston was naming off and he found himself more curious, forcing himself to ask questions as the room filled with unpleasant noises and scents; was magic something that you had to have proficiency for? Could you learn through hard work and patience? When were the scissors going to turn invisible? Was that part the magic part? He kept his questions to himself and took the now-full bucket of water over to the intern, offering it out to them in such a manner that they could take it whenever they were ready for it.

Setting the hook in front of Winston, Lydia watched them beginning to arrange their ingredients. Pots scraped against the stained work surface, sending shivers down her spine. The popped bottles had a pungent aroma and Lydia’s lip curled when Winston asked her to handle Sulfur. She worked carefully and diligently, scraping the heaped teaspoons of salt Peter perfectly flat, before leaving the ingredients for Winston to handle it. “What else can I do?”

“So, now we just mix everything together, Simon will add the water, you can add the mercury and I’ll add the dry ingredients. We’ve just got to pour slowly and stir it all together and then we set it.” Winston was glad that there wasn’t an extensive and gruelling forging process here. Winston set about pouring the ingredients together and the mixture. Once everything was ready they poured it into the pre-prepared mould and looked at them. “I need to enchant this obviously, but it’s going to be draining, with your consent, I’d like to use your energy as well to do it properly, I don’t want to make a mistake.” Like passing out. He wasn’t about to say ‘sounds simple enough’ but Simon continued to do what he was told, waiting for the correct prompts before adding the water. He did, however, feel his eyebrow raise at the mention of ‘using energy’ and though part of him thought he should’ve kept quiet as he had been the entirety of this exchange so far, he felt the need to ask. “Sorry, dumb question but… what’s this about ‘using your energy”?” He wasn’t particularly worried about the concept - he’d be happy to help in whatever way he could - but he was curious about how that was going to go. Was Winston talking about HIS energy? BOTH their energy? Lydia knew magic… her energy specifically?

All at once, Lydia’s eagerness dropped like a brick to the floor, scowling. Impetuous little human. Always asking for more, like all humans She grit her teeth together, her eyes meeting Simon’s searchingly. “You wouldn’t take more than you needed, would you?” She asked Winston, but she was still looking at Simon. Perhaps properly for the first time since Winston had arrived. “Spellcaster bodies don’t always have the strength to tame the magic they use.” They are only human, after all. “I would also like to know precisely what you mean, though.”

“Magic takes up energy, if I cast a spell that lifts something that’s a hundred kilos then I’d feel it, it would take a toll on me. It burns calories, leaves you feeling exhausted and tired.” Winston shrugged. “I wouldn’t have anywhere to put the energy if I did take more then the spell required, you don’t need to worry about it.” Winston looked at them. “We’re going to place an enchantment on the scissors, that requires a fair amount of energy, I’ll be the focus and actually cast the spell, but you’ll assist.”

Perhaps Simon was just being dumb that day or perhaps somethng else was weighing on his mind more but he wasn’t quite grasping the concepts that were being laid out in front of him. So Winston could just… siphon energy from them? He wanted to ask but instead, he just gave a small shake of his head accompanied with a shrug. “Do what you have to do,” He responded. “I have energy to spare.” He wasn’t lying - even though the moon was new, he realised he was still a reservoir of adrenaline just waiting to kickstart.

“Whatever it takes.” If this worked, after all, Lydia had living, breathing energy stores of her own walking around upstairs. She stepped to stand beside Winston. Her wings shifted under her glamour, briefly causing the gentlest breeze around them. Whatever it would take to be free again.

“Give me your hands,” Winston instructed as they reached out and gestured for them to take their hands in their own. Stretching out for them, Winston began the ritual enchantment. Latin words spilled forth and they could feel the energy siphon from themselves and the others as they offered it forth. Winston watched as the mould shimmered and the liquid inside began to gradually fade away. Sweat beaded their brow as they completed their work. “Should be ready now, if you want to carefully pick it up. But don’t drop it because finding it again will be beyond difficult.” Simon offered his hand obediently, a flash of doubt crossing his mind that they were about to do something illegal - he’d only seen magic used once before and he was still finding remnants of that fight while he cleaned the morgue, it seemed like. The latin wasn’t entirely helping but he held still, deciding to keep his eyes on the tool that was being enchanted before them, remaining vigilant even after the scissors turned invisible. He exhaled when Winston finished, almost feeling as though he had run up a flight of stairs. “That’s it?” He asked, not out of dismissal but affirmation.

Lydia nearly dropped to her knees when the drain came. The strangest thing - it was something she’d felt before, in a dozen different people. It wasn’t through a hand but a kiss, fed side by side with the creative burst. She’d felt this a thousand times in the hearts of the humans she kept, and the way they’d sagged in her arms after. The thought churned her stomach, for all the wrong reasons.

Lydia looked at Simon, then Winston, and carefully reached into the scissor mould. Her fingers touched cool metal, drawing a gasp of air out of her. “They’re here!” She gasped, and picked them up. It was strange to see her flesh contort to squeeze around thin air, but Lydia would rather feel them tightly in her than drop them and risk losing them forever. She walked backwards, until the bond tightened around her belly. No point getting excited yet, she thought, looking Simon in the eyes as she held up the invisible scissors and snipped them in the air between them.

Nothing changed. The tension was still taut around her belly. “No, come on,” Lydia whined, snipping it again, and again, her lips curling down in disappointment as nothing changed. Nothing changed! Lydia was almost at the point of throwing the scissors in contempt when something snagged. It pulled her forwards, just for a second, and then the tension vanished. Lydia stumbled back, her mouth gaping right open.

Bemused, Winston watched their handiwork. Watching Lydia apparently snip at the open air was something to say the least, but the way that she held the scissors was more then enough to convince Winston that they were doing what they were meant to. She seemed frustrated and then she cut through something and Winston exhaled. “So it worked?” The werewolf watched carefully as Lydia collected the scissors, invisible though they were and Simon opted to stand as still and sturdily as he could while she tried to cut the line, which didn’t seem to work at first until it did and he felt as though a belt had fallen from around his waist. He glanced down, then at the distance between himself and Lydia… then took a generous, slow step backwards, finding that he was able to do so. Nora was right; invisible scissors worked and the bond had been successfully severed. “I believe it did,” He remarked mildly before giving a single clap. “Splendid job, Winston! Brilliantly done.”

“That’s absurd,” Lydia breathed, watching Simon step away from her. It had been what, nearly ten days? Ten days where they couldn’t even stand that far apart. Twelve feet now, and when Lydia took another step, it was one the same size as Simon’s. Thirteen feet. There was barely space in the room to contain her excitement, as she walked back to the table and carefully set the scissors back in the mold. Or she tried to - these things were far from simple. “Human magic makes no sense whatsoever. I am incredibly grateful, Winston. If you give me your bank information I will repay you as you deserve.” Lydia bounced her leg, looking from one to the other, wondering how quickly she could push the both of them out of her home.

Raising an eyebrow, Winston shrugged. “Magic is … magic I guess.” They reached out their bandaged hand (after all they didn’t want people to see the weird eyelid on it) and carefully scooped up the scissors, placing it on the hook before attaching the hook to a string and beginning to carefully place it into a cloth bag. “I’m going to keep this if that’s cool, unless one of you want it.” Winston wasn’t sure what they would need invisible scissors for but just in case right. “But, you don’t have to … should I be getting people to pay me for this?” Winston frowned, they’d never really thought about it. “Maybe you could just owe me one? I’m not sure what the going rate is...” Winston shrugged. “Cool, Simon, you want a lift somewhere or you gonna stick around for a bit?” Though he could virtually sense the excitement radiating off of Lydia as the latter stepped further and further away, Simon felt decidedly… different. He glanced between Lydia to Winston and gave a noncommittal shrug, acting almost as if he hadn’t been tethered to the woman in the first place. “You know what they say about being good at something and not doing it for free,” He mentioned, turning to give Lydia an unintentionally decisive look. “N-no, I’m… yeah, I could use a lift,” He spoke to Winston as he looked at the Fae, long, almost longingly but covering it with kindness before it lingered too long. “Thank you for your patience throughout this ordeal,” He gave her a small nod accompanied with a vague smile. “I’ll, uh… get out of your space now.” And that was it; he backed away slowly towards the door, turning his head to face Winston now as he waited for them to depart with him.

“By all means, please do keep it,” Lydia said. “I have little use for something I can’t see, normally.” She looked to Winston, and nodded. “You should be repaid justly for your work.” That, and Lydia would rather not owe another human a favour. Her eyes drifted to their bandaged hand, and back to them. “I will pay you significantly above whatever the going rate is. Money is not a concern.” At Winston’s question, Lydia felt a chill run down her spine, looking to Simon expectantly. The last thing she wanted was for him to linger, and that was as clear on her face as the longing was on his. “I would be very grateful if you could. It has been lovely getting to know you, but if I saw you again within the week it would be too soon.”

Nodding gently, Winston quickly gathered their things up, packing everything away as efficiently as they possibly could. “Okay, I’ll send you my details when I get home and you can decide the price.�� Winston had never really thought that this was something that they could just do and get paid for. Maybe they would have to start looking at doing more of this, a little more money wouldn’t hurt and it had kept them from worrying about the nightmare visions. “I’ll let you name a price or we can discuss it later,” they turned to Simon as they shouldered their rucksack and headed towards the door, calling over their shoulder to Lydia. “Let me know if you get tied to someone else in the future, I’ll see if I can help again.” As they stepped into the sunlight, they turned to Simon. “Where do you want to go dude?” Simon saw Lydia’s expression out of his peripheral vision and he blinked after a pause, shaking his head and focusing on Winston. “Uh, just-- home’s fine. I’ll tell you how to get there.” He put his hands in his pockets, his own expression plaintive as he looked to the ground in submission once more. Home… it might be nice, maybe.

#wickedswriting #para #chatzy #simon #winston

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 4 years

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The Final Agni Kai (A Terrible AU Fanfic that literally no one asked for!)

This was totally going to be the battle between Sie and Zuko in the cabbage fic but I couldn't pass having the fire siblings do this.

Summary: Agni Kai AU where instead of actually fighting the Agni Kai, Zuko and Azula play a monoply-uno hybrid from Hell.

The sky is heavy with smoke and an odor of sulfur. Sozin’s comet paints the mid-afternoon sky a shade of orange-red. Azula, stares up at said sky--she is daydreaming about just leaving everything behind to become a J-pop idol.

“By decree of Phoenix King Ozai, I now crown you Fire Lord…” But it is hard to do that when the fire sage keeps blabbing on and on. And it is twice as hard when a wild flying bison swoops into view. Suddenly feeling as though she has run out of time, she turns to the sage and asks, “What are you waiting for? Do it!”

Azula had been rather vague so he isn’t sure what he is supposed to just do. All he knows is that he can’t let his dreams just be dreams. Just do it! Azula’s voice echos in his mind. But in his mind she sounds more motivating than angry.

Appa lands in the courtyard and Zuko dramatically jumps off of him. “Sorry, but you're not gonna become Fire Lord today. I am.”

Azula laughs, “you're hilarious.”

“And you're going down.” Zuko informs her.

“That was my line.” Katara whispers.

“Sorry.” Zuko replies.

The fire sage, recalling Azula’s words--just do it!--begins to ignore the interrupting duo and brings the crown closer to Azula’s messy topknot.

She lifts a hand and then the rest of her body. “Wait!” And then to Zuko she says, “You want to become Fire Lord? Fine. Let’s settle this. Just you and me, brother. The showdown that was always meant to be. Monopl-uno!” She whips out a game board and a deck of cards and slaps them onto the ground.

“You're on!”

“What are you doing? She’s playing you. She knows she can't take us both, so she's trying to separate us.”

“I know. But I can take her this time.” Zuko declares.

“But even you admitted to your uncle that you would need help facing Azula.” Katara protests. Also she does not want to have to wait through a game of Monopoly, that game is boring as hell even if it is mashed together with Uno.

“There's something off about her, I can't explain it but she's slipping.” Zuko rubs his chin as he takes in the disheveled sight of his sister. Her hair is a mess and her eyes are tired. “Hmmm...can’t quite put my finger on it.” She flashes him an uncanny and feral smile. “Nope. No idea.” He makes his way across the courtyard.

He and Azula stand on opposite ends of the courtyard, kneeling as you do before beginning a game of monopl-uno. It is always best to start any board, card, or any kind of game by kneeling before your God and asking for protection lest the game transform itself into Jumanji and you find yourself stuck in a jungle forever.

This is what had happened to Jet. He has been stuck in the Foggy Swamp, which is also a jungle, ever since. He is now a backwater redneck. But this is no surprise being as he already liked to chew on straw prior to being transported into the jungle to live out the rest of his fuqboi existence.

“I'm sorry it has to end this way, brother.”

“No you're not.”

But she really is. She actually hates monopl-uno, in her foggy state of mind, she had momentarily forgotten this. But she cannot back out of this now. “I am so.” She whispers quietly.

“Are not.”

“Are too.”

“Are not.”

“Are to.”

“Are…”

Luckily Katara is there to get them back on track. The only thing more boring than Monopoly is reading approximately six pages of ‘are not’, ‘are too’. Even more boring than that is pre-algebra. Thank Raava, that math does not exist here. “Will you two just get on with it!?” She asks.

Azula passes out five uno cards and a fat stack of monopoly cash. For every green card, the player receives $500. For the blues the player gets $100. Yellow cards earn the player $50. And red earns the player $20. 10’s & 5’s are a free for all, Azula and Zuko snatch as many as they can. 1’s are distributed by wiping out a Candyland, whoever draws Queen Frostine gets to steal all of the 5’s. Azula bites Zuko as he reaches for the last one dollar bill. He retracts his hand quickly.

It settles in that Azula is losing her shit.

If no one draws Queen Frostine by the game’s end then the 1’s burst into flames and are claimed by the void that manifests itself as a third player in the form of a sentient piccolo, that plays truly awful covers of Rammstine’s Du Hast and Smashmouth’s All Star the whole time.

With dread, Azula notes that, “Colonel Mustard has murdered Mrs. Scarlett with a candlestick in the billard room.”

Zuko grips his head in stress, knowing that this means that Azula has to move her gingerbread man to the next purple square. This ends the game.

No one has drawn Queen Frostine.

The 1’s burst into flames and a piccolo rises.

The first notes of Du Hast echo through the courtyard, terribly off key.

Katara has a wicked urge to puncture her own earholes just to end the madness.

Why did Colonel Mustard have to murder her with a candlestick. If he would have just used the wrench then they might have had a chance to draw Queen Frostine!

Far, far off in the distance Sokka, Suki, and Toph fight a different kind of battle. They play Battle Ships, but they use actual ships. Except the ships are not water ships but airships and they are in the sky and the bombs are real.

Suki is uncomfortable with this.

It is Toph’s time to shine. She can use echolocation to cheat.

Aang and Ozai also fight. But their fight is different. It is a battle of wit. They have chosen several popular debate topics including women’s rights, religion, which economic model to follow, and whether or not pineapple belongs on pizza.

Pineapple does not belong on pizza.

Neither does cheese, because cheese is gross.

In fact, pizza does not belong on pizza because pizza is gross and no matter what Aang is still a vegan and Aang is not sure if a good vegan should be eating pizza.

Iroh finds himself a tall mountain and yodels atop it until the militia stationed at Ba Sing Se submit.

But none of this is as important as Azula declaration, “go fish!”

Zuko cusses and picks up a goldfish. He curses again. Drawing a goldfish means that he has to pull a block from the jenga tower and that rickety thing is already very close to collapsing. Azula smirks as he nears an old and vacant house in Capital City. It is the same one that they have been stealing boards from since they were children.

It is on its last legs.

A bead of sweat drips down Zuko’s forehead as he tugs at the board. The whole house bobs precuriously. Azula and Katara take several huge steps back. They, in fact, stand approximately one-hundred feet from the building, which is a safe number when practicing social distancing.

Zuko yanks the board free and the building groans. He clenches his jaw. But the building remains up right.

“Ha! Take that, Azula!” He says loudly. The building shakes at the sudden noise and it topples. He has done this to himself. Now he has to draw six more uno cards and one more go fish card.

“So, how have you been?” Zuko makes small talk as they walk back to the coronation courtyard.

Azula thinks that it is a stupid question, she is obviously in a state of mental torment. “Oh, I’m fine.” She replies nonchalantly.

“Yeah, me too.” He replies. “I read this really cool book the other day.”

Azula hasn’t, she has been stress eating cherries and pacing around her bedroom. “I read one too.” She lies.

“Which one.”

“Oh...you’ve never heard of it. It’s a really underground novel.”

They reach the courtyard, Zuko draws his uno and go fish cards. It is still his turn so he rolls the dice. “Yahtzee!” He declares and Azula flinches. She moves her gingerbread man to an orange square and picks up a trivial pursuit card. She relaxes a little, upon remembering that she is a trivial pursuit expert.

“What’s the tallest piece on a chessboard?” Katara reads the card.

Azula rolls her eyes, this is an easy one. “It is the King.”

Zuko Googles the answer just to be sure that Azula isn’t lying again.

Katara winces, “correct.”

Azula flashes a smug smile as she passes go and collects $200. She is glad that she did not have to answer a Guess Who question. Those always throw her off.

Zuko stands up, it is his turn. He throws down a green skip. This time Azula curses. He then throws down a green reverse card so it is his turn again. Azula snarls. He realizes that he has no more green cards so he picks up a Go Fish card. It is an angelfish. Angelfish act as substitutes for yellow cards so he is stuck with it. Having none of her own, but having the mindstate of one, Azula literally turns herself into a wildcard and flops down onto the deck. She changes it to blue.

She always changes it to blue.

She has no blue cards, but she never changes it to anything but blue.

She reclaims her human form and draws a Go Fish card.

It is a clownfish.

Which makes sense because she played herself (clownfish substitute red cards only), she is the clown in this situation.

Zuko smirks and throws down a blue seven.

Azula is about to throw down a blue three, when Zuko brazanly shouts. “No draw fours today? What’s the matter, afraid I’ll reverse it!?”

“Oh! I’ll show you a draw four!” Azula shouts. She lifts her blue drawfour as well as four scrabble tiles--one for each letter of her name, except she is missing the ‘u’ so instead she has Azla--and powers her draw four up with them.

A is the first letter of the alphabet so Zuko has to not only draw four cards but another two extra. And since Z is the last letter he also has to draw twenty-six extra cards. By this time the deck has run low so he has to pick up a twelve of spades which amounts to twelve green uno cards.

To figure out what number each represents they must spin the twister spinner and consult the magic eight ball.

“Nooooo!” Zuko screams as she throws the cards down.

Katara bites her cheek. She doesn’t like cheating to win, but she is pretty sure that Azula had swapped out her ‘u’ scrabble tile for a ‘z’ while Zuko was messing with the Jenga tower. So she doesn’t think too much of it when she completes Zuko’s Connect Four line.

“Zuko!” She yells. “You forgot to say, ‘I’ve united the four!’”

Zuko pumps his fist and says. “I’ve united the four!” This nullifies the power up Azula has used on her draw four. It balances out so he only has to draw four uno cards.

Azula’s face bunches up in disgust as she gives the twister spinner a flick.

Right hand on blue.

She places her right hand on blue and the twister board tells her to move her top hat to the chance square. Katara picks up the chance card and reads “go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.”

Azula blinks several times. She is trapped, with nowhere to go. She sadly makes her way over to the grate, overwhich they have constructed a jail out of a cardboard box. The word ‘JAIL’ (though Zuko accidentally spelled it ‘JAYL’ at first so that was crossed off and ‘JAIL’ is written beneath it) is written in big red marker. Katara doodled a star under it in pink gel pen.

Azula sadly lifts the box and sits under it, clutch her knees to her chest as Zuko passes go, collets his $200, and uses it to buy a candyland card. A smile lights up his face, he has drawn Gramma Nut! That means he gets to discard exactly three uno cards.

He sets them on fire and shouts “uno!”

He throws his remaining card, a blue five, onto the deck.

From within her jail cell, Azula shrieks. She sets the jail on fire, marches up to the unused chessboard, flips it over, and throws the pieces at Zuko “I hate this game! This is a stupid fucking anyways!”

Zuko and Katara slap each other high five. Unbeknownst to them, Momo swoops down. “But you forgot to play Bop It before saying uno, which means that your victory is null.”

Zuko slaps his forehead.

Azula’s eyes grow wide.

This means only one thing…

One terrible thing…

Azula swallows as she removes Don’t Wake Daddy from the box. The siblings stare at each other. If at any point, daddy wakes up, Ozai will materialize before them and win the game. “Here, you do it!” Zuko says to Azula. She very carefully takes the tweezers and as steady as she can, attempts to extract the wrench representing the funny bone.

But Azula is already shaken from her loss and the stress of losing her friends. She accidently touches the rim and the game buzzes.

She and Zuko weep as they both take turns pressing the alarm clock. Daddy springs up and Ozai appeared before them to reclaim his Fire Lord crown. In leaving his debate, Aang has automatically won. Ozai’s bending yanks itself from his body, as he had bet it before the debate started. Aang cheers!

Another airship explodes as Toph cackles.

Ozai begins to weep for he might be the Fire Lord again, but he has no fire.

Neither Zuko nor Azula are the Fire Lord. They both hug each other and cry as Katara plugs her ears.

The piccolo still plays Rammstine.

Ozai also cries because, even though he is Fire Lord in title, no one is going to listen to him since he is a non-bender. The Fire Nation will fall into anarchy unless the siblings can work something out.

Aang also weeps because her realizes that, Ozai is still the Fire Lord so he is still going to have to defeat him somehow.

Truly, nobody has won here.

Nobody except Iroh and Toph.

#Avatar #Azula #Zuko #Agni Kai #Katara #Alternate Universe #Fanfiction

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say-duhnelle · 4 years

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Ideal questions and responses about COVID for Biden in an interview situation

I know there's no chance of this actually happening but I really wish 1. someone would throw these hardballs and 2. we had a snowball's shot in hell of getting these kinds of answers for them. It's really a shame that our media is both designed to cater to the lowest common denominator and are the only ones who get to have both remit AND access to provide oversight on the government, because #1 often leads to them completely missing the point on #2 in pursuit of a rating

1Q. Many critics have pointed to errors in the White House response to the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, before it had reached community spread status in the US, as a lost opportunity to take drastic action to control the situation. What do you think was the most critical error made during this period, and how would you have approached it differently?

1A. The number one error here was that the responsibility for handling this was left in the hands of political actors, automatically turning it into a political situation. Public health is not a spectrum for political debate or posturing; it is a matter for science and evidence-based problem solving, and the primary decision-making should have been placed in the hands of qualified doctors and epidemiology experts as early as possible. In a situation like this, the President should serve in more of a co-ordinating role, ensuring that the states and various federal departments which must work together to solve such a problem are all on the same page and mediating any conflicting interests or needs. The current administration failed abysmally in this role and there are in fact fairly substantial rumors that the White House chose to play parties against each other which should have been working together, in hopes of exacting a political gain out of the situation. That is an extremely inappropriate abuse of power in any case, but particularly when the lives and livelihoods of so many are on the line.

2Q. For well over a decade before the COVID-19 virus was first identified, public health experts had been saying that the US' preparedness for a pandemic response was a major weak point in our homeland security, with events such as SARS, MERS and H1N1 serving as something of a canary in the coal mine showing where major deficiencies in the system lay. What lessons would you take about emergency preparedness into your own administration, and how will you implement them?

2A. From a very young age I've been taught that a failure to plan is a plan for failure. When millions of lives are on the line, you can't just wing it. The current administration's decision to disband the already-neglected pandemic response team in 2018 was a critical point of failure, and the unqualified, partial and partisan leadership which it has appointed to various other departments has also stripped many critical structures and steering committees in those departments. We are still unprepared for another national pandemic, particularly one of significantly greater virulence or mortality, and there are many other crisis situations our nation could face for which we are equally unprepared. One of the missions of my first 100 days in office would be the appointment of new, nonpartisan, disinterested and highly qualified leadership to as many cabinet positions and executive departments as possible, and tasking these new leaders with the development of actionable contingency plans for the various emergencies for which we are currently underprepared. Having these plans in place would then allow nationally coordinated "war games" type training exercises to occur on a regular basis, making key figures' responses as rehearsed and coordinated as possible should the worst come to pass. In a situation like that, we do not need to be scrambling for our first steps; everyone should know their role and what immediate actions they should take to control the severity of the situation and mitigate it as much as possible.

3Q. What might an effective plan for pandemic response look like?

3A. Obviously I am not the best person to ask and this would be better directed to public health experts, but based on the notable areas of deficiency this situation has thrown into relief, I would say:

1. Begin by having a better social safety net in place which helps reduce the number of people in exceptionally vulnerable situations such as homelessness or being without access to affordable healthcare

2. As soon as possible upon the identification of the threat, get tests developed to diagnose it. If another country has developed an effective test and is willing to share with us, work with them and try to return the favor somehow (eg. supplying equipment).

3. Use the Defense Powers Act to ramp up manufacture of these tests, PPE, equipment and medicines needed to treat the disease, etc. ASAP. Better to be in a position where we can provide extra supplies to other nations with limited resources than stuck without any ourselves.

4. Advise US travelers in foreign countries to return home immediately if they lack resources to remain abroad indefinitely; require airlines to allow these travelers to change to earlier flights home for no fee in order to receive subsidy during the likely coming drought of flights. Initiate quarantine measures or, preferably, testing for the disease at all entry points to the US, possibly by deploying the National Guard if extra hands are needed, in hopes of containing the disease at the border. Care for affected individuals in secure locations isolated from the public, with medical professionals taking every biosecurity precaution available when entering and exiting the facility.

5. In preparation for the possibility of community spread, issue an advisory to businesses, educational institutions, etc. to prepare for the potential of a stay-home environment and perhaps begin preemptively transitioning those who are capable to a work-from-home environment. In the case of colleges issue guidance for an ideal management plan that allows students to move out of campus housing with all their belongings and doesn't strand out-of-state and international students who can't afford or arrange an immediate flight home.

6. Work with Congressional leadership to prepare succinct, bipartisan legislation protecting the American people and their livelihood for immediate action should the need arise, including stimulus checks, welfare for those out of work as a result of the disaster, hazard pay and minimum protective standards for essential workers, and rescue funding for small businesses forced to shutter during the crisis.

7. Work with state and local governments on preparing initiatives to limit community spread and protect citizens which operate better at this scale, such as stay-at-home orders and rent freezes

8. Remain in close contact with leading experts at HHS, DHS, CDC, FDA and other relevant organizations to stay abreast of further developments and draft a course of action to address them

9. Remember that in a situation like this the most valuable resource by far is TIME and early, preventative action saves a lot of heartache down the line.

#I am so tired of this country being run by the keystone kops #personal #politics #I play the bassoon better than Donald Trump plays the role of president

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