#they love it when human beings masquerade as brands

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

awesomecoffeeclub.com

[the0retically]

The Suckening #12: The Twilight Zone:

Thoughts and quotes below, a wild first half of the finale

- I’ve put this off for too long it’s time to do this

- Oh hi le frog

- God Condi and bizly having to switch accents is so funny it sounds SO WRONG CONDI CANT DO IT AND BIZLY IS JUST DOING HIS OWN VOICE

- Love that the plan hinges on Taylor launter??

- Shilo being so adamant about not punching Emizel but then just doing it, I love them

- But oh god shilo has to talk to Theo because he looks like emizel

- Love music coming up when they’re going over the plan and then immediately cutting out when Arthur said demons instead of dangs

- “I know you hit it off with Viv” “my homegirl yeah” ARTHUR??

- “Who is it?” “It’s me” “…alpha” I cannot believe this

- ARE YOU SERIOUS MRS TAYLOR LAUNTER HAS A HELICOPTER????? CHARLIES DEFEATED SIGH WAS SO FUNNY

- SHARKBOY GAUNTLET????? WHAT IS HAPPENING

- “Good boy” “…..” “HA I WAS GONNA SAY GOOD MAN”

- I shouldn’t be sad that emizel can’t actually talk to Theo

- Also it scares me every time charlie asks what phone they’re using

- “I already told him about the plan to change faces” “then WHY THE HELL AM I DOING THIS?” “I don’t know I forgot”

- “This is such a classic Theo move I love you” :((((((

- Awwww them all being so excited emizel is the phantom flipper is so fun

- Bizly losing his mind over the dangs new plan is so funny

- Forgot how Edwards voice sounded god

- THEY HAVE TO LEAVE THE ROOM? Oh god

- “You know the plan, to be yourself” oh god

- Emizel you’re doing so bad this is awful

- 6 different Edwards??

- Why have they heard about shilo?

- Oh god this whole scene is like playing in my head I can see it so clearly

- Chester Chesser is such a cool name

- Paul with the unseen one freaky little dude I like him

- Ok yeah I love Paul he’s so fun

- You know who I miss though? Grefgore :( where is my boy

- Chet is insane??? Oh my god. The energy here is unmatched. Love Charlie and Condi just immediately going into laughter

- God the audio design is incredible in this campaign, the overlapping voices for Charlie is so good I love it

- “People think I’m weak do you think I’m weak?” “…you say that out loud in front of everyone?” OH GOD

- Paul and Chet being Emizel’s buds is so on brand I love it

- RENWICK!!!!!!!! HES COMMENTING!!!

- Oh it’s masquerade breakers that are competing

- …….and deacon rounded them up

- Interact with the show???

- “If there’s any invisible around” SO SMART ARTHUR

- Paul?? Oh they’re like the cameras. That’s really cool

- It’s fortnite, it’s fucking fortnite. Ok Charlie ok

- “I’d like to start-“ “ok shilo” “crying”

- Arthur is so cool I love him

- Oh there are humans—oh god it’s the dangs yikes that’s horrible

- “But I am walking the same amount of time!” “No” “….yuh-huh!”

- Charlie’s manic laughter was so fun who does shilo see?

- FORTNITE BUILDER!

- Love that they just keep saying minecraft and Charlie is like nah it’s fortnite building

- “Fortnite vampire” thanks Charlie

- OH GOD BIZLY IS LOSING IT

- ARTHUR IS POPPING OFF LETS GOOO

- “Now you’ve met the real devil” HOLY SHIT???? ARTHUR??

- OH!!! THIS IS WHERE THE WINGS COME IN THIS IS SO COOL LETS GO ARTHUR

- A wolf you say? Oh god the squirrel

- 3 roll off in a row?? That’s epic

- Uhhhh shilo? Please be ok

- LETS GOOOOOOO SHILO

- HE HAS A FRIEND!!!!

- Grangle!! Love him

- “Can I talk to satan?” “I’m not a say no dm am I? Oh god” PLEASE WHAT A MOOD

- HELICOPTER!!!!!! THE LAUNTERS ARE HERE

- Bizly losing his mind when Chet started talking is perfect I love Chet so much

- WEYLIN TWINS TIME!!!!!

- I LOVE THEM!!!!!!! HI HI HI HI HI

- IM CRYING THIS ENTIRE ENCOUNTER WITH CHET AND EMIZEL IS HILARIOUS

- “Hands too fast can’t stop them” Everyone breaks down laughing

- WHAT???? WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH EDWARD AND EMIZEL RIGHT NOW

- THE HELICOPTER HITS THE BARRIER????? WHAT??

- HE DIED????? RIP TAYLOR OH MY GOD

- NO HE SURVIVED LETS GOOOOOO HES NOT EVEN INJURED!!!!!

- Oh, :( one of the old people. It’s the people who know about the masquerade

- “Can you take me home?” “Yeah I’ll take you home” oh I’m gonna sob

- “I just walk with him for a while” “and then what?” “I don’t know. I keep walking. I don’t know where to take him” “ok, just keep walking” “Ben can you tell me about your family or anything you like?” And he just pointed out a bird in the trees :(( NOW HIM AND SHILO ARE TALKING ABOUT BIRDS IM NOT OK

- :( I agree with bizly this is the saddest thing Charlie has ever done

- I get why bizly said this destroyed him because I agree Ben’s whole situation is so incredibly sad

- Gotta wait to do part 2 but that was a phenomenal first half of the finale I loved it!!

[lin-lizzie]

*cracks knuckles*

this was a detail i noticed a while ago when listening to and watching the persona 3 the weird masquerade version of brand new days however i was only watching the male mc version and it was grainy quality but at the very end the lights go dim and everyone does this weird gesture/motion with their hands, everyone doing it at a different pace, then it looks like they're sending it up into the air. now, i didnt watch p3twm HOWEVER i think it's based off p3p hopefully meaning the story is still pretty much the same aside the songs the cast sings (because i mean. its a stage version what else do u expect) and a few scenes probs but ANYWAYS lets also make note that in the game when everyone's persona awakens and they've resolved something in themselves and it appears as a weird little ball of light, im going to assume that that's what's being sent up into the air

okay, now back to p3twm im assuming the gesture/hand movement they're making resembles something, as everyone does it at a different pace and some people do NOT do it at all, what could this mean? i'm going to interpret it as when they've found a reason for life, i cannot say answer to life as only Aigis and the MC learn the answer to life and it isn't exactly shared to us and both of them only learn at the end of their games

everyone finds their reason differently, everyone has their different reasons. everyone finds it at different times, some later than others. im going to list from who does the gesture first to last (discluding mc) assuming it's who found their reasons first and who found theirs last, and some of their reasons if i can remember:

Aigis (protecting and staying by mc's side), Yukari, Fuuka. Junpei (theres probs another, but also for Chidori after she gave her life to him), akihiko (something about shinji i think), ken (also because of shinji), mitsuru, Chidori(? she isnt seen doing the full thing, however she brings both of her hands together and in the same way everyone else does. her will would be the love she found for junpei and yada yada)

and then the characters who do not do the full gesture (discluding chidori):

jin, takaya, and ryoji

now, I noticed when we zoom back out that Jin and Takaya dont exactly do anything until they send something into the air like everyone else, because i couldnt see what exactly they were doing though i went to search for another version which was the femc version now i know they both may not be the exact same however it is close enough and it actually stays zoomed out and you can see when everyone does the thing but anyways

jin and takaya use one hand, about a second after chidori they reach for something and pull to to them, but not like the others. its almost as if they keep it at a distance, but still keeping it close. they do however follow the others by sending it into the air.

ryoji however, does not do anything. that is until it's mc singing the final verse, his hand reaches up. i cant see what hes doing tho unfortunately smh

jin and takaya share similar ideals, albeit jin only does because he's loyal to takaya and such and such (ok idk how to word that but pls understand what i meannn), which leads to both of them not looking towards the future as they believe they do not have time and will die. which also leads them to wanting nyx to destroy the world and humanity.

ryoji is essentially death. he is the embodiment of it. that's why he doesn't do anything. however, he knows he will be at mc's side, bc yknow mc dies at the end becoming the great seal.

now, mc doing the hand gesture last may just be because he's singing the final verse however his is also different, he reaches out towards the audience/camera instead of sending it up. again, may be bc hes singing final, but it's still an interesting detail, as he is the one who finds the answer to life, and giving it up for the future of his friends.

i love this little detail. i dont think my interpretation is exactly right but boy is it still something that got me thinking. such a small detail too

[osleeplessflowero]

Chasing - A Nightmare x Reader Oneshot/Series?

Leaves crinkle under your shoes. Stars twinkle overhead, shining brightly in the moonlit sky above you.

It's cold out, a chill forming against your slightly exposed skin as you run.

It's a familiar feeling, it fills you with adrenaline each time it happens. Running as far and fast as you can..like a game of tag that never seems to end.

The back of your suit/dress flows as you run, smiling amusedly as you make your way along a path, pressing your index finger against the mask on your face that shields it from the light of the moon overhead. You push against it a little since it was slipping.

"You can't run from me forever, love." He calls out from behind you, quickly catching up. You turn your head to him, calling back with a smile. "Sure I can, Night. I've been running this long, after all."

He chuckles as he continues to chase you down. The universe you've both made your way to is a beautiful one, currently hosting a Masquerade Ball. Such beautiful events. Beautiful clothes, beautiful people, lovely music to listen to..it's such a romantic space to be in.

You slip away into the main building where a ball is being held by the AU's Asgore, a party to celebrate peace between monsters and humans for about..ten years. Always nice to see happier timelines like this one.

Nightmare walks into the building after you, glancing around and looking for you.

For the longest time he's been so..fascinated by you. A human multiverse traveler like you was certainly an odd..new case to him. You were unusual, someone and something brand new.. He wanted to know more. To see what makes you tick, what your motivations could possibly be. But each time when he finally has a chance to talk with you again, you run. The two of you have talked briefly in the past, which fueled his curiosity to know more.

Chasing you became an obsession, and the more interactions you've had led to the both of you becoming..quite fond of one another. And while you don't mind talking to the monster, you still like to run just to see how long he'd be willing to chase you.

Music flows through the area, the musicians carefully playing, knowing a single mistake could ruin the moment. You make your way across the dance floor, Nightmare doing the same as he catches up to you in the middle of the floor.

"There you are."

You turn to him with a sly smile, your eyes meeting his eyelight. "Looks like you managed to catch up this time. Color me impressed."

"As I said before..you couldn't possibly run forever." He grins at you.

"Who knows? If the circumstances were different perhaps I could've kept going until I was out of sight."

"You certainly love to torture me so, don't you?"

"I'm a fan of the chase. Plus..don't you love the pain it brings?"

He holds out his hand to you, you looking down at it in curiosity.

"While we're here..won't you dance with me?"

"How could I refuse when you're asking so nicely?" You place your hand in his, noting just how much of a difference there is in sizes. Yours is so much smaller than his. He could easily trap your hand in his own. Yet his hold is gentle..careful.

He pulls you close, the two of you getting into a proper dancing position as the next song begins, ready to dance the night away until the two of you should have to part once more.

Ao3 Link: click me

A song I thought fit this scenario:

[tea-key-tangled]

✨Roleplay Partner Search✨

I'm looking for 18+ text based roleplay partners that are active and can meet the following requirements:

Long-term: I am used to doing a semi-to-slow burn and have written easily into the hundreds of thousands of words with a dedicated partner.

Paragraph-Literature Style (Third Person): I can easily do one thousand words for a post but have done more during setup and a bit less for dialogue-heavy interaction. Quality over quantity but attempting to match length is appreciated.

Activity: I like to post multiple times a day if possible and would enjoy someone who could meet this pace. I'm in US EST, and my schedule is currently very open. Once a day would be acceptable as well.

LGBTQ Friendly Pairings: I heavily enjoy playing male/male, male/transman and male/non-binary character dynamics.

BDSM/Kink Friendly: I like to use Safe, Sane and Consensual as well as Risk Aware Consensual Kink if we are adding BDSM elements. I have a wide variety of kinks, so please don't be shy when asking after one!

Fandoms: The following are my preferred fandoms with the setup being Top/bottom (* is who I enjoy playing.)

Attack on Titan

Levi*/Eren

Pairings: These dynamics are what I enjoy the most when creating either a fandom or original roleplay. No preference is given to which is played and what side of the slash is top or bottom.

Human/Werewolf

Human/Merfolk

Human/Eldritch Horror

Human/Demon

Mage/Demon

Mage/Summoned

Werewolf/Werewolf

Alpha/Omega

Teacher/Student

Master/Slave (BDSM oriented)

Kidnapper/Kidnapped

Stalker/Victim

Neglected Spouse/Enamored Neighbor

Camboy/Watcher

Brother/Brother (Can be twins or adopted)

Sugar Daddy/Sugar Baby

Genres/Tropes: These are elements that I adore including in my writing when building a plot with a partner. Not everything has to be added but just know these are well loved.

Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics

Soulmates/Fated Mates

Hurt/Comfort

Mpreg

Reincarnation

Angst

Slowburn

Fuck or Die

Monsterfucking

Soul Bonds

Yandere (Lovers don't hurt each other)

Enemies to Lovers

Forbidden Lovers

Things I Need: I love to world build and plan. The plot and characters matter over the smut but I definitely don't mind doing a lot of smut if the setup requires it (BDSM themes exploring character vulnerability and growth for example.)

Things that I Dislike: Straight up slice of life without any paranormal elements or conflict. I just find the pacing and themes too dull to keep my interest. No god-modding and please, let me know if you lose your muse or want to try something else. I won't be offended and understand, I promise!

Places: I prefer to roleplay through Discord or Email. It helps me keep track of things and stay active.

-x-

Here are some plots I have!

~Fixated~

Themes: Eldritch Creature, Mutual Obsession, Dark Themes. Possessive Love. A Darker Love.

Levi is an Eldritch God of the Void that has been masquerading as a school janitor while feeding on the students there. Eren is a new student baffled by all of the rumors surrounding the staff member, even though none of them are anywhere close to the truth. Levi is bored but Eren wants to know him more.

Hook: They develop a mutual obsession with each other. Eren is amusing at first but then has the God experiencing love for the first time. Eren and Levi fall into a dark but all encompassing love.

Additional secret: They can be reincarnated from canon to add more interest.

~Take Me Further~

Themes: Actual BDSM, Kinks, Fetishes, Dynamics and RP borrowing real life experiences from someone in the community.

Levi is a community leader of the local BDSM chapter while Eren is a brand new submissive that is eager and wants to try. This RP is meant to share and develop a unique experience with the character's dynamics and how they discover themselves and each other.

Note: Any dynamics or tropes listed above can be worked in these plots.

[consolidations-of-a-dream]

//Assorted doodles while I was out. Couldn't find my sketchbook, had to use lined paper.

The three down below are dropped characters from Devil's Eye, as they were originally demons/fallen angels associated with the Master. As we dropped lore that involved actual religious/folklore spirits, the three are repurposed as tulpas in this blog, as they serve similar creative purposes, just not as beings that aren't religious in origin.

Featured:

Valentine "Val" Wu: Brand spanking new tulpa, formed to be a lover but was rejected because he took on the form of a dead beloved for the person he was manifested for. Now without a purpose, he diverts his attention to just learning and experiencing humanity until he finds love elsewhere, and thus, a new purpose in existence. If this does not happen, there is a chance he will turn rogue, which may cause disorder and chaos in whichever reality he is in unless he returns to the Cosmos and ceases to keep on existing.

Val has the appearance of a Westernized Chinese man in his mid-twenties.

Harpreet Jee: Veteran tulpa, once created out of entertainment from an existing tulpamancer as general stage (boxing ring?) magic, now given his own life and humanity as the husband of Kyung Hee Jee (@thegravecartel ). Tries to watch over Val to make sure he doesn't go rogue and be his mentor on how to be human, all while maintaining the masquerade that Val is not real in whichever reality they're in.

Harpreet has the appearance of a late-20s Punjabi Indian man in traditional Indian clothing. His tulpamancer was Sikh, but Harpreet is not, so sometimes he will wear a pagri, sometimes he will not.

Parachai: Another older tulpa, created by accident by Harpreet's tulpamancer when that tulpamancer was undergoing an emotional crisis. Generally is Harpreet's energy opposite, with Harpreet being positive and Parachai negative. Nowadays is generally a meta manifestation of a 'troll' and peanut gallery-style of commentary, as he has outlived his initial "purpose" (be an outlet of anger) but still sticks around as a rogue tulpa.

Parachai looks identical to Harpreet but styles his facial hair differently. He wears just a dhoti and assorted traditional Indian jewelry.

Urameil: An example of a tulpa who was created out of a collective consciousness instead of a single dreamer or tulpamancer. He comes from a pocket of reality where other rogue tulpas threaten the fabric of that reality by taking people who are suffering into their own epiphanic prisons. At current, Urameil is focused on an incident of such taking place in 1821, Austria-occupied Venice.

Urameil appears like a giant man of European descent in his 50s-60s, with long red hair and whitened streaks indicating age. As he is formed from a collective consciousness instead of a single dreamer or tulpamancer, Urameil is an exceptionally powerful tulpa capable of shapeshifting; he sometimes takes on the form of a cat named Jinglebell or a Winged Lion.

Mortiphael: A tulpa of similar origins to Parachai--accidentally manifested out of a human undergoing emotional turmoil as an outlet. The difference is that Mortiphael eventually outlives his human and actively seeks out other miserable people to rewrite their realities... to make them more miserable. Urameil generally keeps reins on him to make sure he doesn't go too crazy with rewriting reality, usually by threatening him that the Cosmos is watching, and that Mortiphael can cease to exist at any given time.

Mortiphael appears like a curly-haired blond Englishman in his late teens, usually wearing assorted punk clothing or a fur-lined denim jacket.

Oberion: Another rogue tulpa, this time with a living human who created him on accident. A manifestation of trauma bonding, Oberion seeks out others besides his human to trap them in a cycle of misery and abuse. Like Mortiphael, he is capable of reality rewriting and warping, thus making him the perfect gaslighter. Unlike Mortiphael, Urameil DOES destroy him and sends him back to the Cosmos... but the motherfucker keeps coming back as long as the human who created him demands him back.

Oberion takes on the form of whomever he is trauma-bonded with their abuser. By 'default' of his original human, he is in the form of an early 20s man of African descent with jheri curls.

Human characters in this blog will be introduced later.

[cielrouge]

YA SFF Books by Black Authors 

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow: About the strength of black sisterhood set in Portland, OR, best friends Tavi and Effie discover their true supernatural identity when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical siren voice during a police stop.

A Chorus Rises (A Song Below Water #2) by Bethany C. Morrow: Teen influencer Naema Bradshaw is an Eloko, a person who’s gifted with a song that woos anyone who hears it. Everyone loves her — well, until she's cast as the awful person who exposed Tavia’s secret siren powers. When a new, flourishing segment of Naema’s online supporters start targeting black girls, however, Naema must discover the true purpose of her magical voice.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown: Inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess, Karina, and a desperate refugee, Malik, find themselves on a collision course to murder each other, despite their growing attraction.

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor: Sunny Nwazue, an American-born albino child of Nigerian parents, moves with her family back to Nigeria, where she learns that she has latent magical powers which she and three similarly gifted friends use to catch a serial killer.

Akata Warrior (Akata Witch #2) by Nnedi Okorafor: Now stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny Nwazue, along with her friends from the the Leopard Society, travel through worlds, both visible and invisible, to the mysterious town of Osisi, where they fight in a climactic battle to save humanity.

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis: For fans of Us and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comes a witchy story full of black girl magic as one girl’s dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life, while revealing to her an even darker future.

Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi: After he eats the sin of a royal, Taj, a talented aki, or sin-eater who consumes the guilt of others whose transgressions are exorcised from them by powerful but corrupt Mages, is drawn into a plot to destroy the city, and he must fight to save the princess he loves and his own life.

Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray: Two Black teenagers, talented Beastkeeper Koffi and warrior-in-training Ekon, must trek into a magical jungle to take down an ancient creature menacing the city of Lkossa, before they become the hunted.

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton: In the opulent world of Orléans, where Beauty is a commodity only a few control, Belle Camellia Beauregard will learn the dark secrets behind her powers, and rise up to change the world. 

A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney: A whimsical and butt-kicking Alice in Wonderland retelling featuring a black teen heroine who battles Nightmares in the dark and terrifying dream realm known as Wonderland. 

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves: 16-year-old Hanna reunites with her estranged mother in an East Texas town that is haunted with doors to dimensions of the dead and protected by demon hunters called Mortmaine.

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury: Set in near-future Toronto in which, after failing to come into her powers, 16-year-old Black witch Voya Thomas must choose between losing her family’s magic forever or murdering her first love.

The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley: Set in Victorian England, African tightrope walker Iris cannot die; but soon gets drafted in the fight-to-the-death tournament of freaks where she learns the terrible truth of who and what she really is.

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris: A gripping, evocative novel about Black teen Alex Rufus, who has the power to see into the future, and whose life turns upside down when he foresees his younger brother’s imminent death.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: 17-year-old Zélie and companions journey to a mythic island seeking a chance to bring back magic to the land of Orïsha, in a fantasy world infused with the textures of West Africa.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2) by Tomi Adeyemi: After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But with civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron: 16-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia flees, hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all.

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris: A gripping, evocative novel about Black teen Alex Rufus, who has the power to see into the future, and whose life turns upside down when he foresees his younger brother’s imminent death.

Crown of Thunder (Beasts Made of Night #2) by Tochi Onyebuchi: Taj has escaped Kos, but Queen Karima will go to any means necessary--including using the most deadly magic--to track him down. 

A Crown So Cursed (Nightmare Verse #3) by L.L. McKinney: Alice is ready to jump into battle when she learns that someone is building an army of Nightmares to attack the mortal world, before she learns of a personal connection to Wonderland.

Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthron: In Jim Crow South, black teen Evalene Deschamps finds her place among a family of women gifted with magical abilities, known as jubilation - a gift passed down from generations of black women since the time of slavery.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland: The Civil War is over, but mostly because the dead rose at Gettysburg—and then started rising everywhere else. Fighting the undead is a breeze for Jane McKenne, an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. But the fight for freedom? That’s a different story.

Deathless Divide (Dread Nation #2) by Justina Ireland: After the fall of Summerland, Jane McKeene hoped her life would get simpler. But nothing is easy when you’re a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to Nicodermus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880’s America.

A Dream So Dark (Nightmare Verse #2) by L.L. McKinney: Still reeling from her recent battle (and grounded until she graduates) Alice must cross the Veil to rescue her friends and stop the Black Knight once and for all in Wonderland.

Early Departures by Justin A. Reynolds: Jamal’s best friend Q is brought back to life after a freak accident … but they only have a short time together before he will die again.  How can Jamal fix his friendship without the truth?

Fate of Flames by Sarah Raughley:  Before they can save the world from the monstrous phantoms, four girls who have the power to control the classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water must first try to figure out how to work together. 

For All Time by Shanna Miles: Tamar and Fayard, two Black teens, are fated to repeat their love story across hundreds of lifetimes, from 14th-century Mali to the distant future, as they struggle to break the cycle.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna: Inspired by the culture of West Africa, a feminist fantasy debut traces the experiences of 16-year-old Deka, who is invited to leave her discriminatory village to join the emperor’s army of near-immortal women warriors.

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis: The country of Arketta calls them Good Luck Girls--they know their luck is anything but. Sold to a "welcome house" as children and branded with cursed markings. When Clementine accidentally kills a man, the girls risk a dangerous escape to find freedom, justice, and revenge.

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron: Set in a West African-inspired fantasy kingdom, Arrah comes from a long line of powerful witchdoctors, yet fails at magic. When Arrah trade years off her life for magic to stop the Demon King from destroying the world—that is if it doesn’t kill her first.

Legacy of Light (The Effgies #3) by Sarah Raughley: After Saul’s strike on Oslo—one seemingly led by Maia herself—the Effigies’ reputation is in shambles. Belle has gone rogue, Chae Rin and Lake have disappeared, and the Sect is being dismantled and replaced by a terrifying new world order helmed by Blackwell. If the Effigies can’t put the pieces together soon, there may not be much left of the world they’ve fought so desperately to save.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn: In this King Arthur retelling, Black teen Bree Matthews infiltrates a secret society of powerful magic wielders to find out the truth behind her mother’s untimely death.

Mem by Bethany C. Morrow: In alternate reality Montreal (1925), a young woman’s personality is the result of a startling experimental procedure, leaving her to struggle with the question of who she really is.

Miles Morales, Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds: But Miles Morales accidentally discovers a villainous teacher's plan to turn good kids bad, he will need to come to terms with his own destiny as the new Spider-man. 

Oh My Gods by Alexandra Sheppard: Half-mortal teenager Helen Thomas goes to live with her father—who is Zeus, masquerading as a university professor—and must do her best to keep the family secret intact.

The Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds: After falling for Kate, her unexpected death sends Jack back in time to the moment they first met, but he soon learns that his actions have consequences when someone else close to him dies.

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith: Set in a futuristic, hostile Orleans landscape, Fen de la Guerre must deliver her tribe leader's baby over the Wall into the Outer States before her blood becomes tainted with Delta Fever. 

Nubia: Real One by L.L. McKinney & Robyn Smith: When Nubia’s best friend, Quisha, is threatened by a boy who thinks he owns the town, Nubia will risk it all—her safety, her home, and her crush on that cute kid in English class—to become the hero society tells her she isn’t.

A Phoenix First Must Burn: 16 Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope edited by Patrice Caldwell: Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of complex and true-to-life characters in which you cannot help but see yourself reflected. Witches and scientists, sisters and lovers, priestesses and rebels.

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron: In this contemporary fantasy inspired by The Secret Garden, Black teen Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants with a single touch. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family, when a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir.

A Psalm of Storm and Silence (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin #2) by Roseanne A. Brown: As the fabric holding Sonande together begins to tear, Malik and Karina once again find themselves torn between their duties and their desires.

A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) by Amanda Joy: After learning the truth of her heritage, Eva is on the run with her sister Isa as her captive, but with the Queendom of Myre on the brink of revolution, Eva and Isa must make peace with each other to save their kingdom.

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko: In a West African-inspired empire, Tarisai is raised by The Lady and sent to kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself?

Redemptor (Raybearer #2) by Jordan Ifueko: For the first time, an Empress Redemptor sits on Aritsar's throne. To appease the sinister spirits of the dead, Tarisai must now anoint a council of her own, coming into her full power as a Raybearer.

The Ravens by Danielle Page & Kass Morgan: The sisters of Kappu Rho Nu share a secret: they’re a coven of witches. For Vivi Deveraux, being one of Kappa Rho Nu’s Ravens means getting a chance to redefine herself. For Scarlett Winters, a bonafide Raven and daughter of a legacy Raven. When Vivi and Scarlett are paired as big and little for initiation, they find themselves sinking into the sinister world of blood oaths and betrayals.

Rebel Sisters (War Girls #2) by Tochi Onyebuchi: Though they are working toward common goals of helping those who suffered, Ify and Uzo are worlds apart. But when a mysterious virus breaks out among the children in the Space Colonies, their paths collide.

Reaper of Souls (Kingdom of Souls #2) by Rena Barron: After so many years yearning for the gift of magic, Arrah has the one thing she’s always wanted—at a terrible price. But the Demon King’s shadow looms closer than she thinks. And as Arrah struggles to unravel her connection to him, defeating him begins to seem more and more impossible.

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy: A North African-inspired feminist fantasy in which two sisters, Eva and Isa must compete in a magical duel to the death for the right to inherit the queendom of Myre.  

Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves: In Portero, Texas, teens Kit and Fancy Cordelle, daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, bring two boys with similar tendencies to a world of endless possibilities they have discovered behind a mysterious door.

Siege of Shadows (The Effigies #2) by Sarah Raughley:  After Saul reappears with an army of soldiers with Effigy-like abilities, threatening to unleash the monstrous Phantoms, e-year-old Maia and the other Effigies hope to defeat him by discovering the source of their power over the four classical elements, but they are betrayed by the Sect and bogged down by questions about the previous Fire Effigy's murder.

The Sisters of Reckoning (The Good Luck Girls #2) by Charlotte Nicole Davis: The blockbuster sequel to an alternate Old West-set commercial fantasy adventure.

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow: Set in the near-future, in which a captive teen human and a young alien leader—bonded by their love of forbidden books and music—embark on a desperate road trip as they attempt to overturn alien rule and save humankind. 

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi: Set in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria, sisters Onyii and Ify, separated by a devastating civil war, must fight their way back to each other against all odds.

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst: When the goddess Bayla fails to take over Liyana's body, Liyana's people abandon her in the desert to find a more worthy vessel, but she soon meets Korbyn, who says the souls of seven deities have been stolen and he needs Liyana's help to find them.

The Weight of Stars by K. Ancrum: After a horrific accident brings loners Ryann and Alexandria together, Ryann learns that Alexandria's mother is an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way trip to the edge of the solar system.

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson: Black teen Marigold and her blended family move into a newly renovated, picture-perfect home in a dilapidated Midwestern city, and are haunted by what she thinks are ghosts, but might be far worse.

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle: Black teen Rue, from a poor neighborhood who, after learning she is half-human, half-goddess, must embrace both sides of her heritage to unlock her magic and destroy the racist gods poisoning her neighborhood with violence, drugs, and crime.

Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Thomas: In this Jamaican-inspired fantasy debut, two witches from enemy castes—one seeking power, and one seeking revenge—will stop at nothing to overthrow the witch queen, even if it means forming an alliance with each other and unleashing chaos on their island nation.

Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood: An Ethiopian-inspired Jane Eyre retelling in which an unlicensed debtera, or exorcist, Andromeda, is hired to rid a castle of its dangerous curses, only to fall in love with Magnus Rochester, a boy whose life hangs in the balance.

Yesterday Is History by Kosoko Jackson: Black teen Andre Cobb undergoes a liver transplant and as a side effect winds up slipping through time from present-day Boston to 1969 NYC on the eve of the Stonewall riots, delivering a story that is part romance, part gay history, and part time-travel drama, exploring how far we have and haven't come. 

[averybritishblog]

The Ten Times I Hugely Overthink M's Character in Spectre.

1. Mallory stands at ease when in the presence of a senior.

So just a bit of a minor point, but when Max enters the room, Mallory's body position changes. His hands go behind his back almost immediately, similar to the at ease position in the Army. Probably a habit from his time in the SAS. He doesn't like Max or respect him, but is still trained to show deference to authority.

2. He basically tells us that he's had to kill someone at close range.

In the scene with Max in his office, Mallory talks about the important of human judgement when making that life or death decision. The fact that he talks about 'looking him in the eye' suggests that he's had to do just that, and pull the trigger at close range. (Also side note, in every scene he's in with Max, Mallory uses the first name but Max always calls him M. )

Numbers 3 to 10 under the cut.

3. Dude has a temper.

When Max plays him the recording of Moneypenny's recorded conversation, Mallory looks like he would actually slap someone given half the chance. There's not embarrassment or fear, just anger. (Semi included this one because my GOD he looks good when he's angry.)

4. He probably suffers with an old leg injury.

You can see it at several times during the movie. The first time I got a hint of it is when he's coming down the corridor. He's got an uneven step and often swings his arm a little to balance it out. There's other hints too. When they go into the Hildebrandt safehouse, M uses the railing on the stairs to pull himself up and onto the land. From the scene on the bridge, we also can see that he clearly can't run very well. This is probably hinting at when he was taken by the IRA, as one of the things they were famed for was 'kneecapping' those they captured. It's likely therefore that Mallory sustained an injury whilst taken by them and never recovered.

5. His command style is still very militaristic.

In the Rules scene, M instructs Q to destroy all the smart blood files and leave well alone. Whilst he provides a quick explanation as to why - in that they'll only make Bond weaker - he doesn't leave time for questions. He walks out, understanding that his orders will be followed. (Also important to me is that he's eating alone in this scene, which I will come down to below).

6. He takes pride in his work/he's incredibly neat. (Most likely both).

When he meets Bond in Hildebrandt, M's gun is in a leather case with it's own holster. This suggests it's not MI6 standard issue, but his own. It's a nice leather case as well, meaning he's invested in it. He either likes to keep things neat or he takes some level of pride in the tools of his trade. Most likely it's probably both.

7. The car.

Honestly, no idea why I love this so much but buckle in for my headcanons about this car. So it's not one of the MI6 staff cars. In Skyfall, we see M(ansfield) being driven in the latest Jaguar, where as this is a 2006 XJ Sport. That means at the time Spectre is set, it's coming up to nine years old. Now probably this is just due to filming. The production bought six of these cars and smashed to pieces four of them, so they probably just went for a car that was easy to get a hold of and cheap. But in my head, this is Mallory's personal motor, which is reinforced by the fact he drives it, not Bond. It's a Jaguar, so less flashy than Bond's Aston Martin and more of an old fashioned brand. The fact that it's a little on the older too suggests to me that Mallory is fond of it.

8. He's actually fairly sentimental and fiercely loyal.

For me, in the shot where he watches the old MI6 building crumble, he looks both terrified for Bond and also mournful at watching the old building collapse. This suggests to me he is actually fairly sentimental and is loyal to his agents, despite Bond landing M in deep shit throughout the entire movie.

9. Dude's a bad ass.

Break into the data centre of a super evil spy ring masquerading as a British intelligence agency? No problem, will just make himself at home. Walk up to a bunch of armed police and just glare at them until they stand down? Why the fuck not. Mallory follows protocol until he's 100% done and then will just say fuck it.

10. He probably was once given the chance to walk away and didn't.

Okay so this actually begins in his first scene in Skyfall where he asks Bond why he didn't just stay dead. He doesn't understand why the agent doesn't just take the easy way out and quit whilst he's ahead. Skip forward to the ending of Spectre, where he's looking at Bond walking away with Madeleine. There seems to be more than a hint of regret or sadness in his expression. To me, this suggests that he was probably once given a similar choice, maybe after he came back from Northern Ireland, but never did. So now he's eating his dinner alone in Rules one evening and getting his car smashed to pieces the next. That makes me think that Bond and Mallory's conversation in Skyfall is more of a caution from one man to the other.

OR I could just be MASSIVELY overreading all of this.

[polarisbibliotheque]

Polaris Bibliothéque Masterlist

Last Updated: March, 03, 2022

Hey, demons and humans, we have a Masterlist AT LAST! Here you can find all works I have already posted - if you can’t find something you swear you read, shoot me a DM and we’ll find it together.

Also, I don’t take requests, but feel free to suggest me some themes if you’d like to see here. I can’t promise I will do them, but it might go to my “list of ideas to write” ^^

Sorry for taking so long to update and put it in a place you can find it easily

Devil May Cry

Devil May Cry Normal Scenarios

Dante & Vergil taking care of their sick s/o

Dante & Vergil with their s/o falling asleep on their lap

Dante & Vergil with their s/o choking on bobba milk tea

Dante & Vergil falling asleep on their s/o lap

Dante & Vergil with an s/o suffering from being hit on without their consent

Dante & Vergil finally having a relaxing bathtub time with their s/o

Nero training Kyrie

Vergil training his s/o

Dante training his s/o

Dante & Vergil shamelessly flirting with their s/o (feat. Nero + Kyrie)

Dante & Vergil with an s/o who’s emotionally tired and needing support

Dante & Vergil with an s/o who internalizes their feelings like hell when they are going though rough times

Devil May Cry - Random Scenarios

The Truth is a Shard of Ice (Vergil x Reader)

Pairing: Vergil x Reader

Summary: Vergil doesn’t know if his demonic heritage allows him to actually feel love. You are scared of how much of yourself love would make you sacrifice - and if you’d be ready for it. Needless to say, you were quite a pair, talking it out on a rainy afternoon. The truth? A shard of ice.

A Sky-Blue Kind of Rain (Dante x Reader)

Pairing: Dante X Reader

Summary: Devils may cry more frequently than humans think.

What Do You Want For Christmas? | DMC Crew, Reader and X-mas Stuff

Pairings: None. Just good old found family time (one could argue there’s something platonic between Dante and Reader or Vergil and Reader. I’ll leave it to your interpretation)

Summary: Kyrie suggested a Christmas celebration with the crew and now Nero is bound to make it happen - he just didn’t think it would be that difficult to make everyone choose a few gifts.

The Fairy And The Demon, a Tale By Nero - Nero x Kyrie

Pairing: Nero x Kyrie

Summary: Kyrie is running errands and Nico is going crazy while in charge of the kids at the orphanage. When Nero arrives, she puts this task on his shoulders - and all he can think of is to entertain the children with a made up tale of fairies and demons. It turns out the so called “tale” is not that made up after all.

A Rose By Any Other Name - Vergil x Reader

Pairing: Vergil x Reader

Summary: Under a shimmering moonlight on a secret garden, Vergil thinks if he could ever start again had he not his own name - a name that inspired such loathing. And under the moonlight, his s/o takes the time to remember him how adored he is while using the poetic words of Shakespeare.

Devil May Dance: Golden Dreams Were Shiny Days - Dante x Reader

Pairing: Dante x Reader

Summary: Dante thinks about his life with brand new company at the DMC, but the jukebox plays songs that are too good to be ignored

Devil May Halloween - Halloween Scenarios

Halloween Scenario - V Version (the one where you go full Phantom of the Opéra)

Pairing: V x Reader (+ Vergil x Reader. In this household, Vergil is V and he’s able to separate sometimes - there will be a fic with Vergil’s s/o meeting V for the first time)

Summary: Kyrie decided to take the kids from the Orphanage on a field trip to the Opéra during Halloween - with your and Nero’s help - but now, they don’t want to leave: they expect to meet the infamous Phantom of the Opéra. While you wait, though, another figure emerges from the darkness - someone you really weren’t expecting.

Halloween Scenario - Vergil Version (the one where he dresses full Dracula on a masquerade night at the Opéra)

Pairing: Vergil x Reader

Summary: Vergil wasn’t the easiest of people to convince to have fun - but a masquerade ball at the city’s Opéra during Halloween might change that. Even if demons decide to pay a visit.

Halloween Scenario - Dante Version (the one with two parts where Dante, his s/o and Patty get yeeted to another dimension by a demonic top hat. Don’t ask, just go with it)

Dante - Part 1

Dante - Part 2

Pairing: Dante x Reader

Summary: Patty never really had a full Halloween experience - so you decided to go trick or treating with her, costumes and all. What you didn’t plan, though, was that she’d find a funny top hat among Dante’s devil arms - and be swallowed by it right in front of you. It was up to you and Dante to bring her back now.

Halloween Scenario - Nero Version (the one where you, Nico and Kyrie dress up as the Sanderson Sisters and you dance the night away with Nero)

Pairings: Nero x Kyrie, as always. In this one, reader is Nero’s best friend (he calls her his sister)

Summary: The theme for this Halloween was Hocus Pocus, the movie you all watched as kids. All dressed up, Nero runs to the orphanage just in time to watch the Sanderson Sisters’ show.

Devil May Cry Incorrect Quotes

Vergil, the butter barbarian

Nero and y/n, bffs and partners in crime

How to summon Nero

Dante, Lady, Nero and the “you can’t eat a full cheeseburger in 4 bites” bet

DMC Crew and their least favourite animals (feat. Vergil going full Shakespeare on his s/o)

Devil May Cry Random Headcanons

Trish’s Eyes

Sparda Family and Foreign Languages

DMC OC Week

Day 1: Introduction

Summary: “After 10 years, Dante goes back to the city of Remény, a place where he left much more than dead demons and thankful humans. He’d finally meet her again.”

Day 2: Their connection to the cast/ship

Follow up of Day 1

Day 3: Past

Follow up of Day 1 and Day 2

Day 4: Likes/Dislikes

Day 5: Weapon | Abilities | Job | Hobbies

Day 6: Family/Background

Day 7: Free (Devil May Dance first iteration, pairing is Dante x OC)

Resident Evil

Resident Evil Random Headcanons

Carlos Oliveira’s Brazilian Mixtape: Resposta, by Skank

Original Stories (OCs and books I've been writing)

Platonic love between siblings/friends excerpts

[jeeperso]

D&D Quotes Without context

Miscellaneous Edition, for those quotable lines from between sessions

"All I wanna do, is fork a giant woman! A giant woman!" "Jonni, I'm pretty sure she is some type of undead, probably a vampire. Are you sure that is a good idea?" "If I don’t get turned into a blueberry it won’t be my worst date." "Okay, but if you have to defend yourself just don't burn the place down for once." "Oh, Nyx. Sweet summer child. I never make promises we both know I won’t even try to keep." "Jonni, if I wake up to my bed surrounded in flames again I'm short-sheeting your next bed every night for at least a month." "I know you're trying to score here, but Lady Dimitrescu's daughters are literally vampires AND bugs. I can overlook one, but as a Paladin, it is my sacred duty to burn this place to the ground and stir the ashes."

"We don't let Marshall make breakfast anymore." "Those waffles are well-fortified." "I'm going to be charitable and call it hardtack." "We can use these waffles as melee weapons." "Well if we need to deflect siege engines they'll be good to have." "This is still carbon based and digestible by human systems without any poisons." "I can't serve this. It'll cause ... death." "Marshal we've been over this. This Pizza has 10% less of a lethal amount of grease." "Plus they signed the waivers when they bought a ticket. It's fine." "And don't forget to push the Cakeon." "Cakeon being slices of cake wrapped in bacon." "The special sauce is a mixture of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, ranch, horseradish, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and anything unfortunate enough to fall into the mixing vat."

"You do have a copy of the legal code I requested in my letter? As landed gentry you should actually have legal avenues to... I'm sorry did you say Burning child?"

"First I'm going to nail a crossbow bolt through your heart. Then I'm going to mount your balls to walls on opposite sides of this chamber." "I need Three Barrels of Butter" "Are you serious? Those Claws could crush an elephant in full plate!" "You're Right!" *Turns to first person* "We might need more than three barrels of butter."

"So Ioun is the patron of poor college kids. that scans "

"its hardtack or a mug of molten cheese-fried... something in a woven mug of bacon. your choice."

"Welp, all this coke ain't gonna snort itself..."

"Right hand me that dress and the bail money. I'll get Jonni." OOC: Well I mean they allow men in the city. Its just no men live in the city. "I stand by my statement. I'm allowed to look pretty every now and then." OOC: And dragons are the most unprejudiced lovers of anyone after bards.

OOC: Well I mean come on, its Ravenloft: saying a place is of death and madness is like making the observation the day ends in y. "Going out. Getting laid." "Jonni, she’s a werewolf." "Going out, forking a werewolf." OOC: Well Lycanthropy isn't usually sexually transmitted. Its just that Mercedes is a biter. OOC: ...I don't have an appropriate response to that.

"You seriously think I’d turn on my friends for a pile of gold?!?" "sigh I’ll show you my tits. "Hot damn, let’s get these murders done!" "No, Jonni, stay good. Besides, there are plenty of other girls who will do that without asking you to murder us." "Hmmmm… this is the moral quandary of my life…" "I’ll give you five bucks." "Scales tipped!" "Phew, I thought I was going to have to cover her next trip to the topless bar." "No, no, I have the bail money right here."

Nyx: So what’s the inside of Jonni’s head like? Edmund (with thousand yard stare): Imagine every ladies only smut magazine you’ve ever heard of going on forever into infinity while everything is on fire. Food was good though.

"It’s cool. They stole it." "And you know this how?" "Magic." “90% of Ravenloft deaths are mysterious vanishings.” "Why does everything come out covered in glitter and … is that …" "Lube. I’ve got a few theories." "Please don’t share them."

OOC: This is a plan that ends with Strahd having fewer brides, his castle is in flames, and he’s lost his cape.

OOC: Our team consists of a horny pyromancer, a gnome who can fillete you in five seconds, an HP lovecraft protagonist with actual magic backing them up, a literal slab of iron with a face, and a guy with a "I went to the eternal city of Ryleth and all I got was PTSD and this lousy T shirt". Gorbash smashing his shield into their face: "Have! You! Considered! Therapy!" OOC: Good news is you guys will no longer be the most conspicuous guys at the masquerade now. Jonni: Challenge accepted! "Nyx, the bounty on stealing his fake mustache is still on."

"Vanilla is the king of flavors. What does it say about society where vanilla is considered just 'regular'?" "That they have a lot of vanilla." Lash: "Don’t you want wishes?" Jonni: "Do I need wishes to get to see you naked?" Lash: "No?" Jonni: "Fuck ‘em." Vesh: "Oh dammit its my arranged fiance." Pit Fiend: "Milady." Vesh: "An extra wish to whoever punches this douchecanoe in the nards." Jonni: "I wish…for Bigby’s clenched fist of nard punching."

Soth: "Oh, gods, why am I on fire and why is Immigrant Song playing?" Jonni: "Take a guess." Hazlik: "Okay, so its a partridge, stuffed inside a chicken, stuffed inside a duck, stuffed inside a turkey, and the whole thing is fried on a stick. Congratulations, that's the most horrible thing I have ever seen, and I once crossbred an elephant and an owl." "I give him the 'itis, and we run like we stole something." OOC: ...weirdly Curse of Strahd has stats for Strahd zombies but not Strahd Skeletons. Or Strahd's skeletal Steed. Strahd once went to a branding seminar hosted by Bane and it changed his life.

"Are we on a high enough floor that if I throw him through the window he'll be killed by the fall?" "Oh, but when I say stuff like that it’s all 'Jonni, murder is wrong.'" "When they say pick your battles they don't mean to pick all of them. That's too many battles Jonni. Put some back." OOC: He's technically already got a symbiote. OOC: They can get married. Gorbash: "I'm increasing the rent." Venom: "Can I keep the pool table?" Gorbash: "I'm not a monster." Giant Brain: "Jonni… I have summoned you here for… WHY AM I ALREADY ON FIRE! PUT ME OUT! PUT ME OUT!"

"Hello We're the party-crashers. This is Jonni, she's here to steal your women and burn your shit down. That's Nyx, she's going to repatriate certain items from the premise. Marshal over there, is here to studiously ignore our shenanigans. This is the New Guy. He seems pretty chill. I'm Gorbash... and I have been distracting you."

"Will you walk into my parlour?" said a spider to a fly. Jonni: "Hold up. Trying to sex a spider." Nyx: (throws her hands up) And then Jonni wakes up with a spider venom hangover webbed to a wall waiting to be eaten. Jonni: "Eh, I’ve had worse one night stands. I’m not a fucking blueberry." OOC 1: Hey, where does your weed elf grow [her] crops? OOC 2: She probably just grows them in the room she hasn’t paid rent on. OOC 3: Because I was also considering a circle of spores druid tortle. OOC 2: We could be partners! We could turn this into road to el dorado staring Cheech and Chong. OOC: Wait, I just realized five people are hanging out in a pirate bar, and none of us are rogues. We are gonna need someone to get thieves tools. OOC: We have a barbarian with a big stick.

"Are we Foxhound now? Blunderbuss Octopus." OOC1: You want to put the stoner in charge of food. OOC2: Eyup. OOC1: I see no way this can go wrong! OOC3: We need the four basic food groups. Beans, Bacon, Whisky, and Lard. “We pray to Almighty Darkseid! Give us a sign! Thumbs up, for the triumph of the human spirit! Thumbs down to begin the everlasting reign of darkness!” “Where did you find this guy?” “Me? I thought you hired him.” OOC: Yup, nature, arcana, history, investigation and religon at +6. MJ got baked and watched the Discovery Orb a lot. Tordek: "But we have a cleric, Jozan, over there." Strahd: *sigh* Snaps fingers, and suddenly one of Strahd's brides sucks Jozan out the window, cue screaming. "Oh look, you suddenly have an opening, how fortunate." Tordek: "We also have a druid...." Vadania: "SHUT UP, TORDEK!" Edmund: "I think the first order of business may be to discuss your Human Resources strategy..." Strahd: "I have a guy for that too."

"When someone as smart as him talks with himself, it's not crazy...They call it monologing." "I thought it was soliloquy?" "No, soliloquy is when you're talk at someone else when your talking to yourself." "Most people would run from a demon, you run towards it to study it." Professor: "THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING! A FROGHEMOTH, AND RIGHT UP CLOSE, IT WILL BE AMAZING TO SEE THIS PERFECT KILLING MACHINE IN ACTION." OOC: Also note the Professor is Lawful Good, Archie is Chaotic Good, so collectively they balance out to Neutral good. OOC: That's good. "The incinerations will continue until morale improves!" “You never incinerate the women!” “Because I’m fucking them!” “I… was not expecting you to be so honest about that…”

"You got what you wanted....but you lost what you had...." "Yes, I'm familiar with how capitalism works."

OOC: Dragons are like, “That’s Krandor the shiney. He only fucks other dragons. Weirdo.”

Gorbash: "D'awww, so tiny... perfect size... FOR PUNTING!" *boots tiny mind-flayer into the horizon*

"Dracula hasn't been spotted in almost recently. Whats he gonna do, destroy all we know and love like he definitely can?" "... my god you people are too stupid to live." "What are you doing in my house?" Gorbash: "...well Edmund has been reading your books, I've been sorting through your armory, Nyx and Irost has been going through your other shinies, Marshal has been cleaving anything monstrous that gets too close, and Jonni has been lighting things on fire to stave off boredom." Gorbash: "Okay Marshal, Jonni. Rock, paper, scissors over who gets [to kill] the bishop."

Jonni: "Did you really think this would make up for what you did?" Nima: "I… killed everyone you grew up with." Jonni: "Yeah, and I’m still not forgiving you for what you did to Eddie." Nima: "I am missing some key context here…" Nima: "Also I committed identity theft on you by having my new undead army tell everyone you are running the show." Jonni: "Oh, no. You’ve fooled the boar tribe. Who still haven’t figured out shitting in a hole." Nima: "Yeah I noticed that. I ruined two pairs of shoes attacking their camps."

[walpurga-nacht-academy]

Isle of Phantasmagoria

Located near the Isle of Sages, the Isle of Phantasmagoria is the home of Brocken and Walpurga Nacht Academy. Considered a site of great magical energy, its culture and history were largely shaped by the multitude of unusual events that have taken place there. 

Geography & Population

The Isle is rather small, being only about 33 square kilometers in size, and being for the most part overtaken by vegetation with only a few particular spots being inhabited by humans. It has a mild climate where the winters are comfortably cold and the summers tend to be humid, but pleasant. The lowest temperature recorded on the isle was -10 degrees Celsius, while the highest was 25 degrees. It seems to be primarily characterized by an autumn and spring aesthetic, with winter and summer passing by rather quickly. Precipitation is an unexpected phenomenon, with warm showers starting without warning and ending just as quickly. The flora is surprisingly diverse with a variety of flowers and plants being native to the island, yet its famous fertility means that anything planted here is likely to take root. The same cannot be said for the fauna, as mammals tend to be quite small in numbers. Instead birds and fish seem to be rather plentiful which has influenced the gastronomy of the place as well. 

In regards to demographics, humans are the majority, with a smaller number of beastmen and other races living there. Fairies, however, are unfamiliar to the Isle and have never settled there as far as records show. Currently the island population is 18,738.   

Culture

Despite its small size, the Isle is a place teeming with customs and festivals, making for a very lively atmosphere. Its people are famous for their hospitality and easy-going nature so many sailors who had the fortune of being washed onto its shores ended up taking residence there. The Isle has been ruled by the Tauros family since olden times, though their exact aristocratic title is unknown. 

Origin Myth

Locals often claim that the very first inhabitants of the isle were pixies, small little fairies that would command the weather and welcome in the seasons with their dances and songs. They were said to fly above in the sky and sprinkle drops of dew on every flower and stem to help them grow and bloom. Due to this the earth became so fertile that when the first humans stumbled upon the island, they were able to plant anything there and even the smallest seed would produce bountiful harvest. 

Modern science has discredited this claim as the product of intoxication at the hands of a type of mushroom unique to the isle. It seems that consumption of the fungi causes one to experience potent hallucinations which require a few days to wear off. It is most likely that the locals consumed the mushroom and in their haze, aided as well by the refraction of light, they mistook the native Sylphs living on the isle for pixies due to their seemingly colourful appearance.

Interestingly enough those very mushrooms have been shown to help fertilize and make the soil richer in nutrients. Mushroom rings are thus quite common on the island, and it is considered bad luck to uproot or cause them harm. 

The King on the Bald Mountain

A mythological figure that is said to have ruled over the island back in ancient times. Locals claim that the King would wake up every year and along with his congregation of witches would torment the souls of the townsfolk of Brocken. Though it is a popular folktale on the isle, the existence of such a creature is still under question as very few sources can be found regarding its authenticity. 

Wine

The most popular alcoholic beverage on the island. Wine is considered the official drink of Phantasmagoria and is present at every celebration as a result. Due to the extensive orchards that have made the isle famous, wine from this place is considered a luxury and one of the most expensive brands in Twisted Wonderland. Every year, the Tauros mayor donates a huge casket of wine for the Cydalise Rite.

Thistles and Orchids

The official flowers of the isle. It is said that back in ancient times, the flowers of the island were blessed by fairies so they were able to walk and dance together in harmony. The flowers were also rumoured to be the favorite of the first Tauros mayor and his wife, and thus they were emblazoned everywhere. Official letters from the island all sport a stamp with a drawing of a thistle and an orchid intertwined. 

During wedding ceremonies it is considered traditional to have the venue decorated with these flowers so that it would bring the newlyweds good luck.  

Ostrich, Hippos and Elephants

Characters in the popular “Dance of the Hours” play. It is unknown how exactly the legend came about to exist, as none of the animals are native to the island. The Tauros mayor who is credited for the creation of this story said that the image came to him as he was napping in a ring of mushrooms in the Golden Pasture. The play became such a success that it was made an important part of the Cydalise Rite. 

A point of consternation for the locals is deciding which one of the three animals should become known as the official representative of the Isle. This debate has been going on for at least 1.000 years and is no closer to being resolved.     

Festival

The Cydalise Rite 

The most anticipated event of the year, the Cydalise Rite is the festival that celebrates summer and good luck. The Rite is said to have existed for centuries, its main purpose being to cause disruption and merriment so that the King on the Bald Mountain and his minions would be driven away from the homes of the locals and back on the Bald Mountain where they would be caged in by magic. Though few believe in the legend anymore, since the construction of the Selene mansion and later the Walpurga Nacht campus has demystified the area, the festival continues to be held every year in honour of that old tradition. 

In the past it used to involve a parade of horses going through the main street of Brocken, following the path through the forest and heading straight into the Pasture where the event-goers are able to enjoy a little masquerade play called the “Dance of the Hours”. It is a romance piece about three sisters (an ostrich, a hippopotamus and an elephant)  who wander into the palace of alligators by mistake. As they try to escape the dangerous place, the middle sister falls in love with the leader of the fearsome group and vice versa. The play ends in a marriage, after which all the spectators are invited to join the dance to celebrate future good tidings. A huge casket of wine is broken open by the mayor’s wife for all to enjoy. The festivity lasts until dawn when all those present are given special lanterns lit with magic crystals found only on the island and proceed to return to the town in a column singing in celebration for the coming of a new day. 

Ever since the founding of Walpurga Nacht however, it seems that the task of leading the parade of horses through Brocken has been awarded to the students as a show of good faith on the town’s part. The leader of the parade is usually the Prefect of Monarchia, who, along with her dorm members, lead a blessing of unicorns and Pegasi dressed in the dorms’ colours. Due to the rarity of such creatures on the island it has become one of the most anticipated sights during the Rite, with people usually gathering around the parade route to take pictures and sing loudly.      

History

Few historical sources detailing the early history of the island remain, however from what historians have been able to piece together it seems that the island has existed for a long time. The main argument in favour of this theory are the large animal bones that have been discovered all over the island, and which are believed to belong to a primitive species of dragons that has since gone extinct. The first settlements on the island precede the discovery of magic around the world, but the first concrete piece of evidence that proves that the isle had been inhabited for a long time are the mentions of the annual meeting of witches on the Bald Mountain to honour their King. References to this event can be found in the grimoires that the Eight Witches have passed down to their followers, along with several anonymous texts written by natives of the island. 

More recent discoveries have also found a journal kept by a member of the ruling Tauros family, which mentions that these annual meetings would cause great havoc among the population of the island. Among the effects he described were the “raising of foul ghouls from the depths of the earth, the theft of souls from among [our] village and the horrific calls of harpies, vultures, imps and firewomen as they danced around his monstrous figure.” In response to the threat posed by the emergence of the King from the mountain every year, the townsfolk would be forced to keep vigil together at night and guard themselves from the evil spirits with lanterns powered by pure magic.

Years later, another Taurous aristocrat would mention the commercial exchange that had taken place between them and a member of the famed Selene family of magicians in regards to ownership of the mountain. Having acquired property rights over the site, the Selene noble built a mansion at the very top and restricted all outside access to it. This building would later fall into disrepair once the aristocratic family fell from power and were forced to abandon most of their dwellings. Another member would repurpose it later and transform it into an education center, rather elevated to the rank of international boarding school and institute for magic.  

Notable Locations

Brocken

The only large settlement on the island. A pleasant town that is considered a wonderful tourist spot, Brocken is well-known for its welcoming attitude and laid-back atmosphere. The people there enjoy a ‘stress-free’ life in which they work, eat and sleep at their own pace. Siestas are recognized officially on the island as mandated periods of rest.

The town’s economy revolves around fishing, vinification, agriculture and tourism. It is a popular spot for location weddings and something of a cultural landmark due to the existence of places such as the Bald Mountain and the Golden Pasture. Tourists who often come here are able to make use of special programs which offer them housing, food and the opportunity to participate in some of the town’s vinification and fishing business.  

Because it is difficult to gain access to the island, Brocken has become rather isolated from the rest of the world. Thus its technology is considered old-fashioned by modern standards so things like television, mobile phones and cars are quite rare and seen as luxuries.

The Bald Mountain

One of the most well-known landmarks and the home of Walpurga Nacht Academy. The mountain is perhaps the oldest point of interest on the island, and legend has it that it was and still is the prison where a King of demons is said to slumber. Every year he would awake for one night to cause havoc on the island, aided by his congregation of witches. 

Now the mountain is associated with Walpurga Nacht, a world-famous institute of magic. 

Due to old legends and rumours surrounding the mountain, locals are known to keep away from it for fear of being cursed. Among the most popular beliefs is that anyone who dares come across the school at the top of it will be immediately struck mad. This is a concept that has been inherited since ancient times when the Eight Witches were said to dance in revelry in that spot and their fury at being glimpsed by strangers was so great they would curse them in retaliation.

The Mad Mage’s Tower

An old derelict tower, hidden far into the wilderness. It is said that there once lived an old magician whose years of isolation had driven him mad so he enchanted the objects around him to come to life and do his bidding. Though the mage had long since died, the objects still seem to be capable of sentience and continue moving around unhindered. Sylphs can be seen circling the highest point of the tower at dawn and dusk. 

Another rumour regarding the tower is that the magician might have had once a goblin apprentice that as revenge for the poor treatment he received bashed his head in with a rock during the middle of the night. 

The Golden Pasture

An idyllic sight, the pasture is one of the most famous locations on the isle. Considered a natural wonder due to its extensive flora, the Pasture is a site beloved by all citizens of the Isle, but due to the increased littering among tourists has been closed off to outsiders. It is also the location where the Cydalise Rite takes place every year. 

An interesting rumour regarding the Pasture is that those who dwell in it for too long are liable to experience hallucinations. Among those, the most commonly reported sighting was that of dancing flowers, colourful fairies, spinning mushroom rings, performing goldfish, flashing lightning and, more terrifyingly, erupting volcanoes.

[fishoutofcamelot]

I am once again thinking about a BBCM Mystery Skulls AU. Now, for those of you who are so woefully unaware of what Mystery Skulls is, allow me to set the scene.

(This ended up WAY longer than I was expecting, so I decided to put it all under the cut-off)

Merlin, Gwen, and Arthur have been friends since high school. Gwen is a spunky yet affectionate employee at a book store and despite her cutesy pastel aesthetic she has a bizarre interest in the occult/paranormal.

She came up with the idea for the three of them to form a ghost-hunting troop, and they call themselves the Mystery Skulls. And while Merlin and Arthur aren't nearly as invested in the idea as she is, since this is pretty much her hyperfixation, they are both very supportive nonetheless and enjoy going on adventures together.

Gwen has a pet lizard named Kilgharrah, and it's been in the family for a very long time, since before she was even born. Are lizards supposed to be able to live that long? She's never really given it much thought, but sometimes it seems almost...intelligent. Unnaturally so. Nevertheless, the weird and unexplainable is kinda their whole brand, and Kilgharrah has become something of a mascot for them, so they all let it slide.

Arthur is the Fred of the group. Muscular and almost-but-not-quite-a-himbo, he's the one driving the van with a cocky grin. Fearless, popular, everyone loves him, and besides some family issues he's got a good life. He and Gwen are in a relationship, and they're very lovey-dovey about it. He doesn't know much about the paranormal, certainly not as much as his girlfriend, but the idea of punching a ghost in the face is very alluring to him.

And then there's Merlin. He lives with his uncle Gaius due to...unexplained family drama, but the two of them have a good thing going. Gaius runs a mechanic shop on the edge of town, but his age is starting to catch up to him so Merlin has slid in as his replacement. Which makes sense, considering Merlin's near prodigy level of skill with machines. He's the one who fixed up an abandoned beat-up van and offered it up for their ghost-hunting endeavors. He quite likes Kilgharrah, ever a fan of pets and animals and the like, and Kilgharrah appears to begrudgingly return the sentiment.

Merlin has been third-wheeling Arthur and Gwen since high school. But he's not bitter about it, really he's not. He definitely doesn't feel left out, doesn't feel like an outsider, doesn't constantly worry that they would prefer it if he wasn't around, doesn't constantly feel forgotten and cast aside as he watches them get so absorbed in their two-way whirlwind passion. Not at all. So Merlin sits and smiles, because he truly is happy for his friends, and he pretends the loneliness doesn't bother him.

One day, they decide to investigate a mysterious cave. There are rumors of it being haunted by some kind of demonic entity. Merlin, as always, says it's a bad idea and they should turn back. Arthur, as always, teasingly calls him a coward. Gwen and Arthur exchange excited grins at the prospect of facing a real ghost. Merlin watches them wistfully, longingly. He fails to notice the way that Kilgharrah is getting increasingly anxious the closer they get to the cave.

Merlin has a really bad feeling about this cave, and a gut feeling tells him to go back to the van and head home. No one heeds his instincts.

There are two diverging paths in the cave, and Merlin dreads the moment that Arthur will inevitably suggest they split up. They usually split up between Merlin and Kilgharrah, and Arthur and Gwen. Because of course Arthur will want to pair off with his girlfriend.

Arthur notices that Merlin is scared, which makes sense because Merlin is always scared during their investigations. Gwen is sympathetic yet encouraging like she usually is - but notices that Merlin is more frightened than usual, so she suggests that Arthur pair off with Merlin instead this time, while she takes Kilgharrah. This doesn't make Merlin feel any better.

Arthur and Merlin head down one path in the cave, which eventually leads them to a cliff. All the while, Merlin keeps hearing whispers. Whispers that speak of horrible, macabre, terrible things, and all those whispers keep rattling in his mind like sharp-edged marbles. Arthur says he hears nothing at all, and they both conclude that Merlin is just hearing things.

He is not, in fact, just hearing things.

Arthur comes to the edge of the cliff and peers over to see the sharp, jagged stalagmites at the bottom. He beckons Merlin to come over and check out this cool view - but Merlin can't.

Merlin is...frozen. Petrified. Unable to move because of all the whispers attacking his mind from all angles, pounding into him with a righteous headache. His thoughts have turned to static, and his vision is quickly growing dark. Starting at his fingertips, his arm begins to go numb. The numbness gradually crawls deeper and further into his body, until he knows no more.

The spirit of the cave, the demon, the entity, whatever it is...it sapped into him through his misery. Through his loneliness. Through his pain. His pain has made him vulnerable for possession, and the demon plans to take full advantage of this.

The possession begins at the fingertips, its demonic wispy presence infecting him from the hand up. By the time its control has reached all the way to Merlin's face, it has enough strength to surge Merlin's body forward while Merlin himself is unconscious.

The half of Merlin's face that is still free from possession remains slack and unaware, but the half that has fallen into the demon's clutches is alight with a grin. It pushes Merlin's hand into Arthur's chest and gives a powerful shove.

As Arthur falls from the cliff, he doesn't have time to notice how Merlin's normally blue eyes have turned a sickly green, nor to notice the jaundiced hue pervading his friend's flesh, nor the spectral mist clouding all around Merlin's body in a haze.

No. As Arthur falls, as Arthur crashes into the ground and feels a stalagmite rip into his chest, all he sees is the half of his friend's face that has been contorted into a demonic smile.

Meanwhile, Gwen and Kilgharrah's path led them down a different part of the cave, and eventually they reach the bottom of a deep chasm filled with stalagmites.

Gwen spots Arthur at the top of a nearby cliff and waves up to him, but her excitement is short-lived as she watches him fall. Watches a stalagmite pierce his chest. Watches blood splatter everywhere.

It is said that if someone wishes for something passionately and profoundly enough as they die, then their dying wish might be granted. In this case, Arthur wishes more than anything for Gwen not to see him die. To not remember this. To just forget.

His wish is granted, and Gwen faints from the sheer force of his dying wish turning all her thoughts into static.

Kilgharrah sees the demon at the top of the cliff. Sees the wretched beast puppeteering Merlin's flesh, and snarls.. How dare that horrible thing possess one of his humans!

You see, Kilgharrah is no ordinary lizard. But rather, a very ancient and very powerful dragon masquerading as such, tasked with the protection of Gwen's lineage - the reasons for which only he is old enough to know or remember.

But while he is supposed to look after just Gwen, he has taken quite a liking to her friends as well. All three of them are under his protection, and it would be a disgrace to let this pitiful demon steal Merlin away under his watch.

So Kilgharrah unfurls from his false lizard form and embraces his true form - that of a massive dragon - and does whatever he can to purge the demon from Merlin's vessel.

Unfortunately, there's only one thing he can do. Since the demon has so vehemently lodged itself in Merlin's arm, quickly spreading out through the rest of his body, Kilgharrah has only one option left to stop the demonic infection.

Hating himself for it all the while, Kilgharrah bites off Merlin's arm.

A day later, Gwen wakes up in the hospital. Not only can she not remember watching Arthur die, but she can't remember anything to do with Arthur at all. She wakes up in the hospital with no recollection of how she got there, her pet lizard a blood-spattered coil on her lap, and with everyone telling her that her best friend Merlin is in surgery.

When Merlin wakes up, he also has no recollection of what happened to Arthur. He remembers going into the cave, splitting up...but everything goes blank after that. He doesn't know where Arthur is. Doesn't know what happened to his arm.

And he certainly doesn't know why he has become so debilitatingly afraid of Kilgharrah. Kilgharrah, who is by all accounts an ordinary lizard, but in Merlin's dreams transforms into a massive beast with bloody teeth.

Gwen gets a glazed look in her eyes and suffers horrible migraines whenever anyone mentions Arthur, so Merlin eventually gives up trying to remind her. Her memory problems have made her a lot more...scatter-brained, and although Merlin gets easily spooked he's willing to go to a thousand seances if it'll help Gwen act like her old self again.

He also tries to go back to the cave, but it has mysteriously vanished from where he knows it was meant to be. Gwen says that if a place is haunted by something powerful enough, it can change its own location, or can make it so that it will only be found if it wants to be found.

But Merlin refuses to give up. He uses the spare parts lying around his uncle's shop and builds himself a mechanical prosthetic, and loses himself in a never-ending quest to find his friend, to figure out what happened to his arm, and to find a way to restore Gwen's memories.

When Arthur wakes up, he discovers he has turned into one of the same ghosts he and his friends used to hunt. He looks down and sees his body, bloody and broken and cold as it lays impaled on a stalagmite. He can't look at it for long without feeling sick.

He also feels angry. Very, very angry. While his death had happened fast, too fast, he can clearly remember Merlin pushing him. Merlin, who he thought was his best friend. Merlin, who he grew up with. Merlin, who has always been there for him.

Surging with betrayal and fury, Arthur's now spectral body floats out of the cave. He has only one objective on his mind: vengeance.

[yespolkadotkitty]

When You Come Back To Me: pt 1

Finally! I wrote this for @queenofheavenandhell​ based on a dream she had.

A/N: I had my own honeymoon in Venice :)

“....And I swear, it was this big!”

You hold your sides, laughing until you’re breathless, tears leaking from the corners of your eyes. “It was not.”

Pedro smirks as you sit together in the beautifully painted black and red gondola. “You weren’t there. Even Matt Damon was scared. No cat should be that large. All it ate was noodles and human-sized plates of fish.”

You lean into him, catching your breath as he recounts more tales from his months filming in China.

The gondolier paddles the gondola through the narrow canals of Venice, and the sounds of the city reach you from shops, cafes and the other boats on the water. You approach the famous Bridge of Sighs and you and Pedro both look up at the underside.

“Imagine this being your last view of the world,” you muse.

Pedro drops a kiss on your nose, looking at you now rather than the architecture. “I’d die a happy man.”

You chuckle at him, but your heart melts. He’s been your husband for three days, your lover for four years, and your friend for a decade. 

The gondolier pays no attention to your lovesick teasing, obviously well used to couples making cow-eyes at one another on his boat. He’s wearing a t-shirt and jeans, not the fancy gondolier costume you see on postcards, but it hardly matters.

You settle back into the hollow of Pedro’s shoulder as the waves lap against the hull of the gondola. In the distance, a dog barks, and violin music plays.

“It’s romantic here,” you muse, as another gondola with a young couple making out intensely passes. “Is that why you chose it?”

Pedro shrugs. “I got a map out and Oscar blindfolded me and I stuck a pin in the map, and well, here we are.”

You elbow him, laughing.

“You’re lucky I chose,” he grouses. “Oscar suggested Antartica, because we’d have to fuck constantly to stay warm.”

“Now there’s an idea,” you laugh. “Are you hungry?”

You slide your hand into the pocket of your dress and pull out your phone, but Pedro stays your hand. “Don’t do it, mijita. Last time I looked, my Instagram had almost a thousand unread notifications.”

You put your phone away. He’d posted a picture of you both in your hotel room shortly after arriving in Venice, your hands in front of your faces, showing your brand new wedding rings, and social media had gone insane. 

“I was going to look up a good lunch place.”

He chuckles. “We’re in Italy! Everywhere’s a good lunch place. Especially if I’m with you.”

“Are you going to be this gross the entire time?” you tease.

He pokes his tongue out at you, and behind his aviators his eyes crinkle.  You adore the lines on his face; you always have, he’s so expressive and he has never tried to hide his feelings from you. Pedro wears his heart on his face and every day it makes you softer for him. “Well, kinda - we are on honeymoon,” he drawls, rolling his eyes. “I can insult you if you prefer.”

The gondolier glances down at you, amused. 

“I can insult you if you prefer.”

Pedro winks at you. “Turns me on, baby.”

You splutter out a laugh as the gondolier turns, preparing to bring you back towards the dock, where colourful stalls sell street food snacks, trinket souvenirs and masquerade masks. You close your eyes and lean into your husband, and he wraps one arm around you, and he smells of his habitual vanilla and black pepper cologne. You rub your nose over his soft, patchy beard, tiny hints of grey starting to show, and you love the maturity his body is showing. He’s wearing a plain white henley, the first three buttons undone, and this morning you teased him about another slutty v-neck (it’s your favourite when he wears a slutty v-neck). You slide your hand up to the triangle of his chest it reveals and lay your palm on his skin, warmed from the Italian sunshine, and you cannot believe he’s yours.

And then Pedro jerks upright, seeing something across the water - a speedboat, way too close for comfort. The gondolier panics and you hear a shout -

And then nothing.

*****

The beep of medical monitors ease you into wakefulness, and you blink your eyes open to the bright lights of a hospital room, curtains drawn. Someone shuffles in the chair next to you and you jerk in surprise as a face appears above you.

“Mijita, thank God. Fuck… You’re okay.”

You stare at the man’s face. He’s handsome, tanned, he has a strong nose which doesn’t detract from the beauty of his dark, patchy beard and big, soulful brown eyes. His hair sticks out at all angles. It looks soft, touchable.

“Who are you?” you ask.

The man grins, his expression slightly hysterical. “That’s real funny, babe.”

Babe?

You shrink back into the pillow. His voice is deep, husky-edged, calming, familiar somehow. “I’m not trying to be funny.”

His gaze searches yours, and the smile drops from his handsome face. You see the moment the panic starts to enter those big brown eyes, the moment he realises you’re being truthful. He rushes for the door and yanks it open, shouting for a doctor, then comes back in, sinking into the visitor’s chair.

“What do you remember, baby?”

You frown, and touch your head. You can feel… something. A bandage?

“Headache,” you mutter.

The man reaches out to touch you, and you shift away. He’s a stranger.

Something passes over his face, like a chasm of misery is yawning open inside him, but he just looks down, putting his head in his hands.

The door opens again and a doctor enters, clipboard in hand, big glasses perched on her small, neat nose.

“Is everything all right?” she asks in a strong Italian accent. 

The man stands up, shoving both hands through his hair. “She… she doesn’t remember anything. I mean, she doesn’t remember me.”

The doctor checks the machine that’s feeding into your arm, and addresses you by your name. “How are you feeling?”

You frown. “Head hurts, not too bad, otherwise.”

The doctor nods, the neat bun of her hair bobbing at her neck. “You were in an accident. A speedboat pilot lost control and hit the gondola you and your husband were riding in. You have quite the concussion.”

You jerk your neck to look at the man standing at the foot of your bed, his eyes tired, his attractive, tanned face lined with tiredness. The white henley he wears is unbuttoned low enough to almost be indecent, and it’s crinkled from the heat.

“My husband?”

“Nice to meet you,” the man says, weakly, in that husky, dreamboat voice. “I’m Pedro.”

****

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[solasan]

28 for june/adam úwù

#28: one person tracing the other’s lips with a fingertip until they can’t resist any longer, tilting their chin towards them for a kiss

2.7k, set in early book 3, ao3 link if you’d rather read it there

Over the years, Adam has often heard it said that history has a habit of repeating itself. Be that in small ways or larger ones, it would seem that some souls simply find themselves walking the same paths without forethought or awareness; that some events cling too strongly to the earth to be entirely washed away, no matter how hard the world around them might try.

Adam puts little stock in most belief systems. Perhaps the closest label he might ascribe to would be ‘atheist’, but even that is a mere afterthought; he is not Nate, and he has had plenty of time to grow bored with philosophy and religion.

And yet. Even he must admit that, in this one small analysis, the world is not wrong; history does repeat itself.

The Unit have not been so relegated to protection detail since their first arrival in Wayhaven. It has been only a matter of months since those days — barely a blink of an eye, compared to his lifespan — and yet the return to such a routine is… galling. Incongruent. Bizarre.

So much has changed. Murphy. The Maa-alused. The carnival itself.

June.

The detective, he means. She has — they have all — changed.

Still. Cycles. The world has only one way to turn. The enemy has come, as they always do, and once more he and his team are left to protect the thing their foe wants most.

The Trappers are not Murphy, perhaps, but in the end, the result is the same.

Farah and Nate have spent the most time guarding the detective as of late. Morgan’s senses are too invaluable to spare when she could be patrolling the town for threats, after all, and Adam—

Well. He has had his own work. His own patrols. And he has always been better suited to working from a distance, these past few months notwithstanding.

Still, Adam du Mortain has never been a man to shirk his duty. And, whatever efforts the others might make on her behalf, he knows that the detective will never be as well protected as she will be with him.

By which, of course, he means that he is the strongest of their team. He means that he is capable of feats that the others simply are not. He does not mean— It is not—

You understand.

It’s a brisk morning, for all that they’re cresting summer now, and the detective spends the entire walk to Haley’s Bakery with her hands in her pockets, huffing out misty breaths and dancing on her feet for warmth. 

She’s replaced her much-beloved denim jacket with something thicker, puffier, something that rustles every time she moves, and it makes her look somehow smaller than she already does. As though her usual oversized hoodies do not complete the job well enough.

They do not talk. They have not talked, not properly, not since—

Well. Since the carnival, perhaps. And to look at her, you would not know it; she still smiles at him, still jokes and laughs and shines like the sun made flesh, but there is something… wooden to it, now. As though she is waiting, every moment, for it to fall apart.

Her pulse still skips to look at him. Not as much as it had that night, their palms brushing, her radiating warmth at his side, but— but it happens.

And he is a fool for encouraging it.

They pass through the door to the bakery as Adam is still flagellating himself, the bell ringing somewhere above their heads and the scent of pastry and coffee filling the air. And under these fluorescent lights, the detective blooms.

“Honey, I’m home!”

The baker is behind the counter, fussing with a display of cakes, but she straightens up when she sees them, turning a grin on the detective that is almost as bright as June’s own. “June! How’re you doing today?”

“I’m good. How’s my absolute favourite baker-slash-coffee-dealer on this cruel cold morning?”

The baker snorts. “You don’t have to butter me up, y’know.”

Detective Lovelace drapes herself over the counter as though it were a pillar of fine marble and not merely a sickly-smelling construction of glass and pine, batting those big brown eyes at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Her grin — in a feat Adam would previously have thought impossible had he not known her these past months — widens.

The baker rolls her eyes with a good-natured smile, darting a curious look Adam’s way that is soon redirected by his stony silence. “Right.”  

Then, wiping her hands off on the striped apron across her front, she says, “your usual?”

“Fuck yeah. You’re an angel, a light in the darkness. A goddess among women. A Titaness.”

Her nose wrinkles as she heads for the coffee machine. “Titan— are you calling me fat?”

“I’m calling you beautiful, Hales, don’t get it twisted.”

The baker snorts again, shaking her head.

And then there’s a pause. Adam does very well with pauses, generally; he learned remarkably quickly how easily they could be ignored, favouring silence above small-talk even in his youth.

But this is— this is different. He cannot quite pin down why.

The detective clears her throat, then nudges him with an elbow. “Want anything, big guy? I’m buying.”

Adam takes a moment to reply, because the proximity, brief as it was, has her scent catching in his nostrils, drowning out vanilla and cinnamon with strawberries and cotton. He is used to the smell of nicotine and smoke by now, after so long with Morgan, but perhaps the detective smokes a different brand, because for a moment he finds himself dizzy.

The moment passes. He clears his throat, shakes his head, then says stiffly, “I’m fine.”

The detective’s brows rise. “You sure? Nate loves the blueberry muffins here.”

“I am sure.”

“Hm. Is that a Nate thing, then? Or, like— no wait, Farah loves junk food. Is this an Adam thing, then?”

He blinks at her for one very long moment.

Eventually, she rolls her eyes and clarifies quietly, leaning close again: “Y’know. Human food. Not liking it, or whatever?”

They are the only people in the bakery this early in the morning, and the baker is still preoccupied with the coffee machine, which is whirring loudly. If it had been otherwise, perhaps Adam would reprimand the detective, but she is… careful, here, as she so rarely is with anything else.

And so he allows himself to respond, “Nate and Farah are… different. For the rest of us, it is— unappetising, shall I say.”

The detective hums thoughtfully, eyes narrowing. Then her nose wrinkles. “Shit, dude. Sucks to be you, I guess. The four-cheese from Giuseppe’s is to die for.”

Adam’s lips twitch. “I shall have to take your word on that.”

“Yeah, guess you will. So, wait, why is it so unappetising? Is it just, like, by comparison? Is a good ole’ cup of O-neg just totally orgasmic, or something?”

Did— she cannot have just said what he thinks she has just said. Can she?

Of course she can, he thinks, meeting her dancing eyes. She’s June.

Adam shakes his head, aiming for chiding and falling short. “That…  is not the word that I would use.”

The detective purses her lips. “You’re dodging the question, Agent du Mortain.”

“You ask poor questions, Detective Lovelace.” 

She laughs and it is a startled sound, like a bird pushed from the nest, but it’s— goodness, it’s lovely. He has not made another person laugh in so very long. He had… forgotten, quite, just how thrilling it could be.

“Answer it anyway?”

Sighing as though he were greatly put-upon, he acquiesces, “our senses are— too refined for most foods that you would consume. It can be overwhelming.”

She processes this for a moment or two, her brows furrowing. Then: “Wow. And here I thought nothing could overwhelm you.” 

June’s grin is cheeky, yes, but in a warm kind of way. A wonder. She is a wonder.

“Now, we both know that cannot be true.”

Her smile turns surprised, confused and just-slightly lopsided, and she blinks at him rapidly for a moment, her brow beginning to furrow. 

Why would you say such a thing, you imbecile?

June’s mouth opens as though she were about to reply, and Adam is both dreading and waiting with bated breath for it—

“Here ya go.” 

Adam flinches. The baker has set down a thickly-scented to-go cup of coffee, and she’s looking between them with the beginnings of a smile lurking at the corners of her lips, brow cocked.

His fists clench. He affixes his gaze to a spot over the baker’s shoulder, a part of the chalkboard where an old offer has been only-mostly scrubbed away, and very carefully thinks of nothing.

After a moment, the detective clears her throat. “Uh, yeah. Thanks, Hales. Purveyor of the precious bean juice.”

A huff masquerading as a laugh. “Anytime, June. You want anything else? Maybe something for your man here?”

Her man. What— what foolishness, what absolute madness. He is— Adam is no one’s man, and he is most certainly not the detective’s, whatever anyone else may think, however she might make him feel.

Not that she makes him feel anything in particular, of course, however much Nate might argue to the contrary. Not that his chest had jerked at the very idea of them being— of her and him— of the baker being correct in her utterly outlandish supposition.

The detective laughs, too loud and just an octave off-kilter. “You should do stand-up, Hales, you’d kill.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Adam won’t have anything. And I— just the coffee, you know me. I live off this shit. Like, uh— like zombies, only it’s caffeine instead of brains. The Walking Dead, Lovelace style.”

“Right.”

The baker rattles off a price and Detective Lovelace passes the cash over, and then they pause briefly at the condiments for her to spoon in one, two, three, four sugars.

“I can feel you judging me from here,” the detective comments on their way out the door, and Adam frowns.

“I am not judging you.”

“No, you totally are. You get this tiny little crease between your eyebrows when you’re judging something. And I should know, man, I’ve seen it, like, a gazillion times.”

His lips purse, and he makes a conscious effort to relax his forehead and smooth out his brow.

The detective snorts. Then, in sing-song: “I still saw it.”

He shakes his head. “I was merely thinking that things… make a great deal more sense now.”

“Hey, I am a grown-ass woman, du Mortain, and grown-ass women can have as many sugars in their coffees as they want.” And then, as if to prove her point, she takes a sip.

The urge to smile is one he only-barely manages to tamp down on. “So it would seem.”

“Glad we agree.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpses her smile. All teeth and pink lips and dancing eyes. The early-morning sunlight is slanting over her face, seizing her bronze hair and setting her aflame. She really is just—

His foot catches on a cobblestone. It takes only a matter of milliseconds to right himself, but still. Adam has not tripped in— in decades. Centuries, perhaps.

“Woah there, old man,” the detective teases, knocking her side into his. “Don’t go breaking a hip there.”

He grumbles something unintelligible, shoulders tensing when she laughs.

“I am not going to break a hip.”

“No? Could’ve been quite the fall, man. And you’ve gotta be careful, y’know, in your twilight years. Ooh, double joke. Those are rare.”

Adam scowls. “I am hardly as breakable as your kind.”

She whistles lowly. “Damn, the human jabs are coming out. Must’ve been a nasty fall. Gonna tell me to get off your lawn next?”

“I should never have told you my age.”

The detective grins. “But’cha did.” And then, elbowing him again, she adds: “It was kinda funny, admit it.”

“I will do no such thing.”

“Oh, c’mon.” She steps into his path, grinning up at him without a care in the world. “Just a tiny bit? A little? A smidge?”

Despite himself, he feels his lips beginning to jerk. And he can hardly have that, so his scowl darkens and he shakes his head. “Detective.”

“Adam?” She bats her lashes.

And in the face of those big brown eyes and that sunshine-smile, his resolve crumbles. “Fine.”

“Fiiiiiine— what?”

“Fine.” He gives her a stern look, because perhaps he is willing to unbend for her, but only so far.

June pouts just slightly, and it is then that he becomes aware of the smudge of coffee at the corner of her mouth. Tiny, barely noticeable in fact, just a stain of deep brown lapping over part of her lip and some of the pale skin around it, but suddenly the only thing that he can see.

He clears his throat. “Ah. You have—”

“What?”

He gestures vaguely to his own mouth, and June blinks at him, wide-eyed, for a moment, as though he has done something truly obscene, before realisation hits and she laughs.

“Ah, shit. Thanks.” She tugs the sleeve of her hoodie out from her jacket and uses it to rub her lips roughly. “Gone?”

“No.” He points to the approximate spot on his own face again, and again she misses.

And then, easy as breathing, his hand is reaching out to catch her chin and he is wiping it away.

Her lips are— they’re soft. Warm. He can feel her breath against the pad of his thumb, and that is warm too. And she is wonderfully yielding under his touch, her teeth faintly solid through the meat of her lip on his up-swipe, mouth all pink and plush and lovely.

She smells like coffee now. Would she taste like it? It would be so easy to just lean forward and find out. To learn just how abominably sweet those four sugars really are. They would be bearable, he thinks, on these lips. DMB would be bearable on these lips.

Of its own accord, his thumb begins to trace the rest of her. The pretty swell of her lower lip, right in the middle; the other corner, her teeth flashing white behind it when he peels it down slightly; the fine curve of her cupid’s bow, sturdier than any archer’s. She is so soft. Almost fragile. Like china, only— only warmer.

Her throat bobs when she swallows.

Would she let him kiss her? Would she welcome him? 

Would she kiss him back?

He cannot bear to meet her gaze just yet, but her breathing is a little uneven, and when he listens— yes, there it is. The stutter in her pulse that he has become so accustomed to, that he treasures so dearly. Her ears are pinking, too, a flush beginning to spread across the ripe apples of her cheeks.

Perhaps— perhaps she would?

When he has finally gathered his courage, he lets himself look her in the eye. And such splendid eyes they are too, darker than usual but so big, like a doe’s perhaps, her lashes all soft and wispy.

June blinks, pupils blacker than anything and so much bigger than he’s ever seen them. By God, they are so close now, she and he. Her breath just-barely brushes his chin with every exhale. He wants to feel that breath all over him, wants it against his lips, wants to taste it and commit it to memory so thoroughly that he will remember it a hundred years from now. A thousand. 

His thumb has stilled, index and middle finger cradling her chin, and oh, it really would be hardly anything at all to tilt her head up. Just a little bit. Just enough that he would not need to stoop in half to meet her.

She swallows again, blinking rapidly, and her tongue darts out to wet the side of her mouth that he is not touching. Adam finds himself following it with his eyes, his need sitting so heavily in his chest that he can scarcely breathe. 

And then she clears her throat; a creaky, hoarse sound, as though it were full of rocks. “Did, uh— did you get it?”

“Yes,” Adam croaks, snapping his hand back as though it had been burned. “I— yes.”

June nods as the world tidies itself into its proper perspective around her. “Right. Right. Cool. Uh— tha— yeah, thanks.”

“You are welcome,” he acknowledges roughly, not looking at her, rubbing his thumb over his fingers to make sure he does not forget her skin. 

He cannot forget her skin.

[somegirlsnerdywords2]

Anime i’ve Watched

That begin with a T (Part 2)!

Yep this is how i’m going to bring over all the anime and manga i’ve watched and posted about on the old blog. It’s not so detailed but it will have to do. Anything new I watch or read from this point on will have their own posts.

Tokyo Ghoul:

Genres: Action, Mystery, Horror, Psychological, Supernatural, Drama, Seinen

Synopsis: Tokyo has become a cruel and merciless city—a place where vicious creatures called “ghouls” exist alongside humans. The citizens of this once great metropolis live in constant fear of these bloodthirsty savages and their thirst for human flesh. However, the greatest threat these ghouls pose is their dangerous ability to masquerade as humans and blend in with society. Based on the best-selling supernatural horror manga by Sui Ishida, Tokyo Ghoul follows Ken Kaneki, a shy, bookish college student, who is instantly drawn to Rize Kamishiro, an avid reader like himself. However, Rize is not exactly who she seems, and this unfortunate meeting pushes Kaneki into the dark depths of the ghouls' inhuman world. In a twist of fate, Kaneki is saved by the enigmatic waitress Touka Kirishima, and thus begins his new, secret life as a half-ghoul/half-human who must find a way to integrate into both societies. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 6.5/10

Finished airing in 2014 with a total of 12 episodes. 

My Thoughts: Loved the Manga... did not love the anime. Could not explain to you why now that it has been so long since i’ve watched this... Amazing opening theme though!!

Tokyo Ghoul √A :

Genres: Action, Mystery, Horror, Psychological, Supernatural, Seinen, Drama

Synopsis:  Ken Kaneki has finally come to accept the monstrous, flesh-craving part of himself that he has feared and despised for so long. After escaping captivity and torture, Kaneki joins Aogiri Tree—the very militant ghoul organization that had abducted him, leading his friends to question his true motive and loyalty. As tension between the government and the ghouls continues to rise, the Commission of Counter Ghoul, the government's specialized anti-ghoul agency, has intensified their efforts to completely purge Tokyo of ghouls. This threatens the transient peace of Kaneki's friends and former comrades—the ghouls at the Anteiku coffee shop. Aware of the dangerous situation, Kaneki faces several battles that puts his precious fleeting humanity on the line. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 3/10

Finished airing in  2015 with a total of 12 episodes. 

My Thoughts: I liked this one even less than the first. You be the judge of what interests you though. Don’t let me stop you from watching something! Highly suggest reading the manga!!

Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro):

Genres: Film, Adventure, Comedy, Supernatural

Synopsis:  In 1950s Japan, Tatsuo Kusakabe relocates himself and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei, to the countryside to be closer to their mother, who is hospitalized due to long-term illness. As the girls grow acquainted with rural life, Mei encounters a small, bunny-like creature in the yard one day. Chasing it into the forest, she finds "Totoro"—a giant, mystical forest spirit whom she soon befriends. Before long, Satsuki too meets Totoro, and the two girls suddenly find their lives filled with magical adventures in nature and fantastical creatures of the woods. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 8/10

A film released in 1988.

My Thoughts: My least favourite Ghibli film, though many peoples favorite. As with all films i’d say it’s worth at least a single watch! 

Tsurezure Children:

Genres: Comedy, Romance, School, Shounen, TV Short

Synopsis:  Young love—it takes many unique and fascinating forms that flourish as children begin to mature into adults. From being unable to confess to not knowing what real love actually feels like, various obstacles can arise when learning about romantic attraction for the first time. But underneath all that, young love is something truly beautiful to behold, leading to brand new experiences for those young and in love. Tsurezure Children depicts various scenarios of young love coming to fruition, along with the struggles and joys that it entails. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 9/10

Finished airing in 2017 with a total of 12, 12 minute long episodes. 

My Thoughts: An enjoyable little series with a just as enjoyable manga! Check them both out if you’re interested!!

Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudoubu:

Genres: Sports, Drama, School

Synopsis:  "Tsurune"—It's the sound made by the bowstring when an arrow is released, and the sound that inspired Minato Narumiya to learn Kyuudo, a modern Japanese martial art focusing on archery. However, an incident during his last middle school tournament caused him to quit the sport. But soon, many factors conspire to make Minato take up the bow once again: the start of a new Kyuudo club in his high school, a chance encounter with a mysterious archer, and the support of his childhood friends, Seiya Takehaya and Ryouhei Yamanouchi. Together with his childhood friends and his new teammates, Kaito Onogi and Nanao Kisaragi, Minato rekindles his love for Kyuudo and works with his team toward their aim of winning the prefectural tournament. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 9/10

Finished airing in 2019 with a total of 13 episodes. 

My Thoughts: Pretty dudes, sports and friendship! Not as life changing as something like Haikyuu!! but enjoyable all the same. I have the hots for Masaki... pretty sure everyone does. 

[wreckedhoney]

June 2019 – Highlights of Tristan Harris (Computer Scientist, Design Ethicist, ft. on documentary The Social Dilemma) and others before Senate Commerce Committee regarding large tech companies using algorithms and machine learning to influence the public in the context of radicalization from false information and accountability.

The video is sixteen minutes and transcribed, and I’ll paste the dialogue under a cut for this post with some highlights in bold, but I want to share first just one of the many important insights of this meeting:

“…the business model is to keep people engaged…There's a tendency to think here that this is just human nature – that people are polarized and this is just playing out; it's a mirror it's holding up, a mirror to society. But what it's really doing is it's an amplifier for the worst parts of us.…It's calculating what is the thing that I can show you that will get the most engagement, and it turns out that outrage, moral outrage, gets the most engagement.…the polarization of our society is actually part of the business model.”

“…shorter, briefer things work better in Attention Economy than long, complex, nuanced ideas that take a long time to talk about…But reality and the most important topics to us are increasingly complex, while we can say increasingly simple things about them that automatically creates polarization – because you can't say something simple about something complicated and have everybody agree with you; people will, by definition, misinterpret and hate you for it, and then it's never been easier to retweet that and generate a mob that will come after you… subsequent effects in polarization are amplified by the fact that these platforms are rewarded to give you the most sensational stuff.”

Harris: Everything you said –  it's sad to me because it's happening not by accident but by design, because the business model is to keep people engaged – which, in other words, this hearing is about persuasive technology, and persuasion is about an invisible asymmetry of power. 

When I was a kid, I was a magician, and magic teaches you that you can have asymmetric power without the other person realizing it. You can masquerade to have asymmetric power while looking like you have an equal relationship. You say pick a card, any card, while meanwhile, you know exactly how to get that person to pick the card that you want – and essentially, what we're experiencing with technology is an increasing asymmetry of power that's been masquerading itself as an equal or contractual relationship where the responsibility is on us. 

So, let's walk through why that's happening in the race for attention, because there's only so much attention companies have. They get more of it by being more and more aggressive. I call it “the race to the bottom of the brainstem.” 

So, it starts with techniques like pull-to-refresh; so, you pull to refresh your newsfeed that operates like a slot machine. It has the same kind of addictive qualities that keep people in Las Vegas hooked to the slot machine. Other examples are: removing stopping cues. So, if I take the bottom out of this glass and I keep refilling the water or the wine, you won't know when to stop drinking. So, that's what happens with infinitely scrolling feeds; we naturally remove the stopping cues, and this is what keeps people scrolling. But the race for attention has to get more and more aggressive, and so it's not enough just to get your behavior and predict what will take your behavior; we have to predict how to keep you hooked in a different way. 

It crawled deeper down the brainstem into our social validation – so, that was the introduction of likes and followers and how many followers do I have. It was much cheaper to – instead of getting your attention – to get you addicted to getting attention from other people, and this has created the kind of mass narcissism and mass cultural thing that's happening with young people, especially today. After two decades in decline of the mental health of ten-to-fourteen year old girls, it has actually shot up in the last eight years, and this has been very characteristically the cause of social media and the race for attention. 

It's not enough just to get people addicted to attention, and the race has to migrate to AI, who can build a better predictive model of your behavior. And so, if you give an example of YouTube: You're about to hit play in a YouTube video, and you hit play, and then you think you're gonna watch this one video, and then you wake up two hours later and say, “What just happened?” The answer is, because you had a supercomputer pointed at your brain, the moment you hit play, it wakes up an avatar voodoo doll like version of you inside of a Google server, and that avatar based on all the clicks and likes and everything you've ever made – those are like your hair clippings and toenail clippings and nail filings that make the avatar look and act more and more like you. 

So, that inside of a Google server – they can simulate more and more possibilities. If I pick you for this video, if I pick you for this video, how long would you stay? The business model is simply, “what maximizes watch time?” This leads to the kind of algorithmic extremism that you've pointed out, and this is what's caused 70% of YouTube's traffic down be driven by recommendations; not by human choice, but by the machines. And it's a race between Facebook's voodoo doll, where you flick your finger – can they predict what to show you next? – and Google's voodoo doll. And these are abstract metaphors that apply to the whole tech industry, where it's a race between who can better predict your behavior. 

Facebook has something called loyalty prediction, where they can actually predict to an advertiser when you're about to become disloyal to a brand. So, if you're a mother, and you take Pampers diapers, they can tell Pampers, “Hey, this user is about to become disloyal to this brand.” So, in other words, they can predict things about us that we don't know about our own selves, and that's a new level of asymmetric power. 

And we have a name for this asymmetric relationship, which is a fiduciary relationship, or a duty of care – relationships the same standard we apply to doctors, to priests, to lawyers. Imagine a world in which priests only make their money by selling access to the confession booth to someone else. Except, in this case, Facebook listens to two billion people's confessions, has a supercomputer next to them, and is calculating and predicting confessions you're gonna make before you know you're gonna make them – and that's what's causing all this havoc. 

So, I'd love to talk about more of these things later. I just want to finish up by saying this affects everyone even if you don't use these products. You still send your kids to school where other people believing the anti-vaccine conspiracy theories impact your life, or other people voting in your elections. And when Marc Andreessen said into 2011, that the quote was, “Software is going to eat the world,” and what he meant by that – Marc Andreessen was the founder of Netscape – what he meant by that was that software can do every part of society more efficiently, because it's just adding efficiencies. And so, we're going to allow software to eat up our elections, we're gonna allow it to eat up our media, our taxi, our transportation – and the problem was that software was eating the world without taking responsibility for it. 

We used to have rules and standards around Saturday morning cartoons, and when YouTube gobbles up that part of society, it just takes away all of those protections. And I just want to finish up by saying that I know Mister Rogers, Fred Rogers, testified before this committee fifty years ago, concerned about the animated bombardment that we were showing children. I think he would be horrified today about what we're doing now, and at that same time, he was able to talk to the committee. And that committee made a choice differently, so I'm hoping we can talk more about that today. Thank you. 

Senator Thune (R-South Dakota): We know that internet platforms like Google and Facebook have vast quantities of data about each user. What can these companies predict about users based on that data? 

Harris: Thank you for the question. So, I think there's an important connection to make between privacy and persuasion that I think often isn't linked, so maybe it's helpful to link that. 

With Cambridge analytic – that was an event in which, based on your Facebook Likes, based on a hundred and fifty of your Facebook Likes, I could predict your political personality, and then I could do things with that. The reason I described in my opening statement that this is about an increasing asymmetry of power is that without any of your data, I can predict increasing features about you using AI. 

There's a paper recently that, with 80% accuracy, I can predict your same Big Five personality traits that Cambridge analytic got from you without any of your data. All I have to do is look at your mouse movements and click patterns. So, in other words, it's the end of the poker face. Your behavior is your signature – and we can know your political personality based on tweet text alone. We can actually know your political affiliation with about 80% accuracy. Computers can calculate probably that you're homosexual before you might know that you're homosexual. They can predict with 95% accuracy that you're gonna quit your job according to an IBM study. They can predict that you're pregnant. They can predict your micro expressions on your face better than a human being can. Micro expressions are your soft reactions to things that are not very visible, but are invisibly visible. Computers can predict that. As you keep going and you realize that you can start to deep fake things. You can actually generate a new synthetic piece of media, a new synthetic face, or synthetic message that is perfectly tuned to these characteristics. 

The reason why I open the statement by saying we have to recognize: That what this is all about is a growing asymmetry of power between technology and the limits of the human mind. My favorite socio-biologist, E.O. Wilson, said, “The fundamental problem of humanity is that we have Paleolithic ancient emotions, we have medieval institutions, and we have godlike technology.” So, we're chimpanzees with nukes, and our Paleolithic brains are limited. Again, the increasing exponential power of technology at predicting things about us, the reason why it's so important to migrate this relationship from being extractive to get things out of you, to being a fiduciary, is you can't have asymmetric power that is specifically designed to extract things from you – just like you can't have, again, lawyers or doctors whose entire business model is to take everything they learn and sell it to someone else. 

Except, in this case, the level of things that we can predict about you is far greater than actually each of those fields combined when you actually add up all the data that assembles a more and more accurate voodoo doll of each of us. And there's two billion voodoo dolls by the way; there's one for one out of every four people on Earth with YouTube and Facebook are more than two billion people. 

Senator Peters (D-Michigan): Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses. This is a fascinating discussion. I like to address an issue I think is of profound importance to our democratic republic – and that's the fact that, in order to have a vibrant democracy, you need to have an exchange of ideas and an open platform. And certainly, part of the promise of the Internet, as it was first conceived, is we'd have this incredible Universal Commons, where a variety of ideas would be discussed and debated, and it would be robust. And yet, it seems as if we're not getting that. We're actually getting more and more siloed. Doctor Wolfram, you mentioned how people could make choices, and they could live in a bubble, but at least it would be their bubble that they get to live in. But that's what we're seeing throughout our society as polarization increases, more and more folks are reverting to tribal type behavior. Mister Harris, you talked about our medieval institutions and Stone Age Minds. Tribalism was alive and well and in the past, and we're seeing advances in technology, in a lot of ways, bring us back into that kind of tribal behavior. So, my question is to what extent is this technology actually accelerating that, and is there a way out? 

Harris: Thank you. I love this question. There's a tendency to think here that this is just human nature – that people are polarized and this is just playing out; it's a mirror it's holding up, a mirror to society. But what it's really doing is it's an amplifier for the worst parts of us. 

So, in the race to the bottom of the brainstem to get attention, let's take an example like Twitter. It's calculating what is the thing that I can show you that will get the most engagement, and it turns out that outrage, moral outrage, gets the most engagement. So, it was found in a study that for every world word of moral outrage that you add to a tweet, it increases your retweet rate by 17%. So, in other words, you know the polarization of our society is actually part of the business model. 

Another example of this is that shorter, briefer things work better in Attention Economy than long, complex, nuanced ideas that take a long time to talk about, and so that's why you get a hundred and forty characters dominating our social discourse. But reality and the most important topics to us are increasingly complex, while we can say increasingly simple things about them that automatically creates polarization – because you can't say something simple about something complicated and have everybody agree with you; people will, by definition, misinterpret and hate you for it, and then it's never been easier to retweet that and generate a mob that will come after you. And this has created a callout culture and chilling effects, and a whole bunch of other subsequent effects in polarization that are amplified by the fact that these platforms are rewarded to give you the most sensational stuff. 

One last example of this is on YouTube. Let's say we actually equalize; I know there's people here concerned about equal representation on the Left and the Right in media. Let's say we get that perfectly right. As recently as just a month ago on YouTube, if you did a map of the top 15  most frequently mentioned verbs or keywords in the recommended videos, they were: “hates,” “debunks,” “obliterates,” “destroys” – in other words, you know, “Jordan Peterson destroys social justice warrior in video.” So, that kind of thing is the background radiation that we're dosing two billion people with, and you can hire content moderators in English and start to handle the problem, but the problem is that two billion people in hundreds of languages are using these products. How many engineers at YouTube speak the twenty-two languages of India where there's an election coming up? So, that's some context on that. 

Sen. Peters: Well, there's a lot of context. Fascinating. I'm running out of time, but I took particular note in your testimony when you talked about how technology will eat up elections, and you were referencing, I think, another writer on that issue. In the remaining brief time I have, what's your biggest concern about the 2020 elections and how technology may eat up this election coming up? 

Harris: Another example of how we used to have protections that technology took away – we used to have equal price campaign ads, so that it cost the same amount on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. for any candidate to run an election. When Facebook gobbles up that part of media, it just takes away those protections – so, there's now no equal pricing. What I'm mostly worried about is the fact that none of these problems have been solved. The business model hasn't changed. And the reason why you see a Christchurch event happen in the video just show up everywhere, or, you know, any of these examples – fundamentally, there's no easy way for these platforms to address this problem, because the problem is their business model. 

Harris: This is one of the issues that most concerns me. As I think Senator Schatz (D-Hawaii) mentioned at the beginning, there's evidence that in the last month – even as recently as that, keeping in mind that these issues have been reported on for years now – there was a pattern identified by YouTube that young girls who had taken videos of themselves dancing in front of cameras were linked in usage patterns to other videos like that, which went further and further into that realm, and that was just identified by YouTube, as a supercomputer, as a pattern. It's a pattern of “this is a kind of pathway that tends to be highly engaging.” 

The way that we tend to describe this is: If you imagine a spectrum on YouTube on my left side, there's the calm Walter Cronkite section of YouTube. On the right hand side, there's crazytown, UFOs, conspiracy theories, Bigfoot – you know, whatever. If you take a human being and you could drop them anywhere, you could drop them in the calm section, or you could drop them in Crazy Town. But If I'm YouTube and I want you to watch more, which direction from there am I going to send you? I'm never gonna send you to the calm section. I'm always gonna send you towards Crazy Town. So, now you imagine two billion people, like an ant colony of humanity, and it's tilting the playing field towards the crazy stuff. 

The specific examples of this: A year ago, a teen girl who looked at a dieting video on YouTube would be recommended anorexia videos, because that was the more extreme thing to show. The voodoo doll that looked like a teen girl – there's all these voodoo girls that look like that – and the next thing to show is anorexia. 

If you looked at a NASA moon landing, it would show Flat Earth conspiracy theories, which were recommended hundreds of millions of times before being taken down recently. I wrote down another example. Fifty percent of white nationalist in a study had said that it was YouTube that had “red pilled” them; “red pilling” is the term for the opening of the mind. The best predictor of whether you'll believe in a conspiracy theory is whether I can get you to believe in one conspiracy theory, because one conspiracy sort of opens up the mind and makes you doubt and question things and, say, get really paranoid. And the problem is that YouTube is doing this en mass, and it's created sort of two billion personalized Truman Shows. Each channel has that radicalizing direction, and if you think about it from an accountability perspective – back when we had Janet Jackson on one side of the TV screen at the Super Bowl, and we had 60 million Americans on the other, we had a five-second TV delay and a bunch of humans in the loop it for a reason. But what happens when you have two billion Truman shows, two billion possible Janet Jackson's and two billion people on the other end? It's a digital Frankenstein that's really hard to control, and so that's the way that we need to see it.

From there, we can talk about how to regulate it. 

Senator Sullivan (R-Alaska): Anyone else have a thought on a pretty important threshold question? 

Harris: Is it okay if I check in? Thank you, Senator. The issue here is that Section 230 of the Communications Decency section – 230 has obviously made it so that the platforms are not responsible for any content that is on them, which freed them up to do what we've created today. The problem is if, you know, is YouTube a publisher? Well, they're not generating the content, they're not paying journalists, they're not doing that, but they are recommending things, and I think that we need a new class between, you know… 

The New York Times is responsible if they say something that defames someone else that reaches a certain hundred million or so people. When YouTube recommends flat earth conspiracy theories hundreds of millions of times, and if you consider that 70% of YouTube's traffic is driven by recommendations, meaning driven by what they are recommending, what algorithm is choosing to put in front of the eyeballs of a person, it's if you were to backwards derive a motto, it would be, “With great power comes no responsibility.”