#though i dont know how accurate it is

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

Finished Trace Evidence this morning, and that is officially the 7th square - Childhood Favourite - crossed off on my bingo board for @batmanisagatewaydrug's 2025 Book Bingo.

Technically, I was finished a bit ago because I finished Virals by Kathy Reichs a bit ago, but I goddamn adore this series and I just had to reread the entire Virals series.

There are 5 books (Virals, Seizure, Code, Exposure, and Terminal) and 4 short stories (Shock, Shift, Swipe, and Spike) collected within the book Trace Evidence. And there is no way for me to even remotely review this series or just talk about it objectively. Reading it fundamentally changes me as a person as in like, I have a degree in psychology as a result of reading this book.

It was honestly a little revealing for me, rereading this series. Like I did not realise how many of my writing quirks came from the way Kathy Reichs writes, maybe including my love of epistolary storytelling. This book feels like a window into my soul almost. I felt vulnerable reading it at times though other times I was overjoyed, making notes like "hi my beloved" and "chance my boy!"

At its bones, the Virals series is about four kids and their dog solving mysteries. There's a lot of Scooby Doo vibes (another one of my childhood favourite things) like these are The Meddling Kids™ to rival all others (which is kinda the plot of Terminal), but they do commit several more felonies than I remember happening on Scooby Doo. Within our gang - or more accurately, pack - there's Tory (Tory's the grand-niece of Temperance Brennan for anyone who's read Reichs' other books or seen Bones), Shelton, Hiram, Ben and Tory's wolfdog Cooper.

I adore all four of them and almost every other character in the series from clueless dad Kit to a bit confused but got the spirit Whitney to terrible awful Chance to reformed girlboss Madison to definition of shit floats upward Corcoran to the girl Tory definitely doesn't have a crush on Ella to anyone and everyone in the series.

Hiram is my favourite though. At least half of the notes I made and sections I highlighted while reading were about him, including one reading simply "beloved rat man". Hi is hilarious and he would do numbers on Tumblr like this guy wins in the jester off. He'd have a Goncharov poster in his room and would have Opinions™ on the fairy walrus debate. He is one for malicious compliance also, wearing his blazer inside out at school because he's still technically wearing the uniform.

The series has its issues from period-typical misogyny to sometimes being weird in how it talks about Ben being Native American to some forensic science inaccuracies to sometimes creeping toward fatphobia though it falls closer to body neutrality imo. Also it implies telepathy could be gained via epigenetics. It's not perfect, but it's so close to my heart that it's basically entwined in my DNA.

Inma close it with a quote from every book in the series:

"I ran my eyes up 160 feet of crumbling stone, a bleak, solitary spike surrounded by ocean on all sides. Dark and empty, the structure seemed to brood. Resentful at being abandoned? At losing its battle with the elements?

It’s the most depressing thing ever, I thought."

-Virals

"“Then why are you here? Did you break the law?” “Yes. Quite a few.” I held up a hand. “But for a good cause!” Kit’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “But you’ve been grounded all week.”"

-Seizure

"The Gamemaster’s face was granite, but the tic was a giveaway. I could tell he struggled to contain his fury.

“The world is insane,” he hissed. “I just help it dance.”"

-Code

"Without Tory, we three bozos were flying blind. No, worse than that—we couldn’t even locate the airplane."

-Exposure

"No, the anger was at myself. For acting like a spoiled brat. For being incapable of the simple human decency of congratulating two happy people. For bringing the shadow of my mother into their moment. The tears came then. Hot and fast, in a torrent unaccompanied by words. I didn’t want to think about Mom. Then hated myself for it. If I didn’t remember her, who would? I was all she’d had. We were all we’d had. And what had I reduced Mom to? A club to smash my father’s happiness. To batter Whitney, who’d never even met my mother, and had been at Kit’s side since before I’d appeared. Sobbing, I curled into a ball. Shoved my face in a pillow. Coop’s frigid nose pressed against my arm, and I gathered him in, too. He wiggled close, nestling his furry head in my chest. We lay like that until the tears ran dry."

-Terminal

"Shelton stood, handed Tory the padlock. “There.” Shaking his head. “One more B and E for my juvie record. I’ll never be president.” “Pssh.” I flapped a hand. “The Oval Office is perfect for a criminal like you.”"

-Shift, within Trace Evidence

[bobellafofella]

He said lamely, "She is very beautiful." "And she has the sense not to frighten you," Dach'osmin Ceredin said, and Maia took a step back, wanting to protest her deduction, but unable to deny its truth. "We should take lessons from her, we see."

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is one of my favorite books of all time, and within it, one of my favorite scenes is Maia and Csethiro's first real interaction at Nurevis' party! so i drew it. their slow romance is so delicious.

[girltwinkgiarratana]

whoops ! looks like your kids are going to high school with you !

[sev-san]

absolutely devastated by the loss of my blocky killer mafia man in forsaken so heres a bunch of mafioso(s) (mafiosi?) i doodled over the past month. i have a problem

game screenshots + bonus under the cut

[lokh]

what do you think toshiro's version of laios would've been like if he was still with the group during the shapeshifter shenanigans

there have been a few speculations in the tag and among the fans and they are all very good SO i am going to take this opportunity to insert a bit of my shipping bias as i like in my interpretation LMAO agdsfgdfgv

i noted that in actuality shuro seems to have a very good grasp on laios' character??? this is most obvious in the manga later on but even seeing how he criticises laios in their fight... iirc nothing he says is actually untrue or wildly exaggerated, and while he does express frustration over something he feels like laios Should have control over (noticing his cues), he is also aware that laios isnt being malicious and that hes Just Like That. what i mean to say is that while i think his version of laios may seem more pushy and in-your-face, i dont think it will be overwhelmingly so. if its post-fight, i think the idea of laios (and marcille) being willing to do anything to get falin back made a big impression on him, as well as the idea that they need to eat and rest in order to succeed in their goals, so those aspects would be prominent in his version. he seems pretty observant, so i think for the most part the physical traits would line up, but i think there would be specific things that stand out to him that would appear strangely striking on his version of laios (like. idk something about his eye colour or the subtle contrast of his armour and chainmail. he seems to have a weird sense of aesthetics if extras are anything to go by lmao). if hed actually been paying attention all those times laios had gone on about what the hell ever, then it might be even MORE hard to tell apart his version since he would also have a good grasp on what laios should know. so either his version of laios is pretty difficult to pick out, OR despite the character being accurate his appearance is too. stylised lmao (exaggerated features or something) OR!! they just get him to pull out his monster gourmet guide thing and are able to tell from there. iirc everyone was surprised at its appearance so its possible toshiro had also never seen it before

IN MY IMAGINARY SHIPPING SCENARIO............ lets say that his laios isnt able to be picked out immediately and that the monster guide thing also doesnt immediately occur to anyone. what the real laios Specifically notices is how close this other laios keeps getting to shuro. and hes like. ??? why is he getting so close to him, theres no way i get that close to him??? but no one else seems to be picking up on it as weird, so hes having a small crisis like do i REALLY get that close to him???? and now that hes on the outside he notices shuro subtly leaning away and he feels both a wave of shame and..... protectiveness??? (JEALOUSY??????) and he immediately steps in and grabs him like Hey!!! cant you see hes uncomfortable???? weve been through this already!!! and like. ok i cant believe im doing this again but i need to separate this into different endings

a) the whump route: i dont think shuro ever envisioned Actually Telling laios about his frustrations outside of being basically cornered into it. has he ever spoken up against what was expected of him?? has he ever been confrontational???? i think part of what held him back from expressing his frustrations, along with the cultural norms, could be fear of what the reaction would be. if he had done the same in any other aspect of his life (his family, his inheritance), i think he would expect disappointment, disapproval, more proof that he doesnt add up to expectation. to be honest i dont think he Truly believes that laios is the type of person to react like this. but it was strong enough to prevent him from acting and i think would be projected onto his image of laios. maybe fake!laios says something dismissive like Well if it really bothered him hed say something right? what, he cant even stand up for himself? cmon, shuro, prove that you cant handle it just like everything else. and thats pretty much the fastest giveaway that it isnt really laios. of course this would be a HUGE tonal departure from what the actual episode/chapter was, so:

b) the dumbass route: both laioses break into fisticuffs, and, yes.... barking. and so they speedrun the entire encounter as the shapeshifters true form appears and, after laios points out that thinking too hard about others versions of you can tear apart groups and peace of mind, they pointedly do not speak of it again. they think about it though. a LOT

c) the normal route: both laioses argue normal like and the group ends up being able to tell them apart because the fake laios goes on a little too long about how theyre all here for falin and everyones like ok its not like he DOESNT love his sister but.......... the rest of the scenario probably goes like canon, though then i would want to see what everyone Else thought of shuro

[artem1sc0re]

IM FREE OF COURSEWORK FOR GOOD, YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?

ALAN AND SAGA DOODLE!! Specifically their concept versions…

Concept versions:

[good-beans]

Attention milgramblrgram prisoners!! *attaches you to my keychain* *attaches you to my keychain* *attaches you

Not that I need atonement for anything, but I've been doing a lot of angst for milgramblrgram -- I wanted to offer something sweet 🤲

@amugoffandoms @rainbowghostcat @lostxmelody @gunsli-01 @justzosiahere

@waivyjellyfish @luce-speaks @fayesdiary @purgemarchlockdown @kyanako5972

[popppyfur]

there's just. so much stuff that makes no sense like the fact that there's absolutely no damn way the pop trolls would've just forgotten about viva themselves? Peppy's like the scapegoat in this. But really??? Just him??? No one else remembers the princess??? Wouldn't brozone at least know not to mention clay??? I'm so [gestures randomly] over viva saying she's poppy's sister and then clay is animated to look shocked too 😭 the timelines feel so all over the place I wish there was a shred of coherency in here 😔

[screambirdscreaming]

Not a coherent thesis here yet but I've been thinking lately about the dynamic of.... people who loved you unconditionally as a kid (or on the condition of being family, which is another weird dynamic) - but as you got older that became strained because you grew into someone they didn't expect and they realized that they did have conditions, actually.

I mean. There are people who had conditions all along, but just didn't mention them until you didn't meet them. And there's people who spent the whole time actively trying to mold you into someone who would meet their conditions.

But there's also people who truly didn't realize that you could grow up into someone that surprised them, that pushed their concepts of normal reasonable people. I think often because they themselves were constrained in their childhoods and mentally closed off whole worlds of options of ways people could be, without realizing it. So they thought kids just sort of naturally grew out of those sorts of quirks and eccentricities. Without realizing how much that dynamic was driven by active suppression, and how weird people could get if you just let them.

There's one such person in my life who has truly tried to grow and learn as this has come up, over and over again. And I really love and respect her for it, even if sometimes its a little exhausting to have to keep pushing at it. Keep explaining, and expanding, and not being hurt by her baseline of confusion that I'm still just.... not someone she knows how to expect. Even after all this time. But she does love me unconditionally. And for her that's the baseline, and she's willing to put in the work to expand her understanding of the world to know what it means to love me for who I am, even if it doesn't always come easily to her.

And then there's other people who run into this same tension and don't know what to do with it. They don't realize that loving you for who you are means putting in work to expand their concept of ways people can be. They don't try to overtly push you into not being like that but they keep holding out the expectation that you will, because how are they supposed to love you being like that? And of course as a kid, a teen, a young adult, you don't really have words for it either. You can feel the tension, the dissonance between the way they openly offer love to you that doesn't seem to fit, and the way they react to with confusion or distaste to parts of you that you can't change, or don't want to. Sometimes to things in yourself you can't even identify. So sometimes you make an effort to hide those things and act like they want. And sometimes you buckle down on being yourself. But neither approach really seems to fill the gap. You can't recieve affection and have it fit at the same time.

And eventually it just feels like you've sort of failed each other. By the time you have the words and self awareness to know what went wrong and where, it's too late to draw the chasm closed.

It's not too late to bridge it. But if we make this effort as adults, with the conditionality of adult relationships, you'll have to see me as I am and accept that - or be a stranger.

It's weird, to be like strangers with people who've known you your whole life.

[justewil]

uhhh . lillie pokemon

her big fucking hat

[mayordeas-clone]

shoutout to a real one

[pitchou8910]

First seedrian oc done!! Her name is Amaryllis :)

Some info! :

She's 27 years old

She's one of the first seedrians to be born on mobius after the species' seeds were spread across the universe

She takes on a motherly role for multiple seedrians born after her

Tails and his friends all took part in raising her; most of her interests are a mix of all of theirs, though she takes after Tails the most and has a strong interest for robotics

Cream babysat her a lot growing up; she's like a big sister for Amarilys.

[httpiastri]

I'm gonna need that height analysis when you do it for all three of them. I'm not convinced any of them actually know their height.

omfg definitely 🥰 i will probably analyze and rewatch these clips forever and ever until the day i die

[neonacidtrip]

we haven't spoken in a very long time, but i dreamt of you last night, so I couldn't help but think of you. I'm not sure you remember me, but i hope life is treating you well these days. take care.

I'm not sure what to say, but I can promise you I have not forgotten you. My time on Tumblr has been a mess full of hiatuses, I admit, but it will always be a place where I met some very wonderful friends, including you. With 100% honesty, I can say the friends I made here are some of the best friends I have ever had, even though most of us don't talk anymore.

It doesn't matter how often I speak with people, or if we never speak again. I'll always remember you, and I'll always think fondly of you and hope that life is treating you gently and kindly.

I hope you had a nice (or at the very least an okay) dream, and I'm glad to know you still remember me, too, regardless of all else.

Take care, love <3

[reconnecting]

rambling dont mind me

[segernatural]

hmm