#variations thereupon

[the-evil-skull]

Call me old fashioned but I don't much like the idea/fanon/concept of the Doctors "real" name being anything except the Doctor/Doctor Who. As I understand it, a renegade time lord takes a weird pretentious title as a name as a way of symbolically separating themselves from Gallifrey and therefore abandoning their birth name or any name their fellows would have known them by (in other words. The transgenderism of it all). Maybe the Doctors birth name is something we are or aren't meant to know about but it doesn't matter because. That's their deadname and it doesn't make any real difference.

[beasthoundshippingco]

Variations thereupon:

Kakashi needs to be introduced to Naruto in between missions like a nervous pet meeting the new one; a little at a time, and allowed to run away when it becomes too overwhelming

Kakashi marks a date on the calendar upon which it will no longer be suspicious for him to propose to Gai so he can get in on the baby-raising goodness

Kakashi spends so much time out of the village on missions that he doesn't find out until Naruto is nearly three years old

Naruto has to decide how he feels when Gai also adopts Lee and/or Tenten at some point a few years down the line

Naruto is not the deadlast when he actually has someone(s) at home to care for him and becomes a taijutsu master, much to everyone's bafflement and (probable) dismay

Gai keeps showing up in the ANBU barracks with infant Naruto (he's not supposed to know where they are) (he insists it's fine because no one in the village will see Kakashi interacting with Naruto there therefore it would only lead to them being compromised if the Hokage didn't trust his own ANBU; you do trust your own ANBU not to turn traitor and reveal state secrets, don't you Hokage-sama?)

Naruto is the Jounin's collective baby

Naruto is the ANBU's collective baby, in spite of the fact that Gai is not himself a member of ANBU

Somehow this single event (Gai adopting Naruto) averts the Uchiha Massacre

Somehow this single event (Gai adopting Naruto) averts Hyuuga Hizashi's death

Within 24 hours of being granted custody over Naruto, Gai pulls some ancient clan bylaws to justify him and Kakashi getting married and Kakashi agrees solely to be in Naruto's life; they don't become romantic until many years have passed.

Within 24 hours of being granted custody over Naruto, Gai pulls some ancient clan bylaws to justify him and Kakashi getting married and Kakashi falls in love with him immediately, quitting ANBU to dedicate himself fully to raising Naruto. It takes Gai a while to figure out that Kakashi is 100% on board with being married and in love and not just in it for Naruto alone.

Gai tries to get Naruto a green jumpsuit but gives in when Naruto instead seems to fall in love with his orange leg warmers. Naruto gets an orange jumpsuit instead.

Kakashi, once emotionally stable enough, regularly steals Naruto to ensure Gai isn't corrupting him completely. The Hokage is completely unable to prove that Kakashi is doing so because no one is willing to come forward as a witness to said child thefts.

Naruto has a favorite turtle summon.

Naruto is very popular among the turtle summons.

Naruto signs the tortoise summoning contract instead of the Toads. Jiraiya has to deal with his feelings on this.

(all of the above can be mixed and matched as desired)

Kakagai fic prompt #20

Out of deep respect and honor for Kakashi's beloved sensei, and with the understanding that the Hokage is concerned about Naruto's origins being revealed if Kakashi gets close to him of his own volition, Gai volunteers and is accepted (as a shinobi unaffiliated with any clan or the Yondaime Hokage) to take in and raise Naruto.

[cornley-amateur-drama-society]

I firmly believe that Chris' middle name is Godwin, and the legacy that the name holds culturally in England has haunted him ever since the first time they covered Harold II of England in school.

[ice-knife]

it’s been a while since I’ve partaken in a wip whenever/show something sunday, but today feels like a good day for it!! spiritually tagged by @lilas and @narrativefoiltrope

i’ve been chipping away at this sketch of Fyfa for a little bit! now the main thing to figure out is her vallaslin and tattoos

[ID: a sketch of Fyfa (they/she), an elf with long curly hair in a high ponytail, high cheekbones, angular features, and wearing a button-up shirt with the top several buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up past their elbows. They are holding their hand up to their face with two fingers making a V, and sticking their tongue between those two fingers while looking suggestively offscreen. /end ID]

tagging @grapecaseschoices @sleepysak @simothys @lichfucker and anybody else who’d like to show off a wip!

[themolluscasometimes]

(if you havent seen dmeon slayer s3 or read the mange this has spoilers)

okay no but look-

who tf. gave genya a sword an told him to go to final selection

It's stated that Genya calmed down and mellowed out after getting Gyomei to train him. ALSO he got mega buff between when we see him at final selection and when he see him next like yeah he obviously had a growth spurt but the point is he went from scrawny to brawny. He was also a giant asshole at final selection so like. Genya 100% only got trained by gyomei after passing final selection.

Which MEANS either someone ELSE sent a kid that cant use breathing to final selection with a sword OR he got himself there. I dont believe anyone wouldve willingly sent him given how important breathing is to the demon slayer corp

also. The only trainers we really see are hashira or former hashira. Im SO convinced there are other that we don't see given that not every water breather couldve been taught by Urokodaki but it still makes sense that these teachers are retired professional demon slayers that lived long enough to be no longer in active service even if they aren't hashira

which leaves us with options:

OPTION 1:

genya tried to learn breathing from a cultivator/some other demon slayer, failed, stole a nichirin sword and probably shook the poor sod down to get info on the when and where for final selection

OPTION 1a

When the person who tried to teach breathing to Genya refused to continue after finding out he cant Breathe Right, said teacher was too strong for genya to really do anything about it (see: they're teaching him and it seems likely that the teachers of demon slayer tend to be upper ranked at least) Genya fucked off and assaulted some weak random demon slayer to steal a sword from and get info

Or, you know, something along these lines because he had to get a nichirin sword and infomraiton from somewhere, and Im doubtful it was willingly given to him since he like. cant fucking breathe.

HOWEVER

when we see him at the end of final selection, he's like. mega obsessed with the sword thing. like. super. like yes these are special swords but here's the thing everyone there already has one of the special swords, just not one of their own.

It kinda maybe implies that Genya. Doesnt have a special sword. So.

OPTION TWO:

Genya has been roughing it with a regular ass sword for seven days and given that he can't Breathe his primary form of defense would've been step one: cut the demons arm off. step two: monch. step three: beat the demon to within an inch of its life with demon enhanced brute strength until he can get away or force it die in the sun.

In which case Genya was not likely to be doing much direct demon slaying during those seven days.

(even if he HAD a nichirin sword theres no guarantee that without breathing he wouldve been strong enough or skilful enough to use it to kill all the demons he ran across but given how obsessed and intense he is with getting his hands on a nichirin blade and how much not one single person would want him to go to final selection, i honestly think he had just some random sword. It would explain why he's so desperate to get one, other than being generally unhinged. Anyway-)

While everyone else was roughing it, surviving and slaying demons in the night, Genyas experience of the final selection exam was somewhere between a survival challenge and an all you can eat buffet, with not a lot of demon slaying involved.

can u imagine being part of his cohort and running across some dude that needs you to cut off this demons head thats missing a suspicious amount of its body bc he doesnt have a nichirin sword for some fucking reason. also he has really, really, fucked up eyeballs.

can you imagine watching one of your fellow exam participants use a sword only to defend himslef bc its a functionally useless offense only to attack by eating the fucking demons.

can you imagine seeing him at one point, looking a certain way bc hes been eating a demon and then seeing him again later looking human. or looking like a different demon. or both.

can u imagine struggling to feed yourself during these seven days and this man is having a straight up feast. and also couldnt be assed to show up with a sword for demonslaying to the exam for fucking demon slaying

[evilhorse936]

My hair.... It's travelling back to its natural state of a bob

[callmetherotmeister]

one of my fave things about doctor who is when they try to address human/alien groups in a way which makes it obvious that multiple species are present but accidentally end up being gender inclusive like “ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon” hell yeah brother #transgender

[miyos-multiverse-express]

Oh what the... It was not the 27th ten minutes ago, right?

...nope. that's weird. not the first time this has happened on the site though, right?

Huh. You're right, this is pretty common, isn't it?

[bcnes-archived]

i know i say bones really doesnt seem to have any hobbies outside of, like, drinking, but thats not actually true. his hobby is complaining. genuinely. its enrichment for his enclosure

[bluehourmountain]

Hope everyone has a brilliant 2025 🎆

良いお年を。

[monstrousproductions]

OK so I don't usually bring personal stuff to this blog but I am being hunted for sport by my book club for the way I read my books and I just want to check how badly I have misjudged what is "normal" in this situation lol

So far I have been called "unhinged", "profoundly disturbed" and a number of variations thereupon for my habit of just... closing the book. Which I guess isn't what everyone else is doing. Apparently.

Also please, if you have very strong feelings about this, yell to your heart's content - I can direct you to an entire book club of people who will yell right along with you 😅

[queermarzipan]

I am so so so tired of out of their league. Really really fucking done. If a character harbours a sort of insecurity about the respective appearances of them and their crush there are a million different ways to say it that are miles more evocative and more specific to the characters themselves than out of their league.

Please.

[a-very-tired-jew]

I’ve seen a few of the antisemitic blogs make statements like “Greta was Times person of the year a few years ago, but since she linked climate change to colonialism they dropped her” or some variation thereupon.

And here’s the thing.

That’s not the reason.

Everyone dropped Greta because she offered nothing to the climate change problem.

She was a novelty as she was a child who was so singularly focused on climate change that it distressed her to the point of going mute. It distressed her so much that she dropped out of school. It distressed her so much that when she stopped being mute she started yelling at adults and it became her sole thing.

And that got her attention.

Here was a child who gave up being a child in order to bring attention to climate change.

Except we’d already had people who have been doing that for years. Again, it was just that she was a novelty because of how young she was.

Her “solutions” were also nothing new or novel.

Reduce your personal carbon footprint, switch to a vegetarian/vegan/vegetable heavy diet, contact your local politicians, etc…

These are all things that climate activists have said for years, and many of them are not actually solutions.

The whole claim that the individual civilian reducing their carbon footprint en masse will help reduce emissions was debunked during the pandemic when everyone’s footprint went down due to us all being stuck at home and it did almost nothing.

That’s when we all realized that the main emitters were massive corporations, businesses, and the energy sector and that the whole “reduce your footprint” narrative was coming from them in order to avoid responsibility. And the activists had been eating that up for years and spreading it around like gospel. They had been duped.

The whole thing about switching to a plant based diet makes no sense when animal agriculture is maybe 50% in total of the entire agricultural sector which is between 10-20% of global emissions. This one is particularly maddening because a lot of these activists like to blame Animal Agriculture as the number one emitter and/or the worst thing ever. Except it’s a percentage of one of the smallest sectors and literally does not have, and cannot have, as big an impact as the energy sector. Furthermore, all the alternatives to products that are made from the animal sector are much worse for the environment (e.g. plant based leathers need to be paired with petroleum/plastic based products and are not sustainable). These are the same people who scream that, typically, scream that GMOs and conventional Ag is bad while organic is the greatest thing ever, all the while they ignore the limited yields and increased inputs of organic.

Essentially they’re asking you to believe that a percentage of one of the smallest sectors has a bigger impact than it actually does and that you the consumer can fix it.

It makes no sense, and people have caught on to that.

And everyone has been contacting their politicians about this stuff for years.

The reality is that activists like Greta offer no actual solutions.

If she had actually gone to college and decided to pursue a career in climate science and relevant fields in order to bolster her work and develop solutions then maybe she’d be taken seriously. But she has a high school education and offers nothing more than an ignorant juvenile take on problems. Her solutions are not solutions, they’re just what ignorant activists shriek about because they don’t know what to actually do. They can’t actually understand the science, the mechanisms, and the methods because that takes years of education and experience.

If at most you have is a high school degree and you’re not furthering your education in any way then there is no way you’re going to actually provide an answer that the experts aren’t already working on.

The solutions to the issues are developed by experts with years of education and experience who are trying to address specific problems. Animal Agriculture scientists specifically are developing feeds to reduce methane emissions, Agricultural scientists specifically see certain inputs and outputs and want to improve yields while decreasing problematic outputs, ecological scientists are working on solutions to address the Ag/Wild environmental interchange. Scientists and experts work for years on a singular problem or set of problems in their particular field as it relates to climate change and develop a solution or way to reduce the impact of the issue.

It’s never an activist screaming that something needs to be done that fixes the issue, because it’s already being worked on. The activist is only coming from a place of passionate ignorance that they think is informed, but we’ve known about this stuff for years and it’s honestly wearing thin.

That’s why Greta is no longer the “darling of the Liberals” or whatever else you want to say as a tongue in-cheek barb.

She was a novelty that eventually lost its novelty and everyone saw her activism for what it really was: the same recycled fear mongering we’ve heard before.

That’s why she’s jumped ship from climate change to the anti-Israel crowd. The climate change community wants you to actually be educated on the topic and provide solutions, her new group does not. They want you to say the same canned lines, cliches, and catechisms. They don’t want a peaceful solution, but a violent one. They don’t want to provide a narrative based upon the vast nuances of the historical fact, but one that is steeped in antisemitic propaganda that trivializes and reduces everything to a black and white perspective.

That’s much easier than being educated and providing hard fixes that are incremental and occur over time. Much easier to scream about the omnicause and that there’s one “final solution”.

[odetokeons]

we got, not one, but TWO already (so far).

og posts here and here

Honestly? I'm just waiting for someone to make Jurgen Leitner rant 2.0 but with MrBonzo

[miyos-multiverse-express]

Ryuji: She's bugged, huh!? She's worthless!? You got all that from five friggin' questions!?

Tohru: oh he's goin' off, whoa.

Ryuji: We're Sophie's friends, and we know she's awesome! She's friggin' amazing! A million times better than you!

Ryuji: SO SHUT THE FUCK UP, IDIOT!

All of Miyo: Oh shit-

Deuce: ... whoa.

Morgana: C'mon, Skull - Phantom Thieves are usually supposed to be classier than that...

Tohru: "Usually"?

Morgana: But not this time!

Ryuji+Morgana, at the same time: Worthless hunk of junk!

Ace: I am witnessing a miracle with my own eyes, holy shit.

????: I refuse to process these frivolous claims.

[patchworkcuddlebug]

A Parasite

Norae was always... resistant to having a doll. Her covenmates tell her about theirs like they're little slave-things, always wandering around your house and doing things you should be doing on your own. It's creepy, and (she would never say this out loud) enabling laziness.

But as her power grows, so does her manor. She begins noticing hallways stretching out longer than they once did, with protrusions shaped like doorknobs emerging from the walls. There's already a set of stairs leading uselessly into the ceiling, no doubt where the second story will begin to grow.

The effort she put into keeping things in order used to be paltry for a witch as powerful as her, but she's starting to get annoyed by the distractions. She is growing tired of pruning new furniture like weeds.

She knows nothing of clockwork, and she never developed her skills in magical dollcraft for obvious reasons. But she will sometimes catch sight of a stray, trying to find purpose in picking the wild berries just beyond her yard. She wonders if she'll be helpful enough, before quietly correcting herself and wondering if it will be helpful enough.

She told her coven how she was thinking about leaving a sort of trap for it, a cup of tea under a cardboard box held up with a stick, only half serious. Regardless, they told her that dolls are much more trusting and docile than she was assuming, and that she simply needed to approach and talk to it.

She waited with a book, just on the edges of her property. The wide brim of her hat helped block the glare of the sun as she'd occasionally look off through the trees. Soon, it came walking past her unceremoniously, seeming as if it's trying to ignore her. It's walking to the bush. There's already a few ripe berries piled neatly in its hand.

It was made with porcelain, with a more tattered version of the maid dress they all seem to wear, walking with just as much rigidity and poise. But this is the first doll she's seen with a wind-up key. It slowly turned just a few degrees for every moment that passed. She could see a little rope tied to one of the sides, presumably so that one could wind it on her own.

"Excuse me? ...Doll?" Just as she starts speaking, it perks up, looking ready to leap into action. "Y... yes, Miss?" Its voice is timid, but eager.

"Would you like to, uh..." She hesitates for a moment, feeling ridiculous. This is the first time she's had to say something like this out loud. "Belong to me? I have tea."

It gasps. "Yes! Oh, yes, thank you Miss!" She runs up to the witch as if to give her a hug, only to skitter to a last-second stop just in front of her and give a polite bow, with proper curtsy.

"Right. Um, follow me, then." She closes her book and begins walking back to her door, her movements awkward as the doll followed close behind. She can't stop looking back at it, at its bizarrely serene face and excited steps. "So, do you have a name?"

"This one's old witch called it Lullaby, Miss!" It seems so happy to say.

"That's... still your name then, I think."

"Yay! Thank you Miss!"

. . . . .

Colloquially, the word "doll" is often used to describe any construct that obeys a witch, with considerable variation thereupon. Perhaps the most infamous among these variants in classification is the combat doll. These ones can often be identified by their more metallic exterior, such that they can easily be confused for androids at first glance, but there also exists combat dolls that

"Excuse this one, Miss?" the thing knocks at the door to the witch's study. It lingers in the doorway, not wanting to intrude further.

Norae tries to stifle a sigh of annoyance as she turns away from her book. "Yes, Lullaby?" She just noticed that her its hair just a little dishevelled from working, but it's not nearly as matted and gnarled as it was earlier today. She's glad it looks so much more... healthy.

"This one has finished sweeping the first floor, Miss!" The doll smiled, clearly proud of herself. The witch is caught in her own head for only a moment, ruminating on owning someone... something so close to a human. "What would you like it to do next?"

"You..." it takes her a moment to stifle her shock. She's read enough to know that such a task is to be expected from dolls, but it still seemed to work so hard so fast. "Then you've completed your chores. Treat yourself to some tea." She tells it matter-of-factly and turns back to her book, trying to match the professionalism of her literature.

"But, Miss!" The doll says. Norae turns back, and sees the doll has a very human, very concerned look. "This one has barely worked today! Would you like it to scrub the floors as well? Or organize your bookshelf? It can cook for you, Miss!"

"Hey, calm down, it's alright." The doll's owner tries to sound reassuring, as one would to a friend. "I don't know how your last witch did it, but I don't want to overwork you. Do you like to read? I have a library."

The doll tried to swallow its apprehensive look. "This one will read for you, Miss." It nods dutifully and runs along.

That... went well, she thinks. She understands that dolls are... eager, to a certain degree, but she's sincere about not wanting to exhaust the poor girl thing. She also thinks about her own autonomy, and how listless she'd feel if left without her own chores.

. . . . .

Norae lets out a bored sigh as she watched the vegetables sizzle in their pan. She tries to stir them around, spreading them evenly in the oil, but it's more to entertain herself than to properly cook.

She hears Lullaby quickly, yet still with a polite reservation, hurry up the stairs.

"Miss!" It calls out, drowning out its footsteps before it turns the corner. As it emerges into the kitchen, it looks... mortified. "It's so sorry, let this one, good dolls should-"

"Lullaby, it's okay!" She holds the frying pan up, higher than the doll can reach. "You don't have to do everything for me just because you're a doll."

"But, Miss, this one wants to!" It looks desperate and pleading. "Please, Miss, you've been so nice, and this-"

"Hey, calm down, there's no need for that." Norae tries to sound reassuring. She sets the pan down and turns to give Lullaby her full attention, kneeling to match her its eye level and placing a hand on its shoulder. "I know you want to help, but I enjoy being able to take care of myself, too. You already do plenty, and you should be proud of that."

The doll trembles, only as much as its docility will allow. "Yes Miss, Thank you Miss." After a quick bow, it gets out of Miss's way, leaving her to return to her monotonous stove-watching.

Lullaby takes a seat on Miss's couch. eyes forward and hands on its lap. It's so comfortable, the soft cushioning much more enveloping that the stumps it was used to sitting on. It tries to find a place to rest its eyes. On Miss's roaring fire, magically permeating a tender warmth through the room? On the door to the maid's quarters, where Miss had cleaned it and told it all it had to know? On Miss's beautiful and intricate grandfather clock, which it is letting collect a thin layer of dust?

It shouldn't cry. Miss is being nice, after all.

. . . . .

The doll shakes itself from a stupor. It wasn't still; there was no comfort in its emptiness, just effortful restraint fading into a half-present miasma.

Norae gestures for it to face away, gently guiding its shoulders to face where she sat on the couch. "Lean forward, please."

"It's okay, Miss." The doll sounded groggy, words tumbling heavily out of its mouth. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

The witch leaned to the side, showing the sympathetic look she had on her face. "Why wouldn't I wind you up? It's no trouble at all, and... I can't just let you pass out."

Lullaby slowly, heavily, shook its head. It wanted to be polite, to word itself delicately and reserve itself, but its clockwork was moving too slowly to stop it before it spoke. "No, please. It's a bother. This one doesn't do enough, it's not worth it."

Miss places a hand on its shoulder. "Oh, Lullaby, no, that's not true at all. You do just as much as you need to."

"It's not enough." The doll rested its elbows on its knees, leaning forward and cupping its face in its hands. "Miss is so nice, and this one just... takes it all in without giving enough back. It feels so useless, and pathetic, and... i-it just wants to be helpful." Its voice falters just at the end, hitching into a repressed sob.

Norae felt a pang in her heart that deepened with every word. Of course, she's been such an idiot. She feels like a bum when she doesn't keep herself busy, how would a being purpose-made to be helpful feel? It finally dawns on her, what the extent of a doll's inhumanity means.

"I'm so sorry, I... had no idea you felt that way." There's a sincere sorrow in her voice, the doll hearing Miss's confidence drop for the first time. "I never meant to hurt you, I just didn't want to be too hard on you."

She placed a hand on her doll's back, careful to leave room for its key to turn. "From now on, you get to do whatever you like. Cooking, cleaning, anything. I might still make you take some breaks so I can do something myself, but I'll never leave you with nothing to do."

Lullaby slowly, hopefully, lifts its head to look at Miss. "This one doesn't want to make you do anything you don't want, Miss, it can-"

"Lullaby, if you do everything you can to never feel like this again, you'll make me the happiest witch in the world." She put on a reassuring smile.

Norae didn't have time to see the grin widening on her doll's face before it latched on for a hug. All it could say was thank you as its tears left wet marks on the witch's dress.

"I'm just happy that you're happy." Miss hugged back, making the doll feel more loved than it could remember. "Now let's get you wound up, you've got some dishes to do."