#where was the administration???

[cheebuss]

Mouse Pauling AU!! ft. redraws of certain panels from the comics I felt like doing

[icubud]

[gracefulserpent1207]

I have this headcanon that the Time Twins DID return to Ninjago, but precisely 1 minute before the merge happened, so they were just stood wherever they were dropped off for 1 minute plotting how to get their revenge, only for the world to fucking blow up in their face, resulting in Acronix getting sent to the Ethereal Divide (and therefore being stuck in nothingness again for a long time) and Krux to be blown far away, having to live another however-many years without his brother.

[nyaskitten]

I keep forgetting the Overlord is meant to be a powerful menace I've essentially manipulated myself into thinking he's literally just a fucking Joke now because of Lloyd's Conduit powers, and the existence of Ras' Master, who is infinitely more powerful than him...

[abrahamvanhelsings]

i think edward little would be great at emails actually. i think he'd love having to opportunity to think abt what he needs to say and formulate it well and concisely. i think he'd write perfectly ok emails, to the point but polite enough not to be blunt. in normal circumstances he'd receive normal emails and write normal replies and it would be fine. the problem in terror is that he keeps getting increasingly upsetting emails from his boss and they're all no-reply

[redkehlchen]

When I put together some plot ideas for the tf2/portal crossover in like 2020, I jokingly suggested: what if Caroline was the Administrator’s assistant before Miss Pauling.

But you know what looking back, that was truly a big brain idea. So have some more old art:

I also went through my old tf2/portal google doc …

And I was just minding my own business, chuckling at that dumb joke in the first paragraph, only to be hit by whatever was going on at the end there?????

[charismat1c-megafauna]

The Terror AU but it's a shitty chain restaurant and Sir John is the out of touch owner of the franchise and Crozier and Fitzjames are the managers who are constantly at each others throats but eventually start making out in the back. The lieuts are servers or shift leads or something, Blanky is that line cook who's been there for god knows how long, Hickey is the guy they send to clean the bathrooms when nobody else wants to do it and is never not smoking out back (me). Maybe Bridgens is a prep cook and Peglar is a food runner and they hang out after closing.

The docs and surgeons are bartenders.

Silna is the county health inspector and Goodsir has a big stupid crush on her.

[shopwitchvamp]

me: *posts some random tidbit of my academic history* everyone: "??? what was going on with you as a child??" me: "yes, many people were asking that 🤔"

[fishybehavior]

Does anyone else find it odd that the manager of the department of reassignment was arresting a fugitive nindroid??

I think someone was trying to show their hand

Or jay used to be field agent and got dragged into this (maybe he owed agents Allen and/or Underwood a favor)

[grilledcheese-savage]

My theory on how Jay stays evil next season 😂 (Ninjago Dr Spoilers)

I doubt this will happen BUT I do 100% think this is how his arc will go, evil, fights ninja and they talk, confusion, then manipulated and then evil again. 😂

[lumi-klovstad-games]

I know I cast a lot of shit on Lion El'Jonson for not helping his brother Bobby G with running the Empire despite the fact that the Lion is a straight up soldier, not a "running things" type, but... like... we know what running the Imperium is doing to Guilliman's mental health and there is exactly zero chance that Jonson would ever fucking help him carry that weight.

Honestly, like... Vulkan needs to come back so much. What the fuck is our Best Lump of Charcoal (said with affection) doing? Vulkan is EXACTLY the support Guilliman needs.

[cameoutstruggling93]

Round 2 of job interviews at Brown University today. Asking for positive vibes cause the stakes are high 😬😬😬

[returnsandreturns]

i keep seeing the youth on tiktok push third party voting without even endorsing a candidate when the election is in less than a year and i'm going to jump into the deepest part of the ocean. you can't win an election on the concept of there needing to be a third party and you can't change an existing party through, like, vague threats of inaction. the tea party took over the republican party starting in city councils and school boards. if you want a third party, you have to fucking b u i l d it, not will it into existence.

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia!

I just have to know- it's day six going into seven for Palmarosa. Contract part-two is in four days...

Do you see these next few chapters being explicit? Is Raphael truly intending to let Astarion see how life under contract is going to be, or is Raphael purposely holding back to lure Astarion into that next contract?

And, in your opinion, do you think that if Astarion truly sees Raphael at his cruelest towards him, he would be more comfortable signing a second? Able to know what the worst is instead of some nightmare he dreams up?

I love your story, and how you write Astarion. Thanks for your time!

It's still day 5!

I can't believe it's still day 5 in the contract, but it is, I'm writing a timeline and everything this time. So much has happened on this day, lmao.

(Chapters 13-18 all happen on the same day T.T)

I do think there's explicit content coming, but Raphael very much wants Astarion in that second contract, that being said, he's already cocked it up a few times already lmao. There's no guarantee he won't do that in other ways. I do plan writing-wise to get Astarion into that second contract though. Raphael oscillates between playing a very good long-game and then snapping and ruining his hard work, lol.

And, in your opinion, do you think that if Astarion truly sees Raphael at his cruelest towards him, he would be more comfortable signing a second? Able to know what the worst is instead of some nightmare he dreams up?

Raphael is not going to be his cruelest, and actually still isn't even though he does kind of lash out at Astarion in a very intense manner in the upcoming chapter. We've not seen Raphael at his worst. This is a guy who sees nothing wrong with keeping people in 'bones shattered in 100 places' levels of agony for hundreds of years. Even Raphael snapping is still Raphael not...giving himself to torture Astarion like he would an Eternal Debtor.

Astarion actually threatens to break the contract at the end of chapter 18 and through chapter 19. But...he hasn't yet.

Astarion has a lot of learned helplessness because of his experiences with Cazador. I imagine he had plenty of times to convince himself he was going to escape / find a way to beat the system etc. only to have all of that brainwashed and mind-read out of him. I am sure Cazador is the kind of person to know that someone will try and escape him and watch them try and then torture them for trying as a reminder that they are enslaved to him not just in body but in mind as well.

I don't think Astarion at this point is fully in contact with the part of him that knows he can walk away.

But also, Astarion accepted this first contract fully expecting to be raped and tortured regularly. He literally considered that and negotiated to make sure none of the torture caused permanent harm. This was a guy who negotiated a contract with stipulations based solely on expecting to be tortured/rape. From Astarion's perspective, Raphael hasn't actually done 99% of what Astarion expected him to do.

In some ways, that makes things harder for Astarion. Not knowing what to expect, and getting whole days where everything's uncertain but 'generally fine' followed by explosions of Raphael's temper etc. is like...still very hard for him to endure. But in a different kind of way.

I think Raphael's going to lay out the terms of the second contract very clearly soon, and Astarion will baulk simply because the terms of the contract will involve him doing two things he very much doesn't want to do. One goes against his personal ethics (and he's already refused to do it around Raphael once), and the second goes against his trauma history. And Raphael knows that. He isn't planning on tricking Astarion into that contract, he's banking on the idea that Astarion will still think the prize is worthwhile.

What I think Raphael is finding frustrating is that he had plans to introduce the concept of the second contract soon and Verillius came along and kind of ruined everything lmao. Raphael is pissed off for a lot of reasons right now. Can't a devil just manipulate a victim into a more high stakes contract in peace?

Unfortunately the Magic 8 Ball says no :D

[nando161mando]

I love living in a police state where the intellectual institutions act like this. It's awesome.

[astragatwo]

In contrast to my last two Rain World OC posts, these guys aren't one offs and are part of my current core OC group. More info about them under the cut since it's lengthy.

First starting with The Serpent —

The Serpent is one of AV's many bio-engineered slugcats - if you can even call him a slugcat at this point - as part of a simple passion of experimenting with flexible slugcat biology

They share several traits in common with red lizards, those being constant hyper-aggression, tremendous strength, projectile spit and size

As for similarities with slugcats, well, a general elongated shape? Oh, mobility, unlike red lizards, the Serpent is very adept with vertical movement

AV didn't really have a clear goal in mind with the Serpent unlike the rest of their tube babies, they just sort of... happened.

The spontaneity of their creation though has been very interesting as despite initially being created with the solitary lifestyle of a red lizard, the Serpent still keeps his slugcat instinct of adopting random children they find

Though the Serpent seems at first, displeased with this development but rest assured that if you ever LOOK at his pup wrong they will kill everyone in the room and then himself

Though not pictured in his reference since he was my first Rain World OC, created with very little knowledge of the lore and started as a one-off, he has a citizen ID drone which AV uses to keep track of him

He was also simply created out of my desire to have a long slugcat and my obsession with red lizards combined so there's that, too

Speaking of AV, moving on to Administrative Violence —

Named after the song of the same name by Lauren Bousfield, you'd expect them to be - well - violent. They're not, at least not with those they commonly interact with

They are actually quite sweet with Blown Blooms, their partner, and Peach the slugcat

Weather conditions, all things considered, are pretty mild where they are but far, far off into the distance their partner Blown Blooms isn't so fortunate and natural erosion as well as other random unfortunate events unrelated to weather, has taken quite the toll on them

As a result and fearing for Blooms in every way possible but especially for their communication's inevitable severing and also Blooms being lonely all on their own, AV created a slugcat who resembles a strawberry lizard - a species of lizard Blooms is especially fond of

Peach was designed for protection and companionship first and foremost and an emergency messenger/relay secondly.

Outside of worrying for Blooms' condition and yearning & longing for close physical proximity to them the way creatures who aren't supermassive structures have the luxury of, AV spends most of their time studying their bio-engineered slugcats.

Each and every one of them is given a citizen ID drone for ease of tracking as well as general classifications

They couldn't give a shit about whatever problem the other iterators are working on - just these funny little slugcats

They take the occasional interest in other animals too but it's mainly slugcats

And finally, Blown Blooms and Peach —

Blooms, like AV, is named after a song of the same name by Lauren Bousfield. Peach is just named after her colors.

Blooms, like their partner AV, has a complete disinterest in the great problem and a very big interest in bio-engineering

This time with plants rather than animals though they have a soft spot for small critters but they're usually never the subject of any experiments - just study and admiration

However, due to a deteriorating state, Blooms isn't quite able to use their equipment to manipulate genetic information like they used to - which is upsetting

So instead, they help AV with their current studies as well as keeping tabs on their own prior experiments

They have Peach now, though, which brings a much appreciated break from constant studying and nice close companionship

Peach will often catch prey outside and come back to eat it with Blooms and occasionally Blooms will play around with Peach and levitate the prey around for Peach to chase in anti-grav

The event that pushed AV to create Peach was when a creature entered Blooms' chamber and attacked them, partially damaging their puppet before being killed and then expelled from the chamber

Blooms is absolutely still capable of themselves and ultimately damaging the puppet a bit is nothing when taking account the sheer scale of an iterator - but AV will be AV

Plus, Blooms isn't complaining about getting a cute little companion from AV

And general trivia/info —

Everyone here is aroace. All of them. AV & Blooms' relationship is non-romantic in a sapphic way

The Serpent's pup's name is Pipsqueak

I know rudder tails shouldn't curve like that but I decided that after I finished drawing the Serpent and I wasn't about to redraw anything at that point

The other Iterators in AV and Bloom's local group are Illuminated Crown of Fire, Projections of Watchful Eyes, and an unnamed lunar-eclipse inspired iterator.

I have little information on them right now, but they are each based off of solar eclipses, stars and lunar eclipses respectively

In all, this local group is just a bunch of experiment freaks to varying degrees except for ICoF whose presence is often forgotten because of how little they speak but is also ever looming

And that's all! Thank you for reading this far in <3