#but she features a lot more heavily in future ones

[starlettechild]

𝒜 𝒟𝑒𝓋𝒾𝓁’𝓈 𝒮𝓌𝑒𝑒𝓉-𝓉𝑜𝑜𝓉𝒽 (2)

তততততততততততত

CONTENT: NSFW & 18+! Heavily suggestive content, builds off of a previous part containing smut. Desperate behavior, slow burn to genuine smut. Gender neutral pronouns are used, but implied FaB anatomy.

⚠️TW⚠️: NSFW content is below the cut! Obsessive behavior from Raphael!

A/N: Thank you all so much for the support on the first part of A Devil’s Sweet-tooth, it means a lot to me! P.S: This is not proofread! I apologize for any grammar mistakes or repetitiveness.

ˏˋ°•⁀➷ Part 1

When the invitation arrived in their palm, Tav couldn’t take it anymore. The final breaking point, the tip of the scales for them. It appeared in a whirlwind of hellfire, the scent of cherries and sulfur, and beneath all that, a familiar scent. The scent of Raphael’s bedsheets - something Tav woefully all too well after their rendezvous with Haarlep. It seems the devil himself couldn’t even leave bed. That would surely explain the excessive heat they found raking their body to the core. Sleepless nights of biting the back of their hand. Astarion, who never laid down for a lick of sleep, had laughed at the beginning, but even be slowly began to pity Tav as they clutched their bedroll in an attempt to silence themself.

Their eyes scanned over the letter, inked in a neat hand, fitting of Raphael.

“Dearest future client, I invite you to a celebration of my to-be-ruling of the entirety of the hells. Korilla will bring you whenever you demand to be taken. The rest of your party is only welcome if they agree to keep their hands to themselves during my festivities.”

-R

However brief the invitation was, Tav had a feeling the devil had ripped pages apart again and again until he had the perfect form. Today was the only day the entirety of the week where their body had been left alone, and they took this as a sign whoever was abusing their heated areas was expecting the real thing tonight. A shiver ran down their spine at the thought of it being Raphael. Impossible! Who knows how many that incubus entertains! Besides, the devil was far too busy for that.. wasn’t he? He would never spend his hours in-between the legs of a mortal, Tav was sure of it. So they began to get ready in the finest material they had, rousing the rest of their party who took interest.

Raphael paced back and forth, the slight jingle of the metal that adorned the boots within his Cambion form rang out with each step. He had demanded Haarlep not use the form of Tav today, and the incubus had guessed right when assuming it was because he wouldn’t get anything done today, but the Hells forbid he admit it. Of course, he had invited others, only for it too seem less suspicious for his dearest mouse - their idle chatter distant from where he paced in his personal chambers. What would they wear? What would they say? Would they dance with him? Would they touch him? Would they look at him? All of these questions swirled within his mind. For one could not focus, expecting the arrival of Tav. His hands ran through his hair, wanting to touch something. Pretending it was their hand that ran through it, lightly tugging at the strands, wishing once he feasted upon them that they tug them with all their might.

As expected, Korilla appeared the moment Tav called to the shorter woman. She crossed her arms, a look of impatience on her features. “The master has not rested for a moment ever since delivering the invitation. His restless keeps the entire house up, especially Haarlep.” She quirked up a brow at the end at Tavs expression, but they shook their head. “It would be rude to keep him waiting, then.” Tav replies, readying themself for the portal to open in a blaze. Astarion, Gale, and Shadowheart had accepted the offer, more so out of hesitancy for Tav to walk into the devils home alone. At least for Shadowheart and Gale. Astarion only gave a knowing smirk upon the mention of Raphael from Tavs lips. The portal appears in a flash of orange light, bright enough to have Tav shut their eyes. With a deep inhale, they step in, and descend to the House of Hope.

Every square inch of the home is packed with infernal beings, ones Tav is sure Raphael only invited to boast of his future power. Perhaps even some possible allies in his plans engage in idle and brittle banter. Tavs eyes sweep the crowd for the familiar devil, but there is no sign of him. Strange. Gale moves to pick up a glass of Infernal whiskey from a wandering server, and the rest of the party follows after.

Raphael can feel the second the mouse enters his home. Oh, that feeling of intrusion sends waves of heat off of him. That burn of hunger, knowing the object of his desires is here in his own home. The same rolling feeling he first felt at their intrusion, but what is Raphael, if he isn’t a devil of chances? Besides, the scent of them is all too intoxicating. He could be drunk off of it and it alone. He closes his eyes, a low and slow inhale as he takes in Tavs presence within his home. It takes every ounce of self control to not indulge himself more intimately, to switch into the human illusion of himself, and head out to the main hall of his manor.

His eyes pin on his mouse, nestled comfortably in a corner with 3 guests. A burning and toxic feeling courses through his veins - jealousy. It had only been a common courtesy to mention their party, but he hadn’t expected them to actually come with Tav. That burning feeling only heightens when a few thoughts cross his mind once again. Did they get to hear Tav as he feasted between their legs? Did they enjoy the sounds? He knows he would. He would do more than enjoy. He would be addicted. What if they helped them relieve tension? It has Raphael clenching his fists at his side, the temptation to throw something around at the mere thought of another having his dear mouse is all too strong. But before the urge can overtake him, he feels Tavs eyes on him from across the room. Oh, hells. Never take your eyes off me. I’ll never allow it. I’ll do things you never imagined only to have your eyes remain on me, little mouse. Sensations you never thought possible. And I’ll have you stare right at me as I give you them. His gaze burns back to them across the room, and a restrained smile plays across his face. He can even taste a tang of blood at how hard his teeth clench together, the sharper edges cutting into the inside of his mouth. His mouth that wants nothing more to be on Tav. Forget these unwanted guests. They’ll all be thrown out the second he has them in his arms.

Tav gives a smile back to the devil, an awkward one at most. Has he always smiled like that? A loud laugh of another Cambion sounds out nearby, and Tavs gaze shifts to the noise. Underneath it all, Tav swears they can hear the snap of wood under claws.

How delicious they looked. Raphael saves the image in his mind of Tav in their fine outfit. Perhaps he will have a statue made of the very sight, and he will kiss every inch of the cold stone. Make his future prisoners bow to it, bleed on it, pray to it as if it were a holy idle. But their gaze wanders to another, and Raphael snaps the wood of the side table his hand lays on upon reflex, ignoring the slight sting of the splinters digging into his flesh. He cannot bear the distance a second longer, the scent of them far too alluring, the need for their eyes on him consuming his every instinct. In hurried long strides he crosses the distance, occasionally pushing a fellow infernal out of his way.

When he arrives to where Tav sits, in hushed conversation with the now Cleric of Selunê, Raphael stills. He extends a hand to them, and it slightly shakes - not of nerves, but of pure and primal need. The devil bares his teeth.

“A dance, little mouse?”

And thank whatever deity something as impure as him could pray to, for it was a miracle he did not plead to them: Please, my mouse, let me have you. Let me spread you bare upon the nearest table. Let me taste you and drink you until I am drunk beyond speech. Let me hear you cry for me and me only. Let me kiss, bite, and lick where only the sun has touched you. Let it be mine, and may I control myself enough to not devour you whole.

Tav takes his hand in theirs, lifting with a slow and steady movement. With the touch of their hand against his, Raphael burns, and hopes the rest of these godforsaken guests are too drunk to notice.

তততততততততততত

Part 3 is out! Read it here!

#bg3 writing #raphael #raphael bg3 #raphael x tav #raphael baldur's gate 3 #raphael smut #bg3 smut #baldurs gate smut #raphael x reader

[starblizzard247]

Headcannon

When a princess of Hyrule is born, their first name is automatically Zelda, however their middle name will be unique to them. When either a) they ascend the throne or b) there are no other living female members of the Hyrulean royal family, they will take on Zelda as their name. Otherwise they will be known by their middle name.

Some middle name headcannons (I haven’t figured out names for all of them yet):

Skyward Sword - Zelda Hyrule, since she’s the first

Ocarina of Time - Zelda Lyra Hyrule aka Sheik, since they use a lyre and bc OoT heavily features music

Wind Waker - Zelda Tetra Hyrule, nuff said (also I think her mom never got around to telling her her actual first name, which is why she doesn’t find out until in-game)

Spirit Tracks - Zelda Anima Hyrule, since “anima” means spirit in Latin (6 years of Latin coming in handy :D)

Twilight Princess - Zelda Tenebra Hyrule, since “tenebris” means darkness in Latin

Link Between Worlds - Zelda Hilda Hyrule, bc *parallels* (Hilda’s full name is Hilda Zelda Lorule coincidentally)

Hyrule Warriors - Zelda Atalanta Hyrule, after the Greek mythological figure Atalanta (because Atalanta has myths around running and in HW you run around maps a lot but also bc they’re both bad*ss)

Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom - Zelda Diantha Hyrule, since according to the Internet, “Diantha” means divine flower in Greek, which fits with her Silent Princess motif

Diantha’s Mother - Zelda Aquila Hyrule, since “aquila” means eagle in Latin, which is why she and Urbosa call Diantha “Little Bird”

10,000 years before Breath of the Wild - Zelda Mirae Hyrule, since “mirae” means future in Korean (bc obviously I’m gonna flaunt being bilingual from childhood), which goes with the futuristic Sheikah tech that originated from that time period (side note: I headcannon she’s Sonia’s granddaughter and she worked with the Sheikah to recreate Zonai tech after seeing malice beginning to leak out of dehydrated Ganondorf)

Sonia - Zelda Sonia Hyrule, self-explanatory (side note: I like to think that Hyrule fell into ruin sometime after the end of more traditional Zelda games and Sonia and Rauru reestablished the kingdom, and this new Hyrule is the one from BotW and TotK)

#loz #legend of zelda #botw #totk #oot #loz ss #loz tw #loz sp #hyrule warriors #hyrule #zelda #breath of the wild #tears of the kingdom #ocarina of time #skyward sword #wind waker #spirit tracks #twilight princess #loz lbw #link between worlds

[two-dolla-bills]

Top 10 mechanisms songs that you can get away with playing at a retailers without too many side eyes

I got a job in retail and I felt inspired lol

Disclaimer: this is not a list of the best mechanisms songs/the ones I think deserve to go "mainstream", they're just the ones that would blend in the best

1. Sirens

This song is probably the mechanisms' least "centered" song. It doesn't mention any characters, it has no narration, and out of context it just sounds like A Song that you might hear on the radio. Sirens is to the mechanisms as you're the one that I want is to grease, you know?

2. Trial by song

THIS one. It's in the same category to me as Sirens; you can listen to it by itself and not suspect much. Unlike Sirens which can be completely separated and still make sense, this one is more like a whole new world from Aladdin. There are parts that make it obvious that it's from a larger whole, but if you just so happen to catch the "safe" parts you won't suspect much.

Points were deducted due to Mr. Soldier's unique vocals. (Unique as in not very common in mainstream music)

3. Empty trail

This is no offense to Dr. La Cognizzi, but sometimes when she sings it's hard to make out what she's saying, which works in her favor in these circumstances. It sounds country/rock, which help it blend in with some dad rock songs. If I remember correctly, the melody was actually taken from a Led Zeppelin song, so if you aren't paying attention to what's ACTUALLY being said you can get away with claiming it's a cover.

4. Ties that bind

Although this one does mention many plot points, many fans have stated that they had no idea what the fuck was being said until the have looked for the lyrics (myself included) this, combined with it's jazzy rythm, make it able to blend in with other songs, similarly to empty trail

5. Odin

The most "normal" song out of the entirety of The Bifrost Incident. This song made it to the top five because it has similarities with Roam by the B-52's, but had points deducted due to it clearly being about an awesome space train

6. Lost in the cosmos

This might just be personal opinion, but it sounds like a church song. You can pull off the effect of it being about earth Jesus and not space robot Jesus if you have particularly bad quality speakers and a busy store w/lots of noise. Again, the lyrics kinda give it away as to not being entirely main stream

7. Stranger

Look it's a banger, ok? Many of the lyrics could be taken as just being metaphors, but I feel like you have to squint to "see" it. Pay too much attention and shit gets a little weird. Also, points deducted because it's two men singing together and not a man and a woman, which throws a wrench into the works. At kohl's it might raise some eyebrows but in like hot topic it'll blend in a little better

8. Redeath

You would think a song about a sphoenix (space phoenix) would be lower on the list but you'd be wrong. It's a really pretty song with a good original melody, and it's something that can be drowned out by a particularly rowdy crowd. Like Stranger, it would blend in better at a hot topic than at kohl's, but only slightly.

9. Elysian Fields

The melody in Elysian Fields is taken directly from the song wayfaring stranger, which has been coverd by Jonny Cash, Ed Sheeran, Poor Man's Poison, and The Longest Johns, AS WELL HAS having been featured in the movie 1917 and in the video game The Last of Us II, which make it very recognizable. Because of this recognizability, people who know the original song may be caught off guard by hearing it in a Walmart with completely different lyrics. It was originally in 7th place, but the popularity of the original takes off many points

10. Once and future king

It's a banger, don't get me wrong, but it also very heavily and clearly mentions plot points from the album, which itself is heavily base on Aurtharian mythology; something very well known in the western world (also the names are not common at all and most haven't been in fashion in centuries). In a crowded, busy space with not very good quality speakers it could potentially blend in, but one or two names might sneak out. The only reason it's on the list is because of the instrumental outro, which sounds normal enough

#the mechanisms #hnoc #tbi #udad #two songs that didn't make it on the list were cinder's song and sleeping beauty #they're both good but too specific

[stackslip]

CAN YOU ELABORATE ON TLT BEING A HOMESTUCK FANFIC‽‽‽‽‽

i'm exaggerating a bit, but taz muir was a well known homestuck writer who wrote under the username urbanAnchorite. her fic the serendipity gospels is one of my fave fics ever, but was never finished and it's only by book 2 of tlt that i figured that the clear allusions to it in book 1 weren't just cute little nods but that she'd expanded on some of the ideas/concepts and worldbuilding of the serendipity gospels. to name a few:

the ninth house cult is heavily based on the juggalo church muir wrote/expanded upon in TSG, from face paint to the rituals and a lot of the accompanying prose

act 2 of TSG takes place mainly in a spaceship that serves as "cathedral" of the juggalo cult, and is described to be covered in bones that have been painted in many colors--which is close to the description of the mithraeum

act 2 also features the two main characters being much younger people mentored/manipulated into horrible acts by an old man who is thousands of years old and bickering with his other thousand year old friends/enemies, who seem to share knowledge and understanding that neither the two protagonists do but also deeply resent one another. hard to not read a parallel to john and the lyctors here!

to elaborate on this bc i just realized it: it is heavily implied in TSG that the dancestors (older people thousands of years old) went through a universe reset and built the empire in the image of their own trauma and anger, which would v much parallel what happens to john on earth and how he "reset" humanity

less of a homestuck thing and more of a taz muir thing: said old man is v much grooming the main female character and making her life miserable during the entirety of act 2

a lot of the story takes place in the background of the trolls' empire being a horrific imperialist force that the main characters were originally very excited to join and become a part of, with one of these characters in particular daydreaming about becoming ground troop for invasion while also holding a terrible secret that would have precluded him of doing so anyway. p neat parallel to gideon's own thing here

act 1 and act 2 of TSG are from two different pov characters, with a drastic shift in prose style and understanding of the situation/world when the pov shifts. which v much echoes how tlt has worked so far. part 3 was barely started before it went on hiatus, but it followed the same pattern.

speaking of, the prose of act 2 of TSG definitely feels very close to harrow the ninth's prose. you can just open the fic and check the first chapter of act 2 and how it's written, and you'll see what i mean. there are differences--the prose of TSG act 2 is more inflected with southern usamerican evangelical speak, i think? i'm not american so i can't quite 200% tell

there is an external armed resistance to the empire's violent imperialism and resistance that was supposed to be the focus in act 3 of TSG, which never happened. nona the ninth did, though, and it follows that structure.

there are also eldritch horrors that threaten the entire universe--homestuck's own horrorterrors--that are in the background of TSG and implied to be an important part of the future plot that we never saw. tlt has the ressurrection beasts

taz muir's worldbuilding around the blood castes in og homestuck that she elaborates on in TSG also somewhat parallels the way the houses function in tlt

iirc there's also worldbuilding around space travel in tlt (such as the obelisks? i think that's the name? and the use of necromancy to power them) that parallels taz muir's own take on how space travel works in the troll empire, using psionics and draining them dry in a similar way

i think the necro-cav relationship 'ideal' is based around how taz also interpreted moirallegiance in not just TSG but all her homestuck fics, down to how its legal implementation and the idealization of it vs its role in troll/houses imperialism and the reality of blurred lines in "expected" relationships. i'd love to hear taz's discourse on troll romance

i also think the necro-cav relationship parallels the other legal pairing explored in TSG--legislacerator and subjugglator.

there are probably more parallels i am missing--i need to reread TSG soon, as i haven't in a while. there are elements i'd say are more like, how taz herself elaborated on the bones of the worldbuilding of homestuck and then made it her own thing, which is rad as hell. other elements are more fun nods, such as gideon's aviator glasses being shamelessly stolen from dave homestuck, and a lot of gtn's prose feeling very homestuckey. it's def not like, just a little rewrite and boom, you get the locked tomb! imo it's more elements of plot and worldbuilding that were interesting enough to develop into something of its own and that taz made into something new, along with other elements of other stories (such as lolita and umineko) being woven into it. part of why i enjoy tlt so much is its "collage" aspect, taking elements taz thought interesting in other stories, or using these elements to purposefully evoke specific feelings/moods to construct or obsfucate certain ideas.

#eli talks #tlt #homestuck

[canmom]

reading Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt. it's interesting. clearly part of the post-Topside wave of trans lit, with the same 'plugged in to twitter' energy, but way more British about it. which means most of the allusions are very transparent to me. it's a combo of... hardcore kink driven romance as the main arc, in a near-future setting in which TERFism goes further to the point of outright bombings, and a scifi element with alien brain parasites that it's gradually building towards.

compellingly written, I'll give it that for sure - I lay down to read for a bit and before I knew it I'd read like a third of the book. the main character's disaffected, traumatised air is well observed, and the kink doesn't hold back.

I think my reservation with it so far is that it feels a little too much like a polemic blog post about the way things are going. the MC Frankie is a trans woman with a pregnancy kink who survived a bombing at a GIC and now works in social media moderation - it's all stuff that is blatantly Relevant To The Argument, as it were. it's tricky to criticise it for that because it's like, what you're saying is that it's tightly constructed and thematically consistent and that's bad somehow? but I think I've come to feel that I like fiction to bring me something a little new and unfamiliar.

the chapter I most enjoyed so far was actually a more metaphorical, abstract interlude, in which resistance to fascism is cast as becoming 'one mass of queer flesh, which now grabbed and clawed...'; 'faces locked in kisses until they became one face. the cops would try to pull at this mass, but to no avail'. very 'faggots and their friends between revolutions' stuff.

the chapters which are presented directly as social media posts and articles are also sharply observed. i think a lot of fiction in which the internet features heavily suffers from not understanding the internet very well (Hosoda's Belle for example), but for example the chapter 'Curious Cat' where an anonymous person (blatantly Vanya) is sending messages asking for help with a parasite, and getting rebuffed or misunderstood, and the chapter where Frankie relates a murder of an instagram model by a stalker who posts about it to a reddit community devoted to her, read as very real.

a lot of the story is about responding to a terrifying political situation in sexual terms - a flashback chapter depicting Frankie having sex with some terf's pretentious brother ("with each thrust from him, she thought to herself, I am a traitor, I am a traitor to the cause"), or the preface which jokes about how in another world the author would be writing 'cool horror stories about vampires raping werewolves, ones with no subtext at all'. I prevaricate a little on whether this is a compelling examination of a theme that I do find interesting (the mysterious origins of sexual desire) or just edgy for its own sake.

this is an odd novel for me in some ways because while on one level, this is about people who I could very easily be a single degree of separation from were they real, it's also about a facet of life that is still quite alien to me and in many ways I only know about second hand. I've never been to a kink club (that wasn't in an MMO anyway lol), I'm way too much of a nerdy autist shut-in to know what it's like to be someone who would feel put out if she hadn't had sex in a week. so even before the parasite stuff, it's hard to know how much of Frankie and Vanya's stuff is real, and how much is fantasy. is this really how things go between people? it sounds kinda fun, but unlocking the door this far has already taken years.

when I've read books about the crazy lives that American trans girls supposedly live and interesting sex they're apparently having, they've been at a certain remove, the other side of the Atlantic. and this book feels sort of similar, even though I know it's set right on my doorstep. idk, I've never been good at this.

anyway I don't think I want to write fantasy novels so directly about The Discourse of the day, but it's probably good that someone is. that said, it's hard to parse like... ok, it's titled brainwyrms, and 'brain worms' is a common way of describing an obsessive, cultish idea you receive from the internet.

and like if you look at the newspapers, or twitter trans discourse, you certainly could believe that this country is on a rapid slide to putting us in camps. however, my day to day life has been... it's not without hostility, but the average street harasser isn't doing it because of a Guardian or even Mail article. this country has a subculture of deranged weirdos who hate our guts, and a political class who will happily stoke culture war shit to score points, but most normies I've met don't care one way or another that I'm trans - they might mention a family member or friend they know who's also trans. the day to day conflicts are over way more prosaic shit, the landlord vs tenant forever war, or how the kitchen should be cleaned. which of these windows is more informative of the 'overall' state of affairs? not that a more violent terf cult is a bad premise to write a novel around, but a sense of impending doom is a pretty powerful mechanism to keep you scrolling, right?

like in 20, 40 years - will the terfs really be bombing the Tavistock and banning transness, as Rumfitt imagines in her near-future setting preface? or will they go the way of those newspapers in Thatcher's time who smeared the gay movement, just as they smear us today? of passing political obsessions like 'new atheism'? I don't know the half-life of cult shit.

anyway, time to read the rest of the novel, and see how it handles this brew that it's concocted.

#fiction #sff #novels

[ngc-5194]

yknow i could very easily accept someone not liking the mobile kh games if people actually gave... understandable reasons??

mostly i've heard that they're 'inaccesable'. which. they're in general more accessable since the console they run on is a phone, a device more people have than a ps4. though, granted, it is the offline version of both games only.

however, if you don't have a phone, have limited space on your phone, or are uninterested in a mostly unplayable game, all of which are understandable, there are cutscene compilations (ux (story important, all), dr) available on youtube too!

if the lots of reading is the issue then there is a completely dubbed version of the cutscenes of ux and you can easily find voiced playthroughs of both union x and dark road on youtube as well.

(for instance, here is a playthrough of dark road that i watched as my phone needed repairs by the time i had caught up with the series enough to move onto khdr. but, of course, there are many more options if you simply search up 'kingdom hearts [dark road/union x] playthrough' on youtube. find whichever one suits the kind of videos you like to watch best!)

if you don't have the time to sit through all of the cutscenes, there are summaries also avaliable! here is a video one for union x, and though unfortunately i can't find a similar one for dark road, it is also always acceptable to just read the wiki section on the story of the game! (here is the union x wiki section as well)

the other major complaint i've heard is that it's 'too confusing' or that the story 'doesn't make sense in parts'.

to which i first must ask, what part of kingdom hearts does make sense to you then? many many signifigant, heavily important parts of this series can be the most mind boggling things you have ever read or heard. so much so that we are known as the fans of that overly complex and insane disney game. that is what we are known for!!

and more to an actual point, there are many many people out there in this fandom who would be thrilled to talk to you about parts of the plot you found confusing. who have posts pages and pages long on minute details.

we are all fans of this weird ass game series and we all can. i don't know. help each other, newcomers and people who have been here awhile alike. us fans who like the mobile games are no different. we are willing to share and help and explain anything you need.

and as for the take that the mobile games are 'unimportant'.

strelitzia, someone deeply important to marluxia, larxene, and ventus' backstories, is seemingly implied to be one of the main characters in kh4 and if you have no knowledge of union x, then you likely have zero idea who she is.

the foretellers and the master of masters are being set up as potential villians in the next arc of the series. all of these characters were introduced in union x, four years before back cover released. and while yes, back cover gives the perspective of the foretellers more while union x is from the eyes of the keykids, there are many interactions with the foretellers in union x, beyond the scope of back cover, that are deeply important to the plot and establishment of their characters.

while yes, dark road has drastically less set up for the future in it, as all of the characters featured are now dead, it gives a lot of depth to xehanort and eraqus both. eraqus' behaviours and motivations are given reason—not necessarily morally good ones, and certainly not ones that always provide justification for his actions, but actual fully defined reasons for it all.

as it has always been with kh, every game is important to understand the story. you couldn't simply play kh1 kh2 and kh3 and expect to understand everything, and you can not expect to understand everything if you don't at least know surface level of the stories of the mobile games too.

you do not have to play them yourself. they do not have to be your favourite games in the series. if you are reading this and you hate them, you can stay not liking them even for all i care.

but you have to accept that they are important to the plot of the series. that they can not simply be ignored if you want to grasp the entire story of kingdom hearts.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts union x #khux #kingdom hearts dark road #khdr #khuxdr #long post #SORRY #i am just. can barely stand it here anymore #like. you're perfectly allowed to just Not Like them. thats literally fine. who cares #but at least just come out and SAY that you just dont like them #stop burrying it behind 'it's not important and it's a phone game waah wah' #just say you don't like the games. i really don't care if you hate them with all your heart and soul. just. stop being a coward. and Say It #anyway. uh. who wants to talk about khml with me :3

[youlikefanficdontyousquidward]

Colonel's orders!

Summary: Quaritch contends with his crush on Lyle's partner. Meanwhile they struggle with their work load.

Gn!reader x Quaritch, Gn!reader x lyle

No warnings yet, though there will likely be some in future chapters.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Exhausted was an understatement. You were beyond that now. As far as you were concerned it had been 72 hours since you'd last slept. The brief nap the day prior barley counted, you slept for less then an hour. You'd been overworked before but this was a whole new level of stress. Without the constant stream of broken equipment you'd have passed out where you stood.

Currently you found yourself staring blankly at a broken data pad. Hardware was more your specialty but you were available so it fell to you. The irritated scientist hovered close by. Talking angrily about the importance of their work. Like it was somehow your fault they'd broken the damn thing.

To your relief Lyle popped his head in. His imposing wall of muscle cast a shadow over the scientist. They swallowed thickly before scuttling off, mumbling about getting the pad back soon.

"Aw buttercup, you're working too hard. Take a break with me." He smiled down at you. You tried to return the smile but your mouth just twitched. You groaned, suppressing a yawn as you gazed up at him. He shone in the artificial lighting, a fluorescent halo.

You'd been jittery, dropping tools and getting confused all afternoon. You'd been glad to do a more screen based task at first but now the numbers shifted and danced on the screen. Your body refusing to sit still kept flinching and kicking.

"Promise, I'm almost done. I'll come find you when I'm free." You managed to smile properly this time. Lyle looked skeptical but agreed. Leaving you with a kiss on the cheek before he strode out, causing the scientist to flinch out of his path.

More hours passed and you found yourself needed on several more jobs. Currently you were under the link unit, pulling out wires and circuit boards. Something was catastrophically wrong and you'd need to remove and reinstall the lot to even begin to solve the problem.

Dr Augestine had requested, well more demanded that you be the one to fix it. She didn't have much faith in anyone else and you'd proven reliable so it had to be you. The scientists had cleared out since you'd arrived. You think your irritable attitude had sent them scurrying off.

Though you found yourself floating outside your body now. Unable to feel the exhaustion or anger of before. You watched your hands fumble to complete the task on autopilot. You remained that way until you heard someone calling your name. You moved to pop up but misjudged the distance. Your head whacking the machine with a loud thud.

"Y/n?" Miles rounded the side, looking down at you with a frown.

"Sir?" You weakly saluted, struggling to focus on him. He tripled in your vision, wobbling and blurring. It honestly made you rather queasy.

"Lyle says you've not called up. Or back to the dorms for that matter." He looked at you, expecting some kind of answer you supposed. You didn't catch a question however so you just continued to stare blankly at him.

He sighed heavily before squatting down to your level. You'd forgotten how handsome he was up close. Sun kissed skin, icy blue eyes and all muscle. His hard features set in a worried line as he stared back at you. Your eyes could hardly keep focus on him, any of the hims for that matter.

"When was the last time you slept?" He looked deep into your eyes. You could only imagine how puffy and ringed they'd look now. They certainly felt heavy, it took so much effort to just keep open.

"Yesterday." You responded after a long hesitation. It was technically true, you'd had that 'nap'.

He scoffed at that, shaking his head lightly.

"Liar." You gaped, opening your mouth to object. He held his hand up to you, silencing your outrage. You snapped your mouth closed as he looked back to you. A playful expression crossed his face.

"Alright then, you'll do fine at my little game then." He smirked. Your furrowed your brows in confusion. A game?

"I want you to close your eyes, for a whole minute." He grinned.

"That's stupid." You responded, frowning back to him.

"Then should be easy. Close your eyes, that's an order." The humour left his face then. He held the stern expression. You sighed, rolling your eyes but followed his instruction.

You sat there slumped against the machinery, eyes closed as he counted. He'd barely made it to 15 before Miles noticed you'd nodded off. He knew you would, though maybe you'd be stubborn enough to hold off longer.

You looked so peaceful now. Eyes still puffy and almost bruised looking. Your expression was serene though. Miles hadn't thought the next part through however. He'd gotten you sleeping but what was he to do with you now.

Augestine wouldn't be a problem. He outranked her on pretty much everything these days. Her attitude with Parker had seen to that. So it'd been easy to move you off her order and onto his and he'd ordered you off duty. From his system he could tell how long it'd been since you'd actually slept.

He couldn't leave you slumped on the lab floor, no matter how content you looked. You'd be rather sore once you'd awaken and if the scientists returned and woke you before you'd fully rested? Well he wasn't going to let them find put what he'd do.

Only option left seemed to be removing you himself. You barely stirred as he leaned forward. Gently maneuvering your legs over one arm and pulling you close to his chest. In one quick motion he stood, cradling you to him.

He paused a moment but your breathing remained steady. You were so deep in sleep now, even his steps didn't cause you to stir. He wouldn't deny it to himself, he was enjoying this. Your form pressed up against him, hand splayed on his chest. You were so warm and soft, he felt like he was short circuiting.

He wanted to avoid people, scared the noise would wake you. Although seeing people eyeing the two of you did amuse him. They were so blatant in their stares, although they scattered when he looked. You looked like his like this and the idea that they'd think that made him giddy. Though the reality of things soured his mood. You weren't his, you were Lyle's and he'd likely not enjoy the rumors that were bound to spread.

He passed by the windows, bright beams of light shone through as dusk approached. It was beautiful and soon the stars would be out. Miles thoughts were back to your 'date'. God he wished he'd just kissed you, claimed you then before Wainfleet had the chance.

The last weeks he'd seen the two of you together were torturous. His arms wrapped around you, pulling you in. Playful kisses shared whenever you both had time. Hell he'd had the misfortune of coming into the mess hall when you were sat in Lyle's lap infront of your friends. He'd deliberately been changing Wainfleet's schedule since then. It was petty and it didn't work well anyway but he'd felt vindicated.

He hated overhearing the other marines talking about you. Zdog and Ja were especially egregious. Constantly teasing him about his pretty new partner. Making lewd remarks about your appearance or sexual jokes. Hell even ever stoic Mansk had got in on it.

It was only made worse when you actually met them. You'd come up to meet him and the whole squad had been there. You'd greeted Miles first, smiling so sweetly it made him ache. Then off you strutted to Lyle's side. He'd had the audacity to kiss you right there. Plastering you onto his body while he lent against the table. You'd flushed hearing his friends whistle, burying yourself in his bicep as you two left.

You wriggled in Miles arms, pulling him back to the moment. Grumbling you shifted, nuzzling your face deeper into his chest. The light rays made your skin glow. He relished the feeling, you pressing yourself in closer to him.

All too soon you were at your dorm room. He knocked but your roommate was out. Miles let himself in and carried you over the threshold to your messy bed. Crouching low to lay you down as gently as he could. You groaned again at the loss of heat, he could sympathize, not wanting to let you go yet himself. You tugged the arm still over you down and to your own chest. Your arms wrapped round his thick bicep. pinning him there.

Miles wanted to stay, to let you cuddle up to him. God just imaging you curled up on his chest was too much. It was wrong, you were spoken for and he was your boss, not to mention how much older he was. This wasn't just disrespectful to Lyle, it was disrespectful to you. If you had your senses you'd never have let him do this much. He had to leave before he made things any worse.

Untangling himself from your grip proved a struggle. Your eyes fluttering open a little as he finally managed to pull away.

"Miles?" Your spoke dreamily. Not quite awake as you looked dazed up at him.

"Shh, back to sleep." He whispered down to you, taking the last chance to tuck hair off your face.

"mmm... yes sir..." Your murmured, burying deeper into your pillows and tugging a pillow into a hug.

The heat rushed to Quaritch's face. He was jealous of a god damn bit of fabric. His heart quickened at your words though, he liked hearing you call him that.

#colonels orders #quaritch x you #quaritch x reader #human miles quaritch #avatar imagine #my fics #lyle wainfleet x reader

[poisonousroxstar]

Imagine:

Yandere Rennala

Plot Summery: General headcanons for Rennala of Caria, Queen of The Full Moon. This Contains: Yandere themes and unhealthy mindset, manipulation, and non-consent to body modification. Not proof-read. Note(s): I'm not too sure on this one. I'm not sure if I grasp her character correctly, but I love Rennala and wanted to do something with her. I'll definitely rewrite this in the future of i need, especially once the DLC out.

On a side note, requests are on the way! May just take a while ^^"

Rennala is a dependent, obsessive, and heavily delusional yandere. She needs you, likely more then you need her, and she won't let you go. Not for a second. Not for anything.

Pre-Radagon Rennala is a fierce and great leader, and has her mind in the right place. She's far more respecting of your personal space and needs, but is very obviously in love with you and will dote quite a lot. If you knew her in her youth, no doubt you were the first she presented her Full Moon to.

Post-Radagon Rennala is a different case entirely. She's incredibly delusional and believes you two are meant to be, and never to part. She'll smother in affection wether you want it or not.

She's very obsessive over you and your life, constantly asking questions and wanting to know everything about you. She means no malice in doing this, she's genuinely just curious and wants to know everything she can about her beloved. It's been so long since she's talked with another person, especially someone who has captured her heart like this.

As stated before, Rennala is a broken woman and is heavily dependent on you. So it's possible for you to manipulate her in any way you want. She'll take your word as gospel and never doubt it, she'll believe anything you say to her. Whatever you say and do is the right way, and anything that contradicts it is quickly lost in her lunacy.

Rennala's pitiful state is capable of garnering heavy waves of pity and guilt, especially if you knew her before Radagon broke her. She'll crawl towards you, her legs no longer working, and hold onto you, begging you not to leave her. Don't leave her alone here. She can't survive without you. Please. She needs you to care for her, to love her, to hold her or let her hold you and whisper reassurances into her ears. She can't bare to be alone again, not after finding you. She cuddles your legs and stains you with her tears. It's hard to say no, but not impossible.

There's a very high chance Rennala may rebirth you, if that is what you wish. To be reborn again in the womb of her egg, and become a beautiful sweeting. Over time, the idea to rebirth you, even without your consent, is extremely tempting for her, especially if you don't have her great rune. To have you as a Sweeting at her side, completely dependent on her as she is to you, is alluring. Likely, she'll give in to her own selfish desires.

"Be not afeared, my beloved... I will hold you in my arms, forever.." She says, caressing your now smoothed features and glistening skin.

And as your memories fade into sweet, empty oblivion. You come to believe her affectionate words as truth.

#x reader #x s/o #x y/n #imagines #gn y/n #rennala #elden ring rennala #rennala of the full moon #rennala of caria #rennala x reader #rennala x y/n #rennala x s/o #gn s/o #gn reader #elden ring #elden ring x y/n #elden ring x s/o #yandere #female yandere #elden ring x reader #game imagine

[tapejob]

hockeyblr linguistics - a preliminary analysis

hey all! as some of you know, i sent out a hockeyblr lingo survey a few days/weeks/something ago. as of today i finally have the free time to tackle it. big thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey, and without further ado: a kind of hasty, barely technical, preliminary analyses of hockeyblr lingo!

this dataset features around 21 main questions, with a sample size of around 673 respondents. partial responses were also combined in the final dataset because i got tired of waiting. obligatory disclaimer on response bias due to the nature of an online survey, etc etc.

i'm dividing this analysis mainly question-by-question, but also organized somewhat by themes/section. while we're mainly covering vocab + pronunciations, there's also sections looking at connotations/sentiment associated with words, and hockeyblr behavior patterns. it is very late at night, please bear with me if i get anything wrong.

section i: vocab + pronounciation demographics

Q1: vocabulary associated with the hat trick*

*as anon and multiple respondents have mentioned, this specific question contains a typo that may have affected data collection. the original question posed was 'what do you call three goals in a period?', which caused some confusion. though i think this data is enough to get the gist of it, this is something to keep in mind. i spent some time cleaning the 'other' responses and incorporating any '3 goals in a GAME is a hatty' responses into the other points, but i apologize for the confusion, haha

'hatty' as a casual reference seems to dominate the preferences. the other two spellings of hat trick seem to be less popular, but still present in the sample. in addition, 2 respondents brought up using 'HT' and/or 'H-T' as shorthand.

it is curious to note: in 'other' responses, at least 12 separate people brought up that they would use 'hatty' and 'hat trick' interchangeably (while only 1 person brought up they would use 'hatty' and 'hattrick', and no one mentioned 'hatty' and 'hat-trick' as pairs).

Q2: What is the title of the player that guards the team's net?

'goalie' seems heavily favored, while 'goaltender' and 'tendie' come after. given that these three terms are most likely to be derived from each other (goalie from goal, tendie from tender), it's understandable: goaltender is the official position name in ice hockey. yet it's curious how 'goalie' is so much more preferred, compared to say the hatty vs hat trick.

i bring this up anecdotally because i remember talking with a friend of mine not in hockey (but into other sports), and she laughed a bit incredulously when i said 'goaltender', like i was making a joke. 'what a weird name, tender, haha,' she'd said, and i got. extremely confused for a moment because i had been so used to it being common vocab.

Q3: What is the term you use to reference who calls the game?

as also mentioned in the other section, there are a lot of people on the ice with a lot of different titles (ref vs linesmen) - how much of this data captures the people who care and specify (mentioned in the others responses) vs those who just call everyone ref (also mentioned in the others responses)? something to consider in the future. in addition, 'zebra' surprised me as a somewhat common term, given that i rarely see it used on my dash.

a big oversight on my part was forgetting to put 'refs' as an option - that's why the 'other' chunk seems so large here. below is an expansion on the 'other' responses:

Q4: How do you pronounce the term for the period played following a tie at the end of the 3rd period?

this question sort of combines pronunciation and vocab in one. once again, shorthand seems to be favored (specifically the 'OT (oh-tee)' pronunciation, though there were still respondents for the other pronunciation). interestingly, more fun terms were also reflected among a decent couple people in the 'other' section, shown below in the figure.

shoutout, also, to the respondent who called an instance of overtime 'instant victory'.

Q5: How do you pronounce the term that references when your team gets to play with an extra man on the ice due to a penalty from the other team?

interestingly, this is one of the questions where the shorthand wasn't favored (powerplay over pp). also, as @bisexualingmaliciously brought up: terms like man advantage, commonly favored during announcing, aren't as widely favored, while pee-pee (wouldn't be caught dead on air if they can help it) is considerably larger of a chunk. shoutout, also, to the respondent who pronounces pp as 'puh'.

in other responses, 'poplay' was also brought up as a term. another respondent made a specific distinction that powerplay was used for speaking, but PP for typing - this gap might be something to consider in the future.

Q6: How do you pronounce the term that references when a player gets a goal into a net that a goaltender has been pulled from?

'empty netter' as a term falls into a somewhat shorthand purgatory (with the full term as empty net goal, and true shorthand as ENG). it's similar vibe i assume as calling hat trick -> hatty -> HT. also, unlike PP and OT, ENG pronunciation is slightly more varied (not by a lot, but a little).

within 'other', 5 respondents also cited 'empty net' as their term. obviously this might not be favored due to the confusion (empty net as the event of not having the goalie in the net, vs empty net as the goal on that specific empty net). yet in the sentence 'crosby got the ___', why do the majority of us prefer empty netter over empty net (which, i do recall instances of announcers using as well)? does the 'er' ending roll off the tongue better? expansion on other response data below:

another note: a respondent made a specific distinction that empty netter was for speaking, while ENG is for typing.

Q7: "The other team is coming to our __"

i do think it's interesting that the sort of stadium/localization for the playing field is built off the materials surrounding the sport. 'turf' and 'field' are pretty widely used for field sports, and we have a similar reflection when put into the context of hockey: arena, rink, ice.

'other' distributions also reflect sentiments on 'house/home' -- rather than home turf, our home ice -- or calling out the specific territories. however, there were also a couple responses stating that they would never phrase or say anything along these lines.

Q8: How do you describe a situation where one team is playing 5 players on the ice, and the other team is playing 3 players?

There's a huge preference for '5-on-3' rather than '5v3' as a term. However, something interesting to note: from the 'other' responses, there was one respondent who used '3-on-5', and one who uses '2 man advantage' and '2 adder' interchangeably.

Q9: How do you describe a situation where both teams have 5 players on the ice?

Here, though the number-on-number format is still a large chunk, 'even strength' gains a closer ground (despite '2 man advantage' not having a similar effect on the previous set, even if both terms seem to be contextually linked). in the 'other' responses, there was one respondent who simply cut the term into simply 'even', and also 2 respondents who called this 'normal'/'a normal situation'.

Q10: vocabulary associated with dick trick

*this specific question contains a typo that may have affected data collection. the original question posed was 'what do you call four goals in a period?', which caused some confusion. i went through the same data cleaning procedures, but given this is a 'lesser known' sort of term, it's harder to guarantee that confusion is accurate or reflective.

The majority seemed to have 'dick trick' down - an interesting term, considering that it's not technically an official hockey term, but was popularized from thornton's quote and definitely isn't said on-air.

'other' responses vary: there is a great amount who expressed confusion over the term or called it simply '4 goals' (may be influenced by the question wording, as mentioned). others seemed aware of the reference ('joe thornton special'), or had a different term ('gettysburg hat trick', 'poker', spin on the word hatty).

Q11: What do you call the area that players sit in during their penalty?

more variation in this response - it seems roughly equally divided between 'the box', 'penalty box', and 'sin bin'. within 'other' responses, the sentiment surrounding the box revolved around either playful/childish terms, or those that involve connotations of punishment or crime.

some respondents also remarked that their language around the ox will change based on the situation: for example, 'Time out or prison depending on severity' and 'juvie (if it’s a rookie) crimes corral'.

Q12: What do you call a player whose role is often aggressive and expected to fight in defense of their teammates?

'enforcer' and 'goon' seem to be the heavily favored terms -- however, commentary from 'other' respondents also mentioned that a few believe the terms to be dated, corresponding to historical roles that no longer have a place in the game.

a few responses also called this role 'rat' adjacent, 'bad/big boy', or a similar term referring to the size of the player ('the tank', 'the muscle').

Q13: What do you call a player whose role is primarily situated on defense?

'd-man' as a shorthand holds a large portion of responses (once again, a similar middle ground shorthand format). however, of the 'other' responses, there was a group who also referred to this position as 'defender' and 'defense', as well as one respondent who specified a 'dman' without the hyphen from the multiple choice.

Q14: What do you call a player who often seeks to agitate opponents and draw penalties?

'pest' and 'rat' seem to be the big terms here, with very little surprise. there is however, a plethora of other nicknames available in the 'other' responses

the sentiment towards this player role also seems much friendlier in comparison to other role questions (multiple references to positive endearments, nicknames, or players).

Q15: Which of these terms do you (commonly) use?

this particular question was multiple-response for a reason - i want to take a deeper dive on these associations later. for now, it's interesting to note that specific shot terms, often finisher acts (e.g. 'slapshot', 'one-timer') are somewhat more used than those involved with skills (e.g. 'toe drag').

section ii: connotations/sentiment association

Q16: Oldest age of a baby ___ ?

here are some violin plots on that specific question (which i loved). though this stat has somewhat been alluded to in literature before (the so-called primes/development curves of each position), it's nice to see it in numbers.

a 'baby goaltender' can essentially be older than that of the other 'baby' positions (however, with greater spread - indicating that there was potentially a range of responses in terms of goaltender age). an old baby prospect is the youngest of them all, with the smallest spread.

Q17: Your "national broadcast" refers to:

evidently, regionally based associations come into play here. within the 'other' distribution, there is a range of responses, from those who have never heard/used the term 'national broadcast' before, those not in the US/Canada, to those who define it as anything outside of their local broadcast (no association with any particular brand). there is also a healthy amount of illegal stream usage.

Q18: What do you call it?

this question was deliberately a bit vague, relying on respondents to know the context through the answer choices. even so, 'narrative' won out overwhelmingly. how did this term come about, and why do we all specifically associate so much with it -- choosing it over other terms such as sports magic or story?

on the flip side, 'other' spouted multiple responses who were unfamiliar with the term. so how did that 77.56% suddenly and undeniably understand the term and its connotations? what part of the hockeyblr bubble has assimilated this particular figure of speech for us?

Q19: What does the above term mean to you?

this question was a free response, aiming to look at the sentiments and connotations associated with the term, and received around 342 responses. responses varied from snippets of poetry, objective definitions, confusion from those who aren't familiar with the term, and also a few associations with rpf.

i did a sentiment analysis on the dataset per response, and graphed the positive, negative, and neutral sentiments on a 3d scatterplot.

though a majority of responses featured generally positive-neutral sentiments, there was variation and the addition of negative sentiments in the set as well. looking at a violin plot of the compounded sentiment (combining the positive, neutral, and negative)

though the majority falls neutral in sentiment, and an average skews towards positive, narrative sentiment continues to vary.

in addition, topic modeling was done on the dataset, split into both negative and positive topic models. 10 topics were each generated from the lda models. from the positive topic model, the following topics were generated (terms, with their corresponding weights)

'0.033*"dreams" + 0.033*"perseverance" + 0.033*"strength" + 0.033*"maths" + ' '0.033*"hopes" + 0.033*"finesse" + 0.033*"feats" + 0.033*"essence" + ' '0.033*"peoples" + 0.022*"interactions"'

'0.054*"fun" + 0.053*"used" + 0.051*"happen" + 0.034*"talent" + ' '0.033*"family" + 0.026*"numerology" + 0.026*"moments" + 0.026*"improbable" ' '+ 0.026*"golden" + 0.026*"sids"

'0.167*"story" + 0.054*"win" + 0.048*"season" + 0.040*"team" + ' '0.025*"beyond" + 0.022*"g" + 0.019*"adds" + 0.019*"case" + 0.016*"underdog" ' '+ 0.016*"neatly"'

'0.099*"hockey" + 0.081*"way" + 0.056*"magic" + 0.052*"it" + ' '0.046*"definitely" + 0.040*"fan" + 0.037*"terms" + 0.026*"thing" + ' '0.025*"much" + 0.023*"special"

'0.067*"cup" + 0.059*"team" + 0.039*"whats" + 0.034*"uplifting" + ' '0.034*"bonding" + 0.027*"us" + 0.026*"dynamics" + 0.024*"theme" + ' '0.016*"intricate" + 0.015*"overarching"

'0.059*"storyline" + 0.058*"player" + 0.056*"lore" + 0.048*"career" + ' '0.047*"emotional" + 0.034*"satisfying" + 0.032*"team" + 0.026*"goal" + ' '0.024*"beloved" + 0.023*"important"

'0.100*"tale" + 0.055*"one" + 0.050*"thats" + 0.043*"on" + 0.039*"sport" + ' '0.036*"reason" + 0.024*"cant" + 0.024*"supreme" + 0.024*"pornography" + ' '0.024*"define"

'0.056*"luck" + 0.040*"friendships" + 0.036*"the" + 0.034*"put" + ' '0.025*"words" + 0.025*"stoned" + 0.025*"research" + 0.025*"figure" + ' '0.025*"ur" + 0.025*"playoffs"

'0.059*"current" + 0.037*"trying" + 0.033*"theyre" + 0.030*"creates" + ' '0.030*"cohesive" + 0.030*"life" + 0.029*"guy" + 0.021*"urban" + 0.021*"ppl" ' '+ 0.021*"gay"

'0.047*"pekka" + 0.023*"kisses" + 0.023*"nashville" + 0.023*"must" + ' '0.023*"mika" + 0.023*"juuse" + 0.023*"letang" + 0.023*"hugs" + 0.023*"kane" ' '+ 0.023*"chis"

read through them. i think i cried when i did. it's like.... that's the narrative, huh.

section iii: hockeyblr behavior patterns

Q20: How would you tag a post about Mitch Marner?

this question aimed to look at how users tagged players -- though i tried to pick a player that could be looked on mostly ambivalently, i obviously failed badly. for that i apologize.

though the #[first name] [last name] format that most player tags use seem to be the most common, there are an evidently varied amount of responses regarding the player in question. people either hate mitch or love him, 'other' responses included responses from 'i would not post about him/i have his tag blocked' to variations of 'minch/affectionate nicknames', to a response who didn't know who he was.

other tagging styles mentioned included specific player tags for only players on user's followed teams, or exceptions for specific players. also used was the #p:[name] format for players.

Q21: How would you tag a post about the Toronto Maple Leafs?

as opposed to the full name variation for player marner, 'leafs' as the shorthand name wins out over 'toronto maple leafs' as the full team name.

however, this is also dependent on cultural context - the leafs have always been referred to as the leafs. does this tagging etiquette extend to teams such as columbus (would you tag it cbj, jackets, etc)?

conclusions/future considerations: i hate writing this part in real academic papers so i get the choice to half-ass it on my fake no effort one. hockeyblr is fascinating, and you know - why do we tend to say the things we do? there were a few questions i posed in this dataset that would be interesting to pursue if i or anyone else had the time or the time (good god). and considering how unique we are as a niche, how does hockeyblr compare to a different dataset with similar questions? something to consider.

anyway, i hope you guys learned something from this huge post. if you read through all that, you're the greatest. thanks again for reading, hope you enjoyed this not-at-all-academic study.

#hockeyblr #hockey #nhl #tj talking code #this post was. way too much work for someone who was supposed to be having an off day

[adriancatrin]

Best Zukka fic recs and/or Azula centric fics (bonus points for both!) I'm desperate for more content.

(digging thru my bookmarks) hoo boy ok let's see

i'm gonna put a cut because this might be long!! idk what all of the zukka 'classics' you've read so i just included 'em if they're my faves. list is in no particular order, pls heed warnings/tags on AO3 as some include potentially triggering content ~

like the sun inside of you by ofherlionheart: Zuko is sixteen years old when he’s handed a crown, a throne, and a hundred-year ancestral legacy of colonial imperialism. He’s not scared of the work; he’s scared of being consumed by the responsibilities and burdens he’s claimed. What Zuko doesn’t quite realize, yet, is that he’s not alone in this. Still in progress, one chapter left to go. Very slow-burn Zukka, and some great Azula stuff

To Cleave These Roots We've Made by Erisenyo: Sokka and Zuko have been roommates and best friends through college and graduation, through first jobs and new jobs and promotions, through friends getting married and sisters being pregnant and everything in between. But that all ends in four days. Four days to pack up an apartment. Four days before Zuko goes to law school and Sokka stays behind. Four days to untangle two lives that Sokka and Zuko have spent ten years weaving together. Can you call it a divorce, if you were never actually together in the first place? I don't remember Azula's involvement in this, but gosh darn it's a good one

i won't stumble as i follow down this path (cause words that are spoken are just other things to have) by jublis: It takes Zuko one year to visit his sister again. Featuring birthday weeks, struggling with your own goodness, and a future. Pretty sure this is a Zukki, ft. Azula very heavily

Destiny in the details by salytierra: Sokka heard that story before. Of course he did, the turning point of Zuko's destiny, the single bravest and most noble (or stupid) thing he's ever done. He retold the thoughts that went through his head back then, the repercussions... but he left out a single detail. And it's that detail that changes everything.  I need to see his soulmark. Sokka thinks, heart hammering in his chest. Fantastic post-canon soulmate AU. Azula's not in it, though

Divine Intervention by AggressiveStress: Sokka has had a lot of dates but they never stick around and he doesn’t know why. Literally everyone else knows why. Honestly I don't remember much about this one I just know I really liked it hahaha

Maybe I Don't Want Heaven by inkfingers_mcgee: Zuko does not realize that he wants to break up with Mai until she says, “We need to talk about us,” with an unmistakable finality, and the candles around his meditation mat don’t even flicker. // Five years after ascending the throne, Zuko reaches yet another crossroads of self. Sokka helps him through it. Mai incites national legislative reform. Azula is listed as a character in this one but I don't remember her role. The fic is great though. slow burn in case u haven't caught onto the trend of my fave fics yet haha

Of Tea and Turtle Ducks (and the Turtle Duck Guy) by Erisenyo: Sokka is nothing if not enthusiastic about his interests--Learning. Campus traditions. The campus turtle ducks. The guy who's watching the ducks so intently this year.  Zuko is nothing if not intense about duck watching. (It's not really about the ducks.) (Is it ever?) No Azula again but gosh darn it this fic is so cute. (expect more erisenyo on this list whoops)

this ultraviolet morning light by GallifreyanFairytale: sokka and zuko break up, make up, go undercover, thwart a rebellion, watch the sunrise, and change the course of fire nation history. not necessarily in that order. I don't remember the level of Azula's involvement in this fic, but I do remember she's in recovery and Zuko thinks about her a fair amount.

Empty Bodies, Empty Smiles by attackfish: Zuko sorts through the wreckage of his childhood and comes across a doll given to his sister. Not a shipping fic, just a character study of sorts of Azula as a child. It's... very sad, but incredibly nuanced in its understanding of her as a very unhappy and unfortunately disturbed child

Will We Last the Night by CSHfic/VSfic: Chief Arnook never assigns Sokka to protect Princess Yue, so he goes to fight the Fire Nation with the other men. When the moon dies, and the ocean spirit takes its revenge, Sokka is caught standing on the deck of a Fire Nation ship. Sokka should have drowned… and he would have drowned, if not for a certain Fire Nation raft fleeing the North Pole. An enemies-to-lovers season 2 rewrite, where Sokka is separated from the gaang during the Siege of the North, and travels the Earth Kingdom with Zuko instead Azula is just S2 Azula w/o redemption I believe, but my goodness the Zukka is just so. SO sweet

Burning Bright by Erisenyo: On a particularly hopeless night, Zuko sends out a messenger hawk to nowhere. He didn’t realize that his messenger hawk is deeply committed to completing the job. And that Sokka happens to be traveling straight through nowhere, at the time. I'm currently rereading this series for the umpteenth time, it's amazing, highly recommend, Azula is hyper intriguing in it too w/ a very complicated relationship with Zuko

All's Fair by Lovely_Elbow_Leech: Book one ends with two major diffrences: 1. Sokka went on the mission with Hahn (it did not go well) 2. Zhao survives the North Pole and that proves unfortunate for everybody (except Zhao, obviously)  Imprisoned on Zhao’s war ship, Sokka and Zuko have to work together to survive. They are not very enthusiastic about this prospect.  And they argue. A lot. Another of my top faves. Book 2 is in progress

Real Slow by surveycorpsjean: “I see.” Zuko closes the scroll. “Is the Water Tribe sending a replacement?" “Uh yeah,” Sokka gestures to himself dramatically. “You’re looking at him.” No Azula I believe but heckin' slow burn

this is a gift (it comes with a price) by WitchofEndor: There is a ghost on the Wani. But the crew have grown used to - even fond of - Prince Zuko. And no matter how many times General Iroh tries to gently explain the boy’s predicament, tries to suggest that he might attempt to move on, Prince Zuko can always be found watching the sea. There is a prisoner in the palace. Not Zukka, but the relationships in it are fantastic, including Azula and Zuko.

 While Mighty Oaks Do Fall by WitchofEndor: The newly-crowned Fire Lord Ozai offers his firstborn son to service in the temple. This turns out to be a catastrophic mistake. Wacky crazy fic. There's something funky fresh happening with Azula, but it's an in-progress fic so. who knows where it'll go

I probably don't need to include The Art of Burning but it's in my fave bookmarks so. Same for Blue

Also in retrospect I have a lot of issues with this fic, but here's my post-canon Zukka w/ Azula redemption fic: New Heights

#hope this helps! #being part of the atla fandom is the first time i've ever bookmarked fics on ao3 so. unfortunately i forget a lot and lose fics:( #but! here are several for ya #beesofnotredame #asks #fic recs #zukka fic rec

[transpanda-1]

Birds of Prey might feature Katherine Karlo in the near future

So for those of you not in the know, the new (gorgeously drawn) Birds of Prey is following Black Canary saving her sister from a doomsday scenario, and featuring a breakout role for Maps Mizoguchi, a character who was prominent in Gotham Academy

But, from careful observation (straw grabbing and bias), there might be another from Gotham Academy making an appearance, Katherine

Katherine Karlo is one of Maps' closest friends and her main roommate for the run of Gotham Academy (pretty sure). While not altogether that important in the run, she made a notably important role with Maps in the mainline Batman comics.

Now Maps getting a leading role, even if for one story, in a main Batman comic probably helped keep her on people's minds before her debut as superhero from the future, Meridian.

BUT Katherine being included could be indicative of the same treatment, even if a lesser role!

Furthermore, we'd like to point out one of the characters being included in the new BOP run is Cassandra Cain, who some readers may remember as being one of the very few genuine friends made of Katherine's dad Basil Karlo, AKA Clayface

Intentionally or not, we now have two characters on the team who have had very close ties to a shapeshifting clay Karlo. Bordering on "one of very few friends" territory, too.

(Unsure if Harley should be counted with her show heavily featuring Clayface, but just mentioning that. Clayface is sort of making a surge in relevance lately with The Batman II slated to feature him)

We're getting into stretching territory, but there's a few more things we want to mention that... *could* be something, but might not.

First, this mission involves going to Themyscira, or the islands of the Amazons that Wonder Woman originates from. Who... is made of clay

It's unknown if Wonder Woman will appear, but they do actively talk about her in the second chapter, which may be foreshadowing. But she is a canon clay woman! (We also heard Nubia may be too?)

A lot of clay character hovering around the skirts of this story...

Second is... this specific wording from Big Barda when Maps goes back to the future(?)

"The one from the future was made of dirt?" ...Dirt? Why dirt? She looks more like snow, or potentially electricity or static. And Big Barda is smart, she's royal and uses boom tubes to travel great distances across space. Dirt's, well, brown, Barda knows that.

"Made of dirt" is a small line but it doesn't really make sense to us based both on the visual AND the character's knowledge. Unless it's supposed to mean "We need to allude to clay/mud but can't SAY say clay or mud because that's too obvious." Made of dirt too, there's just a lot to possibly unpack there.

But the weird thing is the only thing we can really pull from that is... could Katherine is pretending to be Maps *right now*?

Unlikely, but it might explain why peppy, hyperexcitable Maps's adult self was... oddly quiet after introducing herself. Not to mention she'd leave right before the part of the mission that involves swimming...

She at least seems to be working with someone, judging by the way her little device goes off (or hit her time travel time limit, idk...!)

(Also we're a bit curious why her superhero name is Meridian specifically. It's a geographical map term to describe lines going upwards from the north to south pole, and there's a prime Meridian, which is cute for Maps' dnd obsession but is there something more?)

We understand if Katherine doesn't make an appearance, but we hope we maybe convinced you how there could be a chance for the character to appear sometime in the story!!

Thank you for reading through this and listening to our rambles about a fellow clay girl...! (-Annie🤎)

#katherine karlo #maps mizoguchi #clayface #batman #birds of prey #cassandra cain #big barda #chirps #🪴Annie🤎

[stardusksx]

BECAUSE OF YOU, spencer reid x named!oc

— part two .

( summary! ) Spencer & Lydia where best friends, until they weren’t. Having to see each other at work everyday was certainly an exercise in professionalism, but when Reid is arrested in Mexico they can no longer ignore each other.

( warnings! ) Canon typical violence, discussions of drug use, best friends to lovers with a whole load of angst in the middle, dysfunctional family dynamics, talks of past neglect, future mentions of sex/smut, let me know if I missed anything!

next part

EMILY HAD BEEN FAIRLY ACCURATE WITH HER GUESS ON WHEN THEY'D BE BACK, THE THREE OF THEM RETURNING WITHIN THE HOUR. The woman had ran over what had happened at the motel, detailing the gruesome scene that could only be born out of intentional malice. It was out of Spencer's capabilities, obviously, but Emily didn't look too excited about their odds of proving that considering the evidence which had been planted on him.

"You okay to do his cognitive interview?" Emily nodded towards the cell that was holding Spencer, where Rossi and Luke were talking him through something.

Lydia was usually the designated cognitive interviewer whenever they went on cases— her area of study had been heavily focused on it, so she was slightly more specialised on them than her teammates. Granted, she'd never done one on Spencer or any of her teammates for that matter. "Yeah, I'm okay with that."

Emily let out a relieved sigh, "I've asked Luke to take you over to the motel, first. There's a possible witness on the front desk that would have been working around the time Reid arrived. She agreed to let you do a cognitive." Emily didn't look hopeful, "She might not have seen him at all, but it's worth a shot."

"No, yeah, of course," Lydia nodded, "How far is the motel?"

"Only twenty minutes," She glanced at the cell holding Spencer, "Shouldn't take too long, but it'll give Spencer a chance to sober up more before you do his."

Lydia followed her gaze, a frown falling on her features. She hated seeing him like this. Hated it. When she looked back to Emily, the woman was already watching her, an expression on her face that said she could read her like a book. "You sure you're okay doing his interview, I can—"

"I'm fine, Emily. This is about Spencer, not me," Emily went to speak again, but she cut her off with a slightly teasing smile, "Plus, I'm better at cognitive's than you."

"Okay miss masters degree," Emily rolled her eyes, grinning as she nodded towards Luke. The man waved some car keys at her, offering a small smile, "Go put it to some good use."

Lydia gave her a salute, "Yes, ma'am."

He led her out to a black SUV, rambling on about how Garcia had been giving him hell for accidentally pronouncing a word wrong in the hurry to get some information. Penny had tried to get her in on the whole "only refer to Luke as newby," thing, but she'd affectionately told the women to leave her out of her Luke-targeting-glitter-maffia.

"I don't know what to tell you," Lydia laughed slightly, "She's normally over her transition period of the new team member by now, you're a special case."

"Great, that makes me feel a lot better." He said dryly, looking down at her seat belt to make sure it was buckled before pulling out of the parking lot.

"I'll handle any Garcia calls we need to carry out in the next hour if that will make you feel better."

There was a quiet, fond, smile tugging at his lips as he said, "No, that's okay. I got it."

Lydia grinned knowingly. She occupied herself with looking out the window, taking in the landscaping— it wasn't often she travelled for anything other than work, so she liked to absorb the unfamiliar scenes when she could. About ten minutes passed before he broke the silence.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" Luke said, only glancing at her briefly before he returned his eyes to the road. Lydia hummed her confirmation.

"What happened between you and Reid?" He said, and her eyes snapped to him in surprise. Part of her felt like she should feel annoyed at him for prying, but Luke wasn't the kind of person to seek out information for his own entertainment. His eyes were soft, and she understood that he just wanted to understand them better, "When I joined the team I just figured that you guys aren't as close because, I don't know, you don't have things in common or something. But after today... it seems like there's some history there, and when you said you'd stay with him, Rossi said something on the way to the motel..."

"What did he say?" She asked quietly.

"Emily was nervous about how Spencer was holding up, and he said something about you being the best person to comfort him. It didn't make sense to me, because, well..." 

"Because we act like strangers." She supplied, and Luke nodded.

Lydia let out a sigh, "Spencer and I became friends pretty quickly when I joined the BAU in 2006. We were younger than everyone, so we related to each other easily, helped each other out where we could. Work meant we basically saw each other every second of the day, then we started to do things together outside of work. He was just so easy to be around, and growing up everything was so busy that I'd never really had friends like that before. I think he was the same, so becoming best friends wasn't really a surprise to anyone. We were kinda inseparable. But then a couple years back something happened, I can't really explain it without giving away a story that isn't entirely mine to tell. After that, things were pretty broken between us, and I don't think either of us know how to fix it."

"Do you want to fix it?" He asked softly. Lydia was surprised at the way a lump instantly formed in her throat, an overwhelming sense that she was going to cry making her eyes burn. She squeezed them shut for a moment, then decided that just this once, she would share the weight of this thing she'd been carrying alone for so long.

She managed a small nod, her voice barely audible, "I miss him all the time."

He sent her a look of sympathetic understanding, "Was it ever..." Luke hesitated, "More than friends?"

She felt her walls go back up, "It's complicated."

He knew how to sense when someone was done with a subject, so he didn't question any further. They arrived at the motel shortly after, and Lydia conducted the cognitive interview on a women named Sara. It didn't produce much helpful information— all she managed to give was the sound of two car doors slamming at roughly the time Spencer was there, which she had said was strange because it had been quite other than that. She let out a sigh as she got out of the car back at the jail, rounding it to join Luke as they walked back into the building.

"Do you think Rossi got a hold of Gareth's team yet?"

He held the door open for her, "He said something about giving them another call before we left—"

Luke cut himself off as Spencer's cell came back into view, two figures standing there that hadn't been before. She smiled fondly at them, relief flooding through her like a tidal wave. "Matt, Clara, hey."

"Good to see you," Matt offered, returning her smile, "We've been waiting on you. Could really do with that cognitive interview."

"Yeah, of course. As long as—" She hesitantly glanced at Spencer, who actually did seem to be significantly more present than he had been when they'd left, "— as long as you're ready."

"Yeah," He said softly, "I think I ... I want to give it a try."

She nodded, turning to Emily, "Alright, got a quiet place we can use?"

Emily hummed, and soon she was directing them through the building, opening a door that led into an almost empty room save for the table and chairs. "I promised you'd record it, for their records. It was the only way they'd let us do this."

Lydia fished her phone out of her pocket, pulling up her voice memos app and placing it flat on the table. Once Emily made sure they were okay, she left them alone to get on with it.

It was obvious to both of them that they hadn't been alone like this in a long, long, time. She pushed through the tension, however, giving him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. He gave her a small one in return. "Alright," She sighed, pressing record, "You said you landed in Houston, but that leaves a gap between getting across the border. Can you talk me through how that happened?"

His brows furrowed in concentration, eyes training on the ceiling as he muttered to himself before they closed fully, "Took a bus to Brownsville," He said finally, "Then I walked across..."

She gave him a moment to give any more answers, but he  didn't seem to find anything noteworthy. So she continued, "How was the traffic, busy? quiet?"

He hummed, "... it was... busy. I was late for the meeting..." His eyes snapped open, "Rosa." He whispered quietly, more to himself at first before he repeated it firmly, "I met Rosa at the border the first time I crossed. Had to... had to call ahead to tell her I'd be late. She was understanding."

She waited, he continued, "But she said that next time... she couldn't afford to wait around by the border. It was too risky. So, we set up a meeting place. A motel."

"Is that where you met her the last time you crossed?"

Spencer nodded, "Yes. Yeah. She... she doesn't have an office here, that's why she picked the motel."

"It wasn't the first time you'd met, then. Why do you think you wrote her name on your arm?"

"I don't remember," He whispered, then repeated it like a mantra. She could tell he was losing focus, so she redirected him, "How did she act when you saw her? Did she seem... cautious?"

His brows furrowed as he thought, nodding slowly, "The curtains were closed," He said, "She ushered me in quickly."

"Then what happened?"

"She gave me the vials... the ones I'd been giving my mother... three drops a day... I thanked her. Gave her money..." His eyelids screwed tightly shut, and she noticed that his fists began to clench. She knew he was getting a breakthrough, so she let him work through it without interruption.

"There was a noise, car tyres... she... she looked panicked. We're by the window, it— the door. It opened abruptly, we didn't see them approach it."

Lydia's brows raised, but she attempted to hide the shift in her demeanour, not wanting to break his focus. If Spencer could recall a third party, it would help towards proving that some else was present to have committed the murderer. "Who opened it?"

"I didn't see..." he murmured, "They must have knocked me out... I'm on the floor... Rosa is on the floor too..." He muttered to himself for a moment, "Someone else is definitely there... there's knife. A lot of blood."

"Where is the knife?"

"My hand..." He was struggling, shaking his head, and Lydia could see crimson began to stain the bandages, "I-I'm trying to stop them. It's in my hand."

"Trying to stop who?"

"They're stabbing her... I'm trying to... it's in my hand."

"They're stabbing Rosa?"

"Yes." He said, "I'm trying to stop them. It's in my hand."

His breathing picked up, hands shaking like a power drill. The blood seeped faster. It almost looked like he was drowning.

"Spencer," She said, but he didn't seem to hear her, so she reached out and took his hand to stop him from hurting himself, "Spencer."

He blinked, chest rising and falling heavily. It took him a moment to re-associate himself with his surroundings, but when he did it was her his gaze remained focused on.

"We'll take a break," She said, nodding to the blood that had seeped through the bandages, "Someone needs to take a look at your hand again."

Lydia gave him a look of reassurance before she slipped out into the hall, instructing the guard in Spanish that he'd need medical attention. Emily, Rossi and Luke stood waiting.

"Spencer just remembered that there was another person there—" She cut herself off, features falling at their expressions. "What? What happened?"

"They just charged Reid with the murder of Nadie Ramos." Luke said grimly.

She blinked at them. Her hope for a way out of this was already merely a pile of embers, but it felt like his words had doused them in water and put them out for good. "Jesus," She murmured, pinching the space between her brows before she looked back up to them with a questioning expression, "Where the hell do we go from here?"

Rossi sighed, attempting to morph his hardened expression into a more optimistic one, "You said Reid spoke about a third person?"

Lydia nodded, but then as she thought over the interview more and more with the hindsight of the murder charge, it began to feel incriminating rather than exonerating. "He did, but... he also kept repeating that he had a hold of the murder weapon," Lydia skipped ahead in the voice memo to a point where Spencer kept repeating it's in my hand, sighing, "This...this makes him look guilty. Even with the context, they can just take what they need and ignore the part where he claims there's another person."

They all exchanged looks of agreement, and she pocketed her phone again. "We should go talk to Matt and Clara, see what they've come up with."

After Spencer's hand had been seen to, he'd been escorted back to the cell where everyone was waiting.

"Lab reports on the vials came back," Clara said, "But there aren't any illegal substances— some things that haven't been approved by the FDA, but nothing that can incriminate you."

"It's great news." Emily smiled at Spencer, and through his slightly lingering disorientation he looked relieved.

Clara watched him silently for a moment before she asked, "Is there anything else you can remember about being here?"

"I remember my mom threw out the vials," He answered, "I must have been here to get more."

Matt nodded, "Well you're off the hook for that, there's no contraband."

"Yeah but... we're still looking at the planted drugs and murder charges that could keep you here for a long time."

Emily sighed, "So what can we do to delay the transfer?"

A calculating expression overtook Clara's features, "You said you met Nadie, who call herself Rosa, in Houston. Why didn't she just give you the vials there?"

"I don't know... but she helped us, and I trusted her. I know I was right to do that." Spencer said softly.

Matt's brows furrowed, "But she convinced you to cross the border multiple times, had you risk your life."

Clara brightened slightly, "Because she must have had something to lose too."

"You said in your cognitive that Rosa set up the meetings at the motel instead of the border because she was scared of the risks," Lydia nodded her agreement, "We just need to figure out what those risks were."

Spencer looked at her thoughtfully before he asked Matt, "What was in the vials?"

The man looked at the slightly crumpled paper in his hands,"There were some nootropic compounds like Ampalex, but also some more natural stuff like Coral Calcium, Jimson Weed, coconut oil, a variety of vitamins... B12, D3."

Spencer blinked, "Where are we right now?"

"Matamoros, Northern Mexico."

He nodded, like puzzle pieces were falling into place in his mind, "Jimson Weed, also known as the Devil's Snare, originated in Mexico but it's natural growing region is further north or south of the border."

Lydia felt her lips push up at the corners as Emily said, "Now that sounds more like you."

"So it isn't from here?"

"Then where'd she get it?"

Emily pulled out her phone, the receiver picking up instantly, "Garcia, we've got some questions."

Matt spoke, "Hey, Penelope."

"Oh, my god. It's the dulcet tones of Matt Simmons." Her slightly breathy voice returned. 

His lips quipped upwards, "I'm trying. Clara's here too."

"Knowing we have you guys as backup is providing me with some much needed hope and I work better that way." The sound of her fingers against the keyboard accompanied her words.

Clara interjected, "Hey, lady. We're trying to catch up on a few things. Where is Nadie Ramos from?"

Only a few seconds passed before there was an answer, "She lives with her family just north of Matamoros."

"That must be where she got the jimson weed."

Penny continued, "What's weird is she crosses the border, like, a lot."

Emily brows pulled downwards, "Why?"

"Well, she works at a clinic in Houston and also helps at a low income healthcare centre. I can't find a visa on her, which is double weird. And finishing the weird trifecta there is a social security number on her W-2 form..."

"She has dual citizenship?" Lydia’s eyes widened, feeling those embers that had been doused earlier begin to catch alight again.

"Yeah, she was born in Houston but her family had to move back to Mexico and she lives with them but works in the U.S."

"That changes everything, if she's an American citizen we can get jurisdiction." Lydia said quickly. She glanced at Spencer, who met her eyes with a mix of relief and trepidation.

Emily nodded, "We need to talk to the consulate—"

"It's time for his transfer." The guards started towards Spencer, and he looked at them in helpless panic. Her stomach churched at the fear in his eyes, and Emily hastily pulled out her phone.

"We've had a break in the case, the victim was also American and that calls for extradition."

He shrugged, "I've got orders. Sorry."

Lydia could only watch, blood roaring in her ears as Emily exchanged words with the person on the other end of the phone, “With the victim having dual citizenship we now have concurrent jurisdiction. It was my understanding the official order to extradite SSA Spencer Reid would be evaluated." She heard her say, watching them lead Spencer away. There was a paused before Emily spoke again,  "I understand, thank you." She hung up, "They're taking it into the brass, go get him."

Luke wasted no time retrieving Spencer, and Lydia could still feel the beat of her heart in her throat. She let out a breath, willing her anxiety to calm down. This was good. It wasn't solved, by any means, but it was a step towards it and away from disaster.

Emily put a hand on her shoulder, and she could see that the older woman was going through similar emotions, "You want to go gather the bags from the lockers?"

Lydia could tell she was trying to provide her with a task to occupy herself with instead of dwelling on any negatives that attempted to creep into her mind, and she was grateful for it. By the time she'd collected all their go-bags, the extradition had been approved and they made their way to the tarmac.

She hadn't realised how exhausted she was until she stepped foot onto the familiar Jet— her body felt like concrete, as if her limbs had been filled and were too heavy to move. "Thanks for the ride home." Matt spoke, Clara nodding along in agreement with an appreciative smile.

"Thank you for your help." Emily returned, and Lydia could see her exhaustion mirrored in the older women.

"Of course, we were glad to." Clara said.

Lydia flopped into the window seat, allowing her head to loll onto the back of it. She wasn't too sure why her next thought occurred to her, "God dammit, my ice cream will be spoiled."

She was vaguely aware of the three of them turning their questioning gazes towards her, "When Emily phoned me, I didn't have time to put away my grocery's." She muttered tiredly, and if there was a response, sleep had taken her too quickly to hear it.

Still, they chuckled just as Luke and Spencer boarded the Jet. Once the latter had thanked them for helping, Emily had explained that he'd need his handcuffs on for any other eyes but theirs, and considering no one else would be setting their sights on him for afew hours the cuffs could be taken off.

They all settled into their seats for takeoff, and as Luke watched Spencer, he felt slightly inadequate in his profiling skills— the look on his face as his gaze skated over Lydia could not be mistaken or misinterpreted. He wondered how he had ever missed it before.

Complicated, indeed.

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fandom #spencer reid #spencer reid x oc #spencer reid x you #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #angst #angst with happy ending #smut

[localguy2]

We know Dragons Rising is gonna be split into two parts, and I think it's safe to assume that part 1 is mainly gonna focus on World building and introducing Arin and Sora properly into the team, alongside Lloyd and Kai and Nya of course.

And I think it's also safe to assume that Zane, Jay and Cole (and probably Wu and PIXAL) are gonna show up in part 2 or at the very end of part 1.

So that got me thinking, did Quest For the Lost Powers have a hand in this?

Canon wise of course it did, 4 OG ninja get their powers back and all hooray ig

But did it influence the decision of the producers and writers? Mainly in the decion of not including Jay and Cole and Zane (and Wu and Pix) in part 1?

Heck, you could potentially as far as back as crystalized and ask if it also affected that decision?

Because like think about it:

Quest For the Lost Powers gave Zane, Cole, and Jay all small but satisfying stories, Zane Jay especially benefited from this considering how lack luster they were in the wildbrain era compared to Nya, Cole, and Lloyd (Kai is also extremely lackluster but I'm touching on that in a bit)

Nya had an awesome arc in Seabound, Cole had an absolutely fantastic story in MotM, and Lloyd had multiple small but great arcs across the all the wildbrain seasons, well until crystalized at least...

You see, crystalized sorta... Damaged Lloyd's and Nya's arcs, Cole was spared thankfully.

Lloyd's apprehension to accept his father's change and his anger towards his father, while great ideas, were done poorly at best, not to mention the ending where he forgives Harumi (which might I add absolutely Anhiliated his character)

And Nya's status was reduced to a slightly worse Samurai-X that kept being thrown around by all villians and mocked, especially with how they say she's nothing without her powers.

And worse yet the show sorta reinforces this by having her defeat the mechanic using her powers, and calling for backup from marlopia via her powers as well.

So yeah, Crystalized really damaged these 2.

Now, where does Kai fall into this?

Well... Unfortunately for Kai, he's been lackluster since... Season 7? Somewhere around there.

His arc in Season 11 was honestly just sorta sad with how small it was, what we got was great but it also left a lot to be desired.

And his character was only made worse when they made his entire arc within the book another retelling of his S11 arc, this time featuring Skylor.

It didn't help either that the arc itself wasn't great like the S11 one, and it only served to make his character less intertsing.

So you've got 3 characters now, 2 heavily damaged by Crystalized and 1 becoming even less intertsing.

But if you look at the other side, you've also got 3 characters, 2 of them benefiting massively from the book, setting then up for potentially great stories in the future, and 1 of them already being good enough from the start.

And as a writer, you want to improve those 3 previous characters so they're on par with the other 3.

But that suddenly become more difficult when the thing plaguing your show is the lack of change in the status quo, and certain demands having to be met, as orders from the higher ups.

What I'm trying to say is, you have to change stuff up, while also fixing up older messes, and while also working on meeting certain goals set by a higher authority, Lego in this case.

So where do the ninja fall into this?

Personally (only my opinion) I think that the reason the producers and writers behind ninjago chose to not include Jay and Cole and Zane and Wu and PIXAL in part 1 of Dragons Rising, is to give Kai and Nya and Lloyd emergency character development, to try and at the very least fix some of old problems and issues left by Crystalized, in what limited run time you have.

Because aside from fixing up old characters, you also have to set up new ones, and also explain this new world and it's many inhabitants and many areas, and you have to do all of that while also making Lego's set ideas work with the show, or basically make a fancy advertisement for their products work within the universe of the show.

So it's a lot to do.

Technically, you can do all of this while also making Zane and Cole and Jay stick with the team, but it's only gonna make things harder for you and your fellow writers.

And those characters are already great enough, they've got the development they need just for now at least, so it's better to just remove them from the picture for a while, until you've got a stable work frame at least, than you can introduce them later again.

As long as you give a logical in universe explanation as to why they're weren't there in the first place, while also shedding light on what they were doing before being reintroduced.

Kai, Lloyd and Nya need this character development because of how Crystalized and QFTLP left them, otherwise people are gonna be upset with how they're progressing.

But Jay, Cole and Zane?

Not really, QFTLP (and MotM for Cole) has already done wonders for them, they can wait for now in favour of saving other characters from bad writing fates.

Ultimately, do I think this is all exactly what happened?

No, absolutely not.

But in my eyes, to a certain extant in some areas, it serves as a logical explanation as to why the writers and producers of the show made the decision they made.

And you know what?

Even if all of this is wrong, even if all of this is just random rambling and bad theorising, I'm still happy with the decions they've made.

It's a nice change of pace.

Could have it been communicated better?probably.

It didn't help either that in the trailers none of the characters state what happens to Jay, Cole and Zane, or even Wu and PIXAL.

But that was most definitely an intentional move, and you can't really be mad at it in that case, plus this is the first time the team has been this open of us, so let's cut them and Lego some slack.

#ninjago #lloyd garmadon #kai smith #nya smith #cole brookstone #jay walker #zane julien #master wu #pixal borg #This turned into quite the ramble huh... #Well thanks for reading if you did #LGuy rambles

[animehouse-moe]

Undead Unluck Episode 3: How To Use My Unluck

To be perfectly honest, this episode's boarding and animation through the first half (aside from the cold open)isn't near as good as the first two episodes. It jumps around, there's a lack of movement and interaction with the environment, and the content itself is filling the gap between point A and point B. That said, the second half is infinitely more interesting and has lots that I really want to talk about.

So let me talk cold open first since it's so important. Time is very heavily featured in the opening of the episode. However, while we do see the machinations of a regular clock, we also see an hourglass. Immediately, the idea of a doomsday that appears from the content of the first episode seems more and more likely as a "countdown" appears behind the work of the Union.

Also, I may or may not be blind, but I'm assuming the spheres circling the hourglass are meant to represent the planets. For what reason I'm not sure exactly, but I feel like it makes the concept of a doomsday that much more likely.

Overall it's a really interesting piece that does not make sense in the context that Andy has given us so far. I mean, just looking at the two interactions from 1970 to 2020 and it doesn't feel right.

Back in 1970, the same year that Andy was originally caught, he's wishing Gina a happy birthday, and she's smiling at him? But now in 2020 he's ready to kill her and she's visibly frustrated with him? There's far more going on with the characters than just appearances, which is a great segue into Gina as a character and her negation.

I think the easiest context to think within is spacetime for Gina. It's been 50 years since she first captured Andy, and in terms of looks and whatnot she's not changed aside from makeup. She can also stand on water, control vast portions of matter, and survive in outer space (though it's unknown if that's for a limited or infinite amount of time). The one ability that I don't have confidence in being Gina's is when she produces a second easel for Fuuko. Considering the fact that she had a beret teleported to her (which may or may not have influence on her powers), the sudden appearance of an object can't be confirmed to be Gina's ability, so I'll chalk it up to whoever does the teleportation business.

Though I wouldn't think it anything as extreme as actual spacetime manipulation considering that a) she in fact wears makeup, and b) she references a boss above her. Both of these imply that her ability can't be something so overpowered, and that she's specifically an external targeting negator.

Furthermore, she can't use her technique on Andy directly, which means she most likely can't affect living objects in any fashion.

The first idea to spring to mind is 'unmoving', but that doesn't really fully grasp what Gina is doing. She's controlling matter to some degree, but I feel like the idea of 'unchanging' only really applies to her makeup. It's really quite hard to come up with the correct "un" terms for these negators, but aside from that I feel like I have a basic grasp of her abilities.

Actually, I just re-watched the clips for Gina at the end here, and I do think it's unchanging. Simply because instead of Gina saying that Andy will have to 'Kill' her, it's that he has to 'Change' her.

Anyways, I feel like there's a degree of significance here. The convenience in the order of operations and how they align feels far too on point. Fifty years after his initial capture, he runs into the same woman again? Right as he was talking about being captured? To me, it seems like at the minimum there's a negator with the ability to look into the future or something of the sort. The events themselves feel almost pre-ordained in the fact that all of these pieces are falling into place so quickly.

And then there's the UMA namedrop? I don't believe we'd heard of it before this episode, but Andy describes it as another facet of work that the Union does. If it's being handled by the union it'd have to be something to do with negation, no?

But it can't be people, because Union members refer to Negators as Negators directly, UMAs are something entirely different.

It's Unidentified something, but I don't know what that something is. It's not a person, so could it be an artifact or an animal or maybe even an affect or something of the sort?

I'm not sure, but it's one hell of a curve ball considering how quick they breeze right past it. Hopefully we'll get to see what this UMA is soon, because much like Gina and Andy's fate (could 'unfate' be a negator?), I think whatever a UMA is will have an important role to play in the story.

Anyways, that was a lot of talking and not a lot of showing, here are some pretty layouts from the episode.

#undead unluck #fuuko izumo #david production #yuki yase #anime #anime and manga #anime reccs #anime recommendation #anime review #uu anime

[author-main]

Tell me about the character design for Wild, Shad and Twi.

Let’s just do one character per ask. You’ll see why. This is gonna be for the baby, Wild.

Note: Wild’s current pronouns are they/them. Some stuff from 2020 use he/him for Wild, but Dec 2020 onward, Wild’s pronouns have changed. There may be a time in the future where they use she/her or something else.

GENERAL

I should start off with the original idea for Wild back in 2020. Due to my own artistic limitations, Wild and the other Links were a lot thinner back then. They also looked very similar to each other. Now I make it a point to have the Links look as different from each other as I can. That way when they do look similar in some way, it’s on purpose and not because of any skill issues.

At the time I started Ask-LU-Wild, I was still very new to the fandom. But I had written a fanfic series before the Ask blog that I call Poe!Wild. So my original idea of ALUW Wild came from what I imagined Poe!Wild looked like, but with a completely different personality. 

When they first met the chain, their hair was heavily singed and their eyebags? Bad. Their scars were also pretty different, along with the length and look of their ears. But everyone’s ears have changed drastically since 2020, that’s an artistic preference turned into actual world building. All of these things have changed over time. Their hair will always change length and look. It’s very fun giving them different styles to wear. Ever since I’ve changed my original brush, I’ve had a hard time figuring out how I want to draw Wild’s eyebags, but they’re still pretty terrible. Their scar pattern has changed and I sadly can’t add the amount of detail to them that I used to without making Wild’s face look cluttered. I'll talk more about their features later.

It was on purpose that Wild looked older than they actually were. Back in the day, I remember Wild acting as if they were an old man, because they kind of feel like one despite being 17. Not only are they 100 years older than they look but Wild IS in a lot of physical pain and is very tired too. But ever since Checking Courage, they’ve looked much younger. Style changes + character development, I suppose.

QUICK NOTES

Wild is the median height of the Links, 4’10 (147.32 cm). They’re very muscular, but also very light.

Straight, thick, blonde hair with white streaks, azure blue eyes, pale. Roundish face. Very sharp teeth.

They have second-third degree burn scars all over their body, mostly on their left side. These are guardian blast scars and have a completely different texture to other burn scars. Their left ear is almost completely black and barely hangs on.

They also have a big scar on their right side caused by a lynel. Malice entered that wound.

There are 2 burn scars on their left shoulder caused by a flame blade

Cautery wound on their right leg

Rough soles and palms, and chipped nails from climbing and running.

Diamond motif, sheikah motif

COLOR SCHEME, THOUGHTS ON THEIR COLORS

I won’t ever use #000000 or #FFFFFF for a character unless they are meant to look uncanny.

Wild’s main colors are blues and yellows, with some white. This is mainly because I wanted Wild to have an aesthetic similar to Sheikah Technology. Their champion’s tunic helps with this, along with the hylian trousers as they are mainly composed of blues, whites, and browns. But they of course wear other clothes so… yeah

Their skin used to be a lot peachier pre-calamity than it is now. This is something that they share with Wars. I decided it was because they both lost their battles against Ganon/Ganondorf and it changed them physically. 

Something I added to Wild’s character design during the Checking Courage arc: White streaks in their hair. I think this is a good time to mention that WIld’s middle name Punica means something and was chosen based on things from BotW.

THE HERO’S CLOTHES Full of Greens, Browns, and Reds. They fit in a lot with the other Links visually with it on. I decided that most/all heroes will have a Farore symbol on their hero clothes, and that started with the Set of the Wild (SotW). Most of them are on the back, close to the collar.

The SotW was a reward from the sheikah monks after completing all 120 shrines. Therefore, there are some sheikah tech symbols on the fabric and leathers. And a metal sheikah eye hangs on the top of the hood. Cap was turned into a hooded cape with braided tassels. Farosh is embroidered on the back. There’s a triforce pin that holds the cape together.

The tunic is made up of several layers: Brown long tunic, green shawl (?), leather breastplate, dark green sleeves, leather arm braces. Their belt has a pouch design for the sheikah slate.

For the pants, they’re just brown shorts. Wilds normally wear bandages on their legs because they chafe. The boots were fun to draw and actually look pretty comfortable to wear?

The set of the wild has to be one of my favorite side projects related to ALUW.

WILD'S FAMILY Wild is the only Link with a thought-through family history. I’ll just draw them all here.

Note: These portraits are obviously not contemporary. -Caeras: 29 -Sonya: 39 -Misko: 22 -Wild: 17 -Milo: 66 -Liliaz: 65 -Lucy: 34 -Othinn: 70

#author's ask box #aluw #author main art #aluw wild (they/them) #author's design talk

[thisisnotthenerd]

got a little too bored today and started tallying up d20 cast appearances for the intrepid heroes (and brennan). this is only off of the top of my head so if i forget something don't get on me about it.

Intrepid Heroes D20 Cast Appearances, including sidequests (and BLeeM), ranked from highest to lowest:

Brennan Lee Mulligan with a total of 17/19 seasons that he has appeared in; dm/gming for 14 of those seasons. 7 of those are main cast/intrepid heroes, so assume they each have a baseline of seven.

next up is mister Lou Wilson, with a total of 10 seasons; 3 sidequests, all with guest gms. the man is a combination of dnd knowledge and commit to the bit. great with any season, but has always sidequested with brennan.

tied at nine, we have zac oyama and ally beardsley; ally featured heavily in 2021 sidequests while zac has been more recent in '22 and '23.

tied at eight we have the lovely ladies emily axford and siobhan thompson! i'm so glad siobhan has joined the ranks of intrepid heroes in sidequests, it feels like they just have a lot of fun on the shorter runs.

and in last place, mr brian 'murph' murphy. i know he's busy with naddpod but only intrepid heroes seasons? 7/19? please come on a sidequest my guy. i promise it's fun.

halfway through this process i've decided that guests are also being included now.

Guest Cast D20 Appearances, ranked from highest to lowest:

at the top of the guest list, the effervescent aabria iyengar, with 5/12 sidequest seasons! 2 seasons of gming, 3 seasons as a player, all 3 of which are in established d20 worlds e.g. spyre and calorum. assuming we have an intrepid heroes season coming up at some point in the future, murph can get a bit of a lead, but if aabria's coming on to guest more there's a very real potential that she will outcompete him. i look forward to the day.

next up: erika ishii with 4 seasons. they came on in the first sidequest and have had a steady stream of appearances since. always some kind of mage--tends towards druids/nature magic. 2/3 of her dnd appearances have been druids with an eye for creepy crawlies and the darker side of nature. he's got an aesthetic that he sticks to, and i admire that. real commitment, and not just to the bit.

tied with three we have rekha shankar and matthew mercer. ooh four-syllable names. sorry i got distracted. anyway. very excited to see rekha in desiquest, though she's a fantastic player on d20. big swings, fun character choices, a good balance of support for narrative and spotlight. and then we have matt--one season gming, but for the seasons he's played? some truly cringefail guys who learn to believe in themselves and break out of their personal depression to deliver an asskicking in their finale episode. man likes his themes.

now for the team of two (not the 2 crew) in chronological order of first appearance: mike trapp, ify nwadiwe, lily du, carlos luna, danielle radford, and izzy roland. just enough to make an average d20 table! i'm getting my fill of trapp and danielle in the current season, but seeing a table of these players together? it has potential.

and for the full list of one time appearances on d20 in chronological order of first appearance (only full seasons, not including oneshots atm):

amy vorpahl

justin mcelroy

clint mcelroy

jessica ross

griffin mcelroy

travis mcelroy

marisha ray

krystina arielle

b. dave walters

katie marovitch

sam reich

raphael chestang

grant o'brien

becca scott

persephone valentine

gabe hicks (gm!)

dani fernandez

jasmine bhullar (gm!)

omar najam

oscar montoya

surena marie

anjali bhimani

monét x change

alaska thunderfuck

bob the drag queen

jujubee

alex song-xia

freddie wong

hank green

i've devoted entirely too much thought to this. and i still have more thoughts. too many thoughts and not enough time. can't wait to see who comes on in the future! don't know if i'll edit this or make a new one. probably just edit this.

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 meta #this is mostly for personal record #and is based on my memorization of the seasons #having now seen all of them #(mentopolis ongoing of course) #no referencing the wiki or dropout at any point #thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats #long post #dimension 20 statistics