#can he make a rule where no one except him can use their esper powers?

[supernovaae]

In-universe explanation of Javid’s esper powers and the Lion’s Heart’s effects on them:

It doesn’t look like he has to say the rule out loud either,

#so he’s like star and stripe from mha #but he can place a rule on a certain area #I wish we knew the specifics of his divine powers tho #like can he enforce a rule that makes him stronger #or can these rules only effect others? #if he can make people lethargic #can he give them an energy rush too? #can he create a rule where people can’t breathe when they get too close? #can he make a rule where no one except him can use their esper powers? #I’m taking this crumb and running with it #sorry😅 #this is just really interesting to me #long post #Javid Dislyte #Dislyte

[acearohippo]

What are your thoughts on Lewis? Ik you really like him, i just wanna hear your brainrot about him :3c

I had to look up what brainrot means and I don't have any, he's not on my mind all the time.

You ever have a character that you just... Don't want anyone to pick apart? Like, you have head cannons but you don't want to share them because you don't want other people to meddle because that's, like, your emotional support character? No other opinions are valid except yours cause they're so dear to you? Don't even ship them with anyone because you have them on a pedestal? That's Lewis, to me.

Like if we were ranking faves, Lewis wouldn't even be on the chart because he is such an enigmatic force of perfection, to me, that there's no comparison.

The most I'll share, is he'd make a phenomenal commander. He's wise, intelligent, practical, observant, blunt yet kind, aggressive yet controlled, passionate and reliable.

Li Ling and Tang Xuan might be power houses, but I cannot see them as commanding presences. Li Ling is the type to resent any commanding roles and Tang Xuan would crumble under the pressure. They both excel as loose canons... handled by Lewis. And this goes hand-in-hand with their dieties, if anyone thinks I'm downplaying them. Nezha was a loose canon and then became a formidable soldier under the Emperor's heavenly army under his general father. Sun Wukong enjoyed being looked up to and did his duty to serve and protect his subordinates and friends, but his "strategy" always involved him soloing his adversaries, even when he journeyed with other capable fighters. In dislyte universe, Li Ling hates authority because of the rules and expectations that come with it, which he finds restricting. Tang Xuan stretches himself too thin, constantly trying to serve and serve others to the point where he overlooks many areas he isn't protecting and it stresses him out. They'd make horrible commanders, unless they suddenly went through a personality shift. And I do mean, horrible commanders, because it would drain them everyday and kill their mental health, regardless if they're able to keep a public front or not.

But Lewis? Even his backstory covers so many facets to building a great commander. He has bad penmanship, but puts in the effort and dedication to practise and improve on it. He takes on charges under his crew, the Iron Fists, and uses what he learns in the Union to better his own leadership capabilities with them. He doesn't see his sister leaving as a failure on his part, he recognises that the decisions he made were done out of necessity and now he can only work towards making it not in vain and becoming the man his sister can respect, again. And if she doesn't, then at the very least he is constantly improving for himself. He doesn't get caught up in the glory of things, like when him and Li Ling were trending and Li Ling was trying to capitalise on the fame. Lewis only agreed and was excited by the prospect because it would provide more spotlight to his crew and make him look more dependable.

He's not flashy, not spectacular, but he's consistent, firm, and confident. He self reflects, he self accepts, he shows self care and he grows.

I

Love

This

Man

So

Damn

Much.

I will not be taking any criticism.

Lewis would be a phenomenal commander and I'd love to witness progression in this game, where espers can move up ranks and he's one of them.

#the hippo speaks #dislyte #lewis dislyte #lewis >>>>>>>> everyone in this game #I'm not obsessed with this man he just makes the most sense to me as is #everyone else i have problems or am nitpicky with their stories #on the shipping thing i am cool whatever ship because any content with lewis is good content #but i don't ship him with anyone #just friendships ❤❤

[saintone]

Could sleep last night so i made a MP100 au lol.

Power comes from emotions, mainly strong ones, like pain. It is often said that those who are strong, suffered a lot.

·         Hanazawa, 22, gets assigned to the Esper Vigilance and Control Department of the Japanese Policeforce, also known as EVCD. They are encharged with keeping track on espers.

·         With such inhuman habilities and complicated pasts, the goverment considers Espers especially dangerous. After Mogami’s attacks, they started registering all espers on the system, writing down their powers and capacities, and watching them to make sure none of the broke the rules.

·         Hanazawa, an esper, is assigned to work with Tome. Teams are usually built off a human and an esper, so in case something goes wrong someone can fight with the dangerous esper.

·         Needles to say, Teru isn’t very exited about his new job. He doesn’t complain though, because someone with a past like him feels just grateful that he didn’t end up in jail yet.

·         Teru was a gangster and used his powers on other people, until he was forced to change. He picked a fight with the wrong person and they beat him up.

·         ―You should use your powers on people, ―the other kid told him.

·         He teached Teru a lesson: he wasn’t special. Espers like him, weren’t special. He was just another member of society, and if he wanted to belong, he had to adapt.

·         Luckily for him, he was never caught by the police.

·         “Everyone deserves a second chance”, he thinks. But the system doesn’t.

·         When he arrives on his first day, Tome isn’t there. She is checking on some of their Espers. He is told to check on another one, and because she isn’t there, he has to go alone.

·         Kageyama Ritsu and Suzuki Shou are partners and his deskmates. They help him out a bit.

·         ―Ah, you got Mob―, Shou says.

·         ―¿Mob?

·         The subject hasn’t got a lastname, just his name figuring: “Shigeo”. There also isn’t any information on his strengt level. Orphan, entered the system when he was eight after an incident where a kid got hurt. No other problems since then.

·         ―That’s what we call him, cause he’s like, a mob character, in the background. That guy’s probably the easiest one here. No one’s even seen him use his powers, I don’t think he’s even an esper.

·         ―If he’s like what I heard, you’all should learn from him. ―Ritsu.

·         ―Don’t mind this guy. He hates people like us.―Shou

·         Hanazawa takes it as his cue to leave.

·         There isn’t a photo of this mob guy.

·         Mob works at the supermarket and Hanazawa goes to check out there. He barely graduated High School with average-low grades, so now he’s a repositor. From what Hanazawa has seen, this guy isn’t very good at keeping a job, he often losses them.

·         As if to prove it, When Hanazawa arrives Mob is getting scolded for dropping milk.

·         ―Though day at work, huh?

·         Mob looks at him bluntly. ―Huh? Ah, yes.

·         Imagine Teru’s surprise after seeing ‘Mob’ is the guy who saved his life, all those years ago.

 

cue to Mob

 

·         Mob was eight, coming from school with his little brother when suddently a bunch of high scholers attacked them to steal their money. After losing conscious because of being hit, Mob opens his eyes and sees them all hurt: The high scholers, and Ritsu. He had hurt him.

·         Mob gets taken away.

·         ―Espers have to learn to live in society and adapt themselves to it’s rules―, the goverment tells their family. They tell Mob parent’s that he attacked his little brother.

·         ―We will take good care of him.

·         This was just after Mogami’s attacks, society was scared, goverments were getting though. Mob wasn’t a kid no more. He was an Esper.

·         Legally speaking, Mob is given out on adoption. Truth is his parents didn’t have a choice.

·         Ristu grows up without knowing he ever had a brother.

·         Mob grows up thinking he killed his.

·         Mob starts living in the goverment facilities for Esper kids. They slowly start filling up. Bunch of bunk beds on an indoor gym, old houses and stuff. School is the usual, except for Ethics Class.

·         “Never use your powers on a human being”

·         They got punished every time they used their powers. Mob, being clumsy as he is, forgot at the beginning. His powers slipped like a person is used to scratching when it itches, or blinking.

·         He got punished often.

·         Bad marks, bad looks, clumsy, antisocial. The other kids bullied him a lot. Some teachers did too.

·         They cut his hair, helmet cut. Mob kept it.

·         For those who chose to work in the police force, they were moved, given proper training. Mob learnt that using his powers was wrong, so he never used them. Especially using them on people. That was off limits.

·         That’s what he told that guy me met when he was around fifteen, coming home from school. He saw a fight. Among them was an Esper kid, beating up others.

·         Mob didn’t want him to end up in the system like him.

·         But he accidentally hurt the kid. Almost killed him. Mob came home late, beaten up, and was punished for it afterwards. It was the first time anyone saw him cry, even though it wasn’t his first physical punishment, nor was it the worst.

·         But Mob wasn’t crying because of the pain. He cried bc he hadn’t changed. After all this years, he had done it again. He had hurt someone.

·         Mob grew up and started working on lots of things. Because he was clumsy and dumb, he was often fired. He lived on a shithole.

·         One day he was tested to write down the level of his powers on the files, but he didn’t do anything. He got beaten up by the testers, who though Mob was just trying to pretend he wasn’t an Esper, but still he didn’t move. They wrote a bunch of question marks on his strength level. Nobody thought it was too big thou, mostly going on with the values he had as a child.

·         As if his only capacity was breathing and standing there, on EVCD he was given the nickname Mob.

·         But strength came from pain and suffering. Mob’s powers were unimaginable.

telk me if u wanna know how it goes on!

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #mp100 ritsu #mp100 au #kageyama shigeo #mob #kageyama mob #hanazawa teruki #terumob #kageyama ritsu #suzuki shou #reigen arakata

[project-rebirth]

Lore: Magician

A Magician (魔術師 Majutsu-shi?, Yen Press: Sorcerer) is an individual trained in using magic. Inadequate training leaves these individuals prone to the consequences of unsuccessfully using magic. It has been stated by Index that those without mana cannot perform magic, such as herself. However, all forms of life can produce mana, and Index, however, cannot directly harness mana outside of her John's Pen Mode state.

Principles

Magicians and a magic circle

The ceremony and practice of magic was created due to "those without talent" wanting to produce the effects as "those with talent". It is stated that the most important part about magic is its proper preparation; magic that is properly prepared allows even talentless middle schoolers to cast spells; the opposite stands true as improper preparation leads to both malfunction and backlash that inflicts damage on the practitioner's brain.

Magicians tend to operate in secrecy and deny the existence of "magic" when questioned. It is because of this that the vast majority of people, such as most espers concentrated in Academy City, are ignorant to their existence; Shirai Kuroko for example, mistook Sherry Cromwell as an esper after the latter summoned a golem to their aid.

Magicians are distinguished from espers due to the former's use of items with occult properties and their capacity to exploit multiple supernatural powers (such as magicians that can use more than one element, as the case of Oriana Thomson). The latter on the other hand can only access one supernatural power, and there is currently no method for accessing more. Although, despite this, esper abilities are versatile, which, provided that the user is competent enough, allows them to be used for various purposes.

History of Western magic

Carving one's magical name to their soul is an activity that has been practiced by western magicians (though seemingly isolated to English magicians) since the 19th century. Their respective magic names are often related to the reason behind their decision to learn magic or the one dream which they would sacrifice their life for. An exception are Saints, who may carve it onto their chest/heart instead, as shown by William Orwell. Stiyl Magnus once said the real reason for having magic names is long forgotten, now it is only used in battle as a gesture to say 'it will now be a fight to the death'.

Western Magicians since the end of the 19th century, according to Tsuchimikado Motoharu, are beings that "whose wishes are not fulfilled, whose prayers to God went unanswered - people who have lost their way and turned towards this back door called Magic". According to him, most magicians are like children in the aspect they fight honorably and let emotion cloud their judgment - whereas other professionals such as soldiers will shoot without remorse; magicians are like "Children who hold knives. And also as Children who have been betrayed by the world, trembling and crying at the same time". As such, magicians have very little loyalty to organizations - they are willing to betray the group to which they are affiliated to if it somehow clashes with their own dreams/goals.

Other magicians (like the Etzali of the Aztecs) might not follow the Western rule of magic names, or became mages for the same reason.

A common pattern followed by European magicians who practice 'modern western magic' is that when they run into a dead-end in their research which can be overcome with their existing resources and discovered that their objective can't be granted with just their own rules, they come to believe that the answers lie hidden in some as yet unseen paradise and seeking them out.Some of the ideas considered by such magicians are somewhat nonsensical, such as finding some strange grand master in Tibet and gaining to the key to the gates of heaven through his teachings, sunken continents and civilizations such as Atlantis or Mu, or even receiving divine knowledge and wisdom through radio signals from the Sun. With the colonial period, influences from various foreign cultures (from Central and South America, the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, India etc) were introduced, however the biggest influence came from Africa, known as the Dark Continent. Being a large place with a melting pot of tribes, cultures and legends, and conveniently located just across the Mediterranean, many magicians have visited it in order to gather information to make a breakthrough, including Aleister Crowley himself.

Types

Western magicians dabble in a multitude of skills to do with magic, such as Alchemy, astronomy, and summoning. Aureolus Izzard was called an "Alchemist" (錬金術師 Renkinjitsushi?) because that was all he was good at out of the myriad of sub-sets of magic. In Toaru Majutsu no Index, Alchemy in general is useless compared to other magic, and was renowned for being a trick for gullible nobles in the 16th century where they believed turning lead into gold was possible. Ars Magna was an exception in that it held exceptional power.

"Sorcerer" (魔導師 Madoushi?, Yen Press: Wizard) are magicians that have the purpose of spreading magical knowledge with the objective of raising the next generation of mages, according to Stiyl and Tsuchimikado these magicians are normally strong enough to handle the power of a grimoire and use it to teach the magical knowledge to their apprentices, Index also explained them with such characteristics.

"Magic God" (魔神 Majin?) is the highest possible position available to magicians where the magic of the user is almost considered divine and can overwrite the laws set by common sense. Other positions are possibly other than that, such as "Saint" (聖人 Seijin?) or "The Person Superior to God" (神上 Kamijou?), but they cannot be reached by 'normal' magicians and depends almost entirely on factors like talent or birth.

#Kinoverse Lore #Information // Magic Side

[impassiveesper]

[ On auras, and spirits, the ways in which espers see/interact with the world, and a much babier Shigeo ]

Shigeo awakened as an esper at an extremely young age and so he had an awareness of auras and spirits long before he was able to use his powers reliably.  It’s possible he could even see them before he had begun to manipulate the material world in ways his parents would notice. In other words he was sayin’ weird shit before anybody clocked him as a psychic.

As a very young child Shigeo had a habit of describing people using colors, emotions, or otherwise indicating the behavior of their aura instead of their physical features. It made sense to him, after all. A persons aura is probably the most obvious thing about them at first glance. As you might expect, young Shigeo had his fair share of frustration and tantrums regarding differences in perception—adults consistently asking him to use more correct words or to stop being silly while he petulantly stamped his feet insisted upon what to him was obvious.

[ On Auras ]

Auras are highly individual. Qualities like color, behavior, and intensity will vary from person to person and shift along with their mood. Every living thing has an aura, and so do spirits of the dead and the occasional haunted inanimate object. Broadly speaking, it is usually fairly easy to distinguish broad categories of things from one another based on aura, and seasoned espers will be able to identify types of spirits and people from long distances based solely on their aura.

The auras of espers are relatively easy to distinguish from non-espers due to an esper’s heightened power and control over their own aura. Non-espers and people with low psychic potential tend to have much smaller, vaguer auras and they have almost no conscious control over its behavior. Espers have varying levels of control over their own auras and most are able to spread / recede their own in order to gather information about what’s nearby or blend in with the crowd. An esper who is using a psychic ability sticks out like a sore thumb.

There is a certain etiquette surrounding auras as well.  Generally speaking it’s pretty impolite to have your aura all up in somebody else’s business, even between espers who are friendly with one another. If you clock what feels like your friend across town, you might send a shy little tendril of energy over there to politely announce that you’ve noticed them. You might even do this little poke more than once if you’re feeling persistent and want their attention, but for you to have your aura up that person’s ass in any meaningful quantity all day feels both annoying and vaguely threatening. Like, what are you being so nosy for? You’re invading my privacy. Am I in danger of attack from you? Mind your business.

The one exception to that rule might be moments of intimacy, opening up to somebody, or any other moment where privacy is explicitly going out the window. It’s pretty exclusive to people you’re right next to and people you have a lot of trust with.  If you’re already up in somebody’s business and you’re already friendly with them, your auras are gonna do a certain amount of touching and sliding around one another anyway, that’s completely natural among close friends and loved ones. If you’re with a stranger or new person you reel that shit in as close you possibly can and make contact only politely.

[ On Spirits and Spirituality ]

Leaving your body is a very depersonalizing experience that can cause you to lose your sense of self and forget what it was your goals were. For this reason, it’s a particularly dangerous thing for an esper to do and something many don’t bother learning/trying to do.  This same rule also applies to spirits who have died and who have no body to return to.  It takes a particular amount of power and hard work for spirits of the deceased to keep remembering who they were in life, and many don’t have the means or the will to keep that up for long. Typically spirits end up forgetting the details of their lives more and more over time until all that remains is whatever their core motivation keeping them on Earth is.  Many spirits don’t even know their own names and instead take on new names.

To an outside observer Shigeo appears to be religious at best and kind of weird at worst.  Having no other espers to teach him in his early childhood, Shigeo did not always know how to tell the difference between spirits and living things. Most of what Shigeo knows about spirits and the world he sees comes from having pieced it together himself.  He grew up treating spirits the same as he might treat a living person for most of his early life, often not realizing that he wasn’t dealing with a living person.  

Generally speaking Shigeo treats most spirits he runs into with respect, often bowing to them like people and talking with them even if they don’t answer him. Shigeo also tends to carry little things--food, flowers, trinkets, etc--so that he is always able to to leave an offering, especially for spirits he sees often or who seem bound to one place. At the risk of seeming a little rude or a little strange, Shigeo might forego traditions when he feels he knows what a spirit is like or what it wants. Some of his offerings may seem unusual to onlookers and he may temporarily ignore memorial tablets that are unoccupied to prioritize one that actually has a spirit attached.

Having seen spirits haunting homes, buildings, objects, etc since he was tiny, he doesn’t find it strange to see spirits in places that living people think of as safe or private, and he doesn’t feel particularly uncomfortable with their presence in those spaces even if the space is his own. As long as a spirit seems peaceful, he doesn’t really mind them watching him and doesn’t really concern himself too much with what they’re up to. Of course, Shigeo learned pretty early in life that if somebody is haunting a bedroom or something a relative picked up at the thrift store, it’s better to either exorcise the spirit or never mention it to family. Most spirits avoid espers, so things are pretty peaceful at home, but the Kageyama household had many sleepless nights over this sort of thing around a decade ago.

Finally, I tend to think that espers have a variety of opinions on spirits, and Shigeo is on the very radical end of accommodating for them.  Most espers insist upon more boundaries for spirits and will perform more exorcisms without any particular interest in what a spirit is like or what it wants. They don’t belong on earth, after all. That’s the opinion of most, and objectively speaking there is no clear right or wrong way of behaving when it comes to dealing with spirits. It tends to come down to personal opinion. I’ve honestly always hc’d that Shigeo has very good relationships with certain location-bound spirits who absolutely fucking hate Teruki, and Teruki is shocked to watch Shigeo bow and leave things for what he considered to be highly hostile spirits. After becoming friends with Shigeo, Teruki ended up watching and slowly adopting a lot of his manners surrounding spirits and ultimately saw better results with ones who weren’t hostile.

There’s probably other stuff but I can’t think of any more right now. If you have questions about headcanons pls ask I have headcanons for days.

Edit for related bonus addendum

#[Worldbuilding] #[Headcanon] #[ooc] #infodump; nobody asked but here u go #long post

[radramblog]

My Commander Decks Pt.1

I was supposed to be going to a Commander night tonight, and that fell through, and now I’m just sitting here, staring at my deckboxes. So I thought I might channel that sorta fixation into a discussion of some of my (many) commander decks, the history behind them, and how my own deckbuilding ethos folds into them.

  The Mimeoplasm- Sultai Reanimator

My oldest and most storied deck, though it has changed a lot over the years. I first heard about commander not long after I started playing magic, and I didn’t have much of a collection at that point, nor did I have that much money to drop on a 100-card deck. I might not have even had the basics necessary at that point. When I heard of the upcoming release of Duel Decks: Jace vs Vraska, I ended up agreeing with my brother to split it- we pay half each, he gets Jace, I get Vraska, with the intent of turning that into my first commander deck, with my copy of Varolz, the Scar-Striped at the head.

Getting cards isn’t easy in Perth, as there aren’t many card shops and their stock is limited- ordering online is an option but it can take upwards of a month for cards to arrive from the US stores. As such, when I saw a significantly better generic BG “stuff” commander in Sapling of Colfenor in a local store, I was easily conviced to pick her up, sleeve her up, and lead with her for a long time

At this point the deck was still just a pile of (mostly bad) cards I liked, with somewhat of a graveyard theme, but it was my pile of cards, and I loved it. I have a lot of sentiment attached to most if not all of my commander decks, actually. Eventually we got to the release of Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged, and while somehow I never got convinced to run Sidisi, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, would eventually take command of the deck, adding Blue to its options.

Blue didn’t add much at first, and it’s still the least present colour of the three in the deck, but a looter or two and some funky spells were a fun time. I was never good at playing Tasigur, never really willing to delve too much, not willing to exile my own graveyard, a sentiment that would continue into the current configuration. Not long after this, one of my friends organised an online order, and I decided to order enough cards to completely retune the deck.

I’d like to argue I got lucky, seeing as a lot of the cards I picked up spiked not long after, but it was then that the style of the deck solidified, and it started resembling where the deck is at now. Despite the huge changes, however, I didn’t think to change the commander to the Ooze that now helms the deck until after, and it would take some time until a friend spotted a Mimeoplasm in someone’s binder at a draft for me to finally get the deck’s final commander, solidifying it as a Mimeoplasm deck rather than just my Sultai Reanimator deck.

Even now, this deck is an eclectic collection of my history with Magic. Ostensibly, it’s a deck that either tries to win on turn 2-3 by reanimating an insurmountable threat, or by grinding out value steadily lategame between engines, possibly ending the game with a convoluted combo. But that’s not really what the deck is, is it. It has the Vraska from that old Duel Deck, the misprinted Flooded Strand from my Khans of Tarkir prerelease. It has two of the 5 Masterpieces I somehow managed to open over the 3 entire blocks they did those, and it has the damaged Reanimate my best friend traded for for me (He needed value in the trade and I paid him back for it, but it still counts). Cutting anything from this list is like killing my darlings, maybe with the exception of the manabase (It’s still pretty awful).

 Radha, Heart of Keld- Gruul Topdeck

From my oldest deck to my newest. Radha is a deck borne of one evening- it was a friend’s birthday, everyone was peacing out and walking back to our cars, both me and the birthday girl are parked next to the local game store, which, hey, it’s still open, let’s take a peek. I ended up buying everyone a round of Modern Horizons packs, as well as a Japanese Ikoria booster for myself, and apparently my good deeds were repaid in the packs I opened.

From this, I decided I wanted to build a more unique deck. See, it hadn’t been that long since the Commander precons where WOTC had decided to make a new archetype in the form of Esper Topdeck, printing Aminatou and Yennet as commanders to promote this. But with M21 recent, and Vivien’s ability to play off the top, I wanted to see what the other two colours could offer for such a deck. Hence, Radha, Heart of Keld became the leader of my own Gruul Topdeck deck.

There’s a lot of ideas coming together in this deck. The options for topdeck manipulation in Gruul are largely just the artifact ones, so I wanted more options to manipulate the deck- hence, I made sure the ramp was largely Rampant Growth type effects so they would still be relevant as shuffle effects in the lategame. I knew I wanted to run Wrenn and Six, so I made sure just about every nonbasic in the deck was a Evolving Wilds type effect- they synergize with Wrenn, they are shuffles when I want them, and they mean I can put all of my actually good Gruul lands in my other Gruul deck.

Unfortunately, the most you can abuse topdeck manipulation in Gruul to do is mostly just using it to cheat creatures into play. So that was the angle I went for, throwing a variety of spooky creatures in that would let me have a variety of options if I had the capacity to manipulate my deck. The sheer number of basic-searching effects I had gave me an excuse to run the Conduit of Ruin toolbox package I had in mind, letting me play Deciever of Form, a card in my collection that I’d had my eye on for quite some time, off of a one-of Wastes. I wanted to run Oath of Druids, so the deck doesn’t play any creatures under 3cmc just in case I’m flipping blind.

The deck does a lot of powerful nothing, but it’s not a blue deck, so I think I can get away with that. It’s far from perfect, and despite my disgust with the card it probably needs a Sensei’s Divining Top, butt I think this deck is an elegant reflection of my own deckbuilding process, if I do say so myself (and I do!)

 Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea- Mono-Blue Devotion Voltron

I built a Callaphe deck because I saw a foil showcase one at a card shop for cheap, thought it looked gorgeous, and had a bunch of blue cards sitting around without a deck to put them in. It’s not as well thought-out as some of my other decks, but I’d argue it has a lot going for it. Turns out the best way to play a bunch of blue enchantments with devotion also happens to you stealing a bunch of stuff and drawing a bunch of cards. Neat!

Callaphe has a bunch of new cards in it that I haven’t gotten to try yet, but I’m excited to do so- it’s probably the first deck I’m going to pull out at my next commander night. It’s not particularly powerful, but she gets big surprisingly quick, and no-one expects the old Corrupted Conscience my own Commander trick. Infect is a perfectly viable way to win a game of magic! Especially when I’m using someone else’s creature!

 Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist- Cat Tribal

The first round of Secret Lairs were announced in December 2019, as I recall. My birthday is December 11, and so I decided to spoil myself a little and pick up the “OMG Kitties!” pack, all the cards of which became the basis for this deck.

I’m a cat person. My cat Ruby is a brat but I love her to bits. This is the cutest deck I own.

Building around the Ikoria companion restriction was interesting, as it meant cutting staples like Sakura-Tribe Elder and…actually I think that was it? Turns out when you build kitty aggro you don’t want a lot of things that aren’t kitties. I opted for Mirri over Arahbo, however, partially because I despise Eminence as an ability, and partially because I like that Mirri lets you swing with impunity without getting cracked back too hard. A bit of a nonbo with Kaheera, unfortunately, but you can do worse. Kaheera usually gets blown up at some point anyway.

I’ve had a surprising amount of trouble getting all the tokens for this deck. I’m working on it.

 Roalesk, Apex Hybrid- Simic Superfriends

The idea for this deck is actually a spin on one from Ben Doolittle, from his Conditions Allow series on EDHREC. It inspired me, and while I took the mechanical core of the deck from the article, the Superfriends spin was my own idea. Essentially, the plan is to use Clone effects to convert cards in hand into copies of Roalesk’s powerful enter the battlefield and dies triggers (as the clones are sacrificed to the Legend rule), making the main man himself big very quickly and proliferating counters onto a wide variety of spicy planeswalkers.

The deck was built not long after the dissolution of my first Cube, as such many of the cards were taken directly from it- just about every UG walker in that cube or in my binder ended up in the deck, which proved problematic when I rebuilt the cube. It also ended up with the Doubling Season I opened in it, giving it combo potential, but the only tutor around is Jace, Architect of Thought’s ultimate, so it’s not a guarantee (Though the one time I did get it off was incredible…). Most of the deck is filled with Clones and a whole 22 planeswalkers, fulfilling a variety of roles in the deck, leaving not a whole lot of room for more traditional answers but since I have superfriends that ramp, superfriends that draw, and superfriends that are removal, it has yet to be too big an issue. Outside of ramp, however, I find myself allergic to “staple” cards, and so relying on the planeswalkers that the deck is built around and that synergise with Roalesk and the other Proliferate effects in the deck is fine by me.

The deck actually got strictly better with the recent Commander rules change that made dies triggers work even if you put the commander in the Zone, but I was a little salty anyway, since I’d built it with the idea in mind that I wasn’t getting that double proliferate unless I worked for it. Ah, whatever, can’t complain about the devs making my deck better for me, right?

 Much like many of these rambles, I’m going to leave this one here, halfway through. In the second half, we’ll discuss my awful but hilarious 5 colour deck, my awful to play against monocolour deck, and 3 others. ‘til then!

#ramble #edh #commander #mtg

[a-certain-academy-city]

Toaru Kagaku no Academy City: Operation Handcuffs - Retrospection

In the end, things had always been this way, weren’t they?

From the moment Accelerator took the position of Board Chairman, he made declaration of war to the Dark Side of Academy City. And it was from that point on that he used the resources he had at his disposal to ensure that the city’s darkness was completely purged.

He had even went as far as reassembling GROUP with a few new faces to help with the clean up operation. He used Espers like  Musujime Awaki, Mugino Shizuri, and even level 0s like Hamazura Shiage.  If they were still here, he probably would have ended up using Kamijou Touma and Misaka Mikoto as well in some way.

But then the Cosmic Side came knocking in the doors of the City he was trying to reform, interrupting his effort he could name a number of events that would give him reason to start a war with the Cosmic Side; it could have been when Zayane of the Right was tampering around with Academy City’s espers, particularly level 5s like himself. It could have been when Gaelion started his campaign which actually destroyed Academy City. It could have been when that Vacosian refugee group had decided to turn the planet into a super weapon and had manipulated the Aura users into causing havoc. Or it could have been way back when the Machine  Empress and other beings invaded from Lawain, before Accelerator was even the Board chairman.

Anyone of these incidents would have made the perfect trigger, but he believed it all hit him during the Gaelion warpath,

He became aware of just how chaotic and unpredictable the Cosmic Side was and had decided to make preparations for a possible conflict with them, on top of dealing with the remnants of the Dark side who weren’t intent on going quietly.

He figured that all of these threats would be better off gone, which was why he used everything, from his positions as the leader of the science side and Academy City’s #1 to dispose of his opposition.

But when he thought about it, Accelerator had not changed a single bit. He still used bloody methods to solve problems, made espers and others be his underlings in his plans, and had even gone out and dealt with several issues himself.

Even at some point, he had became obsessed with crushing the Cosmic side, up to the point where he almost lost himself.

In the end, he was no different than he was a year ago, and now, he was becoming no better than Aleister himself when he was still around.

He had came to this realization when he had gone out and took out a certain depraved wizard.

Accelerator knew that guy would not be missed. No one would shed a tear for him, and many would praise his end. Even his own subordinates resented him which said enough. That guy needed to disappear for good.

But the fact remained that Accelerator still chose a brutal method to resolve the incident.

And he used people, even his own girlfriend to assure his end. Thinking about it more made Accelerator sick at how much he was becoming Aleister. He used people like pieces in a chess game and when he deemed that said chess pieces would be unable to handle it, Accelerator went out and crushed  the problem himself.

Like a monster.

“You must have known what this meant from the beginning, Yomikawa. Idealism is powerless against reality, so if you try to force your ideals onto reality, there is bound to be a fierce backlash.”

Accelerator spoke to someone on his smartphone.

It was a person whom he had little time to visit since his ascendancy to his current position, but still kept in contact with for official matters.

In a way, this matter was both official and private at the same time. Accelerator was alone in the dark windowless room that was his office, with only the dim light of his holographic monitor lighting the room. It was late at night too, so not many people were around.

“The people who are more comfortable in the corrupt darkness were bound to attack there first. If they can’t make any headway through official channels or backchannels, they only have one option left: take someone I care about hostage and use that to negotiate.” 

Accelerator wanted to end the cycle of violence and darkness perpetuated in this city. there was no other reason why the white monster had called Anti-Skill Officer Yomikawa Aiho  in the first place.

Yes.

“Send me to the prosecutors and have me indicted.”

“Kh.”

“Why do you think I’m doing this? This is your job, Yomikawa. You’re the only one I know who can handle the rest of this.”

He spoke as if declaring a matter of fact. It was obvious what Accelerator was trying to do, but the Anti-Skill officer was still having trouble believing it.

The stage was not yet set.

No one was in agreement, so there was bound to be backlash once the confusion set in.

“I will rid Academy City of its dark side and I can’t leave any exceptions. I asked you to write up a charge sheet, didn’t I? I’ve killed more than 10,000 living humans, even if they were clones. And after that, I irresponsibly stayed in the dark side and fired guns all throughout this peaceful city while claiming to be helping. Someone like that can never be allowed out on the streets again. I must be placed behind bars no matter who tries to stop it.”

“The Board Chairman has complete control over Academy City. The 12 Directors below you are only for show. And whatever we might like to think, the rules never say the Chairman has to be a good person. I’ve never heard of someone that powerful just turning themselves in.”

“So what? That just means the system has always been broken. …Don’t make me laugh. If the rules differ from what everyone wants, then you’ve clearly found yourself a problem in the rules needing fixing.”

Who had been at fault? The answer was obviously Accelerator.

A Kihara had developed his powers and old Board Chairman Aleister had guided that monster down the path of murder for his own purposes, but it was still Accelerator who had actually done it.

But the #1 had been involved in far too much of the darkness.

How many people’s hands would be cuffed from this one boy’s testimony?

Of course people would be coming out of the woodwork to prevent this from happening.

Not because they were his good friends; because they had to protect their own future.

“You will never again leave prison.”

“I am aware of that.”

“Even if your sentence is reduced for cooperation with our investigations!! It just isn’t enough. The computer has already run some preliminary calculations. At this rate, your sentence will be for 11,000 years!!”

“Way too short. Around a year per murder? What kind of joke is that?”

“Why?” Yomikawa muttered under her breath.

The #1 did not look away.

“Didn’t I tell you? I can’t leave any exceptions. I’m the #1 and the Board Chairman, so I have to lead by example.”

Yomikawa Aiho was supposed to be a protector of the law.

But when she handcuffed an esper run amok, it was so they could be rehabilitated and have a second chance. That was why she would never aim a gun at a child. No matter how dangerous an esper they were, she had to create a situation where she could hear them out.

However, Accelerator would have no future.

This might be the right thing to do, but then who would save him?

“What about the clones?” she asked. “Once this is all investigated, their existence will come to light. That’s around 10,000 people who violate international treaties. Society might not accept them.”

Did clones have human rights or not?

Academy City had once answered no and repeated cruel experiments using them. And Accelerator was the one who had dirtied his hands there at the insistence of the researchers. They were undoubtedly the victims there, but the people in the outside world might not see it the same way.

If they too answered no and even saw the clones as a threat, they could be “disposed of”.

However…

“That’s why I have to make sure they’re safe.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you think they’re safe now? If they’re discovered, then that’s the end for them. How is that safe? I need to correct that unnatural balance and make sure they have solid footing to stand on. They were victims in all this, so why do they have to continue keeping their heads down and hiding? Unlike me, they deserve a free life out in the open.”

Accelerator had only one hope of accomplishing that.

The white monster pointed his thumb back at his own chest.

“I’ll be the villain.”

That was the natural result.

In fact, it was unnatural for it to have not happened yet.

“I’ll gather all the attention of the media and the scientific society and accept all of the criticism myself. I’m the ridiculous genius, I’ve got all the political power now, and I’ve even got money too. That’s exactly the kind of asshole people will just love to see go down in flames. All the news will be focused on me and they’ve only got so much space for info in their articles. They’ll aim for impact and focus on the guy who went around murdering clones instead of the clones themselves. And who cares about the people spreading rumors? A lot of time will have passed before the media is sick of attacking me. And then it’ll be like a flat soda. Focusing on the clones after that won’t move the masses to action. People jump on these bandwagons because they’re bored with their own lives. These are the people who find themselves bored even with all the excitement out there to find, so they’re experts at living boring lives. Once they grow tired of a topic, their interest in it is forever dead.”

“...She won’t be happy when she hears this. Both of them.”

“I know.“

That was why he could not cheat the system.

He could not use his special authority as Board Chairman to pardon himself after being found guilty and he could not live behind bars but emerge as a heroic Board Chairman whenever there was a problem needing solving.

There could be no exceptions.

The person most deserving of punishment had to be appropriately punished and that had to be shown off to both Academy City and the rest of the world.

They had to show that true justice existed here.

They had to show that they had moved past the absurd age where the evil laughed and the good were left in tears.

Otherwise, nothing would change.

So he made a definitive statement that rang throughout the walls of that dark office.

“It all starts here,”

whispered Accelerator. It may not have been obvious without paying close attention, but the #1 and new Board Chairman was clenching his back teeth.

“This is also an issue of how much I can trust Academy City. If I get worried, can’t bear it anymore, and break through that wall to go save that brat, then it’s all over. That would create an exception and those shitheads from the dark side could have their way. So I have to trust that the giant system of Academy City will save that brat without me creating an exception.”

He was indeed a monster, so there was a violent part of him that would wild inside him. It told him the rules did not matter and he should break loose right this instant. Villains would always betray you in the end. Some eloquent speech about being reformed was not even worth listening to. He needed to pin them down, crush them, tear them apart, and grasp safety for himself. Even the greatest villain could not betray you if they were a corpse. And what other choice did he have if he was going to protect that young life? What could make a more beautiful story than dirtying his hands to allow someone he cared for to live their life out in the open?

But.

Even so.

“I will trust it.”

said Academy City’s #1 and new Board Chairman. That incarnation of slaughter turned fearsome dictator spoke the words like he was suppressing bubbling magma within himself.

“I will trust this city. I will trust that it is worth throwing out the rest of my life to protect. If I can’t trust the city I rule, then I don’t deserve to rule it in the first place.”

Someone had once told him that he had changed.

But it was this monster who had said they were one of the ones who had changed him.

Which was why this monster had retaken a human form and could continue to fight like this.

Even if it meant clenching his teeth and bearing with it all alone.

#Toaru Kagaku no Academy City (Main Verse) #First Ranked Level 5 & general Superintendent of Academy City ; Accelerator #The Story As It Is Told ; (Drabble)

[gurguliare]

Dumb ageswap preview since today is a no self-restraint day

There was a stray cat who frequented the convenience store. Actually there were several, but this one came very regularly at or around dawn, because the cashier who worked nights put out milk near the end of his shift. The first time Keiji saw it happen, he was fascinated, not by the cashier with his oversized T-shirt and apron but by the cat, who was dead. He wanted to know more.

Regular breakfasts of milk and attention soon gave the stray a bit of solidity. Not enough grow back flesh and bone, but enough that—on the darkest winter days, when the sun stayed down and simmered through the morning—the cat just looked like a cat, though a cat with holes for eyes. It got to the point where even an ordinary person would be able to tell that it was there, if only they knew what to look for. Keiji lost interest, not wanting to be caught squinting at a ghost when he should have been on his way to campus. But he thought about it. Somehow it always came before the living strays arrived, and drank without lowering the level of the milk… but the milk grew duller, more blue-white, and lost its smell. The other strays, when they came, were getting the dregs.

Most food, spirits couldn’t enjoy. In their dead mouths it turned to ashes. Offerings were an exception, but could a bowl of milk be an offering? If set out with the correct intent, perhaps. Or prayed over beforehand. It was hard to imagine the night manager praying.

Who was the night manager? He looked boring. He had a sloping bowl-cut, so long it covered his eyebrows and the tips of his ears. The grooves under his eyes shrank his eyes until his face was mostly frown and nostril. Not really a frown—a nonexpression gravity had sagged. He knelt like someone with bad knees, but he couldn’t be old, with that unwashed baby face. If Keiji closed his eyes and concentrated briefly, the cashier appeared as a person-shaped gap in a thick field of color. Most things, viewed in this way, bulged with pockets of spiritual energy, like food that looked delicious but could be halved to show the spotty mold. Even a powerless person had their life, that grew through their body in veins. The cashier was alive, but his life-force gave off neither energy nor colored light—Keiji had to hold open his mind’s senses to detect it, a dark river of “something” concealed in nothing, a life-river spilling downward so slowly it was easy to suppose that he had made some mistake: that the nothing flowed upward, instead.

It would have been too conspicuous to stand in front of the convenient store with his eyes shut, especially after the cashier went back inside. So he pretended to pace. After a couple of passes he walked into a stop sign.

“Oi, Mogami,” said a voice right behind him. “Are you sick?”

He turned slowly, in part because turning made his head swim. At the last minute he also remembered to open his eyes. Vice President Reigen Arataka, terror of blowoff clubs, stood with arms folded and so close behind that Keiji almost clotheslined him. Or would have done, if Keiji had been more like Reigen—waving his hands around at the start of every speech.

Arataka took a prim step back and didn’t relax his hold on his own elbows. “You look sick,” he accused.

“I’m not,” said Keiji pleasantly. “I’m just late. I’m afraid I’m letting down you and the president.”

“Not much to let down. You’re always late.”

“I’m sorry,” said Keiji, staring at his smeary storefront reflection with what he hoped was a sincerely mournful air. Behind the glass, the cashier was putting out new stock. “I didn’t think my student council duties would interfere this much with my preferred sleep habits.”

“That’s a real shame.” No one ever sounded less threatening than Arataka imitating a gangster, or perhaps the rough-cut hero of the movie who drove off the gangsters at the end. He was the sort of person who did it to put people at ease, raising his eyebrows and sneering to shake a laugh out of his victims. “Let’s walk together. I’ll make your excuses, if you like. ‘Mr. President, a thousand apologies. I got lost between the convenience store and the convenience store—’”

“That’s right”—Keiji mimed surprise—“you’re late too, aren’t you?”

Arataka gave him the uneven smile that Keiji often saw in friendly upperclassmen. Something about his sense of humor soured them after a while, though they liked his sarcastic deference. After all, it was still deference.

The president didn’t show up. Keiji enjoyed listening to Arataka fudge the agenda, though.

In homeroom, Ms. Kurata showed an unusual appetite for combat, striding jerkily to and fro and barking questions at the dozers in the front. The bands of dim light from the blinds made their way floating up her jacket, higher but less sharp every time she passed the windows, like she was being batted between a pair of ghostly claws. It was hard to say what had her so worked up. Kurata was an inconsistent teacher; funny and harsh when the subject didn’t interest her, but barely comprehensible when it did. Keiji didn’t mind either way. He took diligent notes and made copies in the time left over, which could sometimes be sold, and he watched the clock for sudden movements. Sometimes he lost time, but when that happened his hand usually had the decency to go on writing without him.

At lunch, he happened to see her outside, talking on the phone. “Eh, Mob, you’ll never guess… I woke you up? Sorry, sorry, forgot you’re back on the graveyard shift. Well, but you’re up now, right?”

“I saw ‘that’ spirit again. Oh, come on, you know what I’m talking about. That spirit! The one I can see! With the blushy face?”

“What do you mean, I should call your brother? You’re the esper, aren’t you? OK, OK, but I don’t even know the name of his agency—”

She dropped her phone in her bag and shook out her fingers as if it had burned her. “‘Spirits and Such’?” she said to herself, and gave a low chuckle. “Straight-laced as ever, Ricchan.”

“Hello,” said Keiji politely.

Kurata jumped and dipped forward like a drawbridge, arms akimbo. He had been standing in front of her for almost a minute; it wasn’t his fault she didn’t pay attention. “Mogami?” She straightened again and tightened her scarf self-importantly. “You weren’t eavesdropping, were you?”

“No, but I couldn’t help but overhear you discussing something that might impact the safety of the school. As a student council member…”

“Hey, that’s too bold, isn’t it? Could it be you’re going to blackmail me? We’ve got another two years together, sonny. I heard what your president did to Mr. Koga.” But she was smiling, cheek twitching a little, like she couldn’t select between amusement and real happiness that someone had heard her. Clearly she had seen something. She sat on a low ceramic wall and patted for him to join her. “Do you believe in the existence of the paranormal?” She had a deep voice which deepened especially for heartfelt performances—in the classroom, almost always heartfelt disappointment.

“Maybe,” said Keiji. “It depends. I can’t rule it out, since I’m not old enough to have really experienced such things. Does teacher believe?”

“You suckup.” She propped her chin on her interlaced fingers and sighed so hard it made her hair flip up. “I used to. I really used to, it was practically all I thought about at your age. I thought I was going to find aliens.”

“….UFO?”

“You don’t have to say it like that. Extraterrestrials are still a statistical near-certainty, you know. Fermi’s paradox, the Drake equation… Humanity’s brightest minds see beyond this low horizon!”

“I might have to finish eating lunch now, Ms. Kurata.”

“No, wait. I’m aware that you’re not interested in aliens. You heard me mention a spirit, right? Well, it’s true. Aliens might still give our species the cold shoulder, but evil spirits certainly don’t. This one—” She lowered her voice. “I first saw him over fifteen years ago. He’s green and he glistens, like snot. I don’t remember his name, but… Mogami, is it true you sold curses to other students in elementary school? Are you a spiritualist?”

“Not true at all,” Keiji said. “I sold charms. They weren’t effective, though. If I have any spiritual powers, I’m below average.”

“I didn’t see the spirit on campus,” she mused, leaning her face to one side in its cradle of fingers, which was slightly disturbing. “So it’s no concern of the student council.” Suddenly her hands sprang apart to wriggle in mid-air. “I tell you what. I give you details, and you make me a protection charm.”

“No, but you can have it for ¥1000.”

Tome whistled and put her hands away. “Cheap!”

#broccoli looms in the backdrop of every scene but it hasn't been mentioned yet bc not relevant to keiji's journey #mp100

[courtorderedcake]

@captainswanbigbang & @captxinswans present:

RIPTIDE by @courtorderedcake Beta’d by the wonderful @ultraluckycatnd

An Enchanted Forest AU where the dark one was never released into the world in a vessel, thus causing a massive shift in timelines. The ogre wars have ravaged kingdoms, untold destruction spanning continents, rulers displaced. Even as the wars sputter to ash, the safest place to be is at sea, and that’s not very safe at all - as Emma and Killian find out, fates intertwined against all odds.

Rated: E/X - heavy content : warnings of assault, rape, noncon, just everything, I feel like the rating says enough. It’s something.

WARNING: READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Read on Ao3 HERE .

 Chapter XIII : Spyglass; An Epilogue

Thomas Harriot is known to have turned a spyglass on the Moon, though with only three powers, he was unable to correctly discern neither crater nor mountain. Such a feat would require five to six powers, or higher.

-The History of the Spyglass

Time passes and tongues wag to fill quiet spaces.

The captain of the Gilded Wing, in his wisdom, decided piracy was not for him. With his bonny bride and an assortment of ex-privateers, they become a well respected merchant vessel and tradeship. Some said it was his charming and silver tongued demeanor, while others swore he was the gruffest man they ever traded with. Either way, his coffers were that of a king. If anyone asked about the haggard blonde and dark haired man with one hand juggling two wide eyed babes, they received no answers. Silence was a deafening warning.

The Jolly Roger is rumored to have sank in a battle with the Gilded Wing, the reckless captain duo of pirate lovers, Hook and Swan, finally finding a watery grave; together even in death.

Sightings of a glowing ship flying their flag are whispered among slave ships and crooked pirates who deal in innocent blood. It appears out of a dense fog, a ghostly enchantress with blonde hair whipping in the wind with her eternal love at her side, coat flapping and hook raised. Demons who leave no survivors except those bound in chains or held in a brig. Ghosts who steal back treasure that was taken wrongfully.

Or, as Emma calls it, 'date night’.

More children join the twins on the timbers of The Wing. Snow unexpectedly going into labor with her son Leo six months after the twins are born. Luckily, Whale and Tink had decided to stay on. David loses his mind with worry at not being prepared, but Snow breezes through the delivery right into motherhood.

“I didn't even get morning sickness, and I really didn't gain much weight. I'm lucky I didn't do anything crazy, or my labor might have been earlier and rougher,” Snow confides in Emma, as they nursed together in the sunshine of the deck. Leo latches easily, Snow smiling serenely. Emma has a foot in her face and both of her beloved children have fistfuls of her hair.

“Well, aren't you special,” Emma grumbled.

Maggie watches their twins with joy, bouncing them on her knees and singing to them while letting them eat as much pie as their small hands can grab. She quilts them beautiful blankets and knitted toys. Her shy husband even makes wooden toys for them, and does small magic tricks. Emma realizes that the shy bearded man is the tallest dwarf she’s ever seen slightly too late, and he laughs it off without worry. “i used to get grumpy about that sort of thing, but up here? I’m dreamy,” Leroy tells her, and he comes out of his shell completely.

Some of the crew leaves, as is expected when things change. They say goodbye to Rory and Phillip first, as the call comes that they can return for the throne of their homeland. Rory starts to send letters to them with her full name, Aurora, detailing palace life and asking for advice on policy. Emma finds it dreadfully boring, but David, Killian and Snow have vigorous debates on the shaping of the country.

Graham and Ruby leave to start a pack in unclaimed territory of the Enchanted Forest, gathering lone wolves and setting up rules that soon become a permanent structure. While there is still an ogre problem, the pack is strong and faces the danger head on.

Mal and Z return to the dragon lands together, slipping away quietly and without much notice. Killian can only laugh as he watches two dragons on the horizon disappear into the sunset.

Graham and Ruby return to say hello now and then when The Wing docks in The Enchanted Forest. Eventually, they rejoin the crew, the risk of Ogre attack while Ruby raises their litter of three beautiful boys deemed too dangerous by Graham. Hunter, Willow, and Forrest all have the same dark brown shock of hair, heavily taking after their father. To Graham, his small pack is everything, and Ruby feels the same; they'll forego the change to raise their young with no regrets. Emma happily brews them a Lunar Stasis draught, and they fall into the routine easily, Ruby complaining about constantly having a babe to her breast while the other women nod and bounce her other triplets.

Mal and Z do not visit. Instead, they extend an invite to show off their egg. The entire crew doesn't know what will be inside, until they get a bans stating, ‘It’s a girl! (Dragon, but currently unable to transform). Please welcome Lily.’

Snow notes the design is lovely, irregardless of the strangeness of the message.

Regina and Robin welcome a beautiful dark haired girl around the time the twins see eighteen months, and a once hardened Regina softens completely. They name her for a powerful enchantress in another realm, Lucinda, or Lucy for short.

Snow and David welcome a blonde tufted girl to the world soon after Regina’s daughter is born and Leo turns one, David immediately finding himself wrapped around his daughter's finger. They name her Ruth after his and Emma's mother. Leo is insanely jealous, but makes do by going through a shrieking stage.

Merida and Fa finally get married, the ceremony a complete hodgepodge of both of their cultures that somehow not only works, but works well. Plaid tartan and silk floral prints drape a verdant forest glade, a bamboo archway placed where they exchange vows. There's a tea ceremony followed by knotting their hands in a complex golden rope. The reception is visited by Merida’s estranged brothers, who finally accept she is not after their claim to the throne.

Emma dreams, or more appropriately, has nightmares of a dark castle that crumbles and rots. Something slithers and its claws click and scrape on the moss covered stones. A man calls out, his eyes burning behind brown irises, blood on his hands as he feeds a golden monstrosity. Willing herself to wake up, they look at her and she swears the scaled creature smiles, not a man but a beast, next to another pretender of a lost boy in the guise of a man and warlock. The warlock looks at her hungrily, a predatory gleam in his eyes as he surveys her body. The creature only glares. Together they are a golden eyed man who chases her in the recurrent night terror. Somehow she knows they are a portent of doom, but the dreams fade fast as she wakes up thrashing, soothed by Killian.

Smee's lap is a source of argument amongst the rowdy lot of toddlers, especially as he reads stories aloud. He always has a knack for getting a hold of rare items - and by rare items, he means sugary sweets that have been the bane of his old captain’s existence. Luckily, these days, the Captain is a dear friend and his Missus is in on Smee's trade. The Twins lead the pack at two years old, Emma and Killian no longer running ragged but instead, thriving in a new sort of chaos.

Killian still hooks yarn together, darning socks and making less lumpy blankets for anyone who needs them, and constantly making socks for little feet. With a little finesse, he’s able to make a few rudimentary stuffed toys, until suddenly he has made an assortment of soft toys. Esper is fond of a jellyfish the color of lilacs, while Ian chooses a shark, making roaring noises that rattle the timbers of the deck. Leo chooses a lion, his father beaming, Ruth clinging to a plush ginger kitten. Lucy chooses a frog with a giggle, Killian’s handiwork clear as the frog has a curled tongue in its mouth. It becomes a tradition for him to make something for new crew, and he frequently gets requests.

Jefferson and August finally decide to be more than just an occasional fling that happens more than just occasionally. They depart after the space becomes crowded and August expresses interest in traveling down many different rabbit holes. They are only seen on big holidays, bringing the most ridiculous gifts from their travels. Killian eventually bans any gift that makes ‘extravagant and unnecessary noise’ after a teapot given to Esper keeps singing off tune and nonsensical nursery songs at all hours.

After a particularly intense night of freeing slaves, Fa finds a small wide eyed girl clinging to her belts. Merida is immediately in love with the ginger haired child with stormy gray eyes, and no one bats an eye when suddenly, a young, wild haired girl is leading the pack of children across the decks. Not given a name, Fa coaxes her to choose one whenever she is ready, her quiet voice soothing as she stroked the girl's hair. Fa tells her stories, and Merida tells her tall tales and myths. She eventually chooses the name Rowan for its strength, just like her mothers.

Rory and Phillip send word from their kingdom that they have a daughter, naming her Rose. The crew attends the announcement ceremony, happily greeting their long time friends: Jasmine and Aladdin, now rulers of Agrabah; Tiana and Naveen, happily avoiding royalty in their restaurant; the vibrant ex-mermaid Ariel and an ecstatic Eric. Esperanza takes to Ariel, who despite being in what Emma refers to as 'the 200 months pregnant stage’, keeps her two and a half year daughter entertained. Ian, like his father or mother (depending on the day and who you asked), made trouble by slipping a tray of pastries under a skirted table, sharing his loot with his cousins, and inducing a glorious sugar crash.

In the brief moment of peace, Emma and Killian disappeared into one of the quieter roped off parts of the palace.

“We have to -” Killian's mouth met hers, demanding and hungry, intimacy not in short supply but not frequent either, always having to be carefully planned. Spontaneous escapes like this were rare if not unheard of. “Be quick,” Emma moaned as he nipped at her collar bone, hiking up her skirts.

“Bloody hell, I don't want to be quick,” he murmured against her throat, licking a trail to her ear. “I'd love to taste you, mark you -”

“For now.” She palmed him through his trousers and he hissed. “This. I need to feel you inside me.”

Another crash of their lips, her hands finding his belt as he pushed her against a wall, fingers pumping inside her wetness until he was freed. Moaning into his mouth as he thrust into her in a smooth motion, Killian grabbed her leg to pin her tightly between the wall and his body.

While it was fast and hard, it was also passionate. Emma clawed at him and they moaned together, savoring the heat that sparked every time they connected. They came together, each other's names sweet in their mouths. Sneaking back to their seats, only David narrowed his eyes with a shake of his head. Killian gave him a cocky nod and a wink.

Will and Belle had almost given up trying, but finally welcomed a tiny baby girl into the world. They named her Victoria, and Will finally got his comeuppance for teasing his fellows about crying when their children were born. He sobbed, holding his baby for the first time, her small hands making his look so large. Belle lay sick after they birth for several weeks, Will reading to her and rocking their babe as the crew took care of her, the day she wa finally able to come up on the sunshine of the deck with her small baby girl celebrated.

Whale gave in to Tink’s demands, accepting a steady stipend paid for him to stay on board to provide care for the children he delivered and their mothers. His bedside manner did not improve but deckside, Uncle Vic was a delight to as many children he could chase as they pretended he was a monster.

The Gilded Wing was alive with activity and noise from dawn until dusk, tired parents staying up when they had the energy to make conversation or nodding at each other in shifts as they groggily bounced or rocked children back to sleep in time with the ocean’s sway.

Emma found herself on deck more often than not. Esperanza was still a sickly child who needed the fresh night air. The Twins were almost three, talking non-stop and inquisitively taking in the world. It was exhausting. Luckily, Ian slept like the dead, his wild running throughout the day leading to a blessedly quiet wind down. Esper fought sleep, longing for starlight and the moon, Emma whispering constellations gently in her dark hair until Killian joined them on deck or she joined him in their bed.

Laying a finally sleeping Esper down in her bunk above Ian's, Emma made her way through the quiet corridor, slipping into bed and her waiting husband's arms.

“I love you,” he murmured in her ear, and when her answer didn't come in return, he cracked open an eye. “Love?”

“When was the last time I bled?” she whispered, facing away from him.

“I figured two weeks ago; you were moodier than usual and I let you be.” Killian replied drowsily. Her hand guided his to her stomach, a familiar swell against his palm jerking him awake. “Emma?”

“I didn't put the pieces together until a week ago. I should be just about four months along or so, maybe five. That’d be Rose's announcement ceremony. I haven't felt kicking yet -” Rolling her towards him, he captured her lips in his, grinning.

“You are a marvel, Swan. A bloody marvel. I love you so much. How do you feel? You're so small, I wouldn't have guessed...” Kissing her breathless, she pulled back laughing.

“Thank the Gods above and below, I believe there's only one this time. I'm fine. Tired, but fine.” Killian pressed a kiss to her forehead, blue eyes dancing as he looked down at her.

“Are you sure you can't make it two or three? David's lot is catching up to us, and if we get a nice lead -”

“Oh, shut up.” Smacking his chest and ignoring the salacious eyebrow wiggle he gives her, she doesn't ignore the steady beating of his heart as it lulls her to sleep.

Emma's second labor is easy, a chubby girl who is absolutely determined to prove her lungs work well. The name is long planned in advance; his mother’s name. Alice. She is fair haired and light eyed, a lighter shade of blue than Killian's own when they finally finish their change.

Liam's eyes, Killian tells Emma in the quiet still of the night. A reminder that even in all of this love, there are still scars and quiet pain they all share. Her arms around his neck is a soothing balm; each of them having a source of relief from old nightmares. Emma finally relents, and they spend some time in the small cabin on the cliffs he owns. She finds it’s not as terrible as she imagined and enjoys the quiet, or swinging on the creaky porch watching their children play. Not enough to give up the sea, or the ship, but enough to take reprieve when things get to be too much.

Killian reminds her that they’re old, but not that old. He reminds her frequently, until she tells him that she has suspicions that his reminders have ended in a well intentioned accident. Emma feels the movements earlier this time, hasn’t been as sick as her first pregnancy, but it’s still rough. Killian sits through a delivery that feels so much like when he almost lost her, so much strain and struggle, but Emma beams at him when it’s done.

“William?” she whispers softly, tucked into Killian’s side. He’s holding their last child and crying with her, arms wrapped around them both in the quiet before the rest of their children wake.

“William,” Killian agrees, pressing kisses on her sweaty forehead, making Emma chuckle. “Liam for short.” Her head lolls, exhaustion setting in although she fights it and the pain she's in with a grimace. When she shifts in the bed, Killian watches her with an ache in his chest as she swallows back whimpers and curses.

There’s no question about how close to leaving him she came again as her screams echo in his head, but Killian changes bloody sheets, and tells her after he’s sent their children off to play on deck that he loves her more than anything - That the thought of not having her sends him reeling. Pressing soft kisses to her pallid forehead, he cried into her hair, holding her tightly. Regina visits later with a potion that ends any worry for them, which thrills Killian even if it means his wild oats have ended their run.

Their children grow, and Piracy loses its appeal all together as raising them turns out to be much more terrifying and complicated than anticipated. Emma and Killian barely survive, the world around them changing rapidly, threats rising and danger around every corner.

Why wouldn’t it change, when someone finally let in a golden crocodile to their soul with open arms?

But that’s a story for a different time.

#Riptide #Finale #CSBB #CSBB 2018 #captain swan #captain swan fanfiction #Courtorderedcake

[whirofinvention-blog]

The Penultimate Week

Everyone has their own preferred way to play Magic. This is true at kitchen tables where people may love to play their elf or discard decks and is just as true at the Pro Tour where you have players who almost always play control (Guillaume Wafo-Tapa and Shota Yasooka) or jam black-green decks whenever they can (Willy Edel and Reid Duke). When a new player starts the game, something pulls them in (maybe the art  or your friend plays or maybe the gameplay itself), but after they are drawn into the game, something else usually keeps them playing and for a lot of people that thing is finding a gameplay style that they love.

In general, there is nothing wrong with having a preference in how you play the game. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. If you love vintage and playing Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst and Lodestone Golem off of your Mishra's Workshop, that's great. At the same time, if you keep bringing your vintage deck to your friend's casual kitchen table where they are playing rat tribal, then you are crossing the line into doing something that is a little uncool. This is the reason why format restrictions exist in a conceptual sense. The playing field is theoretically leveled by giving people restrictions on what cards they can use.

The existence of formats enters people into a tacit contract where they understand what other people are capable of doing and saying they are alright with them doing that since in theory both decks have the capacity to do powerful things. Wires get crossed every now and then which is unfortunate. A ten year old may show up to a modern tournament with a pile of unsleeved 6-drops and get stomped, but hopefully the community will make some effort to point that kid towards what will be better for him. Outside of those situations, everyone should be on approximately the same page about what their decks should be trying to do. The bigger the card pool, the more obvious this becomes. Standard players have to understand that Teferi, Goblin Chainwhirler, and Hydroid Krasis exist. Modern players deal with Arcbound Raver, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Primeval Titan. Legacy players have turn 1 Griselbrands and Force of Wills. Experienced players go into the format knowing these options are on the table.

Since I started playing at my LGS, I have made it pretty clear what my preferences have been in constructed formats. Traditional creature based strategies are not my go to decks in any format. In standard, I have played UW Cycling (zero main deck creatures), UR Paradoxical  Storm (4 main deck creatures), and Esper Dovin's Acuity (zero main deck creatures). In modern I have exclusively played Lantern and Whir Prison since they began running modern events in March. Though I have played creature decks at times, I acknowledge that my weakness as a player is in knowing when to be the aggressor in creature mirrors. My strengths tend to be knowing how to block my opponent from having a line to victory with creatures. If I go to a Standard Showdown and my opponents are all on green black and are consistently losing to my Teferi, then they need to understand their deck choice might not line up against mine. Both decks can be powerful, but paper beats rock in this scenario.

My modern deck choices have been contentious at the shop. The owner of the store as well as one of the regulars have given me a lot of grief for my deck choices. They complain about how Ensnaring Bridge and Chalice of the Void are not fun cards. At the same time, they have built decks in a format where those cards exist and are relevant considerations for deck building. Maybe they represent less than 3 percent of the meta, but there are plenty of modern decks that only represent a small percentage of the meta. Even ignoring the metagame percentages, artifact strategies as a whole are always somewhere in the meta, so it isn’t like they have no ways to interact with me post-board. People are aware the option to play an artifact deck of some sort is out there. I just happen to be playing a traditionally un-fun version of one of those decks.

Two weeks ago, I promised the store owner that I would bring a deck playing zero copies of Ensnaring Bridge in the 75 to FNM. This past weekend was that FNM, and I kept my promise. Instead of bringing Ensnaring Bridges, I brought Ad Nauseam for my first run at a tournament. The list was pretty close to a stock list with a few exceptions. Rather than running 3 Spoils of the Vault, I cut 1 to run a Mystical Teachings. Also my mana base is a travesty because I do not own any Gemstone Mines or enough Seachrome Coasts, so I ran additional City of Brass. If I can pick up the lands I will change things around. The Teachings are going to stay in the deck until I actually have the opportunity to cast it.

The meta at the shop is extremely small and inconsistent. Ad Nauseam as a deck has pretty polarizing matchups. Decks that can disrupt you with tax effects, discard and counter magic are hard matchups. Decks looking to play linear games are good matchups more often than not. The decks I have personally seen at events over the past month that present problems for me are: Grixis Death's Shadow, Bant Spirits, Jund and 8-Rack. Other than that the rest of the decks struggle to interact with Ad Nauseam, but there are still decks that can beat it. Turn 3 Karn is still great on the play. If you falter even a little, Burn will Bolt you to death. Bogles can race you and sometimes forces you to go for a Laboratory Maniac win which is susceptible to Path.

So, here is a quick little tournament report followed by my initial thoughts on the deck and the tournament in general

Round 1, Bant Spirits

Sitting down, I knew I was not going to have an easy round 1. The player is one of the ones who has complained about my normal deck choice despite playing a Jund deck half the time that runs like 12 different ways to kill a Bridge post-board. This week he was on his Spirits deck rather than his Jund deck. Game 1 started out with me suspending a Lotus Bloom and him starting on a Hierarch. For the next few turns I played lands and cantrips while he played lords and Spirits. Eventually, he had a large enough Mausoleum Wanderer and a big enough board presence that I could not realistically win. Game 2 we started racing again with me suspending turn 1 and him having the Hierarch. I played a turn 2 Prism while he played a turn 2 Thalia. Luckily for me I had an Echoing Truth in hand. I resolved a turn 3 Phyrexian Unlife and on turn 4 resolved the Bloom and bounced his Thalia on end step. On my next upkeep, I killed him with Pact backup. Unfortunately game 3 was pretty one sided. He had Thalia, Stony Silence, two Mausoleum Wanderers and a Lord. It became clear to me I could not resolve my spells before he killed me. For my first match with the deck, I felt good to have taken it to game 3, especially since the matchup is far from easy.

Round 2, Green Devotion

This was the shop owner. Though I have never heard him talk negatively about people who netdeck, he is a brewer. When his brews aren't good he complains. When his brews are popular, he stops playing the format. In standard, he stopped playing his Sultai Muldrotha deck when Sultai became a real deck. Modern is not his format, but he has built three decks (UB Tempo, a weird Tron Charge Counter deck, and Mono Green). The first

2 are pretty odd but the devotion deck is pretty close to what you would expect from any big green deck. His win conditions are playing massive Genesis Hydras early to find Garrk, Primal Hunters to draw his deck and find more threats. After this he usually either plays an Ulamog or Banefires you for lethal.

Game 1 started out pretty rough for me. He played a Utopia Sprawl on his first turn and on his second turn played a second Sprawl and an Eternal Witness for a fetch. By the end of his 3rd turn he had an 8/8 Genesis Hydra, multiple creatures and a Garruk Wildspeaker. Oh and he had drawn 8 cards off of a Garruk, Primal Hunter. In the interim, I had just cantripped and played a Phyrexian Unlife. On his fourth turn, he tried to Primal Command my Unlife which I had to Pact. I then went down to 0 life while having only 3 lands in play. On my upkeep, I tap two lands and exile three Simian Spirit Guides to Ad Nauseam for all of my deck besides two cards. I Angel's Grace, play a land and discard. For some reason my opponent scooped without attacking after assuming I had a second Angel's Grace and not understanding how it interacted with Unlife. Normally, I would scoop in these situations since my opponent had the win on board, but he was tilting pretty intensely and complaining about how I enjoy Magic. We will get back to this in a bit. Game two was a quick one where I won on turn 4. Nothing else to really say about it.

Round 3, BR Discard

The other brewer in the shop is a friend of mine. All of his decks are strange, but they are usually pretty cool. Definitely not close to tier 1, but they have game against pretty much everything if the draws line up. Game 1 was a turn 4 win with no interaction. Game 2 I cannot really recall much besides keeping a hand with Leyline. After I played the Leyline, it became quickly apparent that it didn't do anything. He did a bunch of looting early and made a large lineup of Zombies via Zombie Infestation and Shadow of the Grave. He was able to blow up my Lotus Bloom on upkeep to keep me from going off in my main phase (though I didn’t draw the Angel’s Grace I would have needed) and killed me on his turn 5 with tokens. Game 3 I mulliganed and kept a 1-lander with a scry land, Serum Visions, and half of the combo. I scryed to the bottom off my mulligan, then scryed to the bottom again off the land. Turn 2, I whiffed in my draw step and off the cantrip. The turn before I was about to go for the win off of a couple of Pentad Prisms and lands, my opponent cast Burning Inquiry leaving me with nothing in hand besides a Pact of Negation and two lands. After that, he Anceint Grudged my Lotus Bloom, and there was really no line where I could stay alive long enough to draw the combo pieces I needed. If I had found my second land in the top four cards of my library, I think the game was easily mind, but you can’t always get there. C’est la vie.

In the end, I went 1-2, but still got 3rd. The spirits player was the only 3-0 and Devotion got 2nd at 2-1. Everyone else in the 6-person event went 1-2, and I just had the best breakers.

Briefly, I want to talk about the second round and how game one ended. If you are going to bring a brew into a well established format, even one as diverse as modern, you cannot expect to win every match you play. The axis your deck operates on might not be well-suited to fight the deck you are playing against. That was the exact case of the second round of the tournament. Barring a timely Primal Command or a turn 3 Ulamog, there is not a way for him to interact with me most of the time. In game 1, he had a fast enough start that he was going to win, and I was put in a position where I had to make desperate plays to stay alive. The issue was how he chose to handle what I was doing. Instead of taking time to try and figure out what exactly was going on, he opted to start insulting the deck and me for how I like to play Magic. When he said, "Why can't you just play the game? Why do you hate real Magic and do shit like this?" it does not make me want to scoop to him. It makes me want to play it out. At no point did I obfuscate any information about how my deck worked or how cards interacted. He just tilted so intensely that he didn’t care about what was happening. After two years I know him well enough to not take this stuff personally, but he was being an ass, so I took the win and felt fine about it.

Overall the event went about as well as I could expect since I am new with the deck. Both of the games I lost, I do not think I could have played differently in a meaningful enough way to change the outcomes. My Sleight of Hands were easy choices, and there was no point where I scry-ed and wished the card was in my hand later. The draws didn’t line up for me. The deck was great. Right now my goal is to keep getting better at modern and let the wins follow organically from that.

I don't plan on changing my playstyle anytime soon, but I will be bringing Hardened Scales to their last Modern event until the summer. I'm not bringing it because they are begging me to; instead, I am bringing it because I want reps with the deck. Besides, if I win with it, I am sure someone will become just as tilted as if I had put them into a lantern-lock. Oh well.

#magic #magic the gathering #modern magic #ad nauseam

[akiburg]

AKB Analysis 1 - How Toons Exist & "Plausible Impossible"

Took a while to make a proper introduction post to this place.

Anyway, this blog’s dedicated to my “Toontown Crossover” AU, where I’ll come in bringing ideas and interpretations on how Toons and Anime would function on modern times, while shedding more light on ambiguous questions or implications on works portraying animated fictional characters as physical entities living alongside real people.

Let’s start with some fundamental questions:

1 - "Where Toons (and Anime-characters A.K.A "Chara") come from": In my AU, Toons (and Anime) actually start out as regular illustrations that have similar kind of life to toys from Toy Story: coming to life only when not being seen except for the original author and their partners, and living a real life via being the constructs, elements and ideas that all together create the world and the story they live and experience, though all are basically walking cuts of paper that speak only through speech bubbles or text that emerge from their backs. One day however, after animation was born around 1920s, it gave away for the characters to jump out of the paper due a phenomenon called "Plausible Impossible".

Plausible Impossible stands for a term meaning that something which should be impossible becomes acceptable and rational either through having some factual basis, or being forced to ac under common logic and rules enough to become acceptable.

Right down to how the animation made them seem "alive", the toons became pretty much "real" for the animators and soon real people alike. Though it's only very good animators that can produce toons that can move well in real life. Modern ways of making Toons be alive is more ambiguous in this regard.

2 - "Warping reality as long as it is funnier/cool otherwise": This actually pertains back to my previous point about "Plausible Impossible", as it is very tied to this kind of a phenomenon. Basically, as long as a Toon seems to establish the rules or their own character vividly enough in relation to how things work in their cartoons' "sense of reality", the easier it is for them to break the logic or play around it to amusing, or even cool results. When compared to American Toons and how they're well known for mostly playing under "Rule of Funny" mostly, Anime-characters seem to go for "Rule of Cool", though not being also beyond using Rule of Funny which has their own unique flavor. When in the Rule of Cool though, this has them use amazing types of superpowers or even be said to have, or reach omnipotence according to certain works, and other kinds of boundary-breaking feats. Thus kind of thing got worrisome to me due how this would have been very dangerous for people in the real world to deal with, since if an Anime character might be known for being able to break buildings or even an entire planet to pieces, it would be impossible to make a believable world for Anime to work. To prevent this, my AU has it that given "traits" and "powers" of a Toon or Anime is relative to the knowledge they have about it, and how feasible it is to do in the Real World in any realistic means incase they go ever there. To explain in detail, they would have to see the sources of the things they are affiliated or related to in real life, through observation, media or literature, etc. This helps them to raise their mileage of "Plausible Impossible", through establishing known facts or things about their powers or traits and thus enabling them to have more believability to them. This is mitigated by concept of "scripts" by the directors or authors themselves, who build basically these rules or setups that characters are able to subvert easily due it all being made for them. (Hence they can do whatever actually they do in the movies - even to the point of not having to establish any rules in more shallow or off-the-factory fiction.) For example, In WHRR, Roger Rabbit putting cuffs on Eddie has him exploit the audiences general knowledge about how the cuffs can't be taken out, more exemplified by how Eddie himself is struggling with it- and Roger himself, initially. Let's just say that in general Roger Rabbit and Toons have an average common sense and knowledge relative a regular American person, knowing what the ever hell the handcuffs are. Going further, Avatar: The Last Airbender's characters would read about the way their respective natural elements work before putting their imagination on use to bend them. Later on they would discover doing this more consistently via incorporating various styles of martial arts to them, creating what is their own way of governing these elements.

On topic on how characters are able to use these powers outside of "acting", they have to train it from the ground-up themselves - though the author might have transplanted it as part of their character or psyche, but they still would have to go to Real World to see how it works in detail. For example, if someone is able to control electicity, upon gaining an "animated body" from animation cels or other things, they still can't conjure much the said powers they are able to do on their own according to the creator/artist's interpretation, which means he/she would have to know how it is depicted in real life, and if wanting to go even further, research about it and be able to reproduce such facts in their own way under their use. Thus it’s their knowledge and versatility with such abilities that allows them to exhibit such feats - which is very important for Benders, Alchemists and Espers, etc. 

Mikoto Misaka of Certain Scientific Railgun is a great example of this, with the versatility feats reached via ability electromagnetism control being not limited to weapons out of iron sand or  firing metal objects at three times the speed of sound - but is capable of flight by splitting the hydrogen from water to create booster wings, or decode electric information inside computers, which allows her to hack them with relative ease.

Using these powers or traits however more easier to do in the animated dimensions (ToonTown, KyaraTokai) due not being heavily confined to logic like the Real World and it's laws of nature is.

However, certain powers or phenomena  are still monitored, especially if they are in form of exaggerations. For example, as there's so many hapless and cosmically unlucky male protagonists from various works, the world would basically fall apart due trying to keep on putting them through beyond ridiculous amounts of misfortune (Everything affects something). So for them, the unluckiness becomes drastically mellowed and monitored to only regular occassions along with moments of fortune coming to them like regular people, though they might still receive tad higher type of misfortune, but not necessarily life-ruining kind. Sometimes there's also curveballs upon happening (Getting Megaton Punched upon walking to a girl changing mind sometimes land you on a thug that has been wanted by the law, netting you some good pocket change. Basically, box of chocolates.)

In Real World, using the powers or exhibiting the exaggerated traits that break reality will be take away some of the character's own "essence", which if overly used without proper recharging, render them immobile like a walking animation cel that got separated from others. The way how things work in Real World and it's laws of nature can help Toons/Anime mitigate such damage though as long as they abide to it now and then.

3 - "Why Toons/Anime might take animated acting anyway"

Aside from being able to "live their own story", as fit from their author/artist(s) ala Toy Story, there's also the fact that the "essence" in all living things in Real World are vital and desirable for them. These are referred as "material" things. They basically contain essence of life, which is what makes the Toons/Anime be able to sustain themselves and stay "alive". They also get to experience whatever the thing the artist or writer interpreted for them is really like in real life.

For example the material (real) food is more tastier than imitating "drawn food". Can create interesting reactions around characters, but in general, they really take in the "essence" that come from trying these things in the real flesh.

Take Remy having his famous synesthetic tasting scene from Ratatouille when eating "real" food:

And apply that to Toons, which might feel it enough to produce possibly strong or interesting visual reactions, as it's how they interprete real life things due being more like idol-like imitations, constructs of them all. 

Roger Rabbit with alcohol, for example, has this reaction due being 1940s Toon, coming apparently apparently an entire summing about what happens when people get drunk.

When we people consume too much alcohol, or even one tiny flask of a STRONG alcoholic beverage, we tend to become loose cannons and talk loudly without even knowing we are raising our voices (aka, Roger's ear drum shattering steam whistle.) Followed by uncontrollably inane movements depending on how drunk the beverage leaves us (aka, Roger's mindless shaking and swaying once he's airborne as a whistle.) And then comes the classic part of any drunk fit or tantrum: Various things within the household are left in pieces. Depending on whether or not the mood swing is leaning more towards your vile, crazy side, nearby objects are bound to take the fall (aka, all the glass items blowing up.)

Some famous people though learn to tolerate this over time however, and might even send off “techniques” to let others pick up the same tolerance:

Basically eating a real-life sandwich is gonna be better than "drawn sandwich" because drawn sandwich is most likely lines put together to look like a sandwich, but the real-life one is that which houses actual taste and nutrition, all coming from the gifts of living Earth itself.

(”Drawn”)

(Real)

While below, isn’t. 

For this reason, most Toons and Anime act their stories out or other things in animated adaptations or original works in order to get money, goods and services which lets them even further unlock their own potential while also living a life like that of other living things in real world, experiencing all kinds of things in their distinct ways.

That got long - until next time -

#crossover au #who framed roger rabbit #animaniacs #avatar the last airbender #to aru kagaku no railgun

[minusram]

3/? bonny and blithe, good and gay

[ch 1 / ch 2] [do make tomorrow a sunny day series here]

Ritsu does not talk to Nii-san every evening. Some nights he is tired, some nights he is busy, and some nights he can’t bear to imagine what his brother might think of him, if only he were here. Shigeo is a ghost hanging over him, an intangible but metaphorical phantom that remains so despite Ritsu’s newfound supernatural abilities.

Ritsu wondered, when they first manifested, if maybe someone had been watching over him after all, but a thorough check of the house, and even of the room that’s been slowly filled with the debris of a life lived looking forward—once it was done being a shrine to the past—revealed nothing. No ghosts, not even a wisp. Not a trace of emotion; no time capsule messages preserved for him to find.

Ritsu isn’t disappointed. Even if there was something lingering in the halls it would be the remains of a child, not someone older than him, not someone he could rely on. He’s lived his whole life, practically, without a brother—over three quarters, almost four fifths; gaining a facsimile of companionship at this late date would hardly be a fulfilling prize for his psychic achievement.

The setback with the wall was an outlier; despite the impression it left on him as he failed to do the same in reverse, Ritsu really has been making progress in his esper training, a fact that makes his inadequacy today sting all the more. An increase in cases recently, spurred by the growing popularity of his employer’s website, has meant a proportional increase in cases worth his time, higher level spirits that it actually means something to deal with.

Things that only he can do.

---

Days pass, then a week, then more, and it’s all entirely routine except for the scrapes he sometimes gets into with Reigen. Those are strange, different, scary; sometimes even dangerous, but maybe it’s karma presenting him with trials, with tasks he can undertake to mitigate his damage on the world. He makes it away unscathed each time, so the universe can’t be too mad at him. But then again, Reigen does too.

Ritsu keeps going to school, doing homework, going to work, talking to Nii-san, spending time with his parents, and it’s awhile before he sees Suzuki again.

This morning, he left early, and lied to his parents about why he needed to be here at Salt Middle before everyone else. Maybe he didn’t have to—they know he’s capable, they trust him, and it’s not like they micromanage his schedule—but he needed to vent the pressure a little and a harmless lie is better than the alternatives. He has power here, at school if not at home, to do terrible things.

But he’s an inquisitor, not a tyrant.

He watches Mezato, who appears to have made herself into something of a cult leader, from where he sits with his legs dangling off the wide lip of the roof. He’s on the wrong side of the fence, but it seems people never look up, so he doesn’t spare a thought to being spotted as he observes the trail of people she drags behind her while she chortles. They’re all laughing boisterously, at varying levels of volume.

First comes the Official Church of (LOL) First Salt Mid Branch, though according to the Student Council they aren’t officially anything except a nuisance. Kurata leads her little gang with a piercing laugh, her hands clutching her sides as she projects her voice to the edges of the schoolyard. Her three minions follow her in a ragged clump, hanging off each other and stumbling in a paroxysm of giggles.

Caught up behind them, not quite integrated into their herd, is Suzuki. He’s curled in on himself as he walks, bent over the bars of his arms against his stomach, shuffling forward with his hair shadowing his eyes. It’s creepy looking, the way he laughs; an impression unhelped by the sick leering smirk on his face, just visible when his shudders grow particularly acute.

And behind him, in a long snaking line, are the followers, people Ritsu has picked over and found to be non-critical, with very little influence in the running of the cult. Suzuki would be one of them if Ritsu didn’t know what he is. He escapes anonymity simply because Ritsu is unable to ignore him, though from what Ritsu’s heard he thus far hasn’t done anything particularly enthralling besides follow Mezato around and exist while being foreignly interesting.

Of greater note is that there’s a student council member there, blending in and chuckling, wiping tears from his eyes. Ritsu marks him, a bright red post-it flag on the file in his mind; he’ll bring it up with Kamuro this afternoon at the meeting. The only question is whether to do it in front of everyone or in private. Both have their appeal.

By some signal invisible to him, the prayer period is concluded; the ragged procession breaking up and reforming in new patterns as students fall into their ordinary social configurations again. Friends find friends and walk into school together. They seem refreshed. Ritsu felt something, watching them, some tug urging him to join in, but it was an impulse easily resisted, and now it’s gone. Strange.

And worth further consideration, but not now. The bell’s about to ring and he needs to get to class. As he boosts himself up over the fence he keeps a wary eye on Suzuki, still off step, like a satellite just out of orbit as he follows the other cultists inside.

---

That afternoon, when he’s walking to student council, he sees them again. Suzuki is being helplessly carried along under Kurata’s arm; she chatters non-stop while Mezato waves at them from the door of the news room. The other three—Inugawa, Saruta, and Kijibayashi—range ahead of them, taking up more space in the hallway then they should as the group makes its way to the entrance of the school.

Ritsu doesn't engage, though he's spotted at least five rules they're breaking. Even inquisitors take breaks sometimes, and he's still mulling over what he saw this morning. He’s not ready. The boys get quieter as he passes, except for Suzuki who was already silent, then the noise cautiously picks back up again when they think he’s out of range.

Ritsu dismisses them, for now, so he can turn his thoughts to the meeting, where he will undoubtedly be called upon to speak as Kamuro’s second hand in the Cleanup operation. Ritsu has better ears than a lot of people think; he’s heard the other members refer to him as the president’s attack dog. It’s not inaccurate—he knows what he’s become, what his powers have allowed him to be.

But it’s too late now to go back, and he wouldn’t deserve to even if he could; he’s been changed by this, enduringly, turned by dirty work to something darker than he was.

The meeting is as it ever is—Ritsu decides against the instigation of a fellow member’s lynching in a public forum—and then it’s over. He can’t remember what he said, or why, or who about, but surely it was satisfactory; an eloquent offering with salient points supporting whatever Kamuro was going to do anyway.

And of course, whatever Kamuro is going to do is whatever Ritsu told him to do the last time they met like this, privately, after even Tokugawa’s gone home. They’re two peas in a rotting pod, Kamuro and him, and the power slides between them like jello on a see-saw; constantly in flux and just as absurd, leaving sticky tracks of culpability all over both of their hands.

Kamuro seems shadowed, wraithed by negative energy as they discuss how to deal with their cuckoo, the cultist in their midst. Deep, dark shadows sag under his eyes and his hair is wavy and unwashed, heavy with grease. They’re nothing like mirrors of each other, but Ritsu feels a grimy kinship with him like a mushroom growing in the dark.

As they walk out, Kamuro slips on a piece of paper left on the floor in the hallway. It’s easily avoidable, but caught by surprise Kamuro’s foot skids out from under him and he slams into the door.

Ritsu sees his face and knows the shape of the next hill he’ll die on. Kamuro is smart, cunning and devious about it, but petty, sadistic, obsessed with power. He’s distracted from the bigger picture, which is why he values Ritsu, still, even after Ritsu’s learned so much about him.

The student body resents their duly elected president, begrudges the power they gave him, but Kamuro’s terrible reputation has its uses; it’s why Ritsu values him. If everyone’s looking at the person who revels in the spotlight, they might not notice the inky figure hidden by the curtain, watching them from just off-stage.

---

“This time, we got a big one,” Reigen says, brandishing an envelope with a broken wax seal. There’s a curse on his shoulder he doesn’t seem to have noticed; its tendrils drift when he moves, waving like it’s underwater, an anemone made of glowing energy rooted in the grey weave of his suit.

“Bigger than an urban legend, Reigen-san?” Ritsu replies, leaning against the wall as he watches it writhe.

“It’ll certainly pay better,” Reigen says, greed twisting his face before it shifts into a bright smile, emphasized by his hand’s flourish, “Maybe this time we can avoid getting anyone mutilated!”

Not so long ago, his employer proposed a little busting spree. Their attempt to exorcise the Kuchisake-onna went poorly, and culminated in the injury of a professional competitor who’d unwisely attempted to assist. After they helped Shiira Taichoumaru, or whatever his name was, to the hospital—bleeding heavily from the slashes in his face—, Reigen capitalized upon the man’s injury to update his business’ website, to lure in weak minds all the more efficiently.

A side effect has been the uptick in genuinely psychic cases, exorcisms that actually count as exercise; the shame he feels at profiting off another’s misfortune helps him take care of the escalating assignments without too much collateral damage, either to their surroundings or themselves. He’s both intrigued and wary to see what might qualify as a ‘big one’ after all the things he’s seen these past few weeks.

“So what is it?” Ritsu says.

“Some private mansion, I don’t know. Up on the mountain somewhere. It’s a famous businessman, the president of a real big company, but I don’t know if I should say who… can you keep a secret?”

“No, I don’t keep secrets.”

“Liar.”

Ritsu’s hand twitches; point Reigen.

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he says. Reigen shrugs easily, conceding to the dig.

“Whatever, you’ll find out soon enough. That’s about all I know anyway, we’ll just have to get over there and see what’s up. So come on, Ritsu, we need to catch the train.”

As Reigen passes him, Ritsu reaches out; the curse crumbles at his touch.

For a moment, psychic silt coats his fingertips, sticking in his fingerprints. He has time to brush his thumb over it, considering, before that too fizzes away.

“Coming, Reigen-san,” he says, dipping to pick up his bag, and texting his parents that work might run late, “But don’t call me that.”

---

After they’ve rattled their way out of town, transferring from the train to a bus and then a hike up a long flight of worn stone stairs, and they’ve spent long minutes surrounded by trees and green smells—a myriad of natural splendours that Ritsu is not equipped to appreciate—they come upon the mansion, which emerges slowly as they crest the mossy staircase.

Ritsu set a brisk pace on their way up, eager to reach their destination and anticipating an equally long trip home after they’ve finished, but he hasn’t overexerted himself. Reigen, however, is sweating more than the weather warrants, and he pauses to take in the view of the massive building, hands on his hips as he gives every appearance of relishing the mildly-less-smoggy mountain air.

“Totally… worth it…” Ritsu’s employer says, endeavouring to seem overcome by the beauty of their environment—somewhat marred by the ostentatious eyesore of a house—and not his own physical limitations.

“Reigen-san, you should really keep in shape. It’s important to take care of your body as you age.”

“I’m twenty-seven, you brat!” Reigen cries, clenching his teeth and a fist in front of him in outrage, “That’s not old!”

He contains himself with a condescending puff; his hand transfers to his chin as he looks up, pensive. “But hey, I can’t expect a little kid to understand,” he says with a knowing nod. “Besides, taking a taxi would eat into our profit margin.”

“We could have taken a taxi?”

“Profit, Ritsu, think of the profit.”

The mansion is enormous, guarded by imposing walls bristling with barbed wire, reinforced chainlink gates, and serious people in suits and sunglasses who bark at them for identification.

Ritsu has a moment of doubt at the set-up, hoping Reigen actually has been invited and isn’t just gate-crashing like Ritsu knows he’s wont to do. But it all goes smoothly, everything in order, and one of the security guards leads them up the short drive to the house and through the double set of tufted leather doors.

They go in, past the vaulted entryway flanked by two double-story staircases, down a hallway floored with flawlessly polished stone that bounces the sound of their steps back up at them, past a room adjoining the back of the house, decorated in the traditional style, to arrive in front of an identical set of doors to the first, padded with creamy off-white leather; so clean they might never have been touched.

Their guide gestures to the brass handles, set into wood the warm, deep colour of chestnuts, and leaves them there.

Reigen whistles, impressed, when they’re alone.

“Nice fucking house, eh Ritsu?”

And with that, he opens the doors.

WELP. here it comes

#mp100 #dmtasd #bonny and blithe good and gay #fic #ritsu #arataka #bbgg #the good stuff

[courtneytincher]

Pompeo Is ‘Last Man Standing’ After Bolton Departs White House

(Bloomberg) -- The end of John Bolton’s fractious tenure as national security adviser leaves one man at the helm of the Trump administration’s foreign policy as it manages crises from Iran to North Korea: Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.From the moment Bolton arrived at the White House in April 2018, he brought a hawkish foreign policy vision honed over decades -- a mindset that would inevitably collide with the unorthodox style of Donald Trump and culminate in his firing on Tuesday. Bolton’s approach stood in contrast to Pompeo’s deference to the president, first as Central Intelligence Agency chief and then as secretary of state.Pompeo is now without peer on Trump’s national security team. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is weeks into his job, there’s no confirmed director of national intelligence and United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft was only confirmed on Tuesday. Among the president’s advisers, Pompeo will have the biggest sway on decisions about brokering a deal with Iran, restarting talks with North Korea and finding a way to draw down forces in Afghanistan.“Last man standing,” James Dobbins, a senior fellow at the Rand Corp., said of Pompeo, though he quickly added that it’s “unclear whether he guides or just anticipates the president.”Read More: Failed Afghan Talks Underscore Trump’s Foreign Policy SetbacksPompeo rarely displays any emotion beyond impatience when he answers questions from reporters. But he was almost jocular during a news conference with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday when asked about Bolton’s departure.Trump “should have people he trusts and values, and whose efforts and judgments benefit him in delivering American foreign policy,” Pompeo said. He added that he never talks about internal administration matters, then promptly did: “There were definitely places that Ambassador Bolton and I had different views about how we should proceed.”As the last remaining member of Trump’s original national security cabinet, Pompeo has proved adept at making sure no distance emerges between his and the president’s views. It’s a rule that Bolton and his predecessor, H.R. McMaster, along with ex-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, couldn’t resist breaking.Pompeo’s ascendancy also reverses a decade-long trend that saw the State Department relinquish control over foreign policy as the National Security Council gained influence.The 55-year-old former Kansas congressman, who joined the administration as director of the CIA, moved quickly when he arrived at the State Department, naming envoys reporting directly to him to manage American policy toward North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Afghanistan and Syria. Since then, it’s been that group that has largely been charged with pressing Trump’s prerogatives.Bolton had the advantage of working near the Oval Office and far more experience in the executive branch as a former UN ambassador and a key architect of President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Yet he was often reduced to playing the role of spoiler.Bolton and his team stymied the State Department in the spring when it wanted to extend waivers to allow Iran to export some of its oil. And he vehemently objected to an Afghanistan peace plan drawn up by Pompeo’s staff that would have seen the U.S. withdraw troops in exchange for security guarantees from the Taliban.Now, U.S. officials say they are planning for the possibility that Trump will meet with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York at the end of the month. Trump has been open to the idea, and Pompeo, in his typical way, has been vague about his own views.“The President has made very clear he is prepared to meet with no preconditions,” Pompeo told reporters at the Tuesday briefing, brushing off a question about whether he supported the idea.There were other signs of discord between Bolton and the president. When Trump stepped across the border into North Korea for a brief meeting with Kim Jong Un in June, Bolton was in Mongolia. Before joining the administration, he long called for preemptive strikes on Iran over its nuclear program, while Trump frequently says he favors talking with adversaries.“This break has been building for a long time and finally culminated with the fiasco that ensued over the Afghanistan talks,” said Suzanne DiMaggio, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Having someone like Bolton on the team who is so strong in his opinions, that comes in handy when he’s agreeing with you, but when he’s not, it can be a major irritation.”Yet Bolton’s views, while sometimes extreme, generally aligned with ideas shared by many conservatives, melding an interventionist approach with a willingness to escalate pressure on adversaries. He coupled that with a willingness to engage in bureaucratic infighting, which made enemies within agencies and among those who had the president’s ear.Pompeo’s staff had been in open conflict with Bolton’s for months, with State Department officials deriding Bolton aides for demanding updates on policy issues over which Pompeo had control.“There’s no question the knives were out for John,” said Danielle Pletka, senior vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where Bolton was once a senior fellow. “He’s a conservative hawk, period, that’s what he is.”When Bolton came into the job, it seemed like he would use it as a chance to to fulfill some of his long-held foreign-policy goals, such as driving a stake into the International Criminal Court, abrogating a range of arms-control treaties and getting the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.Ultimately, the biggest difference between Bolton and Pompeo may have been less about policy than how effectively they negotiated the tumultuous world of the Trump presidency, a roller coaster that has seen unprecedented senior staff turnover.“At the end of the day I think a lot of his own instincts actually did coincide with Bolton’s, especially on Iran, so it’s unclear to me if things are handed off to Pompeo exclusively how much things will change,” DiMaggio said.But style can be substance. Pompeo has said that when he disagrees with the president, he takes those concerns directly to him. Then he falls into line.“I work hard for the president of the United States, who was constitutionally elected,” Pompeo told “CBS This Morning” last month. “He is my leader, my task is to share with him the best information.”Once Trump makes a decision, Pompeo said, “it is my task to go execute that with all the energy and power that I have.”It’s not clear how long Pompeo will remain in Trump’s orbit. He is widely believed to harbor aspirations for the Senate and could run for an open seat in Kansas next year. But for now his position in the president’s inner circle appears solid. Trump summed up his favorite part of the dynamic with Pompeo during an interview with New York magazine in October 2018.“I argue with everyone except Pompeo,” Trump said. “I don’t think I’ve had an argument with Pompeo.”(Updates to add White House planing Trump-Rouhani meeting starting in 12th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Saleha Mohsin and Jennifer Jacobs.To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at [email protected] contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at [email protected], John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

(Bloomberg) -- The end of John Bolton’s fractious tenure as national security adviser leaves one man at the helm of the Trump administration’s foreign policy as it manages crises from Iran to North Korea: Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.From the moment Bolton arrived at the White House in April 2018, he brought a hawkish foreign policy vision honed over decades -- a mindset that would inevitably collide with the unorthodox style of Donald Trump and culminate in his firing on Tuesday. Bolton’s approach stood in contrast to Pompeo’s deference to the president, first as Central Intelligence Agency chief and then as secretary of state.Pompeo is now without peer on Trump’s national security team. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is weeks into his job, there’s no confirmed director of national intelligence and United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft was only confirmed on Tuesday. Among the president’s advisers, Pompeo will have the biggest sway on decisions about brokering a deal with Iran, restarting talks with North Korea and finding a way to draw down forces in Afghanistan.“Last man standing,” James Dobbins, a senior fellow at the Rand Corp., said of Pompeo, though he quickly added that it’s “unclear whether he guides or just anticipates the president.”Read More: Failed Afghan Talks Underscore Trump’s Foreign Policy SetbacksPompeo rarely displays any emotion beyond impatience when he answers questions from reporters. But he was almost jocular during a news conference with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday when asked about Bolton’s departure.Trump “should have people he trusts and values, and whose efforts and judgments benefit him in delivering American foreign policy,” Pompeo said. He added that he never talks about internal administration matters, then promptly did: “There were definitely places that Ambassador Bolton and I had different views about how we should proceed.”As the last remaining member of Trump’s original national security cabinet, Pompeo has proved adept at making sure no distance emerges between his and the president’s views. It’s a rule that Bolton and his predecessor, H.R. McMaster, along with ex-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, couldn’t resist breaking.Pompeo’s ascendancy also reverses a decade-long trend that saw the State Department relinquish control over foreign policy as the National Security Council gained influence.The 55-year-old former Kansas congressman, who joined the administration as director of the CIA, moved quickly when he arrived at the State Department, naming envoys reporting directly to him to manage American policy toward North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Afghanistan and Syria. Since then, it’s been that group that has largely been charged with pressing Trump’s prerogatives.Bolton had the advantage of working near the Oval Office and far more experience in the executive branch as a former UN ambassador and a key architect of President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Yet he was often reduced to playing the role of spoiler.Bolton and his team stymied the State Department in the spring when it wanted to extend waivers to allow Iran to export some of its oil. And he vehemently objected to an Afghanistan peace plan drawn up by Pompeo’s staff that would have seen the U.S. withdraw troops in exchange for security guarantees from the Taliban.Now, U.S. officials say they are planning for the possibility that Trump will meet with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York at the end of the month. Trump has been open to the idea, and Pompeo, in his typical way, has been vague about his own views.“The President has made very clear he is prepared to meet with no preconditions,” Pompeo told reporters at the Tuesday briefing, brushing off a question about whether he supported the idea.There were other signs of discord between Bolton and the president. When Trump stepped across the border into North Korea for a brief meeting with Kim Jong Un in June, Bolton was in Mongolia. Before joining the administration, he long called for preemptive strikes on Iran over its nuclear program, while Trump frequently says he favors talking with adversaries.“This break has been building for a long time and finally culminated with the fiasco that ensued over the Afghanistan talks,” said Suzanne DiMaggio, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Having someone like Bolton on the team who is so strong in his opinions, that comes in handy when he’s agreeing with you, but when he’s not, it can be a major irritation.”Yet Bolton’s views, while sometimes extreme, generally aligned with ideas shared by many conservatives, melding an interventionist approach with a willingness to escalate pressure on adversaries. He coupled that with a willingness to engage in bureaucratic infighting, which made enemies within agencies and among those who had the president’s ear.Pompeo’s staff had been in open conflict with Bolton’s for months, with State Department officials deriding Bolton aides for demanding updates on policy issues over which Pompeo had control.“There’s no question the knives were out for John,” said Danielle Pletka, senior vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where Bolton was once a senior fellow. “He’s a conservative hawk, period, that’s what he is.”When Bolton came into the job, it seemed like he would use it as a chance to to fulfill some of his long-held foreign-policy goals, such as driving a stake into the International Criminal Court, abrogating a range of arms-control treaties and getting the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.Ultimately, the biggest difference between Bolton and Pompeo may have been less about policy than how effectively they negotiated the tumultuous world of the Trump presidency, a roller coaster that has seen unprecedented senior staff turnover.“At the end of the day I think a lot of his own instincts actually did coincide with Bolton’s, especially on Iran, so it’s unclear to me if things are handed off to Pompeo exclusively how much things will change,” DiMaggio said.But style can be substance. Pompeo has said that when he disagrees with the president, he takes those concerns directly to him. Then he falls into line.“I work hard for the president of the United States, who was constitutionally elected,” Pompeo told “CBS This Morning” last month. “He is my leader, my task is to share with him the best information.”Once Trump makes a decision, Pompeo said, “it is my task to go execute that with all the energy and power that I have.”It’s not clear how long Pompeo will remain in Trump’s orbit. He is widely believed to harbor aspirations for the Senate and could run for an open seat in Kansas next year. But for now his position in the president’s inner circle appears solid. Trump summed up his favorite part of the dynamic with Pompeo during an interview with New York magazine in October 2018.“I argue with everyone except Pompeo,” Trump said. “I don’t think I’ve had an argument with Pompeo.”(Updates to add White House planing Trump-Rouhani meeting starting in 12th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Saleha Mohsin and Jennifer Jacobs.To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at [email protected] contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at [email protected], John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

September 11, 2019 at 03:58PM via IFTTT

#Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

[hyoubusqueenofespers-moved]

* Kyousuke Hyoubu + P.A.N.D.R.A Self Shipping Headcanons

Here are my self ship headcanons for my romantic f/o, Kyousuke Hyoubu as well as some about P.A.N.DR.A, an esper criminal organization lead by Hyoubu himself, who are basically my familial f/os. A lot of these headcanons feature things about Azusa, my Zettai Karen Children s/i.

🦊 - Headcanons Centered Around Hyoubu

🧛🏻‍♀️ - Headcanons Centered Around P.A.N.D.R.A

🦊🧛🏻‍♀️ - Both Hyoubu and P.A.N.D.R.A.

🦊 Hyoubu, with all his reputation of being a dangerous and merciless esper criminal who leads the infamous esper criminal organization known as P.A.N.D.R.A, he’s shown to have an incredible loving and soft side to his husband, Azusa. It’s shown that Hyoubu is a very devoted partner to Azusa who treats his husband with respect and can be rather protective of him as well, even with Azusa’s combative skills.

🦊🧛🏻‍♀️ Hyoubu makes exceptions for his husband, Azusa/Me, when it comes to certain things. Hyoubu allows Azusa to do certain things that he only let’s Azusa do such letting Azusa use Hyoubu’s gakuran as a blanket, let Azusa lay his head or sit on Hyoubu’s lap, letting Azusa be the one who gets to show romantic affection towards Hyoubu, both physically and verbally. P.A.N.D.R.A is very aware of this and take these things into consideration. If someone like a stranger or anyone makes attempts to do these things, P.A.N.D.R.A and Hyoubu immediately put a stop to it saying, “Only Azusa can do that.”

🧛🏻‍♀️ It’s a tradition within P.A.N.D.R.A that during Hyoubu or Azusa’s birthdays, they keep track of them and even host parties for them both. They have marked Azusa‘a birthday, July 30th, officially as Azusa Day.

🦊🧛🏻‍♀️ During holidays such as Christmas, Hyoubu invites his comrades within P.A.N.D.R.A to celebrate holidays together by hosting a party, getting gifts and making food. Hyoubu always makes sure that no one is left out during a major holiday party.

🦊 When he sees Azusa take kitsune form and goes beserk in that form, Hyoubu is the one that comforts him done and helps Azusa revert back to normal by calming him down.

🦊 Hyoubu is shown to be a caring dad to their daughters and he likes to gush about them. He prefers to not let our daughters go perform crimes of PANDRA and even with Hyoubu participating in the heavily anticipated Future War between espers vs humans, Hyoubu utterly refuses to have their daughters take action in it because he doesn’t want them to get killed/hurt and most importantly be traumatized by it.

🦊 Hyoubu and Azusa are shown to be an excellent partner in crime duo, working together effectively and have a synchronized fighting style, being able to use their psychic abilities and combative skills to their advantage. Due to proving themselves to be an efficient team, both are considered to be the criminal underworld’s Most Dangerous Esper Criminal Duo by many.

🦊 Hyoubu is a huge supporter of LGBT espers and is in fact, demiromantic bisexual.

🦊 Hyoubu likes to gush about our daughters as well and absolutely adores our girls so much. He treats them like royalty, calls them princesses, gives them lavish gifts, spends bonding time with them, etc. Hyoubu also very much spoils them.

🦊 Hyoubu likes to get custom merchandise of myself or plushies that remind him of Azusa. He likes to hold onto them when he is yearning for Azusa when he’s out or on a mission where they aren’t together.

🦊 Hyoubu was one who got Azusa into the whole bookstore date thing since Hyoubu and Azusa went there one day. Ever since Azusa went to the bookstore, he became enthralled to not only the atmosphere but also the books he read. He even started researching more books and even made he own reading list. Azusa quickly became an avid bookworm. Hyoubu grew to love Azusa’s interest for books and even told him to show him the reading list so when they have time, they’ll get books.

🦊 Hyoubu likes to take part in Azusa’s interests/hobbies and is quite open-minded towards them since it reminds him of Azusa. Even if the certain activity is not Hyoubu’s thing, he feels happy when he sees Azusa enjoying it and that matters more to him more than his opinion on the activity. Azusa feels the same way for Hyoubu as well.

🦊 Hyoubu is very much into giving Azusa nicknames such as King, My Love, Soulmate, My Dearest, and much more.

🦊🧛🏻‍♀️ Hyoubu taught the members of PANDRA various ways how Azusa non-verbally communicates since he only feels comfortable speaking towards Hyoubu and their daughters. Azusa is often seen communicating towards others with sign language, writing, and body expression. Azusa also took part in teaching them as well.

🦊 Hyoubu also taught Azusa more ways how to use his psychic powers and fight in combat. While Azusa knew how to fight already considering his background as a hitman, this training proved to be far better for Azusa since it didn’t bring emotional strain for Azusa as well as Azusa being more comfortable training with Hyoubu. Azusa also trained with Hyoubu to synchronize their fighting styles whenever they fought an enemy together.

🦊 Both Hyoubu and Azusa are very protective of each other. Even though Azusa and Hyoubu know to defend themselves, both are capable of snapping when one of them is hurt by an outside force.

🦊 Hyoubu, when he sees Azusa is distressed or upset, temporarily pauses his work to help calm him down by singing to him and making him feel comfortable. Hyoubu usually makes up lyrics when he sings in order to calm down Azusa but Azusa doesn’t mind the lyrical content.

🦊 Hyoubu is usually verbally affectionate to Azusa but he can also be physically affectionate to him as well.

🦊Hyoubu is a very skilled singer.

🦊 Hyoubu likes to call Azusa “His King” and mentions he wants to rule the esper society alongside Azusa.

🦊 Since Azusa can shapeshift into a fox, Hyoubu lets Azusa in his fox form sit on his shoulder.

🦊 When Azusa came out to Hyoubu, Hyoubu was very accepting of him. In fact, Hyoubu helped Azusa start his medical transition and so on (Azusa didn’t start transitioning until he joined P.A.N.D.R.A.)

🦊 Hyoubu loves going to pride parades with his husband.

🦊 Three years prior to Azusa joining Hyoubu’s P.A.N.D.R.A in 1989, Hyoubu meets Azusa back when he was an arms dealer, illegally selling weapons. Hyoubu happened to be one of his clients who bought weapons from him.

🦊 Hyoubu also likes to gush about Azusa/Me and often calls him cute nicknames (he also likes calling Azusa/Me “King” and “His King” respectively). Hyoubu is deeply in love with Azusa/Me and isn’t afraid to verbalize it from time to time.

🦊 Hyoubu loves seeing Azusa/I take interests in a new activity and can be seeing smiling when I/Azusa enjoys it.

🦊 Before he and his husband engage in unlawful activities, Hyoubu always likes to check up on Azusa’s mental well-being before they engage in their actions, often asking him like “Are you ready Azusa?” before they start.

🧛🏻‍♀️ When Hyoubu isn’t around sometimes, A member of P.A.N.D.R.A check up on Azusa to see how he is which they would then report to Hyoubu.

🦊 When it comes to his daughter, Kuzunoha Hyoubu, Hyoubu assigns bodyguards to watch over her when she’s out and about when Hyoubu and his husband are busy, to protect her.

🦊 Hyoubu really likes to get very personal gifts for Azusa such as fox plushies since they remind him of Azusa and jewelry like a heart locket.

🦊 Hyoubu is the one who came up with Azusa’s Future name, King of Eternal Darkness, due to Azusa’s power of umbrakinesis and Azusa being Hyoubu’s king.

🦊 Hyoubu appears to have P.A.N.D.R.A goods (as seen in the first episode of the Unlimited, Hyoubu has canned food goods that are P.A.N.D.R.A products) and one of those things is merchandise such as plushies of himself, P.A.N.D.R.A phone straps, and even keychains of himself. Hyoubu gives Azusa these items first and lets Azusa get access to the limited edition merchandise as well.

🦊 Despite being a criminal, Hyoubu appears to be very wealthy (highly likely to be rich) himself such as owning a cruise ship known as The Catastrophe which is the current base of P.A.N.D.R.A.

🦊 Hyoubu isn’t afraid to show how powerful he is, especially when it comes to his psychic abilities.

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