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m1ckeyb3rry · 8 months

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Hurricanes / Hummingbirds: III

Series Synopsis: As the years go by, you find that it is incredibly difficult to survive wars and fight storms, especially when the only thing you have by way of a cursed technique is the blessing of a tiny bird.

Chapter Synopsis: You spend some time with your upperclassmen, the infamous trio of Gojo, Geto, and Ieri.

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Hajime Kashimo x Female Reader; slight Kento Nanami x Female Reader; slight Satoru Gojo × Female Reader

Chapter Word Count: 7.1k

Content Warnings: swearing, enemies/rivals to lovers, character death, canon-typical violence, angst, gore, original characters included

A/N: guys i promise i don’t hate classic literature y/n and nanami are just haters #justiceforclassicliterature #justiceforhinode

“Give up,” you said, pressing the tip of the Sword of Syrinx against Nanami’s throat. “Even your technique can’t get you out of this one.”

“Fine,” he grumbled, slamming his palm against the ground. “You win.”

“Yay!” you said, immediately sheathing the sword, which hummed in content at the victory. As any sportsmanlike person would, you reached out and helped Nanami stand; he took your hand gratefully, squeezing to steady himself.

“Nice job, Y/N!” Haibara shouted from where he and Hinode stood on the sidelines, watching your practice match. “You might even be able to beat me at this rate!”

“I’m stronger than you,” Nanami called back, which only led to Haibara sticking his tongue out at him.

“Maybe in a match of techniques, but, no offense, I’m way more muscular, and that’s what matters when your opponent only has swordsmanship on their side,” he said, flexing his muscles for comedic effect.

It had been some time since you had arrived in Tokyo and befriended Nanami, Haibara, and the Sword of Syrinx. With Hinode’s tutelage and the boys’ willingness to practice with you, you had quickly learned how to wield the special grade cursed tool. You were helped along by the fact that the sword seemed to be almost sentient, in a sense — not that it could have full-blown conversations or anything, but it was capable of transmitting basic emotions and sentiments via cursed energy. It had taken a liking to you ever since that first day, and it was generous enough to sometimes lend you power when your own reserves were running low or guide you into a move you hadn’t quite thought of when you were stuck in a tough spot.

“I think it’s time,” Hinode said.

“Time? Time for what?” you said.

“I think you can go on your first mission. You’ve managed to beat Nanami enough times that a lower-level curse shouldn’t pose any threat to you,” he said. Equal amounts of fear and anticipation blossomed in you at the thought of actually going out and exorcising a curse, using the Sword of Syrinx to its fullest extent instead of as a dummy to hit Nanami with. It would probably be pleased; judging by how thrilled it got whenever you managed to defeat Nanami, it possessed an innate bloodlust, a desire to win that outmatched even yours.

“I don’t know if I can do it alone, though,” you said. Hinode immediately shook his head, showing you his phone. There was a mission alert on it, but it had already been accepted by someone else.

“You can tag along with him. He won’t let anything happen to you; worst comes to worst, all you’ll have to do is stay out of his way,” he said.

“Will he even let me go?” you said. “I would just be an annoyance.”

“He’s the king of being an annoyance, so it’s what he deserves,” Nanami said, peering over Hinode’s shoulder and reading the mission details with a frown.

“He is still a student of the school, which means he does have to comply with what his teachers tell him to do, at least a little bit. Besides, you really won’t slow him down too much, so don’t stress out. You’re more likely to be a help than a hindrance,” Hinode said.

“If you think so, sir,” you said. “And I guess technically the Sword of Syrinx does belong to him, so maybe it’s only fair that he gets to see me using it. It’ll be an assurance that he did the right thing in giving it to me, at any rate.”

Satoru Gojo. Since the day that he had allowed you to have the Sword of Syrinx, you two actually hadn’t spoken all too much, contrary to Nanami’s expectations. To be sure, you’d nod politely at each other when you passed in the hallways, but you were usually engaged in conversation with Haibara or Nanami and he with Geto or Ieri, so it wasn’t like there was much opportunity for any sort of meaningful interactions. You didn’t really mind; to you, he was nothing more than the owner of your sword. Beyond being cordial enough to him that he allowed you to keep using it, you had no need for interaction with the boy.

“Hey, Miss Sandwich Taster,” Gojo said when you jogged into the driveway, where he was stretching as he waited for a manager to arrive and take you to the mission site. “How’ve you been? I see you still have that crappy sword with you.”

“It’s not crappy,” you said. “And I’ve been doing fine, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, and sure it’s not. Anyways, Yaga told me that Hinode told him that you’re coming along with me to see how the real masters exorcise curses,” he said.

“Well, that’s not quite the full story,” you said. “I’m supposed to be helping you on the mission…”

“Helping me?” he said. A car screeched into the driveway and skidded to a stop almost on top of you; you jumped back in surprise, afraid the wheels would roll over your feet or something. Gojo snorted, opening the door and motioning for you to get in before sliding in beside you. “I don’t need help, though.”

“I told Hinode I’d just get in your way, but he insisted I come. You can blame him, if I’m really that much of a bother,” you said.

“No, you’re fine, it’s just laughable that anyone would be sent along to help me, let alone a first year — even if the first year does have admittedly good taste in sandwiches,” he said.

“Are you going to hold that sandwich over me forever?” you said.

“For the next year or so, probably,” he said.

“Well, you know I like sandwiches,” you said. “What kind of food do you like?”

“Sweet stuff, mostly,” he said.

“You have a sweet tooth?” you said. You hadn’t really expected it; he seemed like the kind of person to refuse to eat anything sugary for some ridiculous reason such as it making him too hyperactive. Although, he already was decently hyperactive, so you supposed a little extra sugar wouldn’t really change things for him all too dramatically.

“Massively,” he said. “Shoko makes fun of me for it, but with the way she smokes, she has no room to talk.”

Shoko Ieri was the mysterious third of the second year students. While Gojo and Geto were the bright, flashy, well-regarded strongest duo, she was calmer, avoiding conflict and confrontation with a practiced finesse. You saw her even less than you saw Gojo, but the few times you had run into each other, she had been kind enough.

You both were quiet for a bit, him busy reading the email containing the mission details and you staring out the window, watching the scenery fly past. Sitting in the car next to him, you thought that he wasn’t all too intolerable; in fact, he was actually pretty nice.

“Can you tell me the mission details? I didn’t get the email, since I’m not officially on it, and Hinode didn’t let me stay and read anything,” you said, breaking the silence.

“It’s pretty run of the mill. Some curses have popped up at a graveyard and are currently picking off any mourners that come and visit,” he said. “It should be in-and-out. Wanna get snacks afterwards? Exorcising always makes me hungry.”

“Uh, okay,” you said. He didn’t seem nervous at all, which led you to believe that people hadn’t been exaggerating his abilities by calling him one of the strongest; the title was one he truly, genuinely deserved, at least if his casual demeanor was anything to go by.

“Cool!” he said. You blinked, still quite unable to believe how unserious he was about everything. Would you ever be like that? Maybe after a few thousand missions, but likely not even then.

“So, Hinode said that curses usually appear in places with high concentrations of negative emotions,” you said. “Schools, hospitals, graveyards, that kind of thing.”

“Huh, are you talking to me? Yeah, that’s right,” Gojo said. “Are you confused or something? The theory behind it is pretty simple, though.”

“No, I understand the theory, I was just — well, isn’t that sad to you?” you said.

“Sad?” he said.

“I mean, the curses are taking advantage of people who are already hurting. The people at the graveyard, they’re grieving the loss of someone they loved. That’s not a crime that should be punishable by death. That’s not a crime at all,” you said.

“They’re called curses, what did you expect?” he said. “Obviously they’ll be all nasty and evil and bad.”

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s just not very fair. Those poor people, they don’t even know what their mistake was,” you said.

“You sound like Suguru,” he said, sticking his tongue out in disgust. “Honestly. There’s no need to give speeches or try to assign morality or reason to things. Word of advice: you go on your mission, you kill the curses, you get some snacks, you go home. Anything else is unnecessary.”

“Why are you even a sorcerer?” you said. “It doesn’t seem like you care very much about protecting others or anything like that, so what’s the point? Why are you risking your life to go on missions?”

You couldn’t be sure if he was looking at you just then, his eyes covered by glasses as they were, but certainly you could feel the intensity of his gaze as it rested on you. You gripped the hilt of the Sword of Syrinx, not as a threat but because you wanted its cursed energy swirling around you like a buffer, protecting you from the Six Eyes of Satoru Gojo. It responded immediately, power flaring around you, holding you tightly, seeping into your very bones and reinforcing them.

He laughed raucously. “No way, that hunk of scrap metal has that much cursed energy of its own? I can see why you wanted it so badly! Also, Suguru just texted me about this shop in the area that we should definitely check out once we’re done.”

“Stop making fun of my sword,” you muttered, earning you an appreciative surge of cursed energy from the Sword of Syrinx.

“Looks like we’re here,” Gojo said instead of apologizing. “Come on. Let’s just get this done with.”

You followed after him, staying in his shadow as best you could, forgetting the entire conversation in the car and your irritation at his callous way of referring to the Sword of Syrinx. This was your first mission; consequently, it would be the first time you would be faced with the beings known as curses since your near-death before you were sent to Tokyo.

A face twisted into a leer. Hands gnarled into talons, reaching at you, scraping at your collarbone, your cheeks, trying to tangle into your hair. A gaping maw, endless darkness threatening to consume you entirely, yanking you closer and closer as you skidded backwards. And then bright lights, a blaring horn, asphalt digging into the shallow wounds the monster had gouged into you, tires rolling to a stop mere feet before they crushed into you.

“You’re so distracted,” Gojo said, flicking you on the forehead and breaking you out of your reminiscing. “Get your head in the game.”

He was right. It would not do if you were lost in thought about events from the past that could not be changed. Things were different now; you had Gojo and the Sword of Syrinx with you, as well as the knowledge and training to actually do something to the curses. Never again would you have to cower helplessly. Never again would you close your eyes and wait for the end.

Drawing the Sword of Syrinx and marvelling at the iridescence of the blade, which even now astounded you, you took a deep breath and began to scan the rows of tombstones for anything out of the ordinary. The entire graveyard was buzzing with residuals, which made it difficult to pick any one element out, but despite that, Gojo was utterly calm, strolling along the grassy hills like you two were out for a holiday.

“Ooh, there’s a grade 4 curse. Do you want to do the honors?” he said, pointing at something vaguely resembling a rat but far larger, roughly the size of your forearm. It was dark green-black, though its eyes were a wild, gleaming yellow, its teeth clacking together as it gnawed on the decaying remains of something.

“Sure,” you said, twirling the Sword of Syrinx in your dominant hand, avoiding looking at the body that the curse sat protectively atop of. With one clean strike, you separated the rat’s head from its body, causing the entire mess to melt into a puddle of goo that then proceeded to evaporate into nothing.

The sword seemed pleased enough with the first exorcism, and you swished it in the air to clean it of the steaming innards of the curse. This seemed to make it happier than the actual act of fighting had, and you smiled slightly at the thought that the cursed tool was a vain one.

“I’ll polish you once we’re home,” you said, earning you a dash of approval from the sword. You patted the crossguard comfortingly and then turned to Gojo to see what his thoughts were, only to find that he was busy on his phone.

“Do you like my new background?” he said, showing you a picture of a beautiful woman. You rolled your eyes.

“Did you just have me exorcise that curse so that you could mess around?” you said.

“I would never dream of doing something like that,” he said.

“I get why Nanami doesn’t like you,” you said under your breath.

“What was that?” he said innocently. Your eyes widened before you smiled beatifically at him.

“Nothing. I’m assuming that wasn’t the main curse?” you said.

“Nope, it was just a bottom feeder taking advantage of the bigger curse’s leftovers,” he said.

“So that was a —”

“It’s best not to dwell on it,” he interrupted you before you could turn to look at the body once again. It had been mangled beyond belief and into the realm of obscurity, but maybe there had been a time where it had been something. Been someone. “Let’s go. Our job isn’t done yet.”

You wandered around with him for a bit, Gojo bidding you to dispatch the lower-level curses you encountered and you willingly doing so with a few motions of the Sword of Syrinx. It was barely difficult, though part of this was probably the nature of the boy at your side — his presence alone was enough to scare weaker things off, if they had the presence of mind to recognize his power.

“Say, Gojo,” you said as you continued to walk. “Did you ever put up a veil?”

“What?” he said, freezing and turning to look at you. You furrowed your brow.

“Er, a veil? Hinode said we have to put one up every time that we go on missions so that non-sorcerers don’t see us exorcising curses,” you said. Gojo’s face, which was already pale like the moon, became impossibly whiter, nearing the shade of his hair, and he began to inch backwards.

“I definitely did that! Also, unrelated, but I forgot something over there. Just wait and don’t move, okay?” he said, sprinting off, definitely not to put up a veil. You shook your head as you watched him disappear, a veil slowly creeping over the sky once he was well out of sight.

The Sword of Syrinx’s cursed energy spiked in warning, the closest thing it had to screaming in alarm. Immediately, you brandished it in front of you, tightening your lax muscles, every single one of your senses going on high alert as you tried to discern what it was warning you about.

“Who’s there?” you said. High, mocking laughter resounded in the air around you, and if you had not been holding onto your sword, you would’ve covered your ears in an effort to shield them from the pain that the sound caused. It was an unnatural sort of hurting, and you knew without a doubt that it was the work of the curse you and Gojo had been sent to exorcise, the main one, not the weaklings you had been working through up until now.

Gojo was off somewhere, probably still setting up the veil and playing with his phone, so you were well and truly alone. No, not alone — your constant companion, your sword, the one that had warned you in the first place, you did have that much. It would have to be enough to hold back the curse until Gojo could come and exorcise it fully.

First, you needed to locate the curse. It was obviously shying away from the intense aura radiating from the Sword of Syrinx, which was after all a special grade no matter who its wielder was, but the effect of the weapon would not last long. Almost as soon as you thought about it, as if it could read your mind, the curse appeared, in the form of a misshapen blob with almost as many eyes as it had tentacles.

You feinted a strike at its core before slicing at the tentacles that it shot forwards to defend itself, cutting them all off, though it did no good, as they immediately regenerated. The severed tentacles fell to the ground and flopped around uselessly, and you swore as you danced around them, trying to avoid tripping as you dodged the curse’s blows.

Every time you cut more tentacles off, more appeared. It was an endless cycle of the same thing, over and over — cut. Dodge. Cut. Dodge. Even with the Sword of Syrinx’s help, you were running out of energy, and you knew it wouldn’t be long before the tentacles got to you.

“Gojo!” you shouted, more in anger than fear. “What the hell are you doing, anyways?”

This time, a tentacle managed to lash against your ribcage, sending you sprawling onto your side. You managed to raise the Sword of Syrinx to block it from wrapping around your neck just in time, but the gooey cursed energy burst from the wound and directly onto your face, sluicing into your eyes and effectively blinding you for the moment. There was a wet ‘thwap’ as the piece you had cut off fell on the ground next to you, and you groaned, using one hand to keep your sword tentatively in front of you and the other to claw at your vision in a desperate attempt to make it return.

Before you could regain your sight, the curse’s assault abruptly stopped. There was an explosion of cursed energy, and then remnants of what had once been the creature came raining down, bits of it splashing against your skin and clothes, causing you to gag, both at the smell and the sensation. You knew why the curse had been dispatched so quickly: a bigger monster had arrived. Luckily for you, this monster was on your side.

“Wow, Y/N, you look disgusting!” Gojo said. A cloth rubbed against your face, wiping away the residuals of the curse, and you sighed in relief before allowing him to help you stand. He inspected his sleeve, which he must’ve used to clean you, with a slight pout.

“What took you so long?” you said, replacing the Sword of Syrinx back in its scabbard and glaring at him with your hands on your hips. “That was definitely not a lower grade curse, and you left me alone to deal with it!”

“Sorry,” he said. “I decided to change my background again. At least you didn’t die?”

“You decided your background was your biggest priority despite being in the middle of a mission?” you said.

“Aesthetics are one of the things I value most,” he said. “By the way, I’m hungry now. Exorcising curses always does it to me!”

“I hope you starve,” you said. Unfortunately, at that moment, your stomach grumbled, punctuating your statement ironically. Gojo pointed at you with a smirk.

“You’ll starve then, too. I can pay, if that’s what’s stressing you out,” he said. “I happen to be the head of my clan.”

“I’m sure they really appreciate a teenage boy spending their accumulated wealth on post-mission snacks,” you said. It remained that you were hungry, however, so you didn’t protest too much as he dragged you to the shop Geto had recommended and proceeded to buy you both one of everything.

Oddly enough, despite your initial reluctance and snark, you actually enjoyed yourself. Besides being a somewhat unreliable mission partner — though he had come through when it really mattered, so you couldn’t be too harsh — Gojo was fun to talk to, even if his sense of humor was a little childish on occasion. Plus, he had bought you so much food like it was nothing and offered to take you along the next time he and his friends went to the arcade, though the latter was done under the guise of saying Ieri needed a partner for the multiplayer games, so overall it was really a fun time.

“I don’t understand why you guys dislike Gojo so much,” you said that night, balancing the Sword of Syrinx on your lap as you polished it on the floor of Haibara’s room. Nanami, who was lying on Haibara’s bed with two cucumbers on his eyes, exhaled in defeat.

“How things can change in one day! How fickle the hearts of humans can be, that such even such a strong woman was swayed by the charms of the white-haired devil,” he said, reaching his hand out to the ceiling and then curling his fingers inwards like he was delivering a soliloquy. “Also, can I take these cucumbers off now?”

“No, man, your dark circles are really bad,” you said, deciding not to even acknowledge the rest of it, knowing it was probably influenced by the classic literature Hinode was making you all read. “Leave them on for a few more minutes or so.”

There was a loud crunching sound, and a mumbled apology fell from the lips of the guilty-faced Haibara. He was sitting at his desk, and technically, he was supposed to be finishing the essay you all had due last week. Hinode had been gracious enough to give him an extension, but he was far too busy munching on the leftover snacks you had brought to his room to get any work done.

“These are really good,” he said when you raised your eyebrows at him questioningly.

“Haibara, if you don’t turn that essay in, you’re literally going to fail. Do you know how impossible it is to fail Hinode’s class?” you said.

“It’s true,” Nanami said. “Some remarkable idiots have passed that class. I don’t want to name names, so let’s just call them…Nojo.”

“Nojo,” Haibara repeated incredulously.

“I thought you said that Gojo was decently smart, though?” you reminded him.

“I’m not talking about Gojo! I’m talking about Nojo,” Nanami said. “Different person. And, Haibara, if Nojo could pass, then I’ll never forgive you if you fail.”

“Especially if it’s just because you’re eating snacks that Nojo — sorry, Gojo, different person — bought instead of doing your late essay,” you added, using your nail to scrape away a stubborn bit of grime on the Sword of Syrinx, causing the sword to let out a contented trickle of energy.

“They’re just so delicious!” Haibara said.

“Look, Hinode said you have to turn the essay in by this Friday, right? That’s five days from now. He’s a pretty lenient grader, so you can probably get away with a standard five paragraph essay. That’s a paragraph per day. You can do that, right?” you said. Actually, for this specific assignment, your essay had ended up being about seven paragraphs, and Nanami’s had been six, but five would be sufficient. Anything more would just scare Haibara, and at this point, his grade was in such desperate need of help that even partial credit would be a blessing.

“A paragraph per day? It’ll be hard, but…I’ll do my best!” Haibara said. That was the nice thing about him. Once he was fired up about something, he would give it his all, and in the case of Hinode, who only cared about seeing some kind of effort, that was enough.

“Good job. Let us know if you need help,” you said as Haibara determinedly returned to his work, setting his snacks out of reach so that he had nothing resembling distractions in his way. He did not respond, evidently serious about finally focusing and doing his best, leaving you and Nanami to talk to each other.

“Can I get rid of the cucumbers now?” he said.

“No,” you said.

“I’m bored, though,” he said.

“Just take the time to relax. If you’re that bored, you can talk to me,” you said. He considered this as you switched the cleaning off the Sword of Syrinx’s scabbard.

“You really like Gojo now?” he said.

“Yes,” you said. “He invited me to his group’s arcade night next week so I can be Ieri’s partner. Do you want to come? If you go, Haibara can come and be your partner, so it’ll be all nice and even.”

“You can’t just invite people to other people’s gatherings,” he said. You put down your cleaning supplies and whipped out your phone, texting Gojo and waiting for his response. It came within a matter of seconds, and you tucked your phone away so you could continue to clean.

“Gojo said it was fine, and that he’s tried to convince you to come before but you’ve always said no,” you said. The tips of Nanami’s ears turned red.

“I mean, that’s a possibility,” he said. “I can faintly remember it happening like that, yeah.”

“It’ll be fun if you come. Don’t be a party pooper,” you said.

“Fine,” he said.

“Really?” you said.

“Don’t push it,” he threatened. “But yes. I’ll go. And I’m sure Haibara will, too, since he’ll have turned his essay in by then.”

“I’m excited now!” you said. “The second years feel so unreachable sometimes, but in the end, they’re just normal people. It’ll be fun to spend time with them in that context instead of as just their underclassmen. And of course, I always love hanging out with you and Haibara.”

“You have a point,” he said reluctantly.

“Look forward to it! It might be the only way we get through Hinode’s classes. I don’t know why he’s going through such a literature kick at the moment, but if we have to do one more interpretation of a book from the 1800s, I’m going to lose it,” you said.

“He’s not even licensed as a teacher,” Nanami said, peeling away the cucumbers and giving you an exasperated look. The effect was somewhat diminished by the ring of juices shimmering around his eyes. “He was hired to help us practice sorcery, so while giving papers on curse theory and the like is within the scope of his job, literature just…is not.”

You choked back a laugh. “What about the math?”

“I think he picked the wrong career path.”

The two of you could only manage to hold it in for a second longer, and then you dissolved into a fit of laughter and Nanami let out a dry chuckle — which, coming from him, was akin to hysterics.

“Guys!” Haibara whined, slamming his hands against his desk and swiveling in his chair to face you. “Can you quiet down? I’m almost done my essay.”

“Do you mean your paragraph?” you said.

“No, the entire essay. It’s amazing how fast I can work when I’m not eating and I’m actually concentrating,” Haibara said.

“That’s generally how it is, yes,” Nanami said.

“Okay, so do you two mind shutting up for a bit so I can finish? Then we can all talk together,” he said.

“Anything for you, boss,” you said, saluting at him.

“Finish quickly, alright?” Nanami said. “If you turn it in tomorrow, Hinode might even give you extra credit.”

Haibara’s eyes lit up, and he turned back to his essay with a newfound vigor. Discreetly, you tossed a pillow at Nanami, who did not even attempt to get out of the way, giving you a baleful look as it hit him in the chest.

“You’re such a liar,” you said.

“Anything to motivate him to work faster,” he said. “Now, stop talking before he gets distracted again.”

“Guys! I said shut up!”

The week seemed to pass by in a blur. Hinode was so shocked by Haibara’s newfound work ethic that he actually did end up giving him extra credit, and he even freed the three of you from the shackles of learning about classic literature, instead doing his real job, which was helping you learn how to become sorcerers. You managed to beat Haibara in a practice match, though it had the unfortunate side effect of him tackling you to the ground in a hug of congratulations, leaving your tailbone somewhat bruised and sore. Nanami, in a fit of inspiration, declared that while you might beat them in sparring, you would never come close to their arcade game prowess, as you wouldn’t have your sword to help you there.

The night finally came for all of you to go out. For once, you wore clothes that were not your uniform but casual and comfortable, and you felt entirely like a normal girl setting out to do normal things instead of a sorcerer-to-be whose life was constantly at risk due to the nature of the job.

“I’m sorry,” you said to the Sword of Syrinx, which was resting on the bookcase again. “I can’t exactly stroll around Tokyo with you, though. Don’t worry; Gojo and Geto will be there, so I won’t be in any danger.”

The sword seemed a little annoyed about being left behind, but all you could do was pat its scabbard in consolation before flicking off the lights and shutting the door as gently as you could. It was true that no matter how bad you felt for the strangely sentient cursed tool, there was no way you could carry it around with you amongst the many civilians of Tokyo. Anyways, no matter how sentient it might’ve seemed, it was also still a sword. A special grade cursed tool, yes, but a sword nevertheless, and as swords did not truly have emotions nor souls, there was only so far you could extend your sympathy for it.

“Hey, Y/N. Satoru told me you and the rest of the first years would be joining us tonight,” Geto said as you rounded the corner and almost ran into him. His smile was as soft and pleasant as his voice, and he did not seem to bear you any ill-will despite the fact that you had almost directly collided with him.

“Geto! Ah, yes, he invited us to come along. I hope that’s alright?” you said. Though he was far less obnoxious and in-your-face about it, Geto was the other half of the strongest duo. He was the only man that could stand against Satoru Gojo and win, so it would do you well to show him some respect.

“Of course! I would’ve asked you myself if we ever had the chance to speak,” he said, keeping pace with you effortlessly, his hands shoved in his pockets and his warm eyes contemplative.

“I didn’t realize you wanted to talk to me,” you admitted.

“You’re my underclassman. Why would I not want to talk to you?” he said, reaching out and ruffling your hair fondly. Ordinarily, you would snap at anyone who dared to touch your hair, but when Geto did it, it was different. It felt kind, caring, the way you assumed it would be if an affectionate older brother did such a thing. You could not be upset by it, so you decided that he would be your one exception.

“I never thought about it like that,” you said.

“If you ever need anything, you can definitely ask me,” he said. “Or Satoru. Or Shoko! I mean, you can come to all of us.”

“Thank you,” you said, embarrassed by how kind he was. It didn’t feel special, either; just as being fed up was part of Nanami’s personality, being kind was part of Geto’s. He was simply like this, you assumed, with everyone.

“Has Tokyo been treating you well? And what about those classmates of yours?” he said. “Because if either of them have been acting up, you just let me know, and I’ll send a couple of curses after them. Small ones, of course, the kind that would do little more than give them a scare in the middle of night, but I think that would be enough to get a laugh out of us both.”

“Tokyo has been wonderful. The same goes for Nanami and Haibara, so no need to sic the curses on them quite yet — if that ever changes, you’ll be the first person I call,” you said. “It’s really been so different from home.”

“Is that a good thing?” he said.

“Yes, I would say. I feel like I’m accepted here in a way I wasn’t before,” you said, tapping your chin in thought. “People outside of the sorcery world can’t really understand those in it. Did you know that?”

“My parents aren’t sorcerers, either,” he said. “I’d wager I know it as well as you do.”

He did not offer more, and you did not inquire. Whatever his past was, it was his alone, as yours belonged to you. But you had this much in common, that both of you were born of non-sorcerers who would never, not truly, know what it was like.

Sometimes, you wondered what your parents were doing, if they missed you, or if they were relieved that you were gone now. Surely, it was the latter, as they had never made any attempts to contact you, but the smallest, most childish part of you wanted it to be true that they regretted sending you away, that every day they ached for your return.

“It’s nice to have friends, as well,” you said. “Nanami and Haibara, they are so different from each other and from anyone I’ve ever met, but I would not trade them for the entire world. They are very precious to me.”

Nanami with his reluctance to do just about anything and the way he would do just about everything, just because he cared about you and Haibara. Haibara and his cheerfulness, making it impossible to be sad for very long at all. Where would you be without them? Who would you be without them? They had forced you out of a shell you hadn’t even realized was built around you. They helped you take aching, vulnerable steps into a new world where you were strong, where you were brave, where you were yourself.

“And what about exorcising curses and whatnot? Has that been alright?” he said. The concern was nice. It evoked the same emotion in you that had arisen when Yaga had shown anger at your past circumstances: a kind of gratitude that there existed someone who cared about you.

“I’ve only gone on that one mission with Gojo, but it went well enough. My cursed technique hasn’t manifested yet, so I mostly rely on the Sword of Syrinx, but that’s a special grade cursed tool, so it could be worse,” you said.

“You have a technique?” he said.

“According to Hinode, it’s some ancient technique called Hummingbird’s Blessing. It allows its user to borrow the strength of the hummingbird. I still don’t know what it means, let alone how it’s used, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out,” you said.

“Hm,” Geto said. “I know it sounds like a weak technique, and I don’t know the details, so I could be entirely wrong, but might I say something?”

“Go ahead,” you said, the rest of the students coming into view. For some reason, Haibara and Nanami were diligently massaging Ieri’s shoulders, and Gojo was taking pictures of the spectacle with a digital camera. Noticing you and Geto approaching, he turned the flash on and snapped a shot of the two of you walking together, one you were sure would be absolutely horrible, considering both of you had been caught entirely by surprise and weren’t even facing the camera when the photo was taken.

“The simplest techniques tend to be the most powerful. See, the more complicated a technique is, the more restrictions it usually has. Or, alternatively, the cost of cursed energy to use it is so high that it’s barely ever a viable option. But if you can take a weak, straightforward technique and use your mind a bit,” he said, tapping you on the forehead. “That’s how you really become strong.”

Flash. “Cute pose! These are going to come out so good!”

“Gojo!” you said, startled both by the blinding light of the camera and his sudden appearance in between you and Geto. “Will you at least take one of me where I’m looking at the camera?”

“Sure!” he said, taking the opportunity to take another picture, this one likely of you scowling directly into the lens.

“When I know what’s going on and have time to prepare!” you said. Perhaps you had been a bit too hasty in saying you liked him.

“Eventually,” he said. “Now, the question is, do we convince the managers to drive us, or do we just walk?”

“It’s a nice night out,” Ieri said. “I don’t mind either way. Walking will give me more time to strategize with my new teammate, however, so if you guys are feeling threatened, then we should call a manager.”

“We’re not threatened!” Gojo said.

“We’re the strongest. Do you think we’ll let you two beat us? We’d never live it down,” Geto added. Ieri exhaled a puff of smoke from the cigarette dangling between her teeth and turned back to wink at you.

“Then I suppose we’re walking,” she said, looping her arm through yours and using her other hand to motion the others forward. “Go on, now, we can’t have you all eavesdropping on our groundbreaking strategies.”

Of the four, only Haibara was impressed, his eyes sparkling and his jaw dropping, likely at the thought of you and Ieri having ‘groundbreaking strategies.’ He bowed, and it was made even more humorous by the fact that he was probably being completely serious with it.

“We’ll let you two discuss. I look forward to seeing what you come up with,” he said, grabbing the back of Nanami’s shirt and using it to yank him forwards, away from you and Ieri. Gojo and Geto exchanged looks before simultaneously shrugging and following after them, leaving you and Ieri to take up the rear at a more sedate speed.

“What groundbreaking strategies are you thinking of?” you said.

“I just have one,” she said, holding up her pointer finger for emphasis.

“Let’s hear it, then,” you said.

“Beat Suguru and Satoru,” she said. You waited for her to elaborate. She did not.

“Sounds like a plan,” you said. “Are you good at games?”

“No,” she said. “Are you?”

You winced. “No.”

“That’s fine. We’ll just have to go the old-fashioned route,” she said firmly, elbowing you in the side.

“What’s that?” you said, tilting your head towards her curiously. Her face split into a conniving smile.

“Lying, cheating, and scamming our way to the top.”

“How the hell did we lose again?” Gojo screamed, banging on his controller like he was trying to force it into working.

“I guess you guys just aren’t as good as Y/N and I,” Ieri said, tossing her hair.

“Where is Y/N, anyways?” Nanami said, narrowing his eyes at Ieri.

“Bathroom. Uh…womanly issues?” she said. Nanami made a face.

“Alright,” he said.

“I hope she’s doing okay, she’s been gone for a while. Oh, I know! We should all buy her some chocolate! That’ll cheer her up, right? I mean, chocolate helps because of its high magnesium content, so it’ll make her feel better,” Haibara said.

“Yes. You all should go get her some chocolate,” Ieri said.

“Good idea, Haibara,” Geto said. “I’m sure she’ll really appreciate it. Let’s go.”

“I still can’t believe we lost to her and Shoko,” Gojo said as the four of them walked away in search of chocolate to offer to you.

“You can come out now,” Ieri said. You slid out from behind the machine, where you had been manipulating the controls to make it seem like your team had won more points than Gojo, Geto, Haibara, and Nanami combined. “Nice job.”

“It was so worth it,” you said. “You’ll mess with the next game?”

“Think they’ll be suspicious if we’re both experiencing ‘womanly issues’ at the same time?” she said, making air quotes with her fingers to highlight the sarcasm. You peered around the corner, where the four of them seemed to be arguing about which chocolate had the highest magnesium content, and then shook your head.

“Nah, I doubt they even know what that means,” you said.

She high-fived you. “They are going to feel so bad by the time the night is over.”

You smiled, half out of affection for the boys coming back with bags upon bags of chocolate in tow, half out of affection for the girl in front of you who you barely knew but could already consider a fast friend.

“Y/N! We got chocolate for you,” Haibara said, thrusting the bags in your hand. “Wait, where did Ieri go?”

“She’s a bit under the weather,” you said. From underneath the game machine, Ieri snorted, which none of them seemed to take heed of. “I’m sure she'll be back soon. We can probably get another round in while we wait.”

“We’ll win this time!” Gojo said.

They did not win that time, nor the time after that, nor even the time after that. In fact, whether by chance or fate or perhaps copious amounts of subterfuge on yours and Ieri’s part, they never won again.

#kashimo x reader #kashimo x you #kashimo x y/n #canon au #reader insert #hurricanes / hummingbirds #m1ckeyb3rry writes

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wainwrightjakobshammerlock · 8 months

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Alistair Hammerlock headcanons dump to go with the Wainwright one I did :3

trans man, also has been on t for decades. no surgeries aside from a hysterectomy that was for several reasons.

can draw very well considering how many sketches he does of creatures and whatnot. don't ask him to color those sketches in, though.

pianist. i like assigning characters instruments and he feels like a guy who got taught it at a young age and never really forgot

pretentious about alcohol, though not to the extent of his husband

has hyperactive type adhd and autism. also has been medicated for the former for years. do not let him off meds or he will become a menace

doesn't like coffee, because it makes him sleepy, but also because of the taste. the only coffee he will ever drink is those starbucks syrupy abominations

fluent in french and scottish gaelic, but knows bits and bobs of many other languages. also knows a lot of latin (i am saying this as someone studying biology, a lot of that is taken from either latin or greek)

primarily a vestibular and auditory stimmer

quite stronk & muscular. due to the regular exercise and such. he could bridal carry wainwright without much effort

his mechanical eye has an additional mode where he basically gets a sort of partial night vision with it

bites into icecream popsicles

aries sun

highly pretentious about tea flavors also. what can i say he's a hermesian gentleman who loves his tea time. (later manages to rope wainwright into his daily teatime rituals, and it genuinely becomes a regular point of their day)

goes to bed early, wakes up early (unless he gets hit with his weakness: a certain edenian telling him to stay in bed a bit longer). somehow doesn't feel sleepy that much

the little spoon

genuine long time friend of moxxi's. back in the bl2 days, he'd often "keep peace" in her bar, so to speak. mopping up what was a rude patron's head a second ago and such

hunting besties with fl4k, to the point where they genuinely consider him their valued packmate

perfect gaydar. he can spot gay and trans people before they themselves realize they're queer. the one person he couldn't clock in time was wainwright, curiously enough

cigar smoker, but it's not an addiction situation by any means. sometimes a gentleman needs his vice yknow

has a ton of relationship experience. however all of his previous partners (except for mister torgue, who he's still on friendly terms with) are either dead or broke up with him

was taught fencing, and still knows how to. another thing he taught his husband how to do, and sometimes they have (quite homoerotic) duels

aside from doing all those taxidermies himself, sometimes he'll make other things out of the creatures he hunts - fur coats, teeth necklaces, lil carved ornaments, or just a nice meaty stew (he can cook pretty damn well)

an accomplished writer (by bl3)! he prefers typewriters as his tool of the trade because they go clicky clacky, have "impact" and aren't too hard on the eyes

#my post #borderlands #alistair hammerlock #sir hammerlock #bl2 #bl3 #text post #headcanons

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mangodestroyer · 5 months

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You know? As a math major who has taken a History of Mathematics course, I would find it very hard to believe that Aziraphale isn't interested in math. He sure as Hell would have been following its development throughout the years.

He would have started out watching humans only knowing the numbers one and two and keeping track of things that way. And seen humans use things like the Ishango or Lebombo bone (they're bones with a bunch of lines carved into them and one theory is that they're believed to have been used to keep track of lunar cycles).

Later on, he would have witnessed humans discovering the fundamentals of algebra and geometry. And he would have also seen many of the uses for it as well. He would have seen the new accounting systems and more complicated architecture developing in various civilizations.

He would have witnessed all the weird shit happening with Pythagoras and his cult. Along with all the other drama involving mathematics throughout the years, like the huge controversy over irrational numbers (I mean, blood was literally shed over this, a person died for believing they were a thing). The burning of the Library of Alexandria (in which a lot of information, including math info, was lost). The early Christians opposing math as they thought it was somehow against God (which was probably painful for Aziraphale to witness, and idk how this would have played out in the GOs universe/if this was really anyone's doing or just humans being humans).

And then later seeing math make a come back in the Western world (and no, math was never just isolated to the Western world, there have been many discoveries in civilizations in other parts of the world that happened separately from Western civilizations, such as the quipu accounting system used by the Inca, and the fact that the Pythagorean theorem was discovered multiple times in different parts of the world, long before the Greeks discovered it). Math started becoming a lot more interesting once Calculus came into play. Math started to evolve RAPIDLY. The new math also branched into many different areas of science, and many more big, yet controversial, discoveries were made. This has continued up to the current day, where we now have lots of different branches of pure math which have yet to find real world application (as they are very abstract, albeit logically sound), along with many new forms of applied mathematics that hadn't previously been considered. At this point, maybe it became difficult to keep track of all of it.

Needless to say, Aziraphale had to have been getting involved with some of the math people throughout history. At the very least, he was reading about it. And who knows? Maybe Crowley even inspired some of the inventions that tended to require some applications of math (even if he wasn't as into it). He is the creative one, after all.

I'm not sure how much mathematics celestial beings would know by default. If they even use math the same way humans do, or if they have completely different tools for understanding the world around them as interdimensional beings (I would think though that this still involves understanding math, even if only on a subconscious level, or with a different presentation). It would be interesting though if humans happen to discover many nuances about the universe that celestial beings never noticed. Maybe learning math even helps Aziraphale learn how to better perform miracles, as math gives him a better understanding of logic (and I assume miracles, to some extent, are bounded by more rules than we're shown in canon). Also, some people believe that numbers have magical properties. This has been a thing throughout history and is even a feature in many religions. What if there's something to that in the GOs universe?

#good omens

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bijoumikhawal · 9 months

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Qåmtsu vs Cardassian Coming of Age

The age of emergence in Cardassian culture is well known and commonly accepted fanon. But aside from that term and the association with it marking maturity, not much is established in the sources being drawn from. The age at which it occurs is itself ambiguous; it could be anywhere from 12-14 (the age a similar event occurs in many human cultures) to as old as ones 20s. What we can gather is this is an age at which one starts an apprenticeship or specialized schooling, and that the ceremony itself takes place at school:

One day, shortly after the emergent ceremony at school where I was acknowledged as a man, I came home ready to assist Father (Tolan) at the dedication of the Boltar War Memorial.

Given that this is when Garak is informed he'll be attending Bamarren, one can surmise this event was when or shortly after the current schooling he was receiving ended.

I've gone back and forth on what age I think this occurs at; an age as old as 27 could fit with how Cardassians value age, and would be really funny in a crack treated seriously fic. However it still feels unlikely. Currently I feel settled that it's probably around 14-17 years of age.

The link to education means there's likely a form of graduation ceremony as well. I don't think Cardassians would bother with having most students walk on a stage: that's reserved for students of particular merit being called up to receive acknowledgement. The school head and a representative from the local government both give a speech to the students in attendance at the start of the ceremony about their shift into adulthood, the new expectations they face, and the responsibilities of being a citizen, and then honors are acknowledged.

My personal headcanon is that it was a cultural norm for Cardassians of all genders to keep their hair long, with short hair being reserved for widows, spinsters, military personnel, and those condemned to death. However, when the military gained greater control over the government, a new custom was introduced; cutting a boys hair at their age of emergence. Quickly, a hairstyle originally for the military became the norm for men past this age. Deviations from this are found, but are scrutinized for a perceived link to dissident politics. Some families keep the shorn hair, but other discard it- one's wishes are made known to the barber beforehand.

Aside from this, given that it's at school, I think individualized elements would done be at home. Those personalized elements might be gifts for the path the child is expecting to go now- tools for their trade, supplies relevant to their schooling, or even their first mijast. Young women are often also given gifts of makeup and jewelry. Some families throw parties, others go on special trips. Some simply go home and have smaller, more intimate acknowledgements of the occasion.

Around this age reflects shifts in dress, grooming, behavior, and so on, to reflect a more adult outlook on life. Before this point, informal romantic relationships and flirtations are discouraged as being too soon- after this point, it's a matter seen as being taken into one's own hands, to a certain extent. Child forms of play are set aside, and many children gather up toys and games considered age inappropriate now and get rid of them- the current manner is to give them to younger relatives or second hand shops. Historically, record exists of symbolic burnings of these items as well, a very weighty symbolic gesture in Cardassian culture.

The Cardassian age of emergence, taken as something from around 14-17 represents a tension between social perceptions; while much fuss, particularly under especially military dominated eras, is made that one's childhood is over, in practice one is still seen by immature by family and regarded as a child. However, this is the age when military enlistment can begin, and secondary education, and both environments particularly stress this end of childhood. Youths tend to naturally adopt this thinking, but often when looking back still categorize a fair amount of time after their age of emergence as childhood (see; Palandine's remarks as an adult about Bamarren). Cardassian society never developed a solid concept of a teenager, leading to an interstitial period marked by the competing perceptions of family and state, and the lack of its acknowledgement.

The Qåmtsu coming of age ceremony on the other hand, is tied to a date relevant to the individual instead of being on the same day for everyone. This was originally done not long after a child has lived for a kashmim (a season on Cardassia, equivalent to 9 Earth years). This is usually when Cardassians-as-a-species children hit a several month long growth spurt where they grow to equal size with other humanoid children, as opposed to the 2/3 size found in younger children and babies. By this point most will also loose the iridescent purple striping intended as camouflage, and their ridges will become more defined. This occurs at later ages if one is nutruent deficient, and earlier in history happened at slightly later ages overall- making Qåmtsu coming of age occur at around 11 years old throughout certain periods of history. Once this has occurred and is over with, a child is taken to a religious official (typically a Guide, Archivist, or Voice), who is given the information of when and where they were born and sets a date for ceremonies to begin. This is done through an astrological examination. They may also consult the divine, other supernatural entities, or the dead relatives of the child if they feel they need clarification on when to set the date.

The first part of the coming age ceremony, specific to the Qåmtsu, is called the sewing of boats. Historically this also involved the child, with the aid of their family, making a canoe or coracle that could hold 2-4 people. While Cardassians as a species are prodigious swimmers, boats are a faster and less exhausting form of travel, and especially useful in the Delta that forms the heartland of historic Qåmtsu territory, and also provides a vehicle for carrying catches of fish in. The two most common constructions were from reeds or from a skin or leather (fish leather being the rarest) stretched over a frame. Both methods- bundling and connecting reeds together, or attaching the leather- often involved the use of cord, hence the "sewing" translation.

Dugouts and similar boat constructions were not especially common as Orallian religious law has very specific- and restrictive- discussion of how lumber should be felled. In short, it's only allowable to fell a whole tree if it's going to die soon of illness or injury. Multiple workarounds for this have been found, including cutting large branches & employing complex wood joining, and the use of pollarding (allowing potentially quite thick trunks of wood to be harvested while leaving the base tree alive and healthy for a long time).

After the formation of the Union, this aspect has increasingly been left aside as its become increasingly difficult to dedicate time and resources to boat making. The second aspect was to take the craft out into the delta or river, often at daybreak. The child and 1-3 adults from their family would board- usually these were parents, but not always. Previously this served as a test of skill- while the older family helped the child, they were put in charge of the overall process. If the craft took on water or broke apart (without an unforeseen accident occuring) the process would be reattempted on a regular basis until a worthy craft was made. After this success, the boat in whole or part was often hung up on the wall of a home to commemorate the achievement. Once on the water and a fair distance away from the shore, tradition calls for one to catch a fish with your bare hands- typically the child disembarks to do so. This is likely not the first fish the child has ever caught, but it will be the first with this method. Back ashore, the child also prepares the fish and has to eat it without spitting it out. During this part the child is supervised and rescued if in danger, but not aided in completing the task.

After the boat comes back to shore, Qåmtsu children have their hair put up with a pin and have a sprang cap tightened over some or all of their hair. Qåmtsu hairpins have a kite shaped pin and a large head. This pin is made to be used as a weapon in emergencies, and some examples have a spike hidden in a sheath design. In Cardassian culture, loose hair is primarily seen as disorderly; in Hebitian cultures, hair often contains sensual connotations, so after the coming of age loose hair is inappropriate. This was also why other Hebitian cultures favored covering the hair. This is also when parents stopped doing their children's hair outside of instances of illness; one would be responsible for their own grooming from now on. All together the pin generally represented responsibility for oneself, a shift in behavior as one was recognized to carry new responsibilities and expectations, and a right & the appropriate discernment to exercise self defense.

After this is also when it's acceptable for one to begin getting scarification marks (which occupy a similar cultural space to tattoos for Cardassians and Hebitians). Most still put this off for some time, however. Another cosmetic change is that before this, children historically wore a knee length blouse. After the sewing of a boat, they would change to wearing adult clothes- kilts by themselves, a blouse and a kilt, proper dresses, etc.

Between this and the completion of the second set of ceremonies, many youths participate in informal competitions as well, such as seeing who's fish was the largest, wrestling, games, singing, and so on. Some parents discourage this as they feel the competitive nature distracts from the lessons being conferred by the coming of age ceremonies, and can even undermine them. Others view it as giving a child a balanced understanding of life, or as harmless fun.

The other part of the Qåmtsu coming of age ceremony only occurs after a successful boating, and is done across Orallaist Hebitian communities. Recall that in the meeting Garak walked into, there was a section where two random Hebitians, a man and a woman, were called up in front of everyone and put on a mask before reciting poetry and channeling the spirit of Oralius, as well as subsequent recitations, chants, and reading from the Hebitian Records. These two are different people every time, and they are called up at least once at all religious services- typically, the same two people serve all the functions during a service, but larger gatherings may select multiple pairs to come up. The first time this occurs is after the sewing of boats. Orallaist Hebitians practice for this for a few weeks beforehand, and once ready are presented to a religious official again, who chooses another date for the child's first recitation. Typically the two people chosen to recite to each other have contrasting masculine and feminine qualities; this does not mean reciting pairs are always male and female, though it is common.

Among the Qåmtsu, these masks are passed down in families, and each family normally has two. Once a parent dies, the masks are given to their oldest child, sibling, or cousin, in that order. Because of the political shift and forced assimilation that happened close to the beginning of the Bajoran Occupation, these masks have often been seized by the government, stolen and sold to collectors (Romulans have an odd affection for Hebitian artifacts. Some Vulcans believe it to be a slight as they host a large diaspora community), or destroyed out of fear, leaving families with one mask or none at all. These recitation masks of the laity have hooks over the ears, which distinguishes them from those used by Guides and Archivists, which have hooks above the eye ridges that attach to the crowns worn when they are in use. When a mask can't be used any longer, it's put in a cask and interred in a burial chamber. A new one is made by a specialized artisan.

The people who does the recitations often read in tandem with each other from the Hebitian Records as well. The Hebitian Records are a record spanning a few thousand years of Pre-Union history. Passages are selected from this to be read out at religious meetings based on theme- certain dates have specific readings associated with them, while others are chosen at discretion. These do not have regional variation and usually center on the goings on of major population centers, with a secondary purpose of serving as a guide to laws and major rituals. The stories within center mortals (Cardassian species and spiritual neighbors).

The first dozen volumes are condensed historical records in comparison to later volumes, marking when the Hebitian Record began being officially compiled. These are more common to select readings from. Subsequent volumes were complied primarily from intentionally created "source notations", and are more detailed. The source notations are more detailed than the final volumes. At the end of a solar year on Cardassia Prime (equivalent to 39 Earth years), the specially created source notations and additional materials of interest would be selected by a council of regional Guides and compiled into a new volume. "Canonical" copies of this would be made amd added to regional collections; these would be kept under restricted access and were used as reference when copies for broader distribution were made. People stopped officially adding to the Record a century before the formation of the Union due to political unrest, though what are known as "Minor Records" from more fragmented local perspectives also exist and have been compiled in similar ways.

The other book often read from is called the Beginning of Memory, which could be considered "myths" primarily, and are subject to a lot of regional and familial variation. These primarily discuss gods, spirits, culture heros, etc. In addition to the preparation before a child's first recitation, they are given the opportunity to chose which passages from both of these that they'd like to read. They have to come to an agreement with the other child doing the reading on which will be read.

All together the Qåmtsu coming of age ceremonies take at least a 30 days, and in practice can take up to a(n Earth) year, or even two. The average is around 90 days. While some stigma was carried with taking longer, the important part was a child being able to complete the set of ceremonies successfully, not to suffer (or worse, die) because they couldn't do it on the first try. The ceremonies not only mark a transition in life stage, they're a preparation for it. Some Qåmtsu, in both Union populations under suppression and diaspora communities, have moved the coming of age ceremonies to the later age associated with the age of emergence.

Both ceremonies have historically marked when a child can start to be betrothed, but in practice this has not been the case for quite some time for the Qåmtsu, as only wealthy and aristocratic families bothered with betrothals at all. This is also an age when a child could seek out "marriage", but in practice this was not something done for quite some time and more served as a social go ahead for juvenile fumbling. Cardassians do still begin some betrothals/engagements at the age of emergence, but this is not the most common practice. This also skews to the upper class, but betrothals are more broadly practiced overall by Cardassians.

Both also mark that the child can now be expected to participate in martial affairs. While Hebitians are known to emphasize peace and agreements, the Qåmtsu outright acknowledge violence in the killing of an animal and the hairpin's multiple purposes. After the completion of their coming of age is when a person would begin to learn martial arts (which doubled as dances).

#cipher talk #cardassians #Hebitians #DS9 #My worldbuilding

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series-thoughts · 9 months

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Breaking the Dollhouse - Chapter Two

Word Count: 2.3K

Summary: What would have happened if Junior survived and was taken by Tiffany from the hospital? What would that mean for Junior and Nica over the next year?

Notes: So, there was a lot of talk about the reality of how Nica and, in this case, Junior would have been treated during the year of imprisonment which resulted in a lot of pain. On the bright side that did lead to opportunities to write Junior and Nica bonding more.

Tags: @losersclubisms

Over that past month, Junior had become a better actor than 'Jennifer Tilly'. Whilst Tiffany's act had begun to crumble in Junior's eyes, his was only getting stronger the more time he spent with her and Nica. After that first encounter with Nica, Junior had learnt that the child-like excitement Tiffany would often display which he had mistakenly taken for kindness. Maybe even a sign that she had simply become stuck in that situation like him, was really just the extent of her insanity.

He was grateful that in all the chaos, that wasn't the only revelation. After that first meeting with Nica, he settled into a steady routine of sneaking into the room to talk with her after Tiffany had gone to bed. Junior was grateful for the comfort it brought him, Nica was the polar opposite of Tiffany. Where Tiffany was playful but self absorbed, Nica was realistic and selfless. It made him feel safe, or at least as safe as he could given the circumstances.

Tiffany had insisted on the three of them spending more time together and keeping up the act, Junior had managed to convince Tiffany to stop drugging Nica as much. He had been adamant with Tiffany that he wanted to get to know 'her girlfriend' better and that it would be easier if she was drugged less, with how little she had been responding.

Nica was just as grateful for Junior's company, not only for the fact it meant she was alert enough to form full sentences. Junior had been the first person in almost 5 years to not look at her as if she was a tool in their game or worse still, a monster that butchered her whole family. She enjoyed listening about his life and being able to talk to someone about Chucky without them looking at her like she was insane.

That's where she found herself now, once again in that hideous room with Junior sat cross legged on the end of the bed, delving into another story about his father's horrible treatment of him. Even though hearing about his father's treatment of him made Nica's blood boil, she was happy to listen to his venting. She could remember how Barb's treatment of her hurt and she only had to deal with that when she came to visit, with Junior having had to deal with that constantly, the least she felt she could do was be willing to listen to and support him. To be the kind of person she used to wish for.

"He was always so obsessed with me 'being a man.' You know?"

"Ironic, he definitely wasn't much of one if he had to pick on his own kid."

Junior smiled at her response, happy to have someone on his side before lying on his back at the foot of the bed.

"Nica?"

"Hmm?" She responded as she moved a piece of hair out of his face.

"What was your dad like? You've never mentioned him."

Nica gave a sad smile at the comment.

"I don't really know. Chucky drowned him a couple of weeks before I was born."

Oh, now Junior thought about it, he knew it made sense, Nica had told him about how her mother had been kidnapped and that Chucky had stabbed her when she was in the womb. How he had returned to finish the family off. She hadn't mentioned her dad in any of that.

"Did your mom ever talk about him?"

"Not often, it was too painful for her. She was sick basically my whole life, mentally." She added when Junior looked up, she knew about what had happened with his own mother. "I had to do a project when I was in the 1st grade about my family. That was the most I remember her talking about him and even then all I found out was that his name was Daniel, he worked an office job and had dark hair like me, which I knew from photos."

"Your mom being sick is why they thought it was a suicide at first. I'm sorry." Junior responded softly. Nica gave him a small smile and stroked his hair, “It’s okay, you couldn’t have known. He was kind, or at least I like to think he was. We found an old video the night Chucky attacked from before I was born, he was playing and messing about with my sister and mom was so happy.”

Junior stayed silent for a few minutes, enjoying the feeling as Nica continued to stroke his hair. It was comforting, the kind of physical affection he had been craving since he lost his mom, whenever Tiffany tried to be affectionate it always felt wrong. Possessive rather than comforting.

“What are you gonna do? Once you get out of here?”

“Try to clear my name, or change my identity. I haven't really thought about anything past that. I still think you should come too. I know I was heavily drugged but I meant it, it’s not safe here.”

“She doesn’t lock me in my room like she does with you and she lets me eat as much as I want. My dad never let me do that, so it’s not that bad.” It took Nica a moment to properly process what Junior just said, what on earth had his father done to make him consider THIS as ok?

“Honey, that’s not okay. The way your dad treated you was unacceptable but so is the way Tiffany is treating you. She won’t even let you go outside! When I get out of here, you are coming with me. You deserve a proper childhood, at least what you have left of it.”

In all honesty, Junior wasn’t sure if he did. The longer he was free from his dad the more he thought about how he used to act, the more he grew ashamed. At this point, he wouldn’t be surprised if his cousin had celebrated his ‘death’ after the way he had treated him. He missed when they were younger and they got along, before things got complicated, they had been practically inseparable back then.

“Tiffany asked me to stay in my room tomorrow, because of the twins visiting.”

“You aren’t meeting them? Her playing happy families and all? I get why I’m not but I thought she would introduce you.”

“She says she will during a later visit, she doesn’t think it’s the right time yet.” He watched Nica roll her eyes at that comment, Junior knew she was holding back some snide comment about Tiffany’s behaviour.

“You’ll be okay tomorrow? Won't you?” She asked quietly.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ll still come and see you once they are in bed.” Sure, Junior was expecting to spend the next day a little bored, but at least he could catch up on some sleep after talking to Nica all night. It couldn’t be that bad.

It was.

Junior had severely overestimated how considerate Tiffany was and he was currently paying the price for it. The twins had arrived a little after half 10 that morning and Tiffany had hurriedly told him to go to his room and keep quiet as she wheeled Nica (who was once again drugged) to hers.

It was now 10 pm and he could still hear Tiffany talking to the twins through the vents, a trick Nica had let him in on after he first visited her. Tiffany hadn’t come to see him once, his stomach had started to growl hours ago when he smelt whatever Tiffany had been cooking. He knew she didn’t want Glen and Glenda to meet him yet but surely she would still bring him food? Junior hadn’t even questioned that, even if she didn’t tell them what she was doing she changed outfits enough that she could have brought him food without them knowing.

He felt awful, he hadn't been able to sleep at all. He was too afraid, too hungry, too thirsty and alone. He had truly believed that after he killed his dad he would never have to suffer through hunger like this again, especially with how much food Tiffany usually offered him. For now he was lying on his bed, curled up in a ball wishing the pain in his stomach would stop. Surely Tiffany would bring him something before she goes to bed, right? He had seriously started to consider drinking the water from the tap in the bathroom that was attached to his room. The only thing that was stopping him was that he didn’t know how safe it was, Tiffany was supposed to be getting someone to check it but she was taking her time out of fear of them finding him or Nica.

Gods, Nica. Was she okay? He wished he could go and see her, being alone was making the whole experience so much worse. He wanted to feel safe again. He was so glad he had eaten a snack and drank some water before Tiffany ushered him to his room, Nica probably hadn’t had anything since breakfast.

It wasn’t for another two hours that Tiffany and the twins finally decided to go to bed, Junior got out from under his blanket and sat up, hoping to hear the click of Tiffany’s heels making her way to his room. Half an hour later and he knew it wasn’t happening, the house was silent apart from the growls of his stomach. He made his way out of his room and went straight to the kitchen and downed an entire bottle of water. It made him feel sick but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He moved his way around the room grabbing as much food as he could carry in his arms, along with more bottles of water. Junior only hoped that the twins wouldn’t look in the cupboards for snacks the next day and made his way down to Nica’s room.

Nica had given up trying to distract Chucky hours ago, she just allowed him to continue talking shit as she drowned him out. She had no idea what time it was, she couldn’t see the clock where Tiffany had left her and now that the drugs had worn off she could feel that Tiffany must have tied her hands together before gagging her. As she focused a little more she realised she could no longer hear people talking, it must be late. Too late, Junior was normally there by now. What if he was hurt? What if Tiffany had lost her temper? No. She couldn’t think like that. She tried to focus on her breathing, anything she could to distract her when she heard the familiar sound of Junior picking the lock. She turned her head as much as she could to see him stumble through the door with his arms full of water and snacks. Once he caught sight of her, he dumped the supplies on the bed before moving to untie her. He was pale, that was the first thing Nica noticed, that and his hands shaking as he began to untie her. By the time Nica was untied and making her way back from the bathroom she was met with Junior sitting in his usual place at the foot of the bed, practically inhaling the food in his hands. Nica quickly pulled herself up onto the bed and Junior looked up at her.

“The food is for you too, that’s why I brought so much.”

“Thank you.” Junior was instantly back to devouring the food in front of him, Nica saw the fear in his eyes when he had looked up at her. She slowly sipped some water and started eating as she continued to watch Junior. If Nica hadn’t wanted to kill Tiffany before, she certainly did now. She gently put a hand over the boy's wrist, “Honey, you need to slow down a bit, okay? You’ll make yourself sick eating that fast.” He took her advice before looking up at her again and Nica could see the unshed tears in his eyes. She gave him a small smile as she reached over and placed her hand on his cheek. It seemed to calm him down a little as they continued to eat.

Once they were both feeling better they moved the rest of the food and water to the side before Nica spoke again. “She didn’t give you any food, did she?” The tears returned to Junior's eyes at the question and she shook his head. “Come here.” She spoke gently and she held her arms out to him. He hugged her back instantly, clinging to her as if she could disappear at any moment. He could feel her stroking his hair again as a few tears escaped his eyes. Safe. He wasn’t entirely sure how long he stayed there, slowly calming down as Nica held him. He could just hear her voice, “You’re okay now. You’re gonna be okay, I promise.” Eventually, Junior released her from his grip and sat back.

“Are you feeling a little better now?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He paused for a minute, still trying to gather his thoughts, “I think I want to go with you. When we find a way for you to escape, I want to go with you. Is that okay?”

“Of course that’s okay, honey. We’ll find a way out.” She could see Junior’s eyes begin to droop. “You should get some sleep.”

“I’m fine. I don’t wanna go back yet.” Nica quickly moved one of the blankets over to him, “I’ll wake you before Tiffany is up.”

Junior lay down and began to put the blanket over himself, “What about the twins?” he asked through a yawn.

“They’re teenagers, they won't be up before Tiffany usually is. Just close your eyes for a while.” She began stroking his hair once again.

“G’night.” he mumbled, already drifting off.

“Goodnight, baby.”

#chucky #chucky 2021 #child's play #chucky syfy #nica pierce #junior wheeler #tiffany valentine #glen ray tilly #glenda ray tilly #Breaking the Dollhouse #chucky fanfiction

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pandoratheprocrasticreator · 1 year

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I never thought Belos was going to be able to possess a grimwalker for the final act even before this episode tbh. Like I know they were setting up Belos collecting grimwalker ingredients all season 2 so there was going to be something that happened with a grimwalker. Maybe in a full season 3 Belos would have possessed a freshly made grimwalker and then after they defeated Belos the grimwalker would have been left alive and Hunter would have gotten a new brother. Gatherer, if you will. Or maybe Belos would have made a new grimwalker to replace Hunter leading up to the day of unity and the same thing happens.

But with a shortened season 3, the problem with this premise is that the grimwalker Belos possessed would have been his own person. That’s the whole point of the grimwalkers in general. Belos used them as his tools/replacements for his brother, but Hunter had his own thoughts and feelings. It wasn’t fair for Belos to project his brother onto an innocent child, and the extent that he did shows how monstrous he had become in his hatred and grief towards his brother. The same goes for the rest of the grimwalkers.

If Belos were to make a new grimwalker and go through the final act while possessing him, then the crew would have to establish that, yes, this grimwalker is also an innocent child who Belos took advantage of. Like the Collector, Hunter, Lilith, and everyone else manipulated by Belos, he deserves to be free of Belos and live a happy life where he could choose his own future. If they establish this, the crew would have two options:

1. Have the gang defeat Belos but have the grimwalker survive that, and have him be taken in by whatever characters are appropriate to live happily ever after.

2. Have the gang defeat Belos but have the grimwalker die during that. Then, everyone would lament how evil Belos was for causing the death of yet another kid.

The second option obviously wouldn’t be allowed in a TV-Y7 rated Disney show. I guess they do a version of that in For the Future? Where the grimwalker in Belos’s lab was already dead and Belos couldn’t possess it. But in here, the rest of the characters don’t know it happened. They can’t reflect on the humanity of the grimwalker or the tragedy of its creation/death, so the more horrifying implications aren’t explored onscreen.

As for the first option, I doubt it would have gone over well in a full season 3, much less in a shortened season. To introduce a new character to the cast, especially one with such an important connection to Hunter, another main character, would require giving him a lot of characterization for the audience to have an emotional attachment to him. Otherwise, while the audience may recognize the grimwalker is important to Hunter and the rest of the gang, it wouldn’t tie in well with the rest of the story.

The emphasis on the humanity of grimwalkers in general throughout the show would also come across as hypocritical if the only focus on this grimwalker is what he represents to other characters, not who he is as a person. This plot point should be a midpoint of a story normally, so more time is available to characterize the grimwalker. But if you make it something Belos does in the final battle, especially in a shortened season 3, we don’t get anything out of the new grimwalker character that we wouldn’t get out of Hunter. Him possessing Hunter in Thanks to Them already had most of the emotional impact that this scenario would have had. Even more, since we actually know Hunter. Doing it again would just be redundant.

#toh #the owl house #emperor belos #phillip wittebane #hunter toh #hunter noceda #thanks to them #for the future #still really like the au where hunter digs up a baby grimwalker belos was working on after everything #and i have decided to call that hypothetical baby grimwalker gatherer thank you very much #btw how many grimwalkers did phillip make overall #my dude caleb only had so many bones #did he take a big one and snap it in half or something so hed have more bones #also love the idea that hunter was made specifically from calebs rib bone bc biblical imagery and whatnot #but also if belos was thinking of that he would have used it for the first grimwalker

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balkanradfem · 2 years

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The reason why it’s so hard to ever learn anything from the males, is they don’t use knowledge for teaching, or find the value in passing it to others; to them knowledge is a tool to build advertisement for themselves.

If you listen to a male speak, with an intent to learn, you must first endure the exaggeration of how important and powerful the knowledge is, how it will give you an advantage over everyone else, how it is in fact, the key knowledge to everything else in life. And he, by the extent, is an incredibly important and insightful person to have this knowledge, he will tell you about the godly sources this knowledge is taken from, if not from his own self. You will hear so much propaganda building up to the actual knowledge, built to entice you and to make you want to hear it more, but when it comes to the actual knowledge, it will be evasive, confusing, unclear, vague, based on useless philosophies, under-described, completely theoretical with no real sources or base, or he will evade sharing the actual knowledge altogether, and be pleased with simply building himself up into the heaven for having this ‘knowledge’.

Men see no benefit to share knowledge unless they’re using it to start a personal cult or business scam around it; they’ll take a piece of obvious information then hype it up as if it was revolutionary, then sell it to you with enticement that if you should want to learn more, you should join his cult/mlm/scam - because all of the scams are built upon this tactic of male ego embellishment. Any piece of knowledge in male hands is only used to help that one male, not to serve anyone else, because once again, males see no social benefit in helping or teaching others, it’s all about impressing others and drawing them in, to get attention, admiration, ego-boost, social reputation, an advantage, or money.

Women are where the real knowledge is. However, we have been taught to downplay our own intelligence to the point where if we know something, we’ll often assume it’s common knowledge or not as vital as what males are selling. But when you need something done, you ask a woman, and she will give you 100% practical and well-sourced information that will get you the results. Without embellishing, taking credit, asking you to sign up for her newsletter or trying to start a personality cult. Males have been aware of this, at least to the point where they will ask women to give them information for free, then sell it as their own in order to start their personality cults.

Sharing information that is socially helpful to others comes naturally to women, you will usually get encouragements and reassurances about how easy it is and that anyone can do it, along with correct, tried-out information that has been proved to show results. Information m*n spread around is not socially conscious, the intent behind is only to worship the male who spread it, so it will often be faulty, untested, unhealthy, costly, dangerous, even fatal. When the information proves dangerous and harmful, the male who spread it will simply evade the responsibility, and act oblivious to the damage, again, there’s no benefit to standing behind their words if its not bringing them glory.

I��m not saying this is true for every single case; there are exceptions. Sometimes if you endure the obnoxious ego-embellishment of males, you will find hints and pieces of true information, and sometimes it’s the women who will go and make personality-cults out of fake philosophy, but the root of scams and ego-cults comes from the male, and the reasons even women can now do it, is that it socially spread to the point where it’s considered so normal and acceptable, it would be weird if a few women didn’t go for the same strategy. The women who do it, however, often get called out, criticized, parodied and openly despised, while for m*n it’s considered just business as usual and even if they’re hated, they’re likely to get a pat on the back for ‘getting away with so much’.

The point is, get information from women. Read women-written books. Look at women-made tutorials and videos. Listen to what women are saying works, what has been tested, what the consequences are. When you see a piece of knowledge over-hyped, understand that the intent is to get you involved in something, rather than offer you a resource. You don’t have to listen to some male claiming he discovered hot water, there are women who have been heating the same water for centuries and know more about, and will tell you if you seek them out. Knowledge passed on by women will be more valuable than anything you’ve ever heard a male say.

#anti scams #feminism #radical feminism #radfem #knowledge sharing #males being socially harmful #women being socially conscious #personality cults #cultish behaviour

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memequeen92 · 2 years

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i am back with anothor spingtap question (plz pardon my absence) we touched on inflicting damage on our wretched rabbit, but how's recovery and/or healing work for him? or regeneration? Does Remnant help at all? idk how to call it, but am interested in your thoughts!

ooooh another fun one

So Remnant - very important for our bastardous rabbit man - the most basic thing to know for this headcanon is that it works on the basis of Remnant being less effective if extracted in certain ways -

for example, the funtime animatronics would produce remnant that’s incredibly effective because it can be immediately taken and stored, and they can get more of it at once more quickly - optimal extraction of remnant produces more effective, longer-lasting effects. It also makes those effects happen faster - properly extracted and secured remnant is damn near instant for fixing him up a bit.

Unfortunately for him... he doesn’t have access to properly extracted or secured remnant.

Turns out that tearing it out of someone with your bare hands or even using tools not made for the purpose of extracting it is... difficult, not at all optimal, gets very little of the substance even if you know what you’re doing, and the effects of it are much less long lasting a good chunk of the time.

It’s also more or less effective depending on the age of the person its extracted from - children produce the most, teens to young adults produce a decent amount, middle age is where it gets to the ‘not worth it’ point, and then elderly people after that - they all still produce/give some, but not enough to really be worth anything, and it tends to be weaker from anything young adult or up. The health of the person can also influence the remnant that’s produced - so a particularly healthy adult might have better remnant than an ill child.

so with that little important bit outta the way

Healing/Injury recovery without optimal remnant:

Even without top tier remnant, he can still recover from most things - just very, very slowly. Take for instance the tazer situations mentioned previously where hitting him right in the fleshy bits would knock him out for a week or so - once he finally managed to regain consciousness again he’d be pretty uncomfortable and sore and also probably a bit twitchy depending on how close you hit to the head/chest area. Might be some nasty burns on his fleshy sausage strands.

lets say you hit him in... the chest cavity, where the fleshy bits are all wrapped around the metal endoskeleton spine. He’d definitely be jittery and twitchy, a bit of weakness, and very sore and very very angry. Without remnant he recovers very slowly - slower than the average person, even - but he will recover eventually, from pretty much anything - it just takes more time without remnant.

Now if he wakes up after that same shock but some dumb dumb is in his face and he manages to kill them and get whatever remnant he can, he’ll heal more quickly - something more akin to decently above the average healing rate for a person if he gets a decently healthy young adult.

He won’t be in as much pain while recovering either, which makes it easier to seek more remnant to speed up the process even more (hide your kids bc they are the prime targets) - and unlike medication, you can’t overdose on remnant, so how quickly you recover at that point is just a matter of how much you can get and how quickly you can get it. If he were to get, say, a small handful of young children in excellent health... he would recover pretty quickly - he’d also feel pretty damn good bc it helps with pain.

The remnant does absolutely nothing about how pissed he is though, there’s no cure for anger in it.

I’d say give him a snickers but... man can’t eat, you’ll probably just make him more angry honestly.

Regeneration:

not possible for him - not to the extent he’d like, at least.

He can, at most, regenerate or reform bits of himself that have been torn out or removed through physical means. His current fleshy bits are sort of in a stasis for the most part otherwise and just kinda... sit there being fleshy and causing him pain.

He can’t regrow his body outside of what’s left after that 30 years in the backroom - the regeneration he can do is more self-sustaining than it is anything useful. It’s also an unconscious thing rather than something he actively chooses.

Every once in a while he has to pull a piece of bone out because it starts trying to reconnect with the other pieces if they’re close enough and starts tearing through tissue in its endeavor.

On the one hand, at least they’re small - on the other hand, jesus fucking christ in a handbasket can his bones just stop trying already it’s been 30 years.

Misc:

He does have his skull intact - mostly - it sort of reformed itself during the 30 years he spent cycling through agonizing pain and sweet sweet unconsciousness after the springlocks cracked it like an egg. this is the only thing even close to a bone structure he has outside the endoskeleton.

Using remnant to heal himself unfortunately has the unintended side effect of... once the painkilling effects wear off, he feels it pretty bad for a while until he adjusts to it again. On the plus side, it helps his now worsened headache if someone rubs his bunny ears! ...there’s generally nobody doing that though so its useless. (not that he would let anyone do it anyways - dumb prideful bunnyman refuses to look weak. You will fear him, and rubbing his ears isn’t fearing him. He won’t do it himself either because what if someone sees him? The horror!)

#springtrap headcanons #save #i love to make him suffer especially when its avoidable if he just stops being a prideful asshole for .2 seconds #he would never though. he would never.#man would rather suffer than look anything besides terrifying #smh my head

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localwebslingers · 5 months

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| Headcanon Dump - The Spider of New York(In Hiding AU) |

This one is actually a little different as both versions of Peter have specifics based on their canon universes so it's going to be a breakdown of the generals, and then the specifics for each. So let's do this!

General:

Peter was bitten by the spider that gave him his powers at age three. Shortly after it was hidden by his parents with only his Aunt May and Uncle Ben included into the secret. He was taught very early on to keep his powers a secret from everyone else.

Well into his teen/adult life, Peter still has vivid, horrific nightmares about the night his parents vanished and died, as well as the night his aunt and uncle were murdered, having been in the house when it happened.

Most of New York referrs to stories about "the Spider" like a modern urban legend. The stories are never clear on his appearance but agree he's usually in a jacket with the hood up, can do extraordinary feats, and helps keep others safe if he happens by and notices them in trouble. He's supposedly been spotted all over the city.

Peter Parker is still actively considered a "missing person" and he aims to keep it that way.

Peter has organic webbing but he tends to walk or wall-crawl more to get around. Webbing is reserved mostly for shelters or if he gets caught in a fight of some kind. If he is ever in a fight, he does not minimize the extent of his abilities but does still pull his punches.

Large organizations, groups, or facilities that work in fields regarding health, science, and weapons are places that Peter actively avoids after he runs away.

Peter has successfully evaded numerous attempts at capture, by several different groups that claim to want to help him, and others that openly want to study him.

MCU Peter:

Peter was taken into custody by SHIELD shortly after the deaths of his aunt and uncle, as his parents had been agents for them at one point.

The Battle of New York was two months after he was taken in, and he was glued to the screen watching what happened from where he was kept in a safe house.

Peter underwent regular doctor appointments and tests to see how he was doing with his powers and was only told that he was "progressing well". He was allowed to unofficially train with a small handful of agents and had the equivalent of homeschooling while he was there. He excelled at both.

When he was fifteen, Peter challenged himself to break into his own medical information, wanting to try and understand what the tests were for. Instead, what he found was a carefully maintained log about his abilities, webbing, attempts to replicate them, as well as recordings of his unofficial trainings broken down to try and steer him into becoming a weapon and tool for SHIELD's interests. He packed a bag with the few personal items he had and some pieces of gear he was familiar with, then ran.

After it was revealed that HYDRA was hidden away as part of SHIELD, Peter actively consideres members of both as threats and dangers. His spider sense tags them as such. The Avengers, likewise, are also considered threats and are avoided.

Peter has been to all the different F.E.A.S.T locations across the city. When there he helps out but never stays more than a few days.

TASM Peter:

Peter was taught shortly after his father left Oscorp that the company and people working there were dangerous to him, specifically Norman Osborn.

Peter was hidden for six months in a police safe house before being moved to the home of newly appointed Captain George Stacy to stay with his family instead. He was homeschooled there and introduced as a foster son if anyone was there and asked.

Despite knowing the danger, Peter actively snuck out to still visit and see Harry until he was sent to bording school.

When he was fifteen, the Stacy home suffered from what was reported as a home invasion. George Stacy was shot and killed in the exchange and while trying to escape with Peter, Gwen Stacy was severely injured and left in a coma. Peter packed his things and ran that night. He has no idea if Gwen ever woke up and doesn't dare go looking in fear of attracting people to her again.

Peter has mainly been living out of his father's old lab, having set up half of it to be more of a living space filled with the few personal items he has. It's equipped with a silent alarm in case anyone gets too close.

While the events surrounding the Lizard never happened, Peter did find Max in Time Square and managed to not only talk him down, but helped him escape police and by extention Ravencroft at the risk of Oscorp knowing he was still around.

Peter has intentionally told exactly three people the truth about himself before he had run away. He has not told anyone else about it since.

#headcanon #[v: the spider of new york]

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thecentristguy · 2 years

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Can Cancel Culture aid to prevent racism in our society?

The digital era has snatched away the powers to hold information from ‘gatekeepers’ of truth, such as politicians and journalists, and handed it over to the public (Mueller, 2021). The acts of disapproving people and people’s acts for something that is highly problematic and inappropriate, in relation to issues of social identities, by unfollowing, blocking, disliking, or even banning them on social platforms is known as cancel culture (Ng, 2020; Mueller, 2021). Here, the social identities of class, race, gender, and sexuality are referred, followed by inappropriate acts of racism, gender discrimination, and bullying (Ng, 2020).

The critical race theory argues that racism is not deep-seated in our society (Bouvier & Machin, 2021). It is rather seen as an ‘exception’, which includes acts of public agitation by taking extreme action and using uncomfortable language (Bouvier & Machin, 2021). Thus, Bouvier and Machin (2021) argue that racism is related to an individual and not linked to a particular ideology (Bouvier & Machin, 2021). This is where the fault lies, which gives rise to phenomenon such as ‘cancel culture’ (Bouvier & Machin, 2021).

Therefore, the weakening of institutions, and the structural racism, people of colour have to face in predominately white societies, such as Britain, is what gives momentum to movements such as cancel culture (Bouvier & Machin, 2021). Nonetheless, social media gives voice to other under-represented groups, like LGBTQ and people with disabilities (Bouvier & Machin, 2021; Mueller, 2021). It is interesting to note that Bouvier and Machin (2021) believe that online tools like hashtags, online petitions, shares, and likes can invoke emotion and passion for sensitive issues such as racism (Bouvier & Machin, 2021).

Increasingly it has been observed that supporters of cancel culture are associated with the demand for an apology from the victims of cancel culture (Mueller, 2021). Thereby, there are concerns that such an urge can harm an individual’s future, especially in situations where he or she has committed an act of canceling culture unknowingly (Mueller, 2021).

Cancel culture emerges out of the Two-Step Flow Theory (Mueller, 2021). This means that when information flows through social media channels, it can potentially transform from being a ‘message’ to an ‘action’ (Mueller, 2021).

Criticism of cancel culture particularly comes from right-wing political parties as they fear it could be used as a tool of censorship and raises questions about one’s freedom of speech (Bouvier & Machin, 2021; Mueller, 2021). With that being said, knowledge of cancel culture seems to be fractured in the society, with 35% of Brits being aware of the term as against 38% not knowing the same existing on digital platforms (Smith, 2021). However, when asked about being fearful while sharing views on race- 31% fear sharing opinions on the discrimination faced by people of colour and 28% fear sharing opinions that people of colour enjoy the same benefits as their white counterparts (Smith, 2021). This testifies the kind of wrong perception Brits have about people of colour, without ever acknowledging or understanding the racial acts of microaggression they have to go in their day to day lives.

While cancel culture can provide grounds for further discussion on racism in our society, not willing to accept the cruel acts of racial slavery British colonialism imposed in Asian and African societies. Hence, if I were to relate demolishing monuments and slave statues symbolic of such acts to cancel culture (Geran Pilon, 2020), Home Secretary Priti Patel’s attempts to ‘condemn’ such views can be perceived as startling (Elks, 2020; Taylor, 2021). This is especially due to the fact Patel herself is a person of colour and her ancestors from India must have been victims of cruel acts of British colonialism. This denotes to the extent far-right views have taken hold in Britain.

Bibliography

Bouvier, G., & Machin, D. (2021). What gets lost in Twitter ‘cancel culture’ hashtags? Calling out racists reveals some limitations of social justice campaigns. Discourse &Amp; Society, 32(3), 307-327. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926520977215

Elks, S. (2020). Toppling of UK statue fuels debate on monuments to slave traders. Reuters.com. Retrieved 27 May 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-britain-s-idUSKBN23F2FD.

Geran Pilon, J. (2020). 2020 America and the Cancel Culture of Fools. Israel Journal Of Foreign Affairs, 14(2), 183-196. https://doi.org/10.1080/23739770.2020.1815365

Mueller, T. (2021). Blame, then shame? Psychological predictors in cancel culture behavior. The Social Science Journal, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/03623319.2021.1949552

Ng, E. (2020). No Grand Pronouncements Here...: Reflections on Cancel Culture and Digital Media Participation. Television &Amp; New Media, 21(6), 621-627. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476420918828

Smith, M. (2021). Cancel culture: what views are Britons afraid to express? | YouGov. Yougov.co.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2022, from https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/12/22/cancel-culture-what-views-are-britons-afraid-expre.

Taylor, J. (2021). Bristol protests: Priti Patel calls demonstrators ‘thugs’ after clashes with riot police lead to 10 arrests. independent.co.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2022, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bristol-protests-priti-patel-thugs-b1823289.html.

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sinclair-wax-fan · 2 years

Text

All the boys are very mechanically inclined. Vincent clearly tends and maintains the intricate piping of the waxing system in the basement. (The pipes have to be flushed regularly with boiling water to keep the wax film inside from building up and clogging.)

I like to imagine he does regular maintenance checks of the town buildings and let’s Bo and Lester know what major issues he needs help mending.

Of the three, he’s the best at coming up with creative rigging that gives the illusion of the town being alive. The puppies with the wagging tails? The old woman who opens and closes the curtains? That’s Vincent. He’s great with small gears and clockwork. (He is also the only one who had the patience to read the manual and figure out how the old projector in the theater worked. Bo fucking hates that thing because it constantly breaks down and he refuses to touch it at this point.)

~~~~~

It would be a grave mistake to think Bo is stupid.

He has a temper for sure. He’s impulsive, vicious, endlessly tenacious, and only cares for social graces as a tool for stalking prey or charming people into getting his way.

But the man is deeply cunning and whip smart in the fields of mechanics and mathematics.

He’s basically an engineer, degree or no degree. He’s the one who help maintain the really big stuff: the towns power grid; the houses septic tank—he wasn’t joking about the bathroom at the station being broken, one septic tank is enough to deal with, thank you—and the well that delivers water to the house and museum.

(Again, I am convinced everything is powered by the nearby sugar mill—which is directly in between the town and the camp site we see in the movie, which was close enough Paige sees it up the road and runs to it. The kids were visibly parked by what looks to be some kind of small pond/creek— I headcanon it as an offshoot of the larger stream the mill is built directly next to. I imagine the mill utilized hydroelectric power, making it completely independent from any existing grids. Ambrose was a modern company town whose electric was incorporated into the mills set up.

Bo worked at the mill in maintenance before it shut down—and learned some very useful info from the older engineers while he worked there. Enough that once the town was rapidly emptying of workers and inhabitants, he turned to his brother and said “I have an idea that I think you and I can pull off together.”)

Also, the friendly mechanic schtick is only half a ruse. He absolutely knows cars inside and out. Tinkering with cars and various broken machinery around Ambrose as a teen is how he got enough experience/notice to earn himself an entry level position at the mill. (Maybe his first job was actually as an attendant at the gas station?)

The town takes money to run and he makes most of that money by repairing cars in the next town over (where he owns a small garage).

~~~~~

Lester, while he is part-time employed to clean roadkill through a contractor with the state, has taken plenty of odds jobs that include: roofing, bricklaying, and carpentry.

Also, some specialized personal hobbies: hunting, taxidermy, tanning and leather work, and smithing!

All those odd looking knives hanging next to clothes rack on the wall of Vincent’s workshop? Actually gifts from Lester! (The man just really likes knives.)

I also headcanon that Vincent’s satchel was made by Lester as a birthday gift when they’re young. If you look, you can see animal teeth decorating it. (I like to think he also made the actual blades for Vincent’s knives. Although I think the bone Vincent later carved for the handles probably didn’t come from an animal.)

I also like to imagine he makes the glass eyes for the waxed figures. (Their real ones don’t last long.) That’s about the extent he’s willing to help with the bodies, however—if you don’t count helping dispose/bury some of the less desirable corpses.

Lester and Vincent are closer than Lester and Bo. Lester has always kind of idolized Bo for being his “cool” older brother—but he also learned growing up to keep a careful eye on Bo, to always be aware of him. The loquacious older man has since better learned to direct his baser impulses away from his own family and towards his victims, but when they were younger he didn’t have that outlet. At times, the younger, smaller Lester was a convenient target Bo just couldn’t help but zero in on—especially when angry.

He did often try to make up for his indiscretions against his little brother in his own way—typically in the form of smuggling Lester booze/cigarettes/small stolen goodies from stores, protecting him from other bullies, letting Lester borrow his truck and later helping him get one of his own—but Lester certainly never has the luxury of forgetting what Bo’s capable of.

As they got older—with Bo finding new prey and Lester being able to come and go from the family home as he pleases—it got easier.

Now a days Bo genuinely values the aid Lester provides and they often bond over the more “normal” activities they enjoy that Vincent can’t relate to/has no interest in.

#bo sinclair #vincent sinclair #lester sinclair #house of wax

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ranhaitanisgf · 3 years

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just putting the request here:

May i request for ✂︎ inui seishu ,✂︎ chifuyu,✂︎ baji with an s/o that has this kind of unlimited pockets like they have everything they need ranging from bubble gum to a cat?

inui seishu [inupi], chifuyu matsuno, & baji keisuke with an s/o who has unlimited pockets: headcanons

[𖤐] aaa hello aoba lovely! sorry for getting this out to you so late, i just realized it's actually taken a while to get all these requests out; like three or four weeks?? apologies!! thank you for requesting this though, it was fuckin hilarious KDFJGHLDKJFG

❧ masterlist

inui seishu [inupi]:

✂︎ in all honesty, it never really crossed inui’s mind that there was something a bit...off about the way his beloved s/o seemed to always have everything that one could possibly need, and seemingly a moment’s notice as well. it wasn’t like he usually asked you for things, (just the occasional chapstick or a hair clip to pin his hair back) so he never really knew the extent of everything you seemed to have.

✂︎ at first, he had just figured that you were the type of person to carry a lot of things with you because you liked to be prepared, and it was something that he could appreciate. he thinks it’s a good thing to be prepared, and especially whenever you seem to pull a first aid kit out of nowhere when he gets hurt.

✂︎ it isn’t really until he notices that you had pulled out an entire toblerone chocolate bar from your pocket that he starts to think that, ‘huh, that’s kinda weird.’. he’ll probably give you a weird look, but he’s just gonna decide to ignore it for now.

✂︎ the second time he sees it in action is when he notices you and koko talking, and just as he’s about to ask what’s going on, you literally pull out an entire phone, still in the box and everything, handing it to koko with a smile. he’ll just stand there for a bit, wondering where you got a new phone from, and more importantly, how did that box fit in your pocket? again, he’s not going to say anything, but he’s starting to get pretty curious about it now.

✂︎ the third time it happens is when the two of you are sitting on a bench in the park, looking at the small pond in front, (as well as the cute family of ducks there). all of a sudden, you were tossing something out onto the water, and as inui looked closer, is that...duck food? looking back at you, you just have a container of duck food next to you that came out of literally nowhere.

“(y/n), where did you get that from…?”

“oh, this? it was in my pocket!”

“...what? how was that in your pocket?”

“hm, not sure?”

✂︎ he’s a bit perplexed by your answer, i mean, you could you not know? it was literally your own pockets? however, he decided to not think too much about it and figured that if you really didn’t know, then it was probably something way beyond his comprehension. he’s never really going to stop being curious about it, so he might ask you a couple times to just pull random things out of your pockets just to see if you can.

✂︎ from then on, he might ask you for random things whenever the two of you are out, and he won’t even bother bringing anything with him because he knows that you have it. this especially goes for whenever you’re visiting him at the bike shop; he might just ask you for a certain part or tool that he needs while he’s working on something, and you’ll just dig it out from your pocket and hand it over to him, (draken watching the two of you like, ‘????’).

chifuyu matsuno:

✂︎ i feel like chifuyu is one to always be forgetting something whenever he goes out, whether it’s something really important or something small. it could be that he left his phone charging in his room, or that he left his chapstick on his nightstand, but he’ll just always be forgetting something, which leads to him missing it for the rest of the day.

✂︎ because of this, you’ll probably just hand him whatever he forgot that day, telling him that he can keep it. the first time it happened, it was because he left his chapstick, so when you handed him a brand new one and told him to keep it, he just figured that it was something that you had bought and gave to him because he needed one, (he felt a little bad about it though). the second time he forgot something, it was his algebra homework that he had left laying on his desk the night before. he’d been lowkey freaking out about it because he spent a lot of time on it, but then you suddenly handed him the sheets of paper and he’s like, ‘how do you have this??’. he’s really confused, but he’ll let it go after a day of wondering.

✂︎ honestly, it will probably take him a while to finally ask you about how you seem to have everything in your pockets. each time he sees you pull something random out of your pockets, he’s even more perplexed, wondering how you have all that space inside your pockets. was it some kind of new jean brand?

✂︎ it isn’t until you pull out an entire family size pack of oreos that he decides he should probably ask how you’re doing that.

“(y/n)?”

“hmm?”

“how did you just pull out that pack of oreos from your pocket…?”

“oh, ‘m not really sure. it’s just kinda like that; i think about what i want and then it’s in my pocket,”

“...and you never questioned it?”

“i mean, i did at first, but it didn’t really get me anywhere, so i’ve just kinda accepted it,”

“oh...okay then.”

✂︎ if even you don’t know how you’re doing it, then he isn’t really going to try to figure out how. he kind of thinks about it like takemitchy’s time traveling: he has no idea how it works, and even as insane as it is, he’s not going to question it. he’s just decided to not question anything anymore, although he is a bit jealous that the universe didn’t decide to give him these cool powers too.

✂︎ he’ll probably tell takemitchy and have you demonstrate in front of you, and they’ll both just be staring at you in awe as you pull out everything they asked you to from your pockets. you three have become the team of, ‘the two people with strange abilities and the other guy who’s there’.

baji keisuke:

✂︎ baji is definitely the kind of boyfriend to always be asking you for hair ties, even if you don’t have long hair. he always tries to keep some on his wrist, but they end up getting lost or getting used as something to play with kittens, so he’s always needing more, and of course, you’re his supplier. whenever he asks you for a hair tie, you always have one in your pocket. at first, he just thought that he would stuff a bunch in there because of the way he would always ask, so he never really questioned it.

✂︎ sure, does he think it’s a little strange how you had an entire three pack of gum in your pocket? yeah, but you had probably just gone to the store and gotten it. does he think it’s odd that you had pulled out an entire first aid kit from your pocket? perhaps, but maybe you just liked to be prepared? in each of these instances, he’ll just be watching you with a weird look on his face because he didn’t actually see you pull it from your pocket, but you just suddenly had them, so where the hell did they come from?

✂︎ he’s truly baffled by this, and he might ask you a couple times where you get all of these random things from, and he’s a little bit annoyed and confused about your vague answers; is it really that bad for you to tell him? he’s not really angry or anything, he just wants to know what kind of stunt you’re pulling to try and freak him out. it stays like that for a while, with him thinking that you’re trying to pull a fast one.

✂︎ no, it isn’t until he watches you pull out an entire bag of cat food from your pocket that he’s thinking, ‘what the fuck’. was this where you had been getting all that random shit from? your pocket?

“(y/n), what the fuck,”

“what?? is something wrong-”

“you just pulled out a bag of cat food from your pocket???”

“well, yeah, haha…”

“how the hell did you do that?”

“not sure, it just kinda does that. i can just think about what i want and it’s in my pocket,”

“how the fuck…”

“yeah, i dunno either.”

✂︎ after that, it’s still going to take some getting used to for him to not throw you a weird look everytime it happens. now that he knows, he’s going to make sure that nobody else finds out because he’s thought of this complete tragedy that you would get kidnapped and people would force you to pull out different things from your pockets, so he’s going to be strangely aggressive whenever somebody asks about how you pull things out of nowhere.

“they’re just a really prepared person!! stop getting into their business, would ya?!”

✂︎ he goes absolutely crazy when you are able to pull a cat from your pocket, and he’ll just stare at you with his mouth wide open for a second before he stands up and starts walking around.

“what the fuck, you just pulled a cat from your pocket! where did it come from?! did you create a cat or did it teleport from somewhere?! holy shit…”

✂︎ yeah, don’t pull out a cat whenever he asks you to because if you do, tokyo is suddenly going to be full of cats.

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