#i cannot not combine my special interests huh

[mistocore]

so ive been watching its always sunny again

#i cannot not combine my special interests huh #cats #cats musical #cats the musical #cats 1998 #mistoffelees #mr mistoffelees #rum tum tugger #the rum tum tugger #alonzo #munkustrap #plato #pouncival #tumblebrutus #grizabella #jellylorum #jenny anydots

[crow-n-tell]

HELLO AND WELCOOOOME TO!

What kind of jellyfish is sun?

I got some requests about getting a lil layout of what jellyfish types I combined to get him the way I did for moon in this post. It’s not as fun and detailed as moons because, let’s face it: jellyfish are pretty straight forward but!! Here

Phacellophora Camtschatica

aka The Fried Egg Jellyfish.

This is the biggest and most obvious part of Sunny’s design, he‘s an egg boy and I love him for it. But also there’s an interesting bit about the relationship between fried egg jellyfish and larval crabs. See these lil baby crabs?

Yeah so they climb inside fried egg jellyfish and just. RIDE AROUND IN THEIR BELL? Consequences be damned lil dudes chillin in there getting a ride. Which makes this the second time I’ve seen other animals use jellyfish as transportation. Baby octopus, baby crabs, with sun’s size it’s safe to say reader could probably do the same.

Though maybe reader wouldn’t want to do that because the whole reason larval crabs are chilling in their bell is also because jellyfish, while not capable of being infected by parasites cause they… they don’t have the bits that help parasites do the meat suit piloting… are carriers of parasites! They just walk around with em chilling in there. Larval crabs love monchin on em.

Next up is!!

Chrysaora Fuscesscens

aka

Honestly pacific sea nettles don't have many interesting facts about them. What can I say? they are very very long - talking 15 feet long. Other than that there isn't much else to say, I wish I could list something insane off like, OH THEY’VE GOT LAZER EYES. Nope. These guys float around looking like beautiful undersea mushrooms and they need no special skills to do that.

Uh. Yeah it’s not a jellyfish. This specially has to do with Sunny’s electric ability. Maybe you were thinking, oh so he’s like electric eels? (Which actually aren’t eels! They are a type of knife fish) no no, I am a perfectionist! I aim for accuracy and I also aim for the fun of science. While jellyfish cannot actually 🎵 shock you like a electric eel 🎶, jellyfish can SORT OF generate electricity.

Via a green gooey substance in the bells of jellyfish, scientists have discovered that by exposing it to ultraviolet light it produces electrons. Layman's terms? SOLAR POWERED GOO. While jellyfish have not harnessed the solar goo, scientists have actually found a way of using it to make a new form of green electricity!

So while Sun isn't electric the way an electric eel is, he still has a way of using electricity to make him a pretty powerful lil taser. Enough to put something smaller than him in a cardiac arrest, and give something his size or bigger a good reason to scamper off.

SOLAR POWERED SUN!

Which leads to my finishing notes.

While sun uses his zapper stuff quite a bit, he does have a regular sting too. While relatively less lethal than his zapping for bigger creatures, it does function as a paralytic! For smaller creatures it’s Uh…. Its a lil more dangerous. Good thing neoprene is sting proof haha.

And I had something else…

I recently posted a magma with Sunny sleeping.

This is based around the jellyfish that scientist found out sleep, Cassiopeia.

They are usually just chilling like that, bell down. Looking at them like this it really makes you think about how closely related they are to sea anemones huh? Lil freaks.

Sometime soon I’ll post a eclipse version of this, which I’m excited about because I love sharks SO MUCH.

#my art #mermaid au #the daycare attendant #mermaid dca #jellyfish!sun

[lgbtlunaverse]

I think i need to explain why this line makes me go so feral

I think the "fine! I'll kill myself after I kill you" line from nie mingjue in chapter 49 permanently altered my brain chemistry and it has something to do with precisely how i got into the mdzs fandom space in the first place.

I've mentioned it a few times but i started watching the untamed in late 2019 right as it was blowing up everywhere and, likely due to a combination of undiagnosed adhd wrecking my ability to be interested in anything for longer than 4 seconds and me very much not being used to the specific style of acting, especially during fightscenes, i never finished it. The only concrete memory i have of it is seeing wen qing's face and meng ziyi completely short circuiting my little gay brain. I remember more of staring endlessly at pictures of her than I remember of the plot. Press F to pay respects.

Flash forward a few years and a friend recommends me a fic writer for an fma fic (the fic riter in question is metisket) and i like their stlye so much i decide to read other stuf they've written. Here we get to our prime suspect: "the one body problem" a genuinely hilarious fic where jingyi gets posessed by wei wuxian like a year before the plot happens and they become awkward brain buddies. 10/10 i loved it (and still do) even though i remember huasiang showing up in my first reading and I, having fully forgotten his name, had no fucking clue what was going on. (Little did i know...)

Anyway flash forward ANOTHER year and I decide to reread that fic, and then the other untamed fic metisket wrote, a wen qing time travel fix it that's also real fun. And then i'm like. huh. that's fun. wonder if there's anything in their bookmarks.

And then, within 20 days, I had read approximately 350 fics. Many of them 100k+ words. I cannot stress enough how much this CONSUMED my brain's ability to do or think about anything else. I now think back to the early days of getting my adhd diagnosis and insisted that while i had pretty much all other symptoms, I did not get hyperfixations. Lol. Lmao, even.

I am mainly focused on wangxian and the junior quartet becuase they are my baby ducklings and i love them. I do come across some 3zun fics and I think huh... this is interesting. But the 3zun brainrot is LIGHT at this point.

The thing about reading more than 350 fanfics is that at some point you kind of piece the plot of the source material back together backwards. Especially because my favorite genre was time travel fix its, where characters relive the whole plot and like to make allusions to all the ways everything went wrong last time.

Because I'm still squarely in my wangxian + juniors (plus a heavy dosis of yunmeng sibling reconciliation) corner here... the feelings on jin guangyao in my fandom corner are. different from where I'd end up soon after. He is my special little guy though, so I do kind of immediatley develop a fondness for him, and I approach my 3zun and early nieyao thoughts specifcially from the assumption that the widespread opinion is that nie mingjue is a fine good guy and jgy is the evil one (I have not seen the bad nmj takes yet. well... I am seeing DIFFERENT bad nmj takes but they're nice to him. In, like, the wrong way. With no solid undertanding of the inherent tragedy at the heart of him that makes him so blorbo to me. But still.) major reactions to the stairs scene as I see them on twitter are "girlboss! He should've kicked him harder 💅"

And the baby jgy apologist in me goes :/ me no likey. And at this point I am also actively seeking out metas and analysis posts so i'm seeing some better opinions than that and getting a halfway solid graps on the themes. wwx and jgy being foils becomes very obvious to me very quickly. So, with my curent understanding of the plot, I go... you know all you people who are like "god i wish nmj would have killed jgy sooner" it uhh... kinda sounds like he'd have died if he did that. If he'd killed him before meng yao had gone off to spy there is a very big chance they'd have lost the sunshot campaign and most of the main cast would be dead. If he'd killed him at the stairs that's... well that's killing your sworn brother, which by the canon's own admission is a universally reviled crime, and jin guangshan could easily take advantage of this by demanding nmj's head in retribution, since he already wanted to get rid of him anyway. He doesn't give a fuck about a-yao of course but he could pretend well enough that he does. And what leg would nmj have to stand on? The jin clan is canonically both willing and able to slaughter entire clans for the murder or attempted murder of the leader or his family, and nie mingjue is the kinda guy who'd immediately offer himself up if it meant the rest of his clan would be spared.

This combined with jin guangyao specifcally dying for his murder of nie mingjue, with huaisang basically not caring much about everything else he does and wanting to get revenge only for his brother, it gives nieyao a sort of mutual doomed soulmates feel. For either of them, killing the other would spell death for themselves. They either both die or they both live, one cannot live on without the order. That's crunchy. I like it.

The fire palace though? well, on meng yao's part there is a real argument that if he'd let nmj get killed immediatly instead of dragging it out he wouldn't have been able to get wrh alone and distracted enough to assasinate him, so that's one half of the mutual doom coin, and if nmj had killed him during their fight there he's also done for. But after? Right before Xichen intervenes? I had no answer for that yet.

(You know what's coming. I did not)

It is at this point that i realize that if this is gonna keep being A Thing then i need to read the source material before I catch fatal fanon poisoning. Yes, I can piece together the plot and themes from seeing what stays consistent across fics and what are the author's own opinons. But I know just as well that sometimes fanon just agrees on shit that didn't happen and treats it like canon, and I have no way of knowing which is which. So I start reading the novel.

And of course, eventually I get to the empathy sequence. And remember, my "nieyao both live or both die" theory is heavy on my mind at this point, and the only stickler is that nmj could sort of have killed meng yao after the confrontation with wrh, still believing meng yao was actually working for him, and not a spy, and get off... not scott-free, Xichen won't be happy, but it's not gonna cost him his life.

And then I read THIS.

Please Imagine dropping a whole block of pure elemental sodium into water. Except the sodium is this quote and the water is my poor little delicate brain. Not only is my theory right, it is ten times more unhinged than i thought it was.

And considering that Nie Mingjue does not seem like the kind of guy who'd consider something like a life debt to have an expiration date, and because after this he will link himself legally and socially to jin guangyao as family and declare that one among their brotherhood turning against the others is to be met with a painful death, I can no longer read the scene at the stairscase in jinlintai without the impression that he is still planning to die afterwards. Which, if you wanted to make that scene even more painful, this is a very efficient way of losing all your remaining hinges.

I think I'd have gone crazy about this line no matter what context I heard it in, but this one specifically? where I'm already obsessed with idea of nieyao's deaths being connected by the narrative and missing just this one piece and having it confirmed? out loud? from one of the characters himself? It's like giving cocaine to a baby.

#mdzs #fandom #jin guangyao #meng yao #nie mingjue #nieyao #? sorta #this was months ago and i have long since worked my way through the whole novel #plus rereading empathy approximately 14 more times #funnily enough the fics that initially got me interested in 3zun don't gell so well with my reading of them anymore #still very well written and i can reread them happily but it's still kind of ironic #it is what i wanted i suppose. Making sure you don't fall for fanon means fanon sometimes becomes less enjoyable #also @helesia if you're reading this yes YOU are the friend and yes that means this is YOUR fault #i'm billing you for my next therapy appointment #not meta not a headcanon but a secret 3rd thing (unorganized rambling)

[doodles-of-a-nerd-kid]

*Warning, this is gonna be a ridiculously long post...

So, some of you reeeeally wanted to know just a teeny weenie bit more about my weird boy huh? Well, here ya go:

Yeah, where do I freakin' start with this--? It was not only hard to put together despite the very simple (and more obvious) inspirations... but I had to mega ponder whatever the heck I was on when creating this character, LOL

Lets break it down all over again:

It is extremely obvious (I think) of which characters Tilde's appearance mostly stems from... our funny scout robots from Cave Story: Mr. Traveler and Curly Brace themselves. (Which heehee geddit he has a punctuation naem TILDE ~~ xdd)

I'm pretty sure some of you have probably assumed (Especially with how much I pair them together...^^") Tilde is... well... their kid somehow--

Not... quite? It's... much more complicated than that, don't worry about it! Anyways, I basically chucked them both into a blender to combine their appearances together as much as possible; an example of this is Tilde's hair! It's a blonde color like Curly's and straight; but has a waviness, spiking up at the ends like Quote's hair.

Tilde's antenna earphone things are green, and his eye color is also that bluescreen blue that Curly has as well, lol.

So Tilde's outfit inspirations! Tilde is actually wearing Sue Sakamoto's sweater, along with someone's long green scarf. Its a bit old and worn out... but it's very shnazzy, dontcha think? ^^ In earlier drawing drafts of Tilde back in 2021, his sleeves were actually much more sprite accurate to Sue's-- But then I played OneShot and drew them droopy like Niko's once and it... stuck. idc its staying too. I think I wanted to give him a cuteness bonus, so I gave him hairpins thanks to Chase from Harvest Moon lol

Underneath Tilde's sweater he is wearing a simple black tank with magenta shorts, like Quote's tank and sprite Curly's pants. His shoes I unfortunately don't have a direct correlation for their colors, but they're inspired by Cave Story 3D JP Curly's shoes.

A much more rare appearance, but this is what Tilde looks like as an adolescent-- Don't question why, just roll with it-- I have my reasons and I won't tell you :^) When I was drawing him, my brain just handed me Basil from Omori. Literally, just Basil's energy and a bit of the Mother series protagonists for outfit design... I tried to swishing it around a bit and ended up with a very puntable looking guy, which was the exact vibe I was going for~ >:3c

I gave Tilde a sweater turtleneck and called it a day, then Lucas came to mind again when I was coloring-- Which overall made this particular bit of the outfit more interesting ^^ Tilde here is also wearing Toroko's pendant. Not really much else to cover here, since the many traits from Tilde's youth carries into here. Continuing...

Oh boy, how the times have changed and he's all grown up now T_T

Tilde when he's older takes almost all the liberties from especially Quote, wearing his infamous deadpan expression naturally... but he still remains extremely expressive like Curly ^^

Tilde's outfit is very obviously influenced by them, from their cargo pants to their color schemes (which are also admittedly being carried from his youth as well.) Quote's Blade Strangers design (If you ever heard of it.) was definitely an influence for him as well--

BUT to keep him looking a bit more fresh, I devised to use even more of that special jrpg sauce i love to throw on my characters lmAO

Y'all should already know from my previous post that I'm a weeb a Japanese culture enthusiast, not gonna explain that again

Specially for his outfit Tetsuya Nomura's character designs immediately come to mind, i cannot tell you which one specifically.

While imagining the "cool rpg boy outfit" all these characters blend together in my head, probs because they seem to have similar vibes LOL (very cool Nomura-san)

100% CERTAIN Felix from Golden Sun had an influence on Tilde's outward appearance. I actually drew older Tilde before teen Tilde, and I gave him long hair partly bc of him-- lmao

(While Soren from Fire Emblem is not a main influence for Tilde, he is simply here because I hate him for making me realize long haired dudes are just,,, peak character design idk what to tell you.)

So that's Tilde's sheet

goes very crazy I know

If imma do a Tilde sheet, i gotta do it properly-- He's the best(est)

I'm very tired I worked on this for almost a whole week lol imma sleep or something

#so that's it #if you are curious about the inspirations for a different character #just ask me! #original content #tilde

[comfymoth]

(duckspiderbit anon) It can be nightmarish... but the hilarity of their dynamics combined and the sudden unexpected sweet moments they share at times make them perfect. Would LOVE to hear your thoughts on them btw, I'm very interested :D

anon i just want you to know that i have been trying to answer this ask since i woke up, i just apparently cannot talk about these fuckers without writing a novel, i am So Sorry.

i’m gonna try to be as short as i possibly can (spoiler warning it’s still not short IM SORRY) but like, basically. basically. in my head, right, in the version of events that lives in my head— roier and quackity already have a history. not exactly dating, just fooling around “as friends”, but it makes their friendship now very overly-familiar. they’re very touchy, very flirty, but at this point it’s all just playful. they’re just very comfortable with each other, you know? they’re best friends! and what best friends Aren’t this close, huh?

and cellbit isn’t fully aware of whatever they had going on before he knew them, but he knows there’s something he missed, like an inside joke he’ll never quite understand. and it’s not like that bothers him, exactly? because him and roier are completely secure, there’s never been a couple more fucking obsessed with each other, he knows he has zero reasons to feel threatened. it’s more like— he knows quackity is always going to special to roier, in this weird way, so they are just stuck with him. for better or worse. me and you and your friend steve, just a little bit, that’s kind of the vibe.

but it’s not like quackity and cellbit don’t also have their own share of familiarity. not nearly to the same extent, obviously, but they are familiar. cellbit gave him partial custody of his child, they’ve taken each others sides in disputes over how to raise said child, richas calls quackity pa, they are very much already stuck with each other anyways.

so like. what do you even do with that. right? what do you call your husband’s not-quite-ex and your co-parent, what does that make him to the two of you. and how is that impacted by the fact that he’s always desperately hitting on you both?

so again, in my head, in my head— i think it Has to be a slow burn with them. because quackity has baggage around relationships, right, he’s had a history of chasing romance just because he thinks it will fix him or make him feel something, and he needs time to cool off on that first. now, he never cools off on the flirting, i don’t think he ever physically could, but he needs to be okay with it not going anywhere. and i think spiderbit needs time to warm up to the opposite idea, that it might actually go somewhere. but over time they do. over time, quackity just worms his way into more and more of their life until they’ve basically made him a part of it without saying. they fall into comfortable routines. cellbit gets used to roier and quackity’s teasing, he starts to join in on it. over time, all the joke flirting just stops really being a joke, and all the friendly affection just escalates and escalates until they finally have to acknowledge what they’re doing.

they’re all very stupid about it. cellbit brings it up to roier first, who is somehow embarrassed because he thought they were all just joking and he was the only one catching feelings which he did NOT wanna think too hard about. they have a talk about what this means for them, come to an agreement, bring it up to quackity— who also somehow thought this was a bit and that they were just doing it all to tease him! and then, somehow, they’re both surprised when he says yes, because they couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. morons all around. they do have braincells, they just short circuit when they’re in a room together, it’s very sad and very comical

i actually…. okay, i Actually might’ve started writing the world’s most self indulgent oneshot about them, like… three or four weeks ago? idk, it was before school started so a bit ago, and i’m just never gonna finish it now i’ve accepted that but i Might just turn part of it into a comic. idk. idk we’ll see ahdkdjd if i don’t get too embarrassed to actually do it

anyways i’m sorry i talked so much i just have demons okay i have demons. and i didn’t even TALK about festa junina or “go take care of him” I MADE SO MANY CUTS GUYS I DID!!!!!

#long post #qsmp #duckspiderbit #sure that’s what we can call them. that works

[high-dragon-bait]

wait am I misremembering you made a post about dragon age half alf genetics? I can't find it. I thought it was interesting I forgot the wording but about the traits being dormant and stuff? Idk

Hello! Yes! I did make this post, it was an answer to another ask and I. Also cannot find it because tumblr’s search feature is god awful so I’m just going to. Repeat myself here. The original post was kind of messy anyway so here we go

Dragon Age Half-Elf Genetics Headcanon (aka: I rewrite half elf genetics in dragon age to be canon compliant in a way I don’t hate)

In Dragon Age, half elves work differently than they do in most other fantasy works that use elves and humans in that they do not exist. There are no half elves in the Dragon Age world, any elf/human hybrid comes out looking entirely human and that’s it

I, and from what I can tell the majority of the Dragon Age fandom, are not a fan of this. It’s boring, uncreative, and very obviously just there to explain how Alistair can have an elven mother despite not looking elven at all. In my opinion it’s fine on an individual basis, maybe with Alistair he does just look more human, but EVERY half-elf just looks human? Don’t like that

BUT

Supposedly, this is because elves are very magical and special and humans are not. So, because of this, when elven blood meets human blood the human blood cancels it out entirely, kind of like dousing a fire. To which I say…I still don’t like it but it’s better than “human genetics are just SO DOMINANT they EAT the elven genetics forever” throwing in a magical element at least gives us more to work with, but I still don’t like the idea that human/elf hybrids are literally always human

So. Here’s my solution

Half elves, in the traditional sense, still do not exist. The child will always look entirely human, or, more rarely, entirely elven.

See, when an elf and a human mate, and the child is born looking human, that elven blood is not gone, just dormant. Elven blood can lie dormant in a bloodline for generations before being “awoken.” This “awakening” is done in two ways: when it makes contact with more elven blood, or, the parent is exposed to strong magic

Most commonly, the blood is awoken by making contact with elven blood, usually when an elf-blooded human has a child with a full elf. This is what happens in the case of my Hawke as I like to believe the Hawkes have elven blood lying dormant somewhere in their linage. When my Hawke has a child with Fenris, that child is then born an elf to the surprise of everyone involved. It's not an unpleasant surprise just a "Huh, well that's weird"

But two elf-blooded human parents can still have an elven child. This happens to Miris, my secondary inquisitor, she was born an elf to two noble humans and abandoned near the Lavellan clan for it, claiming later the child died during birth. (unbeknownst to both her and the clan, they all assume her birth parents were city elves that could not care for her)

Unfortunately, that reaction is not an uncommon one, and that combined with the rarity of its occurrence means it’s practically unknown that this is possible

Elven blood being awoken from magical exposure is even more rare, but, surprisingly, it is better known. In fact it’s a very closely guarded secret by the Chantry.

It has been known to happen in circles. In the already undesirable case of a mage falling pregnant, there is a chance the child could be born an elf. It still is not a common occurrence in those births, but it has happened enough for the Chantry to grow paranoid at the possibility whenever its reported a mage is pregnant. The stronger the magical talent of the mage, the higher the chance. It's part of the reason accidental babies are taken from their mage mothers so quickly, the Chantry doesn't want them to realize their child is an elf.

What happens to those babies? It's... unknown. Most likely they are put in an alienage orphanage, or abandoned to the Dalish, though the truth may be darker.

There have also been cases of Templars having elven babies, which are also covered up by the Chantry. What happens to those children is up to their families discretion, the Chantry claims to have no involvement there at all.

Why does the Chantry do this? Because they don't know why it happens, or what it means for the elven race they've spent so long oppressing, and that scares them. They can't predict what would happen if this knowledge was made public, but they are too afraid of the possibility itself to risk the secret leaving their walls.

So that's the headcanon! I like it. I still like regular D&D style half-elves as well, this isn't meant to really be THE solution, just one possible interpretation. I might better tag this post so it doesn't get eaten by the search feature again...

#dragon age #my dragon age #dragon age headcanon #dragon age elves

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Lodge Cynthia

Prior to this, the grand champion of alt speedrunning was Misty, who got her Sygna Suit and Swimsuit alts within a month.  Now, Cynthia has blown that record out of the water, by acquiring two alts within five days of each other.  Queen shit.

General Overview Pop quiz!  What is my problem with Drake?  If you answered “He buffs defenses separately, making his core utility awkward and slow,” congratulations!

Lodge Cynthia can buff crit and accuracy, a fascinating combination of stats that is shared only by her E4 compatriot, Aaron.  Unlike Aaron, however, Cynthia cannot buff an offensive stat, and instead buffs special defense.  Also unlike Aaron, the crit and the accuracy are separate moves, creating a difficult situation for Cynthia in terms of how to approach the match.  Crit buffing is nice, but it’s only sufficient when your ally handles all their own offensive needs.  Accuracy buffing is nice, but very few units with bad accuracy care about only accuracy; most need offensive support, like Kris, or are self-sufficient like Archie

This isn’t to say Cynthia has no use.  She’s still a support, and those will always be useful.  But her tools are, like Blue’s, awkwardly allocated in a way that is frustrating.

Team 1: Lodge Cynthia, Cyrus/Crasher Wake, Winona/Tech Blastoise/Lucian Cyrus was an interesting realization for me.  With Lodge Cynthia, Cyrus can forego his accuracy buffing nodes, and take Sharp Entry, First Aid 4, and some extra special attack boosting tiles, for better damage, survival, and a means of shortening setup.  Cynthia’s Dire Hit All with Sharp Entry caps him in one turn, with her other two moves giving enough accuracy that Hydro Pump can’t miss.  With the added special defense buffs, Cyrus is now bulkier and potentially able to handle things like Heat Wave on Entei and Moltres, or off-type moves like Latios’ Surf.  Which Cynthia reduces further with Team Water Guard.  So apparently she’s also great against Latios with Cyrus, who just switches to Dragon-type damage.  You can even drop the Rain support for a debuffer like Lucian and now he’s anti-Latias too, with Cynthia playing to speed debuffs and ensuring moves hit to bypass the evasion boosts.  Huh.

Another option in that same vein is Crasher Wake.  He’s offensively self-sufficient, and has a good flinch rate to handle Entei reasonably well.

Team 2: Lodge Cynthia, Masked Royal, Hitmonchan Potentially?  Anti-Cresselia.  Now, I’m not 100% confident here.  But I feel like there’s potential.  Specifically, Masked Royal’s Darkest Lariat ignores foe’s buffs, including evasion.  So Cresselia cannot get around this.  Cynthia can cap his crit rate, while he debuffs the physical side of the spectrum.  What he needs past that point is something to help cap his attack.  So this is a dual support core, but it should power him up enough to get the drop on Cresselia.  Or maybe it won’t!  I really don’t know.  I’ve never been able to get Masked Royal to work against Cresselia, but I feel like it’s possible.

Team 3: Lodge Cynthia, Sophocles, Volkner Cynthia plays best for allies who can self-buff their offensive stat, and has optional utility in Trip Up Rock Tomb.  This makes her a decent support partner to Sophocles against Tornadus, by offering debuff utility and crit support, as well as being fairly optimized against Tornadus thanks to Sync Cure to remove Toxic, and emphasizing special defense.  It’s worth noting that a big problem here is Sophocles lowers his physical defense, and there’s a phase where Tornadus spams Brutal Swing, and this is your time to have Volkner’s flinch rate try to stop such shenanigans.  This might also answer Cobalion.  Might.  I’m not able to try it, but if you can delay its sync nuke hard enough, Sophocles might be fine.

Team 4: Lodge Cynthia, Spring May, Tech Kangaskhan Now this is a weird one, but I kinda love it. Spring May can boost team speed, which is great for Cynthia’s low gauge issues.  Spring May can also, if desired, boost defense, which is Cynthia’s weakness, and has Potion to keep her in the game.  Spring May can boost her attack to cap on mega evolution, but needs help with crit, which Cynthia can provide.  The accuracy boost also means Spring May isn’t going to miss, and doesn’t need to buff after first sync.  From there, add Tech Kangaskhan for flinch rate to help Cynthia’s survival, and to provide Leer support for May, while kicking off team theme skills.

Final Thoughts Cynthia’s a really weird option.  There’s not currently much that needs the combination of special defense and accuracy with crit.  Until such a unit arrives that likes the special defense boosts for multipliers and needs crit and/or evasion, she’s just in an awkward spot.

#pokemon masters #lodge cynthia #unit teambuilding

[oatchi]

🏳‍🌈 for tfa. hand me. Give. Require

🏳️‍🌈 do you have any headcanons (lgbt, race, neuro, etc) that are important to you? You really want me to fill my dash up, huh. Okay. Fine. Under the cut it goes.

Let me be clear, I accept many things for many characters, especially when it comes to trans headcanons, so I may go back and forth on a lot of these, but you literally asked for it.

Optimus Prime: Bisexual. I can understand the transmasc headcanon given to him, but I do not like the way people treat him in the fandom in combination with the headcanon (i.e., the soft uwu boy act) so most depictions leave a sour taste in my mouth. Suffers from textbook PTSD. Ratchet: Old old queer man. He's the kind of old man who doesn't label himself because he finds it a bit ridiculous. He likes mechs, he likes femmes, he likes everything outside of that and in between. He doesn't care what he "falls under," he's just living his life. Textbook PTSD, and he is the old gay mentor to Optimus' young gay in need of a parental figure. Bumblebee: Gay Trans man. Easy. Teeeextbook ADHD, and he hates being infantilized for it. Not much else to say on this. Also he's polyam and parent trapped all his partners into also being in love with each other. Except not like, parent trapping them, just like, boyfriend trapping them. Bulkhead: Bisexual cisguy who's doing his best to support his trans friends. He is Autistic, okay? He is. He has a special interest in the show. and Sensory issues. Trust Me. He's cis but he's got the autistic gender swag with it okay. Prowl: He is.... How you say... Pansexual. I will not get into anything about bi/pan stuff but he follows the logic I do of bisexual meaning "attraction to your gender, the opposite, and others" and pansexual meaning "attraction regardless of gender." He's also a he/they because he has the Autism Fucked Up My Concept Of Gender disease. He's autistic btw. He holds hands with Bumblebee and Bulkhead and is open to more. Dinobots: They're all stupid and bi. Not for each other they just are. Omega Supreme: He's so guy ever. I think the inherit concept of being nothing more than a war machine and made to have "low processing power" is kinda neurodivergent-trans. Like inheritly. He chose to be a guy and stuff. Arcee: JUST some girl. She has kind old bi trans lady energy I think. I think her memory issues probably persisted a bit even though they were shown to be "fixed" at the end, but only in minor ways. Wreckgar: HE IS JUST SOME GUY. I think if you asked him his pronouns he would say "I am Wreckgar! I... Use he/him pronouns?" and then think about it and then go "I am Wreckgar! I use any pronouns!" and that would be the interaction. I don't think he has any feelings on anyone really other than friendship <3 Megatron: Old, old gay man. He is not gay for Optimus. Crucial. He is just gay. Also I think he's trans with it. Old gay trans man that will dark seduce you. (If Fruit reads this essay. I'm reclaiming.) Starscream: As Unfortunate As It Is, he has transgender swag. I cannot place what kind, but I'd like to believe it's any pronouns. Also Gay. But No One Wants Him. Starscream clones: I DON'T KNOW MAN. THEYRE JUST KINDA THERE. In my mind I feel like Slipstream stole all the transgender swag making all the other ones normal guys. Well like. As normal as Clones of Starscream could be. Blitzwing: He/they by nature, self referential as "we" occasionally again by nature. OSDD-1b but they all respond to "Blitzwing" because they are a chaotic group that switch on the drop of a hat and they've just learned to. The kind of system that works to make up the concept of one whole "person," so even if they themselves know they're different, they are pooling resources together to make one guy often. One Gay Guy. Smile Lugnut: Do I literally need to say anything. He's gay. He's never even looked at a woman unless it was for work. He's gay and the one guy he wants does not want him at all Blackarachnia: Trans girl. She's a metaphor alright. I like to think she's transhet because they are the strongest type of trans people and Blackarachnia is stronger than all of us. Heavily suffers from the body issues, and suffers from trauma. Because of the Spiders. Soundwave: No gender No sexuality Only Liberate Robots. That is how I think he feels Shockwave: Old Gay Man. He has transgender swag I feel like he's gender fucked up. I don't know how. He's weird with it. Smile. Lockdown: I like to think he is a neutral/pos aroace who just acts like that. He does not fuck he could if he wanted but he doesn't. End post Swindle: He's just a little guy! And it's his birthday, you would try to make a guy pick just one place on the gender spectrum on his birthday? He's got gender swag and I think he is also aroace and hangs out with Lockdown because of this. Wasp(inator): The Bug gave him Transgender Swag. He's also terribly traumatized Constructicons: Fuck these guys. But they're also all bi and no one wants them Angry Archer: I could not give less of a shit about this man. But he's like gay (derogatory) Nanosec: transhet. Good for him. Meltdown: Again, gay (derogatory) Colossus: I literally don't know. Whatever man. Gay old guy Professor Princess: She Is like, idk. 6. I think she cares about my little ponies more than being on my headcanons chart. Henry Masterson: He is so so so so so gaytrans and insane Slo-Mo: transhet. Good for her. Ultra Magnus: Old old gay man. No further commentary. Jazz: Hehehe... Gay ninja. I think he actually could like a woman in theory but he is definitely mlm. I think he is either a hardcore trans ally or a transman. Jetfire/Jetstorm: Putting them together because personally I love to believe that because they are viewed as a unit and are usually never referred to as individuals, they are actually much more accustomed to singular they/them in reference to themselves. I think they accept anything though. Also they're just a little fucked up from the whole dying and coming back thing I think. I think the death and coming back thing gave them a bit of nonbinary swag. they/he's. Blurr: I don't know where this is coming from, but He/They/It nonbinary gay dude. That's all Heh. What. Did you think I'd forget my specialist boy of all time? Never. I just needed to put him at the bottom so you didn't have to scroll through ALL the shit I have to say about him just to see 1-2 sentences on some other guys. Anyways. Let's get into it. Sentinel Prime: Is so so so so so SO much. He can literally be interpreted a million ways, but let me make one thing very clear. He is NOT a cishet man who's an asshole for no reason. Without a doubt, my personal favourite interpretation of him is as a bisexual cis man who, despite the everything, is a very hardcore trans ally. A real "oh you're trans? Okay uhh what name. Okay. Okay. Pronouns? Okay. Gotttt it. Okay. Okay. (Goes back to insulting you but this time reaffirming of your gender)" type guy. Mentally? PTSD. Textbook. Often showing in ways that are the exact opposite of the way Optimus' shows, making him seem "difficult." Also, literally everyone can fuck off, I think he's so autistic. I think he's genuinely so autistic so bad. Touch is only good if he initiates it. He wants touch do NOT fucking touch him if he doesn't make it very clear he wants touch. Do not expect him to understand peoples feelings he does not get it. Do not expect him to understand a social setting, he will NOT get it. He doesn't know how to do any of that. He is hardcore rule follower because of a mix of trauma and autism. And when he does break the rules? Well, it didn't break is Autism Moral Rules, so it's fine. Organic stuff is not only a traumatic trigger, it is often stuff he would consider "bad touch." He does NOT like how soft humans and other organics are, he HATES their liquids, he DOES NOT like hair. And listen to me? Listen to me. Only I'm allowed to say this one as a haver of this disorder. Obsessive compulsive disorder rooted in trauma. Did he only comically have to clean himself once as a gag in the show..? Yes. Would I trust anyone else saying this..? No. But I live deep inside Sentinel Prime's mind and trust me, I know what I'm saying. I believe the compulsive need for status comes from a complex mix of PTSD, OCD, and Autism. With the PTSD, he blocked everyone out, till all that was left was status. OCD would have him with the repeated intrusive thoughts of needing to be the best, or else, well, the general "bad things will happen" type response. Autism is definitely important in this mix, because he has been working towards it for years, and the moment it might be out of reach entirely, complete and total meltdown and confusion ensues. Yes, that could be attributed to both the PTSD and OCD, but trust me. I know him. Several other things about him play into these three, to make the list short, being unable to stop to let the blame hit him for once is crucial to not letting what little of he has left to his name be shattered. The small sense of identity is all effects of PTSD, OCD and autism. The deal with Optimus is so neurodivergent I swear to God. He is just some guy with a handful of mental disorders that doesn't know how to articulate care. I need to stop now and so I shall, smile. Oh and by the way, Sari Sumdac is trans, realizing she was a robot transed her, she is nonbinary she/they/he. Thank you and Good Night

#callisto.wav #sentinelminor #tf #GOD. I CANT BELIEVE I DID THIS. I LITERALLY STARTED ASKING LIKE 'HEY WHO IN TFA IS IMPORTANT TO YOU' TO MAKE SURE I GOT EVERYONE

[four-loose-screws]

FE8 Novelization Translation - Chapter 13, Section 2

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

FE Game Script Translations - FE Novel Translations - Original FE Support Conversations

If you are interested in donating to support my work, please check out my Ko-fi here. Thank you!

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I call this a “section” because it is not a separate part of the chapter in the book, but divided from the rest of the chapter by a scene break.

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Chapter 13: The Desert Palace (con’t)

A cacophony of noises echoed from around the front gate.

Innes and his force had started to move. The enemy soldiers were being even louder than usual. In their eyes, Eirika’s army, at a severe disadvantage, must appear to have attacked with the resolve to sacrifice themselves in battle.

Joshua led Eirika’s group around to the east side of the palace. With them were just Seth, L’Arachel, and a few others, making up a force of only ten soldiers. Though they knew that this passageway would be lightly guarded, it didn’t seem possible that they’d be able to lead a successful attack with such few numbers… Eirika was unsure, but Joshua insisted that they were more than fine.

Just as he’d said, the east side of the palace was deserted. Eirika’s group completely avoided being spotted by any enemies, and they safely arrived at a small door.

It was completely unsurprising that the Grado Army had overlooked this place. If one did not know the construction of the castle in full detail, they would probably never realize that a door would be located in a part of the castle like this.

Ross stepped forward and chopped down the door with a single swing of his axe. 

A few guard soldiers had been positioned in the hallway just in case, but they were taken by surprise, and all they did was flail around in a panic, and hardly helped guard the entrance at all.

Eirika’s group defeated them before they could even call for back-up.

“You can see a door to a room used as a weapon storeroom over there. If we take the weapons that are in there, it’ll be a huge help to us.” Joshua said.

L’Arachel started galloping over to it. 

Joshua called out to her, “Hey, that’s not where the weapons are! That’s the door to the treasure room! You won’t find anything in there that will help us!”

However, L’Arachel didn’t seem to hear him, as she grabbed the doorknob.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t locked. It opened easily, and L’Arachel rushed inside without any concern.

Eirika followed after her in a panic. There could very well be a crass Grado soldier sneaking and rummaging around in there. It would be very dangerous if they were to cross paths.

The next words she heard come from L’Arachel were almost hysterical.

“My goodness! This is where you were?! I told you to follow me! You cannot meander around in a place like this!”

‘Who is she talking to?’ Eirika thought it very strange, and peered inside the room.

Several locked boxes were inside of it. The contents were probably the various treasures that had been gathered and stored inside Jehanna Palace.

L’Arachel was standing and looking at a young man, someone Eirika had seen before. 

He was none other than L’Arachel’s other follower, Rennac.

Rennac looked back and forth between L’Arachel and Eirika, utterly dumbfounded, before dropping his shoulders. “Oh, um… Why wasn’t I following you? I, um… More importantly, what are you doing here…?”

“Rennac?”

An open chest lying on its side lay at his feet, and when Eirika looked very closely, she saw that he was wearing bracelets and crowns, and glittering necklaces lined his pockets.

“What… were you doing?” Judging by what it looked like, Eirika couldn’t imagine that he was doing anything other than sneaking into the treasure room to try and take the treasure. 

However, right now, the palace was occupied by the Grado Army. How could Rennac have possibly snuck in here after separating from L’Arachel in Carcino?

But L’Arachel did not mind any of that, instead extending a hand towards him.

“Come with me right now! We will combine our powers and defeat the Grado Army!"

“Hey… now wait just a minute! I’m not your servant anymore! The Grado Army…”

“What?!”

“I was trying to say that I’m working for the Grado Army now!”

“The Grado Army is committing such shameless acts! I cannot believe they stole a follower of mine!!”

“No, that’s not… Oh, whatever. I’m not like that old man Dozla at all! I didn’t really pledge my loyalty to you. I was just employed as your guard, wasn’t I? Yet you haven’t paid me any money at all! Of course I’d be swayed by the Grado army and their high pay…"

“What are you talking about, Rennac? I gave you something far greater than a salary, didn’t I?” L’Arachel warmly spread her arms open wide. 

“Huh?” Rennac answered.

“A life mission! I gave you a duty from the gods to fight evil! And it is a duty more grand than any other! The joy you get from doing good and helping others cannot be replaced by anything else! This is all much more important than money!”

The crown and bracelets all fell with a clang from around Rennac’s arms. He covered his hands with his ears, showing how much he did not want to hear another word. “It’s always the same with you! I want money more than duty, or to do good deeds! You always make me go with whatever logic is convenient for you, and drag me around everywhere…”

“And it was all for the better, don’t you think? Your eyes are so much more clear and beautiful than when we first met. It's because you were with me, doing good deeds! Now you shall do even more! Come with me!"

L'Arachel immediately left the room. Rennac watched her leave with regret in his eyes, but then he looked at Eirika. "...Say, Miss?"

"Y-Yes?"

"Would you like to hire me?"

Rennac's expression quickly brightened. He clapped his hands together at his brilliant idea, and walked over to Eirika. "Yeah, that's the best way to solve this! You're different from that stingy princess! You look like you'd pay me well!"

"Uh… um…" 

"The name's Rennac. I'm a skilled thief. Well, I call myself that, but I'm no fool. I am more skilled in lockpicking than anyone else! No matter the type of lock on a door or a box filled with treasure, I can open it in an instant. My sword fighting skills are the real deal too! And you can have this indispensable man for ten thousand gold! For just ten thousand gold, I will become one of your allies. That's quite the bargain!"

"Ten… thousand?"

That was a lot of money. To someone who was careful with money like Eirika, such an amount made her take a step back.

If they needed someone who could pick locks, they already had Colm. They had no need to pay this man such a large sum of money and hire him.

She tried to turn down his offer, but Rennac picked up on what she was thinking and quickly said, “You’re a tough nut to crack! Ten thousand gold is a bargain, but I’ll make a special offer for a pretty little lady like you. I’ll give you a big discount, and drop it down to nine thousand, nine hundred, eighty gold! How about that?”

“Um, no.. That amount is still too much…”

The moment he was starting to overwhelm her, L’Arachel peered back into the treasure room. “What are you dragging your feet for, Rennac? Come along!”

Even the eloquent Rennac was weak to the princess of Rausten. 

He said in a voice completely unlike the one he had cornered Eirika with, “Please go on ahead, don’t wait for me.” It was the best response he could muster.

“What was that?”

“Um, what I mean to say is…”

“If you don’t follow right behind me, then you’ll get lost again! You have no sense of direction, so be careful not to lose sight of me!” L’Arachel didn’t even wait for a reply, immediately leaving the treasury again. 

Rennac ruffled a hand through his hair and whispered defeatedly, “...Dammit… my hands are tied. Guess my luck ran out when I thought she’d be a good employer…” Rennac looked over at Eirika and lowered his head. “You heard her. I’m coming with you.”

“But ten thousand gold is way too high for me…”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ve decided to get her to pay me someday. For now, I'll go along with her…”

Rennac picked up the bracelets he dropped earlier and stuffed them in his pockets, then smirked. “I’ll settle with this for the time being. Now let’s go, before the princess starts complaining again.” 

#fire emblem #fe #fe8 #sacred stones #eirika #gba #game boy advance #japan #japanese #translation #light novel #fe8 novelization translation

[professional-benaddict]

ageplay+mafia. Rival mafia boss Beck is abusing little!Peter by not feeding him and using him as a sort of s*x toy for anyone and everyone. Tony would usually have someone take care of it, but when he finds out that a little is being hurt, he decides to take care of Beck himself and take Peter home. If this is too dark, I completely understand. I love you and you're writing you are amazing! Ily have fun at the cottage ❤️

another anon: How about a mafia AU where Tony busts a rival’s organization and reveals an underground human little trafficking ring. Little!Peter could be one of the recent kidnappees and Tony immediately falls in love and takes Peter in as his little. Bonus if Stephen Strange is his right hand man and husband and falls for little!Peter too. Love your writing!

I decided to combine these two as they were very similar ideas. I hope you both like what I came up with🙈💓

Mafia boss Tony, husband/right hand Stephen, +18 Little Peter, rivalry boss Beck, human trafficking, raids, mentions of violence and injury, kidnapping

“So, the plan is still on?” 

“Yes, sir. Everything is going according to plan. We are en route. Barnes will update you after.”

Sucking in a long breath, Tony leans back in his office chair, enjoying both the soft creak of the leather under him and the sting of the expensive smoke in his lungs. Releasing the cigar from in between his lips, the boss opens his eyes to thin slits to see the grey smoke rise up to the ceiling. 

He’s been waiting for this for so long. Weeks of planning, organising and making transactions. All to take down Tony’s rival, Quentin bloody Beck. Tony is no angel, that’s for sure, but human trafficking, that’s something one actually deserves to go to hell for. If the police were to be trusted, Tony would have made anonymous tips about Beck to them months ago. You see, he isn’t an angel, so he’d rather not get too fond and cozy with the ones in uniforms and badges. 

But, now and then Tony can take justice into his own hands, and he is damn pleased with himself already, hence the celebratory cigar. If only his husband was here. 

“What’s taking Stephen so damn long?” Tony barks all of a sudden with the cigar in between his thick fingers. 

Harley, Tony’s petite but obedient assistant, smiles with force and picks up his phone. The young boy locates Stephen after a few calls. His husband’s location is no surprise to Tony. He should have figured. Heading out of his office, Tony makes his way through his warehouse and to the back, where their make shift medbay is. 

“We started already, you know.” Tony announces by the open door, sucking in another long puff of smoke as he looks at his husband. 

Spinning on his heel, Stephen smiles brightly at Tony. With a few quick strides, he is in front of his husband, his lips pressed against his. Tony tastes of smoke and Stephen hums lowly. He recognises the brand, just by the taste on Tony’s mouth. 

“Sorry, I got busy counting the supplies.” Stephen says finally, explaining his absence. 

“Always so caring, doctor.” Tony teases, blowing smoke into Stephen’s eyes. The doctor doesn’t blink, and just smiles slyly. 

“Well, if you didn’t send your men out there to get hurt-” 

Tony growls playfully and shoves Stephen away from him. Steading himself, the doctor smiles again, but goes to follow his husband out and back to the office. That is until Tony gets a call. 

“Barnes?”

“There’s- well, a hiccup.”

“What? Spit it out, goddammit.” Tony threatens, voice low and rough from the cigar. 

“There’s... Beck wasn’t just trafficking humans. It’s- he’s trafficking /Littles/.” 

Within just a minute, Tony and Stephen are in the back of a car and driving to Beck’s hideout. This was way, way worse than Tony could have anticipated. Trafficking caregivers and neutrals is one thing, but Littles? Tony hopes that there is a special spot in hell saved for Beck for his horrid acts. 

At their destination, there’s two dozens Littles, at least, and they are all crying at the top of their lungs. The noise is deafening as soon as Tony steps out of the car. Placing his cigar between his teeth so that his hands are free, Tony covers his ears and heads inside. 

“Get me Barnes and Rogers.” Tony says to one of his men, then heads with Stephen to what looks like an office. The place is completely raided, and one can barely see the concrete floor with how papers have been thrown out of shelves and lockers. Tony steps on them without care, and goes to the window to see his men try to keep the rescued Littles in check outside. 

“Jesus fuck...” Stephen mutters next to him. He is just as astonished by the sight as Tony, although he is worse at hiding it than his husband. “So, it’s been Littles all this time? He must have trafficked hundreds then.” 

Tony grunts lowly in response and sucks in another long smokey inhale through the cigar. Perhaps the celebration was premature, but at least the nicotine helps with this sudden wave of stress. 

“Sir?” 

Bucky and Steve are now by the door and Tony invites them in with a hand gesture. The two men start recapping the raid and how Beck is cuffed in one of the cars for Tony to do with as he pleases, but what Tony is interested in is hearing about the Littles. After some consideration, Tony comes to a decision. 

“We’ll leave them here, but make sure they have water and some blankets. Someone will then make an anonymous tip to the police. They can deal with this.” 

“They’ll know it’s you who messed up the place.” Steve points out. 

“Yeah, well... They’ll have to find me, though. And they won’t do that, so no worries.” Tony says and Bucky nor Steve argue against him. “Now, fuck off.” Tony says finally and waves them off. 

Stephen and Tony remain in the office for a while longer, listening to the men bark orders and comfort the Littles outside. Most of them seem to have calmed down by now, and the ones who haven’t, cling to their Little friends for comfort. 

“What if we take one?” Stephen suddenly asks. 

“What?” Tony asks dumbly, shooting his husband a puzzled and annoyed look. 

“I’ve always wanted one.” The doctor shrugs, not fazed by the initial nasty look Tony gave him. But, he can now see his husband’s eyes softening as he considers the idea. “Imagine it.” 

And Tony does imagine it. He sees himself and his husband, hand in hand with a Little between them, shrieking and giggling with glee. Images of soft, hazy mornings and sleepy cuddles invade his mind, leaving behind a sense of longing that is unfamiliar to Tony. A bit shaken with these new emotions, Tony straightens up and clears his throat. Stephen, who is still eyeing through the window, smirks to himself. 

“Let’s just go look.” Tony says. 

The Littles fall deathly silent when Tony walks over. It’s an effect that Tony has on most people, but with these Littles the reactions are even more intense. Their eyes are as wide as saucers, their lips tight and sealed to prevent any screams or whimpers from coming out. Walking slowly past the line of Littles, Tony eyes each of them with his cigar between his lips. 

Then, the boss pauses. One of the Littles, and perhaps the smallest one of them, is a lovely, but dirty looking little boy. His eyes and hair are almost the same shade of soft, medium brown, like a hazel nut. He looks thin and a bit sickly, but so do all of them. But, there is something about him that catches Tony’s interests. The same sense of longing from before blooms in Tony’s chest again, although this time it is stronger. 

“Steph? What do you think?” Tony says to his husband, directing his attention to the brunette boy. 

The doctor steps forward, then crouches down to see the Little better. After a few short moments of studying him, Stephen rises up again with a smile. He nods at his husband. While Tony heads to their car, Stephen helps the boy up from the ground and leads him to the car as well. 

“So, what’s your name, sweetheart?” Stephen starts out gently, helping the Little get a seatbelt on in the back of the car. The boy could hardly do it himself with how badly his hands are trembling. 

“P-Peter… sir.” The boy replies quietly, but doesn’t lift his gaze from his bare feet. 

“Peter, huh? That’s a pretty name.” Stephen continues, like the good cop he is. “I’m Stephen and that’s my husband Tony. Although, his full name is actually Anthony, but he doesn’t like people calling him that.” 

Finally, the Little dares to lift his head to look up at Tony. With his cigar still between his teeth, Tony narrows his eyes just a bit to study the boy. The boss cannot pinpoint it, but there is something about the boy that intrigues him greatly. But, before he can name it, Peter looks away with a blush on his cheeks. 

“Where- where are you taking me?”

“Home, why of course! To our home.” Tony laughs and puffs out another little cloud of smoke. 

#my prompts #little!peter #daddy!tony #daddy!stephen #starker #starkerstrange #strangespider #ironstrange #tony stark x peter parker #peter parker x stephen strange #tony stark x stephen strange #peter parker #tony stark #stephen strange #ask

[backofthebookshelf]

Your Handy Guide to AO3 Searching and Filtering

In the spirit of YKINMKBYKIOK (aka let other people have fun and stop complaining that they exist, jeez), and also because I am a Nerd and will apparently do my actual literal job for free if it involves fandom in any way: How To Find Fics on AO3

There are two basic ways to go about this: searching and filtering. In this age of Google we're all kind of used to searching, but Google's search engine is...special, and also not really how a well-constructed database search works. There's a lot of reasons for this, many of which involve "the unstructured chaos that is the Internet at large" and "Google's secret algorithm which we will never understand," but tl;dr you've probably noticed that searching for a specific fic or type of fic on AO3 doesn't always return the results you expected. There are ways to make it work, but I vastly prefer filtering to find fics I want to read.

First off: I usually have something to start with, most of the time it's a fandom. There are a bunch of ways to find your starting tag; usually, to be honest, I'm bouncing off of a direct link to a fic. If you're starting from AO3's homepage, though, you can use the tag search - the plain search box in the upper right won't do it for you, usually. Hit the search tab, pick tag search, and search for canonical fandom tags. 99 times out of a hundred that'll get you your fandom.

Now if you're looking for a specific character or pairing you could browse the resulting page, the one that gives you all the child tags (those would be tags that only apply to this fandom, usually but not always characters) and relationship tags. If your fave is rarer, this is a good place to start. Otherwise, click that Works button up on the top right.

Now you've got the page you're probably used to: your fandom's tag, newest works at the top. If you like to start your fic-reading from AO3's homepage, there's a handy Favorite Tag button up in the top right; if you click that it'll show up on your homepage for you and you can always and easily check the newest fics. But if you're reading this you're probably looking to do something more complicated than just read whatever was posted most recently, right? This is where the magic Sort and Filter option comes in.

Let's start with Include.

This is where you'll get your basic preferences nailed down: how much adult content do you want to see? Do you have strong opinions about any of the official archive warnings? Do you want a ship, or gen, and if you want a ship do you want het or slash or femmeslash or lots of ships or whatever this fandom might have decided "other" means (usually it's tentacles)? Click the checkbox for whatever you want to include. EXCEPT. Keep in mind that the checkboxes work as an AND search, not an OR - that is, if you check both "M/M" and "F/F," you'll get only works that have both M/M and F/F pairings. Anything that’s just M/M won't show up, and vice versa. If you have multiple categories and you'd be okay with fics that match only one of those criteria, hold onto that thought for a while. (If, on the other hand, you only want fics with graphic violence and character death, this is where you'd go.)

Now you could just keep moving on, but I like to click Sort and Filter at this point, because the options it gives you in the next section are sorted by popularity, and sometimes you'll get more of the options you want when you set your base preferences. The screenshot on the left is the Fandoms, Characters, and Relationships filters with no other preferences set; the one on the right is with them set to Rating: Teen, No Archive Warnings Apply, and Multi. You'll see that some of those crossovers have dropped out, the characters have shuffled a bit, and several pairings are just gone.

From here, with these kind of numbers, I'd probably just pick one tag I'm interested in - do I want jonmartin fic, or Jon fic of any description, or oooh, hey, Sasha/Tim - select that checkbox, and go from there. But if you want something really specific, like only jonmartin fic in which Daisy appears, go for it. You don't have to change any of your earlier selections, just click those checkboxes and click Sort and Filter again.

Huh, that's genuinely more fics than I expected.

Now, if instead of having something specific you know you want, there's something specific you know you DON'T want, you have the next section: Exclude. This is relatively new, and it's magic. Don't wanna see Explicit fic? Banish it. Never want to read Major Character Death? Boom. Tired of Jon and only want fics where he doesn't appear? You can do that, too. These checkboxes do work on an OR search, which means you can check as many as you want, and if a fic matches any of the checkboxes you ticked, it won't show up in your search. If there's a pairing or a character you just cannot stand, you can exclude them, click Sort and Filter, and bookmark the resulting page. You'll see every new fic posted to the fandom tag except for the ones that include the thing you've already decided you don't want to see - you can just pretend it doesn't exist. It's wonderful.

There are some more neat options down at the bottom - got strong pro or con opinions about crossovers, or unfinished works? Got a few hours to kill and want something 10k+ to keep you busy? Hoping there's something written in your native language that isn't English? These options also exist, and they stack with the other filters as well, so you can filter only by crossover status or by rating and wordcount or by language and pairing, however you choose to combine them. (My favorite combo is Complete works only, wordcount from 10k (leave "to" blank if you don't need to set a higher limit), and exclude the fandom's most popular pairing. There's some good shit in that search in pretty much any fandom.)

Don't forget the sort! You don't have to see newest fics first; if you're still getting caught up on the canon, you can sort by oldest first and be careful never to read past the date you're caught up to. You can sort by word count to get the longest fics first or the shortest, by hits to see what people read the most, by kudos to see what the most people liked, by comments to see what gets the most interaction, by bookmarks to see...honestly I'm not sure what bookmarks indicate, but you can sort by them. Also by title and author, if you prefer an alphabetical organization for whatever reason.

Unfortunately there's not a good way to clear the filters, so if you change your mind about what you're looking for, you will have to go back and un-check the boxes you've selected before you do another search. Or you can just click on the fandom tag under the first fic in your results list; that will take you back to the main tag with no filters on it, which is what I usually do.

And there you have it: AO3's excellently curated filters, which allow you to curate your fandom experience. If that still isn't enough for you, there are some browser extensions you may want to look into (ao3 savior for tampermonkey; AO3rdr) that let you do even more customization, but those are tricky to use on mobile or if you're switching between multiple devices, so I prefer to rely mostly on AO3's built in tools.

If any of this isn't clear to you I am happy to answer questions! Note that I have nothing to do with AO3 personally other than having been a loyal user for 13+ years now, I'm just a librarian and a nerd for good organizational systems. And goddammit, AO3 is amazing.

#ao3 #archive of our own #i love a good database #fic #fanfiction #the magnus archives #(i wrote this for you but it applies to all fandoms) #long post #sorry everyone on mobile

[alywats]

June/ July 2021 Reading Wrap-Up

So, it’s been a minute, huh? I finished my first year of grad school on June 8th, turned 23 on June 9th, and went face-down-head-empty on June 10th. I am trying to be better about managing burn-out, but that is a discussion for another time. Let’s get caught up on my spicy literary opinions, shall we?? I read significantly less than normal in June and July, but we still have 8 whole books!

1. Shrines Of Upper Austria –Phoebe Power (71 pgs) 4

This is a special poetry collection, because it was written by the person who taught me the most about poetry. In 2018 I signed up for a poetry class during my semester abroad in England, and Phoebe was my workshop leader. Cut to 3 years later, and I still think about pieces of advice Phoebe gave me, every time I write. This collection was published while I was there, and I actually went to the release event and heard her perform some of the poems, but for some reason I hadn’t gone back and actually read the whole book until now.  I love this collection a lot, it’s a mosaic of European stories and histories, specifically as they relate to WW2. I think Phoebe has such a strong voice and such a unique style of writing, in ways that may make some of her work a little difficult to unpack for some readers. Anyways, Phoebe was the first person I ever showed my writing to, she even gave me feedback on a poem that went on to circulate tumblr (lol), and she understood my voice before I really understood it myself… anyways I think you should read this if you’re into poetry!

2. Crush –Richard Siken (62 pgs) 5

I don’t know if I have the right words to describe this book. Are they love poems? Sometimes. This was an absolutely haunting reading experience. All of the poems in this book are so desperate, so obsessive, so panicked, that by the end you just need a deep breath. There is so much blood in the lines of these poems, and I think that’s the best sell I can make? I HIGHLY recommend this.

3. Grocery List Poems –Rhiannon McGavin (80 pgs) 4.5

The last thing I read on The Day I Read A Bunch Of Poetry, and it was by one of my favorite poets. This is Rhiannon’s second collection, and uh, can we get some commotion for the fruit imagery??? I really like this collection, it is very cohesive and so full of her voice (which I have come to love a lot). My favorite poem in this book is Elsa la Rose and I want everyone to read it.

4. West Of Here –Jonathan Evison (486 pgs) 3

Here, my guys, is where things took a turn. I started reading this book on like June 10th, and I did not finish it until JULY 12TH. I don’t know if my brain just finally needed to shut down after finishing a year of grad school, or if this book was actually just that painful to read. Maybe it was some combination of the two, but good lord this book was hard for me to get through. The premise was great: historical fiction about when Washington became a state with a current day Bigfoot B-plot. Woof though: I was  annoyed by every character in this book (oh and there were about 37243875 characters to keep track of across two different timelines), plus I was also kind of annoyed by how #woke and #girlboss some of the characters from the 1800’s timeline were? Clearly Evison was trying to skirt around some of the *ahem* problematic elements of colonizing Washington and treating Indiginous people the way they were treated, and also the way women were treated in the 1800s, etc… but it came off as oversimplified and cringy. This would have been a 2-star review BUT THAT BIGFOOT B-PLOT? I am a simple woman.  

5. The Pisces –Melissa Broder (270 pgs) 3.5

Haha, what? This book has mermaid sex. Okay, it also has some big Ottessa Moshfegh-esque character study elements, where we meet an unlikable narrator and relate to her *too much* for comfort. This is a read where you feel uneasy the whole time and the ending kept me awake for a little while after I finished it. It’s gross, it’s weird, and most of all there is a fish man ready for action. Did I like this? Who’s to say, really.

6. All The Light We Cannot See –Anthony Doerr (531 pgs) 3.5

This I read as a buddy read with my good friend Carly! Carly and I met the first day of college and we did music stuff together throughout. Now, we are both yelling about books on the internet (her book instagram is @book.trunks if you want to check out her hot takes!). But on to this book…. sad, just sad.

This book kind of wrecked me? And I did really like the writing. I became invested in the characters immediately, and the structure of the book felt like a kind of fragmented flashback, which is fitting for a traumatic book about WW2. I am becoming really sensitive to the ways authors use trauma like this though, did this book make me feel things because it was full of good, emotional writing? Or did descriptions of extreme suffering evoke those feelings because I am a human and WW2 was a nightmare? Does this matter? I don’t know, but this book was sad and I *think* I liked it?

7. Sweetbitter –Stephanie Danler (356 pgs) 2.5

This is pretentious lit-fic in its most pure essence. An overwritten coming-of-age/ finding yourself novel with minimal plot set in New York City, baby –the city of dreams! Our protagonist has a tragic past, and working in a fancy restaurant shows her things about the city and its people that make her question her place there. There’s sex and drugs along the way, and maybe NYC isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, hmm? Or, maybe this is *exactly* where she’s supposed to be. Does this sound exceedingly boring and predictable, because it was.

8. Supernatural Strategies For Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group –Ian F. Svenonius (250 pgs) 4

This is a quirky little nonfiction (memoir?? art piece?) about what it means to start a rock ‘n’ roll band! I thought this was super interesting and it reminded me of Chuck Klosterman’s writing a bit, so no complaints here!

#reading wrap up #july reads #June reads #books #book review #booklr

[the-himawari]

A3! Anniversary Event Translation - On the Trajectory to Full Bloom. [Winter] (1/4)

*Please read disclaimer on blog

---

Tsumugi: A Winter troupe comedy, huh…

Tasuku: It’s worthwhile but pretty difficult.

Homare: Rather, should we try doing Manzai as well? It may be time to make use of our experience from the MANMAN Grand Prix.

Guy: I see, it is also a challenge to hold a scene with a two-man act…

Tsumugi: But it’s our specially-awaited anniversary event, so if possible, I want all of us to stand on stage.

Tasuku: If not Manzai, then would a comedic sketch work…?

Hisoka: …A comedy sketch with 6 people is novel.

Azuma: It seems it’ll be bit difficult to use up the time with a comedic sketch though.

Tsumugi: Hmmm…

Tasuku: As expected, Winter troupe draws overwhelmingly little laugher, huh…

Tsumugi: Then maybe it’ll be good to receive some advice from the other troupes too.

Azuma: Sure. Isn’t that fine?

Tasuku: I agree.

Tsumugi: Alright then, bring the ideas you’ve gathered on your own for our next meeting.

Guy: Understood.

Hisoka: …Got it.

Homare: Leave it to me.

-pause-

Tsumugi: —so for that reason, I’m a little troubled.

Banri: Well that’s for sure, I can’t really imagine the Winter troupe doin’ comedy. Y’all are most unrelated to that within the Theatre company, right?

Tsumugi: That’s true…

Banri: Hm? Ain’t that Tenma walking in front of the shop? He’s wearin’ sunglasses though.

Tsumugi: Ah, it is. If it’s Tenma, it seems he’ll give good advice, right?

Banri: Well he’s the leader of the Summer troupe. So, more or less.

Tsumugi: Hold on, I’ll call out to him.

-pause-

Banri: Tenma, sup. It’s pretty unusual for you to be walking ‘round here, eh?

Tenma: N-not really, I just happened to be on a walk.

Tsumugi: Is that so? Sorry for suddenly bringing you into the shop then.

Banri: You were lost anyways, weren’t you? On the contrary, it was the right choice to grab him.

Tenma: I wasn’t lost! …Hey, you have something you want to ask me, right?

Tsumugi: Actually, the Winter troupe also wants to incorporate comedy into our play for the fan meeting, but we have no idea what would be good to do, so… I wondered if I could get some advice from Tenma-kun as the leader of the Summer troupe who’s in charge of comedies.

Tenma: Ah I see… …The lineage of the actors in the Winter troupe are different from Summer troupe’s in the first place, so isn’t it better to focus on a surreal style?

Tsumugi: Surreal style, huh…

Banri: If it’s the Winter troupe’s actin' skills, you’ll be able to pull it off well, right? ‘Sides, I’d rather watch that.

Tsumugi: Yeah, somehow that feels right. Thank you, Tenma-kun.

Banri: Solved immediately; that’s the Summer troupe’s leader for ya.

Tenma: Hmph, this much is nothing.

Tsumugi: Fufu, how reliable. As a leader just the same, I have to do my best too.

-pause-

Cat A: Meow~.

Misumi: Yeah yeah, the sun is nice and warm today, huh~.

Cat B: Meow—.

Hisoka: …

Misumi: Ah, Hisoka, good job at work~. Wanna play together with Mr. cat?

Hisoka: …Yeah, thanks. But before that, I have something I want to ask Misumi.

Misumi: Me? What is~ it~?

Hisoka: …For performing comedy, what do you think I should do?

Misumi: Comedy~? Umm… Maybe you should try searching for triangles?

Hisoka: I’ll become skilled at comedy if I do that?

Misumi: I’m sure of it~.

Hisoka: …I see. I’ll get Arisu to search for triangle marshmallows.

-pause-

Homare: The Winter troupe is also thinking of incorporating comedy but… I don’t know what type of thing would be good for that, you see. Muku-kun is familiar with comedy, are you not? Won’t you share some advice with me?

Muku: In that case, how about reading shoujo manga that have comedic elements? By the way, I recommend “Tales of the Cool Girl” and “Bouncy Bouncy ✩ Walk”, and these two have also been made into live-action movies—!

Homare: Umu. The titles are quite fascinating. Definitely lend them to me.

-pause-

Tasuku: —Hey, do you have a minute?

Tsuzuru: What’s the matter?

Tasuku: For the 2nd Anniversary fan meeting, Winter troupe is also thinking of performing a comedy but…

Omi: Heh, that’s great. It feels like a festival performance.

Azami: Winter troupe doing comedy… I can’t picture it.

Tsuzuru: The Winter troupe has never done a comedy, right? It feels like a challenge for the third year, and it seems interesting.

Tasuku: Yeah… That’s why, we’re troubled over how we should incorporate it. Autumn troupe performed a show like that not long ago, and Minagi’s also writing the scripts, right? Won’t you give me some advice?

Azami: Hmm… Watch comedy movies or something?

Omi: When we performed Mantou Fist, Autumn troupe also had things we watched as reference. If you’d like, I’ll show you.

Tsuzuru: I also asked Citron to tell me about interesting comedy shows recently, so I’ll bring the DVDs later.

Tasuku: …That helps. Thanks.

-pause-

Azuma: Say, Sakyo-kun. When Autumn troupe performed their comedy, what kind of practise did you do?

Sakyo: We did etudes with the Summer troupe. It couldn’t be helped that it was noisy… But It became good reference for the play.

Azuma: Etudes, hm… How nice. I wonder if we should ask them for help too.

Sakyo: Is Winter troupe doin’ a comedy?

Azuma: Yes. But everyone’s worried over how we’ll go about incorporating it.

Sakyo: I see… Since Winter troupe has a lot of acting fanatics, huh? Ain’t it best to make use of that?

Azuma: Ahh, Autumn troupe combined theirs with action, right? Thanks, I’ll use this as reference.

-pause-

Guy: 《Citronia, I have something to consult with you.》

Citron: 《It’s rare for you to consult with me. What’s wrong?》

Guy: 《For comedies, I’ve tried researching variously in my own way…》 《Generally speaking, it’s said that it is a work that is mainly focused on making people laugh, or an exchange that induces laughter among them.》 《However, I cannot think up how to incorporate this into a play at all. I would like to get the opinion of Citronia who has a profound knowledge about it.》

Citron: 《…Haa. You understand nothing about comedy.》 《A comedy has somehow been forced onto you who is so strait-laced. It’ll be better to leave the comedic play to the other five people.》 《If you narrate in monotone, it could actually be interesting in terms of comedy.》

Guy: 《I cannot do something like that. It’s true, I’m not suited for comedy and I’ll experience difficulties.》 《However, I cannot just slack off on my own. —Because I am also a member of the Winter troupe.》

Citron: 《—I see.》 《Then, I will teach you something fun that it seems even you will be able to do.》 —I am an android…

Guy: …Hm?

Citron: With this, the venue will be bumping, right!

Guy: Is that an imitation of me?

Citron: That's right, it's an "impression"!

---

| next

#a3! #a3! translation #winter troupe #act! addict! actors!

[eirist]

A Taste of Summer II

WORKING IT OUT 

One-shot #: 2

Disclaimer: One Piece (and its characters) belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Reminder: I have no beta-reader. Any grammatical and spelling errors are solely mine.

Warning: OOC possible. One shot.

Rating: T (Teasing again?)

Note: Entry for ZoNami Week 2020 @zonamievents. Day 2: Workout. I know it’s late. I’m sorry! And if you squint, you’ll see ‘workout’ there, promise.

Summary:  “Your dainty hands are much better for map making anyway.”

Brown eyes slanted dangerously, the heat blazing behind them almost tangible as she peered down the lawn of the Thousand Sunny from the upper deck.

She was pissed. Scratch that. She is still pissed.

How in the world was he able to do that? Act so nonchalantly, as if the incident in the lake a few days ago did not happen.

Nami huffed. Blowing at her bangs exasperatedly she leaned against the white, wooden railing to observe their idiot swordsman as he went over his daily workout routine on the grassy deck.

Instead of holed up in the nest. She thought irascibly as she watched him do a repetition of arm curls with those stupid dumbbells of his.

As dumb as its owner.

Her hands fisted tightly. Argh! She was so incensed at him right now that she wanted to throw one of her sandals at that moronic green head of his just to get some sort of satisfaction.

She was sooo close to siccing a chock-full of thunder balls Zeus at him.

He has to be asexual! That must be it!

She mumbled an expletive under her breath. She honestly thought he’d make a grab for her when they encountered each other in the lake… given the way he was looking at her like he wanted to take her right there and then.

That was why she had stood her ground and stared right back at him, daring him to make his move.

Because she would’ve let him.

Then Zoro’s expression suddenly shifted to a blank one. He merely stared at her for another second or two before showing her his back. 

But not before irritably telling her that if she wants to get out of the lake now, then she better do it fast because SHE was disturbing HIM?!

ASS!

She was so shock at the sudden turn of events that she wasn’t able to come up with any retort as her face colored in combination of embarrassment and fury.

Grrrr…. relieving all that gets her work up again.

What the hell was that all about? She cannot ignore the way he had looked at her. You don’t look at someone like that without feeling anything!

ANYTHING!

Besides, she had known Zoro for so long that she is actually aware that he may appear calm and indifferent most of the times, but some of his expressions were damn too easy to read…

Especially when it comes to emotions that he has no grasp on.

Something is there. And she’ll be damned if it wasn’t like what she thinks so.

Nami straightened up… just as Zoro put the weights down to peel off the sweaty white tank top he was wearing before moving to do some push-ups.

She bit her lip.

He's really delectable. That jerk! 

“Nami-san!!”

She turned abruptly at the sound of their chef’s voice. Nami looked around only to realize that Sanji was calling her from the hatch of the galley.

She immediately moved away from her position, lest Zoro realized that she was watching him.

“Hai, Sanji-kun?” Nami peered from the open hatch leading to the galley below.

The blond immediately went hyperactive. “Nami-swaan! I prepared a special drink for you and Robin-chwan! Perfect for beating this heat. Do you want me to bring it up there?”

“Uh no,” she smiled. “I’m coming down.”

“Here let me catch you in my arms.” Sanji offered as hearts magically burst out of his body.

“No.”

Tch. If only Zoro was this easy.

But that wouldn’t be fun nor interesting right?

 She gestured at the cook that she will go down now and actually let him assist her, with a sugary sweet threat that if his hands slipped somewhere it weren’t supposed to go, she’ll be cashing his bounty on the next island.

-------------------------

Nami clicked her tongue as she stood on the lawn deck, glaring at the dumbbells carelessly left there for anyone to trip over.

After that refreshing drink from Sanji, she decided to invite Robin for a dip in the inflatable pool that Franky had set up after they anchored somewhere in the middle of the sea.

She had change into her newest blue green two-piece swimsuit and had thrown in a loose t-shirt she wasn’t even sure was hers (yet she found it in her closet). It probably belongs to one of the boys and was wrongfully mixed in the women’s clothes pile given its size, as it almost swallowed her whole slim figure.

She tied it in a knot on her waist to make it more… presentable and was about to make her way down the dock system when she nearly tripped on Zoro’s exercise equipment.

Seriously, why is he such a slob? And where was he?

And why in the freaking world does she even like him?

She’ll charge him for this. Plus that incident in the lake. And for pissing her off. And for pissing her off again today, thrice. And for later as well. Because she knows he’ll do something to make her set off again.

He’ll be a poor man once she’s finished with him.

She bent down to pick it up with a weary sigh.

Her hand had closed around the metal grip to lift it up and place it somewhere else.

Nami’s eyes widened. The hell?

She stared at the dumbbells. Why the fuck was it so heavy?!

She recalled watching Zoro earlier… easily, almost boredly, lifting it as if it weight next to nothing…

She tried to lift it again, but it won’t budge.

“Don’t,” a voice said behind her. “You’ll just hurt yourself.” Zoro said as he took a step closer to her.

Nami, still grasping the dumbbell turned and glared at him. “Why is it so heavy?”

Zoro raised an eyebrow at her. “If it’s lighter then what’s the use?”

“And why did you even left them here where anyone can trip on it?”

He bent down as well, hand closing around the handle just beside hers. Nami tilted her head towards him and tried to force down the blush that threatened to appear on her cheeks.

He was close. Close enough that her nose was almost touching his face.

If she moves a little more closely…

“Here,” she thought she heard him say, as the dumbbell that she was still grasping was lifted effortlessly.

“Huh?”

Zoro looked amused as she blinked, looking at the equipment in her hand in an astounded manner. He was still gripping it as well and then he chuckled. “You’ll just end up spraining your wrist if you try to lift this. Your dainty hands are much better for map making anyway.”

Nami almost short-circuited when she thought he said… love making.

She just stared at him… her skin tingling as she realized that their proximity now…

Was lethal. Dangerous even.  

It feels like she would combust on the spot at the intensity of his gaze and closeness.

They continued to stare at each other… very much like a repeat of what happened in the lake.

They were supposed to kiss now right? Shouldn’t they?

It feels like it’s the only logical step next to this.

Slowly, she shuffled a bit closer and…

Zoro swiftly turned his head away as Nami’s heart sank in disappointment.

Damn it! When will he ever? WILL HE EVER?

Kami. He was a hard nut to crack.

There is something between them. And damn, by all means she would make it so that he wouldn’t, couldn’t resist her.

“Zo—”

“Oi!!!!! Watch out!!!”

A sudden splash of water hit her and Zoro, drenching them both.

The unmistakable laugh of their captain rang across the deck as both Nami and Zoro spluttered out expletives at the rubber man’s latest antic.

“Luffy damn it!”

“Luffy you idiot!”

“Shishishi…” Luffy chortled as he appeared before them, brandishing what could only be… a water gun?

His grin was mirthful and promised nothing but trouble.

 “Ladies and gentlemen,” Usopp’s voice suddenly blasted out from the crow’s nest speakers. “Time to find your team!”

“The Straw Hats water gun battle are about to commence in a few minutes!!!”

#zoro x nami #ZoNa #zonami #zona love #zona one-shots #zoro nami fanfiction #zonamiweek2020 #zonamieventstumblr #zonamievents #swordgust

[archadianskies]

Whumptober Day 18

Panic Attacks → part 1

Whumptober Masterlist | 18/31 of RK900 short stories

↳ on Ao3

Tags: Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings × Anti-Android Sentiments × Anti-Android Language × Verbal Abuse × Power Imbalance × Established Relationship × Team as Family × Good Parent Hank Anderson × Imprisonment  × Panic Attacks

It is a strange thing, a wonderful thing, to be able to see the sky whenever he so pleases. It is simply a matter of walking down the hall and up the fire escape to the rooftop, and there it is. The expanse of Detroit’s sky and cityscape for him to admire. It is a far cry from being locked in the windowless armoury back at the FBI.

For the FBI SWAT unit, he was an eight million dollar weapon, a piece of equipment much like a gun, useful when the situation called for it, and locked away when it didn’t. For the DPD Forensics unit he is an eight million dollar toxicology laboratory, a piece of equipment in the shape of a human. He has a name now and they address him by it, and it is embroidered on his lab coat, printed on his ID, and stuck to his locker. 

He is Dr Frederick RK900 Anderson, medical examiner and as much a part of the team as any of the other humans. It is a curious thing, to be treated like a colleague and not a piece of equipment to be shut away at the end of a mission. Curiouser still, that no one expects him to clean the equipment, santise the lab and standby patiently, wordlessly, until they return the next working day. No, he goes home like any other human. 

Home, another curious thing he has had to grow accustomed to, because back with the FBI there had been no concept of ‘home’ at least not like this, not with such warmth and affection and love. He goes home to Lieutenant Hank Anderson and Detective Connor RK800 Anderson and Sumo the Saint Bernard. 

At precisely four in the morning, barring any schedule changes, he and Connor will open a communication channel and their brother, Freddie’s twin, SWAT Officer Caleb RK900 Anderson and they will talk about the day that has just passed. They will share photos and video clips and anecdotes, and Freddie will be listened to with interest, with curiosity and care. 

With their help one afternoon he had changed his hair from the default RK900 setting, mimicking Connor’s curls and Caleb’s undercut to combine them into something unique to him. They encourage that, the two of them and Hank, their father: individuality. Something he was vehemently denied not so long ago.

It is an entirely different life to the one he had while serving under Special Agent Perkins, locked up every night in the armoury with a pile of guns and dirty gear to strip, clean, and log, ready for use when the next mission came along. There was nothing warm about that life, not a scrap of affection to be found; eight months and no one had deemed him worth naming.

He is Dr Frederick RK900 Anderson, medical examiner, and he is also ‘Arlo’- a pop culture reference from a police comedy show in the mid to late 2010s, referring to a puppy under the care of a comically fierce, stoic character who threatened harm to everyone, even herself, should harm befall the puppy. 

He fits in here like a puzzle piece he never knew he belonged to, had never seen the bigger picture until they set up his interview- several test tubes of substances, and he was able to identify each and every liquid in a fraction of the time it would take the team to process it with traditional equipment. He can recall with perfect memory their stunned expressions giving way to awe and utter delight. He knew right then and there, he wanted to be with these people, he wanted to work with them and in a way he threaded this work to Connor’s work, to Caleb’s work, and tethered himself securely to them.

“Freddie?” Dr Mentha pokes his head into the morgue. “There’s a guy named Jack here to see you, something about evidence from a SWAT case your brother was on? Stuck him in the breakroom to keep him out of the way since we’ve CSI coming and going because of that case by the docks.”

“Thank you doctor.” Freddie nods, before looking to his superior who waves him off.

“Dead people are very patient, Arlo.” Dr Olive says matter of factly. “Go on.”

He isn’t aware of anyone named Jack, though if it’s related to a SWAT case then perhaps they’d be connected to Caleb’s circle. Taking care to bin his gloves and remove his outer vinyl apron, he heads over to the breakroom.

*

The man in the breakroom is not named Jack. The Jackal stares at him; Special Agent Richard Perkins from the FBI. The man responsible for eight months of misery and servitude.

“May I help you?” He tries to borrow Caleb’s easy confidence and Connor’s genial smile.

“Yes. That would be me.” He nods, trying desperately to fight his rising stress levels.

“You tell me.” The man clicks his tongue, uncrossing his arms and slipping his hands into his pockets as he looks him over. “We’ve just taken over DPD’s case by the docks. Site’s swarming with CSI; lots of blood, lots of chemicals from the manufacturing warehouse. Overheard the most curious thing about an RK900 back at the forensics lab.”

“That would be you, that’s right.” Perkins smiles and there’s no warmth to be found in those cold, cruel eyes. “See, the thing is, CyberLife only ever released one RK900. DPD got that one. Went straight to Allen’s team, right between his legs.” A mocking little sneer. “So imagine my surprise, hearing about another RK900 working with the DPD.” 

And this here, Freddie knows, is the hair-thin line they tiptoe across; he was given to the FBI under total secrecy, and Perkins cannot state outright his suspicions because legally, he does not exist. 

“No one had ever heard of you until a month ago.” He steps closer and Freddie wills himself to stand his ground, to meet those cold, cruel eyes even though the very sight of them makes him want to avert his gaze and stare submissively at his shoes. 

“I only started here a month ago.” He feigns nonchalance, shrugging the way Caleb would shrug when faced with an unsavoury accusation. “I have been staying at home with my father and brother. Deviancy has been very difficult for me to navigate and I felt safer at home.”

“Huh.” Perkin nods slowly, clearly wanting to challenge his story but unable to do so directly. “Just stayed at home, for eight months?”

“Perhaps there was.” He tries Connor’s tone this time, Connor’s patient, professional tone. “Do you know their name? I could inquire for you.” There’s a flicker of fury in Perkins’ eyes. He purposefully never gave him a name; equipment didn’t require a name beyond its make and model of course. “Elijah Kamksi is a secretive man. It is hard to know what he has and hasn’t done. If you can recall more details about that other RK900 unit, I could ask Connor to follow it up. He has worked closely with Elijah and Ms Chloe Kamski since the revolution.”

“I have anxiety.” Not a lie at all, and he knows his LED is bright red.

“An android with anxiety, will wonders never cease?” He smiles again, that empty icy smile. “Your other “brother”, Allen’s RK, was at an event with my team a month ago.” Here he is again, walking the hairline tightrope. “Their team lost to mine, consecutively. See, I said it was because Allen’s RK had enough of following orders and was letting off a bit of steam, turning on his team. Harmless, of course. But Allen, see, he insisted it couldn’t have been his RK. He implied there was another RK900 unit on the grounds.”

“Don’t think Allen mentioned a name.” There’s bitter loathing in his voice and he’s looking at him with that look, that same look he’s given ever since he was brought online in the CyberLife delivery van. “Strange coincidence, isn’t it? Rumours of another RK900 unit just over a month ago. You, starting your job here a month ago.”

“Strange coincidences indeed, sir.” He smiles a Connor smile; a disarming, friendly smile, as he tips his head slightly. “Shall I inquire about this other RK900 unit with my father at the DPD? If you suspect foul play he would be the right person to ask. He is a Lieutenant after all, and head of the Android Crimes Division. Perhaps you know him, sir? His name is Hank Anderson.”

The man presses his mouth into a tight line, brows furrowed deeply with anger before he pivots and strides out of the room without a further word. He slams the door shut behind him, and Freddie’s knees buckle, legs giving out beneath him. He’s no longer in the breakroom, he’s back in the armoury, shut up and locked away again after a mission; just another weapon, just another piece of equipment. 

Scrambling, he backs himself into a corner and curls up with his knees to his chest, burying his face and trying to calm himself down. He hopes he didn’t give anything away, he hopes he hadn’t slipped up, given Perkins the evidence he needs to whisk him away from his family and return him to the FBI. He feels himself unravelling, feels a thread being pulled as he falls apart under the deluge of suppressed memories he’d tried so very hard to lock away. A room with no sky. An android with no name. 

** 

WARNING

91% Level of Stress

** 

Freddie clutches his head, fumbling through his recent memories, trying to grasp the good ones, the happy ones, the ones filled with joy. They slip through his fingers, and he drowns in the dark ocean of his trauma. He wants to go home, he wants to hug Sumo, he wants to be hugged by his father, by his brother. He wants Caleb to call him so he can hear his voice, hear him tell him he’s glad for the chat. He doesn’t want this, he’s so tired of crying, he’s had more than enough of this darkness.

“Freddie-!” The door opens and he’s engulfed in a tight embrace, an achingly familiar tight embrace. Connor squeezes him close and he clings to him desperately as if to anchor himself from drowning. 

“God I thought we passed Perkins in the lobby.” Hank grumbles, crouching down to reach out and tousle his hair. “He looked furious, which means you did good, kid.”

“What are you doing here?” Freddie peeks at him from over Connor’s shoulder, still reluctant to loosen his grip on his brother’s jacket. 

“Got booted from the crime scene now FBI’s taken over.” Their father scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Connor suggested we drop by with an afternoon treat.” 

“We have those new butterscotch Teariums in the car.” Connor leans back just far enough so their eyes can meet. “We’re headed back to the precinct and it should tie up with Caleb coming back from his recent mission.”

“Oh, um, I have-”

“Already cleared it.” Hank holds up his hand to interrupt him. “Like we said, FBI’s taken over so your cadaver’s being transferred to their forensics lab.” 

“Dr Olive has cleared you for an hour long break.” Connor smiles and Freddie feels himself smile in return. Leaning back into the cuddle, he buries his face in the crook of his brother’s shoulder, feeling his stress levels plummet until they sit comfortably at zero again.

“Come on boys.” Hank groans as he stands back up. “My knees are killing me.”

Freddie laughs, wiping the last of his tears away. “Coming, dad.”  \

*~*~*

[ A Freddie smile! ]

#rk900 #connor rk800 #hank anderson #richard perkins #Detroit: Become Human #whumptober #annie writes: dbh #no rights for richard perkins

[katsidhe]

either of the classic spn religion themed episodes 'faith' or 'houses of holy' idk they're some of my faves all around

2.13 Final Thoughts

This was GOING to be brief. Well, not anymore. 

Sam wants an angel. Oops, careful what you wish for. 

The “angel” special effects in this episode look a lot better than the awful “true form” effect we got in s14. It’s just a really, really bright light with a vaguely human silhouette–but it works, both because it contrasts so blindingly with the dark grunge of s2, and because it’s formless enough to let us wonder.  

It’s interesting to me that Father Gregory’s ghost was actively targeting TWO victims with each of his strikes: both the killer and the kill-ee. He was clearly powerful enough to force some serious compulsions; there isn’t really a reason he couldn’t have inspired suicides instead of murders. 

The people the ghost targets as killers seem to have a similar profile: people hopeless, impoverished, or otherwise downtrodden. He chooses a hooker and a local drunk–people who, from Father Gregory’s perspective, are of questionable value to society, and people who were also seeking some kind of escape or higher meaning. He gives them that higher meaning in an incredibly cruel way, by condemning them to decades in prison or a locked ward. 

Of course, Gregory also chooses Sam Winchester. How much of this was because Sam seemed superfluous, a drifter without value? Or was it just because Sam fit the psychological profile: someone desperate to hear a higher call?  

Dean has another one of those common early seasons moments where he claims to be the authority on his mother’s psychology. Uh-huh. “Mary used an idiom about angels in front of her four year old” —> “Mary had faith” ok Dean. It’s another in the set of emotions and principles Dean thinks of as soft or high-minded or safe: things he classifies, without examination, as belonging to the unattainable, flawless, secure life lost with Mary’s death. Things Dean generally thinks of as dangerously or selfishly indulgent.  

Okay, so the obviously discussion-worthy thing in this episode is the difference between Sam and Dean’s approaches to the question of faith. This is the episode where we learn that Sam prays, and that he wants to believe in some greater good. 

Sam’s faith is often cited as evidence of his tendency towards hopefulness/seeing the good in the world but… eh. Especially in this episode, it feels more like evidence of something more depressing. Sam’s reason for desperately hoping there’s a benevolent higher power is categorically not out of a fundamental belief in life’s goodness, but rather the opposite—it’s because most of his life is filled with evil and loneliness and uncertainty, and it’s difficult for small victories or small pleasures to make much of a dent in that temperament. 

Let’s talk Dean’s skepticism. Dean is skeptical specifically of things he cannot see and has not experienced. He puts his faith in things that are overpoweringly tangible–the central pillar of his faith is his family and his family’s fight, not any kind of higher principle. The larger world is too far removed to have meaning: what matters is his family and his mission.   

Let’s talk Sam’s faith. I can see a young Sam starting the habit of prayer in a combination of quiet rebellion and desperation.  When Sam says he wants something more, he means something beyond hunting—he wants some greater paradigm that will let him put this behind him. His demon-y future, yes, but also the claustrophobic obsession he grew up with. (Sam never met their mother–obedience to the cult of her sacrifice requires faith from him too, of a sort much less palatable to him.)

Sam’s faith is also a way to try to externalize his mission and his decisions, due to a deep discomfort with and suspicion of his internal self. In s2, this suspicion is still nebulous, but it’s definitely present; as seasons pass, especially s4, Sam gains all sorts of concrete evidence for distrusting himself. 

Setting 2.13 as the baseline, I’d say there are three major faith watersheds in SPN: 1) 4.01 = angels are very much real; 2) 11.20 = God is very much real; 3) 14.20 = God is real but he’s very much more of a douchebag than previously suspected. In general, at these turning points, I’d say that Dean is more ready to update his picture of the universe without changing it much, and without wondering if he’s wrong about other significant things; Sam is more ready to let the new information color his broader view, and more suspicious that he’s not getting the full story. 

So, who’s the cynic, who’s the idealist? Who’s the hardbitten skeptic and who’s too naive? I think the answer is more complex. Sam’s faith evinces a deep skepticism in both his family model and the harsh world he’s grown up seeing. Similarly, Dean’s skepticism betrays his inflexibility in accepting any challenge to his deeply held beliefs.

#i speaks #2.13 #final thoughts #sam and faith #dean and faith #dean and mary #Dean isn't as skeptical as he'd like to think #Anonymous