#then one thing doesn’t align and I’m like ‘ha! proof I was faking this whole time!’ which doesn’t seem like a very neurotypical thing to do

[kitofawriter]

I’m constantly flipping between “I couldn’t possibly be autistic! Someone would’ve noticed!” And remembering that I used to sort beads for fun. Like I had one of those boxes of pony beads and I would dump them all together then sort them into their own pockets because it was fun.

#for legal reasons this is a joke #autism #possibly autistic #idk at this point #I’ve decided just to use coping mechanisms that work for me #even if they were designed for a diagnosis I don’t officially have #and try and learn as much as I can do even if I’m not autistic I can be a better ally #also like I know that sorting stuff doesn’t make a diagnosis but…when multiple things add up it’s confusing #then one thing doesn’t align and I’m like ‘ha! proof I was faking this whole time!’ which doesn’t seem like a very neurotypical thing to do #but i digress

[trutimeline]

idislikecispeople, The Most Infamous Dyscourse Blogger: Part 1.0, Rumors

idislikecispeople, also known as many names throughout her time on Tumblr (such as Adele, Kat, Mami, Samantha and Sayaka), was a former Tumblr blogger who became infamous for coining the term "tucute", among many other controversial things she has posted on her blogs. This was supposed to be one, very long masterpost about her, but Tumblr's post editor is a bitch and won't let me do that.

In this post, I'll be debunking or confirming rumors commonly spread about idislikecispeople. The rest of my posts about her will each be dedicated to a specific controversial belief she held or situations she got into. For simplicity's sake, I'll be referring to idislikecispeople as Kat for the rest of this post and future ones.

Rumors

Kat Coined the Terms "Truscum" and "Tucute"

Verdict: Partially True

Kat coined the term tucute, but she did not coin the terms truscum or transmedicalist.

Here's a screenshot of Kat's original definition of a tucute:

Transcript:

What is Tucute?

What does tucute mean?

Tucute is basically just the opposite of truscum, it’s a term and community for trans, nonbinary, and/or non-cis individuals created to separate anti-truscum from truscum and to serve as a safe place from truscum and from cis people, where they believe that being trans requires dysphoria, we do not,where they think that being trans is a medical condition, we do not,and where they deny numerous gender identities on the basis that it “discredits the trans community” we do not.

What are the prerequisites to be a part of the tucute community?

You have to be trans, nonbinary, and/or non-cis in general

You have to accept all pronouns and gender identities

You haveto believe that dysphoria is not necessary to be trans

You have to dislike truscum

You cannot side with truscum or believe in their ideology

You cannot misgender anyone no matter how mad they make you

You cannot be an ableist whatsoever

Did you invent the tucute community? Why?

I indeed did coin the tucute term and community and anyone who says otherwise are creeps who are trying to steal it from me and redefine it for their own nefarious doings. I started this community so anti-truscum could separate themselves from truscum and cis people who are a part of the truscum community, it serves as a safe space from both truscum and cis people.

I’m cis, can I be tucute if I believe in your movement and want to help?

No, you can’t be tucute if you’re cis, you can only be a tucute ally, and you need to be sure to never speak for or over a trans person.

I see a lot of tucuties being just as harmful as truscum, what will you do about it?

There isn’t much I can do to them other than ask them to stop aligning with the tucute community, and of course, that doesn’t mean they will. Also be noted that truscum and cis people will pretend to be tucute just to tarnish the name of the tucute community, so tread lightly, you might be talking to a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Spread the word, use the tag #tucute and join the army today!

[A digital drawing of Sayaka Miki from Puella Magi Madoka Magica in her magical girl form, with a banner underneath her reading "Tucute 4 U!"]

(source) (source)

Kat Was a Cisgender Woman Who Lied About Being a Transgender Woman

Verdict: False

This rumor primarily comes from a post on Kat's oldest known Tumblr blog, chromaghost, where she claims that she wasn't MTF and only tagged a selfie as such because she thought that transgender people were "cool".

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: are you a mtf? i seen it tagged on one of your photos.

No lol. I wanted to post it to the tag because transgender people are cool :3

(source) (source) (source)

However, Kat addressed this post and made it clear she very much was a transgender woman multiple times on her later blogs. This claim can also be confirmed with nude photos Kat posted online, which I don't feel comfortable spreading, so you'll just have to trust me on that one. I also don't feel comfortable directly encouraging you to go and dig up those nudes, as most of her nude photos were either taken when she was a minor, spread without her consent and/or were uploaded because people pressured her into posting nudes to "prove" she was a transgender woman.

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: you bound with ace bandage in one of your selfies. i don't know what to think about you anymore. according to some people you're a 27 year old cis woman scamming us, but you say you're a 22 year old trans woman. i want to trust you but i don't know if i can. i'm sorry.

Rest assured I’m not 27 years old lol. What you’re referring to is a less than graceful ~art piece~ we did (”Playing a Boy” or something) on deviantART when we were 16/17 (?) and really ill-informed. I ask you to not take that as how I stand currently – as I have learned so much more since, and I have a penis and I was designated male at birth because of it (feel free to purchase a passcode to our nsfw blog to see for yourself). At the time we were developing breast tissue but still had to appear as a ‘boy.’ Don’t bind with Ace bandages, kids, it can damage your rib cage, something we didn’t know at the time.

(source) (source)

Transcript:

[A picture of two prescriptions, estradiol and spironolactone, both prescribed to Adele Sheffield.]

grandtran still gonna think I photoshopped it or what

(source)

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: In other words, you aren't gonna cough up the pics because you know you can't fake that shit because you're actually cis. Cool. BTW why do you keep changing your story about the blog, and if the blog was run by you when you were in denial about being trans because of self hate, why were the pics tagged mtf and you were constantly saying trans people were cool?

Yeah I’m not gonna do something for y’all and get nothing in return except more doubt from you, you see how one sided that kind of request is? Also its technically considered sexual harassment, just because its on the internet, you’re a coward (whats your username btw?), and you think I’m cis and you want me to prove time and time again to you that I’m dmab doesn’t justify sexually soliciting someone when they’re not comfortable in being solicited – for free no less.

At first I genuinely had no memory of that blog, it was only active for all of 2 months and for some reason I moved onto a new email and new tumblr, and I haven’t the foggiest why. As for the whole “me claiming to not be ~mtf~” I don’t have any memories from that time, I can only assume it was a lot of dysphoria fueled self-hatred and wanting to be seen/pass as a cis girl lesbian.

If you’re really gonna solicit nudes from a trans woman (a second time) as they do sex work to try and stay on their feet without offering anything in return just so your transmisogynistic ass can get off to trying to tell me my dick is fake isn’t classy at all. I perish the thought of what you’re parents would think of this behavior from you. But yeah, feel free to send some money to my paypal so I can get the gender markers on my records changed because that’s gonna cost a lot apparently, and I’ll definitely send you the dick pics you want. :)

(source) (source) (source)

Transcript:

[A picture of a a hospital bracelet on Kat's wrist. The patient's name is Adele Sheffield and her sex is labeled as "M".]

(source)

Kat Lied About Having Diabetes To Get Money From Tumblr Users

Verdict: False

This doesn't need much commentary from me, just view the screenshots below.

Transcript:

To the people who keep harping on me buying a $15 video game for my mental health 7 MONTHS ago “with my donation money,” well, here you go, some proof, links and screenshots provided

So for everyone spreading misinformation about me spending $15 on a video game for my mental health, here’s a full list of reasons why there is no way, shape, or form I spent my paypal money on it:

Yes, I spent $15 of my own money after selling one of my possessions, not denying it:

[A screenshot of a Tumblr post by Kat where she shows off a copy of Fall Out: New Vegas, marked with a price of $14.99. The date of the post is marked as July 21, 2014 at 06:28.39 PM.]

Be sure to look at the date, July 21st, 2014 6:28 PM. Now lets look at my first donation post asking for help:

[A screenshot of a Tumblr post by Kat where she asks for donations to be able to afford insulin because she has no insurance. The date of the post is marked as July 20, 2014 at 08:14.00 PM.]

Hmm, one day before the purchase of said game, July 20th 2014 at 8:14 PM. Now, I’ve never heard of a video game store — much less a non-chain video game store accepting payment for video games in the form of virtual Amazon gift cards, have you? Oh, but you’re gonna say, “well you bought the game with your paypal donations anyway!” Well, here’s exhibit C:

[Another screenshot of a separate post made by Kat where she is also asking for donations to be able to afford insulin. The date of the post is marked as July 23, 2014 at 12:27.46 PM.]

Again, looking at the date of this posting which is the original donations post, you can see it was posted on July 23rd, 2014 at 12:27 PM, a full 2 days after I had bought the game. Now, if there’s no way for me to use Amazon gift cards for a real life video game store, then how can I go back in time a minimum of 2 full days to give past me $15 to buy said game, hm? This isn’t even accounting for the fact that I didn’t even have my own bank account associated with it until over a week later, and it surely doesn’t account for the fact that it takes up to 5 days to transfer from paypal to your bank account. All the dates are linked to the original unedited posts so you can see for yourself, and for added measure my first deposit was on August 14th, 2014:

[A screenshot of a deposit made by Kat. The date is marked as 08/14/14.]

Oh but yeah, anti-sjs, truscum, and the like took damniwishidthoughtofabettername’s postthey used to gaslight us with misinformation and you all bought it. Tell me how I could misuse donations that I could not use outside of Amazon and money I didn’t even start receiving until a full two days later, let alone the fact that there’s no way I could have transferred said money and used it two days prior as of the date of the paypal donations post.

I hope some of y’all could reblog this and get the word out, I’m sick and tired of people buying into that misinformation that person did solely to gaslight me as a means to try and disrupt my donations drive.

(source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source)

Transcript:

[A selfie of Kat holding up a vial of Novolin to the camera.]

Hey anon, I don’t feel comfy giving you my receipts (because doxxing is a thing) but here you go, a selfie with my most recent insulin purchase. 👽

(source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source)

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: Getting desperate for money again I see. How is your fake diabetes lately. I bet your blood sugar is like 800 this time and you're still able to be alive somehow.

You got me, I’m ~totally faking~

[A selfie of Kat. In the background several items used by diabetics are seen such as insulin syringes, glucose tablets, a blood sugar tester and test strips.]

[A picture that gives us a closer look at the background of the previous selfie.]

[A selfie of Kat holding up two vials, one of Lantus and the other of Humalog.]

Gee, must be one dedicated faker, right? To have hundreds of dollars of insulin equipment and insulin itself. Hmmm… Insulin syringes, glucose tablets, a blood sugar tester and test strips.. oh and insulin, hmmmm….

Oh and because you didn’t learn from last time you don’t die instantly when your blood sugar goes over 600 lol, something anyone who studies endocrinology can tell you, and I would know, being a diabetic, having to be hospitalized numerous times for ketoacidosis where the blood sugar has been too high for too long. Things you clearly do not know and you’re just jumping on the disableist bandwagon. I have an idea of who you are anyway, just doing this for future reference.

(source)

#idislikecispeople #dyscourse #transmed #truscum #tucute

[theparanormalperiodical]

The Top 10 Scariest REAL Ghost Pictures And The True Stories Behind Them That Will Make You Lie Down And Cry (Promise)

Proof.

We’ve spent hundreds of years looking for proof.

We’ve untangled paranormal theories, we’ve pieced together ghost stories, and some of us have even fabricated reality in the inexorable search for the evidence that there might just be more to this realm than first seems.

But the thing about the proof of the paranormal is that we can never be sure of what’s real, and what’s five minutes with a broken flash button and Photoshop.

Then again, there are some photos which stun even the most ardent non-believers into a haunted silence, in particular those images which bare no scars of editing.

The whispers of ghost stories and the murmurs of urban legends mean nothing when compared to the physical evidence of the afterlife, and that’s why these photographs documenting the paranormal - whether fake or fo’ real - have garnered so much attention, especially in the Internet Age.

Many have claimed to have captured footage of ghosts, sightings of demons, and the murmurs of the supernatural on camera, and many like to emblazon their efforts with the necessary clickbait needed to boost their subscriber count.

But there are some images of the paranormal that have stood out through history, even if they hadn't GONE SEXUAL GONE WRONG (PRANK).

There are some images of the paranormal we simply cannot explain.

But we can try, right?

#1 - The Brown Lady Of Raynham Hall

It’s a dark, grainy image taken with the best technology this side of 1936 has to offer - and it’s one of the most famous pieces of evidence supposedly proving the existence of the paranormal.

On the evening of September 19th 1936, Captain Hubert Provand - a photographer for Country Life magazine - was taking photographs of Raynham Hall for the magazine. But while he was busy tending to another task, his assistant saw something rather peculiar.

It was a silvery vapour that took the shape of a woman. She was moving down the stairs towards them, and was in perfect alignment of the camera.

The assistant quickly told him to take a picture. He did.

But if the image alone isn’t enough to keep you having nightmares for the rest of lockdown, I’m sure the fact that this picture shows one of the most famous ghosts resident at Raynham Hall will certainly do the trick.

The Brown Lady was first seen in 1835 at Christmas.

Multiple sightings of the spectre were recorded by visitors to this Norfolk country house who’s history has spanned 400 years. It was her brown dress that gave the spirit her name, but it was the dark and empty eye sockets and glowing face that secured her reputation as one of the famous spirits in the UK.

It was shortly after this first set of sightings that a large portion of the staff left Raynham Hall, confirming this might not be the sole murmur of spirits at Raynham Hall. The next famous sighting took place in 1926, when the son of Lady Townshend, a noble of the family that had owned this house for the entirety of its existence, saw her on the staircase she would be seen on ten years later.

She would be the first person to identify the Brown Lady as Lady Dorothy Walpole, and she would be the first to point out the tragic reality of this haunting.

Walpole - born in 1686 - was known for being the second wife of Charles Townshend, a man infamous for his violent temper. This was to be revealed to her when he discovered she was having an illicit relationship with another man, Lord Wharton.

He locked her in a room in Raynham Hall, and it was here that she stayed until the day that she died.

#2 - The Tulip Staircase Ghost

The Brown Lady is not the only supernatural entity that let her guard down whilst using a staircase.

Regardless of how those from beyond the grave like to traverse their former family homes, we can all agree that this is one of the most haunting images to make it to this list - and it’s all the more terrifying knowing that skeptics have proven this image has not been tampered with.

I repeat, not been tampered with.

Tulip staircases are an incredible feat of construction, and create a perfect swirl when seen from the top - but this spirit hit the jackpot of British architecture. They were haunting Queen’s House (Greenwich).

In 1966, a retired reverend and his wife visited the tourist destination. Upon their visit, they took a picture of the famous staircase known for its finesse and beauty - but little did they know this image would alter the course of paranormal investigation forever.

Having returned to their home nation of Canada, they developed the images they took. But in one of them was something odd:

A shrouded figure gripping the handrail and attempting to ascend the stairs began to emerge from its shadows.

Unfortunately, that’s about as much evidence of a potential spirit at queen’s house as we have. Seances have been conducted, vigils have occurred, and nights have been spent there to capture evidence of the spirit.

All we have is some bloke in 2002 seeing something in a white-grey dress glide across a balcony, and plunge headfirst through a wall.

#3 - Lord Combermere Sits At His Desk

It’s an incredible image, isn’t it?

Shadows linger in the late afternoon sun, bright light reflects off the leather furnishings - it honestly took me a while to work out which spectre I was meant to be looking at. But there you can see him, sitting in the large chair on the left of the photograph.

This picture was taken in the library of Combermere Abbey in Cheshire, and it was taken by Lady Sutton who was renting the Abbey for a personal stay. She was able to take this one-hour exposure as the house was empty - the entire family and staff were at a funeral that day.

But it turns out the guy being mourned failed to turn up to the ceremony.

That’s him in the picture.

That’s Lord Combermere.  

Once the image had been developed a year later and Lady Sutton had noted the translucent figure she showed the residents of the Abbey. They immediately noted its likeness to their late father. In fact, the spirit was sitting in his favourite chair.

The coincidence doesn’t end there, however; some claim we can only see his torso in this image and not his legs. It is believed that this is related to the manner of his death from which he was run over by a horse-drawn carriage, an accident that caused serious injury to his legs.

(Ouch.)

#4 - Freddy Jackson Is Pictured With His Squadron

This picture was taken in 1919 by Sir Victor Goddard of his squadron and appears to show a typical photograph from the early 20th century. But the translucent face appearing behind one of the squadron members in the back row makes this post-war image stand out in a whole new light.

Apparently this image shows the face of Freddy Jackson, a member of the squadron. But the thing is, he died a few days before the image was taken having walked into a moving propeller.

(Ouch.)

But this isn’t the spookiest thing about this picture.

Goddard was actually best known for his interest and experience with the paranormal - even outside of snapping this pic. The most famous experience he had was a clairvoyant episode in 1935:

He claimed he had a vision at RAF Drem - an airfield in Scotland - which showed it as an active airfield in operation despite it being abandoned at this time. By 1939 it was in use, confirming his prophecies. He also foresaw the death of an officer in 1946, a prophecy that not only came true, but also inspired the film The Night My Number Came Up (1955).

He would spend his post-war years lecturing on the existent of UFOs.

#5 - Madonna of Bachelor’s Grove

Sightings of the Virgin Mary have always piqued interest in us mere mortals, drawing together the potential for the believers in the paranormal and Christianity - but this image leans much closer to those seeking out the supernatural.

The Ghost Research Society Of America was investigating Bachelor’s Cemetry in 1991 when their equipment showed strange readings.

There was a spirit nearby.

The researchers quickly took pictures in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the spirit in question, but at first saw nothing out of the ordinary. It was only when the image was exposed that a female spirit in white clothing was seen sitting on one of the graves.

(Photographs capturing the paranormal at graveyards often show spirits sitting on graves.)

But what makes this image a rather notable piece of evidence is that this isn’t the first time a woman in white has been seen at the cemetery. A variety of manifestations have been reported, including a phantom farmhouse, ghost monks, a two-headed ghost, but the White Madonna’s story is the most famous:

It is said she is most often seen walking the grounds during the night of the full moon and carries an infant around the gravestones.

#6 - The Amityville Ghost Boy

It’s one of the most famous images documenting the paranormal - and it’s one the most disputed, too.

The story goes that in 1976 a picture was taken at 112 Ocean Avenue.

(For those new to the world of all things horror and haunted, this is the location of the Amityville Horror.)

This picture was taken by Gene Campbell, a photographer who was working with paranormal investigators - including Ed and Lorraine Warren - looking into the activity supposedly occurring at the house. As a part of his duties, he set up an automatic camera that took infrared pictures in an attempt to snap somethin’ supernatural.

He was successful.

This picture was taken on the second floor of the house, and it shows a young child in what appears to be pajamas with bright, glowing eyes.

It is believed that this is the spirit of John Defoe, one of the children murdered by his older brother only a few years before the next residents of the house - the Lutzes - moved in, and began to report paranormal activity.

On the other hand, some claim this photo shows an investigator working with the Warrens who happened to be captured by the camera. But given the size of the face and the height we can see, this appears to be the spirit of a child.

#7 - Waverly Hills Sanatorium

It’s the ultimate urban legend:

*Lights up face with torch*

An abandoned TB hospital is haunted by ghosts of its past, whether it’s the former patients who suffered at the hands of the illness, or the doctors and nurses caring for them.

*Turns off torch*

Bu rarely do these stories have any evidence to back up the stories. Until now.

This picture was taken in 2006 in Louisville, and it was taken in one of the US’ most famous haunted locations. This image doesn’t just echo the eerie atmosphere often experienced by those visiting this former hospital, however.

It shows Mary Lee, a nurse who used to work at the location. But there is a twist in the tale.

This nurse had a relationship with a doctor also working at the sanatorium and soon fell pregnant. Unfortunately, he was not interested in having a relationship with her, and so she hung her in the hospital in grief.

#8 - The Coventry Spectre

Coventry is a hotspot of horrors, from the dreary midlands skyline to the wasteland atmosphere engulfing all mortal souls that dare tread there. Trust me, I’ve lived there.

But it turns out there are more supernatural threats to those that might end up there that you’ll want to know about.

This picture was taken in 1985 and shows the Coventry Freeman Society in the midst of a lively event. But there, in the corner of the room, is a cloaked figure with his head bowed in unison with the rest of the attendees.

None of the attendees noted the presence of such a figure when this image was taken.

It is believed that this monk-like spirit could have been from the middle ages when the craftsmen association was founded. Indeed, the hall the photo was taken in goes back to the 14th century.

#9 - The Phantom of Newby Church

Just like that of Amityville, this image has been subject to a lot of debate given the figure’s costume-like appearance, as well as the claims that this figure is almost posing for the picture.

But the fact it was taken in 1963 when such technology was limited and that experts say it hasn’t been subject to a double exposure confirms this image might be showing us the dark side of historic location.

Also known as the Newby Monk, this entity is believed to be a 16th-century monk with a shroud over his face to disguise disfigurement. But this still isn’t the scariest thing about this image.

Given the height of the other objects including in the image, it is believed this figure would actually measure 9 feet tall, making him far bigger than even the tallest humans ever recorded, suggesting this entity might have been a much more inhuman entity that you’d expect to turn up in The Conjuring universe.

#10 - An Aboriginal Woman At Corroborre Rock

Some of the most striking ghost stories known to man are based on the details of our history. And this photograph gives a voice to a history often forgotten.

This photograph was taken in 1959, and features one of the most famous spots in Australian Aboriginal history. It is said brutal ceremonies were carried out by Aboriginal tribesmen at this location, perhaps explaining the forlorn figure in the picture.

The melancholy stance is especially true given that this image shows the spirit of a woman; this location was considered spiritually dangerous for women, children, and uninitiated men to attend.

Although many claim software could’ve manipulated the image, the lack of human activity around this location at the time still raises the eyebrows of believers and skeptics alike.

***

Evidence of the paranormal is still one of the most hotly debated topics on the planet, bringing together our firm trust in science and our personal beliefs regarding what might just exist.

But despite the debunking, the discussions, and the deliberate doctoring of images, one thing is for certain:

It was the dead that first used Facetune.

#snatched

Are you a ho’ for the haunted? Is you a slut for spooky? Follow this blog, and let’s bring shame to our societally-enforced gender roles together (and share ghost stories at the same time, obvs)!

#ghost pictures #ghost photos #ghost images #ghosts #paranormal #supernatural footage #the conjuring #real ghost pictures #real ghost stories #True Ghost Stories #haunted picture #amityville ghost picture #real ghost photos #real ghost images #spirit photography #horror ghost images #paranormal photos #ghosts caught on camera #paranormal caught on camera #real ghost caught on tape #paranormal proof #video evidence of paranormal #Best horror movies 2019 #horror movies

[stardust-22]

WHAT IF THIS HAPPENED (AU) CH. 6 Part 2/?

A/N: CONTINUATION OF PART 1! 

Tagging @totalfictionprincess @elizaglad @turtlesandalpacas @kanakalala458 @justconfusedperiod @aesthetically-feisty @apocalypticdetention @scriberated @bluecandy91 @calibansprincessx @perfect-ginger-maniac @xxspacequeennxx @calibanswhore

CAUSE SQUAD XX

SUMMARY: Sabrina is crowned Queen of Hell. Then she reveals a shocking surprise to everyone.

CHAPTER 6: THE CORONATION

CHAPTER 1| CHAPTER 2| CHAPTER 3| CHAPTER 4| CHAPTER 5| 

CHAPTER 6 PART 1|

SABRINA POV

The drawing room was dimly lit even with the many torches covering the corners of the slightly big but expansive space. It was a wide area covered with stone slabs. One large bookcase is dedicated to one side of the wall then on the opposite end of the room was, as usual a significantly large blazing fireplace. There were some paintings around the walls, but in the middle was a long circular table. There were 4 couches, 2 long c-shaped couches on each end of the table and the other two straight on each side of the fireplace. The only other things in the room were 2 circular tables and other chairs fit for any small studies or meetings.

Near the main sitting area, Lilith was in the middle of it on a stray chair Minion pulled out next to the table. Couch 1 (top right of the table) had Aunties, Ambrose, & Doctor Cee. Couch 2 which was right across from them, consisted of The Fright Club: Harvey, Roz, Theo and Robin. Couch 3 which was on the right of the fireplace, had Prudence, Dorcas and Nick. The last couch only consisted of Dorian since I guess he wanted a couch to himself.

Lilith began to rise up from where she was sitting, as she saw me and Caliban arrive into the room. The others mainly Harvey and Nick were about to get up as well but Lilith motioned them to stay where they were sitting.

“Now it is my pleasure to announce that our Queen and King have arrived. Welcome Queen Sabrina and King Caliban.” Lilith told everyone in the main sitting area as Caliban and I were walking towards them.

“Thank you for waiting for us everyone. I’m sorry that it took awhile and I’m not going to mention anything since it has already been dealt with. Now I’m sure most of you have questions for us and we’d like to answer them. But let me and Caliban settle in before we start. ”

After I said this, I motioned to Minion who pulled out a loveseat for me and Caliban. Both Caliban and I sat down near to her and settled down into our seat.

Now that we were both comfortable, a thousand voices started to spring out at once.

“Silence.” Lilith commanded the room.

“Thank you Lilith. Now, one person at a time please and I want this to be a good discussion but civilized as well. I think I saw Aunt Zelda speaking first so you’re up.”

“Sabrina Rhea Spellman Morningstar. I can’t believe you did not inform me nor your Aunt Hilda here that you got married. Now explain yourself please.” Aunt Zelda said in her warning tone that still gives me the chills and you know she’s mad when she used my full name.

“Well what had happened Aunt Zee, me and Caliban were researching in the library awhile back to find a spell on saving Roz. He then initiated a proposal to me that we should work together during the final regalia and also included that we should get married.”

“I’m sorry to interject but what kind of proposal did he come up with?” Dorian interrupted looking forward to the dramatics.

I looked at Caliban and nodded at him for him to answer Dorian’s question.

“My proposal to Sabrina was that we aligned and ruled hell together. That may also include marriage and we both had conditions for this as well. My conditions were that I was the enforcer while she was the voice of reason, both of us ruling equally, Sabrina moving to Hell while also continuing her studies at the academy & the mortal realm.”

“And where will Sabrina be staying when she moves to Hell?” Aunt Zelda added.

“Well of course as my wife, we would share a room.” Caliban answered obliviously to the tension he just now caused with his response (lmao).

Then suddenly, both Nick and Harvey began to freak out over what Caliban had just told everyone. They looked pissed beyond reason, shocked, lingering feelings that they had for me even though both have moved on, slightly returned. This seething jealousy that struck upon them after I gave my announcement on my marriage. It’s weird seeing them this way but after all the shit I’ve had gone through between both of them. I’m oddly satisfied with their reactions but also feel a tiny bit bad. That’s probably my inner Morningstar making me feel that way.  

Nick began to throw a jealous fit. But before he could stand up against Caliban who had tensed up beside me. Lilith threatened Nick, not wanting to deal with the problems he might cause. She was not against kicking him out of the room if it would prevent any blood shed.

Caliban after calming down looked towards me flashing a smile. I smiled back and decided to resolve the situation he made.

“Yes, we are sharing a room together even if we’re not in a romantic relationship since that’s part of our agreement. But my conditions also included that earth will not be the tenth circle of hell, there will be no enslavement of people. I will still continue my mortal studies while also helping my aunties with the academy. And that we both will be reforming hell together.”  

“Okay but when did this whole thing occur exactly?” Prudence and Dorcas both were curious about this.

“Before we went back to the academy, I took us to the greenhouse behind the academy. We did a ritual before we came to ask Ambrose for help.”

“That still doesn’t explain the fact that you’ve gotten married Sabrina and not even asking our permission is even mindblowing to say the least. Hilda do you have anything to add to this?” Aunt Zee asked Aunt Hilda.

“Dearie, I’m awfully disappointed that you didn’t inform me or any one of us on this happening. But to Caliban, I am warning you that if you do anything to my niece well there will be heaven to pay for it. You are still invited to our family dinners of course. Favorites for all.”

“Ambrose, what did they mean when they asked you for help?”

“To answer your question Aunt Zee, they needed help to officiate their wedding and I decided to help them out.”

Everyone but The Fright Club plus Caliban & I, yelled, “WHAT?!”

__________________________________________________________

While that conversation was going on, tensions were also rising between Harvey and Roz.

“Harvey, why was your reaction like that when you heard Brina here sharing a room with Caliban?” Roz questioned him.

Harvey looked at her, sighing.“Roz, you already know I hate his guts since the accident with his fake spell. I was shocked.”

“Harvey, what do you mean by fake spell? You keep mentioning it but you never explained.” Roz said in a nervous tone.

“Please, we’ll talk about this later but not now. There are still matters here that clearly need to be discussed.” Theo interrupts their conversation.

“Yeah, they do. Sabrina, you didn’t tell us anything. I thought we were supposed to be your best friends. How are we even supposed to trust him when we barely know who he is? How are we supposed to trust you?!” Harvey said, raising his voice.

There’s so many conversations going at once I can’t help but feel extremely overwhelmed. How am I supposed to face everyone? I felt Caliban grabbed my hand as he began to stand up from our loveseat. He briefly looks down before speaking.

“Can I have everyone’s attention please? My wife here wants to speak but won’t be able to, if all of you don’t calm yourselves down. And if not, then we can end this meeting now. Unless any of you… *looks towards Nick and Harvey* have any objections on what I’ve proposed then I will personally deal with the consequences myself.”

Before I let any of them make any arguments, I stood up next to Cal.

“The only reason, I didn’t tell any of you was because I feared that if I did, you all might've been put in danger with everything going on. I didn’t want to take the risk of Lucifer, or well my Father finding out. Not to mention, all the problems we were having with the Pagans and Faustus and his group of worshippers. It was too much at stake and not enough time. I really am sorry but this was the only way I could make sure everyone would be safe.”

I saw a look of understanding pass through everyone else in the room and I was filled with relief. Even though I knew Nick and Harvey were still mad at me. At least the rest seemed to be happy with my reasoning and calmed down.

But there was always Nick, who still seemed unsatisfied with this outcome.

“As if this isn’t what you wanted since we broke up, Spellman. Or even when we were still dating and at the circus, I said it before to Dorian and to you at the academy. And you were against it. This is clear proof that you lied about it all. I bet this proposal was actually made a long time ago. It wouldn’t surprise me. You always had a holier than thou attitude and always seem to never think of others than yourself. There is also your so-called husband, who probably is only with you for power. And you let him because you’re nothing but a backstabbing cheating bitch.” He called out coldly.

Caliban immediately stood up in front of Nick and shoved him against the wall. His face clouded with anger. “You can speak all you want against me, Warlock but never towards my wife. You have your own problems and maybe you should deal with them the way you always do. Your drugs and sex demons but this is my domain and starting today there will be no disrespect torwards Sabrina. I am King and she is my Queen and if she won’t go against you then I definitely will.”

Prudence and Aunt Zelda stood up as well and decided that enough was enough.

“I think it’s time we leave before you get hurt Nicky. We are not at home here. At least not today. Sabrina, thank you for inviting us and remember if you ever want to talk or any *advice* Dorcas and I are always free.”  

“Now coven and extras, it is time to return. Lilith, if you will kindly show us the way out… And Sabrina and Caliban, come to the house for dinner. We still have many things to discuss but as a family.” Aunt Zelda announced to everyone in the room.

Lilith motions to Minion but before he could usher everyone out, Dorian slides off the couch from where he was laying. “You mean to tell me that it's over? No more of a show? It was just getting interesting. Well in any case, maybe any of you can help me with my deformities?”

“Dorian for the love of heaven, do not start with me.” Lilith answered.

______________________________________________________________________________

Lilith and company left the drawing room so Caliban and I were the only ones left in the room.

After they left, there was still tension lingering in the air from what happened earlier. Caliban was sitting by the fireplace and he was still brooding over the Nick situation. I walked over to where he was and sat next to him. He had his hand pressed to the corner of his mouth and still tensed over the argument.

“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that, you know?”

He immediately shot himself forward and looked at me in confusion.

“What do you mean? What kind of husband would I be if I wasn’t defending your honour? I vowed to you that everything between us would always be equal. Him offending you is no different than offending me. I did what anyone in my position would do. Sabrina, please don’t ever feel the need to face things on your own... I might've not needed to but I genuinely wanted to.”

I don’t think I'll ever be used to this side of Caliban. Never thought a couple weeks ago things would escalate like this. Even more surprising was that my heart would start beating so fast all the time whenever I’m around him.

“Still, it was very kind of you. And not just about Nick. This whole time you've been incredibly supportive and protective. I don't know if I would have survived the Trials or facing my Father, and now my family and friends about our marriage.”

“At the very least we have the support of your Aunt Hilda, your cousin and his lady.” Caliban says, grinning.

“I guess this is the best time as any about our relationships and where we stand amongst, other things. Also your comment about us sharing a room with my Aunt Z.”

“We have definitely been pushing this conversation long enough but we have also gotten closer. You know I will always stand by your side and the choice is yours on where you want us to be.”  

“That’s true we have delayed this long enough and I’m glad we’re finally able to have a chance to talk about everything.”

“Why don’t we go take a walk Princess since it’s good to take a breather once and awhile. Especially conversing with everyone earlier.”

Caliban and I stood up from where we were and began to walk out of the room.

“Do I get a hint on where you are taking us to?” I asked him curiously as I followed his lead while we were walking.

“No. But you might be familiar with it later on once we get there, dear wife.” Caliban gave me a smirk.

Once he teleported us into what seemed like an almost deserted plain with the only thing in sight was a stone arch with tall walls I couldn’t dream of seeing over. Caliban looked at me and then clasped my hand with his as we continued on with our walk. Usually our hands would linger near each other, but Cal actually initiated us holding hands. I guess this is me overthinking it but I think he was waiting for me to initiate things since he wants to go at my pace. In a way it was very sweet of him to let me take charge but I can admit that I don't mind him leading the way.

The deserted plain that we ended up at first, later took us to this huge confusing labyrinth maze.

Which gives me more time to think about my relationship with Caliban. I didn’t expect our relationship to turn out this way due to our first meeting at the Shores of Sorrow. There was this initial spark/attraction that I had with him when we first talked. But when he finally revealed himself that he was the Prince of Hell, I was furious. Like who was this guy to challenge me for my birthright? Even though, at first I wanted nothing to deal with anything related to being a Morningstar.

But due to him challenging me for the claim to the throne, I ended up accepting for what I have long pushed away. Making me realize that I was able to fully embrace my Morningstar side. There was the first challenge which reflecting now, I could have done some things differently. Finding Herod’s Crown was easy with Ambrose helping me. But when I gave it to Ambrose to let him research the crown’s properties, that’s when everything went downhill.

I was so mad that Cal didn’t even help with the whole King Herod attacking us situation and stole the crown from right under me. But giving him that slap on the face was nice since he was pretty arrogant when he won.

Caliban gave my hand a squeeze and was okay with the silence around us since he probably had a feeling that I needed to think about a few things. I gave him a smile back and just enjoyed being in each other’s presence. The walk through the maze ended up being easier than what I thought it would be. Cal ended up leading us to a shortcut and now we were on a pathway somewhere.

I didn’t realize this at the time but Nick was kind of right. Thanks to Dorian being the club gossip, he told me about how I ended up getting a new suitor and now said suitor is currently my husband (lol).

Now the second challenge ended up being entirely different than what I realized head on. Pontius Pilate captured me and along the way, Caliban was already imprisoned. I was still angered by the fact he cheated during the first challenge. I guess egging him on about his cheating and wondering if he would have some dignity for his actions, made him realize some things.

So to my surprise when Caliban volunteered himself to take the 100 lashes for me, of course I was in shock.

Like why would he do that for me when we were fighting against each other for the regalia. And he said that since I was the Queen of Hell, I shouldn’t be debased in that way. Reflecting on his actions that he does have honor and I was too cute for scars, I may have looked indifferent on the outside. But internally, I was trying not to fawned over him saying that about me and he was very flirtatious with me even as he was being taken away.

Even Barrabas who saw our interaction since he was there for it all, him saying your lover’s sacrifice was noble and pointless. I denied the fact that Caliban (at the time) was not my lover. But after we set the plan in motion that Barrabas & I would glamour each other. Which then I was able to steal the bowl out of Pontius’ hands. I still felt bad that I left Caliban after I ran away with the bowl.

To my shocking surprise after Lilith announced I won the second challenge, he came walking in shirtless and was pretty dusty. He repeated to me what I said to him about dignity and honour. He cheated in the first challenge and I did the same to him.

Needing to take a breather from my progressing thoughts, I noticed that Caliban took us to the forest where Dorian Gray wanted the flower for his deformities. As we were walking to the middle of the forest, he suddenly stopped walking.

I gave him a look of confusion, “Cal, why did we stop walking?”

“I think we’ve been walking long enough so I wanted to get a rest in. Also there was something I wanted to ask from you.”

“Okay, so ask me then.”

“Is there any possibility of us having a relationship outside of a political alliance?”

“Hmmm maybe.” Letting him tweedle over my answer.

“So what if we give it a test then? I’ll take us on a honeymoon and maybe have a first date.”

“A honeymoon? Well we are married but how are we going to explain this to my Aunties and everyone else?”

“You could tell your aunts that you’ll be on a field trip for a couple days but in reality we’re on our honeymoon. Which you will not know the location until we leave for it.” He told me while giving me his cheeky boy smirk.

“Ohhh surprise. I’m interested, I can't wait.” While giving him a smirk grin of my own. .

“You know, you never answer my question about the rooms.”

Strangely enough, Cal looked down. I could swear that he was blushing but it seemed so out of place in someone like Caliban.

“Well I just thought it was obvious, now that we are King and Queen we of course would switch our chambers and… well we are married. We are gonna have to make it ‘official’ soon.”

“Ugh Caliban, don’t joke… I mean yeah but-” I couldn’t even finish my sentence. Part of me wanted to die of embarrassment and the other side already knew. And I felt excited. But I had to look down as I tried to hide the redness on my cheeks.

“I didn’t mean to embarrass or surprise you, my Queen. I thought you were aware.”

“What, I’m not embarrassed!”

Lies. And of course Caliban would already be catching onto this.

“Then how come you won’t even look at me. Unless-” He put one hand under my jaw, pulling me closer until we were just a breath apart.

Before I could even respond or get away, he pulled apart and flashed me a teasing smile.

“Actually it’s getting later, we need to get ready. Can’t leave a bad impression on your beloved Aunties.”

“You’ve already left a bad impression that I doubt would go away after one dinner but you are right… Wait no, Caliban you changed the subject!”

Before I could argue with him for his teasing, he puts his arms around me and teleporting us to an unknown corridor.

“Where have you taken us now, Caliban?” I said glaring at him.

Even if I was still reeling about earlier, I couldn’t help but admire what I thought would be a simple corridor. Everywhere you saw an assortment of macabre decor on the silver damask designed black walls. All leading to a gothic gold trimmed Arched Double door, reminiscent of an old storybook castle.

I was completely fascinated.

“Caliban, where are we exactly?”

“I’m sure Deumos will appreciate her more ‘simple’ work on the corridor. As it is, she told me that the real work she put in was in our private new chamber.”

I turned to look at him, seeing he had a pleased look on his face.

“This is.. Ours?”

“And no one else’s. Shall we go in?”

After Cal opened the entry, I couldn’t help but be enchanted. How was it possible that this was our chamber? It was almost as big as the Drawing Room. It was clear that the room was made for royalty. A massive black cherry wood king bed that’s centered right in the middle, with a crimson sheer laying on top a Victorian canopy and a fine black silk cover.

White pillows with red embroidered roses setting an amazing contrast with the black it laid on. On each side by the bed there were two separate black rimmed closet doors. Each of our names engraved in gold on a door. And the walls were painted with the story of all of hell’s seven punishments. A roaring fire was placed opposite of the bed, filling the room with warmth.

On the right side of the room was a bookcase filled with tomes that me or Caliban could spend the night reading on the dark leather couch. But the most impressive part was the balcony on the left of it all. The moment I walked out on the balcony, I could see all of hell. At that moment, I couldn’t help but feel like a real Queen.

As I turned to return inside the room I could see Caliban with a letter in his hands.

“Deumos says she hopes we love our coronation gift. It is amazing, is it not?”

“More than I could ever dream of, honestly. But we still have to get ready, Caliban. And we still have to talk about how we should act at the dinner.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “What exactly do you mean? Are there going to be rules, my Queen?”

“Well, my King-”, I said mockingly to him. “There will be rules actually. Like for one, you can’t by any means provoke or taunt any of my family. Two, we won’t talk about my past love life. And three, no flirting, taunting or embarrassing me.”

“I swear to you, Princess I will not provoke your aunties or your cousin. I will not bring up any of your love life. And I will not taunt or embarrass you. Happy?”

As I started to walk towards my closet, I flashed him a smile.

“Yes, that makes me very happy actually.”

As I was about to enter the doors to change, I heard Caliban behind me.

“Sabrina love, you know you are the only one I truly love to tease.”

The moment I realized what he said, I almost tripped over. I couldn't believe he said that but before I could respond. He disappeared into his own closet. My heart was pounding.

Caliban was definitely gonna be the death of me.

#caos #caos part 3 #calbrina #calbrina fics #caliban x sabrina #sabrina x caliban #caliban #prince caliban #sabrina spellman #chilling adventures of sabrina #stardust-22 #stardust 22 #what if this happened au

[by-mana]

Commissions Redux

Hi Folks!

This has been copied from my main blog and cleaned up a bit, since I’m trying to separate the fan stuff from the main to keep something like a semblance of an order. Commissions are therefore moved from Mana-chan’s Corner to here. They are still open and perfectly free, just read the rules, please. In case you wish to support me, you can do either of these things:

» Leave a Tip

» Buy Me a Coffee

As I am currently jobless (thank you Corona) every bit is appreciated. 

» Full Update

For a long time I didn’t take any commissions because the fandoms and pairings I have inspiration for is a limited fraction of my active fandoms (i.e. the fandoms I engage with via reading fic, commenting, enjoying content, reblogging, etc.) and I didn’t want to disappoint. 

Recently, in an unexpected strike of utter genius (which only took me like... 5 years to work out), I had the epiphany to compile a list of fandoms+pairings I’d be more than happy to write as you desire.

» Commission Rules/FAQ. Please read before commissioning.

» For full list of available fandoms/genres click below.

» Fandoms

» The Untamed | Mo Dao Zu Shi

The most recent fandom, also the one that currently dominates my mind. 

Including: CQL, Novel, Movies. I haven’t read a lot of the source material, but I’m intending to and I already did some research. For now I think I prefer a mix of canons. 

» Pairings

» Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian

» Jiang Cheng & Wei Wuxian (mostly gen, but I believe I could do something sexual/romantic as well, but please ask first if you have any specific ideas)

» Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing (please read the rules)

» Jiang Cheng/Wen Ning (tentative)

» Nie Mingjue/Wei Wuxian

» Nie Mingjue/Lan Xichen (tentative, though I mostly see myself as writing them on the side)

» Any version of the 3zun (same as above)

» Lan Xichen/Wei Wuxian

» Jin Zixuan/Wei Wuxian

» Specific Canons / Prompts

The Untamed basically exploded over my head and didn’t leave me alone. In the past few months a few plotbunnies developed which I’d all love to write at one point. You can chose to prompt me either of these or pick any general prompt, or anything you’d like to read, as long as it aligns with what I can write.

» The First Witness

Genre: Case Fic, Modern AU, Canon retell, Drama, Tragedy, Romance, M/M

Pairings: WWX/LWJ

Includes: Forensic Medical Examiner Wei Wuxian, Inspector Lan Wangji, Single Dad Wei Wuxian, Wei Sizhui / Wen Yuan, the dead ones are dead, Badass Grandmother Baoshan Sanren, Yunmeng Bros Reconciliation, Businessman Jiang Cheng, Murder Mystery, Pining, Getting Together, HIV positive character, past off-screen rape (mentioned only). It’s basically what it says, a canon retell wrapped in a modern day case fic. It was the first thing that I had inspiration for.

» Nurse Wei Wuxian slice of life Modern AU

Genre: Modern AU, slice of life, recovery, drama, tragedy, adoption, M/M, hurt & comfort, getting together, romance, fluff

Pairings: WWX/LWJ

Includes: pediatric nurse Wei Wuxian, pediatric nurse MianMian, elementary school teacher Lan Wangji, pediatrician Lan Xichen, intense care nurse Jiang Yanli, intense care doctor Wen Qing, teacher’s aide Wen Ning, Yunmeng reconciliation, only some are dead, Wen family+WWX living together. 

Premise: Former convict Wei Wuxian, fresh out of nursing school, applies for a job at Dr. Lan Xichen’s pediatric practice. Lan Xichen (who sometimes takes pro bono foster children abuse cases) isn’t quite sold on the idea of a former felon turned nurse attending to already traumatized children, but upon interview decides to give WWX a chance. Not only does he never regret it, it turns out it’s to be the best decision he’s ever made, not only in regards to his practice. Meddling ensues, love blossoms, truths are revealed, happy end. Probably the fluffiest story on the list.

» ABO Yunmeng Shuanjie Fake Marriage AU

Not what you think. Does not involve pseudo-incest (at least not for a long time, haven’t decided on the end results yet). First ABO I’ve ever considered writing, but all the more exciting, since I know now what I want of it.

Pairing: WWX/LWJ (temporal, non-endgame - so far, platonic), WWX & JC (gen, ruling partners)

Includes: fake marriage, extra marital affair, male pregnancy, abo (mostly non-traditional, I think?), not actual pseudo incest, adoption, canon divergence, not everybody dies, Wen Chao being a monster, sexual assault (interrupted), golden core loss, NO golden core transfer, misunderstandings, complicated political situations, the Wens are saved and live in Lotus Pier, a-Yuan is still adopted, “sometimes love is not enough”

Premise: shortly after concluding the studies at Cloud Recesses LWJ starts courting WWX. Engagement is discussed between the two clans, but the Wen indoctrination and the burning of the Cloud Recesses gets in between. When LWJ refuses to lie in order to save WWX from Wen Chao’s assault, JC steps in and pretends to be the one engaged to WWX to save his brother from a forced bond. To prevent this from being debunked and to ensure a future marriage (which will now be more challenging to achieve, given the state of Cloud Recesses), LWJ and WWX mate and bond in the Xuanwu cave. Then Lotus Pier is sacked, JC loses his golden core, the Jiangs are dead and the Yunmeng siblings flee for their lives, find refuge in Yiling, etc. Plays out as in canon except they find out WWX is pregnant and transferring the golden core would cause an abortion. WWX still says do it, but changes his mind in the last minute, leading to JC finding out about his plan upon waking up and remaining coreless. They flee to Meishan and marry to protect WWX’s reputation (since a marriage would now be impossible for a long time on both sides - Gusu and Yunmeng, AND JC needs WWX more than ever and WWX is not abandoning his little brother) Sunshot happens, WWX invents the control tower & still saves the Sunshot campaign. The sixteen years that follow are utter chaos.

» Nie Mingjue/Wei Wuxian arranged marriage AU

You know what this is inspired by. 

Pairing: Nie Mingjue/Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian (unfullfilled, for a long time)

Includes: arranged marriage, some characters die, Nie Mingjue dies but later, revenge, wwx adopts a-yuan, canon divergence, slow burn, learning to love, the Wens live, political intrigues, wwx and nhs teaming up against jgy

Premise: To save the Wens and himself from qi deviation Wei Wuxian marries Nie Mingjue (in spite of being in love with LWJ). Slowly some truths are revealed and feelings blossom but some tragedies cannot be prevented. NMJ realizes the feelings that are between WWX and LWJ, but they both marry regardless. Later WWX realizes that NMJ is similarly in love with Lan Xichen. With time they learn to love and respect each other, NMJ learns about what WWX did for JC, WWX learns clarity to play for NMJ when JGY nearly succeeds killing him (WWX suspects but he has no proof). NMJ still dies (disappears) and widower WWX spends the next decade or so seeking revenge and searching for his husband’s body so that he can rest in peace. It’s all very bittersweet, but there’s a happy ending.

» Hakuouki + Extended Universe 

The longest active and steadiest fandom. I know exactly what I’ll write and what not.

Including characters from: Urakata, Toki no Kizuna, the most recent overhauls (Kyoto Winds, Edo Blossoms). I’ve seen all three anime seasons, played a few routes of Kyoto Winds and read some walkthroughs. I’m not completely done with all of them, but I’ll take the time to research if the commission demands it.

» Pairings

» Harada Sanosuke/Nagakura Shinpachi (I lovingly refer to them as my naval battle cruiser)

» Harada Sanosuke/Shiranui Kyou

» Shiranui Kyou/Takasugi Shinsaku

» Kondou Isami/Hijikata Toushizou (tentative)

» Hijikata Toushizou/Saitou Hajime (tentative)

» Nagakura Shinpachi/Saitou Hajime

» Saitou Hajime/Toudou Heisuke

» Yukimura Chizuru/Sen-hime

» Ibuki Ryuunosuke/Kosuzu (please read the rules)

» Specific Canons / Prompts:

I’ve had a number of inspirations for this, which I’ve never written, but would love to delve into. You can chose to prompt me either of these or, of course, pick a general prompt.

» Fabulous Family Series

The one in progress, you can check it out on AO3. You can prompt me in this, if there’s something you’d like to read.

Pairings (current and planned): Harada/Nagakura, Kondou/Hijikata, Okita/Chizuru (casual), Heisuke/Saitou, Takasugi/Shiranui, Chizuru/Sen-chan, Ibuki/Kosuzu, Ibuki->Saitou (one-sided crush), Saitou/Chizuru (temporal)

Tags: adoption, modern AU, lgbtq+ issues, M/M, genderfluid character, disabled character (future), teenage pregnancy (future), slice of life, sexual assault (future), child abuse (future reveal), romance, ace/aro character, casual sex, underage sex, 

» Gender Swap AU

Main Ship: Harada/Nagakura

Side Ship: Ibuki/Kosuzu

Summary: Sannan secretly tests a version of his experimental Ochimizu on a few of the captains. The result is that the new day dawns with some drastic changes to their bodies that have nothing to do with white hair, glowing eyes or bloodthirst, but with a whole other set of complications. 

Premise: Original story was supposed to be about Shinpachi developing and unexpected attraction to Sano, them “experimenting” together and Sano falling pregnant. While the others manage to turn back to their original bodies, Sano doesn’t and it is all very complicated. Eventually he does (after giving birth), but instead of it being a good thing it just makes things more complicated. In the end, he choses to live in a female body instead of death and marries Shinpachi. Would include trans issues, gender dysphoria, friendship vs. love, the nature of attraction, respect, feminism and female issues. I wanted to write it as a multi-chapter, but never got around to it. But I’d love to put it out there in any form I can.

» Prince of Tennis

Tentatively putting this down as one of my oldest fandoms. I never wrote for it as cosistently as with other fandoms, but a few years back I rp-ed it for quite a while and could probably still write for it, if the pairing’s right. 

Including: ShinTeniPuri characters up to Pirates and Black Holes (I haven’t read much further, but I’ll probably catch up at one point? I always do.)

» Pairings / Characters (mostly Shitenhouji and Higa centric)

» Oshitari Kenya/Shiraishi Kuranosuke

» Oshitari Kenya/Chitose Senri

» Oshitari Kenya & Oshitari Yuushi (gen, ask me about cest)

» Shishido Ryou/Oishi Shuuichirou

» Oshitari Yuushi/Kikumaru Eiji

» Oshitari Yuushi/Hirakoba Rin (this relates to that rp)

» Kai Yuujirou & Hirakoba Rin (both gen and slash)

» Kite Eishirou/Hirakoba Rin

» Watanabe Osamu/Sakaki Tarou

» Higa gen

» Shitenhouji gen and casual relationships (ask me about specific ones)

» Hara Tetsuya/Taira Yoshiyuki

» Mori Juuzaburou & Hara Tetsuya (mostly gen, but I probs could do casual slash as well)

» Ochi Tsukimitsu/Mori Juuzaburou

» Marui Bunta/Hara Tetsuya (you will never get this, but it derives from that rp I did and would still def write it if people are interested)

» Tango Pair (Sanada Genichirou/Atobe Keigo)

» Specific Canons / Prompts

Most of what I had in my head has faded but a few things remained. Of course you can also come with your own prompt at me.

» College AU, future fic

Premise: Everyone has grown up and moved on. The Oshitari cousins are now rooming together, both studying medicine at Tokyo University. They’re upper neighbors with Shishido Ryou (paedagogy) and Oishi Shuuichirou (medicine), who both miss their doubles partners, but have seemingly moved on from their middle school days and broken hearts. No such thing can be said about Kenya, who can’t get over his break up with Shiraishi following their graduation, or Yuushi, who seems to hold secrets of his own.

I haven’t developed much for this, most of it are scattered ideas, but I’d love to explore it. I’ve thought of some pairings for it, but none of them final. It would also leave a lot of room for casual stuff or one-night stands. It’s actually an ideal prompt premise, from that standpoint.

Pairings (at start, no necessarily final): Oshitari Kenya/Shiraishi Kuranosuke (past), Oishi Shuuichirou/Shishido Ryou (current), Oishi Shuuichirou/Kikumaru Eiji (past), Shishido Ryou/Ootori Choutarou (past), Oshitari Yuushi/Kikumaru Eiji (current, secret), 

» It takes two to Tango / Tango towards Destruction

An old fic that was supposed to be a series which I never finished, but could pick it up and remaster it. It’d be a nostalgia project. 

Pairing: Tango Pair

Premise: Atobe’s father finds out about him and Sanada dating and threatens to disown him if they don’t break up. In the original Atobe runs away, but I’m thinking now he simply might not take it seriously enough and then it would escalate. He ends up moving in with the Sanada family. Your typical rich boy loses everything and struggles through poverty, finding meaning, building a life for himself, coming off age. 

» One Piece

A fandom older than even TeniPuri it’s been with me the longest. Unfortunately it doesn’t inspire me anymore the way it used to, but I’d still be able to write some things for it, if the right muse struck me. I kinda want to. Nostalgia, you know.

» Pairings

» Zoro/Sanji

» Ace/Zoro

» Ace/Sanji

» Luffy/Law (tentative, like, I ship them hard but I don’t know if I’d be able to write something for them? Oh but I’d like to try)

» Mihawk/Shanks

» Mihawk & Zoro & Perona family dynamics

» Zeff & Sanji adopted family dynamics

» Usopp & Yasopp gen

» Izo? I’d like to try an Izo.

» Canons

» Canonverse

Set in the original canon of the fandom.

Including (not limited to): backstory - past canon, present canon, future fic (please specify), canon divergence

» Modern AU

Including (not limited to): no powers, modern with magic (potential, please ask), slice of life, mystery, case fic, ‘job AU’ (coffee shop, doctors, idols, etc., please specify/ask)

» Sci-fi AU

Including: original sci-fi canon, Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, Dune (tentative), Hyperion (tentative), for everything else ask. I know a lot of sci-fi, but not enough lore for each of them to set a story in. I might be interested but it'd necessitate research.

» High Fantasy AU

Including (not limited to): original fantasy canon, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Witcher, but overall I’d prefer if you ask about this. I haven’t read/seen a lot of the most recent and popular franchises (mostly because I’m writing my own high fantasy and don’t want it to be too influenced by other things, and someone already told me it sounds like Game of Thrones, so that one’s a big no. Sorry...)

» No Powers, other than modern AU

Including (not limited to): everything that doesn’t fall under the modern AU list, but has no powers in it, i.e. historical AU (specify time & culture), future AU (near & far), cyberpunk dystopia (possibly), post-apocalyptic (possibly). I don’t write zombies.

» Superpowers / Hero AU

Including (not limited to): X-Men, Avengers, Wildstorm Universe, original superhero canon

» Genres

I do mostly serious stuff, like drama, tragedy, intrigues, arranged marriage, tragic backstory, etc. I like to put my characters through a lot of suffering. I always joke that it’s very easy to spot my favorite character by the amount of torture I put them through. I feel that it makes the happy ending weigh even more. Sometimes I even prefer a bad ending, if it gives the story more meaning (I mean, imagine LotR trilogy have a happy ending. It would totally take away all the development and the lessons the characters went through.) I wish I could write light stuff but so far I have not succeeded. I use a lot of sarcasm and irony though? 

My shorter fics tend to be fluffy and sweet rather than funny, if full of playful banter and teasing. Relationships are usually depicted in a naturalistic rather than romantic way (I’m ace/aro myself, and I have lots of opinions about the nature of love and attraction, and how a functioning relationship ideally looks like and it tends to seep into my writing). Instead of traditional romance I like to write a non-traditional one. Slow burn, instead of love on first sight. Learning to love instead of falling hard. But it also depends on the pairing. I can write most things if I put my mind to it, so don’t hesitate to prompt me and I’ll let you know whether it works for me or not.

I’m not shy of dealing with child abuse, assault, suicidal ideation, trauma, disability and other difficult topics in my writing, so if you wanna request any of these or something similar I’m a-okay with it, as long as you discuss it with me. I’m not knowledgeable in everything so it’s likely I’ll need to do research, but I’m more than alright with it. Honestly, it’s very probable that I’d love to try. 

» Kinks

I’m okay with most stuff. Where I draw the line is the really hardcore stuff like scat and kinks involving feces, some forms of humiliation, zoophilia, necrophilia, mutilation, stuff like that. 

I’m alright with both dub-con & non-con (although I refuse to depict is as normalized, or glorified), bondage, s&m, dom/sub, light bdsm (ask me about the harder stuff. I’m not against it, I’m just not always in the mood or right mindset for writing it), omorashi (tentative, ask me), daddy kink, breath play, age play, spanking, verbal humiliation, dirty talk, edging, come eating, orgasm denial,... all the good stuff. 

#commission me #fandoms #genres

[spectraspecs-writes]

Tatooine - Chapter 54

Link to the masterpost. Chapter 53. Chapter 55.

@averruncusho thank you for reading you get a tag

First stop, Czerka office. Before I even open the door, I hear a Duros shouting inside - “You'll be hearing about this, you Czerka puppet! I'm not going to let this drop! You can't just murder a whole village!” What’s this? Czerka is guilty of a massacre? Not that I’m surprised - it’s something they’d do. “And don't tell me to take my concerns to your corporate kiosk! I know when I'm not wanted!”

He bumps into me as he’s leaving. “You okay, dude?” I ask.

“I'm done talking in this office,” he says, “They aren't interested in listening to me. I doubt they will even acknowledge I was here. Typical corporate evasion. That's what happens when they own everything. No accountability.” Hell yeah! And he leaves.

The protocol officer shakes her head, but then shifts her focus to me as I come the rest of the way in. “Can I help you?” she asks, “These are the offices of Czerka Corporation. I trust you have business with the company?” She talks faster than I can get a word out. “If this is about employment, I'm afraid all regular mining positions are full. And before you ask, we are also no longer selling hunting licenses.”

Uh, okay. “I’m looking for a miner named Griff,” I say. Mission pushes past Canderous to get next to me.

“Griff?” she says. Nervously. “Uh... there's no Griff here. Never heard of him.” And Carth says I’m a bad liar. “No, I... I don't remember a single Griff on the Czerka Corporation payroll.”

“Stop lying and tell me what you know about my brother!” Mission shouts.

And that shuts the officer down. “If you have any further questions, please pose them to the Representative Kiosk on Coruscant. Business hours, please.”

Yeah, I’m sure that’s how she deals with everyone who shouts at her. Which I’d imagine is a lot of people - it’s pretty obvious things aren’t going well here. A 100-credit docking fee for an unscheduled arrival? The fact that the gizka merchant didn’t have backups of his backups for his datapads? The fact that we’re the only people in here? That they aren’t hiring more miners? Czerka is obviously not doing very well here. Good - they can choke for all I care.

So I turn on the charm. “Are you sure you don’t remember? We’d leave sooner if we knew.”

“Oh,” she says, suddenly all cooperative, “you mean that Twi'lek! Yes, I see the resemblance. Must have slipped my mind for a second. Yes, of course I remember Griff.”

“Uh-huh,” Mission grunts skeptically, crossing her arms.

“We hired that Twi'lek some time ago. Not a good worker according to his crew chief: always complaining and faking injuries to get out of work. He entered false time sheets and slept through his shifts. We even suspected him of stealing Czerka Corporation supplies, although we could never prove it.” Well, good on him for that, I guess.

“That sounds like Griff, all right,” Mission says.

“So you fired him then?” I ask.

“We would have but we needed workers,” she says, then she scoffs. “It would have been better for him if he had been fired. Then the Sand People wouldn't have gotten him.”

“You mean he’s dead?” Mission exclaims. 

“He was lost in a Sand People raid we suffered not too long ago,” she says, “There were prisoners taken, but our rescue parties never found anyone alive. In the end it just wasn't cost effective to keep searching.” That’s why you never bring in a corporation for a scout’s work. I know a couple Rodians who would have gladly taken the job for food and the privilege to traipse through the desert. (Well, used to know. I heard they went to Hoth and never came back. Anyway.) “All miners sign a waiver absolving Czerka Corporation of liability in these circumstances.”

“So all your workers are expendable,” I say. Not surprised.

“Czerka Corporation cares deeply for all of its employees,” she says, spouting her corporate drivel, “That's why we've started a bounty program to thin the Sand People numbers.”

“Did the Sand People kill Griff or not?” Mission yells.

The officer gets flustered. “We didn't find his body so we have to assume he was taken prisoner. Whether he's still alive, I couldn't say.” Mission growls and reaches for her vibroblade - just for intimidation, she doesn’t plan to do anything with it. Not that Czerka here knows that. “That's all I can tell you,” the protocol officer says nervously, “I shouldn't even have said this much; this is all privileged corporate information. I could lose my job!”

“Don’t worry,” I say, not really all that concerned, “You were just threatened by his family. Surely there are policies in place for informing family of a worker’s condition.”

Canderous pulls Mission back a bit, which calms the officer down significantly. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“Yeah,” I say, “If I wanted to go out onto the dunes to look for him, can I just go?”

“Yes!” Mission cheers, “Thanks, Rena!”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” the officer says, “In order to leave the city, you need a hunting license, and as I said we are no longer selling them. There are too many people cavorting around outside the walls as it is.”

Well, damn. “Why do I need a hunting license?” I ask, “I’m not going to be doing any hunting.”

“We use them to ensure that only people judged fit by Czerka Corporation are allowed outside the city.” That seems so stupid. “We don't allow casual exploration because of legal concerns. Czerka Corporation takes no responsibility for loss of life on the dunes.”

“It’s clear you haven’t met her,” Canderous says, “Rena is not about to be stopped by something as loose and shifting as sand.” Aw, shucks.

“Be that as it may,” the officer says - and it’s clear we’re making this a difficult day for her - it’s a way for us to keep track of people. No one leaves the city without a Czerka hunting license.”

Well, I have to leave the city, so I’m going to need one of those licenses. “And there’s no way to get a license?”

Then her face changes. Oh, boy, here we go. I get the sense she wants to just shove us out the door, but what Canderous said combined with Mission’s attitude finally sink in. “Well,” she says, “normally we charge 200 credits, but I could make an exception if you agreed to perform a task for us. It may even align with your goals.”

To get the Star Map or to free Griff? “What do you have in mind?”

“The Sand People are becoming a problem,” she says, “They destroy our sandcrawlers and kill our miners. One particular tribe is the worst. It's as if their chieftain has decided to wage a war against us. I would like their attacks... terminated.” You mean you’d like the Sand People terminated, yeah, I can read between the lines. “Bring me their gaffi sticks as proof. If you agree to do this, I'll give you a hunting license now and pay a bounty for each stick later. I'll give a bonus for the chieftain's.”

Bastila doesn’t like this - it very clearly emanates off her. But I need the license. What I do after that is up in the air. “I’ll do it,” I say. What will I do? Anyone’s guess.

“Excellent,” the officer says, making out a license for me. No name, just a number. “Now, just so we understand each other,” she says, “this is an enforceable contract.” Yeah, try to get me when I leave. That’s cute. “Czerka Corporation takes this very seriously.” She hands me my license. “We believe one of their enclaves is in the far south of the Dune Sea. You might try following one of our sandcrawlers. They are regularly attacked.” She glances at Mission and Canderous. “I wouldn't mind you escorting them.”

“Thanks for the license.”

“Czerka Corporation looks forward to your further business.” Not on your life.

When I step out, the shouting Duros is still there. “Don't you believe a word of what Czerka Corporation said in there,” he urges me, “There is always a peaceful solution to conflict! They are just lazy.”

“Spoken like a Jedi,” Bastila says, “We should hear what he has to say.”

“Not that I listen to Czerka Corp anyway,” I say to him, “but is this about Czerka wanting the Sand People chieftain killed?”

“So, you are the killer that they hired,” he says. Whoa, dude, back up a bit. “Just going to walk out there and wipe them out? I'd expect no less from fools.

“The Sand People aren't animals,” he says, “I've watched them, and they are intelligent. There must be a way to peacefully stop the attacks, I know it! But no one will try, of course. You can't even leave the city without Czerka approval and they want the Sand People dead.”

“I can assure you,” Bastila says, “we don’t.”

“Yeah, but,” Mission says, “intelligent or not, the Sand People have killed people!”

“Yes they have,” the Duros says, not patronizing her which I’m sure she likes, “but Czerka Corporation deployed numerous giant sandcrawlers to tear up the desert with ion shovels and whatever else.” He shifts to address all of us. “What would you have done? To the Sand People, it must have seemed like an invasion. There were no negotiations for territory or resources. I don't think the killing has been justified, but as a conservationist I'm hoping someone at least tries to talk this out.”

“Hang on,” I say, “nobody’s tried to talk to them?”

“Well, there is the small matter that they don't seem to speak a language that your average translator can understand. Is that their fault?” Well, I’m not your average translator. I’m a -- “There was even a Jedi here a few years ago that couldn't seem to get through to them. I... think that ended in blood too.”

Oh.

“I'm not saying it would be easy, but someone has to try. Maybe with a real translation droid, not these old protocol scrap heaps walking around.”

“Hey!” Mission says excitedly, “Rena could build a droid like that! Right, Rena?”

“Well… yeah… I suppose…” I say, because I have built droids before, “... but we don’t have that kind of time. Malak, remember?”

“Oh. Right.”

“Who would have a capable droid, though?” Bastila says, “I imagine we could find one on Coruscant, but as you say we don’t have the time to look.”

“They are pretty rare,” the Duros says, “even on well-stocked worlds, but I'm sure I heard something about an unusual droid in the shop here on Tatooine. I heard Yuka Laka say that it could speak a Sand People dialect.” Well, that’s convenient. “Although he'd say rust is gold to make a sale.” There we go. “With that droid, maybe you could talk to them. I wouldn't survive... maybe with desert robes as a disguise someone could get into their enclave. You could take them off the warriors in the Dune Sea, but you’d have to explain why you killed their warriors if you are trying to make peace… I just don’t know.”

“Don’t worry,” Bastila says, “We are Jedi peacekeepers. We will find a way to make peace with the Sand People.”

He sort of smiles - or at least what a smile is for a Duros. “Thank you for listening,” he says. He still seems skeptical - I’m sure he’s used to people saying whatever they can to get rid of him. But it’s not just Bastila talking. I want to give it a whirl.

#kotor #knights of the old republic #star wars #star wars knights of the old republic #fiction #specs writes stuff #kotor fic #star wars kotor #rena visz #oc #fem!revan #ls!revan #bastila shan #mission vao #canderous ordo #griff vao #feels weird typing griffs name with a surname #tatooine #chapter 54

[afanoftheglassscientists]

The Glass Scientists Sunday Predictions

I’ve got 100 followers to my name, which means I’m allowed to talk about Jasper for as long as I want even if it probably won’t apply to tomorrow’s page!  Mwahahaha!  I’m not sure if you, like, know this but Jasper’s my favorite character.  Shocker I know, I barely talk about him!  Today after I do predictions for tomorrow's page I’m going to ask the crucial question: Dapper Jasper is upon us, but how Dapper will Jasper be?  And what will come next for Jasper once he’s dapper?

Tomorrows Page Predictions (Ch. 8, Pg. 6)

Hyde introduces Nightmare Moreau who might:

Morph his body to be more grotesque.  Catch fire most likely.

Whisper to Jekyll intrusive thoughts (and I do mean intrusive) that were tolerable coming through Hyde’s lips but are now unbearable.

Speak of the evils Jekyll has committed (including the whole fire thing) and the atrocities Jekyll will continue to commit, stating he and Jekyll are not as separate as he wants to believe.

Tempt Jekyll to toss aside morality altogether, give in to anger, join the darrrrrrk siiiiiiiide...

Call him a little b- a little coward for not going as far as him or Frankenstein has.

Quote from the book he was in that Jekyll read before.  Bonus if its a book Moreau specifically wrote himself, implying that he had a hand in Jekyll’s pursuit of mad science, which is another thing to add in the list of reasons why he has a prominent role in Hyde’s nightmare club.

Cause Jekyll to see Moreau disfigure/tear apart Lodgers in his vision, like he would with his experiments.  Bonus if its Jasper since he’s a Werewolf, or if its his creatures who most likely would be real Moreau’s targets.  His creatures are already fantastical enough but with Jekyll’s nightmare vision yeesh.

Added in could be:

More Lodgers just trying to greet or strike a conversation with Jekyll while he is...distracted.

More nightmares both isolated and interacting with reality in ways that distort Jekyll’s vision.

Lodgers picking up that something’s up with Jekyll (which Jekyll will most likely not see as concern but as suspicion)

Any of the “Searching for Hyde” club members stewing over how they couldn’t get the info they needed/ being concerned for Jekyll.

Jasper...that’s it.  Just need Jasper.  Honestly?  Could use some Jasper.  Just have him in the background.

---

Okay I did my homework now let me tell you my...

Dapper Jasper Predictions

So Dapper Jasper has been foreshadowed since Jekyll said he’d teach Jasper his “How to Sparkle” course to him in chapter 2.  Now that we’re actually seeing Sabrina recently post images of Jasper in his dapper suit it’s fair to say the time is nearly upon us.  But will Jasper be dapper enough?  Will he choke, or will he do better than expected?  How will he learn to be dapper?  And what happens after the dappering once completed?  I must explore this!  I’m going to start with what Jasper will do during the dappering process.

The Road to Dapper Jasper May Include:

~Dress-Up Montage~ May include Jekyll shaking or nodding his head with each outfit change, Rachel wanting to join the fun, and Hyde making very bad and ungentlemanly suggestions as to what Jasper should wear.  Outfits may be hard to gauge when you are beset by nightmares that distort your view, but the music’s still upbeat at least.  Bonus if Jasper can’t tie his bow and each time he tries it somehow forms an even more complicated knot.  

Practice - Recently Sabrina featured a sneak peak at one of her future pages, which showed Jasper’s dog-headed serpent Hooke coiled around him and blepping.  My guess is Jasper’s practicing demonstrating Hooke to Jekyll as he would during the exhibition.  My hope is its not just Jekyll watching because, not to sound mean, but right now he’s not exactly a reliable judge, at least with visuals.  Jekyll might react to the hallucinations and Jasper would assume the reaction was toward him and then he’d feel bad and then Jekyll would feel bad for making Jasper feel bad and then I’ll feel bad because Jasper’s feeling bad and-

Anyway he might have Rachel and/or some of the Lodgers (obviously the ones Jekyll knows won’t criticize Jasper) watch Jasper practice, both as a second opinion (aka opinions that’ll make Jasper feel better and not necessarily advice) and as a way to have Jasper get used to demonstrating to crowds.  Presentation 101 is always practice presenting in front of people you know before presenting in front of an audience.

What would be fun is if during this practice people who Jekyll doesn’t want to criticize Jasper end up appearing and stating their opinions.  This includes Lanyon (their introduction to each other wasn’t the best,) Ito (not that Jekyll doesn’t want them to get along, but Jasper already assumes she doesn’t like him and any valid criticism she has will be construed as proof that she’ll never like Jasper,) the policemen checking up on Jasper per their promise (their introduction to each other was also not the best,) or, and forbid the very thought, Frankenstein (Jekyll has a ten-page research paper in his mind as to why that’s not a good idea.)

Pep-Talk Time(s)-Jasper’s been shown multiple times to not be a people person.  He likes connecting with people through shared interests, such as with Jekyll and their interest in werewolves, Rachel with Christopher (added to the food she gives him,) and the Lodgers with mad science.  The problem is he’s scared of disappointing people, as he thought he did in front of the Lodgers, so his approach to not disappointing people is not to approach them, period.  Easy, right?  Except he’s doing a presentation in front of crowd of strangers that depending on his performance may or may not help fund the Society, which he fell in love with almost the instant he saw the entrance lights flash on.  And if none of the other Lodgers leave Team Frankenstein he might be the only one presenting.  That’s...a looooot of pressure on a werewolf with anxiety.

All this to say if he’s going to go through with the dappering process to the finish line he’s going to need a good deal of encouragement.  He’s motivated to go through with the presentation, but it wouldn’t surprise me if him having to set aside his usual attire for a formal one and having to act like he’s not looking for escape route while conversing will lead him to think he’s just not up to the task.  If he fails he won’t only disappoint the people he’s presenting to, but he’ll also disappoint Jekyll (more on that later) who not only saved his life but was the first person he was able to connect to with his interests in mad science.  Maybe its best if he moves his presentation into the corner of the room behind a screen just to be safe...

Jekyll’s tried encouraging Jasper before, with some success.  Jasper knows how Jekyll can sway people (he saw it firsthand after all) so while he doesn’t dislike Jekyll’s encouragement he’s not entirely willing to believe in it either.  So Jekyll’s going to have to find a way to encourage him in a more realistic way and not just say everything he thinks will make Jasper feel better without actually pushing him.  

Less “You’re going to do perfect and every one will like you trust me I’m a scientist” and more “You might not do great the first time you speak in public, but that’s okay!  You don’t have to impress everyone.  Just try your best.  I’ll be right there with you don’t worry.”  And then Frankenstein shows her own form of encouragement by going “DON’T TRY TO IMPRESS THE ONES WHO WILL CHAIN YOU TO THE RESPECTABLE DRIVEL YOU MUST STRIKE FEAR INTO THEIR HEARTS I BELIEVE IN YOU YOUNG MAD SCIENTIST” and that’s how Jekyll turns into Hyde folks I cracked it.

The Results and What Comes After

So the dappering has been had.  What are the results?  We’ll go from worst to best.  This doesn’t mean he’s bad when he does worse, just that in that situation the circumstances are against him.  This isn’t taking into account how bad off Jekyll will be by the end of the story, since we don’t know exactly what will happen.  Also this isn’t taking to account if Jekyll’s habit of prioritizing other people’s problem over his own has improved.  In fact in between here and the end there might be a point where it gets worse.

Jasper Fails Spectacularly - He runs away, he breaks something, his creatures break something, his creatures attack someone because he can’t get people to stop trying to grab at creatures they’re not supposed to grab, whoops turns out the full moon just happened to align with the day of the exhibition.  Everyone will remember him, but not in the way he wants.  Jasper’s going to swear off public speaking and go find a meadow to frolic in now thanks.

This is also going to wreck Jekyll, because not only did the exhibition turn out terrible, he failed to help Jasper.  Now he has to find away to both patch up things in front of the public, which I don’t think will even be possible by the time we reach the end, and he has to find a way to comfort Jasper, who while never hating Jekyll will not trust him to make things better ever again...which in Jekyll’s mind means he hate Jekyll.  On the melodrama scale its at Korean Historical Drama.

Jasper Doesn’t Do Great - He tries his best but he chokes, or snaps at rude viewers, or loses his voice.  He runs from the situation and will be haunted with this feeling of failure for a long time.  I would know because I still remember having to do a (recorded!) fake political debate in my high school theater nearly a decade ago and I cannot rest until I find that recording and purge it from this world.  I’ve had this kind of thing happen to me til the last day of college, so if this is the route Jasper goes I’ll understand it all too well how Jasper feels.

How Jekyll feels on the other hand...obviously he would be dissapointed in how it turned out (he’ll have to make clear that he’s not dissapointed in Jasper himself of course) but...well it just means that Jasper still needs Jekyll’s help that’s all!  Jasper still sees Jekyll in good standing, so of course he’d still be willing to listen to Jekyll’s advice right?  This’ll be fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine...(it won’t be fine)

Jasper Does Okay! - He survived public speaking!  Huzzah!  He might head into the hallway and hyperventilate for awhile, but hey that was way better than he thought it would turn out.  He didn’t fail!  He didn’t embarrass Jekyll!  And the best part is he never ever never ever n e v e r  e v e r has to do anything akin to speaking in public again right?...right!?

Of course, Jekyll is very proud of Jasper...but he can’t stop here!  He can do soooo much better next time.  And Jekyll will be happy to help of course!  Since Jasper is grateful he’s willing to agree, but also-wait next time? 

Jasper Does Good! - He did it!  He succeeded!  Oh what a relief!  He almost lost it for a moment, but he stuck the landing!  Mission accomplished.  Phew.  Jasper might not think public speaking is so terrible after all.  He might even like it.

Jekyll is pleasantly surprised!  He didn’t expect Jasper to do so well, but he’s glad he was able to help Jasper gain some confidence...of course Jekyll can still offer help to Jasper right?  Of course he can!  Jasper could use some help on a few little things...worried?  Why would Jekyll be worried about Jasper doing good and not needing Jekyll’s anymore?  That’s ridiculous!

Jasper Succeeds Spectacularly - Holy crud Jasper when did you get such a glow-up?  Jasper didn’t just do great, he did amazing!  Almost everyone who saw his exhibition wanted to see more of his work.  They’re actually interested in his research.  They enjoy his company!  They love his wonderful creatures!  He didn’t just sparkle, he glowed.  This day could not have gone better for him!  Sure all this happy attention is a little stressful, but wow its like he truly is a real scientists!  

Jekyll is wrecked by this.  Sure the exhibition went great (on Jasper part at least) but guess what?  Jekyll can’t use Jasper for his codependency issues anymore without being manipulative at this point (which I seriously hope he doesn’t resort to.)  On the outside he’s ecstatic that Jasper did so well, and Jasper is really grateful for all the help which makes Jekyll feel better for a second...but that might not be enough.  I mean what is he going to do now, confide in his friends (Lanyon, Rachel and hopefully at this point Jasper) of his troubles and finally confront them?  Please. 

---

Okay I started writing this at 4 and its almost 11 now, so I spent way too much time on this.  I wonder why this one was so long...(jasper.  jasper why.)  Well, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings at least.

Have a good night!

#tgs sunday predictions #tgs #the glass scientists

[askwendyokoopa]

((I can’t believe after all this time she was just an anti-shipper. I-- that’s just a lot to unpack. Do you have any idea just how much of everyone’s time she wasted? I know, she’s a troll... that’s kinda what they do.

... but I’m not the smartest in the room, I’ve never claimed to be in the top-- any percentile. Someone explain to me how faking the Dunning–Kruger effect for four months was somehow necessary. I should have known something was up when she mentioned in this post that ‘on well their age isn’t stated in canon’ [sic], because in the very first post where I literally reveal myself to her I state Wendy’s canon age, the age given in canon. And I have proof she saw that one because she archived it on April 26, 2019. I constantly tried to convince myself that she had just misread it or had lousy reading comprehension or something, but no. This whole time she’s just been knowingly lying to her followers to push her own narrative, while also playing the victim card... I just...

How many times did she unblock me and send me a bunch of angry messages to never mention her again because she was leaving me and ‘the Kong-fucker’ alone (she makes about a dozen posts about me for every one time I mention her... that’s hardly leaving me alone, but whatever). And it’s not like I’m even mentioning her derogatorily, I’m literally just trying to argue my case, but she really hates getting tagged for some reason? Of course she’ll block me again two minutes later, but if you read the call-out supposedly that was her ‘trying to settle things privately.’

Yes, I just linked to my own call-out post, and I welcome anyone to read it if they’ve been following this situation. It’s not all lies, most of it is just intentionally misleading. Also I don’t think she can tell Stacy and me apart, I said that doxxing was bad but I didn’t say it quite as explicitly as she would have liked so I’m apparently pure evil. Also she has gone back and archived that ask 3 times just in case I ever change it. In another post I ask my followers if it sounded like I was defending Stacy, no answers, no archives, the post is clearly tagged, Kirmun must have seen it and is just avoiding it. Not avoiding really, so much as purposefully misrepresenting it as “oh I’ve been doxxed it’s fine” which isn’t really close to what I said in either post.

Another thing, you’ll notice how careful I was when answering this ask. She was very obviously trying to get me to use the term ‘anti-anti’ but I wouldn’t. I avoided it because even though an anti-anti(shipper) is a normal person, it is specifically designed to sound like the opposite of an anti(pedo) which is also a normal person. However, my careful wording was completely ignored and she went ahead and added that Stacy and I were those because of that time we non-consecutively reblogged that post about not abusing children by praying the gay away... with liberal language. We should be ashamed of ourselves! You know it takes really big cojones to link directly to a post that says pretty much the opposite of what you claim it does and just rely 100% on tumblr’s inability to fact check.

But why does anti-shipping even exist? I can understand being against certain ships, like all pedo ships, or incestuous ships, or problematic ships like Raylo/Powser/Jarley... is that what it’s called, Jokinn, Jokley? It doesn’t matter. No one could possibly be against all shipping. One of my best friends on tumblr is asexual, and they have ships; so I looked into it. Kirmun seems to be an outlier, at one point claiming ‘if you’re rping JUST to ship? you’re rping for the wrong reason.’ Which is, of course, demonstrably false. There is no wrong reason to role play. There are wrong ways to role play, but those rules are normally formed via consensus of at least hundreds of role players, not just some lone wolf with a mad-on. You’d have to be a very bitter and obnoxious person to try and gatekeep the entire community until they aligned with your own personal feelings, just saying.

Why didn’t she at any point just send an ask saying ‘No I don’t actually believe in the Perpetual Childhood Theory, I just really hate shipping of any kind’? She could even send it on anon so she has ‘plausible deniability’ or she could have at least said ‘I didn’t send that’ and the only people it would have fooled would be her followers. Except, I’m now convinced her followers are in on it too. No one actually believes anything she says, they’re just content that she wrote a call-out so now they can all pat themselves on the back because they’ve stopped an evil shipper from shipping. The reason she never debates any points or comes up with any reasons for any of her ‘arguments’ is because this is all just a performance for her followers. And they eat it up, and reblog it amongst themselves, and I guess they’re actually doing me a favor by weeding themselves out before I even meet them.

All in all it really only hurts when a formal mutual blocks you, and starts calling you a pedophile, not because they actually agree with all the insane mental gymnastics and logical leaps and ship of Theseus arguments that make up Perpetual Childhood Theory, but because it’s easier than ‘live and let live.’ And don’t get me started on how problematic it is to treat consensual sex between two adults as ‘basically pedophilia’... if that even did make sense by any stretch of the imagination, it would be the slippery slope fallacy.))

#kirmunsdrama

[ghostbustermelanieking]

praescitum chapter nine

chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, chapter five, chapter six, chapter seven, chapter eight

casefile, season 10, season 11. part of my series that i write as i rewatch the x files.

Summary: As Mulder and Scully adjust to their reassignment to the X-Files and working together in the wake of their separation, they find themselves investigating a small town and a ghost that apparently warns people of bad things to come.

note: happy halloween! i actually started posting this story when i did to post this chapter on halloween, since it’s probably the most festive. but since i didn’t get as far in the story as i wanted to by this point, i’m going to kind of slow down my posting a little bit by waiting until i finish a later chapter to post the next one. i’m hoping to still be able to post at least one chapter a week, but idk if i’ll be able to keep up with that lol. those are the hopes!

warning for discussion of death in a (false!) historical context. i included fake historical people/historical battles in a real historical war.

---

nine.

october, 2016

If there's anything that Mulder and Scully are not used to, it's having a third presence on their stake outs. Back in the day, if they were staking out with someone else, said someone probably wasn't very happy about being stuck on a stakeout with them. (They've both heard plenty of “third wheel” gossip over the years, right along with the gossip about them being together long before they actually were.) Luckily, Scully notes, this time, they have what seems like a perfectly nice woman as their company. As much as she relishes the chance to have time alone with Mulder and inexplicably get paid for that time, it's better to share the time with someone who doesn't hate them. And Joy Seers seems like halfway decent company.

She gets takeout for everyone, fighting streets abuzz with Halloween traffic, cars and costumed pedestrians alike. She stops at a gas station and grabs a couple bags of M&M's as an added bonus for Mulder—in honor of the holiday, and because she's guessing they'll be here a while without much paranormal activity to entertain them. (She's still convinced that Ryan Caruthers, and maybe a few friends, are behind the whole thing. It makes much more sense than a diabolical ghost tormenting the entire town.)

Scully picks her way back to the school through streets crowded with pint-sized monsters, ghouls, and pop culture characters. Houses festooned in cobwebs and streamers and plastic skeletons. Kids in costumes holding onto their parent’s hands. At a stoplight near the school, she notices a kid on a bus bench. A familiar-looking kid with an Orioles cap pulled over his face.

She finds Mulder and Joy Seers in the classroom: Mulder setting desks and chairs upright, Joy propping a video camera up on the righted bookshelf. The room has been swept, most of the debris cleared; it looks like an empty skeleton of a room, bare walls and bare floors. “I brought food,” Scully says, sitting the plastic bags of containers on a desk.

“Thanks, Scully.” Mulder grins at her briefly overtop of a graffitied desk. She can tell he's enjoying this. He's probably been waiting for a case like this to fall on Halloween for a while. (“How do we always end up staking out haunted places on holidays, Scully?” he joked earlier, and she rolled her eyes, pointed out that this particular place is not haunted, absolutely not. Not the inn, not the school, not the town. She knows he's remembering their conversation last night, and she's hoping he won't bring it up. She feels silly just thinking about it.)

“Were the roads too bad?” Joy asks politely, squinting as she adjusts the angle of the camera. “I know they can be a little crazy on Halloween, especially in the fancier neighborhoods.”

“Not too bad,” says Scully, sitting at the desk. “Anything happen while I was gone?”

“Nothing yet,” Mulder says, sitting down at the desk beside Scully and smirking a little at her. She smirks right back.

“I was relying on our security system to prove whether or not there's any paranormal involvement, but it shorted out today,” says Joy with a touch of irony in her voice, climbing down from the chair and smoothing messy curls absently. “Convenient, huh? Principal thinks someone messed with it to cover up the crime, but we couldn't prove it; it just seems like a system malfunction. And he couldn't get anyone in here to fix it. So I'm setting up a camera in here since this has been the primary location of the activity. I'm hoping to catch some proof as to what this is, if anything happens.”

“That seems smart,” Scully offers. “Although it's strange that the security cameras would mess directly after a break-in.”

“It is,” Joy says, crossing her arms, “but the fact is that it was still working last night. Since my window lock was fixed, anyone who broke in would've had to use the halls. And the cameras showed nothing.”

“Someone could've been planning another break-in for tonight,” Scully comments.

“That's true.” Joy shrugs. “But everyone I talk to says it's just an issue with the computer system. We have the shittiest system, I swear. Anyways, we have this camera to catch anything strange that happens, paranormal or B&E's alike.”

Scully looks at Mulder, who shrugs. It does seem convenient to her—too convenient, especially considering Ryan's technical reputation—but she decides to let it go. She says, “Do we have any sort of plan past the camera?”

Mulder shrugs again. “Not really. I think we're just planning to… sit here.” He smirks at her a little, teasing her as he unwrapping the plastic silverware. “You are familiar with the method of a stakeout, aren't you, Scully?”

“Very much so,” she says dryly, resisting the urge to stick out her tongue.

Joy joins them in the clusters of desks, taking her food gratefully and thanking Scully. “I'm hoping that we'll be able to get something out of tonight,” she says, screwing the cap off of a water bottle. “I really am. Ryan's a good kid, and I hate that everyone's been putting the blame on him.”

“You really don't think there’s any possibility Ryan is behind this?” Scully asks, picking at her salad.

Joy shakes her head. “I never have. Aside from the fact that it seems improbable that a kid—albeit a pretty smart kid, but still—could pull this off, Ryan's always seemed like a good kid to me. I'm not close to Annie Caruthers, but she's always spoken highly of him whenever we see each other… And besides that, he's a model student. Aside from a bad attitude, I haven't seen any signs of delinquency from him. I almost can't believe he really set that fire.”

Scully bites her lower lip in consideration. “I think I saw Ryan outside on my way in,” she says carefully. “The intersection a block over.”

“Really?” Mulder asks, his eyebrows shooting up.

Scully nods. “I think,” she says, somewhat uncertainly. “He wears the Orioles cap, right?”

Joy taps her fingers on the desktop absently. “Probably just a coincidence,” she offers.

“It's a small town,” says Mulder helpfully. Scully pokes at a leaf of lettuce silently.

Mulder clears his throat awkwardly. “Have you ever considered that this… activity might be the result of possession of some sort? Some mixture of Ryan Caruthers and the ghost?”

Scully swallows back the urge to scoff.

“You think Ryan's possessed?” Joy asks, almost incredulously. “By the Specter?”

He shrugs. “Possession can sometimes give humans a power they wouldn't normally have. I've seen it before. That would explain how Ryan was able to get in and out of the school without being detected, how he would be able to move those heavy desks.”

Joy Seers looks uncertain, skeptical. “I suppose that could be the case, but I doubt it,” she says. “I've never heard of any possessions in the history of the legend. And I still just don't think Ryan's involved. Besides his prior history with the ghost, of course.”

Scully hmms in response quietly, sticking the fork in her mouth. She hasn't known what to make of this case since they got it a year ago, and she certainly doesn't know what to make of it now. Mulder shrugs, surprisingly nonplussed, as if he doesn't know what to make of this either.

“I guess we just wait now,” Joy says, and it's almost a question, a clarification. “Wait to see what happens next.”

They nod, nearly in unison.

Their forks scrape at the Styrofoam containers in the new quiet. The setting doesn't seem to align with the stunning silence all around them, the echoey hallways and dim classroom. As a child, Scully used to get scared in big empty buildings, especially in the huge church they used to attend in San Diego, all the looming, empty halls and the almost eerie paintings of Christ. She's gotten past that now, of course, but the oddness of being in an empty school has nearly brought it back. Right now, in all this empty and quiet space, with the small sounds in the hall as the sun sinks below the horizon, she can almost understand why people might think this school—even this town—is haunted.

---

It's getting dark now, the familiar October chill in the air. Ryan clenches his chattering teeth, beginning to regret not wearing the skeleton costume from last year. It's dorky as hell, but it's warm, he sweated buckets at last year's party. And it helps with appearances. He's just wearing a hoodie and jeans right now, no costume of any kind.

He got some candy earlier, even with the disapproving looks (either because he's too old to trick-or-treat, or because he set a fire), and so he unwraps a mini Snickers bar now and takes a bite. He's thinking about turning around and going to the party he told Annie he was going to. He should probably go to the damn party. He still has friends somehow, despite everything, and this is not the right way to spend Halloween. It might be spooky, but honestly, Ryan got tired of the horror movie bullshit at about six or seven. (He hates scary movies, scary stories, any of that stuff that makes him think about the empty eyes of the parents he'll never know and ghostly light on his bedroom walls.) He's nearly convinced, gets his bag up off of the bench and is about to walk away when his fingers brush over an envelope sticking out of the top. The letter from his Uncle Jared.

He swallows, sits down so hard his legs hurt. Shakes his head hard until he's good and resigned. He has to do this. He doesn't have a choice.

He rummages in his bag until he finds the stick-on tattoos and the bottle of water. Follows the directions as he applies them to the back of his hands.

---

Scully will admit, once again, that she's really, really not used to sharing stakeouts with other people; some of her favorite memories of working with Mulder are when they were alone on a stakeout. But they've been sitting in the school for several hours, and she has to say, it's a lot better than she expected. Aside from their opinions on ghosts, it turns out that she and Joy Seers have a lot in common. They discuss their college degrees—biology and pre-med are vastly different, but they took similar grueling science classes and can exchange stories about hellish professors—and Joy asks about the cross around Scully's neck, the one similar to her own. “Oh,” says Scully in surprise, reaching down to touch the cross, and the ring that hangs beside it. (Thank God she didn't ask about that; that'd be a fairly awkward conversation for all of them. Mulder doesn't wear his ring that she knows of, which she has no idea how to take, but at least it fields the Oh, are you two married? questions. A little.) “Oh, my mother gave my sister and myself these necklaces the Christmas I was fifteen. I've worn it ever since.”

She leaves out the occasions where she'd given it to her daughter and it was the only part of her They left behind, and when Mulder had worn it through both of their abductions. (She put the ring on the chain beside her cross when she stopped wearing it because it felt stunningly appropriate, that it lie beside something that had meant so much to both of them over the years. Sometimes she felt like she could feel Mulder in her cross as much as she could in the ring.)

Joy smiles a genuine smile. “Oh, that's wonderful,” she says. “Mine was a family heirloom. It was my grandmother's.”

Scully smiles back, a little easier than she might've a few months ago. It's getting easier to remember her mother, and concentrating on the happier memories does help. “It's beautiful,” she offers.

“Thank you—so is yours.”

Mulder stays politely quiet through most of these interactions, but he speaks up sometime in the fourth hour of their vigil. “Ms. Seers—” he starts.

“Call me Joy, please,” Joy says immediately.

“Joy,” Mulder says. “I remember when we met yesterday, you said something about there being more than one way to interpret the Willoughby Specter story.”

“Oh, right.” Joy throws out an absent grin. “That famous touchy spot. Especially around here.”

“I sense that people don't agree with you?” Scully asks, thinking of Robbie O'Connell's and the sheriff's claims that the ghost is angelic. Ryan Caruthers's claims that the ghost is anything but. The disdain she's seen in response to that skepticism. Personally, she can't really tell why the demeanor of the ghost matters, one way or another.

“I don't know if they do or don't. I haven't made any particular claims about the skepticism.” The other woman shrugs. “My husband is a historian, though,” she adds. “He's done some research into the subject, and we've discussed it before. The origins of this ghost aren't quite as black and white as everyone would like to believe.”

Mulder's interest is piqued—more than piqued, Scully can tell. “Would you mind sharing?” he asks.

Joy shakes her head. “The fame of the ghost just so happens to be intertwined with the origin of this town,” she says. “The name Willoughby comes from a Revolutionary War leader, General Samuel Willoughby. He's hailed as a hero, especially around here, considering he led his soldiers to victory in a battle right around this area. The legend got started when Willoughby published a book of his journals and letters during the war. In the journal entry dated the night before the battle, he speaks of seeing a 'specter’ who brought about feelings of foreboding and dread. This convinced him that he was doomed to die on the battlefield the next day, and his soldiers doomed to lose. So he changed his plans.”

“He survived the battle,” Scully says knowingly—she knows how these legends always go. “And he led his men to victory, and people attributed that victory to the Specter. Which is where the legend originates."

Joy nods. “But what most people don't acknowledge is how costly that victory was,” she says. “Over half of Willoughby's soldiers lost their lives, including his brother. As well as several civilians who unfortunately lived in the area and got caught up in the battle. And that's not to mention the British casualties. Personally, that's not my definition of angelic, especially considering the death of his brother.”

Mulder chuckles briefly, rubbing thoughtfully at his mouth. “It's not exactly mine, either.”

“People see what they want to see,” says Joy. “Someone comes to warn them of something bad coming, people want to think they have good intentions. That there's some way to be prepared.”

Scully hardens her face until it is stony, trying not to show her cards. Spreads her fingers out flat on the table and tries to think of anything but that night before her mother died. Mulder is nodding in agreement, and she's glad that he's distracted by this story, that he won't notice and start asking questions again. “So you don't think the ghost has… good intentions?” he asks Joy.

“Does a ghost have intentions?” Joy laughs. (Along the same line Scully has thought on in this case.) “But no, I don't. Personally, my husband and I have discussed it before, and we think that the ghost is demonic.”

“Demonic?” asks Mulder.

“Yeah. My husband has studied a lot of local history, and he found a court record corresponding to a diary entry from the judge in the early settlement that more or less became Willoughby. It speaks of a man who was convicted of the murder of his wife. He was scheduled to hang, but he disappeared from his prison cell the night before, despite two guards being posted outside. The man had been fairly wealthy and prosperous, and he had a fair amount of money stored away in his house, where they'd also found many signs of what they considered witchcraft and devil worship. All the more reason to execute him, they'd said. But after he disappeared, so did the money.” Joy takes a sip of her water bottle. “They found him two months later, dead in the mountains with no clear cause. All of his money on him. A lantern burning beside his body despite the snowstorm raging around him.”

Scully raises her eyebrows in a halfway interested response—it’s an interesting story, even if it sounds false. Mulder says, “And you think that's the Specter?”

“A ghost has to come from somewhere, right? It makes sense to me, especially that lantern detail. The details about his escape and discovery, as well as the trial records, lead me to believe this man had made a deal with the devil, for lack of a better term. And this is more or less his due he has to pay: bringing bad luck to the inhabitants of Willoughby.”

Mulder hmms under his breath. “That's a great theory,” he says. “And it makes a lot of sense, at least in my mind. It would be consistent with Ryan Caruthers's claims.”

“There’s discussion of 'the local devil worshipper’ in local folklore, but it's not as widespread. And since it took place a full century before, no one in the town ever connected the story with the Specter. But I've always thought it made a lot of sense,” says Joy. “And with everything that's happened here at this school, I've got to say, it makes even more sense to me now.”

“What do you think, Scully?” Mulder asks, and his hand is suddenly on her arm. He's noticed how silent she's been.

Scully grits her teeth and shakes off the thoughts of her mother and her cross and that fucking hallucination or dream or whatever she had before her mother passed away. Forces a smile. “I suppose it could be plausible…” she says, “... if ghosts were real.”

Mulder scoffs jokingly. “I can understand your skepticism, Agent Scully,” Joy says kindly. “Even i—”

They're cut off by the sound of distant crashes, somewhere in the building.

Scully's eyes dart to Mulder. “Did you…”

“Yeah,” he says, already standing. “Joy, do you have any idea…”

“I'm really not sure,” she says. “Maybe the cafeteria?”

More crashes, louder this time. “Split up, clear the halls?” Mulder asks, and Scully nods.

“Joy, you stay here, okay?” she says, standing and reaching for her gun, just in case. “Keep an eye out, call us if you need help.”

Thankfully, Joy doesn't argue; she just nods. “Do you really think you need that?” she asks, gesturing to the gun with her chin.

“Hopefully, no,” Scully says. “But it's a good precaution. In case whoever—or whatever—is destroying your classroom is dangerous.”

---

Mulder and Scully split up outside of Joy Seers's classroom; she goes through the west wing, and he goes through the east. The school is stunningly dark, the halls admittedly eerie, and Mulder is inadvertently reminded of the case years ago that he can barely remember the details of outside of the fact that a satanist PTA tried to kill him and Scully in a high school gym shower. He shudders involuntarily; that doesn't seem like a good line of thought after discussing a ghostly devil worshipper.

He's most of the way down the hall when he hears it: the creaking of a door hinge behind him. He whirls around to see the door of an English classroom hanging open in the circle of his flashlight.

Immediately, he sweeps his flashlight up and down the hallway, but it's completely empty.

Mulder swallows roughly, ignoring the chill spreading over him. He starts to turn back around when the door slams closed hard. He jumps, his hand flying to his holster automatically. Still nothing there; no signs of life, or things notably not alive.

“Hello?” he calls out, sweeping his flashlight up and down the hallway, feeling equal parts silly and determined. He's about to make some plea for the ghost to show itself when he hears another slamming sound, almost smaller than the last one. And then another, and another. The lockers lining the hallways are opening and closing, their slams cacophonous and engulfing. Mulder scans the hallway in frantic confusion, looking for any signs of the Specter, not sure if he really wants to see it or not, considering its legacy. But he still finds nothing, invisible hands moving the lockers as they slam, the cabinets shaking and rattling in place as if affected by an earthquake. Fascinated, Mulder stares, not wanting to look away, wanting to call Scully to get in here and see this. But before he can do anything, his flashlight flickers once, twice, and dies in his palm.

The lockers’ motion fades out as Mulder's breathing grows more erratic, maybe even fearful. The hallway seems darker without the flashlight, pitch black. He smacks the flashlight against his palm in an effort to get it working again, to no avail. “Shit,” he mutters, dropping the flashlight to his side and rubbing at his temples with his free hand.

And then from behind, he hears the scritching sound of a lit match. Golden firelight, small but unquestionably the brightest thing in the room, comes to life behind him, reflected on the metal lockers.

His heart in his stomach, Mulder whirls. He sees it almost immediately, it's unmistakable. He can't make out a face, but he doesn’t have to. It matches every description he's ever heard.

The Specter stands at the end of the hall, lantern held up like some kind of lamplighter.

Mulder's breathing is shallow, erratic; where the hell is Scully when stuff like this happens? He's dying to take a picture, but he knows that will likely only cause problems.

Instead, he draws closer, flashlight dead and useless in his hand, heart thudding against his ribs. The Specter doesn't move. He seems to be surveying Mulder, sizing him up, but somehow, Mulder can't allow himself to worry about that. He goes closer and closer, carefully, as if trying to calm a stray dog. “I know what you are,” he calls. “I know what it is you do.”

The Specter seems unaffected by this. He stands still, his face shadowed, his lantern flickering.

“Do you speak?” Mulder asks, thinking of the ghosts in that haunted house that one Christmas Eve. (If that was real; he and Scully have disagreed about it forever.) “What do you want?”

The ghost remains silent. Mulder's shoes creak on the tile floor as he steps closer, his palms sweaty around the flashlight. The Specter seems to be regarding him, considering.

When Mulder is about three feet away, the ghost's mouth contorts, dipping into a frown. Disapproval. A sudden fear plunges through Mulder's chest, nervousness—what does disapproval mean?—as he remembers Joy Seers's theory that the ghost is demonic. He is about to ask, again, what the Specter wants, when the lantern flickers out.

In a completely impulsive move, Mulder stumbles forward, absurdly swiping at the space where the Specter is. He feels nothing, and he doesn't know if it has disappeared or is still there. Breathing hard, he stands awkwardly in place, his hand curled around the useless flashlight.

And then he hears a pained yelp, down the hall the way he came from.

---

Scully is in the ninth grade wing when she hears it again: the crashing sounds down the hall to the right of her. She follows the sound, flashlight held out in front of her and gun held down by her side. There's a sound almost like banging, a clattery sound like something being dragged over the floor. Scully comes face to face with the double cafeteria doors, where the sound is louder, and pushes it open with a loud clang.

There's a startled shout, and then the smack of a body hitting the floor. Rounding the table blocking the body from view, Scully shouts, “Freeze, FBI!” completely on instinct.

“Shit!” The kid—Ryan Caruthers, Scully notes with an emotion somewhere between satisfaction and disappointed—scrambles to his feet, his ankle caught in a cafeteria chair. His face turns up towards Scully, full of regret and panic as he curses quietly under his breath: “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Scully puts away her gun with a sigh—somehow, she doubts she needs it. “Ryan?” she says, somewhat sternly. “Ryan Caruthers?”

“I had no idea you'd be here,” Ryan says miserably, untangling himself from the chair.

“So you wouldn't have come if you'd known?” Scully asks. He doesn't answer, just rubs at his face with the heel of his hand. “No one's ever been here when you've done this before, right?” she prods.

“I haven't done this before,” Ryan snaps, glaring at her. “I know what you think of me—believe me, I know what everyone thinks of me—but I swear to shit, this is the first time.”

“How did you get in?” Scully asks, still firm. “The window in Mrs. Seers's room is fixed.” She remembers in a split second, as Ryan answers, that the window was fixed before the destruction of the classroom the night before, and mentally curses.

“I jimmied open another window,” Ryan says, sounding disgusted. “The windows in here are shit, the locks are awful… And I'm telling you, I've never done this before.”

“Then why did you come here tonight, Ryan?” Scully fixes the kid with the sternest look she can muster up. “Knowing that people believed you had broken in before?”

Ryan's face turns red, and he ducks his head. His hand shoots through the air as he reaches down to untangle himself from the chair, and Scully sees the same cross tattoo on the back that she remembers from last year. “I… was worried about what was going to happen,” he nearly mumbles. “Because of the ghost. I thought something bad might happen to someone, and I wanted to come here and try to stop it.”

Scully's stern demeanor falls, just a little. She doesn't know why, but it does. She asks gently (not too gently, of course—only a bit more gently), “How did you think you could stop it, Ryan? What did you think was going to happen?”

“Does it matter?” Ryan snaps venomously. “Aren't you going to arrest me now? Agent Sully, or whatever your name is?”

“It's Scully,” she says automatically, and is ready to say more, when she hears a distinctly female shout from somewhere in the building. Joy, she thinks immediately, and mentally curses herself and Mulder for leaving a civilian alone in a potential crime scene. Even if she doesn't believe in the ghost.

Ryan jumps at the sound, startled. “What was that?”

Hoping briefly that Mulder will get there sooner, that Mulder is okay, Scully says, “You know what, Ryan? I should take you in, but this is all very juvenile, and Mrs. Seers has vouched for you multiple times. So I'm going to look the other way.”

The kid looks stunned. Beyond stunned. He says, “Are you serious? Why are you doing this?”

She doesn't know why, she really doesn't. Outside of the face that is stuck at the back of her brain, along with pain and death and visions of the end of the world. Her son out there, somewhere, and she shouldn't let it affect her work, but… She says, “Look, I need to go. If you're still back here when I come back, I'm taking you in. If I ever catch you doing something like this again, my first call will be to Sheriff O'Connell. Do you understand?”

His face white, Ryan nods. Unwilling to wait any longer—unwilling to linger or analyze why the hell she did that, she really can't believe it—Scully turns and heads the other way, back to Joy Seers's classroom.

Inside, she finds all the fluorescent lights flipped on, Joy sitting in a chair heaving air like she is going to run out and Mulder crouched on the floor. Scully runs straight to her side. “Are you okay?” she asks, kneeling to examine the prominent red line on Joy's neck. “I'm a doctor, I can help you.”

Joy waves her off absently. “I'm okay, I'm okay,” she says, her voice only a little rough. “My necklace… it was being tugged, by I don't know what. It was choking me, and then it just broke.”

Mulder stands, the broken silver chain in the palm of his hand. “I saw it,” he says, and his voice is filled with some panicked emotion that Scully can't quite place. “It was being pulled by an invisible force, Scully, she was choking and it was just held up in the air. By nothing. And then it just snapped.”

Joy takes the necklace, muttering, “Damn,” under her breath. She rubs at her forehead, her eyes, in a tired sort of way. “I'm okay,” she reassures Scully again. “Scared me more than anything. I guess I have my proof now that the Specter is hostile.”

She laughs briefly, but Mulder doesn't, and Scully doesn't know how to ask why. She stands up a little reluctantly—she’d have preferred to check Joy a little more, but she really does seem fine, she's waving  her off insistently—and dusts her palms off on her pant legs. “Deep breaths,” she says gently. “Try to stay calm.”

Joy clears her throat a few times, rubbing her neck with her empty hand. “So did you find anything, Agent Scully?” she asks raspily. “I heard more sounds in the cafeteria.”

Mulder looks at her curiously, but Scully doesn't know how to tell them what she saw, much less explain what could've convinced her to let Ryan go. She lies, “I think some furniture may have fallen over. I didn't see anything.”

---

They leave the school after that. There doesn't seem to be much point in staying. They have the video in the classroom, and therefore proof. Joy seems spooked by the whole encounter, seems to have lost interest in all of it—she thanks them profusely in the parking lot, but says that she doesn't see any need for them to stay if they don't want to. “I guess I can call you if anything else happens,” she says, “but I don't know if there's anything else you can do. And I'm sure you have more important work to get back to.”

Mulder doesn't bother telling her that they probably don't—he’s almost sure that Scully shares Joy's opinion, that the lack of an actual crime here doesn't justify their position. They shake Joy's hand and get in their car to head back to the hotel.

They're both quiet on the drive. Mulder can't get past what happened in the hallway, his encounter with the Specter. At the time, he'd mostly been fascinated, caught up in the excitement of seeing an actual ghost, but now, all he can think of is the other part of the legend. The part that promises that something bad will happen if you see the Specter. He drives back to the hotel with a precise carefulness that Scully doesn't seem to notice—she seems as lost in her own thoughts as him, fidgeting with her hands in her lap. He keeps sneaking glances at her, as if something is going to steal her away, because by his count, the only two people besides him who could be affected by the Willoughby Specter and his bad omens are Scully and William. He doesn't relax until they get back to the hotel, and even then, it is a cautious relaxation. He's extraordinarily glad that they are sharing a room.

He waits until they get up to the room to say it. He nearly blurts it out—he says, “Scully, I saw it,” and it feels like an exhale.

Scully, in the act of peeling her coat off, freezes. He can see the muscles of her back, can tell how tense she has suddenly gotten. “What?” she says.

“The Specter,” he says. “I saw the Specter, Scully, in the halls. It disappeared just before something pulled at Joy's necklace.”

Scully isn't looking at him. She drapes her coat over the back of the chair, her knuckles nearly white as she clutches it. “It's not that I… don't trust what you saw, Mulder,” she says carefully, her nails scuffing the side of the jacket. “But… are you sure that's what you saw? That it couldn't have been some kind of… projection?”

Twenty-odd years ago, this skepticism would've driven him mad. Now, he pretty much expects it. But it feels like there's something different here, some unusual emotion. The familiar stubbornness, and then something else layered under it. Almost fear. He wonders if it is because of the legend, the implication that something bad will happen to him. He swallows, reaches out and brushes a slow hand over the small of her back as if trying to offer comfort. “I really think it was,” he says. “It couldn't have been a projection, it was too… It couldn't have been.” She's still not looking at him. He flattens his palm against her back, rubs a circle with his thumb. “I don't know what that means, Scully,” he says softly. “Whether or not it's…”

“It probably means nothing, Mulder,” Scully says immediately. She finally turns towards him, and her expression is guarded, but she reaches out and squeezes his arm. “It'll be fine,” she says softly, firmly. Leans forward and kisses his cheek. “I'm going to take a shower, okay?” When she draws back, she won't meet his eyes. He watches her go into the bathroom, until the door closes behind her.

He showers next, tries to shed the thought of more misfortune, but he can’t quite shake the thought of it. After everything they've been through, he can't imagine going through more, even if it is a bit inevitable at this point. He doesn't know if he could bear it. Especially if whatever misfortune the Specter brings involves losing his wife or son. (He is praying it's something trivial, like a flat tire, or someone breaking into his house.)

When he exits the bedroom, Scully is lying in bed on her side, facing the wall. He climbs in behind her, touches her shoulder gently and briefly before settling in. He's ready to fall asleep and try and forget the whole thing, give Scully her space, but she rolls over first, rolls towards him until they're facing each other. “Ryan was in the school,” she says. “In the cafeteria. All that crashing around was probably just from him breaking in.”

His eyebrows raise in surprise. “Seriously? What happened, did he get away?”

“No.” She bites her lower lip, looking away from him. “Sort of. I… I decided to give him a warning.”

His expression shifts to confusion. “A warning?”

“Yes.” She is almost squirming, avoiding his eyes. “I… I don't know why. It just all seems so silly, the whole thing. And he insisted that this was the first time he had broken in. But I told him if I ever caught him doing that again, I'd call the police without hesitation.” She rubs at her forehead with embarrassment, her voice full of shame. “The security system was out, though. We hopefully don't have to worry about it ever getting back to Skinner.”

“Do you believe him?” Mulder asks, astonished and trying like hell not to show it. He's more surprised than angry, it doesn't really matter to him, but he can tell how foolish Scully feels and he hardly wants to make that worse. “That it was his first time?”

Scully rubs her forehead again, presses her palm over her eyes. “I honestly don't know, Mulder. I really do think that he's involved in this… it makes the most sense. I don't know how or why, but I hope he gets his act together. I… I hope that I've made this better instead of worse.”

“I definitely think Ryan has something to do with this,” says Mulder quietly, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder, “but I don't think it's the same way that you think so. I think he's a… catalyst of sorts. I think he has a connection to this ghost, and I can't put my finger on it. But I think Joy Seers was right. I think there's more to the legend than people take at face value. And I don't think that Ryan was responsible for what was happening in that school.”

Scully yawns, burrowing down into the covers. “Whether there is or there isn't, it doesn't really matter, does it?” she mumbles, sounding like she wants to drop the subject. “We're going home in the morning. I just hope that no one finds out what happened.”

“Yeah,” he agrees, quietly, and reaches over to turn out the light. They settle in next to each other in the dark, their arms pressed together, hands side by side. Mulder swallows, bumping his finger against hers absently. The adrenaline of the night hasn't completely left him, the implications of his encounter in the hall, and he's grateful that she is close by. As if that can prevent everything bad from happening.

“Do you think I made the wrong decision?” Scully asks softly, and that shame is still in her voice. “To let Ryan go instead of taking him in?”

“No, I don't,” he tells her honestly, covering her hand gently with his. “I think that isn't nearly the worst thing we've gotten away with on the job.” She chuckles at that, and he grins. “I don't see why anyone ever has to know about it,” he adds. “The cameras are out, and I'm not planning to tell anyone. And I'm sure Ryan will keep it to himself. You may have given that kid another chance that he'll take.”

“Mmm,” Scully says, and he can tell by her voice that she is tired. “It feels so convenient, the cameras. Especially considering how much I asked about them earlier. Mulder, I bet Ryan either knew about the system being down or took it down himself, if this really was the first time he'd broken in.”

“Hmm,” he says softly. “Maybe.”

“I guess I just didn't think he was dangerous,” she whispers. “I feel so foolish. I feel like I haven't done my duty as an FBI agent. I don't know what I was thinking.”

“You don't have to know,” he says, and he intertwines his fingers with hers. “You don't.”

She makes a small sound that indicated she disagrees with him, but she doesn't argue. Their elbows bump together companionably. Her palm is cool under his. They fall into quiet again, hands clasped together under the sheets.

Mulder matches his breathing to hers, calm, and he is nearly asleep when he hears a low whistling sound, akin to a moan. The shutters of the windows rattle.

A sudden panic shoots through him at the noise. “Scully, did you hear that?” he whispers.

“It's the wind,” she says, her voice sleepy but hard. “Just the wind, Mulder.”

The wind howls against the glass again and Mulder shivers, crawling closer to Scully. “You sure?” he asks, and she nods, almost growly in her delivery. Scully does not fuck around when she is tired, and he senses she's already in a bad mood from the Ryan Caruthers thing.

But the sound is too human, too eerie, and Mulder can't ignore it. He never thought he'd be this much in regret because of a supernatural encounter, but this is the kind of thing that is too hard to let go. He's as embarrassed as Scully about tonight—embarrassed about how badly he wanted to see the ghost, and embarrassed (and fearful) of the repercussions it will bring.

He drops a light, impulsive kiss on Scully's hair before curling up closer to her than before. He doesn't particularly want to leave Scully anytime soon, not if he can help it. Not with the wind howling like that and with the eerie figure of the Specter hovering at the back of his mind. It's silly, but considering how their last run-in with ghosts went, he doesn't think he's overreacting. He holds her hand tight and lays close to her, and she doesn't protest, and he thinks that is what gives him the courage to say what he says.

He says, nose against her hair, hand on her waist: “Scully, do you want to come back to the house with me tomorrow?”

She says nothing; the only sign of surprise is the slight lilt in her breathing. He adds quickly, “Just… to look over that tip I got last week. The one about the river creature?”

“Oh?” Scully asks, and her voice is very nearly coy. “It doesn't have anything to do with what happened tonight?”

He rubs his nose into her hair; he is moving entirely on impulse now. “If it did,” he says softly, “would it change your answer?”

She's quiet. He can hear every breath. It goes on for so long that he begins to consider pulling away, but she hasn't let go of his hand yet.

Finally, she says, “I hope you're ready. I've been thinking of lots of rebuttals for your river creature theories.”

He laughs, a little nervously, a little relievedly. She squeezes his hand once before letting go. She shifts a little in bed, turning over on her side, but she doesn't move away. His chest is against her back, his arm against her hip, and she doesn't move away.

The wind wails and the shutters rattle, and he thinks that the heat must be broken because he's freezing, but they're together, and she's warm. She is so warm, and she's here, and he loves her. He presses his cheek briefly to the back of her head before settling in to go to sleep.

---

Joy leaves the broken necklace on her desk. It's so dark out, she'd probably just lose it, and she couldn't do anything with it tonight, anyway. She feels nearly naked without it around her neck, but she feels equally relieved at the absence. Her breaths are still ragged, her neck still stinging, her heart still pounding. She can't quiet leave the fright of the moment, sweat slicking her palms, a shivery feeling up her spine. She just wants to get home and fall asleep for a few hours before she'll have to wake up and go back into school. She realizes that tonight hasn't exactly made any progress in the way of getting this ghost out of her classroom, and her temples throb. Tonight seemed like an ending, but she doesn't see why it would be. The ghost is likely still there.

She rubs at her eyes with exhaustion, texts her husband to let him know she'll be home soon and starts her car.

The streets are dark, orange and black streamers hanging limply from street lamps and candy wrappers littering the streets. Joy yawns, making a left turn. Driving in the dark has always given her the creeps. She likes to think it's the product of moving to the country after growing up in the city: no lights, no noises, just endless black and silence. She turns on her brights, just because no one else is on the road, and hums absently to herself, drumming her fingers on the dashboard.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the radio springs to life. It's playing Monster Mash, and Joy never thought a goofy song like that would bring as much terror as this one does, because her hands were nowhere near the dial.

Spooked, frantic, Joy tries to reach out with her right hand and turn it off, but she can't move. Her hands are frozen, her wrists achey and her fingers spasming around the wheel in her attempts to move, but it's to no avail. She can't reach over and turn off the radio.

Her eyes yank from side to side frantically, the only part of her body she seems to be able to move. And then her foot moves without her meaning to. She presses down harder on the gas, increasing her speed far past the limit.

Joy tries to thrash, tries to break her hands free from the wheel or her foot from the gas, but she still finds herself frozen, helpless. She can't decrease the pressure. The bouncy sound of Monster Mash continues, too loud, echoing in her eardrums. She whimpers, just a little, as she shoots past 70 in a 35 zone. At least there are no other cars in front of her.

Her eyes jerk again, almost painfully, and land on the rearview mirror. There's no one on the road behind her, but there is a shape in the back seat. A hulking, humanoid shape that seems to be watching her.

Joy's breath catches in her throat, unable to take her eyes away, unable to look away. She is helpless. She can't make out the face of whoever, or whatever, is in the backseat, but she thinks it may be smiling. Smiling maliciously.

The next thing she knows, the shape seems to be lunging at her. Her hand suddenly moves, not of their own accord, swerving the wheel hard to the right.

The next thing she knows, everything is going black.

---

November 1, 2016

Willoughby Daily Press; Willoughby, Virginia

SEVERE CAR CRASH ON PINE TREE ROAD LAST NIGHT

Last night, a car swerved off Pine Tree Road and flipped in the adjacent field. The accident was estimated to take place a few minutes before midnight.

The car belongs to a Mrs. Joy Seers, who was reportedly driving the car when it crashed. Mrs. Seers reportedly obtained major injuries, and was transported to Willoughby General Hospital from the scene. No one else was harmed in the wreck.

Seers's husband was contacted, but declined to comment on his wife's condition. According to a source who requested to stay anonymous, Mrs. Seers is in a coma at Willoughby General, and it is unknown when she is expected to wake up.

The Willoughby Police Department declined to comment on the accident. It is assumed that no foul play was involved, although this is unconfirmed.

#xf rewatch #xf fanfic #i wrote this

[nextgennews-blog1]

Why you should be watching Babylon 5

With all the streaming services that are out and about today, it can sometimes be hard to find which ones are slinging the best ‘tent around (that’s content to you plebs). There’s the big players in the game: Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, but lets not forget the mini-bosses in this game of views. Services like: Vue, Sling, Crackle, Twitch, Vevo, Shimmy, Wrangle and Flurp. There are so many out there that I bet you didn’t even realize the last three I mentioned aren’t even real services.

I mean, Yahoo! Screen? Who you trying to kid with that fake news?

Recently while clicking ‘round the wonderful world of Reddit, I noticed I kept seeing an ad at the top of my screen saying that I could stream all of Babylon 5 for free. I shrugged it off as nonsense, some click bait-y type website that would make me read and click through 35 images smothered with ads talking about “What do the People of B5 look like Now?!”

#4 will shock you!

But then, thanks to Big Brother and his tasty cookies, I started seeing the ad more and more on different pages I went to: Reddit, Yahoo! (sorry Screen), Latino-Review, PornHub, xHamster, FistMeisters and Club Penguin. So I decided to take a peek at what this was. Thus I was introduced to a new player in the game: go90.com

I love you.

Sure enough, for free, I could sign up for an account and watch the entirety of Babylon 5 (five seasons) and only have to deal with one 15 second ad before every episode. I couldn’t believe it. ‘Why is this important?’ you ask. Well I will tell you make believe reader.

Babylon 5 is the fucking best sci-fi show of all time.

Come at me Farscape! (but for realzies Farscape is awesome too...)

‘What is Babylon 5?’ you ask again voice in my head. Here’s the Wiki: “Set between the years 2257 and 2262, it depicts a future where Earth has sovereign states, and a unifying Earth government. Colonies within the solar system, and beyond, make up the Earth Alliance, and contact has been made with other spacefaring species. The ensemble cast portray alien ambassadorial staff and humans assigned to the 5-mile-long Babylon 5 space station, a center for trade and diplomacy.”

Sounds complicated and convoluted? You bet your sweet ass it is. J Michael Straczynski (further to be known as JMS because I do NOT feel like typing his last name out 300 times), created this show because he wanted to take an adult approach to science fiction story telling. He has been quoted as saying that he wanted “to take an adult approach to SF, and attempt to do for television SF what Hill Street Blues did for cop shows."

If you think that sentence doesn’t sounds old, then I have a Blockbuster franchise I wanna sell you.

The show mainly focuses around five dominant races/species/civilizations: the Humans, the Minbari, the Narn, the Centuri and the Vorlons). Through the wonders of makeup, costuming and practical effects, these races look, act and feel VASTLY different from each other, despite the fact they are all bi-pedal humanoid type creatures. During the series Babylon 5 goes through many plot lines, all interweaving and intersecting at critical and crucial points that make you slap your head and wonder how the hell they pulled it off. Well the answer is simple, and point number one on my multiple bullet breakdown on why this show rocks.

Who’s ready for bullets and notes, you nerds?!

1) JMS, the creator, wrote 92 of the 110 episodes of the series

Think about that for a second. Almost 84% of the entirety of the series was written by one man, which includes the entirety of the 3rd and 4th seasons (the 3rd being arguably one of the best seasons). A feat, JMS would tout, that had never before accomplished in American Television. Why is this a big deal? Well when you have one singular vision you can expect the unexpected and plan for contingencies you never saw coming. What do you mean by that? Well…

2) Every Character was written with a “trap-door”

Pulled directly from Wiki (because I’m hungover and being a lazy writer for the moment): “Though conceived as a whole, it was necessary to adjust the plot line to accommodate external influences. Each of the characters in the series was written with a ‘trap door’ into their background so that, in the event of an actor's unexpected departure from the series, the character could be written out with minimal impact on the storyline.”  

In the words of Straczynski, “As a writer, doing a long-term story, it'd be dangerous and short-sighted for me to construct the story without trap doors for every single character. ... That was one of the big risks going into a long-term storyline which I considered long in advance…” I can’t think of another series that has done this. Contract disputes? Check. Actors dying? Check. Budgetary constraints. Check. All bases covered by this one simple act of having the entire story thought out, conceived, shepherded and written by one man.

Getting rid of unwanted minions? Check.

Why is this “trap-door” thing important? Take the case of Michael O’Hare who played Commander Jeffery Sinclair in the first Season of B5. During the first season O’Hare started having paranoid delusions and hallucinations. As the show continued they worsened, causing him to be difficult to work with O’Hare lashing out at fellow colleagues. JMS offered to suspend the show for several months while he helped him seek treatment, but O’Hare declined because he didn’t want to jeopardize the series or other people’s jobs. He agreed to finish the first season and be written off the show so he could seek treatment. The treatments were only partially successful, but it allowed Sinclair to make a few cameo appearances in Seasons 2 and 3 to finish out his arc properly. After all was said and done, JMS swore to keep O’Hare’s secret to the grave, to which O’Hare replied "keep the secret to my grave", pointing out that fans deserved to eventually learn the real reason for his departure, and that his experience could raise awareness and understanding for people suffering from mental illness. O’Hare suffered a heart attack in NYC in September of 2012, and true to his word, eight months later at Phoenix ComicCon JMS told the story of his late friend and colleague.

My good…dear friend JMS

3) Visual Pioneer

Most Sci fi shows (and movies for that matter) at the time relied HEAVILY on practical effects. B5 did not when it came to space-time-fun. In order to make the budget stretch, JMS and other producers developed their own in house effects company. This show came out in 1993, the same time Jurassic Park did.

I mean, look at how realistic Goldbulm looks.

Now, while the graphics haven’t aged as gracefully as Jurassic Park did, they also had $100,000 workstations and several years to work on those dino-fects (which total about 6 minutes of the movie) where B5 had $5,000 stations to work on each week, with space scenes taking up a good 33% of the episodes. On top of that, B5 was not filmed in 4:3 aspect ratio like a majority of TV was. It was shot in 16:9 and cropped to fit, which is why today some of the effects haven’t aged really well, but I forgive them.

ZOMG LAZERS PEW PEW

B5 and the effects house Foundation Imaging, also heavily influenced sci-fi TV shows to come after. Star Trek, most notably, were reluctant to use CGI in their TV shows, until B5 showed them that it could be done, and done well. This change happened when the series premiered on television in January 1993, conclusively proving that computer animation, most notably CGI, could be employed in creating spectacular believable VFX on a tight budget. And despite themselves, this was not entirely lost at the time on the Star Trek producers.

David Livingston commented on the use of early CGI in creating the Bajoran lightship for Deep Space Nine: "We were reluctant to do computer graphics, but Peter Lauritson finally came around. He recognized how valuable it is. You can do more stuff with the ship, but you have to do it right.”

Speaking of Deep Space 9, there is a little bit of controversy there. You see, Paramount Television was aware of JMS’ show B5 as early as 1989. JMS attempted to sell the show to Paramount and provided them the series bible, pilot script, artwork, character backgrounds and histories and plot synopsis for the first season or 22 episodes. Paramount declined to produce B5, but then announced Deep Space 9 would be in development two months after Warner Bros. announced that they were produced B5. For those of you not in the know, Star Trek: Deep Space 9 was a notable Star Trek show for one very important reason: it doesn’t take place on a starship…but on a space station. Controlled by the United Federation of Planets (or as B5 had it…the League of Non-Aligned Worlds). There are more “coincidental similarities” but I’ll let JMS say it better than I can in his response to a DS9 fan who took JMS and Warner Bros’ lack of legal action as proof they had no case:

"If there is any (to use your term) winking and nudging going on, it's on the level of 'Okay, YOU (Paramount) know what happened, and *I* know what happened, but let's try to be grownup about it for now,' though I must say that the shapechanging thing nearly tipped me back over the edge again. If there are no more major similarities that crop up in the next few weeks or months, with luck we can continue that way."

Suck it you Ferengei Bastard

4) The Characters

The characters have SO MUCH depth. Without giving up any spoilys, the two biggest arcs in the show belong to G’Kar of the Narn and Londo Mollari of the Centauri. Played with ferocity and earnest by Andreas Katsulas (the one armed man from President Ford’s version of The Fugitive) and Peter Juraik respectively, these two characters go through some of the biggest, hardest and thickest most emotional arcs in the whole show. The Narn and the Centuri have been at war for over 100 years, and they well…hate each other. But every time you think things can come to a peaceful resolution, something happens to reset things back to zero. Both characters (thanks to the wonderful acting by their um…actors) make you feel their despair, pain, struggle, anger and anguish with every line spoken. Every character had a deep backstory and makes you feel for them. Ivanova and her hatred for Psi-Corp. Girabaldi and his alcoholism. Dr. Franklin’s addiction to stims. So on, and so forth.

Something about bad hair and awful decisions...

5) Awards

The show was nominated for eight Emmy Awards, and winning two, including Outstanding Cinematography, Makeup and Hairstyling for a series. It also won two Hugo Awards (basically the Emmys/Oscars of science fiction and fantasy); two Space Frontier Foundation Awards; an E Pluribus Unum Award presented by the American Cinema Association and a Saturn award for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series. That’s a lot of ceremonies to attend.

So that’s my pitch. I have owned all 5 seasons of Babylon 5 on DVD for quite some time, but it’s always been a hassle to have to break out the Blu-Ray player, find the right HDMI input, etc., when you can just stream almost anything anywhere. So now that I have this option, I have been binging it, much to my delight. So much so that I have been missing out on current seasons of shows I’ve watched for years like House of Cards & Orange is the New Black, and also not even bothering to start shows like The Expanse or The OA.

There is so much to love with this series. There are even multiple movie spinoffs that, while not necessary to view when watching the show, just add even more depth and stories to the universe.

I can’t wait to finish this series for the umpteenth time so I can just start it over again.

—written by Tony Patryn | @patrynize on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook | www.patrynize.com

#babylon 5 #narn #minbari #centauri #vorlon #babylon5 #tv #scifi #sci-fi & fantasy #review #gifs #tv reviews #my good dear friend girabaldi

[meditationadvise]

10 Million-Dollar Tips from Top Life Coaches on How to Make Life Easier

We see absolutely nothing incorrect with sending our kids to learn under the tutoring of a soccer, martial arts, or band-camp trainer, yet neglect that coaches are readily available for us when we're "all matured." Following are ten items of million-dollar advice from some of the very best life trainers around.

1. If You Do not Make a Specific Objective, Don't Whine When Your Desires Continue to be Unrealized

So lots of people lament that they haven't accomplished their objectives, yet they never ever really make them. That is, they may want for some vague outcome, but they don't get certain adequate regarding just what they want. The subconscious mind doesn't understand reasoning or ambiguity - and since its running your life, you may intend to get actually particular - as in compose it down!

2. Be Realistic

The subconscious mind likewise has to think that the affirmations you say or believe are possible. If you are hardly squealing by in a base pay work, you're out of shape, as well as your lovemaking is a mess, your subconscious mind is likely to deny affirmations that mention, "I am a millionaire," or "I'm stunning to everybody I meet." It isn't really that these points are not possible for you - they are. To accomplish success, you must begin with smaller goals, and also construct up to the larger ones. Unless naturally, you can devote to extreme life-changes that would help these big objectives pertain to pass.

More often, though - you'll see that individuals make step-by-step actions toward fulfilling their dreams, due to the fact that they should build confidence in their very own abilities to make them happen. The subconscious looks for proof of your affirmations before it incorporates them right into a brand-new belief system. The subconscious mind also records your successes, and after that rewards you with a belief in bigger desires as you make progress toward your goals.

3. Be Interested As opposed to Critical

Trying to recognize why points are the method they are or curiously reasoning of a service is how hundreds of people became multi-millionaires. The post-it note might be among the most basic inventions ever created - yet we need to admit, most of us require a note that adheres to something, like regularly. The individual that developed sticky notes was interested about human actions and discovered a remedy to a problem. If you are merely critical, you'll never stumble on your very own million-dollar idea.

This likewise puts on connections, as well as your capacity to find out more about yourself and also your companion via an interested point of view. By switching your overview to one of self-questioning or wonder, you'll be less most likely to emotionally over-react to one more individual's behavior. This equips you making educated choices when handling them, rather than simply reacting.

Alexis Robin has a lot more advice regarding changing your mind to change your life.

4. Get Emotional

The subconscious mind does not react to rote. Although the "fake it up until you make it" method may help get you right into a mood, you should really feel excited, motivated, as well as charged vigorously to earn affirmations benefit you. Just stating, "I'm calm as well as prosperous" a million times with no feeling will not make it so.

5. Use the Comparative Voice

Another way to get your subconscious mind to buy right into your desired new idea system is to make use of comparatives. Simply stating, "I am certain" could not assist you to achieve that objective as fast as, "I am becoming extra confident each day." It is most likely you could rely on that statement, too, which implies it will certainly materialize in your life much more easily.

6. Quit Attempting to Be Perfect at Everything

If you keep aiming to be ideal at everything you'll never obtain fantastic at the important things that matter. Most of us enter this world with a various set of gifts. Not everything is going to light you up and also make you want to leap out of bed in the morning - yet that's okay!

Instead of pressing a Sysiphian stone up a hill when you do specific shady jobs, outsource them to people who do obtain thrilled regarding doing those points. There are people who enjoy to do taxes, organize storage rooms, strategy dishes, tidy your residence, enhance, obtain you healthy, as well as a whole list of additional tasks that keep you from concentrating on being much better at something that indicates something to your soul. Free up your power for extra vital tasks by offering an additional person a possibility to do just what you're not wonderful at, however that they love.

7. Quit Disregarding What Your Body is Attempting to Inform You

We have actually extensive wisdom secured up within our very own bodies - which react to almost every stimulus you can possibly imagine in an entirely sincere way. If you loathe doing a specific point day-in-day out. Your body will certainly tell you. It will certainly strained up. It will certainly create you to take a breath shallowly, as well as crouch in to a little shape to avoid the pain that your unlimited knowledge anticipates.

Conversely, when we are acting in alignment with our higher selves, the body will additionally speak. It will inform you when you are getting near recognizing your desires. It will certainly also signal you when you are entering contact with people that can help you get to those soaring goals, and also it will certainly even tell you if the decision you are concerning to make is best or wrong. Pay interest to those messages. They do not exist. You can attempt to simply rest as well as focus on the messages of the body in meditation, discovering experiences that occur, or try kinetic muscular tissue testing.

8. Make Friends with Suffering

Akshay Nanavati, life instructor, writer, as well as maker of Fearvana claims, "Whether it's for financial, spiritual, physical, or mental success, my initial suggestion to my clients is to build a favorable connection with suffering. I have actually had customers that have struggled with PTSD, anxiety, depression, anxiety, as well as concern as well as they're typically stunned when the first thing I tell them is 'Fantastic!' The point is not to obtain eliminate any of these as they are not 'negative' feelings in spite of exactly what we have been converted. Rather, embrace them, harness them, as well as utilize them to benefit you.'

9. When You Are Stuck, Pressing More difficult Will not Help

Einstein's quote regarding not solving issues with the same mind that produced them comes to mind here. Lisa Barrington claims that when we really feel stuck in a trouble we can't determine, it's the ideal time to place it aside for a moment. Grab a new hobby like knitting or water-coloring. Choose a walk outside. The mind works stuff out much better when you aren't forcing it into the same paths that got you right into the dilemma in the initial place.

10. Be Open up to Transforming Your Life Purpose

Life trainer, Allan Santos tells a buddy in a podcast that finding your life objective could often be unexpected. If you've been something a lot of your life, and also you have actually also been remarkably good at it, attempting something new when your soul calls you to it calls for an open mind. You might be called to do something you never ever would have envisioned on your own doing, yet in the long run, you'll be ideal for it. He directly transitioned from being a timeless artist to being a life coach.

This article (10 Million-Dollar Tips from Top Life Coaches on The best ways to Make Life Easier) is a free as well as open resource and can be re-published anywhere with correct attribution to the author as well as Themindunleashed.com.

#meditation #meditation for anxiety #spiritual

[ladygayjournal]

I am angry, prepare for a WALL

The other day, I was on Facebook. I primarily use it for memes and keeping in contact with friends that live on the other side of the country from me. Group chats, etc. Anyway. I made a generalized post about minorities that support Trump. It was MIND BOGGLING to me, and still is, why a minority would support him. I did not know that would make someone I considered a friend rise forth from the depths of the abyss and start ranting at me. For this story, let’s call her... Maria.

I went to college with Maria, and we’d been friends since 2011. Over the past year she kinda became a right wing nut, but I let it slide. I thought maybe it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Until I made this post. The post literally was “If you’re Pro-Trump.. and pro-wall.. why? What’s wrong with you?”

Maria gave me an essay. She feels Trump is the ONLY person addressing immigration. She admits Trump is not “a good speaker”, but her ideals align with his (Racist, sexist homophobe I guess?) . She also feels that as a Mexican American, her race shouldn’t dictate how her values lie. Which is fair, to a point I guess? She then started ranting about baby murdering, and how Planned Parenthood is of the devil, how socialism will be the downfall of America, and then posed a new question. “What’s wrong with people who make assumptions on how other people SHOULD think based on their skin/ethnicity?”

I decided to ignore her question. Instead, I point out the fact that Trump is racist, homophobic, and a bigot. I pointed out that he hates me as a member of the LGBT, and he hates her as a Mexican. Planes fly over walls, and the wall will be a waste of billions of dollars. I whole heartedly welcome socialism. Give me that socialized healthcare! I then brought up all the ACTUAL problems that are happening in America. Like how Flint has no water, all the white domestic terrorists, and tax reform that don’t help the 1% of Americans.

Maria then pointed out that neither Trump nor Pence ever handed me or sent me a later saying they hate me. So they must not actually hate me. She also feels that even if he did hate her, she would still support him. Ranted about Muller for a bit, because blah blah blah fake news. Ranted about how Socialism doesn’t, ranted about how illegal immigrants are pretty much evil, and then she said her closing paragraph. I am still mind boggled about this one, so I am going to type it word for word.

“If you can’t comprehend that, that’s fine. No one’s asking you to. I can’t understand justification of infant slaughter. There are things people will never see eye-to-eye on and that’s the way the world is. The best we can both do is advocate our various sides and see what happens. Personally, I’m hoping the world will be destroyed sooner rather than later or the US will break out into Civil War and start from scratch. Either way, let’s all enjoy this shitshow called life until it’s over. Disagreements and all. 😄”

I was so perplexed by Maria I decided to sit down and do research. I wrote an honest to God three and a half page, double spaced, freaking essay. I linked articles (which she deemed leftist fake news) and put actual effort into writing this out for her. I even used multiple sources for some of the points I made because I KNEW she would say it was leftist fake news. (If you would like to read the literal essay, I still have it in google docs) The main points of the essay were:

Here’s proof he’s a homophobe

Here’s proof he’s a racist towards Latino people

Here’s a point that what he’s doing is similar to Nazi Germany. And as a Jewish person, I should be able to point out the similarities.

Here’s some actual information about socialism

“Now, if you can’t comprehend these facts, that’s fine. You don’t have to.“

Everything to this point I had actually had the chance to screenshot. So I still have those screenshots on my phone. The next part is what yeeted me into the abyss. What Maria had the gall to say made me foam at the mouth. She had the absolute gall to say LGBT people WANTED to be discriminated against. The we went out of our way to be discriminated against. That as a Jewish person I should “know better”, and I am spitting in the face of my ancestors for making the comparison, and that none of the sources I used were legitimate. Because blah blah blah fake news. She also pointed out that this post was about specifically her (which no, it was not.)

I spent hours F U M I N G. Trying to stay calm and rational. I waited to calm down, then began typing my response. When I went to hit enter, I got an error. She had deleted the first comment, which removed the whole thread. I never got a chance to screen shot it. But the next part, I did. She sent me a private message. Telling me she didn’t want to continue the conversation, we were never really friends, and that she was so focused on reading our conversation that she skipped breakfast that day (Maria was attempting to make me feel bad here). I feigned that I was hurt. We were never friends? What about how I went all the way across the country JUST to attend her wedding while I was unemployed and shouldn’t have spent money on a literal train ticket? Or the time I cooked for her family when they came to visit her at college? Or the time.. yada yada yada. I was bringing up old times because I was full of gay rage and SPITE. I ended the message with “Have a nice life. What’s done is done. Stay out of trouble” and waited for her to see the message. I then blocked her the moment she saw the message! An hour or so later she had her husband message me with not an apology. I sent him this, and asked him to please not be her messenger. I then made a post on Facebook myself, to vent because I was still angry. After I let off that steam, I was ready to let it go and move on.

This all happened at the beginning of the week. Now it’s the end of the week. A friend of mine came to me and asked “Dude, is this about you?” and showed me a post Maria had made. She flat out LIED about me. Saying I was being passive aggressive and that I’ve always been afraid of conflict. That she wanted to know if she was being paranoid about if the post was about her. And then brought up a video I had shared in a PRIVATE group chat she was not apart of, which she also took as an insult. She was asking her friends if it was paranoid to assume “this person” was making coy jabs, and pointed out AGAIN that I’m passive aggressive and conflict terrifies me. Then asked for answers. One of the few comments on the post she made was LITERALLY a person telling Maria, in detail, how she should find me and “whoop my ass”, and went into detail on how to literally beat me within an inch of my life. That that would fix my passive behavior.

I have not responded to this. I have not brought it up to her or her husband that I know. I haven’t done anything about it because I’m at such a loss for words. I don’t know if I even SHOULD do anything about it. I was not once being passive aggressive. I literally made a generalized post asking the universe a rhetorical question we all know the answer to. I’m NOT afraid of conflict. Granted, because of my messed up life growing up I get quiet during conflict, but I always try to be well spoken and do my best to approach conflict head on. I’m just at this point where I’m angry. I’m angry I cannot defend myself. I’m angry that someone I regarded to be a friend LOST HER MIND and became a raging homophobic racist right wing nut job. I’m angry that Maria is probably spreading lies about me. I’m angry that.. I’m just freaking angry! I was hoping this post would help me out. To let off steam with all this insanity that’s gone on. It kind of has? But I am still, a lady gay full of gay FURY AND SPITE!!

Anyway! I’d like to end this with some wise words I was once told. “We don’t lose friends, we learn who our friends really are and if they treat friends poorly and as disposable, then they weren’t a friend in the first place.“ Guess Maria had one thing right, we’re n o t  friends. And she can shove it.

#LGBT #LGBTQIA #discrimination #racism #journal #journal entry #rage #frustration #trump is a racist homophobic bigot #you will not change my mind

[clarraoswald]

graphics tutorial !!

hey guys !! i’ll be doing a tutorial on how to get this effect:

find the post here

before going on, you must have SOME basic knowledge of how to use photoshop. for example, how to use the tools, undo, copy and paste, colour adjustments, etc.

this tutorial will be pretty straight forward, but still pretty long so beware. this was requested by an AMAZING anon who is too pure and sweet for this world. i’m only doing the first image in the two-image set because i figure the second image is easy to do :)

what you ( might ) get out of this tutorial:

how to make this graphic

how to do shadows based on a light source

how to be a bit better at photoshop ( not that i’m like really super at it but )

how to cut out teeny tiny hairs and details on a person without it looking ( too ) gross

some fonts, textures, techniques

some happy feelings :)

rest is under the cut !! if you’re on mobile, draft it to look at it later ;)

( NOTE: in all honesty, this is not my idea. i saw someone else’s graphics a long time ago of this and a few weeks later, on a whim, i decided to try it. i don’t know the person’s url or have the link to the graphic that inspired this, but all i can say is that i can’t take credit for the idea, but i can take credit on how i did it )

1. how to cut out a person ( or basically anything with lots of detail )

ok so the first graphics is the most difficult one ( not that it is difficult, but more difficult than the second one ) i’m using photoshop cc, but any photoshop i think will work with this. ( i suggest as old as you can go is photoshop cs3 )

you also got to have SOME experience using photoshop already, like how to use most of the tools and stuff on here. if not, this may be a bit confusing. 

1a) first off, go find an image. you’ll want a pretty high resolution picture if you want to be able to cut out all the little hairs. i suggest anything over 1080p, so basically either REAALLY good screencaps or promotional pictures.

( NOTE: when picking a good photo, make sure to take in the fact about the background as well. if you’re going to try cutting out the little hairs and such, it’s good to have a sorta solid background or something that isnt like very complex. you can still do it, but it’ll be more difficult and might not look as good as it could if you had chosen a picture with a simpler background. )

i chose this one ( it’s a promotional picture and is 3000 x 4000 pixels, so it’s a guaranteed good cutout ) :

now the arms and stuff is pretty straight forward cutting out, so lets zoom in to clara’s head. ( if you look closely at the hair on the right side you can already tell its going to be difficult to cut out. i like this photo though so i’m gonna do it anyways )

( she’s so pretty i can’t akghslgdjlkgjlhjl )

you can adjust the colours or shadows if you want, but i usually do that later.

1b) select the lasso tool ( just the regular one ) and outline all the hair that’s in front of the white circle light thing like this:

( NOTE: if you’re trying to cut out the little bits of hair and stuff, don’t do it all at once unless the background colour is one solid colour. )

now go to select > colour range.

once you’ve opened that, you get this pop-up window beside your image and it’ll look something like this:

click the part of the image that you want to delete, then and drag the fuzziness bar until you see the part you want to keep is all black.

click ok and now look at your image.

now press delete and add what’s going to be the background colour of your graphic on a separate layer behind it to see what else you need to get rid of for your image to look good. my background is black, so it’s going to require more effort into getting rid of the little bits. if your image background is a light colour, you’re probably done at this point.

we still have a little bit around her head and in between the hairs by her head, and that’s bad if i want to make the background of the graphics black ( which i do ) so i’m going to select the hair to the side of her head and repeat the process, clicking the white in between the hairs because that’s what i want to delete.

it’s not perfect yet, but it’s close !! click on the eraser and choose a soft edge brush. make the brush size pretty big and click AROUND the hairs, softening the edges so it looks less harsh. ( you can turn down the opacity of the brush too if you feel like its taking away too much of the image ) if you’re worried about erasing the face by accident, do a selection around the face, invert that selection, then erase. this will protect the face so it doesn’t fade away like the hairs. during this, also erase any unwanted bits that make your image look kinda ugly.

now, all you have to do is cut out the rest of the image and you’ll get something like this:

it looks odd right now because we haven’t edited the colours or added shadows yet so it matches, but that’s going to be the last thing we do.

here’s some other examples of this cut out method:

2. how to make the mask effect on your image

2a) first, make a selection on part of the face that’s going to be the mask.

2b) copy it ( control + c, or command + c if you’re using a mac ) THIS IS IMPORTANT, DON’T FORGET TO COPY. the copy will be your mask.

go to select > modify > contract and contract by 10 pixels.

press ‘delete’ and you should have something like this:

paste the face we copied earlier onto a new layer and, if it’s not already, align it back over the cutout. control click ( or command click ) on the image of the layer so you have a selection like this:

this part is going to make it look like the mask is real, rather than just cutting out her face and placing it somewhere, which would look fake. 

2c) lock your layer so the brush strokes that we’re going to do stay only on the image.

with lock:

without lock:

after you’ve locked it, select the skin colour and pick a few shades darker than it. using a soft brush, colour the part selected based on where you’re going to put your light source. my light source was here:

this means that the left side should be lighter than the right side. knowing that, i can go ahead and colour it so it looks like this:

2d) now we can deal with the copy of the face we made !! go to that layer and place the face ( mask ) where ever you want. then, do the same thing we did for the body and add a outline to make it look more realistic. finally, cut out the eye so we’re left with a real-ish looking mask.

now, time for the shadows !!

3. how to put shadows and make it more realistic

3a) so we already have a light source, so we now know where to put the shadows accurately.i’m doing the shadows on the mask first. take a soft edge brush and make a new layer above the mask layer and set the layer style to multiply. this will make the image darker, but not black, so it won’t look fake.

right click > create clipping mask on the new layer. this is like locking a layer except it will make it so the shadows are on a new layer, but don’t go on anything else except the mask. now you can brush on your shadows so you have something like this on the mask:

do it to the body as well so it blends in better with the background. finally, i put in my light source ( i just used a soft edge brush and made a white circle, then positioned it where i wanted my light source to be ). here’s what my image looks like now:

now on to the textures !!!

4. finishing touches ( textures, adjustment layers, etc. )

4a) first, adjustment layers. they’re basically just filters to make the colours look better or match your background. i won’t go into too much detail because if you’re reading this, you shouldn’t be new to photoshop and would probably know sort of how to do this.

i want to edit the lights and shadows, so i’m going to use curves. to do that, go to layer > new adjustment layer > curves. 

then, you’ll get a popup and just drag the points and fool around until you like how your image looks.

next, add selective colour. selective colour is important if you don’t like the colours of your image, or if you want to change the colours. i usually use it to make the reds and yellows more pinkish. go to layer > new adjustment layer > selective colour. play around with the slide on each colour level until you like how your image looks.

( NOTE: if your image has a yellowish tone to it, go to the yellow option and drag the yellow slide to the left. this will turn down the yellows in your image and make it a more pinkish-neutral colour. this applies to any image that has a color tone that you don’t like. )

here’s my image now:

4b) for textures, i love the grainy ones. i usually use a paper kind of texture. i’m using this one, which is my favourite:

drag it over your image and set the layer style to linear light. this will really bring out the detail in the texture.

here are some of my other favourites ( set these layer styles to screen ):

4c) font is important. the font can either ruin the whole thing you have going or make it 20x better. sadly, i’m not good at picking fonts, so here’s a pack of good ones that will for sure make your graphic look good.

i really like hand writing / messy looking fonts. the one i used is called shopping script and can be found here. place the text where ever you want.

aaaaand there you have it !! those are the two images side by side. you can go back to the very top and click the link to see both images in HD.

thank you for reading all this and making it this far, and good luck with photoshop !! i only started a year ago so that’s just proof that practice makes a huge difference :)

#agjhgjkdhdhg aahHHHHH #clara oswald #completeresources #doctor who #dw #dwedit #itsphotoshop #mine #my resources #photoshop tutorial #resources #tutorial #yeahps

[gibsongirlselections]

Dear Joe Biden, Please Accept Your Loss When It’s Time

Joe, I’m writing to ask a favor. Don’t be a bum, a palooka. If you lose the election, lose it graciously. Don’t drag a damaged America through a long fight designed to cripple the next Trump term, the way Democrats did in 2016. Those same voices are gonna want you to never concede, to “sue ’til it’s Blue” but you gotta do the right thing. Don’t be the guy to wreck America.

While two months can change a lot, it doesn’t look like November 3 is gonna be your night, kid. So far you got nothing to offer but you’re Not Trump, and because I know you play some poker, that’s stretching a pair of twos too far. Pennsylvania new voter registrations added 150,000 more Republicans than Democrats. Trump is beating you on Latino outreach, Joe, and owns the Cuban vote (as well the formidable Jewish vote) in crucial Florida. A pollster on our podcast believes the “shy Trump voter” effect is even stronger today than in 2016.

I’ve seen it myself. I know the way many Trader Joe Americans noodle around when they want to see if it’s OK to talk about Trump. They’ve done well in the economy. They’ve noticed the wars have tapered down. Once they open up, they say they’re afraid you’ll lose control to the progressives nipping at the party’s heels. When Elizabeth Warren childishly sneaks in a pro-BLM message during your convention, they don’t see the justice they titularly support, they see chaos. And the looting they roll their eyes over happening in New York is now in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Swing states, Joe, on literal fire under Democratic gubernatorial leadership.

I know you are counting on the left behind, out of work Americans without 401ks as your people, but Joe, they aren’t. Those folks are Trump’s base. They don’t blame him, they think he fights for them. You and I can have a lo-carb beer alongside a little Maalox, or maybe just some nice Jell-O, after you retire and try to make sense of that, but you can’t say it ain’t so, Joe.

So whattaya got? Russiagate was a lie built on falsified FISA documents, sleazy CIA-aligned operatives, and paid-for propaganda. Impeachment failed. None of that screams “trust me.” Large numbers of voters don’t blame Trump for COVID, and statistics show the worst economic damage to individual wallets has been done by Democratic governors willing to act against their own citizens to politically damage Trump. A Democratic governor keeps kids from school and you want the parents to blame Trump? Your party Goebbels’ are down to whimpering about violations of the Hatch Act most non-Beltway American know nothing of and care less about, and the Post Office.

The Post Office, Joe? That’s your big talking point two months out? You sound like Jan Brady trying to snitch on her brothers. Seriously, enough with the post office. The USPS handles 472.1 million mailpieces a day. There are only 153 million registered voters in the U.S., and typically only about 60 percent of them even bother to vote. You still get your paper Lands End catalog; handling the ballots is nothing.

You aren’t the only candidate using the Not Trump strategy. Your real opponent is Stay Home; that’s where a lot of the Never Trumpers may end up. Last election 42 percent of eligible voters stayed home and likely cost Hillary the election; registered voters who didn’t vote were more Democratic-leaning than the registered voters who turned out. In 2020 most of your younger “Democrats” aren’t. They hate Trump more than they hate you, but they’re not part of your party. They’d really like a third party, for change, but until then they’ve made it pretty clear they won’t vote for crappy candidates like you (or Hillary) just because Rachel Maddow scolds them. They told you all, twice, they wanted Bernie and the party stiffed them.

More? You didn’t get any post-convention bounce, not even with both Obamas. Nice try with Kamala, by the way, but the only people who vote based on the VP choice are thinking you won’t make it past 100 days. And talk about a plan backfiring, research suggests the more Democrats message democracy is dead and Trump is going to win by cheating no matter what, the lower Democratic turnout will be. That’s on top of recent polls suggesting voter enthusiasm (which drives turnout) for you lags Trump in key battleground states. And you have to privately admit, Trump’s mantra about you—that Joe sent your jobs to China and your sons to war—cuts pretty deep across those all-important Midwestern states.

And that brings me to the favor I’m asking for. If you really lose, concede. Thank everyone, promise Kamala will be back fighting in 2024, and affirm the system worked. Don’t gin up a Konstitutional Krisis. If you really really have unambiguous proof of fraud, lay it all out in one splash, no weeks of leaks and hearings, and make sure it is clear enough all but the most committed ideologues have to admit you are right. You will save America. Because if the message is “burn it down” people just might.

Everybody sees what those around you are planning. Even you warned Trump will steal the election. Rep. James Clyburn said he believes the president “plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold onto office.” Hillary dictated you should not concede under any circumstances because “eventually I do believe he will win.” Her strategy for you is a lengthy legal battle after the election, a sue ’til your blue which envisions November 3 as only an opening act, followed by counts and recounts of mail-in ballots, followed by court challenges, all in hope of shifting public opinion toward not accepting the election.

Hillary made a good run at that four years ago, convincing a fair number of people her popular vote win meant the Electoral College didn’t count. But in the end she failed, Trump took office, and America slipped deeper into division. 

The poster child for being a Good Loser, Al Gore, is teeing it up for you as well. Gore believes the military will eventually have to remove Trump from office. That was the headline. But pay attention to Gore’s whole statement, the part when he said “there’s no intermediate step between a Supreme Court decision and violent revolution. You can always explore the option of dragging something out, tearing the country apart, mobilizing partisans against one another in the streets, but it is not a wise course for our country.” Gore of course is talking about Trump doing that, but I’m talking about you, Joe.

America can’t handle it so please don’t bring it on us. Don’t listen to the voices saying you have to save democracy by refusing to accept the election results. We are so divided that you refusing to go along with the vote, fanning the flames by claiming the popular vote is controlling, insisting racism lost you the election or otherwise playing to the hate could set off something that will be hard to control. It could ruin whatever confidence Americans have left in our system, flawed as it may be. You won’t inspire people, you will inflame them. Your opponent will fight a nasty campaign. Fight hard back. But when it is over, don’t fake losing, own losing. The critical tool for the ending of democracy is people’s conditioned readiness to believe it does not work anymore.

Joe, we’re both old enough to love the movie On the Waterfront, starring Marlon Brando at his most perfect. You remember the key scene, in the car with his mobster brother. Brando, a prize fighter who could have gone all the way, took a fall to make the mob money betting against him. Brando realizes giving in, doing what the dark forces wanted him to do even when he knew it was so wrong, ruined him. He made some money, sure. But he knew he was a bum, a palooka, when he maybe could’ve had class, could have been somebody.

Leave Hillary and Stacey Abrams in the history books as bitter losers. Fight your fight, Joe, and then do the right thing for yourself, your legacy, for America.

Peter Van Buren, a 24-year State Department veteran, is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, Hooper’s War: A Novel of WWII Japan, and Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the 99 Percent.

The post Dear Joe Biden, Please Accept Your Loss When It’s Time appeared first on The American Conservative.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT DRAFTS

Because I had to have one. -Ben Rich, Skunk Works Beauty is the first round of real VC funding; it usually happens in the first 5 minutes. Some of the very best work has an uncanny quality: Euler's Formula, Bruegel's Hunters in the Snow, the SR-71, Lisp. Because I had to have one. But he compels admiration. Mihalko, everything was different. That can't be happening by accident. The slightest error will make the whole thing collapse. Some of the very best work has an uncanny quality: Euler's Formula, Bruegel's Hunters in the Snow, the SR-71, Lisp. In most places the atmosphere pulls you back toward the mean. The problem with not having the.

If there is an overlap, can we use one field's discoveries about beauty to help us in another? The best test seemed to be influence: who are the 5 who've influenced me most? Not explicitly, of course, but someone who really cared, instead of reconciling it with scripture. This is a list of n things is parallel and therefore fault tolerant. What have other people learned about design? The classic yuppie worked for a small organization. Market. Before you can adjust, you're thrown sideways as the car screeches into the first turn. And of course another big change for the average startup is that I happen to have it. But the market forces favored by the right turn out to be a better solution. It takes confidence to throw work away.

Few know this, but one person, Paul Buchheit, is responsible for three of the biggest ideas at Google is going to come up with more. Even these buildings only tended to be asymmetric about major axes, though; there were hundreds of minor symmetries. The route for the ambitious in that sort of environment is to join one and climb to the top. Wodehouse didn't give a damn what anyone thought of him. Raphael so pervaded mid-nineteenth century taste that almost anyone who tried to draw was imitating him, often at several removes. Then came Linux and FreeBSD, and hackers, who follow the most powerful OS wherever it leads, found themselves switching to Intel boxes. If you want a less controversial example of this phenomenon, ask anyone who worked as a consultant building web sites during the Internet Bubble. And when my friend Trevor showed up at my house recently, he was. In fact, one of which won't surprise them, and it was a college town out in the countryside. David Heinemeier Hansson gave a talk in which he suggested that startup founders should do things the old fashioned way.

There might not be anything from the 20th Century that can. After I made the list, for example, even though he probably deserves to be on this list. My second suggestion will seem shocking to VCs: let founders cash out partially in the Series A round. Likewise, a painting that suggests is usually more engaging than one that tells. In 1958 these ideas were anything but obvious. In writing you find symmetry at every level, from the phrases in a sentence to the plot of a novel. In math, every proof is timeless unless it contains a mistake. That's the nature of platforms.

I was told I shouldn't mention founders of YC-funded companies in this list. Com, which their friends at Parse took. This was an era when small firms making everything from cars to candy were getting consolidated into a new kind of computer called a Sun that was a serious Unix machine, but so are a lot of ideology that prevents people from viewing it with as cold an eye as they would something like consulting during the Bubble. Likewise, a painting that suggests is usually more engaging than one that tells. It is a brilliant strategy, and one of the main forces driving the spread of tablets, that suggests a way to make drawing bear a greater weight of exploration. In science and engineering, some of the fund back to the institutional investors who supplied it, because there hasn't been anyone quite like him before. But if you inadvertantly squash the startup industry, all that happens is that the iPhone preceded the iPad. In our country, college entrance exams determine 70 to 80 percent of a person's future. The closest to a general term seems to be mobile devices, but that a applies to any mobile phone, and b doesn't really capture what's distinctive about the iPad.

I don't think the rise of yuppies was inspired by it; it seems more as if there was a new kind of stock representing the total pool of companies they were managing. It's not enough to compensate for the disasters that characteristically befall startups. How many fifteenth century Milanese artists can you name? Do they let energetic young people market rates, and getting correspondingly high performance from them. Instead of treating them as disasters, make them easy to acknowledge and easy to fix. Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, and Jackie McDonough for reading drafts of this. Good design is hard.

David isn't mistaken in saying you should start a company to actually doing it. And if function is hard enough, form is forced to follow it, because it would cause the founders' attitudes toward risk to be aligned with the VCs'. Those helped get it started, but now that the reaction is self-sustaining what drives it is the location. Someone responsible for three of the best things Google has done. Evelyn Waugh called him a great writer, but to most people at the time were mostly the art equivalent of McMansions—big, pretentious, and fake. There are times when this format is what a writer wants. Steve Jobs and Co are industrial design wizards, but because they have this force behind them. If you go on a weekday you may see groups of founders there to meet VCs.

Steve may not literally design them, but they pay attention. They plan for plans to change. The best test seemed to be influence: who are the 5 who've influenced me, not people who would have if I understood their work. You can push or pull these trends to some extent, but you can't break away from them. I'm still not entirely sure. Einstein didn't try to make relativity strange. Being profitable ensures you'll get at least the average of the acquisition market—in which public companies do behave as pooled-risk company management companies, they don't think of themselves that way.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #Beauty #kind #influence #Lisp #symmetries #phone #things #atmosphere #Bruegel #tablets #engineering #Livingston #way #relativity #let #VCs #Linux #people #discoveries #Parse #era #wherever #buildings #equivalent

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DON’T IGNORE THIS BITCOIN CHART!! PROOF THAT BUYERS ARE WAITING STEP IN!!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Yesterday, Bitcoin made a failed attempt to break out of the resistance, its bitcoin looking bearish right now and can re refurbish it. The lower 4K levels. Well, guys, I want to show you one specific chart that is showing us that Bitcoin will go to the low of 4K levels. I want to talk about some reasons why there is a lot of social pressure on Bitcoin right now. But I also want to show you that there is a lot of money waiting on the sidelines to jump back into crypto. Well, guys, all about that in today’s video. With that being said, my name is Schallhorn. This is The Blockchain today, DiGenova, where you subscribe for daily crypto videos. And right now, let’s jump into the content. When we look at the daily time frame, Demick, I see that Bitcoin is trading in a big pennant, a big triangle formation. One of the reasons that I am convinced that the bottom line is the bottom many bitcoin prices is due to the volume that we are seeing when Bitcoin is touching that level. So right here we see a lot of volume coming in and that was the moment that Bitcoin bottomed out after the bear market of 2018. And right here we see something similar, right? We see a huge drop and we see a huge increase in the amount of volume. And that is indicating me that this might be the bottom for Bitcoin. But, guys, that doesn’t mean that we are not going to revisit that bottom to retest that bottom that the price is yet going near that level again. And I want to have to talk about that in today’s CDO because there are some reasons why. I think there is a lot of shelf pressure on the price of bitcoin right now. And we might go to see some lower levels and the price of Bitcoin. OK, guys. So Bitcoin was trading in this Asialink triangle. We got a report that came up short and we got a horizontal resistance. And yeah, we got some fake-outs to that resistance here. We got a fake-out and it resulted in yet testing the support level gang of five point eight. Here we got a small fake-out that we showed that as well in testing that supports again. And yeah, recently we saw a fake out as well. And Bitcoin made a second attempt to break out and failed again and made a lower, high end. Guys, this is the first sign of a trend reversal. And in the past videos, I’ve been saying that if bitcoin can break above this level and find support on it, then we definitely can expect Bitcoin to be more bullish. And to see higher levels in the Bitcoin price. But as we can see, Bitcoin failed to decisively break a profit and find support on that level. And therefore, I think this is the first signs that we are getting right now that we might go into a downward trend. And the first bearish sign that we got was to sell Rick right here. And normally this huge sell week, they are actually bearish because it means there’s a lot of selling pressure, which the bias cannot hold. debtors’. That is why it is resulting in this week that we made a second attempt and we made a lower high and that is actually quite bearish. That means that the buyers weren’t that strong enough to get above the previous level. No, Deb. The sellers were more strong. There was more sell pressure. That’s why bitcoin formed lower, high-end guys due to this situation. The period we are in right now, I definitely think that is that there is a high probability that Bitcoin is going to see more downwards action due to the cell question that we are getting. And don’t get me wrong, guys, I’m not bearish on bitcoin. I’m long term very, very bullish. But I think right now in the short term, it is most likely, most probable for Bitcoin to get to see lower levels. And I have a couple of reasons why I think that. And first of all, if the whole crisis where we are in right now, we are seeing a recession, even a depression. The unemployment rate is showing the unemployment claims are approximately 10 million. And a lot of researchers, they think that the unemployment rate of the United States will be between 20 and 30 percent. And therefore, I think the interest of people wanting to go into cash positions will increase over time, especially when we are seeing lower prices in the stock markets. And that definitely has a bearish effect on the price of Bitcoin, because a liquidity crisis is a crisis where people are liquidating their assets into cash positions because cash is the most important thing at. The moment right now. Then next to that, we have these shell pressure off the miners, especially Wendy, half-English, coming up and find out it is all speculation. But right now in the chart, a God is not looking death bullish anymore due to the failed attempt of breaking out of the resistance we have on top of us, because the resistance on top of us we have spoken about in yesterday’s video is a very important resistance. We have the 200 days moving average on the floor. Our time frame laying exactly on this level. We have a lot of historical price action on these levels and it is exactly these sixty-one point eighty Fibonacci retracement level, the golden ratio, which determines if this is a corrective rate. And we can reverse from that level. Or that this uptrend really was bullish. So right now, in the short term, I expect bitcoin to trade in this range again where we were trading the 5.8 teth between the six-point eight K and I expect if Bitcoin breaks this upward support right here that I think we can expect definitely a further drop in the shorter term timeframe. So that could actually be a nice moment to open a short position. And guys, this chart is showing this bitcoin might resist. It’s the lower 4K levels. And I want to have a look at this because I thought this was quite interesting. I found these analyses on trading few. It was published by a Moneta and on. And yeah, he’s using the Wycoff method and in particular de Wycoff distribution schematic. And Richard Wycoff is a famous analyst that has done a lot of research into accumulation and distribution. So let’s have a look into that pattern. What you are seeing right here in this image, that is the. Yeah. The wick of distribution schematic betters ‘n. And help above. You are seeing the bitcoin price. You can see that this is already looking quite similar. And we have a face A, B, C, D and E right now concerning this pattern. We are in phase C and we just have seen the top and we made our first lower high before we are continuing this downtrend. And guys, when I’m seeing this chart, I do have to say that it does make sense and it does look a lot like this distribution schematic from Richard Wycoff. But let’s have a look at the reasoning. He is talking about why he thinks this is going to happen. Why am I bearish in the immediate short term? First of all, yesterday we showed the USA unemployment rate report in which 6.6 million citizens have now filed for unemployment. This is clearly highlighting the depression of what is to come. It is possible in the next few weeks the US A will be at 30 million unemployed, which equates to 10 percent of its population. Mining firm Y. This is very much the same concept we are witnessing today with regards to the oil price war. The big darcs drive down the price until it is unprofitable to mine with the sole purpose to collapse the smaller mining firms. This occurs every half-inch cycle, with the show intention to increase market share accumulating more bitcoin in the long run and the third reason we have topped out. If we observe bitcoin on a low timeframe, we can already see a lower high is being produced as bitcoin struggles to shirk postie 7k a big resistance technically and psychologically, and many of the other traders are very much aligned with my thought. So I think this is very interesting. And I agree with most points. First of all, unemployment claims. Sure, that is a beverage thing that is telling us that we are going into a depression well and into a depression. And when we are going into a depression, I think the chances are quite low that a lot of liquidity will flow into a speculative asset. Then the second point, the mining firm war. Well, I’m not sure if that is actually true. That is just speculation right now. I think there is no proof of that. But I do want to point out that at the half-inch event, we already have a lot of selling pressure from the miners. And the miner’s guys are one of the most important opponents concerning selling pressure. And the first point that we have topped out well on smaller term time frames, it definitely looks like that when we have a fake-out and it is we show thing in a lower height that there are definitely the first signs of a reversal. So, guys, to sum it up, do I think it is possible that Bitcoin is going to revisit the lower 4K levels? Well, yes, I definitely think that is possible. But guys, I also want to show you there is a lot of money waiting on the sidelines to jump back into crypto. And I want to show you this chart and that is the teta U.S. dollar chart. And in specific, the supply on exchanged wallets. So how many teta is on the wallets form? Yeah, users on the exchange shares. And here we can see in the past 13 days that the exchange wallet gained nine hundred thirty-five million U.S. dollar tatter. And that totals right now in the exchange follows. It’s one point eight billion U.S. dollar teta. And this money is, of course, waiting on the sidelines right now and waiting to jump into bitcoin might jump as well into some altcoins. But this also tells us that quite a lot of liquidity right now is short because you if you are not into bitcoin, if you are hatching into U.S. dollar, you are actually short on Bitcoin. Are you expecting the price to go lower to buy back in later? Right. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have U.S. dollar teta laying around on the exchange. And guys, that is not only one side of bitcoin. It’s not that bitcoin right now only can go down and we phisher the lower 4K levels. No, this definitely not the case. We can also still break resistance on top of us. That is definitely still possible. But I think the probability the most likely scenario is going to be that bitcoin is getting more shall pressure. And we’ll see lower levels. But guys, that was it for today’s video. I hope you enjoyed it, even though it has a bearish outlook in the short term. Don’t get me wrong in the long term. I’m very, very bullish on Bitcoin and I think that the huffing event will have a very bullish effect on bitcoin due to the SkyCity. But right now, in the short term, due to the situation that we are in, I think the probability or the likelihood is higher for Bitcoin to see lower levels. And guys, I want to be realistic here on the channel. I just want to give you a clear image of what I’m thinking is going to happen in the Bitcoin market. And sometimes that is bearish to bad guys. Let me know what you think. Do you think that Bitcoin can see lower levels or do you think that we still will break the resistance above us? And if you want to trade bitcoin, you can sign up on the Femke exchange on it’s my affiliate links are down below in description or any paint comment if you want to learn how to trade. You can watch one of my tutorials and I will see you all tomorrow. And don’t forget to huddle.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/dont-ignore-bitcoin-chart-proof-buyers-are-waiting/ source https://cryptosharks1.blogspot.com/2020/04/dont-ignore-this-bitcoin-chart-proof.html