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am-i-the-asshole-official · 1 month

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AITA for not walking my dog with my neighbor anymore?

I (20sNB) graduated from my masters program in 2019 and moved back home with my parents. It was meant to be temporary, but before I could save up enough to move out, the pandemic hit. I ended up living with my parents until late 2022. During that time I was responsible for walking our dog. I ended up meeting and connecting with a handful of other dog owners in the neighborhod and we would walk our dogs together and let them play together at a local dog park.

One of these dog owners, C (70sF) turned out to live right around the corner from me, so we started walking our dogs together very often. Her dog has always been a bit domineering, and my dog has always been a bit submissive. But for a long time they played together very nicely. They would run and chase each other and play with the toys we brought to the park for them. Sometimes they would play fight, but I could always tell from my dog’s body language that she was having fun, and wasn’t actually feeling threatened or scared.

Of course, C and I also ended up bonding. She’s a retired kindergarten teacher, and she’s very, very nice and kind, and I would consider her a friend. We now exchange baked goods on holidays and she sends me birthday and christmas cards now that I don’t live down the street from her. And since I moved out, whenever I came to my parents’ house to visit, I would call her up so we could walk the dogs together and catch up.

However, a few months ago, while my mom was walking our dog at the dog park, a different, even worse behaved dog, attacked and bit her. This attack was bad enough to draw blood, and my mom had to take her to the vet and get her on antibiotics and everything to make sure it didn’t get infected. Plus, the dog we had before this one, got sick and almost died because of a bite from an unvaccinated dog, so this was pretty scary for us. But it ended up being okay. No infections and the wounded healed well. But ever since then, our dog, who previously was very social and good with other dogs (we took her to obedience school as a puppy, so she was socialized very early on) has become much more nervous around other dogs, especially new dogs.

We’re trying really hard to resocialize her, and she’s slowly getting better. She still sometimes growls at new dogs, though. Which brings us back to my neighbor and her dog. Her dog is poorly socialized, and growls and barks at other dogs. I know my neighbor tries her best to fix her dog’s behavioral issues and has even worked with specialized dog trainers to no avail. But I’ve noticed that my dog is much more likely to growl at other dogs when we walk with C and her dog, because C’s dog growls. Not only that, but I’ve noticed that when they play together, my dog doesn’t enjoy it anymore. Now, her body language does read as threatened and afraid when C’s dog play fights (C’s dog is a boxer, which means she loves to play fight.)

So, I’ve started not calling C when I’m in town. I feel guilty about it because I really like C and avoiding her feels like a shitty thing to do. I feel like I'm basically ghosting her. But I know if I reach out to her, she’ll bring up walking the dogs together. Walking the dogs is the entire basis of our friendship and the only reason we spend time together, so I can hardly tell her I don’t want to do that anymore.

AITA? I just want to take care of my dog, and right now walking with C is not only causing my dog unnecessary stress, it’s re-enforcing bad habits that I am trying really hard to break.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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harrowedsoup · 2 months

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You know I’ll never get around to writing my own Nova Au fic for a ton of reasons but have some of my thoughts:

Gideon wears a full skull mask, I imagine it more like a helmet with just the bottom jaw missing, that’s also decorated with grease paint. She managed to also get the same sunglasses as canon which she’s popped out the lenses of to use in her mask, which before she’d had to modify to cover her eyes as much as possible.

Her need to fit in is what makes her cover her hair and eyes- neither red hair or gold eyes are exactly common and she has a really intense desire to fit in. This is also what makes her very silent. I know must people might disagree with me but I think that’s how Gideon’s shyness and awkwardness would manifest. She’s not completely silent as she’d still need to lead services but she tries to keep herself from talking if she can it.

However, her Gideon-ness TM comes out whenever she speaks with Harrow, which tends to piss her off a little bit. She’s nowhere near as good at seeming uninterested/calm as Our Harrow and gets upset at herself when she ends up devolving into ‘your mom!’ insults.

I do think she’d keep up her silent act at Canaan. Unlike Our Gideon, Harrow Nova is so dedicated that Gideon wouldn’t be afraid of whatever she got up too so there is no reason to order her silent when Gideon can just order her to play nice (which she of course did immediately) BUT that doesn’t mean that Gideon trusts herself with strangers when she’s a awkward and shy mess. Her ‘vow of silence’ is temporary measure to make sure she doesn’t embarrass herself or the Ninth.

She’s a bit more successful at the whole ‘ Fear The Ninth, Don’t Pity Us’ thing that Our Harrow wanted to happen if only because Gideon is much taller, stronger physically and just hovers around very scary. I also imagine her necromancy is more raw power and less technical skill so she’s throwing around her weight like it’s nothing.

Harrow Nova, through, gets a bit less respect than Our Gideon because she’s like five feet tall. She also doesn’t play nice so she’s doesn’t get that part where Gideon spars with the others: if Nova pulls out her weapons against someone she’s fighting to win and she’s not backing down unless ordered or she’s physically unable too. Fighting isn’t a source of joy to her like Our Gideon, it’s the only thing that she has and it’s what kept her alive.

So while I think everyone thought Our Gideon was Harrow Boy Toy that she’d decided to take with her only to be shocked that she’s actually incredibly good, Harrow Nova is at first assumed to be a weak cavalier that the Ninth is known for (like Gideon was too) then that she’s something closer to a regular bodyguard just because of how on edge she is and how much she lacks normal cavalier etiquette.

Mostly she’s on edge because she trusts no one ever but Gideon wants to make friends but is also shy about it so she’s making Harrow be nice on her behalf.

That said if Gideon ever does make Harrow fight anyone it’s a damn blood bath. Nova doesn’t do etiquette of any kind when fighting. She’s going to use everything she has- she HAS to because she doesn’t have the build of Our Gideon. She’s going to cheat and cheat dirty. She’s going to bite off ears, head butt people and stab men in the dick.

#the locked tomb #gideon nav #harrow nonagesimus #harrow nova

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inlocusmads · 2 years

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trystan’s reaction to nora getting up in the middle of the night to get water or something & then coming back & giving him a lil smooch on his forehead thinking he’s asleep? what about if it was the other way around? im in a fluffy sappy mood lol 💖

Okay, fair warning, I am terrible at writing fluff! But thank you for sending me this prompt, Mal! You're amazing, you know that?

(So here's my haphazard attempt to write something -- good, I guess? There's a bit of fluff, angst, platonic stuff, romantic stuff- just a wholesome bowl of everything. )

Stopping Time To Think

It is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Just the two of them versus the world, as if it was meant to turn out this way.

Featuring: Nora Rose, Trystan Thorne from Crimes of Passion, Choices.

Word Count: 1.2k | No Warnings/General

A/N: Dedicated to the ever-talented Mal, @mvalentine for the prompt!

“I think I hear something.”

“Hmm--”

“You’re not listening.”

“Because I’m asleep.”

Nora huffed, getting out of bed. She grabbed her back-up baseball bat from underneath the bed, turned up her pyjama collars. Whatever was knocking on the windows in the living room or threatening to break in via the windows in the bathroom was going to get it.

Trystan wasn’t sure when this anxiety of hers started, but he pinpointed its origins to the time Eleanor St. Claire’s men broke into his apartment and kidnapped Mags. Or the drug lord case with those big guns involved. He also wasn’t sure why Nora received such a cruel punishment for something she didn’t do.

Still, he decided the only way to calm Nora down would be to have her do her rituals, which called for the daily - or weekly- (depending on how often they met) - “2 AM Sweep”. It involved Nora, a scary baseball bat and a thorough check-up of every nook and corner of the apartment; no cracks, no intruders, no murderers equalled a happy Nora.

He could hear her loud deductions, “No cracks. Walls are clean. If anyone were to show up, they’d…”

One thing was sure. Trystan was an expert at martial arts himself. He didn’t need a bodyguard, but he sure did appreciate one. With Nora’s frequent visits, their “rickety” relationship so to speak, for the first time in eight years of exile. Trystan found a sliver of hope to hold onto.

“Ah! Numbers! That’s it!” he heard her yell in exclamation, before disappearing into the sparring room.

Trystan chuckled to himself. He didn’t mind losing sleep. Not anymore.

Fifteen minutes later, Nora arrived.

“All good. If something were to happen, I’ve created a nice little trap built on pulleys and chain-reactions. Unfortunately that was at the expense of your detergent bottles. Truly sorry about that.”

Trystan pretended to be asleep. He held his breath, shut his eyes and looked as stiff as a log.

“Okay. You’re not actually asleep-- holy crap, you are. So sorry about that. No need to panic-- well, you’re not panicking now. It’s all sorted. Great. Great.”

There was a pause.

“You know--” she started. “It -- erm-- it means a lot. I -- I don’t exactly have anyone to talk to about things like this. About well, anything. And I know things have become a tad bit complicated thanks to whatever it is we have going on, but I hope you know--”

Nora took a small pause, holding back the sentiment. She grabbed hold of Trystan’s right hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

“-- I don’t have best friends. I don’t have partners to chit-chat over. Not anymore. Ruby and Luke-- well, they’re there, but -- the point is.. You’re my best friend. And I’ve just got one of you, don’t I? It makes it -- a bit frightening, but all the more worthwhile. Even if our time might be temporary, permanent; well, the time doesn’t matter now. What matters is, you’re the best partner I’ve had in a long time. Quite possibly forever. And I hope you know that. It feels good to open up when I know you’re just -- asleep, I guess.”

She paused once more.

“Everything’s clean. No intruders. It’s safe and sound now. I mean, who’s ever heard of 2AM robbers, huh? There are muggers, then you have the house-break-in-when-you’re-not-at-home-ers. I don’t think we’ll entertain any intruders now.”

Trystan listened intently. He was numb, completely. But he listened. His heart raced, practically a million miles. He wasn’t sure what Nora was planning to say next and frankly, he couldn’t predict it either.

“I’ve just got you.” Nora huffed, laughing despite her tensed, sore muscles. “Thank you.”

Nora was always alone. Worked alone. Ate alone. Solved cases all on her own. She never looked back, nor did she think about wanting to move forward either. To her, everything at-present was eternal and it quickly isolated her from the rest of the world. It was an itching feeling; so crippling and in a desperate attempt to be understood, Nora threw herself into danger.

She didn’t care anymore. If everything was just utterly miserable, what is the point? She’d asked herself. Everything is temporary. Every morsel of happiness is fleeting.

Even though the feeling never completely “went away”, Trystan made everyday a little better. A little bearable. All that baggage in her head, all those times she’d thought of herself as some useless deadweight trying to fulfil her father’s dreams, now, it made sense. It made sense to have a friend. Someone who looked at her with so much awe every time she pointed out something interesting, someone who was so perfect, so funny, adoring, kind.

Someone who was a best friend.

The same someone who decided it was worth it to take a knife to the abdomen, to run into a burning mansion to retrieve evidence, to accompany her on the wildest of chases, to spend boring hours whiling away talking about ridiculous things. In the vast expanses of the universe, brains and brawns weren’t all that important. What mattered was whether one had a hand to hold- be it a friend’s, a lover’s, a sibling’s. Any hand.

A reason to wake up everyday and not feel the urge to want to destroy themselves. A reason to fight. To love, to hold, cherish every possible second of their lives, to run against the wind, feel all the air and be right on top of the world.

And it was then Nora realised something. Happiness was fleeting. Time wasn’t. The ‘fleeting nature of happiness’ didn’t give into its meaning, rather happiness itself, as a bubble of “mushy gushy fussy” feelings did. Time stayed.

It went slow, it went fast. It had its own ways of being massive and threatening, but at the same time, it stayed. It even stopped at that exact moment when the realisation hit Nora. It gave her plenty of room to think and understand what it meant. Why she spent minutes every night, bolting all the doors. Why she spent every morning impatiently watching the door to the Detective Agency.

She couldn’t tell, but it was an extraordinary realisation. Something that lit up her face, as if she were watching the Sun explode.

“Oh.” Nora said.

Trystan heard. He still stayed put.

When suddenly, he felt something. Something akin to a kiss, because it really was one. Right against his forehead. For a second or two, the Prince was convinced he’d lost track of his heartbeat.

“I hope you know that, this might not be much. I-- think I’ve said enough for now. Goodnight.” she wished, pulling up the bedsheets to her shoulder. “And thank you for staying.”

Trystan just knew.

When things seemed grim, when everything turned to utter disaster, with no means of escape, no anything and when he’d be left to himself, all alone, simmering in the guilt thanks to a man he used to be, he could take one good look at his Detective - his Detective, one good look at the intertwined lives they shared and one good look at the streets of New York, before sprinting after a criminal.

Hope wasn’t the thing with feathers. Not anymore. And when everything seemed bleak, all grey-and-white, there were two of them bickering about in a Brownstone building and slowly restoring all the colour back again.

Just the two of them against the world.

A/N: I loved writing every bit of this! Big big thanks to Mal for this clever witty prompt. Although maybe I'm not good at writing fluff. Or romance. Or sappy scenes. Or anything emotional. (This is where my aro-ace-ness brings a huge disadvantage)

But I'm proud of this one! A little! I just channeled in all my fluffy/angsty/sappy-ness into one big mushy fic right here and I'm glad I went the extra mile and took a stride to do that. Writing is all about being fluid and flexible, regardless of your "home-base" genre.

Tag List:

Perma: @ofmischiefandmedicine @quixoticdreamer16 Crimes : @aallotarenunelma

Sidenote, I've kind of sort of lost all my tag lists after my, shall we say, "reboot", so if you really wish to be tagged for pure garbage like this, do drop a comment or send me an ask or in whatever way you see fit. Just let me know!

(And I lowkey apologise for all this spamming! This fic, like many other prompt-based ones are never planned. Which is why they carry such raw energy and a ton of grammar mistakes.)

#queued #trystan thorne x nora rose #crimes of passion choices #trystan thorne #nora rose #w:inlocusmads

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starlightelegy · 1 year

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Starlight Elegy - Chapter 2

The Asterians

In the days that followed the day I met the aliens, I had to do a few tests, simulations of flying, physical tests and all that kind of things to see what skills I already had. We, and especially I, discovered that I had natural skills in piloting, and of course, I already had knowledge in astrophysics. Asteroid then allowed me to be a temporary member of the crew, but for that decision to be official, we needed to register me on their base, on their asteroid Asteri Alpha, where all of their technology was made. Which also meant, I was about to take my first trip into space. Of course I knew I was ready. I had been waiting for this very moment my whole life. But that was also scary. Because I was about to meet more big tall alien dudes that maybe didn’t like small humans like me.

Shaking my head in an attempt to clear my thoughts, Helios came to me. “Ready matelot?”

“I think I am. Just a bit nervous.”

“Don’t be. These aren't human flights. The lift-off will be peaceful, I promise.” I knew they were trying to reassure me, which I appreciated, but of course, the flight wasn’t what I was worried about.

“That’s not exactly why I'm nervous…”

“If you're nervous about meeting more of us, don't worry. Most of them won't even notice you. Asteri Alpha may be our base, but a lot of different species come there. They're used to it. Everything will be alright.” That made me feel better. Not that I didn’t want to meet more aliens after a whole life of wondering if they were real, if they were already here but hiding, you know, I think anyone would be anxious.

“Okay, if you say so, then i'm ready.”

We all went into the spaceship - Stevie, Helios insisted on the name - and the lift-off was indeed very calm, nothing like the ones we have on human spaceships. In the back camera the earth slowly became smaller until I could only see a blue dot in the void. I turned to look in front of me and the sky disappeared, everything was black. This was the day I realized my dream, going into space. And it was beautiful. A lot of people find this endless darkness scary. I find it incredible. I wanted to say the stars on the horizon were beautiful too, but where was the horizon, in a place with no directions? Where was the north, the south?

“Hey Nyx, do you have something to listen to music with you?” Helios asked. Of course, I already had an idea about what they wanted.

“I have my phone, why?”

“Let us listen to the music you have on Earth. I’m curious.”

“Oh, yeah, give me a second.” I saw their eyes shine a little brighter as I took my phone out of my pocket. From what I knew, Helios was born in the Solar System and spent a few years on Earth, so the planet had an emotional value to them. But it was a long time ago, and the music we had back then was completely different.

In the silent sea that is the void, some music wasn’t a bad idea. I opened my music app and turned on shuffle mode. Anything would be fine. Everyone seemed to be focused on the music as none of them was talking, except Helios who kept asking me about life on Earth today. I learned that they were on Earth around the Roman Empire, so obviously the life I had on Earth was not the same as what they saw when they were there. After a while, they spoke. “Alright darlings, I turned on auto-pilot, so I’ll have a nap now. Don’t be too loud and don’t set anything on fire, right Mars?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“On fire? What did you even do?” I asked, out of curiosity.

“Nothing bad!! Just an…experiment. For science.” He seemed to be trying to justify himself, with a bit of panic in his tone, which didn’t help thinking that it was “nothing bad”.

“And it went bad. Do your science things in a safer environment, thanks. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my bed’s waiting for me.” Helios said as they left their spot to go to the bedrooms section of the ship.

When they disappeared, Asteroid followed them. “I’ll go too. We’ll arrive in about two hours so try to find something to do, guys. Later!”

So I was left alone with Mars and Ganymede. Things were still weird with Ganymede, I really had no idea if he acted as if nothing happened or if he really didn’t call me and lead me to them. And I couldn’t bring myself to ask him. He was way too intimidating. I was thinking of something to do, staring at the void around us, then we passed by a familiar object : one of Jupiter’s moons, Ganymede. Then I realized why HIS name sounded familiar.

“Ganymede, can I ask you something?” He turned to look at me, no emotions on his face.

“Depends.”

“Depends on what?” I hated when he did that. I never knew if he was annoyed by me or just playing around. I decided to ignore his attitude this time.

“If it’s an interesting question or not.”

“Would a question about you be interesting?”

“To me? No. To everyone else in the universe? I suppose so.” As much as his answer could be irritating, he wasn’t completely wrong. He was obviously different from the other members of the crew. While they all seemed to be the same species, he was…well, clearly something else. And I was curious about him. “Huh, anyway. Did you get your name from Jupiter’s moon?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah? That’s it? Tell me more, were you born there?” I really wanted to know more. Ganymede, as in, the moon, has always been fascinating to me. And someone having the same name…was even more fascinating.

“It’s complicated. Not interesting in any way.” How wouldn’t it be interesting? Could he also stop going from “I’m better than any of you” to “nothing interesting about me leave me alone”?

“No, I’m interested. Where do you guys come from?”

“Mars, do the explanation, it’s not my place to talk about YOUR species.” Now that confirmed what I was thinking, about Ganymede not being the same species as Mars and the others.

“Oh dude. You’re still one of us, I don’t care what the authorities are saying about you.” Now I was confused. They were the same? But they were so different, I mean, even physically? And what was that thing Mars said about the “authorities”? He kept speaking, stopping my thoughts. “Anyway. Imagine the stars. There are many, many of them, right? Now imagine. Each of these stars once gave birth, or will one day, give birth to an Asterian. That’s what we are, Asterians. And that’s how we are born, from the stars. That’s why some people call us the children of the stars. Our existence is a mystery, nobody truly understands how it happens, because it is not really scientific.”

Oh, now that was becoming really interesting! “But there must be an explanation?” He smiled as if he was happy I asked. He was so easy to read.

“Well, we have a legend.”

“Aaaand here we go.” That was Ganymede, who didn’t seem to enjoy the conversation in any way.

“Dude I know you don’t believe in this story. lot of people don’t. But I do. Anyway, it is said that stars come from the ancient primordial black hole we call Star Eater. It is a divinity that created the universe and took the form of a black hole to observe everything. When stars die, they become black holes, so we believe that Star Eater’s original form is an Asterian.”

I already loved that story. As someone who is human and doesn't have much knowledge on black holes, I spent hours wondering what they could really be, reading every article about the progress made on them. And these guys, Asterians, that’s what Mars said they were, had a whole legend about them. I really needed to learn more about their species. But now I was more curious about Ganymede. Mars said he was one of them, but Ganymede himself said he wasn’t. “But what about you Ganymede? You said Asterians are not your species?”

“I told you it is complicated.”

“Ganymede is half Asterian.” Said Mars, as if the answer was natural. But Ganymede didn’t seem to share the same feelings.

“I am not half Asterian. I am not an Asterian at all.”

“You have Asterian blood running through you.

“I wasn’t born from a star.”

“You just don’t remember.” I watched them arguing, not understanding. Surely Ganymede would know better about how he was born, right? He also seemed really irritated now. But then he said something that caught me off guard.

“I was created by crazy scientists from YOUR species, I am a fake Asterian nothing more.” He almost yelled when he said that, but he didn’t seem just angry, he also seemed…sad? Although he was clearly trying to hide it. But I couldn’t help. I needed to ask.

“Created? What do you mean?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He got up and left. Mars spoke.

“He was artificially created by scientists. He is a Hybrid. Hybrids are people with Asterian bodies and DNA from another species. They have existed for centuries now but nobody had ever been able to create one capable of intelligence, or even one that could survive, until Ganymede. But not only did he survive, he also turned out to be extremely smart and to have incredible physical abilities. So he found out by himself the circumstances of his birth and, wanting to have his own freedom, destroyed the laboratory and killed the scientists before leaving. He was then caught by the Asterian authorities because the creation and existence of Hybrid is forbidden by the universal laws. But he was saved by Asteroid who proposed a deal whereby Ganymede works with us in return for not causing problems.” This saddened me. Surely I didn’t know everything but still, I couldn’t imagine finding out something like this about myself. After hearing that, I could totally understand why he wouldn’t see himself as an Asterian, but I still believed he was one.

“So that’s why he thinks he’s not a real Asterian?”

“Yes.”

“But he has an Asterian body?”

“That’s what we keep telling him, but he is stubborn. but he seems to get along well with you. Maybe if you gain his trust, he’ll listen to you. I don’t know him well, and I can’t say I understand how he feels but…I think it could be good for him to finally accept who he really is instead of only seeing himself as an experiment.”

“I don’t really think he would listen to me, I don’t know him that well either.”

“Not yet, of course. But he doesn’t hate you, which is rare for him.” We laughed. And we kept talking, about nothing and everything. And before we realized, we reached Asteri Alpha. I thought it was supposed to be an Asteroid, but it was really big. Maybe a moon? But there wasn’t any planet it could orbit around. An artificial asteroid ? Most likely.

The city we landed in looked like these star wars cities with tall futuristic buildings, I really thought I was in a science-fiction movie. The other Asterians were looking at us weirdly, I was nervous because I thought it was because of me but I realized they were all looking at Ganymede. Was it because of this Hybrid story? I was too scared to ask, and Ganymede would probably feel uncomfortable. As we were about to enter a building, two guards stopped us. “Only Asterians can enter here. These two must stay outside.”

“ The Hybrid is registered here. And we are coming to register the human.” Asteroid was speaking, and the rest of us were a bit tense.

“It doesn’t matter. Go get the papers for the registration. But only Asterians are allowed here.” Asteroid turned to us.

“Alright guys, this might take some time so go do whatever you’d like. I’ll call Ganymede once we’re done, we also have stuff to do here.”

And that’s how I was left alone once again with Ganymede. And as we walked silently in random directions in the streets of the Asterian city, I felt something strange. It was like the first time we met. Something impossible to explain that was going on between us. I didn’t know him well enough to ask if he felt the same. And I thought it might just be because I find him attractive. I looked at him, he was staring nobody knows where, not talking, barely breathing. stoic as a rock. And yet, there was something in his eyes. I couldn’t tell what. Fear? Embarrassment? I didn’t know. I spoke.

“Are we going somewhere in particular?”

“Spaceshop, a place I go to gather pieces for my spaceship.” I kept learning new things about him that day.

“You have your own spaceship? I didn’t know!”

“Yeah. I’m trying to make it better by adding modules like the wormhole generator I’m working on. Completing this spaceship is my dream.” He looked sad as he said that. And I couldn’t help it, it saddened me too. But quickly, the sadness disappeared, and he was back to his usual emotionless face.

“Anyway, We’re arrived. Just for this time, I’ll buy you whatever interests you, as well as important things you might need for future missions.”

“Do Asterians have money? Or do you use something else?”

“No, they use a money named Stellards. The vast majority of species we know use money, actually. And most of the planets they have explored so far now accept Stellards as well, with time, it kind of became the universal money.” I was listening carefully, I really loved learning things about other species in the universe. I met Helios and their crew only a few days ago and my vision of the world completely changed. I discovered so many things that I probably never would have known if I had stayed on Earth. And I knew I still had a lot to learn.

We walked down the street towards the shop, and he seemed to feel pretty confident, even with all those eyes on him, staring at him like he was some kind of monster. I remembered what Mars said about him. He was a Hybrid, and they weren’t supposed to exist. Asterians didn’t like them. And now they had to accept that one of them was living among them. I had no idea if it really didn’t have any effect on him or if he was just really good at hiding it, but I hated it. I knew what it was like, to be judged and made fun of for no reasons. From what I understood about the bit of his past that Mars told me about, I knew that he didn’t deserve to be treated like a monster. Of course, even if all these eyes were on him, I felt paranoid. I was scared that these people would also be looking at me. I was probably the first human they have ever seen, so why wouldn’t they look at me? My anxiety rose up and I felt nauseous. The feeling was overwhelming.

He smirked. I love how confident he was sometimes, thinking he was better than everyone else. Because he didn’t use it to bring other people down, it was something somehow likable about him. Even with all of these people around us looking at us like we were monsters, he still didn’t care. He knew it was useless to think about it. I wished I could say the same about me. All of these eyes on us were overwhelming. Ganymede slowed down and turned his head to look at me. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah huh just…I don’t really like having so many people looking at me. That’s all.”

“I see. I’m not going to be long, just stay with me. Follow me and they won’t say a thing. They’re not crazy enough to be mean to someone who’s with me.” He smirked and entered the shop and I carefully followed him. As he said, it wasn’t very long, he knew exactly what he needed and soon we were outside again. We also bought antigravity shoes and those things they wear on their wrists that work like a computer and a phone.

“Alright, we should go back to the others now. They should be done with their stuff.” He didn’t seem very happy about having to come back, and I could say I can understand that. Not that these guys were bad or anything, but sometimes, being around other people, even the ones you love the most is…hard.

“You seem to not like people very much, am I right?” I asked spontaneously.

“It’s not that I don’t like them. I just…Don’t trust them. I’ve seen enough shit in my life to know nobody can be trusted.”

“Isn’t there anyone you trust even a little?”

“I only trust myself.”

“But you trust me enough to tell me those things.”

He thought for a few seconds before replying. “I…You’re just…I don’t know. I can’t explain it. You just seem to be like me. I don’t know what you have been through in your life, but I can tell you went through a lot and ended up just like me. Or maybe I’m wrong and I’m just curious about this voice thing you told Helios about.” Oh, I had almost forgotten about this.

“So you know. You act like you don’t know anything about this.”

“I’ve never called you. I don’t really know what all of this is about. But I do know something.”

“And that thing is?”

“I saw you in my dreams, many times. I knew you before you even existed.”

#starlight elegy #bookblr #my art #original story #original characters #original work #small artist #small writer #writerblr #writers of tumblr #science fantasy #science fiction #sci fi

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being-of-rain · 2 years

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Thoughts from my Classic Who watch, this time Season 8: Oops All Master. It’s a long one because I skimmed the episodes to remind myself of what I could talk about, and found lots of good things! I’m really enjoying finding things I like about the show in this watch-through.

I feel bad admitting it, but some of Terror of the Autons does bug me a bit. Partly it’s the way Jo is introduced as such a clear reaction to Liz, being kidnapped so quickly (how exactly did she find the Master on her own in episode 1 anyway?), and being talked down to constantly. Especially when- please forgive me for saying so- Katy Manning’s acting isn’t phenomenal. But maybe it’s just the script being kinda stilted and sexist, I don’t know. Also it’s not often that Classic Who’s special effects feel cheap to me in a cringe-worthy way rather than an endearing way, but the living doll and other CSO effects did it (and they used CSO for some really random scenes too. They really couldn’t find a room to film some Autons sitting up in? They had to make a fake background for that? OK). But that’s enough negatives, there’s a lot to love in the story too. As much as I didn’t like Jo being talked down to, her actual introduction scene when she immediately gets on the Doctor’s nerves is so charming, and she’s just so delightful that it’s easy to see why the Doctor still becomes friends with her so quickly. And speaking of charming characters- obviously the Master is fantastic. Introducing an Anti-Doctor who’s just the ultimate evil genius is fantastic, and obviously he couldn’t have been introduced better than played by Roger Delgado. The fact that he is so overwhelmingly charming, whether casually chatting with his enemies or reassuring and soothing his (temporary) allies, adds so much to an already incredibly fun character. Other random thoughts and fun things in the story: I like how Jo is given some qualifications- in fact when she’s introduced as a qualified field agent I wondered how many times that came up, but was happily surprised to find that her education in escapology is mentioned a number of times throughout her stories and often allowed her to escape bonds quicker than the Doctor! A Time Lord in a bowler hat appearing far above the ground and floating over to the Doctor is fantastic, and also was a great way to introduce the Doctor and the Master’s rivalry. Though it’s hilarious to me that the Doctor is warned about the powerful bomb that the Master has set up to fall and detonate when a door is opened, and what he does with this knowledge is open the door very quickly and try to run fast enough to catch it. Instead of like trying to open the window or something. The Master makes SO many strange and random assassination attempts against the Doctor that he seems to be having a lot of fun with it. They even cancel each other out at some points- the Doctor and Jo are surrounded by the Master’s allies at the circus (not entirely sure what purpose the circus served in the plot other than filling a little bit of time) when they’re saved by policemen... who turn out to be autons who’re planning to kill them anyway! The policemen autons are scary though, and the bit when one gets hit by a car and falls down a steep slope, but immediately stands back up and starts climbing before he even stops moving is so cool, props to the stunt guy. Obviously some of the disguised autons talk, but it still surprised and creeped me out a bit when one of classic faceless autons in the big head masks start talking. Finally, the giant Nestene being summoned high in the air by radio tower is really cool, definitely fits with the eldritch vibe they had in their previous story. Though the Master’s habit of teaming up with the Doctor to defeat the very creature he was teaming up with before is introduced in hilarious style here, the Doctor only needs about one line to make him go from ‘actively summoning the Nestene’ to ‘actively regretting summoning the Nestene’

I’ll try to have less to say about The Mind of Evil, don’t worry! Already the new characters are getting built up with good material, a trend which continues in later stories. Rather than just hiding away and talking with subordinates and victims for the whole time (which he still does a fair bit of here), the Master gets more time to talk with the other regulars which is where he really shines (the scene where he looks after the Doctor with great concern after he’d been attacked just like the Master planned him to be is just so typical of them). Throughout the series Jo and the Doctor are cute together, but there’s some moments when they joke together that stand out as so adorable, and one of them is when they ignore the Master while playing checkers. Benton and Yates also feel like new characters; although Benton’s been around since the black and white days, his biggest part in a story before season 8 was as Evil AU Benton in Inferno. I kind of love the comic relief role he falls into as part of the expanded UNIT cast. He deserves that governor job! As for Yates, he gets some cool action hero parts, but he can also be a bit of a dick sometimes. It’s the army discipline mixed with male chauvinism. For some reason I thought Benton and Yates had each other’s personalities before I started this Classic Who watch, I don’t know why. It was nice to see some humour and humanising moments given to the Chinese characters, but some of it still felt slightly dodgy to me. I see that Big Finish brought back Chin Lee of all characters for a UNIT audio, so I’m curious and hesitant to see how they used her. Oh it does amuse me that in the Master had been laying the groundwork for this evil scheme for at least a year (not necessarily a year for him, but for the rest of the world), but his TARDIS was deactivated at the end of the previous story. So unless it’s been a year since Terror of the Autons (unlikely) he set up this plan first, then got bored of it and was just like “Fuck it, I’m going to go rob a museum with a circus man, summon the Nestene, and make a thousand attempts on the Doctor’s life. I’m not waiting for him to come to me anymore.”

The Claws of Axos is maybe my favourite season 8 story. That’s undoubtedly partly because it’s the one I’ve had for the longest on DVD. But it’s also partly because it goes so hard on the “grubby little money-hungry government men fucking suck” angle. Something I don’t really like about Three is the way he’s sometimes arbitrarily really rude to people, but it’s probably all worth it to hear him chew up Mr Chinn for being a selfish, xenophobic, nationalistic dickhead. I can’t watch some of this serial without thinking of the classic “Doctor Who never used to be political” joke. Another reason that I love this story is how much the Master gets to do in it. And not just scheming and plotting- he instead spends the whole story being forced to work for Axos, having no choice but to work with UNIT, and being tricked into working with the Doctor. Watching him going from prisoner to unwilling workmate, from violent escapee to charming captive in an instant, is great fun and brings out interesting sides of his character. Hilariously, he even starts the story having already been betrayed by the monster he was working with. It’s no wonder he wipes his hands of his matter and rushes out as soon as he can at the end of the story. The Doctor’s selfish desire to escape Earth is always fascinating to see, and the way that’s contrasted with almost sacrificing himself to trap Axos is great. Plus, him materialising back on Earth in an abadoned facility that’s about to explode before taking off again then reappearing a few minutes later in the ruin is a hilarious little moment. Axos is a good, slightly eldritch villain, Bill Filer is a good one-story ally for UNIT, and Pigbin Josh is a funny first victim. Good story all round!

I wasn’t sure what Colony in Space was going to be like, but I really enjoyed it quite a lot. I’m glad that for most of the story the alien doomsday weapon took a backseat to let the colonists vs mining corporation drama play out. In my eyes the Third Doctor’s era has definitely been at its best when the obstacles are very believable, very human greed and bureaucracy, like in this story, the Claws of Axos, and most of season 7. Captain Dent of the mining corporation is one of the most deliciously hateable villains in the show so far, his absolutely brutal disinterest in anything that doesn’t get him extra cash, very much including human lives, just... sucks SO much. It’s just a shame he doesn’t get stronger comeuppance at the story’s end. The colonists are written well too. I love how the leaders Ashe and Winton have opposing approaches to their situation, but although both arguably make mistakes, neither are pigeon-holed by the story as totally right or totally wrong, like so many Doctor Who stories tend to do with sometimes complicated matters. It’s just a shame that with all this good character writing, the same depth isn’t extended to the native species of the planet, who are exclusively referred to as ‘primitives’ and are universally silent and aggressive. But, on another high note, the Master has another great part in this story, arriving more than halfway through in the role of adjudicator who everyone was counting on to clear up the situation. Despite the doomsday weapon staying in the background for most of the story, I do think it’s rather neat how its used at the end to tie up all the plot threads- what the Master and the Doctor are doing here, and why the colonists were having such bad luck with their crops. It also leads to maybe the best Master scenes in the whole season: when he finally has the ultimate power he desires so much within arm’s reach, he stops to try and convince the Doctor to join him. This isn’t just a way of getting him out of the way, the Master has ample opportunity to kill the Doctor at the end, but instead he begs with him to rule the universe alongside him. If he just moved quicker and without the Doctor’s approval, he might’ve won the day. I love it.

The good writing continues in The Dæmons. Sometimes it feels like something that might be broadcast today, the writing feels so tight and focused on a theme- and the theme is magic vs technology, the inexplicable vs the unexplained. It can be hard to tell if this story taking place in an era of Who when the so-called ‘science’ can be so absurd and unexplained adds to or takes away from the premise, but seeing as the story basically acknowledges that (like with the way the Doctor can drive Bessie around and somehow honk the horn through remote control) I’m going to say ‘adds’. Plus, it’s got a hell of a hook (if you’ll pardon the expression) with the Doctor catching wind of a national interest in the excavating of a site themed around the devil, scoffing at everyone’s investment in the mysticism involved, before seeing the news coverage of it and immediately announcing that the dig must be stopped. Heaven knows how the Doctor knows that its dangerous though, he really does possess the all-seeing powers of a Great Wizard when the plot demands it. The Doctor has a moment in the story when he tells Jo to show some respect to the Brigadier as her superior officer after she criticises his blunt-force plan. I’m pretty certain it was written as a joke since she’s echoing the sort of thing the Doctor says constantly (sometimes unjustifiably tbh), but it’s played weirdly straight. And as someone who doesn’t like Three being unfairly rude, doesn’t like Three being hypocritically hero-worshipped by the show, and doesn’t like anyone being rude to Jo, I had to take a moment to get over that line. Be nice to Jo!! But it was just a moment. I do love an extended regular cast, and all of them get good roles in The Dæmons. Benton and Yates as the Doctor’s in-situ backup in civilian clothes (Benton sneakily shooting things to fake the Doctor’s magic is great), Miss Hawthorne and Sgt. Osgood as very entertaining single-story allies. I haven’t mentioned the Brigadier much recently but he’s always fun, like when he’s in his fancy evening clothes at the start of this story. And speaking of clothes, the Master dressed as a humble vicar and then a satanic priest is incredible. And Bert’s newspaper rags outfit when leading the dancers is great too and surprisingly sinister. Anyway, it was nice to see the Master captured at the end of the story, a good ending to the Master season.

#my thoughts #three #jo #benton #yates #master #brig

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polyamorouspunk · 2 years

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I'm thinking of getting a tattoo related to picnic at hanging rock but i'm transmasc and soooooo tired of people trying to prove to me that i'm a girl.

like i'm thinking i might get a pocket watch (frozen on 12) in the middle of a spiders' web with all sorts of insects around it but i feel like it needs some finishing touches. also i'm thinking of getting an armband tattoo with colourful mushrooms on it (like i'm reaching through a faery ring) but holy mother of fuck am i nervous and i don't want my family to ask what they mean bc i want to like them once i've got them.

also idk how expensive tattoos are. does it ever feel like the right time to get your tattoo? are they gonna be like 'what are you gay?' and refuse to do it? i feel like i just don't know enough abt tattoos.

how many tattoos do you have? are they big? did it hurt?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock_(film)

1. Personally I’ve never had anyone ask what my tattoo “means”. My best friend literally has a tattoo of a “possopede” or however she spells it of basically a possum centipede for literally no other reason other than “it looked cool”. “It looked cool” is usually enough of a reason for most people. Or “Idk why not”. If they ask where it’s from, most tattoo places have a book of suggested designs which you can say it came from, like her possopede.

(Credit to Witch House Tattoo, which is where she goes to get her tattoos, they have more weird and wonderful looking things if you’re interested in their Instagram)

2. Obviously tattoo prices range. Someone mentioned to me they knew someone who did any tattoo under a certain size for $50. That’s a good price. Mine was $100 and I paid a $10 tip.

3. Does it ever feel like the right time?

I think no. I was talking about getting a tattoo for a while but it wasn’t something I was putting conscious effort into. Someone I was seeing was having a rough day so I asked what I could do for him and he said he wanted to get a tattoo so I said okay we’ll go get tattoos tomorrow after I’m done at work. I decided in the car ride there what I wanted and got it a few hours later. I like it more now than I did when I got it originally. I mean I loved it then but it has grown on me like a familiar relationship. I don’t really care that we didn’t end up getting tattoos but even if I had gotten one I would have loved it just because it’s there, but also I’m like a bit happy I didn’t get it because I’m particular about what I like and I don’t think what she likes lines up with what I like and working with someone else to get a matching tattoo can be hard when you have different styles. Witch House Tattoo is know for a really thick line art style and that’s not something I’m into. When there’s infinite possibilities like getting a tattoo sometimes for me narrowing down and focusing on one area can help to decide on concrete ideas, so I’m personally only sticking to minimalistic thin line art with no color for my tattoos. I would make an exception to get something with someone else though obviously. I now just have money for a tattoo that’s not doing anything so I feel like I might as well just get another one when I get home so I can put that cash money to good use.

4. Did it hurt?

Towards the end I started getting uncomfortable, yeah, and this area of my hand isn’t a sensitive spot, so the idea of getting one where I want it next which is on my inner wrist which is a more sensitive spot is a bit scary yeah because it did hurt, but like the pain is temporary so.

5. Are they going to refuse to do it?

I mean witch house tattoo literally has bondage tattoos in their suggested tattoo book so like. Most places are going to have 0 problem with a gay tattoo. The kind of people who work in tattoo parlors are freaks and weirdos. Also what kind of tattoo you have has 0 connections to what gender you are. People who think your tattoo = you being a girl are going to think that for other reasons whether or not you have a tattoo.

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lesbianmarrow · 2 years

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okayyyyy well i watched legends of tomorrow 6.01 “ground control to sara lance” :O what a wild episode!!! i have to admit, it didn’t feel as season premiere-y as past season premieres, but it still does a good job of setting up what this season is going to be like, and it’s really compelling and entertaining. aliens!!!!!!!!

i watched this episode twice, and i’m glad i did, because it helped me get a better understanding of what the episode is doing with sara’s character. there’s a moment where nate brings up sara’s fling with alex danvers of supergirl, and ava brushes it off by saying “sara never liked to be alone.” and then it cuts to sara, wandering around the alien spacecraft, alone. sara has crazy assassin skills, and as this episode shows, she’s able to hold her own pretty well even in such a foreign disorienting situation. but for the past several years, she has had her team to rely on. so it makes sense that operating alone is a challenge for her. the inclusion of spartacus highlights this: he keeps talking about how he is such a valiant leader of men, and sara keeps reminding him that he doesn’t have his men with him. it turns out that on his own, spartacus isn’t a very formidable fighter at all. sara fears this may be true of her as well, that she’s become all bark and no bite. fortunately this isn’t true, but it’s still scary for her to be by herself on an alien ship.

worse than the tactical disadvantages of isolation is the loneliness. when sara nearly succumbs, it isn’t because she’s physically overwhelmed in a fight; it’s because she feels despair at being alone. sara has grown into a person who needs other people, and that’s a good thing, but it means that when she’s suddenly ripped from the legends’ side it’s hard for her to cope. ava’s astral projection reinvigorates sara because ava reminds her that the isolation is temporary, and that they will be reunited again. sara just has to stay strong until that point. that reminder that the loneliness is temporary is what gives sara the strength to break free, defeat the alien, and take over the ship. given that this season was written, shot, and produced during the pandemic, this plot of sara dealing with being separated from her loved ones feels very much like a response to quarantine. space is the perfect setting for a story that explores the impact of isolation, so i think it’s really interesting that the first season of legends of tomorrow made during covid is also the one that is set partially in space. i’m curious to see whether this idea comes up again in later episodes.

i have very mixed feelings on the reveal that gary is an alien. on the one hand i think it’s bold and brilliant to reveal that a recurring character (now part of the main cast) was actually an alien in disguise the whole time. and gary is so weird and awkward that in some ways he feels like a natural fit as an alien. but on the other hand revealing that the only(?) jewish character on the show is an alien who was sent to secretly infiltrate human society and whose species eats humans feels wildly, blatantly antisemitic. and like in an old-fashioned mccarthyist kind of way too. the implications are really really bad. i would be interested in seeing what other fans have to say about it but yeah i feel like they should have thought that one through a bit more.

zari/constantine stuff was fun. i liked when ava saw them together in bed and it made her nauseous. me too ava. i still feel like constantine is not made for long-term relationships but it is interesting to see how he and zari really care about each other. and how zari is sort of trying to “tame” him. i liked how she saved him when the magic was hurting him and she sat by him till he woke up but she was on her phone in order to maintain the facade of disinterest. it will be interesting to see how that develops. again even though i find a lasting relationship between them hard to believe i think the actors have so much chemistry that i don’t mind seeing them together. i also like how zari is pals with astra and asked about her network. i need zari to teach me some networking skills. i liked the insight into how astra is spending her time on earth and i loved the line about how she wants to learn to love earth the way the others do. i am excited to see her development as well.

dont have much to say on spooner except she seems cool and i look forward to learning more about her. i like that she’s a total weirdo. i feel like that should be a prerequisite to joining the legends, is being just a complete misfit. i liked seeing ava’s struggle of trying to bottle up her feelings and how nate helps her deal with those feelings. i was not thrilled about sara planning to propose to ava just because as i’ve said before i don’t think they should get married because marriage is stupid and bad and they’ve transcended those earthly conventions but it was kind of sweet i guess. i mean it’s the cw what are you gonna do. i am excited to watch further episodes and see everybody fighting ALIENS

#legends of tomorrow #sara lance #gary green #zari tarazi #legends constantine #astra logue #ava sharpe #syl posts

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garset-grocery · 2 years

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Alright you scallywags, listen the fuck up. I’m about to explain to you why fall is my favourite fucking season on the face of this earth. I massively Vibe with this season.

First of all, it’s the best weather you could ever possibly have, at least where I live. It’s not hot as balls like summer, and it’s not cold as hell like winter. Don’t get me wrong, all the seasons have their perks (except spring, fuck mud season) but fall weather is simply divine. I LOVE wearing multiple layers (for fashion, obviously) without sweating like a pig, while also not having to cover myself head to toe in snow gear just so I don’t die when I go out for lunch. Absolutely fantastic.

Second, I have SO much to say about the Vibe itself. This is a bit specific, but I have this weird thing where I feel more conscious of my surroundings when I’m outside in autumn? Idk, maybe it’s the knowledge that this season and its beautiful sights are fleeting, maybe it’s just the fresh air, but I feel like I take in more detail about my environment when the wind has a chill bite to it and the leaves are pretty colours. I’d compare it to mindfulness.

Third, A E S T H E T I C. This is a dead horse that’s been beaten so much it’s practically dust at this point, but I am a SLUT for the autumn aesthetic. I mean come on, what’s there not to love? You’ve got the aforementioned pretty trees, orange everything, and of course, the spooky. My entire personal aesthetic is based completely off of the fall/Halloween experience. The crunch of a dead leaf underfoot. The swirling storm of fiery colour when the cool wind kicks up a cloud of leaves. The feeling of temporary, of cyclical decay, the last death rattle. The final stages of decomposition before the long dark, when all the land slips into dreamless sleep. The preparation, the stockpiling, the harvest. The stubborn hope burning in all things that says if all goes well, I will wake up. I will see the sun and the colours of life again.

But I’m a spooky bitch, so of course my absolute favourite part is Halloween. I mean seriously. It’s HALLOWEEN. It’s the one time of year where it’s socially acceptable and ENCOURAGED to revel in all things dark and morbid and creepy. Any other time of year, if I walked around in a black hooded robe and goat skull mask in the shadowy undergrowth of a city park, I’d probably get the cops called on me. But during October? Normal human behaviour, probably doing a photoshoot or something. I just love, LOVE the fact that we have an entire holiday dedicated to spooky ghosts and werewolves and vampires and murderers and giant fucking spiders everywhere. And the fact that it hasn’t been TOTALLY commercialized like other holidays is a really nice bonus for me. There’s no month-long reruns of tired Halloween carols on the radio, no Halloween advertisements telling you to buy all of this year’s Halloween merchandise (ok maybe a little bit of that but it’s tolerable) and there’s overall only a marginal amount of Halloween oversaturation in the media during the weeks leading up to it (at least as far as I’m aware, I don’t have cable TV). The most that big companies are willing to do to dip their fingers in the spooky money pot is some horror movie reruns on TV and some themed candy bars. Other than that (and the entirety of Spirit Halloween, being an outlier) corporations don’t really want to do more with Halloween because it’s by definition a dark, scary holiday with roots in dark, scary folklore, which I imagine is difficult to tap into while also keeping your company image squeaky-clean and stakeholder friendly. And that’s where I think the beauty of Halloween really shines.

See, I might be totally wrong about this, but in my experience, Halloween is very much a Folk Holiday. Yes, it’s extremely widespread and mainstream, but what I’m getting at is that it’s not as forced on us as something like Christmas. It’s still mostly in the hands of the public to decide whether they want to celebrate it or not. And, my god, they DO. Like I said earlier, it’s one of the few times where people are openly invited to explore the darker corners of the human experience. Not only that, but to have fun with it. It’s FUN to go to a haunted house. It’s FUN to dress up as shadowy revenants of death and try to scare the shit out of each other. Hell, it’s basically the only time of year that you can hype your friends up to go try and summon a demon in a graveyard or something without looking like a total psycho. It’s very much all around a fun thing to celebrate fear and the things which cause it, instead of just avoiding them altogether. You can also express yourself really freely, either dressing up as something you or other people find creepy, OR dressing up as something you love and have an interest in. It’s basically the international Cosplay Day. And there’s free candy. Incredible.

So yeah, that’s about it I think. Just thought I’d dump this on y’all since nobody else will listen to me ramble about Halloween for hours. Related: I need to know the cheapest place I can get a lot of chicken wings. For Halloween reasons.

#autumn #fall aesthetic #rant #Halloween #spooky #fall #longest post I’ve made so far tbh #this literally took me a week to write over my lunch breaks

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bythebonefire · 2 years

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🤍 + slaps some grillster in here

Send me a ship and I'll tell you... || Accepting!

Who cooks meals for the other?: I mean this is generally Grillby's role in most ships LMAO. He settles into that housewife role happily, and always makes sure Gaster actually eats proper meals. He probably packs him a cute lil lunch too. Maybe there’s even a note inside telling him he hopes he has a nice day!!! It’s all very domestic.

Who spams the other with memes?: Neither of them really seem like big memelords lmao. I feel like if memes end up in their text chain it’s “do you know what this means??” “No, I have no idea???” “It’s so strange isn’t???” “It really is!!”

Who likes to tidy around the house?: Both of them keep a pretty tidy house, but this again probably ends up in Grillby’s domain, especially because he’s very particular about how he likes things.

Who likes to play pranks on the other?: They don’t really strike me as pranksters either tbh, Sans was prankster enough for the both of them.

Who asked the other to move in with them?: Oh that’s a tough one. I feel like Grillby would be really hesitant to leave the apartment he and Sans shared. For all the painful memories the place carries--it was home. But I do think, especially since we’d talked about how the apartment was only intended to be a temporary place for him and Sans before they got their place outside the city, it might make it a bit easier. It was never meant to be a permanent home. I can kind of see Gaster tentatively bringing it up, and Grillby struggling over it for a long time--long enough that Gaster might assume the answer is no. But in the end, he finally agrees to it, and it’s another shaky step towards moving on with his life.

Who is in charge of the music during a car ride?: Oh always Grillby. You’ve said before that Gaster isn’t quite as much of a music lover as Sans was, so it seems like an area where he might kind of just let Grillbz take the reigns. Funny thing about that though, is that because Grillby is In Love With The Idea Of Music As A Theoretical Concept, he could really be putting anything on. 80s Indonesian punk rock is just as likely as showtunes which is just as likely as spa/meditation music which is just as likely as reggae.

Who is more likely to tickle the other mercilessly?: Are either of them... ticklish? I mean, Grillby might try with his ecto, but idk how successful he’d be...

Who needs to hold the other during scary movies?: Gaster does seem like he’d be the more skittish one, but I also don’t know because like... homeboy’s been behind the fabric of the space-time continuum is he really gonna be spooked by Michael Myers? Either way, they probably holdin’ hands.

Who has to help the other when it comes to technology?: Oh definitely Gaster, if our thread of him casually repairing Grillby’s jukebox is any indication lmao. Grillby is good about repairing some things, but when it comes to like... electronics, he’s a total luddite.

Who likes to get a bit frisky in public / an inappropriate setting?: I mean this is obviously Grillby lmao. But I can see the first time Gaster decides to get a little playful with a spectral hand outside of their house, Grillby’s like. Super proud of him. My little baby kinkster, you’re so precious. <3

Who wakes up first, and do they wake up the other or let them rest?: I feel like this varies, but frequently it’s Gaster. Unless the other one needs to be up, they probably let the other sleep.

Who is always taking pictures of the other when they aren’t looking?: Grillby has a lot of cute candids of Gaster while reading or working or sleeping. :B

Who always forgets their wallet and never ends up paying for anything?: Where you keep your wallet, Gaster??? You are made of goop!!! Do you have pockets in the goop??? Where are your pockets, Gaster??? But for real, they both probably remember it most of the time.

Who can’t sleep because the other snores or moves too much at night? - If Gaster snores, I’m picturing it sounding like a jammed printer, and that makes me laugh. But idk, I feel like if there’s issues it may be because Grillby is very bright and that might take some getting used to if you’re sleeping in a room with him.

Who is better at video games, and do they let the other win or show no mercy?: Gaster would be better probably--Grillby is pretty helpless at video games. He probably doesn’t try tbh, if Gaster were playing something I think he’d just like to watch.

Who always gets up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and accidentally wakes up the other?: They don’t have to use the bathroom, so that helps. But probably if Grillby gets up, he’s more likely to wake Gaster since 1) sudden absence of warmth and 2) sudden light source moving around the room.

#multiverseofsouls #m: grillbz #long post ///

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nonnonblog · 8 months

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Believed Definition

Hello there! How are you all this fine evening?

Welcome to Believed Definition! A short story in which I'm experimenting with some new ways of setting up a magic system and world. I'd love to hear what you think about both! I had a lot of fun writing this story, so hopefully it is also enjoyable to read. At the very least, you get to read about a creature with eight arms, two mouths, and no legs. Because that isn't only slightly unnerving.

Believed Definition

“So—”

The man paused, before restarting, “So, um—”

“You good, man?” the small eight armed creature beside him asked, its two mouths switching off every other word to spin its meaning into an oscillating pendulum between sarcasm and honest monotony.

“Yes— yes, I’m fine,” the man continued, “just, you know, trying to figure some things out.”

“Understandable,” the arachnid (for that was the closest one could get to a definition for such a creature) agreed.

The man nodded, as he also agreed. With himself. The nod meant something, it wasn’t meaningless. He was doing excellently.

The problem was the bridge, or lack of it, really. He had been on it only minutes ago, but after pausing to take in the view a local naiad, a water spirit, thought it would be a wonderful decision to take the ancient foot-pounded stone bricks right out from under the man’s feet, in yet another act of vengeance well and truly halting his progress for the hopefully temporary time being. And so the man, a tallish and starving humanoid with a beard of battered gray hairs and clothing which had once been quite expensive, was soaking wet and trapped back where he had started.

The man was named Edda. His many-handed friend was named Hecatoncheires, though no one called him that. And… neither of them actually knew the name of that naiad, but she was staring at them from beneath the waters, to make certain they wouldn’t be able to get across. She couldn’t just go off and let them find another way after all, lest her name go down among the followers who turned their backs on the heavens. Lest she become, well, like these two.

“I don’t suppose you have any more of those beans?” Hecatoncheires asked, though he already knew the answer.

“No, I used the last one two days ago, Hecate. You know that.” Edda responded, scratching his beard in a way he thought looked thoughtful.

“Hm,” Hecate grunted with both its two mouths.

“Hold that thought!” Edda shouted suddenly, pointing— “There’s an idea!”

“What thought?” Hecate asked, spinning every which way. That was the only way to explain it, really, as the creature did not just go in a circle, but rotated in a full sphere with all eight of its hands. Then it spotted the little thing. A wire of light hanging on the wind, moving steadily towards the river.

Hecate lunged forwards, grabbing the thought right as it hit the invisible point of no return over the river. The creature tumbled downwards, where the naiad moved to grab Hecate and pull it and the thought underwater. For a scary moment, Hecate was reminded of the fact he couldn’t hold his breath, or swim at all.

Edda grasped at one of Hecate’s arms, heaving the orb of hair-blanketed limbs back onto safe, damp soil. “You got it?”

“Yessir,” the pair of mouths stuttered.

“Excellent!” Edda laughed, “Let me see what I can do.”

It wasn’t a big thought, just the phrase ‘Hm’, but Edda had a plan. And besides, he wasn’t great at big sentences yet, especially not without any paper, and he had lost his notebook and pens several weeks ago at this point, after the Lord of Caves had demanded it as passage. One of his worst attempts at bargaining, if he was being completely honest.

Hm.

“I don’t know if that was a good choice of word,” Hecatoncheires muttered.

Edda glanced up at him, “You know I don’t get a lot of choice, Hecate.”

“I know, I know!”

Edda looked back at the wind wire.

“You could give up,” another voice added, from a bit down the slope of moss and rocks the pair was standing on. The naiad.

“I could,” the man agreed, “but I also can’t.”

“Why not?” the naiad asked, in a voice similar to waves hitting rhythmically on the rocks below a waterfall, should the water be trying its best to not anger a god who had chosen those rocks to be its champion for some reason or another.

“I— I have the feeling you know,” Edda responded.

The naiad inverted her face, which was a motion which, for those well versed in naiads, meant a great disappointment or discomfort was being felt on her part. Her lungs— she did have lungs, an optional thing for water spirits— let out an odd gurgling noise. “But it would make things so much easier for me, you have no idea.”

“I— wait, I think I got it.” Edda lifted the thought above his head: “Abbreviations!”

“What?” the naiad asked.

“Silence,” Hecate interrupted, “let him explain.”

“You be silent!” the naiad exclaimed.

“How ‘bout you both be silent,” Edda proposed with a certain kind of hesitance, “the phrase hm, see, it could be an expression of thought. But it can also be an abbreviation, for either ‘hectometer’ or ‘her majesty’.”

“So?” the naiad asked.

“So, um—”

“Pallas,” the naiad offered. A mistake on her part. Names mean something. They provide their own definition, even when abbreviated.

“Pallas, naiad, hm H.M,” Edda uttered, waving his hand in awkward and ever growing circles as the thought expanded in the air. It flew towards the naiad, illuminating the river which was her domain. The skeleton of the bridge could be seen on the riverbed, and the mountains which arced and curved around them, the Rhinoshorns. But, most noticeably, a beacon shone in the air, the coming rain, water destined to flow down to the Pallas river below, alighting in shapes like vines clinging to the clouds. Edda grimaced. That would be a problem later.

Problems were not short in coming though, as the Pallas river suddenly exploded into flood. Edda, slow on his feet, barely had even registered the threat before Hecate had started running, pushing the older man along as the orb of limbs searched for higher ground. Arms weren’t great for running. They didn’t bend quite right. And Edda kept tripping on the rare rock who had sworn itself to the Second Earthen One, trying to add to his chances of perishing.

They had barely crossed any ground at all before the water rose to Edda’s waist, and completely overtook Hecate. The poor arachnid was taken under by an invisible current starting to spin clockwise in the river turned lake.

The water stopped expanding, luckily. But when Edda tried to move, he found he could not. Pallas, a naiad now more powerful than anything she had ever believed she could accomplish, rose over him. “What have you DONE!”

“Turned you into a lake 100 meters wide? And nobility by naiad standards, no less,” Edda explained in a soft, apologetic voice.

“You’ve doomed me! Kolaro will boil me to nothingness, to make sure I don’t use this power to rebel. I can’t defend myself from all seven of the oceans!”

Edda nodded, “yes, yes! You can’t fight them all by yourself! But you can with help. Join me and Hecate on our journey. Help us cross where the bridge once stood.”

Pallas’s fists swirled like balloons about to pop, and Edda closed his eyes. For if they did pop, the resulting explosion would just be meters away. And Edda knew drowning to be one of the worst ways to Death in this world.

But the explosion never came.

“Fine. But if I come with, I expect you to fix this,” Pallas ordered.

Edda opened his eyes once more, to find himself looking at the ground and the green of the grass trying to escape their roots and swim to the surface for air. A hairy arm floated into view, and Edda was reminded of the fact Hecate couldn’t hold his breath. He had to speed up this conversation. “I— I can try to fix this, er, predicament you are in, though I am not as skilled as people say I am.”

“You’ll pull through,” the now noble naiad decided, “because I don’t think you could get by with one more enemy. Your list is just too long at this point.”

Edda smiled weakly, though he saw a flaw in that logic. After all, how would one more enemy change anything?

“I’m glad to have you on board. Now, can you please stop, um, drowning Hecate there? The eight-armed arachnid has much less lung capacity than you’d expect from someone with two mouths.”

The End, for now.

If you are interested in reading any more of my other pieces, please consider checking out my website, the Non-Non-Blog, through the link below!

#creative writing #short story #fantasy #magic #worldbuilding

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keefwho · 9 months

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July 21 - 2023 Friday

7:18 AM

Time to cover some embarrassing feelings since the weekend is approaching. They are leftovers of becoming too lost in my thoughts and current situation. The best thing I can do is admit them and work through them, I should not be ashamed. I’ve felt good knowing I always have bestie time in the evenings even if just for a little bit. I should know in my heart that there will always be a next time even if those times end up few and far between. The weekends throw that up in the air because how much she likes to do and socialize. I get worried that I won’t get the time I want. Even more embarrassing is I worry about how close she might get to someone else in case I get outperformed which seems easy.

Both of these feelings have to do with how detached I’ve gotten lately. I more or less fell into the thought that we’re a couple when we aren’t and was behaving unhealthy in a way that wasn’t fair to myself or the relationship. Even if only briefly, I was re-understanding the importance of being on my own more and letting things be what they are naturally. It is easy for me to fall back down though, especially this early into figuring things out. I gotta stay vigilant and catch what I can. All I can expect from myself is my best.

Step one is to realize I’m already setting myself up for failure by thinking I’m going to repeat the same cycles or that everything is going to work against me. I’m already inherently predicting failure and it would be helpful if I could keep catching thoughts that actively work against me.

8:35 AM

The big goal is not to hinge my entire existence on one person or group like I’ve done in the past.

5:51 PM

Oops, I’m thinking too hard again. It’s stuff I’ve heard before. I’m having thoughts like “What the point of trying, it won’t work out,” or “I must be a real lose, look at the state of my life.” Two very powerful thoughts that I know can make me go down a pretty wicked spiral. I think I just need to talk to someone about it, anyone I feel comfortable with. Someone who will listen. I’m also trying to defuse on my own first.

6:47 PM

At least I’m aware of the state my mind is in even if I’m finding it hard to defuse. It almost feels hopeless but I know thats just another thought. I really just need someone to talk to but I’m having trouble picking who.

9:49 PM

Too often I am not true to myself. I don’t let my desires be known and I fester. I try to placate everyone. It’s hard to remember I’m valid too.

I crave reassurance in different forms but I know better than to give into it unless I’m coming from a genuine place. Often times I want to hear certain things to make me feel better about myself but it’s a temporary solution, a mask. I know my issues run deep and have to be confronted no matter how hard or scary it might be.

10:48 PM

It might just be the intoxication but my entire being is screaming at me to tell my friend how much I want to discuss things. I always have something heavy to talk about, too much I feel. I know it can be an unstable thing to always be addressing struggles, especially when a lot of them are repeats caused completely by me. It’s hard to tell if my feelings should be taken seriously sometimes. Because they can also come from a place that only wants to cover up things I don’t like about myself. It takes a lot of restraint to keep things inside that might not be legitimate. Like an alcoholic avoiding a drink when it’s all he craves.

8:13 AM (The Next Day)

I forgot to do a journal entry which I think is important now that I’m trying to look at what I’m proud of doing and what I could have done better. I already don’t remember a lot about how I felt but I’ll summarize what I can.

Breakfast was half a totinos pizza and a granola bar while I watched Twitch until work time. I did my warmups slowly and had to stop doing the commission because I just didn’t have the brain power to do it justice for some reason. I couldn’t focus on anything or tell if I was doing a good job. Instead I worked on my VR bathroom world and finished the last of the animations. After stream I skipped my boxing workout on account of my still strained back but I did make the spontaneous decision to go out with mom to see a nearby wildfire. It was a very short trip but a trip nonetheless. I ended up cleaning the area around my toilet despite not feeling like cleaning. I took an extra thorough shower for no particular reason. I just wanted to give a little extra care to my body today. Lunch was a nice little chicken burger with some doritos. Despite my still suffering mental capacity, I worked on and finished an emote set for someone and almost finished the next one too. Then I worked a little bit more on the world. I started to emotionally slip in the afternoon and was saved by some Zelda time with the bestie. After she fell asleep I finished my drink while watching MoonMoon.

I can say I was proud of getting a lot of things done today despite the mental hurdle. I didn’t have to work on anything after putting off the commission. I also didn’t have to clean or work on those emotes or anything else but I did anyways. Thats one thing I’ve been getting good at, doing my best even though I know it might not be very good. The point is that I did anything at all. I’m also proud of recognizing that some of m strong feelings last night didn’t need to be broadcasted or entertained because I knew they weren’t genuine and I would calm down. Acting on some feelings will do more harm than good. It’s hard identifying which ones are like that though.

As for what I could have done better, I don’t know what could have prevented me from slipping in the evening. I was trying not to go too far. Maybe I could have picked something to do to occupy myself because I know I was sort of letting it happen by doing nothing. I want to make sure I’m not running from it though. Its hard to keep those feelings in awareness and also do something else in the meantime.

#journal #diary #feelings #stress

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crystalelemental · 1 year

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Legendary Gauntlet - Moltres/Latias/Tapu Bulu

The new Legendary Gauntlet will soon be upon us, and we have been inflicted with a hell of a duo. Moltres is one of the hardest fights with a pretty significant cutoff in teams available as counters, while Latias is one of the hardest to shop for given the significant level of need for debuffs. It’s going to be a rough go this time around.

Oh, and Tapu Bulu is here too, I guess.

General Overview Moltres and Latias are ridiculous on an F2P budget, because no weather setters barring Candice and Acerola have MPR on their skills. And Candice is weak to Fire. So that’s fun. As for Latias, you need at least three stats to debuff if you’re going to win, with the needed fourth being evasion, which is always luck-reliant. F2P does not have many options that will hit multiple stats in one go like that.

There’s also a bit of problematic interplay here. See, Latias can actually be sleep-chained. It’s some new tech I discovered in the last Gauntlet, I had never known that. But it also means that sleep options are torn between Tapu Bulu, and Latias. And there are not many sleep abusers. So cheese options are a little split.

But realistically, it’s Moltres who’s going to be a problem. We don’t have a whole lot of options to make use of against it, but the good news is that we can reliably allocate flinch bots. Moltres builds flinch resistance, but I don’t think ever reached full immunity. Which is actually critical, because longer fights will require alternatives to weather, and a good flinch lock with a Sun-absuing partner is a solution in itself.

MOLTRES Moltres is arguably the hardest fight in Gauntlet. Its entire gimmick is Sun. It will set sun automatically a total of five times, and you need to be able to change the weather back, or it gets all of the following effects all the time:

Speeding Sun 3 - move gauge is never a problem

Sunny Sure Hit - It can’t miss when it’s sunny.

Sunny Disposition - Immune to debuffs while sunny.

Solar Shield - Immune to status while sunny. Note this is status conditions like poison, not changes like flinch, trap, or confuse. It starts with Lessen 7 on it, and wouldn’t you know it, sometimes it will activate a skill that boosts its resistance into immunity. So flinch is a temporary solution too, what a surprise.

Solar Charge - Its moves get stronger. 30% phase 1, 50% phase 2, 70% phase 3.

Solar Flare - Its sync gets stronger. Same multipliers.

I forget the name, but it heals in Sun starting phase 2.

Sunny Daze - Seems to be a Sun-based defense crush.

I forget the name, but it burns guaranteed under sun. Starts in phase 2, when it leads with Heat Wave, so remember Entei’s last bar? How about that but all the time?

It is a scary, scary bird, and from an F2P perspective, tools are severely limited. Acerola and Candice are the only MPR weather setters. Winona gets two uses, and one on sync, but that’s it. There’s also Blastoise, Gyarados, Lapras, Smoochum, and Kabutops eggs who get two applications. Considering Moltres sets sun five times, this is brutal.

There are workarounds, however. The eggmons can work with intelligent application, most notably around someone like Siebold absolutely destroying the second HP bar in one sync with Super Preparation. There’s also flinch. Moltres is immune to status conditions, but not status changes, meaning that flinch and confuse can be used to disrupt attacks. Flinch is particularly notable, as it can allow disruption while abusing its own Sun to your advantage. Moltres is, as a result, a luck-based and technical stage. With good flinch luck, you can get some stupid things to work. And with careful play, you can bypass Bar 2 entirely. But on an F2P budget, it’s...rough.

Team 1: Winona, Rosa, Siebold Winona can change the weather twice, with a potential third on sync. More significantly, she can flinch reliably with Air Slash to disrupt. Siebold is able to explode Bar 2 even without the Rain, provided he has Supereffective Up Next on him. I believe support EX is encouraged to ensure that you actually do one-shot Bar 2. Don’t quote me on it being necessary, though.

Team 2: Acerola, Lodge Blue, Roark Roark, being an absolute chad, can wreck Moltres’ shit. An EX option like Shauna is actually much preferred for the improvement in damage, but we make due. Please note, do not ever use Head Smash. Roark exists for low gauge, and an absolutely insane sync nuke. Lodge Blue and Acerola both provide flinch, so even if Acerola runs out of Sandstorm late in the fight, a bit of luck can carry you to Roark’s sync in bar 3 to a clean win.

Team 3: Candice, BP Surge, SS Brock Candice, as one of the MPR weather setters, can in fact truck this fight. Somewhat. She does need crit support, and that’s where Surge comes in. SS Brock is your flinch support, who also has some decent chip damage through Rock Slide being super-effective. Candice is weak to Fire, so the biggest thing to keep in mind is that you desperately need to hit flinch at the start of Bars 2 and 3, or Heat Wave will tear her apart.

Team 4: Gardenia, BP Morty, Sophocles Gardenia, as a sun abuser, does fantastically under the permanent Sun. BP Morty provides some nice defensive support, Potion to heal when flinches miss, and supports the flinch meta. Sophocles can buff his own speed, has Endure, and can flinch as well, making him a very respectable partner in crime.

LATIAS Latias comes in as another 3v3 match, just like her brother. Unlike her brother, Latias’ fight is actually intimidating.

Latias’ gimmick is Fluid Fortification, which reduces the damage it takes by some unspecified amount based on the number of buffs it has. This does seem to grow into Invulnerable, where it will take 0 damage when you hit it, and that’s just how your life is now until it’s debuffed. As a result, debuffs, or at least mitigation of buffs, is essential to clearing this fight. Even leaving a couple buffs active can result in big problems, as Fluid Fortification does seem to be a big reduction. As an example of the difference: this video from Imposter Oak has his Lisia partnered with Darach and Falkner, providing debuffs to attack and evasion consistently, but could not keep up with the other four stats. As a result, his Lisia was dealing around 4k per Moonblast in the final phase. I ran my Lisia on my grind run with Kimono Jasmine and Classic Elesa, debuffing all its stats except accuracy. Lisia could deal around 17k per Moonblat. It is a significant difference.While Fluid Fortification is part of that difference, the other part is a counter skill called Weakened. If Latias is debuffed, you will increase your damage. The more debuffed it is, the higher your damage. There’s a break-even point somewhere, but I couldn’t confirm it, beyond guessing “If total buffs = total debuffs.” Both skills activate, so who knows. Much like Fluid Fortification can build to Invulnerable, Weakened can build into Vulnerable, which I would guess is full damage increase.

Phase 1 is pretty direct, though there are some things to look out for. Good strategy is taking down the sides first, through whatever means you can. They gain +2 in their offensive stat of choice with each attack, and get really dangerous if left unchecked. Latias itself can debuff special defense with some of its moves, and has Defense Crush and Ripple Effect, so the whole team gets hit. But worst of all is Mud Slap. It will only use this once, usually right after first sync if no attacks were disrupted, so dodging or disrupting that, or getting it under half HP before then, is important. Otherwise you’re all down one stage of accuracy, and that leads into the real nightmare.

Phase 2, Latias will start the evasion with a full +3. Now you can miss, and if you took Mud Slap earlier, it’s worse. See, the new gimmick here is, every time you miss, it gains another point of evasion. If you hit, however, it loses a point in evasion. Take your shot and hope for the best. This is where Invulnerable usually comes into play, and it can snowball to a point even a backup team can’t salvage. Throughout this second bar, it will spend turns using Calm Mind and Double Team to give itself +1 in special attack, special defense, and evasion. As you can tell, if you can’t hit it or remove these buffs, it gets bad real fast.

Phase 3 then starts with +2 defense, special attack, special defense, and speed. Because why not. It also gets the sure and crit next effects and uses Earthquake as its lead move, which can take you by surprise and absolutely blast a team that’s been operating on special defense. From there, it’s a lot of dealing with whatever was left from last phase. If you took care of buffs, it’s really not too bad, using mostly single-target special moves. If you didn’t…one of those single-target special moves is Stored Power. Have fun.

Latias’ fight is absurdly complex. It is easily one of the most challenging battles. Piercing Gaze, and especially Piercing Blows, are some of your best tools against this fight.

Team 1: Ghetsis, Lodge Cynthia, Support Tauros “Why Lodge Cynthia?” you may ask. Accuracy buffs. Ghetsis’ greatest failure is that Glaciate isn’t perfectly accurate, and none of his grids realistically permit it to be. Lodge Cynthia is, as far as I’m aware, the only real solution here. Boost the special defense of the team for survival, and let Ghetsis do his thing. It hurts to use a crit buffer outside of this, but man, Latias is brutally hard. The problem with this team is it’s brutally slow, so I’d recommend an eggmon like Tauros to grab the +2 special attack and max speed.

Team 2: Cyrus, Roxanne/Lodge Elesa, Janine Cyrus has the nice AoE sync, which is most helpful in these 3v3 matchups, as well as a Dragon-type sync that means he can actually stand a chance of taking out Latias before Mud Slap. Janine is relevant because of her myriad debuffs. Her grid permits near-perfect poison rate, meaning she can very rapidly debuff Latias as needed. Roxanne is used to give Cyrus needed offensive buffing without nearly killing himself. If you don’t mind him slowly killing himself/are running First Aid 4, Lodge Elesa is another option to boost his accuracy and crit to cap.

Team 3: Sycamore, Brycen, Support Dragonair/Lodge N Brycen’s Haze has two moments of grand utility, and one of them is here, against Latias. Brycen is capable of removing Latias’ stat bonuses at critical moments, while Sycamore is the god tank that can consistently heal himself. He’s even got solid damage without the need for crit. But if you want it, Dragonair is a solid eggmon for +2 crit for Sycamore. Alternatively, Lodge N can keep Latias in sleep lock, if you really want to be rude about it.

Team 4: Valerie, Lodge Morty, Oak Valerie has super-effective matchup and guaranteed hit against later phases. Lodge Morty provides special attack/crit buffing as needed, and can potentially dodge with evasion boosts. Professor Oak is the linchpin here. Unfortuitous can debuff a random stat with each use of Swift, which is perfect accuracy as well. Combined, you have two units who are able to just consistently deny Latias’ evasion gimmick.

TAPU BULU Bulu’s one of the easiest fights, because it’s weak to sleep. It doesn’t gain immunity, so a good sleep chain is a guarantee. Even an imperfect one gets a ton done, because you stall out the Grassy Terrain, limiting healing and removing a major multiplier on it. One thing to watch for is how Bar 3 can mess you up. If Wood Hammer takes out your center because you didn’t get the timing right, you’re now working with only two units, and the chain timing is going to be thrown off. This is a problem that you can only rectify by being really good at timing, or having your damage dealer be able to pop off in Bar 3 and take it out before it can escalate.

Without Sleep Chaining, Bulu can be a major threat. Its attacks are fairly high BP, modified higher by the terrain. Healing each action also makes Bulu harder to take down. Flying and Poison are pretty hard to accomplish types. Flying exists just fine, but Poison is really rare. Even if you have poison, it becomes a major threat to your own strategy, because landing an unfortunate 10% poison chance means no more sleep. It also gains a point of evasion in the last phase of the fight, which can become supremely annoying when you’re just missing shots for no reason on top of everything else.

Team 1: Kahili, Agatha, Hop Kahili’s so good. Defense drops, great sync damage, guaranteed crit to offset when Hop fails to get the MPR again. All you really need is Agatha hitting the sleep chain. The goal is to sleep first turn, then use her trainer move to get gauges going with +6 speed, and spam 1-bar moves with the other two. I had zero issues with gauge this way.

Team 2: Lodge Serena (Support Primeape, Ramos) Before I get into this, please note: Lodge Serena can solo this fight. It’s fully possible, though you need some evasion luck to avoid Wood Hammer, and enough attacks to not just get run over. But if you want to play it safer, Support Primeape and Ramos are here to help. Ramos keeps the sleep lock on, while Primeape helps Serena cap her offensive stats.

Team 3: BP Janine, Koga, Tech Exeggutor I was really surprised this went as well as it did. Janine also boosts speed, but can boost evasion to judge miracle dodge attacks. She also perfectly complements Koga, who can debuff special defense every use of Venoshock, while Exeggutor keeps up the sleep. Note, never use Poison Fang, it will ruin the sleep chain. Your damage will be okay without it anyway.

Team 4: BP Clemont, Bruno, Tech Victreebel This was a tricky fight, mostly because gauges are bad, even with +6 speed Bruno and +4 speed on Victreebel. You will not be able to spam Cross Chop reliably, so grid Bruno for sync. BP Clemont wants to buff accuracy first so Victreebel is accurate with Sleep Powder, then boost defenses for insurance, before moving into Screech for Bruno’s damage output. Bruno can get the job done, but you’ll want to emphasize Karate Chop to get to sync faster to avoid too many gauge issues.

Final Thoughts Some of these are wildly RNG dependent. Especially on Moltres, with the MPR and flinch chances being so inconsistent. But, they’re possible. Bulu’s are hard guaranteed, the sleep chain works miracles. Latias, having just occurred, is also pretty clear-cut confirmed based on last run. It’s really Moltres that worries me. It’s been a year since it was last around, and we’ve gotten a lot of nice tools from common grids and Lodge units and new BP units. But I’ll admit, I still think they’re brutal. Moltres, I think, has claimed “hardest fight for F2P” for me. It’s such a pain.

#legendary gauntlet #legendary arena moltres #legendary arena latias #legendary arena tapu bulu

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alittleoptimistic · 3 years

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The ‘Forced Mentorship’ Plot: an exploration

AKA: writing is hard and I really like This Type of story

You know, stories like Soul, Brother Bear, Logan, Up, Stranger Things, Gravity Falls, etc.

The: “grumpy old man forced to work with a young person and slowly softens” ☺️

Alright folks, I’m learning some things I think you guys would benefit from knowing, especially if you are going to try to write a story like this!

So, to start out: Don’t do the story arc thing.

No. No, bad. It’s not as helpful for novel length stories, and it’s really easy to get things in the wrong place? Do you see how this person organized Finding Nemo? It’s completely off!

We’re using this, more,,, mountain range (?) plotline. Obviously, this isn’t the only sort of plot. But, most stories fit well in this, and it’s more helpful for a writer.

Most important are the False Hope and Low Point points, which the simpler arc doesn’t have. I’ll explain in better detail in a bit.

The Forced Mentorship Plot has a few additional points that make it specific to this type of story. I’ve got those additions in pink. You can click on it to read in detail. i know, it’s small.

So let’s look at some examples: I have,,, a bunch. I got excited. Disclaimer: I haven’t seen some of these in a bit, so some stuff might be a little vague, but you get the idea.

I know, I know that is way too much information. Let’s break it down.

The inciting incident:

Forced Mentorship stories force the old protagonist into a guardian-like with the young protagonist

Soul: joe dies and has to work with 22 to get an earth pass

Brother bear: kenai is turned into a bear and has to work with Koda to get to the mountain

Up: Carl’s house floats off to the wrong place, and Russel is on the porch. He has to work with Russel to get to Paradise Falls

Rising action

The characters have various adventures as they journey somewhere. Positive things work toward solving the problem

The FATAL FLAW of the older character will cause most of the problems, at the expense of the younger protagonist. For example: marlin refuses to take risks, and will not go through the scary trench. As a result, they run into jelly fish and Dory is hurt. Every short sighted decision that the older protagonist makes as the Older One, results in getting further from the goal, and hurting the younger person physically or emotionally

False hope

This is also called the Mid Point in the rising action. Here, older protagonist is introduced to a new Very positive element that seems like it is going to solve their problem.

Soul: they get to Moonwind. He has the elements set out to put them in their bodies.

Logan: they stay the night with a kind farmer and his family after a car accident, and things seem safe

Finding Nemo: the pelican knows Nemo!

Immediate Very bad consequence

This is the worst thing to happen so far in the story. The thing they thought would help is actually harmful. At this point, usually several bad things happen at once.

Up: muntz is evil and wants to kill the bird Kevin. Russel is upset at Carl

Soul: 22 runs off. Terry catches up to them

Logan: the bad guys catch up to them, Xavier is killed

Temporary escape and achieving the original goal

The protags will manage to get out of immediate danger, but at this point, the younger protagonist realizes they don’t want to go with the plan of the older protagonist any more, they strike out on their own. Meanwhile, the older protagonist finally gets what they wanted

Up: Russel leaves to get Kevin

Brother bear: Koda learns that Kenai killed his mother, and he runs off. Kenai starts up the mountain

Logan: they reach the border and Gabriela goes with the others cross the border

Finding Nemo: Marlin returns to the ocean, thinking his son is dead, and starts home, leaving Dory behind

Low Point

Older protagonist has what they wanted, but at the cost of their relationship with their new friend. They find this new life meaningless, actually

Soul: joe preforms and is unsatisfied after

Logan: he’s alone now, like he thought he needed to be

Up: Carl gets to Paradise Falls

Realization

older protagonist comes to a realization, prompted by a symbolic object previously introduced, and they choose to do the right thing, change their ways, and save the younger protagonist.

Their choice will cost the older protagonist everything, but they will give it willingly for the younger protagonist.

Soul: joe is inspired by 22’s collection of items every time she saw someone ‘jazzing’ and realizes that life isn’t about a ‘thing’ you do, but just living. He was wrong about 22

Brother Bear: kenai fights and sacrifices himself to save koda, who he loves.

Logan: Logan realizes it’s a trap and takes the serum to be stronger so he can save Gabriela, killing himself in the process.

There is a final big fight, but we’re not worried anymore. They are going to win. In the end, loose ends are tied, and the mentor becomes and Actual mentor to the young person

Some notes:

the older protagonist is different from the typical ‘mentor’ archetype in a few ways. The ‘mentor’ is the main character, not the young character. The story cannot go on once the older character is dead So, the mentor doesn’t die to ‘spur on’ the younger character. Like Obi-Wan, for example. Obi-Wan is not a forced mentor character. If he Was, the story would probably have to Start from his point of view, and End at his death, which would somehow fulfill his flaw.

Alright. So yeah, that’s my research on the Forced Mentorship sort of story.

#writing #writer #fiction #plot ideas #soul #finding nemo #writing advice #logan #brother bear #mentor #gravity falls #Up #stories #this is so much lol #but this is how i learn best #woot woot

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mochatune · 2 years

Text

Ok so I dunno if anyone saw that one headcanon where Gregory is extremely protective of like a cute and fluffy robot reader but I really loved it! I was sad they didn’t seem to elaborate on his yandere tendencies towards you though so I’m gonna add onto it, if anyone finds the original writer then please tell me who so I can credit them.

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yandere Gregory x animatronic reader

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-ever since you helped him that one night he tails you everyday in the pizza plex. It’s cute until you have to attend to other children as that’s what you’re programmed to do and he gets possessive

-Definitely threatens you when you don’t play to his tune, reminds you of what he did to your friends and how easily he could do the same to Freddy if you decide you are tired of his attitude. He doesn’t mind threatening Freddy’s life if it means he gets to keep you where he wants you.

-you had truthfully never been so scared of a human before let alone a child, such defenseless little things and now it seems you are trapped by the very thing you are programmed to take care of.

-I’m betting he picks up a thing or two after running maintenance on Freddy for a couple of times so he eventually uses that against you. Is definitely not afraid to lure you somewhere secluded and temporarily steal something from you as punishment, wether it be a leg or even your eyes so you can’t leave him behind.

-even if you do leave him behind he manipulates Freddy into helping him find you because you could get hurt, even then you won’t get far because you can’t leave the confines of the pizza plex.

-he is still a kid so he can’t really keep you in one area but he can sure as hell shoot you with a fazer blast as temporary punishment for tuning him out or accidentally walking too far.

-he is terrifying when angry but he also has his soft moments with you

-when the pizza plex is closed you both go to Freddy’s photo room and he snuggles into your soft wool exterior while he cuddles you, you commonly chat with Freddy while petting his hair as he naps.

-sneaks into gift shops and steals little merchandise of you to wear and show how much he loves you, it makes your robotic heart melt!

-is a little thief, sneaks into the others rooms to get bits and bobs to put on you with the other charms fazbear entertainments staff had put on you for cosmetics. You tell him it’s not right to steal from friends but he gives you a really dark look and tells you to be grateful and it was a gift.

-no matter how scary Gregory can get you still love him as you would any other child. Your programming prevents you from thinking so negatively about a kid despite your terror when he hurts you or others (even if you or your friends can’t exactly feel pain)

-he’s quite like a cat and I’m willing to wager that he’s stolen the prettiest features from the other animatronics and has given them to you after dismantling them, you ask where he’s gotten these eyelashes or earrings from and that they look familiar but he never answers.

-doesn’t like you near others, even Freddy is barely an exception and if he even slightly touches you he gets annoyed. But god forbid anyone who isn’t him or Freddy touches you they are most definitely not seeing the light of day ever again. If it’s a child he will only beat them up but if it’s another animatronic then he isn’t scared to send them down a few pegs to learn their place.

-it’s impossible to tell who holds all the power here, Gregory is terrifying and knows a thing or two but your a 300 pound animatronic that can easily overtake a child. The only problem being is that you won’t because that isn’t instilled in your programming, even if you do Freddy will knock you off him.

-even though Freddy isn’t yandere for you he won’t take your concerns to heart because he could never even imagine his superstar hurting another. He’s wrapped around Gregory’s finger and he’s just too naive to see it, don’t expect Freddy to be any help.

-as for the other animatronics they try to stay away from Gregory as much as possible, despite their egos telling them that they aren’t scared of some snot nosed brat they are still scared of being destroyed again and just being useless scrap metal if it happens a second time.

-does not let you even look Vanessa’s way, it’s surprising she even works here after that incident when Gregory was stuck at the pizza plex. Not to worry as she gets the note and want to be nowhere near Gregory or you anyways so he doesn’t have to threaten Vanessa

-vanny however likes to work Gregory up and will constantly threaten you being decommissioned or “playfully” pretend to cut her own neck with the knife while doing that ‘I see you’ motion with her two fingers. Gregory is for the most part defenseless to the rabbit woman and you are willing to protect him with your life if she even comes near him. She disappears quickly though

-expect to be practically glued to his hip unless you want to be either temporary dismantled or shot in the eyes with a laser.

-incredibly stubborn and only ever really listens to what you have to say (he listens to Freddy but if you have a different solution he will always do yours)

-you are stuck with Gregory for life until he dies or you’re programming doesn’t stop you from attacking him, even then you would probably still be defenseless to this gremlin.

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I low key hate this but I was really interested to see how yandere he would act to like a motherly animatronic reader because that headcanon was interesting as hell

#fnaf gregory #fnaf sb #vanessa security breach #security breach freddy #security breach #yandere fnaf #fnaf security breach #fnaf x reader #fnaf #fnaf fandom #security breach gregory #glamrock animatronics #fnaf glamrock #enjoy #headcanons #headcanon

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