#(This is an old one but it seems relevant XD)

[fruitanddarkness]

" Little Goten.. I'm in a really good mood so how about we go hunting for more of those little earth creatures? I'm thinking slugs.. you'd know where to find them, wouldn't you? " - Broly

"Slugs?"

.･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　　 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

This was a weird request to be sure... especially since the last few times Goten had asked Broly to come with him and he just... well, let's just say bug hunting became a solo activity for the young hybrid. But, he did seem in a very good mood.. maybe this time it would be fun?

"Yeah, I know where they are! But why do you want to go bug hunting with me? You're not going to just eat them in front of me again are you?"

[loupy-mongoose]

Well....

I seem to have found my new fixation.

But it's not Pokemon.

It's something else entirely.

Back in 2022, I had a similar bout of art/writer's block. I found a random plot generator and started getting stuff...

I eventually ended up with this;

I was hooked.

(That's old art from '22 btw)

First off, I have to say that while the story itself covers very heavy and dark topics, this post here doesn't have anything like that. So here you're safe, and I will of course apply all the necessary warnings and tags going forward! ^^

I fixated hard on that story, writing up a loose outline of basically all of it. And thankfully, I wrote most of my best ideas down, because, as tends to happen, the fixation faded after a while.

I came so close to starting it on DA back then--A prologue comic ready and everything. But I fell just shy of the courage I needed to actually publish it.

Well, now I've fallen in love with it all over again... with a new life.

I've taken the wolves' story, and merged them. :>

The characters are gonna be my plush wolf fellows/werewolves. This does mean their wolfiness will probably fall second banana to everything else going on, but... I want it to be, darn it. I'm having way too much fun with the idea! XD

Anyway, I have concept arts!

Here we have Timber (gray haired man), one of the wolves I mentioned here and the druid in this story, and Eirwen (white wolf/young girl), who is the Necromancer. :>

And the staff... One of my personal favorite new additions...

It's a creature called a Staffwyrm.

Instead of magical staves, mages in this world get magical creatures. :3

Staffwyrms are a breed of dragon specially bred to assist mages in channeling their magic. A mage acquires an egg and incubates it; meanwhile, the hatchling reads the magical signature of its soon-to-be master, morphing to appear like a branch from a symbolically relevant tree. However that symbolism applies is up to the powers that be. :)

Staffwyrms are highly attuned to the wishes of their master, and can instinctively stiffen to meet their needs. A hook to climb or grab something? Of course! A sturdy step to reach something or see higher? Might take some figuring out, but they got you! A backscratcher? Sure, why not!

A loyal pet and companion? Absolutely. <3

@puzzled-zebra commented that it had a boop button, so I had to. X3

Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun cooking up this story again. As sad as I am to apparently be taking a true break from Pokemon stuff, I'm very proud of this story and happy to have something to muse about. ^^

[taniahylian]

Paulina and Regulus

Okay, I'mma post this cuz I think I'm going insane (I probably am), but here me out. There's too many coincidences that point out to there being a connection between the two, even if don't know exactly what kind of connection.

First let's start for the most obvious thing... Paulina's blue polka dot scarf.

It's not the same as Regulus', obviously, but it is very similar. Yet, if this was the only coincidence I wouldn't be making this theory... yet here I am.

Next it's this peace sign sticker that's next to Paulina's picture at the restaurant, but also on Regulus' backpack. Again, on it's own could be just a coincidence, but maybe it's not.

In that picture it says Apple on the background, and there's an apple in that same poster, and I don't think I need to saw how this connects to Regulus. To the side there's also a vinyl disc, like those Regulus always carries with her, which wouldn't be a big deal... except we're in the 1990's, when using CD's was already a lot more popular than vinyls.

And there's also the fact that Paulina's mom married J's father, who was from a world-famous family of alchemists. How is this relevant to Regulus? Well, she's an alchemical genius. Maybe Paulina's mom had an interest in alchemy too and that's how she ended up meeting J's dad.

Now... I want to point out that, at least to me Regulus and Paulina look quite similar.

It's not a one-to-one resemblance, of course, but they look similar enough for me to think they might be related, maybe, especially since Paulina's blue scarf was a gift from her parents. That said... as funny as it'd be to say to Regulus "So you are a mother!", I don't think that's the case at all. Firstly because Paulina is French, while Regulus is British, but most importantly because Paulina is human; she doesn't have any powers at all.

Of course we don't know Regulus' lineage, so she could be only half-arcanist, and therefore she'd be able to have a mostly-human child if she married a pure blood human, but... I don't think that's the case. Sonetto says in ch1 that Regulus' talent is rated "S", which most likely mean she's either pure blood, or very close to it, so any child she had would be at least a half-blood arcanist.

That said... the dates would match. Regulus was 15 in 1966, and lets assume Paulina was the same age when she left J, let's say 1989, one year before the event takes place. That'd mean Paulina was born in 1974, and Regulus would've been 23 years old at that point. However, if she is Paulina's mom, she died very young (around 30 years old?), as we know Paulina and J became orphans soon after becoming sibilings... and, believe it or not, the fact that Regulus would die young is actually hinted at by Mr. Apple in the mini chapter after ch7.

So... it is possible that Regulus had a child with a French person, said child, Paulina, happened to be born without powers despite her arcanist lineage (like Kumar, for example), then they moved to San Francisco, where Regulus met J's father, bonded with him thanks to their shared love of alchemy, got married and then died soon after. However... idk, it doesn't seem right to me? I think there might be different kind of connection between them, although I'm not sure what.

Maybe I'm just losing my head, idk. Most likely, honestly, but it's fun to speculate XD

Anyways, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think.

[fancyfade]

2009 era Damian reading

As I've been doing my 2009 era Damian reading, I'm trying to condense the good stuff and bad stuff, and things I believe are relevant for his character. These are in addition to what I assume is obvious (Batman and Robin 2009, the comic where he has a starring role).

Battle for the Cowl: this has how Damian becomes Robin. It's not necessarily good. Daniels really does not understand Damian, especially this early in his writing, but it does have some important context for things going down b/c Damian helps Squire save Tim's life, and we can see Dick viewing training Damian as something he is responsible for.

Secret Origins (2014) #4: This is a much more in character Damian becoming Robin, though fit for a condensed new 52 timeline that leaves some stuff out (like Damian's rocky intro with Bruce).

Batman #688 (Long Shadows part 1): Winick seems one of the early writers who does a Damian as he lines up with later characterization (views himself more as a professional assassin), so I think this one's good.

Batman: streets of Gotham #1-6: damian makes some minor appearances here.

Batgirl #5-7: Always take Damian's guest-starring stuff with a grain of salt, as often times writers just go with "how would an obnoxious 10 year old boy act here" without understanding he's a specific kind of obnoxious 10 year old boy... that said I do like some of his interactions with Steph, and I think it's incredibly important that we see Damian defends his competence based on his training, not on his blood.

Like he'll sometimes justify why he belongs based on his blood (which like... no one acts like they want him around), but he isn't going around saying "I'm better than you b/c I'm batman's son". he was trained intensely since birth (and that's why he should say he's better than you :P)

Batman #692-697: not a ton of Damian in this, and it is Daniel's writing, but he's a little better than he was in Battle for the Cowl. We see Dick training Damian some.

Batman: Streets of Gotham #7, #10-#11: love this plotline for him. Good show of competence and characterization.

Blackest night: batman: More focused on Tim and Dick, and Tomasi sucks at writing Babs, but at there is some Damian content that I remember enjoying.

Red Robin #11-15: as long as you read this one with your brain turned on, it's good for explaining some Tim and Damian stuff. Sadly some fans are like "woooo arrogant 10 year old gets beat up". Nicieza makes some missteps (frames Tim's thinking around Damian as coldly logical, when it is anything but and he is reacting from a place of emotion), but one can ignore those.

Batman #703: shows Damian's character pretty well in a default Batman and Robin adventure, and his relationship (or lackthereof) with Bruce and his dynamic with Dick and Alfred

Teen Titans #88-92 (including Red Robin #20 in a crossover plot): surprised by how well I liked this one. I think it portrays Damian pretty fairly, and we can see that he is trying hard, but hasn't been given a lot of support up until now (or even now, Dick kind of just drops him off with a bunch of older kids who all also have issues and are predisposed to disliking him XD). His dynamic with rose is fun and I think it is notable how quickly he does acquiesce to following Cassie's orders when she's like (at first) the only Teen Titan who is OK with him being there and assures him its not personal when she makes a comment he doesn't like.

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Batman and Robin: Has some nice Dick and Damian banter, showcases how they've worked together well

Batgirl #17: more damian and steph interactions.

I will probably add more (either editing this post or in a reblog) as I keep reading.

[tizeline]

Happy pride month and all!

I figured now was a good time to ask, but do you have any thoughts about the sexuality of the characters in your Sep AU?

Sorry if you’ve been asked already, and the answer can definitely be no, I’m just curious :)

Happy pride!! ✨

Here's the thing about headcanons about queer identities, I personally prefer to not get too stuck on specific labels. While there are exceptions, I generally try to remain flexible if that makes sense? As in I like having multiple different interpritation about characters' identities so deciding on One Particular Label can feel limiting to me.

I mentioned it before, but I do plan on making Capril an established relationship in the AU sooner or later, so April and Casey are definitely sapphic. But more specific than that? Are they lesbian or bi or pan or whatever?? I dunno!! It's not really relevant to the story so I might as well leave that up to interpretation.

My approach to creating stories is that I'll usually only decide on specific labels if it is plot relevant, Schrödingers Identity if you will, lol, it can be anything if you don't decide on it beforehand. Again, there are exceptions, Leo is gay 100% like duh I can't interpret him any other way XD. Splinter is a Bi-Icon and I will STAND BY THAT!

Raph, Donnie and Mikey? Man who knows, canon Donnie seems to be into girls at least so it's the same in the AU, but more specific than that I dunno, I'm not planning on the story really focusing on romance (aside from a little capril because every story needs sapphics that's like the law)

Actually, you know what I find fun? World building! I honestly tend to be more interested in how queer identities are viewed and treated in a story's world as a whole as opposed to induvidual character's identities. Human society in rottmnt seems to be mostly the same as our IRL society, but what about Yōkai society!? With how diverse yōkai are I think it'd be fun if people in The Hidden City just... didn't care about who you loved or what you identified as. As a result of that, I don't think yōkai would care that much about terminology and labels, you just kinda loved whoever you loved.

It'd be honestly be kinda interesting if Donnie and April used terminology that related to queer stuff and Raph, Leo and Mikey are just really confused. Like for example, April is complaining about one of her classmates who's homophobic and the The Drax Bros are just like "Home-phobic??? They're afraid of homes??" cuz the concept of discriminating against someone based on which gender they're attracted to is completely foreign to them. Actually, Leo might be more knowledgable about human queer culture considering he's interested in human cultures in general. He calls himself gay at one point and Draxum is all like "you're happy? good for you?" and he'd just be wondering why Leo is using such an old-timey word considering Leo doesn't exactly have the most advanced vocabulary.

[jayietheriverwarrior]

Well. Here's a piece that I meant to have done during Pride Month, that I finished at the end of July, and then didn't actually post online until August. Oops. XD Ah well. Anyway, here's some of my pride headcanons for Warriors, with each cat holding/wearing something with the colors of their relevant Pride flag.

Up first are the aroace queens, Drizzle of RiverClan and Mousefur! Drizzle's from Riverstar's Home if you don't remember her, she got super cranky/uncomfortable about Riverstar's relationship with Finch Song. A lot of it was probably just her being young and not wanting to see her old leader and his wife kissing in front of her, and her overall annoyance at how Riverstar's love for Finch Song kept them from going home on time, but to me she just gave off so much "ew allo romance is gross, I'm too aroace to deal with this" vibes, I love it. :D We need more ace queens in this world. Mousefur I won't get into as much, as I think viewing her as aroace is pretty standard. As a RiverClan warrior, Drizzle's of course carrying a fish she caught, while Mousefur caught a bird.

Up next we've got gay Tallstar and bi Jake. :D Tallstar gets a pretty gay butterfly (I drew the butterfly in this piece before the butterfly wings in the Hake drawing if you can't tell, this one looks a lot more awkward XD) on his head, and Jake as a kittypet gets a non-wild accessory, a bi bandana - a bidana, if you will. XD I don't think Jake was actually in love with either of his mates after Tallstar, I think that was more just friends who wanted kits together (though Quince was definitely more in love with Jake than she let on), but he's attracted to both toms and she-cats.

Then we've got best gay farm boys, Ravenpaw and Barley. :D For Barley I cheated a bit and let him have a non-wild accessory since he's a farm cat even though we never see him interact that closely with the twolegs, I figured a little kerchief thing worked well enough for a farm cat. I was pretty stumped what to do for Ravenpaw's accesory until I remembered, oh yeah, he's Ravenpaw - give him an adder! XD Reffed their pose from a really cute photo of two cats cuddling.

Up next is pan Sasha! Pan always seemed to fit her really well, there's so many cats of various genders she's shipped with. For once she actually looks happy. :D Just taking a moment to enjoy a bit of Pride in a pan-colored collar.

And now for all the various demisexual headcanons. :D Up first are two she-cats Sasha is shipped with a lot, demibisexual Leopardstar and demilesbian Russetfur. Leopardstar gets a damselfly as her accessory, they hang out near water and have shimmery wings that flash different colors in the light so I figure that works, and Russetfur has berries behind her ear as a nod to her one biggest moment that makes me dislike her character despite loving her portrayal in the Tigerstar and Sasha books - the scene where she watches Berrykit struggle in a fox trap and does nothing to save him. Still not sure how to reconcile that scene with her portrayal in the other books. Anyway, Leopard liked both Frog and I like to think Sasha as well, but only those two and doesn't tend to find anyone attractive until she forms that strong bond, and Russetfur only ever liked Sasha as far as I'm concerned and was too focused on her role as deputy to care much about romance besides that one time.

The last two are our demibi boys, Riverstar and Jayfeather! For Riverstar, he does feel attraction a bit more easily than the rest of our demi cats, he likes looking at a pretty face, but he doesn't really feel a deep attraction until those deeper feelings form, like with Flutter and Finch Song - but there was definitely something there for Gray Wing, even if it never fully developed into love. For Jayfeather, he hardly ever feels attraction, though he could for toms or she-cats equally - the only time anything developed far enough for that was Half Moon. Riverstar is wearing a flower crown 'cause he strikes me as a flower crown kind of guy, and Jayfeather is carrying herbs.

[monstermonger]

Hey!!

I have recently been going through a rough patch with my art. I am not enjoying or liking how I do linework and shading, and in order to remedy that, I'm collecting works from artists I like that I can study/re-imagine.

Your linework and composition is stunning 😍 and I am currently working on a reinterpretation of one of your pieces. This is the most fun I've had with a piece in a while. Beautiful work !! 👏 👏👏

....Er, I've been away from social media for quite a while, and even before that, I was behind on messages... I'm so sorry for my late responses to asks. I wanna say I appreciate ppl taking the time to send them, really :") thanks for the patience LOL

I'll try to condense this - respond to multiple in a single post. So I don't take up too much space in people's feeds.

so first of all @laurikarauchscat I'm sorry to hear you're in a rough patch, and I think your method of overcoming it is on the right track. At least, it's definitely something I do and it really helps me xD Most notably with all the Caspar David Friedrich-inspired pieces. As long as you give credit to the artists you're reinterpreting from (and asking is polite too, if they're an alive artist :D so yes thank you for asking) it seems perfectly fine to me to do so. Good luck and hope it goes well, I'm interested to see c:

More asks under the cut!

@blurred-antics thank you so much for the words ;b; it's validating to hear, since they're definitely emotions I have in mind while drawing lately. I lost both my parents in the last 2 years, and I've dumped a lot of feelings of grief/longing into my pieces since then, including ones that might seem rather cheerful and perfectly peaceful at a glance. I'm happy others can feel the bit of conflict under the surface-- I don't necessarily mind if my art comes across straightforward, since when throwing art into the public it must be accepted that everyone will interpret it how they want, but it does feel nice to know that some people sense the extra bits. Thank you again!

@kinnersonne thank you very much!! Definitely my favorite subjects at the moment c: You're very sweet.

@marinaaniseed I'm starting to get to ... quite old ones, and I worry this was a time-sensitive question :"D I'm very sorry if I'm too late.

First of all, thank you for asking! I'm honored people like my art enough they'd want it tattooed, it's pretty mind-blowing to me. I've actually had several people ask to use my art for tattoos the last few months and I think overall, I'm pretty okay with it. if you'd like to express support for my art for using it, then you're welcome to buy a print from my shop. It's not required, but it's very appreciated <3 Hope whatever you end up going for (whether my art or not in the end) goes well ^^

@wandersoffdoodling Aw, thank you T.T I'm happy they resonate with you! It's kind of my dream to finish some zines and some bigger projects in this sketchbook/journal art style. So that's very motivating to hear. Thanks again c:

@eldathe once again I apologize for how late I am to respond to questions that were intended to be very quick exchanges lol. First of all, thank you! :") I'm sure this is no longer relevant for how old this ask is, but in case you/(or anyone reading this) would still want to use it as a blog pfp or anywhere, yes, feel free, as long as there's credit somewhere visible! Thank you for asking <3

@starrforge thank you kindly, yours is great too :")

@herebesherlocks Aww thank you so much :") I'm honored it evokes that feeling.

@the-halcyon-effect 100 years later: thank you that's a huge honor to hear :"))))

[aikoiya]

Hello there, I love your post and I like your idea about Danny being affected by hamon but now not the time for dp x jjba and i have a long post idea that I would be understanding that it takes you days to research and post your idea.

Danny Phantom (phantom planet not happen in this au idea) x hunter: the parenting and by extension the world of darkness.

A few months before the event of Adorable Family Trip, the D family went to Amity Park for a month to visit one of Big-D ex, Jack Fenton, and while at Amity Park Kitten decided to look into Amity Park folklore. I want to know what 3 folklore that Amity Park has and what Kitten and Big-D thought about it, also bonus point if one of them is not about ghosts.

Also I have fun idea that the D family shenanigans while in Amity Park like Kitten learning about ecto ghost from Maddie ( who has extreme bias), Jack ( who is still learning about ecto ghost), and Big-D ( who usually keeps info until it's relevant), Marckus telling Danny and Dash about his experience with bully and tell them about how Brok Blacklaw eat Marckus book, gross Danny and Dash out, Door and Boy waiting in line at Nasty Burger for the meatiest burger for Boy and telling Jazz about his old 'mining day' unintentionally misled Jazz into thinking he was a miner and not a EOD specialist that he actually is, and Big-D and Jack have a journey and talk about why Big-D broke up with Jack as while Jack is good against ghost, he is not prepared for Big-D reckoning against the various supernatural.

Also for the funny Big-D know Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom when first met and didn't tell his family until on the plane back to Norfolk UK and his reasoning is that "it is obvious".

Holy cow! Honestly, I was confused for a bit. But the further down I got, the more I recognized. Like, Big-D was my first tip off, but it wasn’t until I read Markus, Door, & Boy that it clicked.

Now, I know what we’re talking about. I was afraid this was about Monster Hunter or Hunter x Hunter because I know practically nothing about either of those except dragons & that they are an absolute infestation in Monster Hunter.

You have no idea how lucky you are that my brother got me to watch the animated adaptation on YouTube or I would be completely lost! XD

So, congratulations, I can ramble about this subject!

However, I have only seen the animated adaptation up to Big-D's guide to avoiding arrest & am actually currently watching it as I type because I asked my brother a question about the show & he later said he'd rather watch more of it rather than continue with Lupin III. So, thanks for that. (Jk.)

Brok literally just appeared for the first time. His crew certainly seems to possess quite the motley assortment of very unfortunate faces, don't they?

But, yeah, I haven't seen any of the actual sessions, so my knowledge about how that world works is limited to that.

First off, I love, love, love all the supernatural lore in it. I was literally taking down notes.

Anyway, hmm… Well, I just looked at a list of Michigan cryptids & it talked about Michigan Mermen, though evidently, it's “bad luck to threaten one.” Though, the legend specifically says it's in Lake Superior. At the same time, the 2 lakes are connected by Whitefish Bay, so I wouldn't understand why they wouldn't also appear in Lake Michigan unless it was specifically inhabited by a predator of theirs. There's also apparently the Chicago Mothman, which according to a really cool map someone made from doing a bunch of research (Amity Park Location & Map), is most likely not even a full day's travel from Amity. Then there's the Lake Michigan Sea Serpent, which is, like, right there.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it lived in Lake Eerie. Maybe even just a short walk away from Amity itself.

Though, I do also have something a bit more benign that I made up myself. It's not really a creature. It's just a jukebox that plays creepily accurate music. → The Haunted Jukebox

It's really not much, but I figure that it'd be nice to investigate something that wouldn't try to do unspeakable things to them for once, ya know?

And I do have to say that I very much don't see Jack as the type who'd be into Big-D. In fact, I think the only dude that Jack might have a chance of being into is Vlad, who was never interested & will never be interested. And I don't even know if Jack would be aware of his own interest or if it's ever even crossed his mind.

However, I do have an alternate suggestion. What if Jack & Big-D… were brothers or cousins?

Now, I have a lot of thoughts on not only the Fenton Family’s lineage, but several others too, so here's a link so that I don't have to put it all here. → DP AU - Family Legacy

For that matter, I also hc that Warden Walker is Maddie's dad (but neither are aware). Seriously, go read Grandpappy Walker on Fanfiction.com. It’s an interesting read. However, it never finished. I have other hcs involving her family here, too. → The Walker Family

Now, moving on. This could absolutely work because my theories regarding both the Fenton family & Big-D actually align very well.

Mainly in that I hc that the Fentons are descended from a Lugat, thus making everyone descended from him dhampirs after a fashion.

Now, if we go this route, my suggestion is that Jack was the black sheep of the family… but Big-D was the bedazzled, feral sheep that kept biting everyone. Brilliant & the star of the Fenton family with a brain like a supernatural encyclopedia, but obviously has something very wrong in his head.

In my mind, Jack was never good at learning other languages (which was very important for research) or the apotropaic magics of his family because he could never really wrap his head around the mechanics of how it all worked, so he became frustrated with it all, called it a load of hooey & became determined to prove himself a hunter through the medium he did understand: SCIENCE!!!

And engineering. However, because he'd felt like an outcast due to being unable to understand the magical side of things, he'd begun to reject a lot of the old, tried & true hunter methods, relegating them to the domain of superstition even though a part of him knew that it was all true. He was bitter, okay?

Despite this, he's actually surprisingly honest with himself, considering how full of himself he can be. As such, if he's ever shown concrete evidence that he's wrong, he's actually very quick to adapt & accept that fact.

Then, promptly make amends.

Maddie, however, is ridiculously secular & stubborn. As such, she would be ridiculously difficult to convince regarding subjects involving the supernatural that couldn't be explained using science.

Interestingly, despite being so very different, Big-D was actually one of the only ones in their family who actually heard out Jack’s theories.

At the same time, though Big-D thought that the possibility of this “Ghost Zone” was, indeed, possible, he'd never thought that Jack would not only be able to reach it, consistently of all things, but then prove it!

Personally, I love it when experts of the supernatural are entirely blindsided by something that completely shatters their understanding of the world around them. Like, science is making new discoveries all the time. Why can't the supernatural hunter field also be doing the same?

I'm saying that I think it would be fun if the entirety of Big-D's knowledge of this new plane of existence completely consisted of whatever theories Jack had spoken to him about regarding it.

On the one hand, he's so ridiculously PROUD of Jackie-Boy!!

On the other, Big-D is absolutely shitting his short shorts as it slowly dawns on him the implications of all this.

I mean… this… this is the fucking trans-universal thanatonexus!! Literal proof of alternate & parallel universes!!!

The universe between universes & the moment between times!!!

….

….

Big-D needs to sit down before he passes out…

Which, my guy. I have a full freaking masterlist of hcs regarding how the Infinite Realms work, how it interacts with the Living Realms, how ectoplasm is made. As well as hcs about Clockwork & Nocturn. → DP Ghost Zone Masterlist

Clockwork - The Origin of Clockwork - Clockwork Through the Multiverse - Nocturn (My Style)

Peruse at your leisure.

Seriously, I might have a problem…

I mean, if you really think about it, how would Big-D know much of anything about ecto-ghosts? The only people shown to possess portals are the Fentons & Vlad & the only other portals are natural portals which open randomly & very rarely. Like, maybe he's heard stories about powerful beings that could fly & shoot lasers, but I don’t think he’d know anything truly concrete.

But I definitely think he's aware of Danny's time traveling shenanigans, though only from the perspective of having seen imagery of Phantom & Plasmius scattered through time. But not that it’s Danny & the mayor of Amity (at least initially).

Which, I honestly think that they'd legitimately despise each other. D & Vlad, that is.

Which, perhaps Big-D's actual reason for visiting could partially be because of that? Maybe he saw a picture in a supernatural tabloid about a little town in Illinois that was a tourist trap centering around ghosts? And the picture used was of one of Danny & Vlad's fights?

Maybe it was Kitten who was reading it & Big-D was just sort of sipping his drink at breakfast, was chatting with Kitten, & glanced down only to choke on his drink as he recognized the figures from one of the single greatest mysteries in all of hunter history. He gasps & wheezes rather comically as he tries to catch his breath. Kitten is concerned, but the second D caught his breath, he declared that they were headed to Amity Park to visit family.

The terrifying thing is that I actually think that the Fentons of Amity might be the most well-adjusted members of the current Fentons in the family… This realization haunts me…

Holy fudge, I think Jack would end up being the responsible & rational one between him & D…

Like, I can just see Jack looking D dead in the eye & telling him that drugs, psychedelics, alcohol any purer than near beer, & especially sacrifices were not allowed within 5 yards of the perimeter of Fenton Works & neither were D's sexual indiscretions.

If he brings that shit anywhere near his family, no one will find the pieces. And if he gets caught with that sort of thing here, then Jack's never met the man.

Like, the supernatural stuff is fine, whatever.

Typical Fenton clan brouhaha, but Jack raised a couple of wonderful, talented, genius kids.

(Even if Danny was having a rough time keeping his grades up at the moment, he could still reverse engineer any one of their inventions practically on autopilot & sometimes could even surpass Jack himself in terms of guerilla science & ingenuity, but that's not the point!)

His kids were brilliant & they don't do drugs or commit crimes or go out drinking, & he's not about to have one Bignaceous Ditryck T. Fenton walking in & screwing up the 2 (3 if they’ve adopted Ellie) most sane, well-adjusted children born into the Fenton clan in 5 generations just because he couldn't behave like an adult for a week! Like, he loves D, but “Seriously, D, you need serious help.”

Which would probably start a bit of a dismissive handwaving about how, of course, he’d never dream of it! But Jack just narrowed his eyes at the other man’s insane smile before sighing with a slump of his shoulders before letting them in reluctantly.

Anyway, I'd very much appreciate Amethyst Ocean to be a thing here. This is the DP ship that I've been shipping since I first watched the show. And it was made canon.

Of course, in the end, it's your choice. Not mine.

Also, keep in mind that if Phantom Planet isn't canon, then neither is A Glitch In Time. Just something to remember.

[celestialholz]

The P(aldea)-Solariser and the P-Lunariser (or 'you're really gonna give me sun and moon men outside of Alola, huh')

... Oh, @prince-kallisto, buddy. Look what you've done. xD (/j, been meaning to talk about this for MONTHS.)

My good pal spoke recently on the subject of Hassel's eyes and the significance of Baxcalibur, and it's reminded me yet again how Hassel is painted in the Paldean narrative as the sun, and how Brassius is painted as the moon - and the fact that that's deeply, deeply gay. Now, I've already discussed the fact that Hassel is a Sunflora, and further how one of The Harvests is both Dragon-coloured and features small suns, but let's go more in-depth, shall we? :D

What follows is every example I can find of sun and moon symbolism within these husbands. (They can't keep getting away with this shit. It's just unhinged.)

Let's begin with... well, eyes.

You know what this is based off? It's a parhelic circle, also known as this thing:

This is defined in scientific terms as following:

'A luminous halo, each side of the sun parallel to the horizon, caused by refraction of sunlight through ice crystals.'

... Huh. Ice crystals. Almost like the man owns an Ice type, and shows off a literal ice crystal in his classroom!

And just in case, for a singular half-moment of your day, you thought that there wasn't absolute equality in this marriage...

... Here's the lunar version, also known as a paraselenic circle. And I think, guys, I've seen this somewhere before...

You know that thing, of looking at someone like they hung the moon because they're the most important person in the world to you?

... Bit like this, in fact? Yeah. Look at these men, stood here with their fucking sun and moon eyes. I hate both of you intensely. <333

Next, the Sunny Day TM is in Artazon... next to a Surrendering Sunflora.

(Forgive my jank screenshot here - it's an old one.)

I happen to know from my five-hour meta on these bad boys that this Sunflora also faces solar south, or the part of the day where the sun is highest on the horizon. So, you've put the Sunny Day TM on a cliff that's nearer the sun, facing the sun, beside the sun. Okay Game Freak, very cool, I see you... Brassius' life has been brightened to blinding degrees, yes...

Whilst this isn't the only TM in this game that's in a hilariously appropriate location - TM92 Trick Room being on the roof of the professor's lab, directly above the time machine, springs to mind - it is the only one that's this gay, so... notable.

Next... Brassie is a dragon fruit. Look at this man.

Because, y'know, half-dragon, half-plant. Like Flapple.

Why is this relevant in a sun and moon meta? Well, the dragon fruit comes from a cacti, and its flowers?

Which again, seems really familiar...

... Sweet fucking Arceus. And it gets even better, because dragon fruit also comes in yellow!

And as with its flowers, yellow dragon fruit really likes the sun.

... The flower that blossoms only under moonlight, and the fruit that only flourishes in sunlight.

There is an entire world of spiritual symbolism surrounding Hassius and dragon fruits by the way, which would be going hugely off-topic here, but I'll leave you to chew on these two:

Mm...

... Mmmmm.

And just in case this all hasn't killed you off as much as it's killed me, pals, let me stick the final knife in for you.

Flapple's portrait in the Paldea dex is at dusk.

... Halfway between the day and the night.

Halfway between the sun and the fucking moon.

[lazyollie]

Hey guys!

I came back with an another edit.

Pride month special to everyone!

For first Happy Pride Month for all the member of the LGBTQIA+ community. I am also a member of it. (I'm agender n' bisexual)

The edit:

Explain:

Knockout

All of this headcanons but I hope we can all agree with the fact that Knockout is gay.

I was in trouble when I started for searching for characters to put to the straight and the transgender part.

Starscream

To put Starscream to the transgender was the worst idea what I have ever thought. He's the only cybertronian on the series who doesn't a good fighter. But I guess his good with his commander role. He literally need bodyguards (vehicons) xd.

Wheeljack

The wheeljack x ratchet ship helped me to guess his 'sexuality'. This guy is a troublemaker flirter. He flirted with the Arcee too I guess. He flirted with the whole Prime team. It's just my opinion. I can't tell more. He's just bisexual to me.

Airachnid

Arcee and she is the only female robots in the series. The reason why I think Airachnid is lesbian that she only made physical contact with Arcee what she seemed like enjoyed. She hates men. She's relationship with guys are shit. She's hidden flirt with Arcee kills me. I know that these two are lesbians I think the same. I preffer Airachnid over Arcee. Aiarchnis is more powerful and confident. I'm an Airachnid person. Lot of people hates her, because she killed Breakdown and Arcee's old mate, Tailgate. I can't hate her my gay ass doesn't let me.

Bumblebee

Maybe he's the only who closest to straight than others. I just choose one and put to the straight part. I didn't have a relevant reason to do that.

Hope you guys likes my edits. If you want to see more of it than you can follow my Tiktok account.

Tiktok: @noriithelol

Bye for today!

[polarpace]

i return to you all with some more of my legend of spyro AU, TLoFaI! (@thelegendoffireandice) this time, i have a fan character i made for the AU!

obviously the AU is still in progress, so i'm still trying to decide which characters i want to fill what roles. i keep going back and forth on if this kid should be a major character or a background one. i'm leaning more towards her being relevant though, because i've grown very attached XD

anyways, onto their bio!

Name: Voltz

Species: Dragon

Age: 12

Pronouns: they/she

Element: Electricity

Home: Arctic Stronghold (canon: Dante's Freezer)

Alignment: Good

Relatives: Shalen (mother), Rumblr (mother, status unknown)

Backstory:

As conflicts between the peaceful creatures of the world and the villainous Wraiths seemed to die down, a pair of dragons - an Electric dragon named Rumblr and a Shadow dragon named Shalen - decided to start a family together. The two were very loving and protective of their egg from the start, determined to give them the best life possible in Frostfall Forest. However, this joy and peace could not last, and the night before their egg was set to hatch, a massive raid was launched by the Wraiths. Shalen managed to make off with their egg, but amidst the chaos, she lost sight of Rumblr.

A small group of creatures displaced by the attack had formed a village deep within the forests surrounding what was now known as Arctic Stronghold, and this is where Shalen was forced to raise her and Rumblr’s child. It wasn’t ideal, but at least she wouldn’t be alone, surrounded by many friends who were more than happy to help… at first.

Shalen absolutely doted on her child, but Voltz was a handful from the start. Rambunctious, energetic, and scrappy, they could not seem to stay out of trouble. Even worse was that their element was Electricity, and without her Electric-wielding mother present, she was forced to teach herself. After years of practice, they can certainly hold their own in a fight. However, their electricity is quite strong, and since they've never been trained on restraint, it very easily falls out of their control, getting them into even more trouble.

She’s gained a reputation for being a destructive force of nature - something certainly not helped by the nearby Wraiths using Electricity to destroy every remnant of the village’s old home. Though she isn’t against being complimented on her strength, it does get under her skin how others seem to see her as violent. It’s unfair for her to be judged for her element! They’re determined to prove that they can get a hold of their element and keep their village safe.

Trivia:

Although dark sclera is typically only seen in Shadow creatures, Voltz inherited it from their Shadow mother despite their own element being Electricity

They love to play in the snow, and are typically unbothered by the cold

Voltz patrols around the village when she first wakes up, desperate to defeat some sort of threat and prove her worth

She dreams about finding her other mother while out exploring

[blackjackkent]

House of Grief Boss Battle Report!

Initial state of play: THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM OH MY GOD

Yikes on bikes.

As pictured, Viconia immediately starts out by turning several of her followers into wolves, which is really pretty mean because Shadowheart has a crippling fear of them due to the memory that was implanted in her head.

Intriguingly, the source of this is a series of connected abilities she has:

Wild. I'm assuming that if we came down here without Shadowheart and Hector had gone through the Mapping of the Heart himself, this attack would be keyed to him and to something he said during the conversation.

Shadowheart is NOT HAVING ANY OF THIS BULLSHIT:

Atta girl.

>:(

Looking at Viconia's other features:

That's going to make Shadowheart's abilities as a damage dealer pretty much moot unfortunately.

Holy tankiness batman.

I'm not entirely sure if she's meant to be a paladin or a cleric here.

She has 124 hit points, which compared to some of the bosses we've fought is really not much; this is very much a mob battle rather than a single target battle. The various other Sharrans around the room range from 30 at the low end to 150 at the max. Including her, we're looking at 20 enemies.

Hector and Karlach are such battering rams that I'm not overly worried about this, but let's see how it goes.

Round 1:

Given the debuff Shadowheart has against Viconia, getting the two of them apart as soon as possible seems like it should be a top priority. With this in mind, Hector comes in with Flurry of Blows for two pushes in a row.

Given the massive number of enemies on the field, I think Jaheira's conjuring abilities are (tragically) more relevant for this fight than her owlbear form is. Conjure Woodland Being puts a dryad on the field who can themselves summon a wood woad which puts two new ally combatants on our side for the price of one. I don't expect them to last very long but they are not intended to. XD

Of course, once again, despite the two extra fighters we just brought on the field and all the other more threatening members of our party, everyone goes STRAIGHT FOR JAHEIRA and starts beating up on her.

STOP BEATING UP ON THAT OLD WOMAN, DAMN IT.

Shadowheart lands a clutch Hold Person to take one of the Justiciars out of the fight temporarily and gets her spiritual weapon on the field for another ally.

It's really disheartening watching the like ten enemies in a row go in the middle of the initiative order.

And of course Jaheira goes down again before I can do literally anything about it. Maybe I should have owlbeared her after all. (Legitimately I don't know why this keeps happening. Normally I would blame my bad combat skills but I hadn't even done anything yet.)

Speaking of bad combat skills, I decide to send the wood woad over to try and draw enemies away from her, and forget it's next to a bunch of enemies already, which all AOO and obliterate it immediately.

This is not off to a good start. None of these enemies are strong in and of themselves but they're making a lot of progress through sheer numbers. Top priority instantly becomes getting the squishy enemies out of the fight immediately.

Round 2:

Hector puts this new plan into action immediately by one-shotting two of the squishies because he is a fucking wrecking ball of a man now.

Jaheira has biffed two death saving throws in a row.

Karlach wrecks one of the wolves; turns out it's a polymorph variant and reveals the person underneath when the wolf form runs out of health. Karlach wrecks that too. XD

Shadowheart is also in VERY rough shape due to Viconia focus firing her and auto-critting everything. I have her disengage and back away from combat and then cast Mass Healing Word. Tragically, everyone is bone chilled and apparently that persists through downstate, so literally nothing happens. Fuck.

This is actually going quite badly. The Sharrans spend their turns casting Darkness on a large portion of the battlefield (which they are immune to) and surrounding Hector in a big deathball. Between Bone Chill, Darkness, and the fact that our party is almost completely optimized for single target damage (except for Jaheira, who is unconscious), things are really not looking good.

Round 3:

Jaheira dies. Shadowheart gets downed on another crit from Viconia. I reload and reconsider the situation.

Attempt 2. I have Jaheira drop all her healing spells for now since we have Shadowheart. Instead, I have her load up everything she can do that does AOE damage or CC, and cast Stoneskin on herself before the fight.

It's called fashion, look it up.

This time we're going to do our best to keep her and Shadowheart to the BACK line and just topping up Hector and Karlach as much as possible and casting AOEs. I've also loaded her up with Daylight again in the hope that it might counteract the Darkness spells.

Let's see if this goes better.

Round 1:

We kick off with Jaheira dropping an ice storm on half the field and then running back towards the door. Only one of the bad guys eats shit on the ice, but it does considerable opening damage to a number of the squishies at once.

I also have her drop a grasping vine in the very center of the arena where hopefully it can mess up Viconia's day. It's a real Dr. Seuss ass lookin' thing.

Hector one-shots one of the squishies on the opposite side of the map and makes a good start on a second.

Viconia spends her whole action obliterating the grasping vine in one go, which is much better than her obliterating Jaheira so I'll take it.

Shadowheart flamestrikes two more enemies almost off the field entirely.

While Hector runs around the arena, this time we keep Karlach on squishy defense duty for now, beating up the Justiciar who is trying to get at Jaheira and Shadowheart.

The long string of enemy turns is still disheartening but not quite as disheartening as it was last time, so that's promising. Darkness on the field again. Two of the enemies eat shit in the ice field at last. Several of them get distracted by how shiny Shadowheart's spiritual weapon is.

Round 2:

Bone chill is really quite a problem but we made it through the first round without anyone taking a dreadful amount of damage.

Jaheira casts Daylight and it does indeed remove the darkness effect!

Hector kills THREE separate people on his turn.

Viconia goes after Shadowheart again at once but this unfortunately moves her into Karlaching range.

At this point I realize two critical things: Shadowheart's Spirit Guardians can do necrotic as well as radiant damage, and (to my surprise) the Sharrans aren't resistant to necrotic damage.

Let's fucking go.

During the enemy turns Jaheira's health starts getting dire again. We also discover that Daylight only removes EXISTING darkness and doens't prevent new ones from being cast, which is annoying.

Round 3:

Hector kills Viconia and one of the Justiciars. The quest completes, but the additional bad guys definitely did not get the memo.

I had a brilliant idea about sending Shadowheart to grab Jaheira and teleport them both out of danger with Dimension Door. This fails for several reasons - Jaheira is in the midst of darkness and thus Shadowheart can't target her for the spell, and Jaheira raised a wall of Entangling Vines which do damage to Shadowheart on the way in. So they're both kind of just standing in the midst of a lot of enemies while very injured and Jaheira is bonechilled. Rawr. Shadowheart just sighs and casts Cure Wounds on herself instead. Her spirit guardians still do mega work though.

We're starting to gain the upper hand, though. Karlach manages to knock several more enemies out on her turn. This has not been a clean or professional fight but we're getting it done. XD

In a moment of unusual generosity, the enemies decide not to go after Shadowheart and Karlach, both of whom they could easily kill, and instead take potshots at Hector and Karlach who are almost full health.

LOL jk [sigh]

Shadowheart mysteriously obtains a second bonus action from somewhere and I'm legitimately not sure where.

????

Oh, it's from her helmet - she gets an extra bonus action when below 50% health. Nice!

Down to three enemies remaining, which is feeling rather more manageable, even if Jaheira dies. (*spongebob arms outstretched meme* TEMPORARILY)

VICTORY! And we didn't quite lose Jaheira. XD

I'm so good at this.

[littlestarofthewest]

hello! before i start i wanna let you know i don’t mean anything hateful by this, it is my genuine curiosity, i’m not trying to be disrespectful, i’m just really interested on your morston opinions. i personally, really am disgusted by the ship. mainly because of the established dynamics in the game between them and the fact that john joined the gang at 12, and arthur would’ve already been 22, and they would’ve never seen each other that way and they basically grew up as brothers, they were raised by the same men, and at the end of the game they even call each other brother. i know you’ve reblogged some morston stuff and i don’t hold anything against you, i really enjoy your writing and you seem like a genuinely cool person, i am just curious.

Hey anon,

I'm going to see this as a question in good faith and will try my best to answer. First of all, there are a lot of posts out there that argue in favor of morston a lot more eloquently than I ever could, but I will try to give you my pov based on what you brought up in your ask.

Personally, I can see John and Arthur both as siblings or as a romantic pairing (obviously not at the same time xD). Many points have been made against it being a romantic relationship, pretty much the ones you made, and as such I have enjoyed fics and art where they are brothers and I even have written some fics that go with that viewpoint. 

Then again, I think there are also valid points to be made for a romantic relationship and arguments that sort of "invalidate" the reasoning behind them being brothers. 

Yes, they have a 10 year age gap. I personally know couples in real life with big age gaps who have perfectly healthy relationships while people close in age are horrible for each other. It's no big leap for me to think that those two characters could be in love and have a great relationship based on that. 

Did they get to know each other when John was 12? Yes. That doesn't mean Arthur perved on him from that day forward. Suggesting that always makes me wonder what weird character traits people put on Arthur. Kids are inherently unsexual. If that doesn't apply to people who hate the ship, then they should probably sort out their own feelings towards children. Fast.

Did they grow up together? While lots of people like to portrait them as brothers from an early age, I think different interpretations are valid as well. Yes, Arthur was 22. He was involved in the criminal activities of the gang and based on how you see the timeline there's a chance he's also been in a romantic relationship. The chances of him even caring about a 12 year old he doesn't know are slim. He could have very well not cared much about John at all until he was old enough to be of any relevance to him. 

I know siblings who have no relationship/love for each other despite growing up in the same house (while also actually being related by blood). So while I don't want to invalidate "found family," I can very well see it not apply here at all. Besides, I find it odd that found family supporters are so dead set on pressing the characters into a nuclear family with Dutch as the dad and Hosea or Mrs. Grimshaw as a second parent while John and Arthur are their sons. Found family is supposed to mean all kinds of different relationships.

And as an add on, while I too enjoy depictions of Arthur holding up a bratty John by his leg or the scruff of his neck, it's complete nonsense. Have people in fandom ever met a 12 year old in real life? A 12 year old boy can very well have the size of an average sized woman (and logically also weigh as much). Of course he's still a kid and needs to be treated and protected as such, but I feel like there is this fandom interpretation that depicts him like a toddler/small child to make any involvement with Arthur later on more scandalous. He was a street kid who managed to get by on his own for a long time. Infantilizing him for outrage is absurd. 

Also, in 4 years in fandom while being in contact with a large amount of morston shippers, I never encountered anyone who shipped them before John was grown up. There might be content like that out there, but I'm not in support of it.

Their established dynamics in the game can be interpreted to anybody's liking. Do they argue like siblings or haze each other to keep positive feelings they can't express without making themselves vulnerable at bay? Does Arthur go out and save John because Hosea tells him to, Abigail asks him to, he loves him like a brother or because he loves him like a romantic interest? Does Arthur tell John to go in the end because he wants to protect his brother or the love of his life? 

Yes, they call each other brothers. Just like other game members call each other brothers. If I remember correctly, Dutch even alternates between brother, son and other things. I don't see it as a fixed term that solely indicates one type of relationship. People in the past have also called each other bachelors and similar terms to not openly admit a homosexual relationship. You can take the term at face value or not.

Like I said, many of these things have been discussed in the past, so I'll skip ahead to what I consider the most important point. It doesn't matter. Nobody needs valid points to justify their ship. There are ships with characters that haven't even met in canon and ships that even cross fandoms. 

I take two characters that I vibe with and since I like romantic stories, I put them into one. I'm also especially fond of AUs which makes canon even less of a factor. 

You being disgusted by the ship is perfectly valid. I don't need to hear good reasons. If that's what you feel then I accept that. The only thing I ask is that other people do the same for me, and especially don't try to actively harm others because of their ships. There's a reason why terms like "your kink isn't my kink, but your kink is okay" and "ship and let ship" were established early on in fandoms. It's healthy for all the parties involved. I interacted a lot with fans who very much disliked morston and blacklisted the hell out of it and we still get along just fine. 

Long story short, people grow up in different circumstances with different experiences, and much likely they will project things onto characters and have a variety of interpretations of canon or simply enjoy making stuff up that isn't there. That's the beauty of fandom. 

I hope that answers your question? And thank you for your interest in another person's pov. Sadly many people in this fandom jumped to conclusions and hatred rather than taking a moment to consider other people's feelings. So kudos for that.

[sweetestpopcorn]

hi Sweetestpopcorn! i was wondering, do you have an idea of what country Leng is based on? (i am trying to find out so i can get some cool references for Rhaebae's beautiful tiara 😍)

Hi there Anon 😊 And sorry for this delay!

So, I loved this ask because as anyone who has ever been to my tumblr knows, I'm a sl_t for the Jade Tiara that Daemon gave Rhaenyra <3 like based on that alone, and with nothing else, I would ship them. There. But moving on, I loved this ask, but I was having serious trouble answering the ask because although I find Asian cultures super interesting I know close to nothing about it.

Gun to my head I would say China just from the aesthetics, but I might be totally wrong. Because I don't know, I decided to recruit someone who might know: our lovely @ammmyturtle who does know quite a bit about Chinese and Eastern culture and history to help me.

So, according to Ammmy, when she was doing some research on the topic, she got a feeling that George just mixed up Eastern cultures all up and created YiTi, but her impression is that both YiTi and Leng are a bit strange. For instance, it's mentioned that there are ruined cities in the jungles of Leng where old Leng nations used to live and that these were made of stone. Nonetheless, for people who live in humid areas it seems like wood is the main source of building material, due to the jungles and forests.

The colonising aspect of YiTi, and how Leng got their independence is also relevant though since according to Ammmy in the past Chinese empires had a hard time maintaining governance over the southern parts of the territory. Partly, because they were humid places filled with jungles. Then those people were not traditionally Han Chinese which is somewhat similar to Leng and YiTi’s relationship. Moreover, although Leng is now independent, it still has ties with YiTi, since the Empress takes two husbands and one is always from YiTi. But all in all, Ammmy said it was complicated.

I think it's fair to say that at the very least there is significant influence from the Chinese Empire in Leng and Yiti, so perhaps the jade tiara - who once belonged to an Empress *sigh* - should reflect that.

Ammmy definitely went for that on her last rendition of the tiara (original post here):

Anyway, I don't know how helpful this was XD

Btw for all of you who love parallels, like the Empresses of Leng, Rhaenyra too had two husbands - just not as the same time :3 (that friendly reminder that all I write only concerns the asoiaf canon in which Laenor was dead and well dead when she married Daemon).

All the best to you, Anon -3- loved the ask even if I really struggled for a proper answer XD

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 148 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: mowing the lawn.

ELIAS: (mumbling) "Here we go" (normal) Good evening, Detective." [BASIRA IMMEDIATELY ASSAULTS HIM.] ELIAS: "Ow!" That whispered "Here we go"...(btw in neither the fan transcript nor the official one) Was it just "ah yes, Basira is back" or was it "ok, Basira is fuming and I know what she wants to do, let's get this over with...". He says it later, Basira is becoming predictable. Also very satisfying sound, 10/10, only MAG 200 is even better.

ELIAS: "– I’ve – I’ve always thought that a man’s eating habits were his own private business –" [BASIRA STEPS CLOSER] BASIRA: "Mm-hm." ELIAS: (strained like he is being choked) "– but… I can see how maybe I should have mentioned it." [ELIAS CATCHES HIS BREATH] Holy shit, I either can't remember Basira choking him or I never caught it before. Fan transcript doesn’t mention any sounds in this (I added them here), official transcript only describes Elias answer as "conciliatory".

ELIAS: "Look, look – I’ve been doing this a long time now, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about the Web, it’s that it plays its own game. All you can really do is hope it doesn’t get in the way of whatever your plan is. Because the Spider usually wins." We know that Elias finally saw his chance when Jon came to him already marked by the Web. And yeah, the Spider does win.

BASIRA: "You always call me “Detective.” Is that supposed to mean something?" ELIAS: "Honestly, I just like the way it sounds." In 159 episodes this is probably the only time he's clear about something and honest xD

JON: "I can’t believe you’ve been seeing him all this time." BASIRA: "Oh, yeah. That’s the terrible secret sabotaging the trust between us." Yeah, compared to others things, this does seem quite as big of a deal. Still, I think it's something that would have been worth mentioning. Since of a lot of relevant things happened because of this, that seemed like a dead end to them. That's suspicion. I saw an old post from 2019 some time ago, where someone said something like "The way the Dark ritual lead nowhere Jon's gonna kick off the Watcher's Crown by accident". Oops...

BASIRA: "Yeah. John, We’ve been over this. the key is to not force people to feed you their trauma. You know – just don’t do it?" Oh yeah, Nicotine is bad for you health? Just stop smoking. Easy. You're depressed? Just be more positive. Wow! /sarcasm

JON: "It’s not that simple." BASIRA: "No. It is. Or I put you down." Holy... Threatening to kill him... Wow. After she has watched Daisy for years and said nothing. She’s kind of extra aggressive on this day, first Elias, now this... Frustration?

BASIRA: "Daisy’s been managing." JON: "Daisy is… yeah. She’s managing." Daisy is fucking starving. Even if she hasn’t crossed into full Avatarhood (I think that happens after MAG 158...), Jon also was already dependent on statements in S3...

JON: "I have been meaning to ask: the tape, the one of the uh… my victim. You said Martin gave it to you." BASIRA: "Yeah." JON: "How was he? How did he look – was he – uh –" BASIRA: [interrupting; sounding slightly less harsh] "I don’t know. I didn’t see him. He just left it on my desk with a note." JON: "Oh. Right." BASIRA: "Yeah." JON: "Can I ask what it said?" BASIRA: "Um, yeah. It said, uh. “Talk to him”" JON: [harsh breathing/sobbing sounds] T_________T  It’s been a while since we had a heartwrecking scene like this...

I'll be honest, I have no memory of this statement...

There is so much more rambling about their general situation and less things actually happening, I'm already losing track again...

"So he found the manual. More of a pamphlet, really. Can’t have been more than ten pages of A5 in the whole thing, yellowed and water-damaged. Well-used, though. Someone had even put their name in the front, like they were afraid people were gonna steal a manky instruction book." Oh hold on, is that a Leitner?

Sounds like this Sampson really got into I'm On Observation Duty XD

"He kept saying, 'what do we do with his eyes?'" So the cameras?

"'He won’t stop,' he said. 'We can’t get rid of his face.'" On the CRT screen, Sampson wouldn't stop looking at them I guess.

Aw man, that post statement scene. It seems like it did something at least cause he says he's (feeling) better. But it’s not as nutritious as a new statement. And he’s needing more and more of the old statements. That’s also a effect of (some?) addicting substances. Getting accustomed to smaller doses and needing more to get the same effect as before. This is the only thing, which makes it seem like an addiction and not a need to survive. Though there are some indications that Avatars do need to cause fear to survive. “Feed your god, or it will feed on you” (MAG 89),  “Hopefully, he’ll fade away or burn out as they tend to when robbed of their purpose” (MAG 130),  “John Amherst was encased in concrete, and shrivelled away to nothing after just a few years” (MAG 184). Accepting less and less of old statements is probably just an effect of the Eye to bring him to get new experiences. And since there are some indications that also written statements given to the Archivist can cause those dreams (Dekker MAG 113, Salesa MAG 115) it will become more and more difficult to survive without harming others.

@a-mag-a-day

[tobiasdrake]

We've got a filthy couch and time to kill. Let's chat, Shinigami.

Yuma's asking about past detectives who bonded with Shinigami. A good question to ask, especially after we recently met Makoto who might have been one such detective.

Of course, Shinigami's going to clam up on this topic because she's hiding things. One of Shinigami's former hosts is definitely involved here to some degree. I'd thought it was Number One but now I'm leaning towards Makoto.

Shinigami's going into so much detail about this one person that there's no way they aren't going to be relevant to the story. That has to be either Number One or Makoto.

Be funny if it was Yakou.

Oh, or even better, Yomi. Imagine if it was Yomi. XD

I like the cut of his jib! This man has the look of a proud revolutionary leader. I am immediately in his corner.

Yuma, the old Yakou is dead. This is the new Yakou. Treat him with all of the respect that I never had for the old Yakou.

*sigh* I hope we don't wind up having to kill him via Mystery Labyrinth.

...fuck. He didn't get a fancy nameplate overlay when he introduced himself. He's not here to stay; He's part of the Mystery of the Week for this chapter.

That means there's a good chance that either he's going to die or we're going to kill him.

I wonder how many people have been arrested while hanging fliers? Seems like an easy thing for the Peacekeepers to crack down on.

I mean, it's a little weird to kidnap someone and then ask for their permission to take them, but you do you. Honestly, yes, absolutely even if we weren't under duress.