#(should I make 2 articles in this case

[the-words-we-sung]

The songs of Young Royals - S2 E1

Here we go for season 2!! More songs so hopefully even more interesting stuff to analyze ^^

Brainfreeze, XVOTO

When I die ... All the voices in my head Tell them how it went and tell them not to miss me much ... Live forever ... Is it God that you see?

The song starts when Wilhelm is in Erik's room, while he burns the picture of his brother and August. It's fitting that the lyrics are partly about death, about telling people not to miss the dead person. Wilhelm misses Erik so much though. This is a good choice for a season that is going to be a lot about grieving. And the "Is it God that you see?" when we get to August sending messages to Wilhelm asking him to forgive him: yeah, will there be a redemption for you?

Aldrig igen, Omar Rudberg (Cherrie & Stormzy)

Being alone, I'm the strongest It's never happening again ... Because I don't wanna feel like this I don't wanna feel like this I don't wanna feel like this Who would wanna feel like this ... It won't happen again

So I discovered during this analysis that it is not a little snippet of a song that Simon created but the cover of an actual Swedish song ^^ He sings it while Marcus is listening in his back. The song reflects completely what Simon is feeling: the break up happened just before the Christmas break, so not that long ago, and he's still feeling so heartbroken. But he doesn't want to keep feeling that way, he doesn't want this painful situation to happen again (seems fateful that it is when Marcus enters the picture: Simon says it there, he will not fall in love and get his heart broken again, so too bad for you Marcus, but you will not get a love story here! Simon will say it himself later on in the season "why can't I fall in love with him?"). The entire song is actually super interesting lyrics-wise because it's about getting over a break up, feeling betrayed by someone who lied, and deciding that you actually deserve better. "Please stop stressing me, I need to breathe... First you wanna leave, now you wanna stay?": it's really about an ex who doesn't know what he wants and keeps changing his mind, changing the rules. Which is what Wilhelm is kinda doing (saying it's not him in the video to the world but then coming to Simon to ask to keep things going, and the the whole beginning of this season where he's gonna try to get Simon's back even though his situation hasn't changed). So yeah these 2 first songs of the season are really fitting to both characters and a very good idea of what the season is gonna be about : angry and grieving Wilhelm vs heartbroken, betrayed (but trying to find his boundaries) Simon

Bang, Cat Clark & Mega

We ain't never stepping down ... I'ma run laps round all you rats

Pretty fitting for Sara finally entering the privileged life of Hillerska. With all these students from rich family who will never "step down", who will keep the status quo, keep looking down on people who are not from their world.

Ripe, Flavia

No need to go to work unless I'm working on your body Hold you up, lay you down, staying up 'til the morning Working hard in the sheets, we could stay here for a week No need to go to work 'less I'm working on your body

A song with very suggestive lyrics, which less very little to the imagination about what the students are gonna get up to at this party ^^' "Ripe for the picking even when I'm not in season": can we also talk about Sara getting her initiation and being thrown into this classist privileged Hillerska life while still being an outsider? There lyrics feel like some kind of metaphor for her wanting so badly to be integrated, to feel ready for that. Or to think she's ready for that, while the reality might not be the same.

Love isn't love, Carola

Stranger, you came into my life Touched me with sweet sensation ... And stranger, you cut me like a knife ... It isn't right It isn't real at all It's just illusion A dream that will tumble and fall

The infamous karaoke "date". I like that the first sentences are sung by Marcus, because yes he got immediately interested in Simon after meeting him. But then he passes the mic to Simon who has to sing "cut me like a knife" and, he doesn't know it yet, but Marcus is quite toxic in the end. He is not gonna treat him well at all, not gonna respect him and his boundaries. Their "relationship" is not gonna help him or heal him at all, it's just gonna hurt him. And we cannot ignore the very (NOT) subtle lyrics when Wilhelm watches the Insta story of them singing: "it's not real". Because it's not. It's not a date. It's not love. It's nothing. And yeah, he's gonna be under the "illusion" of them being together and happy, but it's nothing more than that, an illusion. (And special mention to Wilhelm going feral and threatening the whole monarchy because his ex-boyfriend is on a date: Wilhelm baby, I love you so much!)

Seize the power, Yonaka

Woke up this morning I feel so fucking important I look in the mirror I'm different I finally made a decision ... They hurt you and make you feel helpless They're not brave like you They're too scared to do Anything that's different Anything that's new I don't need lessons I do what I want it's refreshing ... Hey there how you've been? I'm the voice in your head And I know you've been aching When you find me let me in I got power in my hands and it's yours for the taking

So this song is for the end credits of the episode but it's an amazing one and so important! We just saw Wilhelm yell at his mother and threaten the Courts because he doesn't want to be Crown Prince, doesn't want the responsibilities, doesn't want to be a puppet to them, doesn't want to sacrifice Simon and their relationship. And the first lyrics feel fitting: he's mad (and the lights in this bedroom are red and twisty: what better image to represent the rage coiling inside of him at this moment?), he "woke up" after being faced with the reality of the consequences of his lying about the sex tape. With the reality that Simon is on a date with someone else. And gosh yeah, these people, your own mother, they hurt you so badly and made you feel helpless. Making you follow their orders with not agency of your own. But you're gonna be so brave, and different, and strong! I love the chorus "I'm the voice in your head" because he's angry and screaming and threatening but nothing is very effective in the end (we'll see that next episode). He doesn't seem to have power yet. But if he listens to the little voice inside, if he takes the time to do that (and he will! Thanks to Boris for helping him doing some introspection and realizing things), he will realize that the power is here, deep inside him. That the strenght to do what's right for him, for Simon, well he has it. He just needs to close his eyes, reach inside and "take it"

The songs of Young Royals - part 1 The songs of Young Royals - part 2 The songs of Young Royals - part 3 The songs of Young Royals - part 4

[todayisafridaynight]

So Allegedly Infinite Wealth is 100 hours... not that you can't already spend that long on the games if you really want to, but I'd say it's the first time that could be said to be the base experience rather than a time only hardcore completionists are likely to get.

Yokoyama was talking at length about wanting to make the game worth the price tag since the team is incredibly conscious about the value of the players' time and money. They essentially feel they owe players ten times what they paid, so they're aiming for "an enjoyable 100 hours, but also an unforgettable 100 hours."

If they pull it off, I personally think it'd be 100% worth it and not just a "well other studios are doing it so we can get away with it too" price hike... I'm at least happy to know that's not the intent, and I'm intrigued to see how everything pans out and what the ratio is between story and side content

oh yayaya i saw that article this morning!!! 100 hours is actually so unfathomable to me in terms of an rgg game- i mean y7 was At Minimum around 45~50 hours but when i think of other RPGS that easily dip into 70's and 100's of hours, i'm not too surprised to see LAD start to climb towards those numbers now. it'd be such a jump in rgg's terms tho, so i'm TRULY curious to see where the nearly doubled gameplay hours comes from..

i really appreciate yoko's respect not just to RGGS but also to its customers: they want to make a great product, but they also don't want to sacrifice what they want to do to do that in the process

[toytulini]

wish the little listicles and articles reccomending google alternatives didnt like, mention ios. like no offense but do you think i dont know what an iphone is. you think im looking into google alternatives but i dont know that apple exists? you really think that? if i was going to buy a fucking apple product id already be doing that?

[tiredguyswag]

one of those masterposts for Sudan 🇸🇩

Disclaimer: I am not Sudanese, and am in no way an expert on the ongoing crisis. Corrections, if any, are welcome.

LAST UPDATED: 26th April 2024 [Please try to reblog the original post as much as possible]

~

So what's going on in Sudan? Sudan was under the rule of the military dictator Omar Al-Bashir for thirty years. He came to power through a military coup in June 1989. His rule saw extreme economic decline, repression, and conflict. In the December of 2018, a democratic revolution began that eventually overthrew the dictatorship on April 11, 2019, and saw the beginning of a military rule by militant parties SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) and RSF (Rapid Support Forces). This unrest is, of course, funded by western governments.

On the 15th of April, 2023, fighting broke out in Khartoum between the SAF and RSF. Clashes spread across the nation of Sudan, and the civilian populace is still caught in the middle. According to UN officials, Sudan is in “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history."

There is an ongoing war in Sudan, and it's getting worse. There is a health crisis along with the humanitarian crisis as well: around 2/3rds of the population do not have access to healthcare services. Around 15-20 millions suffer from hunger. There are 70 non-operational healthcare facilities in conflict zones. Thousands killed, millions displaced, and a dramatic increase in sexual violence and rape cases.

~

Links for Learning Resources:

Hadhreen: Hadhreen started as an initiative by a small group of Sudanese youth in 2015. Since its inception it continued to work in a variety of sectors, most notably Emergency response, health, and in supporting vulnerable groups.

Talk About Sudan: Learn more about what's happening in Sudan and actions you can take. Also has donation links for those who are able.

Keep Eyes On Sudan: A website run by Sudanese diaspora to amplify the calls of the Sudanese people. Has donation links, actions you can take, upcoming protests and events, resources, FAQs, etc.

#SudanSyllabus.docx: An extensive and well-sourced document, providing English language resources about Sudanese history. It's really long and has got lots of links to books, articles, and more. Curated by Razan Idris.

Human Rights Watch

~

Donation Links:

List of verified charities providing humanitiarian assistance in Sudan

Help Sudan Tarada Initiative: The aim is to deliver emergency basic needs, food and medicine. Funds will be transferred directly to local charities and organization who are managing those shelters to make sure that the funds are well received and is spent on the needs specified.

One Million Sustainable Pads Campaign: Fundraiser to help provide women in IDPs camps with reusable pads

Zubeyda Adam and family (Sudan)

Our home bombarded and destroyed

Help my family escape Sudan's war

Save a transperson in african Refugee camp from starvation [Unsure about the legibility of this one since its not from the person themself, but if someone can verify this for me that would be great]

Hope For Sudan

Darfur Women Action

Doctors Without Borders

Fill A Heart: Financial Assistance to Sudanese Hospitals

Hometax: Sudan Relief

Cairo Sudan Aid

Amal For Women

Sudan Solidarity Collective

Sadagaat

UNICEF

~

These are all the links I have so far. Please spread awareness about Sudan! Let me know if there are any links I should add to the post and I will update it.

[ms-demeanor]

making my own post because nobody needs my bullshit on their post:

OP:

Reblog 1:

Reblog 2:

My response:

The IRA blogs were here and they were active and they were quite popular; their posting patterns did not match normal tumblr users (i was followed by lagonegirl and followed back only to be put off by the account reblogging the same five or ten posts every hour for a day before selecting another five or ten posts to reblog hourly the next day - it was clear engagement bait).

Tumblr has never been as transparent about these accounts as both Twitter and Facebook were, but several of the accounts had shared names across platforms and you can find a significant amount of data that was released by both facebook (ex: ads purchased by the IRA accounts) and twitter (over three million tweets from IRA accounts). Academic researchers have published papers on the data released from facebook and twitter. Several papers. So many papers. Soooooo many papers. We have a LOT of direct evidence that you can explore for yourself that there were hundreds (possibly thousands) of IRA accounts that were created on Facebook and Twitter. Of those accounts, some shared usernames across platforms, and of those accounts, a few had tumblr accounts that posted the same content on twitter and tumblr.

To quote a buzzfeed news article from the time:

The Russian-run Tumblr accounts used the same, or very similar, usernames as the account names contained on a list of confirmed IRA accounts Twitter submitted to congressional investigators. In some cases, the Tumblr and Twitter account has the same profile image or linked to each other in their bios. Some IRA Tumblrs and Twitter accounts also cross-promoted content between platforms, further linking them together.

Current tumblr user @ alwaysbewoke (who I don't want to tag because I'm sure he's got better things to do) is interviewed in that article and talks about following one of the blogs identified by tumblr as an IRA blog that had a matching account on twitter identified as an IRA account but unfollowing when the left-leaning blog supposedly run by a black creator started rooting for trump in the election.

Dr. Jonathan Albright is heavily quoted in the article; the data review he collaborated on is one of the only reviews of this subject that includes data from Tumblr and Reddit.

One of the claims that I've seen is that tumblr just deleted funny black people, but these were blogs with thousands of followers on tumblr who never recreated, never popped up on another social media site, never started a reddit account after getting banned; nobody ever showed up saying "hey this is 4mysquad, I got banned on tumblr and twitter, follow me to pillowfort". These very popular blogs got deleted and, as far as I know, nobody ever popped up claiming to be a person who was deleted - and it's not like tumblr users haven't figured out how to evade bans.

What you are doing when you make posts saying that the IRA accounts on tumblr never existed is *absolving tumblr of guilt for their utter lack of transparency.*

Tumblr is not the only tech company that has tried to fly under the radar as its larger counterparts face regular scrutiny in Congress and in the press. Earlier this month, Reddit revealed it too had deleted hundreds of accounts with ties to the Internet Research Agency. A WIRED investigation found more than a thousand links to Russian propaganda websites are still live on Reddit, and unearthed two suspicious accounts that Reddit immediately shut down.

So should you believe what Tumblr says? No, because Tumblr has been functionally fucking silent on this issue and the information about this subject aside from the list of blogs has come from the hard work of data scientists, journalists, and researchers.

(For the record; some of those bot accounts that were recorded by Dr. Albright also had Google+ accounts in 2017 - there is every possibility that they had myspace accounts).

Now, the reason that I'm popping onto this post as an annoyed anarchist is that I was tracking a similar group of blogs for a while and was discussing them and I stopped precisely because of the galaxy-brained liberals who are now trying to dunk on communists for criticizing electoralism. One of the people who was following my project was one of the ones who started calling out the "joe biden kills dogs" posts as disinfo and I realized they were using some of the guidelines I'd written up to "identify" misinformation and that is very a rock fucking stupid approach to what was clearly a leftist making jokes and was horrified and realized there was no way that I could continue documenting what I was documenting without someone attempting to call actual leftists russian bots.

I've seen the post that OP is referencing [it's one where someone makes a very obvious joke about the democrat presidential ticket and people jump on to call them a bot and then someone tries to do the "AI tell me a story" thing and OP is just like "I don't want to :(", proving that they are in fact a person and not an AI] and have deeply enjoyed the humor of watching liberals a) not understand a very, VERY obvious joke and b) become the unwitting butt of a joke they were trying to make, but also I am so exhausted by watching normie dems call leftists AI bots after years of watching normie dems call real live actual leftists who hold actual political views that real people actually have, like prison abolition, russian bots.

But I am also so fucking tired of left conspiracism and how stupid it sounds when leftists dismiss a preponderance of evidence that is easily accessible and publicly available for analysis as "lol so you just trust everything tumblr tells you?"

No, dipshit, learn to click a fucking link or twelve.

[homoquartz]

hi!! if you would like to join me in being angry, please consider this new gem of journalism bestowed upon us peasants today:

(Article link is here)

In case you doubt it, yes, that is correct. Major studios will now assemble panels of racists, homophobes, transphobes, and misogynists to dictate how much us squirming pathetic little brown queers get to be represented on screen.

They were already doing this, but now they're comfortable saying it outright. As I have said before, THIS SHOULD ALARM YOU.

This post is long so the rest is below, backed up with data:

Disney is tacitly admitting that they canceled The Acolyte because they would rather alienate their marginalized fanbase than their rabid, genocidal straight white male one. And you can be damn sure this is also why the likes of Netflix and HBO Max are so comfortable discarding highly acclaimed queer shows like Warrior Nun, Our Flag Means Death, the Owl House, and Dead Boy Detectives.

The only shows about marginalized people allowed to go on are the ones that, against all odds, become hit successes (eg Heartstopper), at which point their earning potential outweighs their sin of being brown or gay. I want to emphasize that these shows must be breakout hits - shows that perform on par with straighter, whiter releases aren't given this grace.

These companies are going to obscure the reality of their actions by talking about profits and public image, but rest assured they would find a way to justify this even if the vast majority of viewers were brown and queer. Because it's about maintaining power. It's part of a nationwide surge against inclusion.

Do you remember the IGN article that just came out that revealed Disney's insistence that Riley be made to look "less gay" in Inside Out 2?

Do you remember the Autostraddle article which crunched the numbers to show that queer shows are cancelled more often and earlier than others?

How about GLAAD's breakdown of queer shows cancelled last year? Here's a snippet of the data:

❗️Both Autostraddle and GLAAD have found that 1 in 4 queer shows are axed. This is DOUBLE the rate for streaming shows overall, which is just at 12%.

Variety has a data breakdown here. What's interesting is that Netflix is actually pretty moderate with its cancellations, yet the majority of cancelled queer shows belong to Netflix.

I had a harder time finding data for shows featuring leads of color. If anyone has links, I'll add them here.

In conclusion:

They are banning our books. They are cancelling our shows. They are silencing our stories. You know why.

You can help in a few ways. One is to stream as many cancelled shows centering POC and/or queer people as you can. Another option is to cancel your streaming subscriptions and vote with your wallet (this is what I have done).

There's also a bunch of petitions for cancelled shows I strongly recommend signing. Pick a show and google it plus "petition" and it will turn up.

You can go to Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB and 5-star your chosen shows, as well as each episode.

You can message the streaming services on social media requesting renewal. Reaching out to influencers in spheres related to this topic, as well as media outlets, is also a good idea.

Finally and most importantly, talk to your friends and family. Ask them to do something. Ask them to tell people. The more people who stand against a hateful status quo, the less powerful it becomes.

I believe this can be turned around if we make enough noise. These streaming services should revive their queer shows, market them properly, and support them like any other show.

I sound silly now, but watch this space in two years.

[floylia]

ELYSIAN ♫

23. A therapist? ✎

Scaramouche fears no man.

But he does fear four women.

1. Ei — his mother

2. Yae Miko — his mother’s “friend”

3. Nahida — his aunt

4. You — the highlight of his life

There’s no particular order. It depends on the day. Although tonight, that might be the case.

The bamboo pendant lamp hangs beautifully in the intricate walls if Uyuu Restaurant. An order of Tricolor Dango, Shimi Chazuke, Fukuuchi Udon, and Halvamazd scatter along the floor table. Scara settles across his mother. Yae Miko finds the spot next to her and beside him, Nahida chats away with the restaurant owner who introduces himself and the specialties he’d prepared in advance.

Four dishes for four people.

“What a funny guy! What’s his name again?” Yae Miko asks after the owner left.

“I believe it’s Okazaki Rikuto,” Nahida answers as she scans the roster of food available. Scara notices the eagerness in her eyes. Sometimes, his aunt resembles that of a child – if only she wasn’t so perceptive.

“Care to share your thoughts?” Nahida asks.

There it is – as always.

Scara clears his throat, “No. Let’s eat.”

It will have to wait.

Minutes of uncomfortable silence fills the room. A wave of anxiety begins to envelop Scara’s thoughts. Considering his intrepid personality, he’s sure that even outsiders can tell the absurdity of his actions – from fumbling his chopsticks to checking his phone every passing second. It’s a telltale sight. He curses himself.

“Whatever you wanted to discuss with us, you should do it now,” Ei states calmly. Although It’s not a suggestion, rather a demand.

Scara clears his throat a second time. There’s hesitation in his words. But stalling will get him nowhere, “I’ve been seeing someone.”

Yae Miko looks up grinning, “A therapist?”

The urge to say “fuck you” and hold up a middle finger begins to increase.

“Miko,” his mother warns. Scara can’t tell the expression Ei is wearing – he can never tell with her. He hates that. She is uncertainty, someone he’ll never fully understand.

Nahida interjects, “Is it [name]? I’ve seen articles and comments.”

Scara nods.

Always so perceptive.

Yae Miko Gasps, a hand over her mouth, “Oh the poor girl. I can’t believe she chose you.”

“Miko!” Ei screams.

A simple “fuck you” might not be enough. One more comment from the pink haired lady and they’ll have to call the ambulance – and it’s not for the right reasons.

Yae Miko looks at him with false pity, “You do know, it’s bad to lie–”

Ei cuts her off, “When can we meet her?”

Scara is caught off guard in the best way possible.

A genuine smile is written on his mother’s face – satisfaction.

“You should’ve invited her tonight,” Nahida added, “I’m a big fan of her work.”

He’s dreaming. He has to be.

“I had no faith in you,” Yae Miko says matter-of-factly.

Nevermind. He’s not dreaming.

“Look, you were a socially awkward child – a problem child, even now.”

He’s never been in a cat fight, but today might be it. Should he pull the top of her hair first or the bottom? Which one would be more efficient, he wonders. Venti would know.

“I mean Ei, do you remember the time–”

Or perhaps he should ask Heizou for blackmail materials. Then perhaps his mother would finally cut her off. Taking down the Yae Publishing House… What an exciting thought.

Scara tunes out the voice of his primary hater.

“Next time, you and [name] should visit Tenshukaku. I’d love to meet her,” his mother says in-between giggles.

“You’re not upset?” He asks, just to make sure.

Ei looks offended, “Why would I be?”

“Well–” He halts, not sure of what to say, “Because of the scandals…”

He doesn’t care about those trivial issues, but they might.

Nahida giggles, “For someone who doesn’t seem to care about people’s opinions, you sure are obedient today.“

“I just wanted to make sure.”

Ei shakes his head, “I know I never told you this, but I’ve always wanted the best for you,” She hesitates, “I apologize for making it hard for you to tell me simple things like this. I’m not a perfect mother, but I’m glad you’re sharing a part of your life with me – with us.”

He doesn’t know how to respond, merely nods.

If you were here, you would’ve loved them and they would’ve loved you.

He’s sure of that now. He’s wrong for doubting them.

“But anyway, is there something [name] would like? I can send her newly-made desserts from the shop.”

Yae Miko interjects, “Does she read light novels? I can give her a discount.”

“Or maybe she likes plants? Have you given her Padisarahs? Rainbow Roses? It’s supposed to mean passion and romantic encounters,” Nahida suggests.

Ei lights up, “Oh I know! A copy of your childhood photo album – you were an adorable kid.”

“Mom!”

“Hey, I’m sure she’d want it.”

She’s right.

Notes:

in a world where everyone is happy 😃

kept this in the basement for too long

next chapter is the last chapter then the extras

Synopsis: After 7 years of enduring the media’s relentless pursuit of painting you as a villain, you’re forced to go on an indefinite hiatus with a tainted reputation on your head. However, just when you thought your career was over, a certain 5WIRL member wants you to feature on his solo album. Surely, this won’t affect your reputation once more, would it?

Scaramouche x fem!reader

masterlist | previous | next

Taglist (closed): @aruatsu @magicalink @featuredtofu @scarasbaby @veekoko @scaranthropy @the-ghost-0f-t0m0 @vernith @thystarsshine @lily-lmao @lovemari @mellowberrie @kunikuzushis-darling @skyoverkill1 @alatusorrow @kukikoooo @kyon-cherri @keiiqq @tzuw1ce @xiaossocksniffer @kaitfae @infinitetrashbag @lvnalxve @lovelypadisarah @ulquiorraswife @sketcheeee @atyour-kitchencounter @pirate-of-the-dark-seas @neiiuna @sn1perz @kazioli @inelenastyle @hearts4shu @wisheslost @Kazeyozuha @kazumiku @eutopiastar @chemiro @bananasquash @mujiwuji @danhenglovebot @cremesluv @boomie-123 @kookiibun @help-whatdoimakemyusername @vavrin @beaniedoodz @misterpoofin @justpeachyteastea @one-and-only-tay @peaceindreams @strxwberryfetish @shutingstar @projectsfantasy @quacking-simp @morgyyyyyyy @cante-lope @k-cris

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard info compilation Post 2

[Link to Part 1]

Post is under a cut due to length.

There is a lot of information coming out right now about DA:TV from many different sources. This post is just an effort to compile as much as I can in one place, in case that helps anyone. Sources for where the information came from have been included. Where I am linking to a social media user’s post, the person is either a dev, a Dragon Age community council member or other person who has had a sneak peek at and played the game. nb, this post is more of a ‘info that came out in snippets from articles and social media posts’ collection rather than a 'regurgitating the information on the official website or writing out what happened in the trailer/gameplay reveal’ post. The post is broken down into headings on various topics. A few points are repeated under multiple headings where relevant. Where I am speculating without a source, I have clearly demarcated this.

Character Creation

It is the best CC BioWare has ever made in a game [source]

The faction we choose will determine who we as protagonist Rook were before they were recruited to put a stop to Solas [source]

Certain conversation options are only available to Rooks of certain factions. For example, Grey Wardens get conversation options that are focused on the Blight, as they know more about it from other people. It also impacts how people talk to Rook (reactivity from characters and then faction reactivity from plots relating to that faction) [source]

Faction choice affects a lot of things [source]

There aren't unique missions (I think this means like the playable Origins in DA:O), but faction choice does set the course for Rook for the rest of the game [source]

"body customization and morphing. From more muscular characters, to curvier builds, and just about any shape you want to give your character, there are all sorts of toggles to adjust so you can give them any figure you want". "There's even features that let you choose proportions, so you can alter their height, give them wider shoulders, and much more" [source]

There are makeup options [source]

There are tattoo options [source]

The hair uses a "Strand system" to "make them behave and move in a believable way for the different races" [source]. (Fel note/speculation: I think "race" here refers to irl, as opposed to like human vs qunari or something, as the language they are using for human/elf/dwarf/qunari is "Lineage")

There are 4 voices to choose from for Rook: two feminine and tow masculine (one American, one British for each) [source]

In CC, 'Lineage' is the game's parlance for race i.e. human, elf, dwarf, qunari [source]

We can pick Rook's name, but the dialogue calls them 'Rook' [source]

In CC we can "make a few key decisions that will impact how The Veilguard begins" [source]

"I really do think its our most feature-ful character creator ever." [source]

Story and lore

In the opening segment of the game (see more on the story's opening moments here), we're too late and Solas' ritual worsens, so Rook and the companions go to stop him. When travelling to the next location (Arlathan Forest) in the chase after Solas, the characters travel through an eluvian [source]. The Forest is where his ritual is taking place. Varric then asks the player if he should confront Solas, and players then work to take down the surrounding statues in order to stop the ritual. "I won’t spoil what happens next, but I’ll just say the player and Veilguard have a tall task ahead of them if they want to save Thedas." [source]

Four of the 6 faction options for Rook (Mourn Watch, Lords of Fortune, Veil Jumpers, Shadow Dragons) are "rooted in northern Thedas" [source]

Certain conversation options are only available to Rooks of certain factions. For example, Grey Wardens get conversation options that are focused on the Blight, as they know more about it from other people. It also impacts how people talk to Rook (reactivity from characters and then faction reactivity from plots relating to that faction) [source]

There aren't unique missions (I think this means like the playable Origins in DA:O), but faction choice does set the course for Rook for the rest of the game [source]

A line of dialogue Dorian had at the Winter Palace in DA:I about what Tevinter is like informed the devs' approach to bringing to life the setting of Tevinter: ""There's a line in Dragon Age Inquisition that we always like to call back to," Epler says. "Dorian goes to the Winter Palace, which, up to that point, is probably the most impressive thing you've seen [as the Inquisitor], and [he] says something like, 'Oh, this is cute.' And we had to ask, what does it look like? What is Tevinter if Dorian sees that [the Winter Palace] and thinks that?"" [source]

The fact that Minrathous used to be the land of the elves was factored into the location's design. John Epler: "You can see the architecture has changed. It's become a lot more elven focused. And something that we've kind of hinted at, but we've never really shown explicitly, is the idea that Tevinter is built on the bones of the ancient elven empire. Tevinter itself, Minrathous itself, all the magic you see, that's just a pale imitation of what the elves are capable of. So you'll start to see as you get deeper into the game, the elves, for example, worked Lyrium into their building materials. Tevinter can't quite figure out how to do that. So instead, you'll see more gold and gems, kind of imitating it, but not ever quite approaching what the elves are able to do, and really creating that continuity of the space. Obviously, Solas isn't too thrilled that this world is the way it is, because he lived in a time of miracles and magic, and even the most magical place in Thedas isn't magic like the elven people used to be able to do" [source]

At the end of the opening portion of the game there is a "jaw-dropping title card cliffhanger" [source]

On the opening sequence: ""One of the things we wanted to do with this game is make the prolog feel like the final mission of a different game," John Epler says. "We really needed to get the stakes, the spectacle, right off the bat. Obviously, players who had been waiting to confront Solas have been waiting for just this moment."" [source]

Each companion has their own storyline that runs parallel to the main story [source]

You cannot succeed without the companions. Each of them has a reason why they need to be part of your party, why they need to help you stop the end of the world [source]

All 7 companions are recruited in the game's first act [source]

The firey demon looking guys shown near the start of the Gameplay Reveal are Rage Demons. Demons in general got a revamp in this game "to more closely align their look", this can be seen with the shades and the Pride demons as well. "they’re creatures of emotion so they have a spectral nervous system look" [source]

The Pride demon the group fight at the Solas face-off in the Gameplay Reveal video "was more a direct tie to Solas than anything else, but it didn't escape us how much it echoed the beginning of DA:I". they wanted to show the stakes and the scale of Solas' power [source]

Characters, companions, romance

Harding was one of the earliest characters that the devs wanted to bring into DA4, because she was such a fan favorite. She is this game's 'traditional returning' character [source]

Each character's romance flavor or style is different. They don't want every character for the romance to feel the same. They want everyone to have their own flavor that's appropriate to them as a character [source] [two]

"We found as we were building a story, more than ever before, it's a story about the people around you; a story about building this team, and working with them." [source]

Each companion has their own storyline that runs parallel to the main story [source]

You cannot succeed without the companions. Each of them has a reason why they need to be part of your party, why they need to help you stop the end of the world [source]

All companions are pansexual (specifically pansexual, not playersexual) [source]

Their pansexuality may come through in what we learn about their backstories [source]

No companion romance is race-locked [source]

Companions reference their past experiences or partners, and they reference who they'll become romantic with. [source]

If you don't romance a character, they may find a different partner for themselves. This could be within the companion roster itself or outside of it in the broader world. [source] For example, if the player does not romance Harding, she may get together with Taash [source]

The game is rated M [source]

The game contains nudity [source]

We can start flirting with the companions pretty early [source]

All 7 companions are recruited in the game's first act [source]

It is not until later parts of the game that you really commit to romance and things get pretty spicy [source]

The nudity, spicy things etc is more towards the end of the game [source]

The devs want the companions to be relatable and fully realized. So things get spicy, but in a more relatable way for people than e.g. some of the more shocking and comical scenes of this nature in Baldur's Gate 3 [source]

How sexually explicit the scenes are varies between characters. Some are more spicy than others. They have diverse personalities like in real life. "Some of them are more physical, more aggressive, and some of them are more... we have a gentleman necromancer [Emmrich], for instance, that is more intimate and sensual." [source] "some characters may be a little more steamy while some characters maybe a little bit more innocent" [source]

The romance and relationship system is more fleshed out than in previous BioWare games. A character's romance will be better woven into their personal story arc and into their involvement in the core questline of the game [source]

"BioWare has also worked to ensure that getting to know your characters as friends feels just as satisfying - and that just because you're not banging your buddy, their (platonic) relationship with you will still continue." ""One of the things we tried to do with The Veilguard is it's not just romantic relationship building," Epler continued. "You need to get to know a person before you can really build that kind of relationship with them, and if you choose not to build a [romantic] relationship, we never want to feel like you're being cut off. There's no 'okay, well, their arc isn't progressing, I'm done'." We want to make sure the non-romantic relationships are deep as well, with friendships not just for companions and yourself, but also between companions across the party."" [source]

GDL reprises his role as Solas [source]

Gameplay, presentation, performance etc

The game has a photo mode [source]

Combat is fast-paced [source]

If you pause the game using the ability wheel you can scan enemies to learn more information about them [source]

Each of the 3 main classes is distinguished by how it generates and spends energy for abilities [source]

Each of the 3 subclasses for each 3 main class promise to offer some meaningful distinctions from each other [source]

for this, rogues have momentum. You build momentum by attacking, by dodging, by parrying, and you lose it by being hit, so there's really a focus with rogues on avoiding damage, avoiding attacks. They build momentum quickly, but they lose it quickly. Warriors have rage, which they build a little bit more slowly, but they don't lose [source]

Attacks can be cancelled [source]

Regarding enemy weaknesses, some of these are elemental. In other cases their defenses are more vulnerable to specific types of abilities [source]

Combat seems to be a matter of managing our abilities as best we can to whittle down enemy defenses and take advantage of their weaknesses [source]

Over the course of the game we get access to three abilities per companion as well as an additional two abilities we can slot, and an additional ability that coms off of items that the devs will not talk about for now [source]

Fully offline single player, no EA account linking, no micro-transactions [source]

The game uses advanced rendering tech in Frostbite, nice subsurface scattering, high quality meshes, while having a striking pseudo-painterly look [source]

There are blood spatters in the game [source]

Production values on the game have gone through the roof. It looks like a big improvement on what came before [source]

On the music: "lots of foreboding tunes mixed with epic flair" [source]

Good voice acting, great facial animations, good hair tech, busy-looking environments and worlds [source]

It's not open world. "There are open areas you can explore around in, but it's mostly structured/mission based, sort of like Mass Effect." [source]

There are difficulty options [source]

They will talk about PC spec stuff at a later time [source]

There is probably an option to see damage numbers [source]

There are many reasons why the game is M-rated [source]

There are lots of abilities, with 3 swapped in on the wheel at any one time [source]

There are a bunch of accessibility options and they will talk about these soon [source]

The ability wheel gives you flexibility to enhance your playstyle. If you don't want to use it at all, you don't have to and that's no issue as shortcuts are available [source]

[☕ found this post or blog interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

[chaotic-archaeologist]

https://nypost.com/2024/08/28/world-news/boy-4-accidentally-smashes-bronze-age-jar-that-was-at-least-3500-years-old/

Your thoughts?

Personally, I'm kinda sick of museums being required to cater to kids so much. If you're going to do this open air exhibit, kids who don't know how to keep their hands to themselves just shouldn't be allowed in. The glass is there for this very reason.

Actually, I'm with the museum on this one. Is it unfortunate that the vase was broken? Yes. Was the vase a valuable piece of the past? Also yes. But I think the museum did something very cool by not having the artifacts behind glass and are handling this with good grace and the sense to make this a learning opportunity.

Sometimes we overlook the fact that museums often attempt to arrest or freeze artifacts in time. They are kept in controlled conditions to prevent them from deteriorating and even treated to reverse damage. Many things on display on museums are elevated beyond their original value, alienated from their original purpose, and closed off from interaction.

It's incredible that this jar survived as long as it did—and its age is what makes it special—but at the end of the day, it is still a jar. It has now experienced the thing that happens to pretty much every jar that has been or will be. After all, decay is an extant form of life. (If you want to read a very well written and interesting take on decay and archaeology, check out this article by Caitlin DeSilvey.)

The article I linked above provides some important context and the update that the museum is planning on using this as an opportunity to teach about the conservation process. The jar's story is not over; it is being pieced back together and in this next chapter in its life it will be able to tell two stories: one of its life and the other of its rebirth. The museum's approach embraces that, exactly like the Japanese art of Kintsugi.

I also agree with the museum's decision not to punish the child or his family. Things go wrong in museums all the time despite their highly controlled environments, and this is why they have artifacts insured. Sometimes the thing that happens is a child, and by and large museums do not seek damages.

I would encourage you to rethink your stance on museums and children. Museums are for everyone. Children have a right to experience museums and what they have to offer just like anyone else. There are also many studies that discuss how going to museums benefits children.

In this case, perhaps the exhibit design was slightly flawed, but the four year old boy accidentally knocked the jar over because he was curious about what was inside and wanted to investigate. Curiosity is exactly what museums should be encouraging. In an ideal world that curiosity would have been channeled into some other kind of engagement, but the folks who work in museums have a lot on their plates and cannot plan everything perfectly all the time. Even if they could, they often do not have the resources to do so.

Finally, the AP article mentions that the boy and his family were visiting the museum to get away from Hezbollah rocket fire. Regardless of your opinions on the current conflict, everyone deserves to have a safe place to exist. That museums can serve as those spaces is an honor.

I commend the Hecht Museum and the people working there. They 1) successfully provided a place of learning and refuge, 2) opted not for a punitive approach—which is often the default Western model for justice—but a compassionate one, and 3) are using this twist of fate to create programming that will further engage the public.

@museeeuuuum and @museum-spaces would you care to comment?

-Reid

[martinluvrr]

NUMBER ONE | KATE MARTIN ( III )

⋅˚₊‧ kate martin x actress!reader

⋅˚₊‧ summary: here we are again, just like the beginning.

⋅˚₊‧ part two || final part || nav

"Cut, thank you everybody" the director yelled out. You let out a sigh of relief, finally this dreadful week was over and you had some free time. After the chaotic start of the week that was caused by literally a media circus, you knew that this was going to be a tough 7 days.

Sometimes, you wished you didn't go to that audition. Of course you were grateful, this was a life people would kill for, but with the good side came the brutal one. After the picture and the allegations came out, your publicist went nuts, she wen even more nuts when you said to her "I don't want to respond". Apparently not responding, is responding, and while she tried many times to convince you, you didn't budge.

Deuxmoi. Fucking deuxmoi.

While you contemplated if you should send hate messages to the site with your finsta ( your publicist somehow found out and made you promise not to ), Kate was the calm during the storm.

The night of the game, she had texted you in regards of the plans, and you sadly rain checked. While you though she would stop texting after that, she didn't, and neither did you. Her name was still saved as 6 years ago, back then , you didn't have the strength to delete it, just in case.

While the comments, the sly remarks, the articles, the posts made the time draining, Kate was your fuel. She was literally recharging you, it seemed like you guys were back like you were once, but still you didn't want to get your hopes up.

"Bye darlin'" a british accent pulled you out of your thoughts, Emma, your co star smiled sweetly at you from your dressing room doorway. You smiled at her and said your goodbyes as well. While the media was raging, the cast and crew made the week peaceful for you, what was a week ago, a funny, teasing, loud cast turned into a supportive, calm, quiet one. And of course, you knew why. You have been shooting with this people for the past 2 years, and whether you liked it or not, they knew you. and when Matt saw your face on Tuesday, news and threats spread around if anyone asked anything regarding the incident. Y/n absolutely adored them.

As you walked out of the set studio, only two things were on your mind, your bed and chinese food. When opening the door, you looked up and went to a halt. There she stood, blonde, 5'11, in an all black fit an aces hoodie on, and her car behind her. In all her glory.

"What the hell are you doing here?" You asked, your mouth hanging open. She stood straight ,a wide grin forming on her.

"you owe me a date"

"you can't be serious" you let out a laugh.

"dead ass. get in" she gestured to her car, while opening the passenger door. You still remained in your previous positions, your body frozen,like it couldn't believe she was actually here.

"Kate"

"Y/n" she replied back " what's the problem?"

"Are you sure you want this...again?" you asked, suddenly looking at the ground, your insecurity was showing. You still didn't know if you and Kate were happening again, and you knew that if you lost her again, you couldn't survive that.

"Never been more sure in my life" She replied sweetly "Now get in"

"But i look like Adam Sandler" you said, an embarrasing smile on your face .

"I don't care, now please stop making excuses and get in the car" Kate said. You sighed as you made your way to her car, before placing a kiss on her cheek and getting in.

The way to your blind destination, that you begged Kate to tell you, but immune to your charm , she didn't give a single hint. Kates hand was placed on your thigh. After teasing you about your 'adam sandler' outfit, we finally arrived in a parking lot, of what looked likd, a closed casino/hotel.

As you made your way to the elevator, suddenly the air became tense. When you looked up at her, she was already looking back at you, you could feel your face heating up, a small smile appeared on her face, and a second later you mirrored her. Just as y/n and Kates faces were close, the elevator door opened and a bell was heard.

Just as you were about to question her about the empty hallway, you halted when you saw her open the rooftop door, stairs coming down, she took your hand and helped you climb. When you were both on the roof, you took a moment to admire the view, all of the las vegas was before you, it looked majestic.

"The view...so beautiful" you whispered, still in a daze of shock.

"yeah the most" She whispered back, when you glanced back at her, you realized she was talking about you. When you took a look behind her, you saw a chinese logo. chinese food.

"I'm in love" You moaned, taking a bite of the dumpling. You heard Kate let out a laugh, both of you were dangling your feet out in the corner of the rooftop. You felt like a teenager again. Her and you were back to talking about the past, it felt liked you guys were recapping, when the breakup came up, both became hesitant.

"Where did we go wrong?" You heard her question.

"We didn't go wrong, we just went our separate ways"

"I watched suits, when i heard"

"Really?"

"Yeah, watched the whole season, you were great, just like i knew you were"

Kate was always supportive of your dreams, not that everybody else wasn't, but Kate was the only one you admitted your dream to.

"You were also"

"What?" shock, surprised.

"I watched you" you shamelessly admitted

"You did? no way"

"Yes way, i'm your biggest fan" You said, taking a bite out of the noodles. Kate laughed when you accidentally spilled some, suddenly nothing was tense, it was back to normal.

When you both finished your food, you hinted that you should return home because of the 7am shoot you had in the morning, Kate insisted you guys stay for another 30 minutes. And it was definitely worth it, after 15 minutes, a firework erupted. and then another, and another after that, and then 10 after that, they didn't stop for another 10 minutes.

Just as you convinced yourself to not expect anything, and this was still new, she had set this up. When you looked up at Kate and looked down at her lips, one thing was on your mind, and you weren't holding back as you pulled Kate towards you and connected your lips to hers.

✩

As you opened your eyes, sunlight immediately made you close them back, as a groan escaped you and you stirred to get away, two hands locked on your waist held you back. Kate. When you straightened your back, you felt a kiss behind your neck. "Good morning" you heard her raspy voice say.

you didn't make it to your 7am shoot.

✩

thank you for reading pt 3 <3333333 tune in for pt 4 soon!!!!

[sophieinwonderland]

The Plurality of... Bill Cipher (The Book of Bill)

Spoiler Warning for Gravity Falls, The Book of Bill, and the nature of reality as you know it

Hello dear reader.

I recently found in my possession a strange book with no explanation as to how it got there. A bizarre tome known only as The Book of Bill.

I recognized the name and imagery from someone else's memories. Bill Cipher, a character from Alex Hirsch's hit series Gravity Falls.

It honestly seemed too perfect. I've been doing this "Plurality of..." series where I look at plurality in media. And an important part of Bill's shtick was possession.

It seemed simple enough. I can read the book, learn a bit about Bill and his possession, and then write an article about his plurality. But the reality was anything by simple, with far more than I bargained for.

And by the end of this post, this book will have driven me to break a fundamental rule I've held sacred through my "Plurality Of..." series.

What is Plurality?

Before we begin, I should explain what plurality is for anyone new here. Plurality is a term for being multiple in one body in some way.

We call the body's occupants "headmates". These can be anything from alters in dissociative disorders to spirit guides bound to a mortal, to... yes... even literal demonic possession.

Yeah, even being possessed by a demonic triangle from a 2-dimensional universe is a type of plurality. If there are multiple self-conscious agents of some kind there, it's plural!

Time To Get Weird!

(Art by magentasnail)

Let's catch you up on the basics real quick. Again, there will be huge Gravity Falls spoilers.

In Gravity Falls, Bill Cipher is a yellow a 2-dimensional triangle demon bent on causing chaos.

Through the series, Bill makes deals with multiple characters to possess their bodies. This includes both gaining full control over the body of protagonist Dipper Pines for an episode, and more interestingly, sharing control over the body of Stanford Pines for an extended period of time.

Bill's possession of Dipper left Dipper outside his body like a ghost. But his deal with Stanford is much more plural in nature, where they shared control, with Bill only controlling the body in his sleep.

Obviously real plural systems don't have headmates controlling their body while they sleep like this, but the experience can be seen as analogous to dissociative identity disorder, where it's common to experience blackouts and "wake up" in situations unsure how you got there.

That's all you really need to know about Bill for the time being.

With that out of the way, it's time get weird and dive straight into the Book of Bill!

The Book of Bills

As I begin reading the Book of Bill, I'm given a warning from Stanford Pines that the book will rewrite itself based on the mind of the reader. This seems silly, and I of course dismiss the idea out of hand. Surely there's no way a book could change itself based on who's reading it.

As I venture further into this tome, I find the occasional point of interest. References to Bill living in people's brain, him being an idea, etc.

I stop briefly to ponder that. Why does Bill refer to himself as an idea? Isn't he canonically a being from a physical 2-dimensional world? Him being described as an idea is peculiar, but something I tuck away for the future.

The first thing I find that really piques my interest in regards to plurality is the multiple times that it's just referenced that there are multiple Bills in Bill's head. Such as when Bill refers to "the voices in his head" teaming up.

In the plural community, there's a concept known as median system.

A median system is typically a system which has separate parts that are less distinct from each other. There's a pretty solid case that Bill, having a bunch of Bills in his head, could be considered a median system on his own.

In fact, the book itself actually depicts communication between multiple Bills, in the form of an interview.

And throughout the interview, there are times where the Prime Bill seemingly gets annoyed at the interviewer's questions. As if they are actually different people. While this could be Bill simply duplicating himself and pretending for comedic effect, it could just as easily be that both Bills are headmates in Bill's system.

Bill being a median system is a pretty interesting direction.

As I read on though, the book dragged me down yet another rabbit hole, and raised an important question.

Does Bill Have A Dissociative Disorder???

Let's talk about dissociative identity disorder. There are two main criteria for DID. Criterion A is the presence of two or more distinct personality states. You know, like those Bills in Bill's head.

The second is memory loss.

Recurrent gaps in the recall of everyday events, important personal information, and/or traumatic events.

This is what was on my mind when Bill was describing how he was uniquely gifted with the ability to see into the third dimension, and wanted to teach others this same skill.

But when he tries to recount it... this happened...

To me, this sounds exactly what was described in criterion B. This is also called dissociative amnesia.

And it's not just this one-off example. Bill actually references later that he dissociates (his words) and "wakes up" later after a conquest.

With everything we know, it seems incredibly likely that Bill has DID, or at least a related disorder.

Bill is what he eats

Okay... wait...

So Bill can ALSO imprison the souls of those he eats inside himself, and they can apparently take over Bill's body too???

What actually is going on here? Is this one of Bill's powers? He can just eat entire universes and then whatever he consumes becomes a part of him? Or maybe it's something else...

Maybe if we looked at this less literally and consider the previous hints of Bill having a dissociative disorder then perhaps what is going on is that Bill is introjecting these people.

Maybe whenever he enters somebody's mind, some piece of them remains...

I would love to speculate more on this... But this is the only mention of it in the entire book!

At this point, I begin to reflect on the words at the beginning. Maybe it was true that the book was changing itself to give me what I wanted. Little hints of plurality to keep me reading, to ensnare me in its vicious trap and ultimately drive me to madness.

And the worst part was, I was falling into it anyway. Because I had to know, even if this was a trap, I was in it to the very end. My thirst for knowledge and understanding unquenchable.

Even if I knew I should stop here, there was no going back.

Stanford Pines, Bill's Perfect Host

At last, beyond all of the misdirects that were put in my way, I arrived at the reason that I started on this journey.

Stanford Pines.

I need to say that when I started this journey, planning to delve into what the plurality of Bill and Ford might be like, I never imagined that it would be handled so... Beautifully.

I mean that genuinely!

I love the relationship of these two characters in the book!

They are both very out of place in their own ways. Both are aware of things in their world that are denied by others, leaving them ridiculed and ostracized for it. They manage to form a genuine friendship. Even if Bill was using Stanford the whole time to achieve his Weirdmageddon.

The two compliment each other surprisingly well. Bill provides Stanford with a friend who can get him out of his comfort zone, which is something that I think Stanford really needed.

There's a really fun part of the book where Bill just gets Stanford mind-drunk, which is apparently something he can do.

Bill fills a role in Stanford's life that nobody had since he lost contact with his brother. While Stanford had friend in with Fiddleford, his lab partner, and we do get to see parts of that friendship in the book, they are more like work acquaintances.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Because in the end, Bill is still an evil demon who was bent on bringing about the Weirdmageddon and was manipulating Ford the whole time.

And when Stanford found out, he tried to shut Bill out. This led to Bill trying to communicate through sticky notes to get Ford to stop ignoring him. He would front in the body at night while Ford slept, and they carried on a conversation through these sticky notes.

Wait... Sticky notes?

This is such an interesting choice for the character! Especially after so many hints of Bill Cipher having some sort of dissociative disorder.

Why?

Because sticky notes are an actual method that real DID systems use to communicate with their alters, as seen in this post from the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) website.

It's fascinating how, if you were to try to depict how headmates with strong dissociative barriers might communicate, this is one of the ways you would want to do that!

Is this coincidental? Maybe. But the talk of dissociation earlier suggests the author also has at least some basic knowledge of dissociation and how it works. And, perhaps, plurality as well?

Overall, this whole section with Bill and Ford was fantastic, and it was well-worth the read for that on its own.

The End?

I suppose this is the end. I found what I wanted. I got the content I was after. A cool plural story of a guy and his headmate from another dimension who wants to take over the world.

Through all the strange distractions and hints of Bill himself having headmates that seemingly went nowhere, I got more plurality in the book than I expected.

And yet, as I turn the final page of the book, I feel unsatisfied. Unsettled.

"Is that it?" I think to myself.

This is Gravity Falls, a show built on mysteries, and looking deeper than the surface. Surely there has to be more. Right?

What if... all the plurality in this book, is obscuring something deeper? Or maybe hinting at something deeper...

And then... I see it!

After the final page, I come to the About the Author section.

Which means it's time to talk about...

The Plurality of... Bill Cipher Alex Hirsch

Yes, I am going there!

In the beginning, I promised that this post will require me to break a rule I've held sacred through these posts.

That rule... is to never speculate on the plurality of the author.

But, Alex Hirsch, at least in a fictional sense, hasn't exactly shied away from the idea of being "possessed" by Bill. This dates back at least a decade, with him making Tweets like this one.

"Bill Cipher" even did an AMA on Reddit through Alex, playing it off as Bill possessing Hirsch while he slept.

It's a pretty open secret in the Gravity Falls community that Alex Hirsch is "possessed" by Bill. At least in some meta-fiction way that may not be canon to Gravity Falls but isn't quite real either.

And were my analysis to stop here, I wouldn't really be saying anything new or valuable. A lot of this was covered by MatPat on Film Theory.

But there's something I want to go back to that confuses me in this book.

That Bill Cipher... is an idea?

Let's bring this full circle, back to the beginning of the book where Bill mentions that he's imaginary and describes himself as an idea.

These are such weird lines because Bill didn't seem to have originated from people's minds within the narrative of Gravity Falls.

His story is of being a being from a literal flat world. So why then, does he describe himself as an idea? Why does he describe himself as imaginary???

Bill Cipher as Alex Hirsch's Tulpa

While Bill being an idea doesn't make sense if he's speaking as a being from a 2-dimensional world that's real to him, it does make sense if we consider that the Bill talking to us, who wrote the Book of Bill, is a tulpa sharing the body of its creator.

Before going on though, we need to answer an important question. What is a tulpa? The r/tulpas subreddit gives its own answer to this in its FAQ.

The simplest way to describe a tulpa is simply another person who was created intentionally/unintentionally through repeated interaction and shares a body and mind with their creator. A more complicated definition can go as follows: A tulpa is believed to be an autonomous consciousness coinhabiting a brain with their creator, often with a form of their creator's initial choice and design. A tulpa is entirely sentient and in control of their opinions, feelings, form and movement. They are willingly created via a number of techniques to act as companions, muses, and advisers. Tulpa forms can either be visualized in the mind's eye, or, with practice, seen as a hallucinatory figure using a technique called imposition.

And let's stop there on the line about being created as muses, because this is something that's found repeated throughout both The Book of Bill and Journal 3, with Stanford referring to Bill as his "muse."

It's a curious term that doesn't appear in the show, but was added to the lore in these two supplemental books.

The FAQ goes on to explain that while tulpas are often considered to be intentionally created, there are also accidental tulpas that can arise through imaginary friends or from writing characters.

Is it possible to accidentally make a tulpa? Yes - many people join the community after realizing they have had tulpas all their lives, but without knowing what they were called. These "accidental" tulpas often arise from imaginary friends and writing/roleplay characters.

On the point of roleplay characters, something I also haven't mentioned yet is that Alex Hirsch didn't just write the character of Bill Cipher. He WAS Bill Cipher. In the show, Bill is one of the characters Hirsch voices along with Grunkle Stan and Soos.

Writing tulpas and how they come about are discussed a bit more below:

Is this a new phenomena? No, it's a practice that goes back in recorded history at least as far as the Greek philosophers. The present name of the phenomenon is derived from the word used by Tibetan monks in the early 20th century. There's also evidence to suggest dedicated prayer can lead to the development of 'religious tulpas' in the minds of the particularly devout, and on the secular end, writing techniques similar to tulpa development techniques can and have resulted in writers creating accidental tulpas from their characters. Having a tulpa is nothing new, although it's gone by many names throughout the course of history and does so even today. However, we believe we are one of the first groups to address this practice as a psychological phenomena rather than a magical, occult or divine experience.

Tulpamancy and Attention

There was another passage from the book that I found noteworthy.

At the end, Stanford describes what truly sustains Bill isn't power, but attention, which Stanford describes as Bill's "lifeblood."

It's even underlined for emphasis.

Why is this important? Well first, this line goes back to the weird lines earlier suggesting Bill is an idea.

But more importantly, feeding on attention is something which is actually a pretty popular philosophy in tulpamancy. That tulpas feed on and are sustained by the attention of their hosts.

How do I give my tulpa energy? Tulpas are sustained by attention, and energy is a convenient metaphor for this. So, you can give your tulpa energy by interacting with them. It is also possible, through no shortage of work and time on the part of host and tulpa alike, for a tulpa to grow beyond this need and to learn how to sustain themselves.

How much attention/energy/interaction does my tulpa need? During the creation process you should aim to interact with your tulpa daily, anywhere from a few minutes up to a few hours, and narrating to them as and when you can. After they're fully vocal and active, the bare minimum is just acknowledging their existence, but spending time talking to them and interacting with them is very much the point of bringing them into existence. Just don't ignore them, and you'll both be fine.

On Parallels in Writing

Adding another layer, it's likely that Stanford Pines is at least partially based on Alex Hirsch himself.

One point of trivia is that Alex Hirsch has a twin sister, and Gravity Falls was inspired by vacations they would take as children. Dipper and Mabel being based on Alex and his sister is pretty well-known. But towards the end of season 2, it's revealed that their Grunkle Stan is a twin himself, with his brother being Stanford Pines, the author of the journals.

During this part of the story, it starts creating a parallel between the relationships of the younger and older twins, with Dipper (who is based on Alex) bonding with Stanford over how much they have in common. Both are nerds who are into writing and science and uncovering the mysteries of the world. Both are a bit socially awkward as well.

And while not much attention is drawn to this particular connection, both had experiences of making deals with Bill that let Bill takeover their bodies at different points.

Based on the parallels between Dipper and Stanford, one might speculate that Alex based Dipper on his younger self, while Stanford was loosely based on himself as an adult.

The personalities of these two characters are also the most likely to create a tulpa based on the psychological profiles of most tulpamancers.

In 2016, Dr. Samuel Veissiere, a psychiatry professor at McGill University, found the following in his study of tulpamancers:

From coding of qualitative interviews collected in large surveys, the most common tulpamancer profile to emerge is one of a highly cerebral, imaginative, highly articulate, upper-middle class, formally educated person with many consistently pursued interests, talents, and hobbies, but limited channels of physical social interaction. Typical tulpamancers are confident about their talents, but are quite modest and socially shy. They possess – or have cultivated – a high propensity for concentration, absorption, hypnotisability, and non-psychotic sensory hallucinations.

The psychological profile of tulpamancers fits both Dipper and Stanford to a t. And many of these same traits could just as easily be true for Alex Hirsch if these characters were meant to be stand-ins for himself.

Is Alex Hirsch trying to tell us that he's plural?

In the end, this is just a theory. And it's one that I feel nervous making because plurality is so deep and personal. That's why I've avoided speculating on the plurality authors in the past. Even when the writing feels so true to the plural experience that it's hard to imagine that someone who isn't plural wrote it.

So why am I making an exception with this one?

Well, in this particular case, I think that the breadcrumbs are being left intentionally, and if he is plural, then he expects somebody to follow them. I'm not worried that I would be outing somebody who didn't want others to find out.

With Alex Hirsch's love of codes and clues and mysteries, if he were plural, I have to imagine that the hints weren't accidental and he would be wondering if anybody would follow them.

And if I am completely off base and he's not plural, I think that he would still appreciate the theorizing anyway. 🤷‍♀️

But if these are intentional clues that were left behind to hint at a real life plurality, one might ask why.

Why would he want people to know about it, and hint at it in this way?

Well, I think the Book of Bill might have an answer to that too.

Shame is a powerful emotion. But it grows in the dark. The more I've tried to hide my past with Bill, the more hold it's had over me.

Perhaps this line is meant to reflect Alex Hirsch's own feelings. Because many plural systems have felt this same way about their plurality, having hide their relationships to their headmates.

The actual end now

Finally, we come to the real ending of this.

This is, again, just a theory. I don't want anyone taking it as fact. I admit that I could be completely wrong about everything that I've said here.

But if nothing else, it's at least fun to imagine that Alex Hirsch does have a Bill Cipher tulpa in his head that has been acting as his muse this whole time. And it would give a new meaning to the gag of the Weirdmageddon intro saying Gravity Falls was "created by Bill Cipher" all those years ago.

Thanks for reading, and if you have your own muse that you think might be more than a simple muse, be sure to read my guide on how to know if your imaginary friend is sentient.

And if you like this post and want to see more like it, you may want to check out The Plurality of… Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Plurality of… IF

[holysupesbatman]

SuperBat Fic Recs

Woaaaah boy. I was in the Superbat tag and saw someone asking for recs and I got about 5 fics in before I realized that wouldn't fit in a reply and decided I should just make a whole post. I feel like I've read half of the Bruce/Clark tag on ao3 at this point and yet I still find more every time I look.

As a note, this post is heavily editorialized. These are all fics I've personally read and are here because I liked them and they come from my ao3 bookmarks. If you want better details about the fic, follow the links and check them out 🤷‍♀️ I'm a picky reader so the fact that it's on the list says a lot, though our tastes may vary.

Onto the recs! I'll organize them by ratings and then by length for simplicity and at the end I'll recommend some of my favorite SuperBat authors for further reading!

🦇

Rated: G

Uno Reverse by WixenBurr (~7k rated G) is really cute and fluffy

Summary: The batkids are trying to set Batman and Superman up. Unfortunately Bruce Wayne wants to date some rando news reporter named Clark Kent.

Rated: T

Know You Better by rotasha (~6k rated T)

super fluffy and cute. I adore this fic. Summary: Clark asks Bruce on a date, not knowing he’s a famous billionaire. Bruce says yes, because this is the first time this has ever happened to him.

I'm Not As Think As You Drunk I Am by Mardiaz173 (~13k rated T)

This one is SO much fun – Nobody believes Clark after he meets the supposed "flirty, stupid, entitled drunk" playboy billionaire Brucie Wayne when he says he's actually "clever, mischievous, and sober with an indecipherable ulterior motive."

Saudade by liodain (~20k rated T)

OK THIS ONE MAKES MY HEART MELT IT'S SO FLUFFY AND SWEET I CAN'T. Like put this on your re-read when you're sad and need to feel like love and goodness exist list. Bruce breaks down in Kansas in 2006 years before BvS and meets young Clark.

fallin' for him was like fallin' from grace by Resacon1990 (~23k rated T)

It's just 20k of Clark simping for Bruce. That's it. That's the fic. He's a golden retriever and he's in love, Your Honor. Bruce is not unaffected, but the pining is glorious.

summary: Or, five times Clark finds himself falling for Bruce, and the one time he does something about it

Mr. Romantic by Pandamomochan (~24k rated T)

ft Established Relationship SuperBat. Summary: Clark gets tasked to write a Valentine's Day article. The end result has every single women throwing themselves at him. Clark has always been patient with the drove of Brucie fans. Will Bruce be as mature with Clark's sudden popularity?

How to Date a Superhero by @solomonara (~25k rated T)

Technically a series of fics. Pure fluff. 1. Someone spots the Batman kissing Mild Mannered Reporter Clark Kent. Hijinks ensue. 2. Superman kissed Bruce Wayne in full view of several dozen phones. Now the whole world, including Lex Luthor, knows Superman has a boyfriend. But that's okay. Batman has a plan. 3. Deleted scenes from the How to Date a Superhero series, ruthlessly cut in most cases to prevent the Robins from taking over.

In every sense of the word by froggy-o (bobafiend) (~29k rated T) From the author's summary: Alternatively titled "Why Wonder Woman is on the verge of losing her fucking mind."

I swear this fic is just Diana's eyebrow twitching as she watches Bruce and Clark start dating and she's let in on both their civilian identities meanwhile Superman and Batman are on the watchtower arguing and disagreeing about basically everything on the daily. In the name of Justice, of course. The identity porn is on a whole other level and it was done so well.

Get Over It by rotasha (~32k rated T)

heh this one has plenty of identity hijinks. Sooooo funny. Summary: Bruce needs to get over his inconvenient feelings for Superman and he meets an attractive reporter who he thinks can help him do just that. Little does he know...

the cost of being a good dad by Mawiiish (~96k rated T)

hehehe... the batkids set up a dating profile for Bruce and catfish Clark. It's more of a blind date for Bruce (not that he had any idea he was going on a date at all), but who has Clark been texting for the past several weeks??? Oh yeah. The kids. What follows is as follows. Still with capes!

Rated: M

Guardian Dog by BombusBombus (~22k rated M)

Summary: There's something wrong with Clark Kent. He has to be a villain, right? A threat? He doesn't behave like a normal person, no matter how handsome or clever he may seem.

grasp his heart (once and for all) by liodain (~32k rated M) soulmate AU fic. Pretty emotional LOTS of identity issues going on there like so much. Kinda high on the drama and angst there honestly but it was a cute read. Summary: Bruce Wayne doesn't believe in fate.

tell all the truth (but tell it slant) by susiecarter (~33k rated M)

love me a fake dating AU. Summary: It takes a while for Batman and Superman to work things out, once Clark comes back from the dead. Pretending to date each other in order to explain why Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent are in the same place so often? Doesn't help as much as you might think.

Strangers When We Meet by Trista_zevkia (~63k rated M)

ANOTHER soulmate AU! This time feat. Kryptonian Biology hehehe. Summary: Clark Kent thought he was straight, until Batman kick started something. The question is what did Batman start? Is Brucie Wayne able to explain it to him?

ship-to-ship combat by pomeloquat (~77k rated M)

OK NO LISTEN this is one of my all-time favorite fics EVER. It's so meta and so funny. Clark is us. We are Clark. Clark is writing RPF for the Bruce/Batman ship and he's very convinced it's real EVEN THOUGH he has a huge crush on the Batman... let the hijinks BEGIN.

Rated: E

Embracing Destiny by Mithen (~8k rated E)

This one is just really really cute. Summary: As a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st century, a teenaged Clark learns a stunning secret about his own future: he and someone called "Batman" will be legendary lovers.

perfect strangers by susiecarter (~15k rated E)

like. bruh. susie did it again. This tag says it all: communication failure. I love this one though. Summary: Batman and Superman are fucking. Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent are a great cover for fighting crime, and also might be dating. Bruce and Clark have no idea what they're doing; but they definitely aren't going to be able to talk themselves into stopping.

Relinquishing Control by foxyk (~25k rated E)

afsfwsdfhishdfksj no words. Read the authors summary and then just go read the fic:

Superman worries that if he lets go he'll injure his partner. Batman knows better. Batman worries that if he lets someone else in, he'll hurt them. Superman knows better.

Picture Perfect by TheSaltiestDog @the-saltiest-dog (~26k rated E)

this one is cute and then horny on main but also just so fluffy. Clark sees Bruce in a new light through candid shots, then proceeds to take lots of candid shots as they begin a relationship. Cue schmoop, fluff, smut, and – you guessed it! –Miscommunication!

A Night Off and sequel A Day Off by Mawiiish (~37k combined; first part is E, second is T)

One of my all-time favorites. My bookmark says 10/10 would read again soooooooo... 👀🤷‍♀️😅🥵

Bruce is enjoying one of his few nights off when a very persistent young man offers to buy him a drink. At first he's apprehensive; he's just here for a good time and this Clark seems to be looking for more than that. Then again, what harm can one drink do?

Clark wakes up to an empty bed and despite Bruce being honest from the start, he's still disappointed.

The Downsides to a Secret Identity by liodain (~42k rated E)

I'm currently reading this one – the summary from the author says it all, it's so good but sooo drama:

Bruce Wayne has taken a shine to Clark Kent, but Clark is more interested in the Bat of Gotham. The Bat, however, has it in for the Superman in a big way. Clark should probably have considered that before falling quite so hard. They're working together to track down some missing Kryptonian weaponry, after all...

50 Shades of Wayne by susiecarter (~161k rated E)

No but listen, this is actually so full of plot and emotional depth and not as much smut as you might think. It's a full-scale retelling of Batman v Superman but without them knowing each other's secret identities. I read it in one go... the reveal? Maybe the best I've ever read. Soooo many emotions. It's one of the few times I've read BDSM in a fic and it actually felt in character. I wasn't sure I would read it when I started, but it was a compelling read and extremely well done. Honestly, I'd read it again.

SuperBat Author Shoutouts:

susiecarter @susiecarter

liodain @liodain

Resacon1990 @sassyresacon1990

shipyrds @burins

Mawiiish @superbattrash

rotasha

Mithen

[heyftinally]

Y'all are going to like this one.

SWIFTIES DON'T TOUCH THIS POST WITH A TEN FOOT POLE, I SWEAR TO FUCKING HELL-

So my friend sent me this article, and I'm going to tell you why I think it's complete bullshit.

1) wishing us a happy Pride month is the BARE MINIMUM. As someone with her presence in the media and social influence, she could - and should - be doing SO much more than just wishing us a happy pride four days in.

2) "the singer has been an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community" not a good one. She seems to only remember us when it's convenient or benefits her in some way. Case in point:

2018 - "When it comes to feelings and when it comes to love and searching for someone to spend your whole life with. It's all just really really delicate. You know?" Taylor then performed her song "Delicate."

2023 - It’s painful for everyone, every ally, every loved one, every person in these communities.

In the first example, the intentional song reference comes off as extremely tacky. This is people's LIVES you're talking about. People are MURDERED for who they are and who they love (or don't love). This isn't an appropriate time to pull out the "oh-so-quirky" act and be cutesy.

In the second, the fact that she can't even center queer people in their own experience is so, SO telling. I promise, however painful it is for allies, it's 1000x worse for us to LIVE it. Allies don't have to wonder "am I going to get hate crimed wearing this?" before they leave the house - we frequently do. To not acknowledge that shows me that everything she says is performative at best.

3) I wouldn't call what she does "advocacy". She mentions us every now and then when it's convenient for her, profits off of us when we fit her marketing plan, and I've yet to find where she actually apologized for the homophobia in the original version of Picture to Burn. Also, she's real good friends with Travis Kelce's dad, who is a raging transphobe (and I bet his kids are, too). You don't get to call yourself an ally if you willingly allow the people around you to be violent bigots.

4) "always" is a strong word for someone who seems to show her support situationally at best. The full quote was "The way for that to happen is for us to continue to keep pushing governments to put protections in place for members of the LGBTQ community. And I promise to always advocate for that." Yet she doesn't do that.

5) what she speaks out, I've noticed that it's nearly always in the states that primarily agree with her. We don't see a whole lot of her "inspiring ally" speeches in places like Texas or Florida. But I've seen plenty of them come out of already notoriously queer-friendly places. If you aren't willing to face the heat of the difficult places along with the comfort of the easy ones, you don't get to call yourself an ally. Allyship is not easy. Anyone remember when Lady Gaga advocated for us in Russia, under threat of arrest, and her response was "arrest me, Russia! I don't give a fuck!"? Yeah, I've never seen even half that level of true commitment from Taylor.

6) STOP. MAKING. STRAIGHT GIRL SONGS. "GAY ANTHEMS"!!!! FFS it's such a slap in the fucking face of REAL, ACTUALLY QUEER ARTISTS that y'all keep calling these piss pathetic straight girl over produced crap songs "anthems". Fucking stop it. If they aren't queer, they don't qualify to be a queer anthem or icon. Start supporting ACTUAL queer artists with ⅛ this energy, for the love of FUCK. This bullshit pisses me off. Do you need a list of queer artists? I'll make you one by hand if you promise to stop trying to label Raylor Swift's straight girl shit songs as "gay anthems".

7) rainbows and gender subversion are not exclusively nor inherently queer. If that's our bar for "gay anthems", the bar is so low Lucifer himself needs a damn Webb Telescope to just barely see it from hell.

[psychicreadsgirl]

Pick a Kpop Album Cover: How Others Will Perceive You and Your Next S/O

Pick the cover that draws you the most. If you can't choose between 2, then take a look at both of the readings. This is a general reading, so it might not resonate with everyone. Take what resonates and leave what doesn't behind.

#1

They will see you two as a power couple. You two seem to have it all and everything seems to be picture perfect, even though it might not always feel like that deep down.

You do have some people supporting you two as a couple.

There'll be a lot of jealousy from others. Many will try to lure your s/o away from you or they will try to lure you away from your s/o. These situations can perhaps cause tension between you and your s/o.

#2

People will feel like there's something sketchy or odd about your relationship. Some can't really pinpoint what's off, but somehow this pairing makes people wonder why you two are together. You two might perhaps be polar opposites or just don't seem like you'd be the type to be together (i.e. maybe you're the nerd and they're the jock etc.)

I don't feel like you have a lot of people rooting for you two to have long union. It seems like most people feel like you two are destined to break up and if you do break up, there'll be people coming to you going like oh I knew that would happen etc.

#3

People don't really feel much about your relationship. You two seem sort of like wall flowers in people's lives. They don't care about you two being together, which isn't a bad thing. People won't particularly judge you two. They will just see you two as a couple and that's it.

I don't see people particularly hating, loving, or caring about you two. You two will probably have quite a bit of privacy from others and probably will not have many friend groups. It's possible that you two both have very small families too or perhaps no family (i.e. parents have passed away and no siblings etc.)

#4

All eyes are somehow on you two. You two are the "gossip" that people are constantly talking about behind your backs. Somehow the way you two get together or perhaps the fact that you two are together just makes people chit chat. It's possible that one of you is either quite well known/rich/powerful within the community, area, city, town, province, state, country or perhaps one of you just knows a lot of people. For some reason you two will become "gossip" and your relationship may perhaps land in online forums, newspapers, articles, social media, etc. If not, you two will certainly be talked about behind both of your backs like people texting/calling each other to discuss you two.

You have a mixed set of people rooting for you two, hating you two, wanting you two to break up etc. You'll definitely have some haters and some supporters. It's really a mixed bag.

My advice to you is just to not let the "Gossip" get to you or your relationship. Your friends or colleagues or family may come to you with stories or news or articles or whatever that they heard or learned about your s/o, but you should take those things with a heavy grain of salt. Much of it, if not all are false; you should trust your gut. Your s/o's circle of people might also do the same to them.

The key is to trust your s/o and trust youself. Don't let others get to you.

#5

I feel like a lot of people are expecting you to run away from this relationship. They feel like your s/o is toxic or is not good for you. They want you to leave your s/o. In some cases, these people are right, but in other cases, they are wrong about your s/o. It will be up to you to make that call.

I do sense that people don't particularly like your s/o. They feel like your s/o doesn't match you and that you should break up with them. They feel like your s/o is like a leech? At least that's what I'm getting.

I just feel like people are generally concerned that you're dating this person. Perhaps this person has a bad reputation previously (like maybe they were a player and now people feel like you're just getting played or perhaps they have a criminal record and so people don't think you are safe wtih them etc). In these situations it's really up to you to decide whether you should continue your relationship with your s/o.

#6

I see that your family or their family (more so like parents/grandparents/elders) really support this relationship. They feel like this a match in heaven. They really like your s/o and hope you two will be together for the long run.

Generally people feel like you two are quite cute together and admire your relationship with your s/o. You two give off like those cute couples on IG that make a couple's IG account.

You may, however, have someone, perhaps a friend, who wants to break you two apart. It might come from your end or theirs, or maybe it's one of their siblings that really dislikes you.

[shesoutofhere]

Meet Me in the Corner pt.2

Ignore all typos or I will cry.

Peter Parker x Reader

Summary: Peter is starting to grow on you but the Parker persona is not.

Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4

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

“So he totally blue-balled you.” your roommate says from her desk where she's painting her nails. 

“Mar that totally isn’t how you use that phrase.”

Mar has made you tell her what happened with Peter about 10 times now. Every time you re-tell it, she's come to the conclusion that Peter Parker is an asshole. 

“Okay well you get what I mean. Maybe you should request a new partner.”

Maybe not, Peter may have been an ass but you’d be lying if you said his work wasn’t good.

“Look Mar, maybe I just caught him on a bad day, I don’t know.” 

Marlene whips her head around, nail polish still in hand. “Oh don’t you start with that benefit of the doubt bullshit.”

You sigh, “Requesting a new partner is out of the question okay, I don’t want to seem like a difficult priss, especially since professor Cal already doesn’t like me.”

Mar gives you an obviously fake smile, “that is not true.” 

You give her a look and she grimaces, she’s started something.

“Professor Cal despises me and I don’t know why but  he does.” 

You feel your anger bubble up. You know you’re about to go on a rant and Mar, being a saint, listens. 

“He is constantly nitpicking everything I do and never fails to ridicule my projects in front of everyone. Nothing I do impresses him and I just-” you pause, “I think Peter might help.”

Mar shrugs her shoulders, “I’m still iffy since the blue-balling and all but whatever you think love.”

You giggle as Mar turns back towards her desk, “Hey Mar?”

“Yeah” she answers.

“Next time we're at the bookstore, remind me to buy you an urban dictionary.”

Mar just gives you a thumbs up.

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

You’re five minutes into your walk and realized a little too late that you need a scarf. You could turn back around and go get one but then you’d have to hear Mar say she told you so and that just won't do.

You decide to tough it out.

After a brisk walk, you make it to the library. Once you’re inside you decide that you’re going to treat yourself to a nice warm tea. You enter the library cafe and order your tea. Once it’s in hand you go to look for a spot to hunker down in.

You make your way through the floors and find yourself heading to the spot you found in the corner. When you turn the bookshelf you are surprised to see the spot empty. 

You immediately sit down and start taking your things out. 

You’re taking your laptop out of the case when you hear someone's shoes scuff to a quick stop. You look to see a surprised Peter Parker. Not very pleased with how he left you hanging yesterday, you just eye him up and down until your eyes reach his again. Peter is just standing there and you can’t help but ask, “ Can I help you?”

Peter walks a bit closer towards the table before he answers. “No, I was just checking to see if the spot was empty but it’s not so.” He says dragging the O.

Peter stands there expectantly, like he’s waiting for you to ask him to sit. You don’t, so he cracks first. “Do you mind if I sit with you, all the other floors are too loud and I really need some peace and quiet.” 

Surprised that  he actually asked you, in a nice manner at that, you just nod yes.

He moves to sit in the chair across from you. The tables are big enough to where both of you can spread out your work comfortably but you still can’t help but feel on edge. You didn’t come to the library expecting to see Peter, let alone have him sitting with you. 

You try your best to chill out, reminding yourself that you were here first and if anyone should feel mildly unwelcomed, it should be him. With that you decide to start typing up an article for a paper. 

You’re both quietly working when Peter speaks up. “What’cha working on?”

Trying not to lose your spot, you continue typing away and give a simple response. “An article”

“For?” 

You sigh, whatever groove you had originally found, is all gone now.

“A paper.”

“Which one?”

“An art paper.”

“Oh cool, what do you write?”

You look up from your computer to look at him. “What happened to peace and quiet?”

Peter seems a bit taken aback. You feel bad so you quickly follow up, “I write about up and coming artists. Whether that be new exhibits they have or just sit down interviews about their lives.” 

Peter stays quiet so you continue, “I also do in-depth reviews over specific expo’s and the fundraiser’s some of them work for.”

Peter crosses his arms and nods, “Cool cool.”

You give him a quiet ‘yup’ and go back to typing. You get about a sentence in before Peter interrupts you again. 

“Is that how you knew about the donors gala?”

You nod, “Sort of, but I really learned more about it through Austin.” 

“Art museum friend?”

You give him another nod, “art museum friend.” 

Peter just nods some more and leans back into his chair.

“Since we're on the topic, what exactly is the gala for anyways?”

Abandoning all hope for your article, you push your laptop away to fully engage with Peter.

“A bunch of the school's donors get together for a night and do a dinner and an auction. A lot of the art auctioned off is work that students have put together. Those students get invited and get to mingle with some pretty important people. Some even come out with internships or commissions.”

Peter can’t hide his surprise, “that's actually….really cool.”

You can’t help but agree, “yeah, even cooler that we get to go.” 

Peter sits up, “speaking of, how about we knock out that outline?”

You would be lying if you said you weren’t thrown off. Last time you saw Peter he was a bit of an asshole. Now, he’s tolerable and dare you say, easy to talk to. Whatever it is, you aren’t complaining.

“Yeah, let me pull up the sheet.”

You and Peter brainstorm for a while. Deciding on different angles and how to approach the assignment. After a while you guys decide on a solid plan and you begin to type it up on the outline. 

“So, you’re pretty lucky to have Cal as a professor, considering you write articles and all.”

You wince but continue to type, Peter notices. “What’s the face for?”

You let out a puff of air “I have this running theory that Cal is not very fond of me.” 

Peter looks intrigued. “Whaaat, Cal doesn’t like you? That can’t be true. What makes you say that?”

You shrug your shoulders, “he’s pretty, um, critical of my work. He also loves to pick on me and my ideas.” you double down, “like I said, theory.” 

Peter gives you a smile. “Uh oh, should I be worried about our project?” you know he’s joking, or you hope he’s joking, but you can’t help but genuinely worry.

Before you can really get into your head, Peter taps the table to get your attention. “Hey, I'm sure it’s gonna be fine. Plus I'm on the team now and I don’t mean to brag but my work is brilliant.”

Successfully making you feel better, you roll your eyes jokingly. “Yeah yeah I get it, Peter the almighty photographer.” 

Peter smirks, “so you’ve heard of my work?” 

You scoff, “oh come off it Peter.” 

All he does is laugh and starts to gather his things.

You can’t help but feel a bit sad?

“Well I’ve got to head out but let me know if you need any help on the outline.”

You nod, “Yeah, I think I should be good. I’ll finish it up and send it to you to look over.” 

Peter stands up and swings his bag over his shoulder, “if you want to, but I have full faith in you. You’re the writer after all.” 

You can’t help but smile at the compliment. “Look at us, the dream team.” 

Peter laughs and starts to walk away. “Oh yeah, Cal’s got nothing on us.” 

You let out a laugh at his comment. Peter turns to give a wave goodbye and turns the corner out of your eyesight. 

After a bit, you finish the outline, look it over a couple of times and once you’ve decided it’s perfect, you go ahead and submit it.

You send the file to Peter so he can go ahead and submit it for his class. Feeling pleased with the work you’ve done today, you decide to head out.

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

It’s Wednesday and you’ve just finished up with Cal’s class. You linger a little bit behind, finishing up the notes left on the board. Once you are done you begin to gather up your things and head for the door. Before you can make it out Cal calls out your name to stay behind for a sec. 

You halt in your steps and turn around to walk back to his podium. A fellow classmate gives you a sympathetic smile as she walks by you. You can’t help but dread what's to come.

Call talks to every other student before he gets to you. You can’t help but feel like he’s left you for last on purpose. You get up to his podium. He’s flipping through his stack of papers, when he pulls out a sheet of paper. You read the top and see that it’s your outline paper. 

Cal speaks first. “So, you and mister Parker are doing the donors gala?”

You nod, “yes sir.”

He just hums and looks down at the outline. He rubs his chin while he reads over the paper. 

“How will that work out?”

Here he goes. “Well Peter will take photos and I’ll write up the article.” 

Cal sighs, “yes I understand that but how are you guys attending? Will you be a guest? Workers? Volunteers?”

You pull your hands behind your back and try your best not to seem nervous. “We’ll be guests, sir. I know someone working the event and-” 

 Cal cuts you off, “So you’ll be loitering?” 

You dig your nails into your palms, trying to remain calm. “No sir, I know someone working who has offered guest passes and I’ve received invitations from an exhibit I write for.” 

“Ah” is all Cal says.

There's a bit of silence when Cal finally looks up from your paper. “ This is a very important event for the school and students involved.” Cal pauses, “you understand that you’ll be mingling with very important people?”

You nod, “of course professor.”

Cal grabs the paper and goes to hand it to you. Before you can grab it he pulls it back. “It’s an honor to be able to attend this gala. You will represent not only me but our school as well. I believe you’re one of the only students to have offered this idea up for the project. I’ll approve it but please note that I am expecting a lot considering how important of an event this is.”

You give another nod, beyond ready for this to be over. “Of course.”

Cal gives a curt nod, “very well then.” he hands over your paper, “I'm looking forwards to seeing you both there.”

You say goodbye and head out the door, paper gripped in your hand. 

When you make it far enough you look down at your outline. You sigh as you see all the markings on it. There's minimal notes on Peter’s ideas for the photos but your angle portions are all scribbled on. 

At the very top it reads ‘revise and turn in again by Friday.’

You think if you look at paper any longer you’ll cry. You shove it in your backpack and begin your walk to your next class. 

With your morning ruined, you can only hope that the rest of the day will be better.

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Evil Cal has placed a curse on your day. You should’ve known his class would be an indication for how the rest of your day would go. 

You’d completely forgotten to finish your pre-lab for your lab, which led you to have to stay behind an extra thirty minutes to finish it. Those extra thirty minutes made you extremely late for your next class. You had run across campus in hopes of catching some part of the lesson. When you finally make it, dripping in sweat and out of breath, you walk up to the door and read the sign that your class has been canceled for the day. Just to top it all off, it started raining and you’ve got no umbrella with you so you had to go to the student store and spend an absurd amount of money on the smallest umbrella you’ve ever seen. 

You’re now walking towards your dorm, in no real rush. You’ve accepted that you’re going to be soaked by the rain, thanks to your ridiculously small umbrella. Your shoes make a squish sound with every step you take and you’ve got your backpack on your front side, hoping to protect what's inside. 

All is well until a gust of wind has the umbrella flying out of hand, poking you in the head on the way out. Your eyes drift to where it landed. You are extremely surprised when you catch sight of Peter holding the umbrella. You wave at him and get a small smile back. You think nothing of it as you walk over to him. When you get close you realize that he isn’t alone.

Peter is standing with a group of people under an awning of one of the classroom buildings. One guy looks familiar and you realize it’s the guy that interrupted you and Peter the first day you guys met. 

He gives you a wave and hello.

“Hey, we met the other day right?” 

You nod, “yeah” 

He extends his hand, “I didn’t properly introduce myself, I’m Nolan.”

You shake his hand and introduce yourself as well.

Peter is still holding your umbrella but hasn’t said a word to you yet.

You’re about to ask Peter for your umbrella when one of the girls from the group speak’s up. 

“How do we know you exactly?”  Okay wow, she’s a bit blunt. 

Nolan replies for you, “this is Parker's partner for that class he was talking about.”

She nods “Oh yeahh,  I remember. The project he’s worried about.”

Peter gives her a look and cuts in, “Charlotte.”  She just shrugs her shoulders. “What, were you not saying that you were worried.” 

Everyone but Nolan and Peter snicker. It’s like they know something that you don’t and you feel a pit form in your stomach. 

You can’t hold your tongue and look Peter right in the eyes. “What are you so worried about Peter?” 

He stutters, “well after what you told me I-” Charlotte clearly is having too much fun and decides to answer for him. “Parker here is worried about you guys failing the project, considering your track record and all.” 

Your stunned silent. You can’t remember the last time someone has been so blatantly rude to you. It reminds you too much of highschool and it’s upsetting you. What upsets you the most is the lack of Peters defense.

Your new found friend Nolan even says something, “Oh Charlotte don’t be like that.”

Charlotte just can’t seem to let it go, “I'm sorry, did he not say she hasn’t been able to ace a project.”  she looks at you with mock sympathy. “Don’t worry, I’m sure this project will exceed expectations.”

You feel your eyes begin to sting. You berate yourself in your head for tearing up. You blame the draining day you’ve had for the lack of self restraint.

You clear your throat. “Well Charlotte.” you turn to Peter who’s still not said a word. “Thanks for enlightening me on Parker's worries.” you snatch your umbrella out of his hand and walk away, offering no goodbyes. You faintly hear Nolan scold Charlotte but the giggle that follows tells that she doesn’t take it seriously. 

You speed walk as fast as you can, when you hear Peter call out your name. You don’t stop. You walk faster hoping that he’ll get the memo. You halt to stop when Peter steps in front of you. 

“Hey don’t listen to Charlotte. She’s kind of a-” you cut him off, “a bitch?” 

Peter winces, “I mean for lack of better words, yeah.”

Peter can tell you’re still upset and tries to lighten the mood. “Hey so I got this lens for the assignment, it's supposed to be really nice for night shots.” 

You are in awe. Is he really trying to completely disregard what just happened?

You deadpan, “real neat Parker, I gotta go.” you try to walk past him, but he manages to step right in the direction you're heading. “Hey, look, I’m really sorry but-”

You scoff, “but what?” you’re pissed off now. “I tell you something in confidence and you go and blab about it to all your friends.” you’re not done yet. “Speaking of your friends, that Charlotte one has a real shit-attitude. I am no one to judge who you can be friends with, especially since we aren't.” Peter frowns at that. “But it’s really telling about your character if that’s who you choose to hang with.” 

The rain begins to pick up again and you grip your umbrella harder, Peter still stands in front of you, now getting rained on. You believe you’ve had enough and step aside to go around Peter. Somehow he’s managed to line himself in front of you once again.

“Hey come on, it doesn’t have to be like that.” your eyes widen, genuinely shocked by his audacity. “You’ve got to be joking right? Peter you just let Regina George 2.0 make fun of me based off of whatever information you blabbed about.” 

Peter opens and closes his mouth, like he’s at a loss of what to say. You shake your head. “Whatever, you don’t owe me anything.” This time you’re set on getting away. Peter sticks his hand out. “Wait can I just-” you put your hand on his shoulder and shove him to the side. Peter is thrown off by this and it gives you a chance to get ahead of him. You think he’s gotten the message because he doesn’t call after you again. 

You make it to the crosswalk and wait for the light. You can’t help but look back at the group. Peters made it back and is laughing away with the rest of them. You can only assume he’s blowing off what just happened. 

You pull out your phone and immediately text Mar.

Peter Parker IS an asshole.

 Cal can kiss my ass.

ALSO, we need a bigger a umbrella. 

You see the dots and receive her response.

Oh honey, I'm ready and waiting. 

Doors unlocked 

Xoxo

You see the light turn green and give one final once over at the group. Seeing the group reignites your anger and you stomp your way across the street. 

Mar is about to have the biggest I told you so moment ever.

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Peter is so #fake and i kinda love it.

Also, sorry to all the Charlottes out there, you're my villain of choice :)

[persevereforahappyending]

A Beacon in the Dark |8|

Pairing: Joey x Reader

Summary: Joey likes helping people, it's what she's best at. Hunting down the monsters of myth and legend might be the best way to save people.

Warnings: Threats, Language, Broken Bones, Talk of Death, Talk of Sacrifices

Word Count: 5.9k+

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

“Are you sure?” You asked, not taking your eyes off the bulletin board in front of you.

Your arms were crossed as you stared at all the research. There were old newspaper clippings going back a couple hundred years ago, old photos of shadowy figures that somehow never appeared clearly, and current photos and articles all from within the last year. It was evidence you and Grace, mostly Grace, had gathered over the years. Grace had been working on this case since before she had even found you.

“Yes,” Grace said confidently. You released a deep sigh. “This is the closest we’ve ever come.” You nodded, it was true, you had never had the location of this group until now, it was always gathering evidence and narrowing down the location before. It was too big of an opportunity to pass up, despite what day it was, this day was actually the reason you couldn’t afford to wait.

“I’ll go alone. Take them down and be in and out before the moon even rises.”

“No,” Grace instantly denied. “It’s too dangerous. You need a partner, I-”

“No!” You snapped. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath then slowly released it; you did that a few more times before opening your eyes again. “I’m sorry,” you whispered, much more calm than before. “But you can’t come.” You looked up at Grace, she was just staring at you softly, she hadn’t even reacted to your outburst, she was used to it by this point after all.

“Then it has to be Joey.”

“No,” you shook your head. “It’s too dangerous. She can’t, not today,” you stared Grace in the eye, pleading with her to just let you go alone.

“You can’t do this one alone.” Grace stepped forward and gently rested a hand on your arm. You were sure she could feel the tension, your entire body felt stiff, like you’d snap at any moment.

“Not tonight, it can’t be tonight.” You knew how useless it was to beg. It wasn’t even Grace’s fault, if she had control then there was no way she’d even consider doing a mission today of all days.

“This is our only shot,” Grace said the words you already knew. “Otherwise, we have to wait another year, more girls will die, and we’ll be having the exact same conversation.” Your head dropped to the floor, and you gave a small nod, not able to lift your head again. “I’ll call Joey.”

You nodded again as Grace stepped back to call Joey. You usually liked making the call, you liked talking to Joey, especially since you only saw her for missions for the most part. You knew you couldn’t call her for this one though, you’d say something stupid and talk her out of joining you, then you’d be on your own and would probably get yourself killed. Grace wasn’t wrong either, even if you didn’t go today, you’d be having the exact same conversation next year, these people just happened to do their little ritual at the most inconvenient time for you, every year, like clockwork.

“Alright,” Grace said, walking back over to you after finishing up with Joey. “She’s going to pick Caleb up from school, drop him off at a friends, and then she’s good to go, said he would just stay the night with the friend.”

“This is affecting her time with her son too much,” you whispered.

“She didn’t say anything about it over the phone,” Grace furrowed her brow.

“She probably wouldn’t,” you shrugged. Joey told you her son came first, she said she didn’t want this job interfering with her time with him too much. It had worked out perfectly before the mission with the sirens and now this one. It was only twice but you didn’t like that she kept having to ask a friend to watch her kid when she should be with him, but she was instead having to help you. “I just know she doesn’t want to disappoint him.”

Grace nodded but didn’t say anything else. You didn’t think Joey would ever have a problem telling you or Grace no when it came to Caleb. If a job really was going to hurt her time with him, she wouldn’t have any issue passing on a mission, if not leaving this job all together. If Joey didn’t say anything then it probably really wasn’t a big deal, you still couldn’t help but hate this mission even more now that you knew it was costing Joey another night with Caleb.

You still had a few hours to kill before having to pick up Joey. You spent the time going over everything you knew with Grace and what the plan was, everything had to go perfect, if the moon hit its peak and the mission wasn’t accomplished, then it was a failure. You listened to Grace and read up on the ritual, you did anything to keep your mind occupied and not focus on what would happen later. You even jumped on the treadmill and ran for about an hour until it was finally time to leave.

You hopped in your car and made your way to Joey, not even bothering to turn on the radio. You had to bring Joey back to the house so she would know exactly what she was walking into and then the two of you would head out and make it to the location before sunset. It was rare to start a mission when the sun was still up, nighttime was usually when the monsters came out and the darkness worked to your benefit but this time you were on a time crunch.

You pulled up outside Joey’s exes building just as she stepped out the front door. She looked up and started making her way to you as you came to a stop. She hopped in and as soon as the door was closed you took off, headed back to Grace’s.

“Sorry you had to find someone to watch your son,” you said, breaking the silence.

“It’s okay,” Joey said, resting her head on her hand. “Figured it had to be serious if it was this last minute and Grace was the one calling me.”

You sucked in a breath; you needed to stop being surprised by how smart Joey was. She was only half right about why Grace called her though, if it wasn’t for the fact that you’d talk her out of coming you would have called her. “It is,” is all you managed to say.

“How bad?”

You felt her eye on you, but you couldn’t turn to look at her. “Grace was researching this group before she even met me.”

“Group?”

You nodded. “Everything will make more sense when we get to the mansion. But basically, this has been going on for a very long time and this is the first time we’ve found their exact location.” Joey nodded, seeming to get why this was such a big mission. “The reason it’s so last minute is because we just learned this information and tonight is the only night we can try and stop it, every year on the same day this happens.”

“So, if we miss tonight, they get away with everything.”

“Until next year and there’s no idea if the location will be the same. If they discover we’re after them, assuming we live, despite this always taking place in this area they might pack up and move.”

“And you have to start all over.” You nodded.

You continued the remainder of the drive in silence, but you could feel Joey’s occasional glance in your direction. You also didn’t miss the way her hands fiddled around in her pockets until she pulled out a sucker. You wanted nothing more than to talk to her and ease her anxieties about the mission but all you could bring yourself to do was focus on the road ahead.

Before you knew it you were pulling up to Grace’s. Without a word you got out of the car, still held the door open for Joey, and led her back to Grace’s office. As soon as Joey stepped into the office her eyes widened and darted around the room, scanning the amount of files stacked on the floor and papers taped to the wall, this was the biggest case you and Grace had been working on and the chaos definitely showed.

“Good, you’re here,” Grace said, as she quickly shuffled through more papers. “Sorry for this being so last minute but we don’t have time.”

“I heard,” Joey said. She slowly walked around the room, and her eyes scanned the bulletin board. “This is a lot.”

“The first incident came on my radar about four years ago, one of my first actually.”

“What is all this?” She gestured around. “This is years’ worth of incidents, going all the way back to,” she looked at one of the older pieces of paper. “1800s!” Her voice went high, seeming to process the information as she said it.

“Even further actually.” Grace moved across the room to where Joey was and pulled down a paper. The original had been handwritten and nearly crumbled upon touch, but Grace had a copy scanned. The date, incredibly faded, was written in ink in the top corner, but it was still legible.

“The 1400s?” Joey asked, looking at Grace with wide eyes.

Grace nodded and stuck the paper back on the board. “There’s a few gaps, years where I couldn’t find anything,” Grace said taking in the entire board. “But I found enough in a consistent time frame to theorize this ritual takes place on this day every year.”

“What are we dealing with?”

“Witches.”

Joey broke out into a light chuckle, her eyes going from Grace to you but neither of you were laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding me, magic is real?” Her mouth fell open.

You couldn’t deny that it was kind of adorable how despite surviving vampires, facing off against a succubus, and fighting sirens, she was still surprised by things. Joey turned back to the board, seeming to be looking at it in a new light. You had done the exact same when you first learned about the case.

“What are they doing?” Joey whispered. “What’s the goal, power? Are they just crazy?”

At that you did actually let out a small chuckle. “Their victims are the same every time,” you said. “Every year around this time twelve girls go missing, usually between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three, all of them virgins.”

“You’re kidding me?” Joey raised an eyebrow. “Virgin sacrifices, really?”

You shrugged. “Classics had to come from somewhere,” you joked, you just couldn’t help yourself.

“Okay,” Joey shook her head, not even bothering to glare at you for your joke. “So, what’s the plan? Clearly, we have to stop more sacrifices from happening,” she pointed at the board again. “But how do we fight off witches? Who I assume have magic,” she really emphasized ‘magic’.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Grace admitted. “This is the most dangerous mission I could possibly send you on.” You stared at Grace, silently begging her to change her mind and not send Joey, it would be safer for everyone if you went on your own. “If you want to sit this one out,” she looked back at Joey. “I would understand.”

You clenched your jaw as you waited for Joey to decide. Knowing Joey in the short time you had you were pretty sure she wouldn’t take too kindly to being ordered to sit any mission out. You understood why Grace would give her the option; Joey liked deciding things for herself once she had all the information.

“How many girls have been taken?” Joey asked, her voice almost a whisper. You could only let out a sigh, that was enough of an answer for you.

“That we know of?” Grace said. “Hundreds but if my theory is correct, twelve girls a year since the 1400s we’re looking at”

“Thousands,” you rasped out.

“How has no one figured this out?” You saw the confusion in her brow as she tried to come up with a reason so many people could go missing and never turn up and no one else put it together.

“They try and stay under the radar, picking up the homeless, runaways, the kind of people no one will miss,” you whispered. Your eyes found a spot on the floor to focus on as you spoke, you might not have dealt with witches during your incident, but the methods were similar enough. “The few that did have people look,” you shrugged. “It’s such a big area,” you gestured to the map with the woods this took place in. “It’s not surprising when someone disappears in there.”

“Eventually cops have to let a case go cold with lack of evidence and progress,” Grace said. “All they ever had was a missing girl and her last location.”

You flicked a glance at Joey again, seeing the determined look in her eye as she stared at the board. “I’m in,” she said.

“Okay,” Grace nodded. She glanced past Joey and met your eyes; you could see she was apologetic without her even having to say sorry.

“Do you have some sort of special weapon for killing witches?” Joey asked, almost sounding hopeful but clearly knowing it wouldn’t be that easy.

You couldn’t help but chuckle and even Grace smiled at the question. “No,” Grace shook her head. “They have all the normal weaknesses of a human-”

“Decapitation,” you said, cutting Grace off. “Heart ripped out. The good stuff,” you smirked.

Joey rolled her eyes at your comment but took note when Grace didn’t deny what you said. “They’re also weak to iron. So, you’ll be armed with weapons mostly made from that.”

Joey nodded. “And what kind of power are we looking at here?” Joey flicked a glance from you to Grace. “I know I’m new to all this, but in movies there’s all different types of witches and powers.”

You and Grace glanced at each other. “We don’t know,” Grace admitted. “We’ve only come across one once. Witches like to have a coven; we got lucky to catch one on her own.”

“Are we assuming there’s twelve members of this coven,” Joey pointed to a few of the images on the board. “Because twelve sacrifices.”

“Probably at least twelve, potentially more, it depends what they’re using the sacrifices for.”

“We don’t know if this coven is the same as the one from back in the 1400s,” you added.

Joey furrowed her brow and looked back at you and then back at the board. “You don’t mean…”

“Possibly, they could be using their life force to extend their own.”

“Or maybe it’s coven tradition,” Grace said. “Some rituals are passed down, it all depends what the coven believes in.”

“Great,” Joey sighed. “So,” she turned back to you and Grace, crossing her arms. “What’s the plan.”

Grace nodded to follow her, so you and Joey did. She led the two of you to the weapons room where she once again had a large duffel already sat out and filled. You stepped forward, unzipping to see the guns, knives, and anything else useful. You furrowed your brow and pulled out a bottle of water. You held it up and raised an eyebrow at Grace.

“Holy water,” she said. You tilted your head and raised your eyebrow even more. “Just in case!” You silently chuckled and shoved the water back in the bag.

There were so many rules to witches, so many differences. No one knew what was true and what wasn’t, it’s why they were so dangerous. Some sources said witches were weak to holy water, it burned them, but it was supposed to burn vampires as well and that was bullshit. Even if the water didn’t do anything, throwing water on a witch might distract it enough to actually get a real hit in.

“You need to make sure you save the girls and get back here before the moon reaches its peak,” Grace said. You nodded, giving her a knowing look as you hoisted the duffel up and swung it over your shoulder.

“Why?” Joey asked.

“Because the ritual ends when the moon reaches its peak.”

“But-”

“Just trust me on this,” Grace wasn’t unkind, but her tone left no room for argument. “It’s better for everyone if you get back here as quickly as possible.”

Joey furrowed her brow, her eyes searched Grace’s face as if she’d find the answer she was looking for there. She looked at you and you kept your face as neutral as possible. As much as you wanted to avoid her gaze you knew that would draw more suspicion, so you met it and gave her a nod to let her know it was okay.

“Okay,” Joey said, hesitantly nodding.

Joey led the way out the door but before you could follow Grace rested a hand on your arm. You looked over at her and felt her slip something into your jacket pocket. “I’ll be listening,” she whispered. “Be careful.”

“Always,” you whispered. You tried to give her a confident smile, but it didn’t quite work out.

She gave your shoulder a squeeze before letting go, allowing you to follow after Joey. By the time you got to your car Joey was already in the passenger seat, so you tossed the duffel in the back and then hopped behind the wheel. You turned the key and started the drive, even the music Joey had turned on couldn’t keep the dark thoughts from entering your mind. It was sunny out, you rarely got daytime missions, and this one took place on a nice day. You were even going to the woods, which was your favorite place, and yet you couldn’t enjoy any of it. Deep in the pit of your stomach you just knew that this wouldn’t go the way you or Grace wanted, you just had to make sure Joey made it out alive.

You were almost an hour into the drive and still had another twenty minutes. You kept glancing up at the sky, the sun was still up, but you couldn’t help but focus on the long drive. When you got done with the mission you still had over an hour’s drive to Grace’s, if you were late at any part, you would be pushing your luck. The last thing you wanted was to be in the car when the moon rose, Joey would have better luck out in the woods, maybe. You kept flexing your grip around the steering wheel and you could feel Joey side eyeing you and your fingers every time they tightened just a bit more.

“You’re tense,” Joey said. She kept her head facing forward but you knew she would be aware of every move you made.

“It’s a dangerous mission,” you said.

“They’ve all been dangerous so far.”

“This one’s different.” You rolled your neck, trying to get rid of the irritation from the simple questioning you usually never had a problem with.

“Clearly.” You didn’t need to turn to know Joey was now facing you, her eyes scanning your face, looking for the most subtle reaction to anything she asks or what you might say. “You and Grace are acting different, keeping things secret.” You clenched your jaw and tightened your grip on the wheel a bit more. “You’re keeping something from me.”

“You know everything we know about the mission,” you tried to brush it off. You tried to focus on your breathing, the steps were simple, deep breath in, then slowly release it through your nose.

“Yeah but-”

“Just drop it!” You snapped, your voice getting deeper than you had intended. You didn’t look but it didn’t go unnoticed how Joey flinched from the power in your tone.

You closed your eyes for half a second, took a deep breath in then slowly released it. When you opened your eyes again you flexed your fingers, relaxing your grip just a bit on the wheel for the first time since you left. “I’m sorry,” you rasped out. You still didn’t look at Joey, you weren’t sure you wanted to see the look on her face. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.”

Joey watched you for a moment. You really wanted to know what was going through her head, but you still refused to look at her. “It’s okay,” Joey finally said but her tone sounded almost cautious, like she wasn’t sure how you’d react.

“No, it’s not.” You looked down, you hated her simple questioning getting to you. “You’re just asking questions, rightfully so,” you admitted. “Just because I’m irritable today doesn’t mean you deserve for me to take it out on you.”

“Are you okay?” She asked after a moment.

You flexed your hands again. You turned down a dirt road, finally arriving at the woods. “Yeah,” you sighed. “We just need to do this as quickly and safely as possible.”

Joey nodded and remained silent the rest of the drive. You continued to drive down the dirt road until you finally got to a clearing. It was technically a park, and the area was still open to the public, but people didn’t go to that specific area too often. During all your research you learned that hikers and campers who came to the park tended to not come back. Some missing people were found miles away, completely out of their minds, rambling nonsense. Whether that was because the witches did something to them, or they were just they traumatized, you still didn’t know.

You put the Jeep in park and looked up at the sky again, the sun was still shining but when you glanced at the GPS you knew there was still a bit of a hike, and you probably wouldn’t make it until the sun started to set. Any other day you were sure hiking through these woods at sunset would be gorgeous, what you would give to be there not on a mission and freely run through the woods.

“Ready?” You asked.

When Joey nodded in confirmation the two of you hopped out of the car. Almost as soon as you stepped out of the car you could feel the shift in the air. It was fall and already a bit chilly to most people, but this was different, when the wind blew you seemed to be able to feel the chill down to your bones.

As you grabbed the bag of weapons from the back Joey looked around, seeming to analyze the empty parking lot. Calling it a parking lot was being generous; it was just a giant dirt area with little wood signs to indicate spots for parking. You looked down at the ground around you and back at the path you had driven down, there was only one way in or out of the area, and the only tracks you could see were from your own Jeep, meaning someone hadn’t been there in quite a long time.

You swung the duffel bag up over your head, so it was resting on your shoulder. “This way,” you said, nodding off in a direction that was the complete opposite of any intended trail.

You and Joey hiked through the woods, hopping over rocks and fallen branches. There was still plenty of light, but nothing could stop how eerily quiet it was, the only sound you could hear was the crunch of leaves beneath your and Joey’s boots. If the witches had any scouts watching out for unwanted guests, you were surely going to get spotted. You just hoped they were either cocky enough to think no one would stumble upon them or that you were better and would pick up on them quicker than they caught onto the two of you.

“How do they even get out here?” Joey asked, huffing as she swatted a branch out of her face.

“Brooms?” you said, giving a little shrug.

Joey rolled her eyes. “At least being moody hasn’t disrupted your sense of humor,” she mumbled under her breath.

You smiled to yourself and chuckled quietly. “I’m just saying, there’s a lot of stories with witches on brooms,” you held your hands up in defense. “Everything comes from somewhere.”

Joey seemed to reluctantly nod at that. Every story involving monsters did come from somewhere, whether it be eyewitness accounts, survivors of whatever horror, or just made-up stuff. As you were sure Joey knew, crosses and garlic did nothing against vampires, it was all stuff made up by Hollywood. Some myths were created for film while others were created by the monsters themselves, to trick people and mislead them so their actually weakness wasn’t discovered.

You suddenly came to a stop, your head snapping up. You barely registered Joey bumping into you. “What the hell?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

You looked around, searching for anything off, you even strained your ears, not hearing anything besides the sound of your and Joey’s breathing. “Don’t you feel that?” you whisper. You weren’t sure why but there was a significant temperature drop, like the two of you crossed some invisible threshold.

You looked down when you heard static coming from the GPS. The screen flickered from the map with the little red dot with your position to one of static. You smacked it a few times, furrowing your brow as the screen seemed to go back to normal only to shut off completely. “Shit,” you whispered, pocketing the now useless device.

“Guess, we’re close,” Joey whispered.

You glanced up at the sky one last time, it was almost set, there was just enough light still to not need flashlights yet. “Don’t leave my side.”

“Got it.”

“I’m serious,” you turned your head and looked Joey directly in the eyes.

“I know,” she assured.

You slipped off the duffel bag and unzipped it just enough to pull out a dagger for yourself and Joey. You handed Joey her dagger and as she hid it away, tucking it under her jacket you hid your own, making sure Joey didn’t see that yours wasn’t made of iron like hers. When you swung the duffel back over your head you gave each other a final nod before you began leading the way. You tried to move as quietly as possible as you approached the target location, before the GPS died you knew you had been close.

You came down a hill and pushed through some shrubbery until it finally opened up into a clearing. The two of you froze in your tracks, there was a large bonfire already started and flags circled the bonfire. Each flag was a different color and seemed to have some sort of symbol on them, there seemed to be twelve in total. You didn’t recognize any of the symbols, but the flags were certainly old, all of them caked in dirt and tattered, the edges frayed, it looked like each of them had each been in a war zone at some point in their lifetime.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” you said, taking a step back.

You looked back when Joey didn’t respond only to see her lying on the ground, passed out. “Ana!” you rushed to her side, not even realizing you called her by her real name, you dropped the duffel as you got down next to her. You gently turned her head; she looked fine, and she was still breathing, but you hadn’t even heard her go down. A branch snapping made you look up, your eyes widening as you saw several cloaked figures coming out of the shadows.

“What did you do to her?” you shouted. You carefully moved your hands away from Joey’s head and stepped over her as you stood up again. You had just taken a step, ready to face all of them on your own when your mind was invaded by a thousand whispers.

You doubled over, gripping your head as you tried to stop the voices. You couldn’t make out any of the words, they seemed to be in a different language, but it felt like each word penetrated your brain, sending a sharp pain radiating throughout your skull. You let out a scream that turned more into a growl as you collapsed to your knees. You looked up and through blurry vision you could see the cloaked figures getting closer, though you couldn’t make out any faces.

You collapsed to the ground the rest of the way, still clutching your head. You thought the only way to relieve the pain might be able to rip into your skull. Your eyes were pinched shut but you pried them open just enough to see boots in front of you, you turned your head, trying to get a look at the face under the cloak above you before everything went black.

You jolted awake, yanking your arms to the side only to have them catch. You whipped your head around, blinking rapidly to clear your vision, it was completely dark, the only light coming from the bonfire that was blazing even brighter and the moon. Your heartbeat picked up; the moon hadn’t reached its peak yet, but you could already feel the burning itch beneath your skin. You weren’t near the bonfire, but you could make out several figures cloaked in black standing around it, each of them in front of one of the flags.

“Good, you’re up,” a feminine voice said. You snapped your head in the direction the voice came from to see a cloaked figure approach out of the shadows. When she got close enough, she flipped back her hood, revealing long black hair intricately braided and a beautiful youthful face, though her eyes told you she wasn’t as young as she appeared. “You should be proud of yourself,” she paced back and forth in front of you. “It took all of us to bring you down, not many can do that.”

“What can I say,” you said, venom dripping with each word. “I’m just that good.”

The witch appeared directly in front of you in a flash. She held a knife to your throat, the silver glinting in the moonlight, you recognized it immediately, it was the one you had taken out of the duffel. “That you are,” she whispered. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of you.” She smiled to herself and ran a hand down your chest. “I almost don’t want to kill you.” You snarled and lunged at her but were pulled back by the chains around your arms. She just laughed at your reaction and shoved your chest with her palm, pressing you against the tree.

“We’ve been doing this for centuries,” she said. “Everyone who’s ever tried to find us has ended up dead, did you really think you were any different?” she tilted her head.

“I’m going to kill you,” you said through gritted teeth.

She only laughed at that, shaking her head as if you were the funniest person she had ever met. “I think you’ll be a little preoccupied ripping apart your little girlfriend over there,” she nodded her head across the way at another tree. You looked in the direction to see Joey tied to a tree as well, though with rope.

You snarled at her and strained against the chains, trying to break away with the intent to rip the witches head clean off once you did so. She clicked her tongue at you and waved a disapproving finger. “Patience,” she said, giving what was probably her closest thing to a sweet smile. “It’s almost time,” she pointed up at the sky. “I’ll see you when you’re done with your meal,” she smiled, running her hand down your chest once more before turning and heading back to her coven.

You struggled against the chains, trying everything to break free. You could feel your body getting hotter, the itch to tear off your skin getting stronger. You shook your head, trying to fight back against those thoughts and keep control for as long as possible. “Are you okay?” you called out.

“Yeah,” Joey said.

“You need to get out of here.” You looked up at the sky, the moon was only getting higher. “Do you still have that knife-” your words instantly died when you heard the sound of the rope dropping to the ground.

Joey ran over to, instantly assessing the chains restraining you. “Way ahead of you,” she smirked. “We need to get these off.” She lifted the chain, looking for a way to break them.

“Don’t,” you said, whipping your head around, trying to get her attention. “You need to leave.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Joey appeared in front of you.

“You need to go,” you insisted.

“No, we’re in this together.”

She reached up to caress your cheek, but you backed away from her touch. “Now!” your voice got deeper, taking on an almost animalistic sound. Joey slowly retracted her hand and took a step back away from you. You dropped your head and closed your eyes, you just needed to keep control for a few more minutes.

“My pocket,” you said through gritted teeth.

Joey seemed to understand as she hesitantly stepped forward again and began digging around your jacket pockets until she pulled out the device Grace gave you. “What is it?” she asked, turning the small device in her hand.

“A tracker.” You slowly opened your eyes and looked up at Joey again. “Press it and Grace will be here, but you need to run like hell first.”

“I can’t just-”

You doubled over as your knee snapped back. “Wha the fuck,” Joey whispered, slowly stepping away from you. Your arm shot out, pulling against the chain before your elbow snapped in the opposite direction it should go. You collapsed to your knees, your back arching as your bones continued to snap and rearrange.

You pressed your hands into the ground as your shoulder dislocated, making itself bigger. You felt your claws begin to rip through your fingers before they were finally digging into the dirt. You could taste copper as your fangs tore through your gums. Your head snapped up and through gold-filled eyes you could see the horror on Joey’s face. “Run!” you growled out.

Your body continued to twist and turn, your bones snapping apart and reforming in a different direction. You ripped your jacket and shirt off, looking for any sense of relief. The last thing you saw before everything went black and your mind was overtaken with the natural desire to hunt, and kill was Joey running away from you.

Your mind, human mind was locked away as the beast took over. The transition was complete, and the beast stood tall on its hindlegs. It snarled and snapped its jaw until its ears twitched, picking up the sound of chanting. Its eyes snapped to the group of witches surrounding the bonfire, its other ear twitched, picking up the rapid heartrate of someone running away. It let out a thunderous growl before ripping its left arm forward, instantly snapping the chain, it repeated the action with the right arm. The beast stood to its full height, tilting its head as it looked from the witches to the direction of the person running, it let out a snarl before taking off, having decided who it wanted to kill first.

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