#And so were Baron and Bo

[callipraxia]

I want to hug these ancient dead guys now, and tell them I understand, and also ask for details on how to get famous enough that I can ensure my dear ones will be remembered in a thousand years.

I can’t stop getting emotional about how tenderly a shepherd caresses his dog’s face on this marble sarcophagus from the third century

The dog’s face is just so lovingly crafted and it’s much more finely detailed than some of the other animals in the piece. The expression is pure contentment and devotion. This scene is a tiny portion of a huge elaborate sculpture but I really feel like the artist was trying to capture a specific emotion with these two. The way that you feel when you look at your dog is thousands of years old.

[jellllllo-bowl]

return to my roots (batfam x dcmk)

I want to express my gratitude to anyone who has interacted with my batfam x dcmk posts and may we have more contents of them ✨

yapping below

thinking about whether this should happen in the same universe, or would it be funnier if some of the bats were dunked into dcmk world due to idk the speed force

if it's the former then i want to lean into "batman is an urban legend" outside of gotham, and yeah, night baron x batman is a decently-sized ship in dcmk japan. the BO doesn't want anything to do with gotham.

if it's the latter then maybe only bruce tim and damian are affected because the others are in the same age range as 1/ victims; 2/ BO members; and i don't know yet how to factor them into dcmk. maybe duke and the girls can stay in magic kaito verse. they would have a lot of fun traveling around the world meeting borderline-meta magicians.

bruce tim and damian would still go out at night. somehow the cave connects a random cave in rural okuho to their original verse due to both of them being fictional places (im spewing bullshit)

increasingly intricate crimes keep happening despite their interventions (they manage to lower the mortality rate tho)

how fast can they crack the BO case and likewise, how fast can they figure out the others' identities? i think it depends on how long they can stay out of each other's way (not so long)

conan would make a horrifying robin. IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE *kicking a ball into your face with the force of a truck*

before figuring out his identity im sure there's a developing theory that he's related to the local equivalent of bruce wayne. strong sense of justice and ...kinda blue eyes? and a multitude of weird gadgets and oh, his documents are forged, his parents don't exist??? very suspicious. too bad he actually has healthy and loving parents.

[cyanferret21]

Weapons also have souls au

Did I just simply make 2012 & rise crossover? Yes, yes I did!

Did I also add some ✨mystic✨ to it for spice? Yes I absolutely did!!

Am I gonna do this one post and never return to this idea ever again(like I did with my rat au)? I really fucking hope not!!!

The idea itself is that one of 12!turtle’s enemy got so fed up with them that they got their hands on some mystic stuff to capture brothers in weapons and banish them to another dimension. Anything to “never see their stupid turtle faces again!”

To everyone’s surprise it actually worked. And unfortunately for turtles …. That’s how one, what seemed like normal, mission turned into catastrophe. One by one brothers got separated and locked up in their own weapon: Leo in ōdachi, Mickey in kusari-fundo, Raph in tonfās and Donnie in some strange bo stuff (I have no idea what the name of the weapon was in first episode, if you know tell me) . After this they were just dumped through the portal in whatever dimension, those bad guys couldn’t care less honestly.

And that’s how 2012 Leo, Raph, Mickey and Donnie got into Rise!dimension. But…!!! They happened to appear in Hidden city long before Draxum’s mutant warriors were even in plans. Weapons were passed from hand to hand, but never stayed long with one holder. Different yokai complained about seeing and hearing strange things the more they used the weapons. But with every next holder it was getting more and more obvious that these weapons were not just haunted, but possessed mystic powers. With this rumours going around Hidden city about ōdachi that can creat portals and tonfās that make you bigger and stronger, that’s how Baron Draxum found out about them and decided that he wanted them in his collection.

And would you believe me when I tell that that’s where Draxum got the idea for his human-destruction warriors to be turtles? When he tried to use kusari-fundo and saw a vision of a ninja-looking turtle yokai that was yelling at him to be freed and was challenging him to a fight! He was mesmerised by this creature’s body structures, the possibility of a shell to be a natural protection, ability to breathe underwater. It was a perfect choice of an animal for a warrior to be mutated from!

That’s where 13 years later, our rise!bois are coming into view! Story goes the same as in the “Mystic mayhem” episode, except…. When rise!turtles tried to use their new mystic weapon and it was malfunctioning, it was mostly cause it was their first time using it, but also cause 12!brothers were being kinda salty about not being used for over a decade and they were trying to get some fun out of all this situation. After all, who could have known that their new holders are gonna finally help them reunite with each other. Not right away, but in time…

And if you’re asking yourself right now “But what about Donnie?” Well…remember how he didn’t take the “glowy weapon”? Yeah, at some point in the story they’ll have to go back to Draxum’s destroyed lab and hope that 12!Donnie and stuff he’s in did survive the explosion.

But for now R!Donnie is just like:

Next

[lulu2992]

Uncovering the unreleased Far Cry 5 in-game Encyclopedia

The almost complete but unused in-game encyclopedia, reconstructed thanks to the oasisstrings file.

Please note that it’s still cut content, so some information might not be relevant anymore.

You can read the oasisstrings file here. Pictures from this encyclopedia were also extracted and posted by @xbaebsae here.

Part 6: Characters

Aaron "Tweak" Kirby

Uppers, downers, sideway-ers... Tweak is all about pushing the limits of the human condition.

Adelaide Drubman

A confident go-getter with deep pockets to do whatever she wants, like living with booze, bazookas, and boy toy Xander Flynn.

Bo Adams

A hardcore survivalist that chooses to live out in the woods and off the grid.

Boomer

A scruffy pal with unparalleled loyalty.

Cameron Burke

A U.S. Marshal with an agenda. The only thing standing between him and his political aspirations is the Project at Eden's Gate.

Casey Fixman

A grill cook with a classified past. Most locals don’t believe his outrageous war stories or the wisdom he serves up with every order.

Chad Wolanski

A self-styled prepper chef who sells food out of his food truck since his restaurant "The Grill Streak" burned down.

Dr. Charles Lindsey

A veterinarian drafted into service as a medic. There's no one else to do it, and aren't we all animals?

Cheeseburger

Orphaned as a cub and raised by Wade Fowler, he's the star attraction at the F.A.N.G. Center. He loves eating cheeseburgers.

Clutch Nixon

A legendary stuntman who left this world the way he entered it: Face first onto a pile of rocks.

Dave Fowler

Wade Fowler's brother, he runs the business end of the F.A.N.G. Center.

Richard "Dutch" Roosevelt

An old prepper who'd worked himself to the bone and lost everything even before Eden's Gate came to town. Same shit, different horse.

Dylan

(no description found)

Eli Palmer

A bonafide prepper and the leader of the Whitetail Militia. He helped Eden's Gate design their survival bunkers before he wised up.

Faith Seed

The Siren in the East. The youngest in the Seed family pacifies unruly followers to make way for the Collapse. Some believe she's only an illusion.

George Wilson

George is a Whitetail Militia and baseball enthusiast, but spends most of this time as a lookout because of his age.

Grace Armstrong

A medal-winning shooter and army sniper with a vendetta against Eden’s Gate.

Guy Marvel

A genius movie director envisioning a masterpiece of anarchy and gold statue wins. Even an auteur needs help to make movie magic.

Deputy Joey Hudson

One of your fellow Hope County Deputies who has absolutely no time for bullshit and has the fists to back herself up.

Hurk Drubman Jr.

His wit and intellect may have been blunted by paint huffing, but that hasn't stopped him from living a life of adventure.

Hurk Drubman Sr.

A retired oil baron who is the undisputed master of his domain... what's left of it after the divorce.

Jacob Seed

The Soldier in the North. The eldest Seed brother serves Joseph by creating the army that will defend the Project with their lives.

Pastor Jerome Jeffries

The local man of God who will do whatever it takes to protect the people of Hope County – even if it costs him his soul.

Jess Black

Dutch’s niece. Jess is a loner who nearly lost her life in Jacob's camps, only to discover a new talent in the process: killing Peggies.

John Seed

The Baptist in the West. The youngest of the Seed brothers, John is in charge of reaping the land of supplies that will help the Project survive.

Joseph Seed

The Father. The middle Seed brother heard a Voice that told him to initiate a great Project, to prepare for the Collapse of everything. And so he has.

Kim Rye

A world traveler who chose Hope County to put down roots, and those roots are on the way - she's in her third trimester.

Larry Parker

Genius or crackpot? Science will decide.

Mary May Fairgrave

The tough-as-nails barkeep who blames Eden's Gate for the death of her parents.

Merle Briggs

A local prepper. Merle could talk your ears off about his dream bunker, or the shelf life of canned goods.

Wilhelmina Mable

Wilhelmina Maybelline, big cat whisperer and taxidermist. The well-being of Peaches the cougar is her top priority.

Nadine Abercrombie

The last living member of a family of hoarders, though she considers herself a collector. Much classier than simply hoarding. And more selective.

Nancy

(no description found)

Nick Rye

The best dang pilot in Hope County. Give him a chance and he'll put on a show.

Peaches

The long-time pet of Miss Mable. Probably named for the color of her fur and not the sweet disposition she lacks.

Deputy Stacy Pratt (yes, his first name is actually spelled Stacy in the files)

One of your fellow Hope County Deputies who’s a good cop when his ego doesn't get in the way.

Dr. Sarah Perkins

A lone biologist determined to unravel the mysteries of how Jacob's Judge wolves are created.

Sharky Boshaw

A wanted arsonist, Charlemange Victor Boshaw IV hides out where he can live his fire-blazing, rockstar fantasies.

Sherri Woodhouse

She gave up city life, opened a fishing store, and began the hunt for her family’s missing legendary whiskey.

Skylar Kohrs

A high-powered expert fly fisher hell-bent on landing a legendary fish.

Tammy Barnes

Once a homemaker, now the chief interrogator for the Whitetail Militia. They say her marshmallow blondies are to die for.

Tracey Lader

A woman determined to bring down Eden's Gate, especially Faith. They used to be friends and the sting of betrayal fuels her wrath.

Virgil Minkler

A trusted mayor for the past 7 terms, now hell-bent on stopping the production of Bliss after it took the life of his son.

Wade Fowler

The co-owner of the F.A.N.G. Center, an animal rescue facility that takes in orphaned wild animals.

Walker

A member of Eli's Whitetail Militia.

Wendell Redler

He made it through Nam with his buddies. Now he’s an old man, his buddies are gone, and this is not the America he fought for in his youth.

Wheaty

The smart-ass quartermaster for the Whitetail Militia who also has a radio broadcast to counter the Father's propaganda.

Earl Whitehorse

The devoted sheriff of Hope County. He believes delivering justice with a gun should be a last resort. On the eve of his retirement, duty calls.

Willis Huntley

Just a man in love with the good ol' US of A.

Xander Flynn

Left California for Hope County to detox from the city life. Ended up finding "modeling" gigs at the Drubman Marina, and a cult cramping his style.

Zip Kupka

A self-proclaimed conspiracy "realist" who finds a new reason to hate the government with each passing day.

There were three more:

Coyote Nelson

Fishing is life.

In the files, Coyote Nelson is the name of the fisherman you meet at fishing spots.

Morris

A bright kid of Blackfoot heritage and the go-to person for all things computers and arcade machines. He keeps it on the down low.

The character’s full name apparently is Morris Aubrey. He’s the person who’s always near Far Cry Arcade machines and telling you how “awesome” the game is.

Scooter

A supply runner for the Whitetail Militia.

All I know about Scooter is that, according to a deleted mission objective, this character (who was also cut) was supposed to be escorted to the Wolf’s Den at some point.

[abidethetempest]

"Transl. from Eliksni" Flavor Text translated into Eliksni Conlang

Here are those flavor text lines I've been mentioning in every SotConlang post since the dawn of time! Finally! These were more of a "chip at it when there's downtime" project, since they're fairly short and simpler compared to than Null Composure. I'm very proud of them, as this is the culmination of several months of background work and my first completed translation project! *throws confetti*

side note: on Ishtar Collective, some items say "transl. from Eliksni" and others say "trans. from Eliksni". i definitely didn't only just find that out when I was close to being done w the original lines i found..... anyway idk what the reason for the difference is (probably diff ppl wrote the flavor texts) but now you all know if you want to go look these up yourselves. I made them all say "transl." for consistency here.

Translations are all below the cut, plus maybe some notes if I have the room/energy to write them!

New here and confused? This post is part of my ongoing project to create a language for the Eliksni! For more information check out my masterpost linked here.

"The Barons fight together." —Elykris, transl. from Eliksni

Aaviks Bahrenesni or’thrys.

"They gave us nothing… so we'll take everything." —Elykris, transl. from Eliksni

Teskem ak nam ryk elan… liium roksun el drrha.

"The Great Machine isn't killing us. We're killing ourselves over the Great Machine." —Brivi, transl. from Eliksni

Nam’mrathiik Aalosiisrohkani iven. Mrathiikya el nviks Aalosiisrohkani.

"Let them have the Great Machine. They deserve it." —Mithrax, transl. from Eliksni

Niidreh dreskibr kaas Aalosiisrohkani skeyris. Ksohls ak eyka.

"The Kells are dead or mad. The era of Houses is over. So I came to the Shore." —Arrha, transl. from Eliksni

Keles vaath’iir priit neyv. Dei’grehs iikrimni eyd Bohs. Liium estyrem neh ryk Nateskiini. 

"I was of kings. Then of exiles. Now I'm here. The Shore is bad… but everywhere else is worse." —Brivi, transl. from Eliksni

Liirem neh eyd Bo-Usriis. Grev Bo-Nama. Rak ilo. Nateskiini pehka... drand eil drrhapriistis ar’pehka vei Nateskiini.

"I was at the Final Attempt. I saw a Guardian wield a gun that left molten gold in her wake. I ran and never looked back." —Avrok, transl. from Eliksni

Liirem neh yan Grehsriivaenni. Biir’em neh, greyraabt vathyarov heythiks usar’em, yan orey’em’iir neyok bev eydka greyr sriivikem. Thekrem neh taap namiik tamr biirem neh.

"We are a long way from home." —Arrha, transl. from Eliksni

El ksaan shak ketch.

"Here we can start over." —Mithrax, transl. from Eliksni

Ilo vaad niivrey seykrim el.

"How do you think we got here?" —Avrok, trans. from Eliksni

Greyrsa iruuksis klii, giire el ilo estyrem.

That was a whole lot of stuff so I think I'll leave the notes out (theyre not anything super special anyway lol). Might reblog to add some rambles later if anyone is interested!

[cymraegdragon21]

Serendipity

Birthday Bash Prompt 3 - Long Lost Relative

'Another excellent batch Baron.' commented Haru as she brought her tea cup away from her lips.

'Haru you flatter me.' he grinned as he approached with his own cup in his hand.

'Is it flattery if its true?' she mused as he sat beside her.

Baron chuckled.

'It seems an age since you last visited.' he replied.

Haru let out a small groan.

'I'm sorry. Life is just hectic at the moment. School is especially busy what with it being my final year.' she sighed.

'There is nothing to be sorry about. You have a life outside of us.' he responded.

'I know but I miss you guys when I can't visit.' she murmured.

'We miss you too.' smiled Baron 'Now are there any particularly interesting topics that you are studying at the moment?'

'Yes.' nodded Haru 'In one of my classes we've been looking into family trees. We've been able to us a programme to look into online records and it's quite surprising how far you can go back.'

'Any famous ancestors then?' he asked.

'Well sadly I'm not a direct descendent of the imperial emperor.' giggled Haru 'There have been some interesting occupations held though.'

They lapsed into companionable silence as they both sipped and enjoyed their tea.

'I guess with being a creation you wouldn't have any relations or ancestors.' murmured Haru.

Baron looked at her thoughtfully.

'Well I suppose I have a twin.' he responded.

'A what?' squeaked Haru in surprise.

'A twin. Another made by my artisan at the same time as myself from the same wood.' he explained.

'Oh.' replied Haru 'I didn't know.'

'Well no, the thing is we were separated a long time ago. There isn't a day that I don't think of her but it doesn't hurt as much as it once did.' he murmured.

'What happened?' asked Haru before spluttering 'Sorry, you don't need to tell me!'

'That's okay.' he said 'It happened when we were owned by a cafe owner and on display on the counter. There was an accident when a child bumped into the counter and Louise fell which caused damage to her wooden form. She was sent away for repair. In the meantime a young couple who visited the cafe quite regularly expressed an interest in purchasing us. The cafe owner refused to sell whilst Louise was being repaired. The couple returned again with their offer suggesting that the man would take me and the lady would collect Louise when she was returned and reunite us.'

'I guess that never happened.' whispered Haru.

'Sadly not. World War Two broke out and travel became impossible. After the war Shirou did return to Germany to search for them but he never found either.' explained Baron.

'I'm sorry.' replied Haru.

'Thank you.' he responded with a weak smile.

A silence once again enveloped them but this one was more uncomfortable. Suddenly Haru brightened as she remembered something that she had been planning to tell Baron.

'Do you remember the school exchange I mentioned?' she asked.

'Vaguely.' he nodded.

'Well it's been finalised and we will be going in a few weeks.' she replied excitedly 'It should be interesting to experience another culture.'

'Where are you going?' he asked.

'Germany, well Nuremburg specifically.' she grinned 'It was your story that reminded me I needed to tell you.'

'Will you be going alone?' he said looking slightly alarmed.

'Of course not. There is a group of us going.' replied Haru as she shook her head before letting out a small sigh 'Well sadly Hiromi won't be able to go so I guess there is a possibility of being on my own during free time.'

Baron suddenly got up from the sofa and moved across to his desk before rummaging in one of the drawers.

'Umm Baron are you okay?' asked Haru slightly alarmed by his sudden movement.

'Yes I'm fine.' he responded as he shut the drawer again and returned to his seat next to her before presenting Haru with a small box.

'I was saving this for your birthday but I feel it may be better than you have it before your trip.' he continued.

'What is it?' murmured Haru curiously as she took the box.

'Open it and find out.' chuckled Baron.

Haru removed the lid to find a necklace inside. On the delicate chain was a small circular pendant containing a gemstone.

'Wow.' she murmured 'So pretty,'

Baron carefully removed it from the box before placing it around her neck.

'You can use this necklace to call for the Bureau's help whenever you need us.' he explained 'All you need to do is press the centre of the gem and we will be with you as soon as we can.'

'You really care for me.' she whispered tearfully.

'Of course we do. You are very important to us.' he replied squeezing her shoulder.

Haru would have preferred he said 'I' instead of 'us' but she was still appreciative. 

'Thank you.' she smiled.

Before she knew it she had wrapped her arms around Baron's chest in a hug. He initially stiffened in surprise but it didn't take him long to place his own arms around her and hug back. He took the opportunity to sneak a nuzzle of his cheek against her hair. 

'You're the best Baron.; mumbled Haru against his waistcoat 'I know that you can't come with me but this means I'll have a small part of the Bureau with me and assistance if I ever need it.'

A few weeks later Haru was enjoying her first trip to Europe. They had met up with their exchange school and had met the students who they would be receiving as guests back in Japan in a couple of months time. There were a few cultural differences but everyone was friendly. The students had taken her group out around the city to show them the landmarks as well as some of their favourite places. 

In the afternoon they had been granted free time and Haru had discovered a park nearby to where they were staying which was very pleasant for walks. As Haru passed a set of bushes she heard a rustle followed by a pitiful mewl. The incident with the Cat Kingdom had made Haru careful around cats but her curiosity was stronger. She knelt down and pulled back the vegetation to reveal a kitten wrapped up in what appeared to be curling ribbon.

'Hey little one.' she said quietly so not to spook the small cat 'Looks like you're quite tangled up.'

Haru had no idea if she could interact in the same way with cats in other countries and the fact that the kitten was staring at her fearfully didn't really answer the question.

'Let me help you.' she continued as she cautiously reached out.

Thankfully the kitten stayed still allowing Haru to start detangling them. She was almost finished when the kitten got spooked by a loud noise and began to run trailing the ribbon that was still attached to their back leg.

'Hey wait!' called Haru as she scrambled to her feet chasing after the terrified cat. 

She followed the kitten through the alleyways and she couldn't help feeling a sense of de ja vu. The kitten shot into a tunnel with Haru in hot pursuit. She came to a stand still on the other side as she felt the atmosphere change. The air felt different, just like it did when she entered the Refuge. Haru's eyes widened at the square in front of her and that the houses were unlike the rest she had seen on her trip. She looked around but the kitten seemed to have disappeared. Haru's gaze was drawn to one particular building. The sign hanging outside read ' Katzenhaus'. Haru's eyes widened further as her brain was taking in the similarities and the possible implications. Suddenly the front door opened loudly making her jump. She didn't think her eyes could go any wider when a white cat creation stepped out.

'No frigging way!' exclaimed Haru.

The figure looked at her in surprise.

'A tiny human. How unusual.' she murmured.

'Please tell me you are Louise.' Haru almost begged.

'I am but how do you know who I am?' she asked curiously.

'I think it's best to show you rather than explain.' grinned Haru as she fumbled for the necklace and pressed the gem. 

Even though she knew this would cause Baron to panic she was pretty certain he would understand and forgive her.

'Okay.' replied Louise looking confused 'Who might you be?'

'Oh I'm Haru.' she smiled as she noticed the kitten appear behind Louise. 

The creation knelt down to remove the rest of the ribbon but didn't take her eyes off Haru. Many questions appeared to be in their blue depths. Haru noticed the sign of a portal beginning to open.

'The reason I know who you are is about to arrive.' she explained.

Louise's gaze followed Haru's eyeline as the portal opened and Muta tumbled out followed by Baron running out. He headed straight for Haru wrapping her up in his arms. 

'Haru! Is everything okay?' he asked looking worried.

'I'm fine Baron.' she smiled.

'Then why?' he responded in confusion.

'Humbert?' came a voice behind him.

Baron's head swung around in surprise. After so many years apart, his twin was standing in front of him. He released his grip on Haru as Louise ran towards him with her arms spread out. Baron caught her feeling completely stunned.

'Louise.' he murmured as she began to cry on his shoulder holding onto him even tighter.

Haru smiled but felt tearful herself at the emotional reunion.

'Thank you Haru.' choked Baron.

'It was pure chance but you're welcome.' she replied 'You have a lot to catch up on.'

'We do indeed.' agreed Louise as she lifted her tear stained face from Baron's shoulder 'Please all come inside and we can chat over tea.'

Haru's eyes drifted to Muta and she could see his mouth twitch with the temptation to make some comment about boiled grass but he knew how important this meeting was. She then looked back at the embracing cat creations and nodded.

'That would be great.' she nodded 'Please lead the way.' 

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Bo M. Winegard, Cory Clark, Connor R. Hasty, Roy F. Baumeister

Published: Aug 23, 2023

Abstract

Recent scholarship has challenged the long-held assumption in the social sciences that Conservatives are more biased than Liberals, yet little work deliberately explores domains of liberal bias.

Here, we demonstrate that Liberals (some might call them Progressives) are particularly prone to bias about victims’ groups (e.g. women, Black people) and identify a set of beliefs that consistently predict this bias, termed Equalitarianism.

Equalitarianism, we believe, stems from an aversion to inequality and a desire to protect relatively low status groups, and includes three interrelated beliefs: (1) demographic groups do not differ biologically; (2) prejudice is ubiquitous and explains existing group disparities; (3) society can, and should, make all groups equal in society.

This leads to bias against information that portrays a perceived privileged group more favorably than a perceived victims’ group. Eight studies and twelve mini meta-analyses (n=3,274) support this theory. Liberalism was associated with perceiving certain groups as victims (Studies 1a-1b).

In Studies 2-7 and meta-analyses, Liberals evaluated the same study as less credible when the results portrayed a privileged group (men and White people) more favorably than a victims’ group (women and Black people) than vice versa. Ruling out alternative explanations of normative reasoning, significant order effects in within-subjects designs in Study 6 and Study 7 (preregistered) suggest that Liberals believe they should not evaluate identical information differently depending on which group is portrayed more favorably, yet do so.

In all studies, higher equalitarianism mediated the relationship between liberalism and lower credibility ratings when privileged groups were portrayed more favorably. Although not predicted a priori, meta-analyses also revealed Moderates to be the most balanced in their judgments. These findings do not indicate whether this bias is morally justifiable, only that it exists.

A recent meta-analysis found that both Liberals and Conservatives were roughly equally biased when evaluating information with conclusions that were more or less congenial with their preferred beliefs (Ditto et al., 2019a, 2019b). Although many scholars continue to dispute the possibility of roughly symmetrical bias among Liberals and Conservatives, even the most skeptical scholars agree that Liberals likely are biased on some issues (e.g., Baron & Jost, 2019; Van Bavel et al., 2020).

Indeed, it has been argued that bias is a natural human tendency that evolved at least partially to facilitate group cooperation and status attainment within social groups (e.g., Clark et al., 2019; Clark & Winegard, 2020; Winegard & Clark, 2020), and thus Liberals, as humans, likely are biased in at least some domains.

Despite widespread agreement that Liberals are susceptible to biases, little work has explored domains in which Liberals display biases. Here we explore one such domain: low status groups. We contend that Liberals are biased in their evaluations of information that portray low status groups unfavorably (relative to high status groups). We also find evidence that this bias is at least partially explained by a set of interrelated beliefs about low status groups that are endorsed more strongly by modern Liberals than modern Conservatives.

[...]

General Discussion

Taken together, the data from these studies strongly support the equalitarian account of liberal bias.

First, Liberals appeared committed to intrinsic group equality. They were biased such that they found vignettes that stated that two demographic groups were equal more (although not statistically significantly relative to Women Higher in Study 5) credible than vignettes that stated that one group outperformed another.

Second, they were consistently biased against results that favored a privileged group over a victims’ group. In every single study, they rated the Privileged Group Higher vignette as less credible than the Victims’ Group Higher.

And third, scores on our equalitarian measure mediated our results in every study such that higher scores on the equalitarian measure predicted more bias among Liberals. Consistent with our hypotheses, meta-analyses revealed a significant interaction effect overall as well as within studies that manipulated sex and those that manipulated race, such that increased iberalism predicted a larger bias against information that portrays high status groups more favorably than low status groups relative to the reverse.

Also consistent with hypotheses, meta-analyses revealed the hypothesized effects for Liberals overall and within both types of studies. The meta-analyses also revealed a relatively smaller but still significant effect of the sex manipulation for Conservatives in the same direction as for Liberals, and a significant effect of the race manipulation for Conservatives in the opposite direction as for Liberals. Among Moderates, there were no significant effects of the conditions.

Our theory builds from previous work, but goes beyond it, providing a framework for understanding a powerful and largely empiricallyunexplored—but not undiscussed—source of bias. Many scholars have noted—some lamenting and some championing—that many Liberals have protective concerns for victims’ groups (e.g., Bawer, 2012; Haidt, 2012; Mac Donald, 2018; Pinker, 2003) and that those concerns can lead to powerful biases about victims’ groups. Therefore, at minimum, our theory is a prioriplausible.

But it is also largely congruent with many previous analyses of Liberals and provides a potential explanation for previous findings. For example, Liberals have a stronger pro-black bias than Conservatives (Axt et al., 2016), Liberals but not Conservatives are less willing to sacrifice the life of a Black man than a White man to save 100 others (Uhlmann et al., 2009), one of the largest discrepancies among liberal and conservative bias in the Ditto et al. (2019a) meta-analysis came from a study involving victims’ groups (Crawford et al., 2013), Liberals are more inclined to impute motives to scientists who propose biological explanations for life outcomes than those who propose more extrinsic explanations (Hannikainen, 2018), and Liberals are particularly opposed to research on male-favoring sex-differences (Stewart-Williams et al., 2021).

And this theory makes novel predictions, one of which was supported in this paper. The consistency of our results across studies and with established empirical data and with recent controversies in the academic community increases our confidence in our theory and persuades us that it might be a powerful framework for understanding certain political and even scientific biases.

Furthermore, our theory contributes to a burgeoning area of research on liberal bias that has challenged prior assumptions about the relation between political ideology and bias. For a long time, many scholars contended that Conservatives were more prone to bias than Liberals (e.g., Jost et al., 2003). However, recent evidence and arguments have challenged this asymmetry argument, asserting that bias is likely equal across political ideologies (Ditto et al., 2019a; Guay & Johnston, 2022).

Although some scholars have been troubled by this (e.g., Baron & Jost, 2019), our results also challenge the asymmetry argument and illustrate the importance of exploring many different areas of bias. Because most social psychologists are liberal, they may take liberal biases for granted; that is, they simply assume that liberal biases are correct and are not biases at all. Indeed, even when people are aware bias exists, they seem unable to identify bias in themselves (Pronin, Lin, & Ross, 2002).

Furthermore, liberal social psychologists might not be as motivated to discover and shed light on liberal bias as they are for conservative bias, because conservative thought seems more peculiar and foreign to them. When scholars have looked in the right places, though, they have found more equivalent levels of bias between ideological groups (e.g., Crawford, 2012; 2014; Brandt et al., 2014).

Of course, our results cannot settle this important debate, but they do add plausibility to the symmetrical bias thesis, or at least a ‘not as asymmetrical as previously thought’ hypothesis. And they forward a novel domain and direction of bias among Liberals.

==

As noted in the beginning, liberalism in this sense refers to American progressivism (vs conservatism) rather than Classical Liberalism, which is bipartisan.

Anecdotally, I can confirm this phenomenon.

You can point out the violence statistics. Such as 77 black or brown children killed by neighborhood gun violence in one year, versus about 12 unarmed - but not necessarily not-dangerous - black men killed by police each year. One gets national coverage, one does not. The response? Well, it must be incomplete (it's not), it must be from a far-right source (Washington Post, really?), it... it doesn't reflect the "lived reality" of black people in America today (that one might be true, only because you've fear-mongered a narrative that's in defiance of the statistics).

You can point out studies that show a police interaction is less (~27%) likely to end in a police shooting death if the citizen is black than if white. Well, you can't say that, that's racist. You want to deny systemic racism.

You can point out the dometic violence statistics which show women are more often the aggressor, men experience sexual assault, including rape, almost as often as women, lesbian relationships are more violent than straight ones, which are more violent than gay male ones, and that men are more often the fatalities in domestic violence cases when all deaths are accounted for. That's some misogynistic claims from bogus far-right stats (the CDC is not far-right, and it's been reproduced across hundreds of studies).

The narrative has to be protected at all costs. Especially when people have attached their identities to these narratives.

[booksandchainmail]

Recently read through Kate Elliott's Unconquerable Sun and Furious Heaven, the first two parts of a trilogy described as genderbent Alexander the Great in space. Excellent books, but I didn't have the knowledge of Alexander's life necessary to draw the historical parallels. Fortunately, the author has a few essays up on tor.com explaining it. Unfortunately, she doesn't spell out all the connections, so here's what I have, ones stated by the author bolded:

(some spoilers, I guess)

Sun: Alexander the Great

Eirene: Phillip II of Macedon (Alexander's father)

Joao: Olympias (Alexander's mother)

Persephone "Perse" Lee: Ptolemy I Soter (Alexander's companion, later pharaoh of Egypt, noted for keeping memoirs and sponsoring mathematics)

Hestia "Hetty" Hope: Hesphaistion (Alexander's companion and lover)

Alika Vata: Perdiccas (Alexander's companion and general)

James Samtarras: does not have a historical analog, since he apparently fulfills multiple roles

Makinde Bo: Lysimachus (Alexander's general)

Razin Nazir: don't know, she hasn't shown up much, presumably one of Alexander's other companions/generals

Jade Kim: Craterus (Alexander's general, often distrusted for his ambition)

Tiana: Thais (courtesan who later became Ptolemy's consort)

Solomon: Seleuccas (Alexander's general, later founded the Seleucid Empire)

Octavian: no historical analog

Zizou: no historical analog

Crane Marshal Zaofu Samtarras: Parmenion (cautious older general contrasted against Alexander)

Anas Samtarras: Philotas (Parmenion's oldest son)

Angharad Black: Cleitus the Black (soldier who saved Alexander's life)

Moira Lee: Attalos (friend of Phillip's who arranged his marriage to Attalos's yougner relative)

Marduk Lee: Antipater (Alexander's regent in macedonia while he was away on campaign)

Nona Lee: Antigonus? I'm hesitant about this, but Nona is the only character I can think of who fits the description of "one of Philip’s old guard who unlike most of the rest of the older generation retained his importance long into and past the Alexander era"

Dimitar: Demetrius (Antigonus's son, the names match which supports the Nona=Antigonus theory)

Soaring Shan: Cleopatra (Alexander's sister)

Metis: Phillip Arhiddaeus (Alexander's half brother, deemed mentally unfit to rule)

Beau Qiang: Callisthenes (Alexander's historian)

Baron Voy: amalgamation of Demosthenes and Aeschines (athenian orators)

Baragesi: Darius III (ruler of the persians)

Jejomar Os Cook: Sisygambis (Darius's mother, captured by Alexander)

Bartholomew: Barsine (persian noblewoman who knew Alexander as a child, and later married him)

Manu: Memnon (greek mercenary who fought for persia)

Apama: this one I struggled with, Kate Elliott says, "She has an historical counterpoint and in some ways I consider her my most important gender spin in the entire story." But I couldn't find any corresponding person she could be genderbent from. Then I realized that "gender spin" could be referring, not to making a historically male figure female, but to giving a female figure the agency and role in this narrative that she didn't get in the historical record. So my guess is Apama I, a persian noblewoman from a region whose leaders were later referred to as Sabao, whose wikipedia page basically just lists her father, husband, and children.

[sawyingthroughthewasteland]

OCs as Horror Tropes Tag Game

I’m getting popular with these :) got tagged by @valentineenjoyer  link to quiz! gonna do this with Sawyer, but I am seeing my cowriter next week so maybe I’ll force her to help me with Baron also :) Sawyer J. Lockwood, General of the Minutemen, ex-mech pilot and a post-war gay with all the associated trauma with it:

Question 1: Pick a time of day. 

Sawyer is actually an early bird thanks to having been raised on a farm. His day starts right when the sun goes up and he starts crashing when it goes down. This drives his husband, who used to live in Alaska, absolutely insane.  Question 2: Introvert or Extrovert? Sawyer’s a mix- he’s got a really good charismatic face and cares deeply about the people he’s in charge of keeping safe but also gets grumpy often and wants his alone time. Preston is the same so the two tag-team when it comes to managing people. Question 3: How do you respond to feeling lonely? Man’s been lonely for most of his life. Father passed away when he was young and shortly after he’d grown apart from his mother while trying to find himself in a baptist community. During the war, he struggled to make friends as he preferred to spend his time studying or training so a lot of his loneliness was fought off with Baron- his lover in the USAF. As Sawyer was in the navy’s experimental branch, it wasn’t often they saw each other but when they did they were attached at the hip. During the time post-war when Sawyer thought Baron was dead, he was lonely as all hell and didn’t deal with it the best- largely internalizing it as justification for being the sole survivor. Thankfully Preston helped pry him out of his depression hole and finding a new lover in Danse helped as he blossomed as the General. When Baron surprised everyone by arriving with the second wave of the BoS to check in with Maxson’s sudden silence- the two quickly became inseparable (which is probably why Sawyer didn’t nuke the BoS off the face of the earth the moment they appeared over the horizon.)  Question 4: Pick a deadly sin.    Pride. He’s spent a lot of time rebuilding himself as well as the world around him to be a better place- and he’s learned over and over again he has to be protective of it or else others will want to change it to their liking. He always accounts for others and tries to help the greater good, but also is painfully aware how important appearances are in a leadership position. He’s super smart, but mostly in pre-war era things and often forgets things have changed- resulting in his plans often running straight into walls if his friends aren’t there to help him course correct.  Question 5: Pick a van gogh painting. Starry Night. He doesn’t get to enjoy night anymore with how busy he is and longs for a summer night under the stars in fucking peace.  Question 6: song lyric question “Oh lets get old fashioned / Back to how things used to be / if I get old, old fashioned / would you get old, old fashioned with me?”  He’s significantly happier post-war in a world where things make more sense to him (community building, being self sustaining, returning to a trade system, everyone helping each other with no expected repayment in return) and of course loves the minutemen but.... often mourns the pre-war era. Less the technology and society back then, more the fact that he hadn’t been in any shape to ever make the most of it.  When Baron returns, he almost gets a second chance at it- and it certainly helps now that he finally as someone who relates to him concerning the sudden time skip.  Question 7: Warm or cool colors? Cool! Man loves his blues and foresty colors :) Question 8: Early bird or night owl? See question 1 lol Question 9: Pick an excerpt. “A heart’s a heavy burden.” - Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle Post-war, man would it be easy for him to snap and not bother to help anyone. His unique skills make it easy for him to never have to rely on a community and he could’ve lived for decades without ever seeing anyone just out in the woods but alas- his heart is too big for his own good.  Question 10: Pick another painting. Hamlet, Alphonse Mucha. Neat style and Sawyer loves his classics (and relates to Hamlet a lot).  Question 11: Choose a tarot card.  The Lovers. A lot of Sawyer’s story is motivated by love: love for the Minutemen and all their people, love for Danse, love for his son, love for Baron, and of course love for all his other friends and companions.  Question 12: Why are you tired? “I have never known anything else. The exhaustion, the fatigue- it is as much apart of me as my bones and blood. I cannot imagine myself without it.” Question 13: What is worship? “It is destructive, and it is a weapon.”  Sawyer’s seen what’s happened with past politicians and leaders, and wants nothing to do with it. Also ~trauma~ makes bringing anything remotely religious into the same room as him immediately makes him not trust you. He believes firmly in that everyone should help everyone and no man is above another- everyone is equal and should be viewed as such and if not, deserve to be knocked down. Question 14: Choose something to take from my pockets. “a bracelet of multicolored beads”. As long as its established that the quiz creator is chill with him taking it- yea he’d like a pride bracelet :) Question 15: Feel free to tell me something! Did this for a tag game and really wish I noticed there was 15 questions before writing long answers to everything but oh well lmao Answer: 

Thank for for the tag Valentineenjoyer!  People imma tag: @kyngsnake @wastelandhell and if anyone else wants to join they can :) (yall don’t need to go as crazy as me on the answers, most just put the result of this I’m just insane)

[alto-tenure]

PL Minigame Review

So with the polls I've made pitting the PL minigames against one another, I wanted to (re)visit them, take a look at them again, and decide whether I actually like them or not. Some of them I completed, some of them I only did a few levels of. This doesn't include LMJ because I don't have it.

Curious Village

Inn:

Some of the additions are a little unintuitive -- for instance, the Baron's statue being in Layton's room doesn't make as much sense to me, since he calls it "a bit unnerving". But it's a solid game, and I love the bits of information you get from it about Layton and Luke. Luke taking violin lessons, for instance! It's not my personal favorite, but I've never been fond of house arranging games. I played whichever Animal Crossing was the Wii one back in the day (New Leaf, I think?) and I spent more time walking around town interacting with the NPCs than doing stuff in my house. It's not my style, but still a lot of fun.

Painting:

A fun little jigsaw puzzle! I enjoyed putting it together a lot. And it's a nice picture once you finish. This is my personal favorite, but it has some sentimental value for me.

Gizmos:

Hardly a puzzle at all. You just collect the pieces and the game arranges them for you. It's my least favorite of the three because it feels like you don't have to do anything for it (and you...really don't?)

Diabolical/Pandora's Box

Camera:

I really like putting together the camera parts. Can you tell I like jigsaw puzzles?

The spot the difference parts, however...those were really hard, even knowing the locations of the hint coins in most of the locations because I put together the camera after I had beat the game for the first time. I would have put it together earlier if it weren't for the fact that I had pretty much every piece in place except for the small one, which I had rotated the wrong way by 180 degrees. Whoops. I like spot the differences, but the ones in this game were really hard.

Hamster:

I ragequit this one on the last level because of this

Do you understand my pain.

This was a fun minigame, but it starts the trend of Professor Layton minigames where you have to make something walk around/drive around, and I don't like the rest of these kinds of minigames. The first few puzzles were fun, but I went back to do the last one, and it really wasn't that frustrating, I just needed to take a step back. Ragequitting is not usually my style, but for a minigame, it was fine.

I didn't know it would sniff out hint coins! This game gives you a lot of help finding hint coins between this and the camera, more than any other game besides Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright which straight-up highlights which points of investigation are hint coins lmao

The hamster's voice is a little grating, but it's not a deal-breaker for me.

I named the hamster “Nobody”, btw

All in all, I think it's the most fun of this style of game (which also includes the toy car, train, and robot).

Tea Set:

I like this game! It’s my favorite of the three in this game, at least. I’ve talked a lot about the talks you have with the NPCs. While I did look up the recipes, once I had all the recipes looked up, I knew which tea each NPC wanted pretty much right away. They’re not subtle. I like that it lets you get to know Folsense and its residents more. While I understand that some people like poisoning Layton and Luke...that is not the appeal of it for me.

Unwound/Lost Future

Toy Car:

Yeah, I didn’t really play this one after getting it. I think it has some charm to it, though. I like that Don Paolo’s vehicle is also there. It’s funny.

Parrot:

I like this one a lot. It hits the sweet spot between “interacting with others” and fun physics puzzles. I know some people might find the rope bouncing bullshit/annoying, but rope go “boing”

I named the parrot “Sayuri”, which is a reference to Ace Attorney’s parrot (Polly is named Sayuri in Japanese) and I was not expecting it to come up in-game so much and I started to regret my choice later on. And also I didn’t realize the parrot was a he/him when I named him so now he’s a guy named after a female parrot. It’s fine it’s whatever I did the same thing to the rabbit

Picture Book:

Now this one, this one is fun to make mistakes on. At least in this one I don’t cause anyone health issues, since it’s just a book.

Spectre's Call/Last Specter

Toy Train:

The 3D animation has some nice charm to it. The puzzles are fine I guess. I don’t have very much to say about this one.

Fish:

Maybe I’m just bad at puzzles, but this was really hard for me. I don’t like blaming stuff like this on aphantasia because it doesn’t really require you to be able to visualize, but it sure would help if I could. The time limits are short, but I like that it lets you experiment and see what happens. What helped me was usually running the course once without any bubbles, and then going back and adding bubbles once I figured out how the fish traveled. I named my fish Ocean, or something else water-related.

Puppet Theater:

This is the only one that I actually finished during my initial playthrough of the game. I thought it was pretty fun! The stories were neat, even if it was rather easy, since I only played it after I had gotten all of the actions.

Mouse Alley:

I did not play this during my playthrough of Spectre’s Call, but I did get the requisite mouse badges -- I only played it after making the poll for the prequels. I really like it! It’s a lot of fun to catch mice. Though I do have to wonder...would it be possible to use a TAS to get the maximum score of 999,999,999? Why is the maximum score just under a billion?

Miracle Mask

Toy Robot:

This was a weird one. I like it? I had more fun with it than expected. I didn’t like the final boss, though.

Rabbit Show:

My rabbit is named Minuki, which is Trucy Wright's Japanese given name! And then the rabbit turned out to be a he/him. Oh well. Gender isn't real anyways

This one is fun, but I liked teaching the rabbit tricks more than I liked doing the shows.

One-Stop Shop:

My personal favorite! The puzzles are entertaining and I like watching the customers sweep through and go “oops I bought too much”. Rich people lol but as long as I’m scamming them...

Horseback Riding:

I struggled with this until I remembered that my laptop has a touchscreen because it’s new (I’ve only had it for a few months) and that made playing this much easier. I like the additions to it so that it has a purpose (collect all the flags) instead of chasing down the Masked Gentleman as it appears at the beginning of the game. However, I find it extremely ironic because the policeman who gives us access to the game complements the player’s riding skills from the beginning of the game, and I cannot tell you how crappy I was

Azran Legacy

Dress Up:

A fun game that lets you interact with characters. I used to be really fond of those Fashion Show minigames on Friv, so, y'know

Why are all the outfits so ugly. I try to make an outfit that actually looks coordinated but noooo they want something worse. Prima's is the only acceptable one. Then again, she is an in-universe fashion forward girl...

Brenda's is also fun, though her fashion taste is meh. ily straight people

Nutty Roller:

I had a lot of trouble figuring this one out. It's very unintuitive to me. I felt bad when I saw it at 0% on the poll for a long time, but...I just don't understand it.

Bloom Burst:

I've always enjoyed these kinds of puzzles, and the spin it adds by having the mushrooms is cool. I'm not always the greatest at this game, but it sure is a lot of fun.

Adventure Hunt:

This would be more fun if I had played PL while it was in its prime. Then again, I was 10 years old in 2014, and I probably would not have been able to beat the game at 10 years old, even if I did have a 3DS to play it on. Scavenger hunts are fun! It would be more fun if I could play challenges made by other people. As it is, the most worthwhile thing from this minigame IMO are the tickets for the San Grio hotel, which net you some cameos from NPCs in the original trilogy.

Conclusion

The minigames are fun, but after Diabolical Box they started going downhill in my opinion. I like the inclusion of the “bonus” minigames in the prequels; in my opinion they’re better than the trunk minigames and thoroughly underrated. Yes, Adventure Hunt is also accessed through the trunk, but there isn’t any graphic specific to it inside the trunk, it’s just a little unlabeled bubble.

Now, go vote!

Best prequel (trunk) minigame

Best originals minigame

Best LMJ/non-trunk minigame

[idiotic21]

Mr and Mrs Hamato

Chapter 8 - Too Much Heaven

Previous All Stories

The baron slammed his fist on the ground and began looking around with anger.

Seconds passed then a sharp shrill pierced through the air. The Silver Knight leaped out of her portal with two screaming boys right behind her. She fell with style landing gracefully. Donnie and Casey fell face down. "Come on. We need to get going!" Sil urged, shaking Donnie awake from his awestruck.

"Your portal-"

"Yes, I know," Sil grunted pulling him and Casey up. "We were in space!" Casey clutched at his hair.

"Yes, yes, but we really need to go now!" She said in a hurry as the baron had his men pointing up to the roof. Some of Big Mama's men close behind.

"HOW- Wha- SIL THAT WAS-"

"Amazing, I know but please gush over this later Donnie!" The Silver Knight held his palm tightly and pulled him into a run. Casey yanked by his gear.

A knife flew right at the trio from the front as the goons tried to box them in. Sil ran forwards, slapping her hands to create a powerful burst of energy knocking some goons to the ground. A new portal opened up and the teens jumped in.

They reappeared on another rooftop just up ahead.

And that's how it went. If the bounty hunters got too close for comfort, Sil would portal them to another rooftop. Far enough to get at least a few minutes of a head start before the heat of the chase would pick up again.

---

"Damn it! There are too many of them!" Casey grumbled, sending another round of explosives toward the hunters. Sil created another portal, transporting the three of them to another rooftop not too far away, just enough to give them a five-minute gap from the goons behind. The portal opened and Donnie and Casey jumped out, adrenaline pumping in their veins all prepared to fight. Sil jumped out after them and landed unceremoniously. "Hey, you good?"

Donnie worriedly checked her over for any wounds. "What's wrong?" Casey asked worriedly.

Sil struggled to stand, sighing "I can only create so many portals at a time. We've been going at this for ten minutes and I have created more than twenty portals. Give or take a few more and I am done for."

Yells could be heard from behind them. Donnie stood up in front of Sil protectively, "Think you can make another portal?" Sil focused all her energy on her fingertips. The tingling sensation began. Sil grunted feeling a bolt of sweat drip down her forehead beneath her mask.

"I-I can't." she huffed tiredly. Casey patted her back comfortingly. Although he could not see, Sil offered him a sweet smile. Something about this boy comforting her felt oddly familiar.

Donnie channeled his mystic energy to his tech-bo adding a heavily loaded hammer on one end. "We make our stand here."

The three squared their shoulders as the goons finally made it to their roof. "You know what we want!" Big Mama's goons pointed their weapons at Donnie and the two.

"No! Hand her to us and the baron will let you live a worry-free life."

"How about this? Neither of you gets the damsel and all of you will walk away with your lives untraumatized by my sweet sweet science!" Donatello glared.

"An amazing threat but seeing as we are both men of science, you will hand over the Silver Knight to me," the baron appeared in a flash of red, stepping out from a hellish-looking portal he made.

"The baron has portal powers?" Donnie asked bewildered.

"Apparently..." Sil shuddered, feeling the intense energy rippling out of the baron. It seems that even Big Mama's hunters felt it and began to back away. The baron trailed his gaze towards the Spider's bounty hunters. "I see you recognize power. Not even Big Mama can impose such respect and fear."

Donnie turned to find that Big Mama's goons were indeed shaking with fear. "Go back to her and announce the winner of today. I will graciously let you live," the baron's voice grew darker. The goons gulped. Finally one of them barked orders to back off, "Big Mama will hear about this..." they growled, leaving the rooftop with their tails tucked under their legs. The baron just smiled, way too gently for someone reeking of evil powers. His beady red eyes then turned to the trio.

"I hope my demonstration of power has made you come to your senses," he spoke to Donnie. "The girl, if you please." Donnie didn't need to reply. He took a fighting stance, Casey doing the same right behind him.

The baron groaned disappointedly. Snapping his fingers, red tendrils flew out of the still-open portal and wrapped tightly around the turtle and the human, tying them to the ground and choking the air out of them.

"NO!" Sil screamed. "Look just stop!" she pleaded to the baron.

"Then come back to me. Surrender the meteor and yourself,"

Sil couldn't. She just couldn't. If the meteor fell into the baron's hands who knows what evil he would reek across the hidden city, and it would all be her fault.

Seeing the girl's hesitance, the baron signaled for his hunters to play threat. They sneered, bearing their weapons at Donnie's and Casey's necks. "One wrong move, my dear, and your friend pay the price," he said. Gagging came from the boys, Donnie and Casey turning a little blue from the squeeze from the baron's red hold. The goons laughed, one decided to sink the tip of his blade slightly into Donnie's neck. The turtle groaned but couldn't fight back.

"No. Ok fine. You made your point just don't hurt him. Don't hurt them," she begged again. The baron held his hand out wordlessly. Sil increased her grip on the bag. The gargled noises from Donnie and Casey being choked made her jump and she quickly produced the meteorite.

Behind her, she could hear Donnie trying to fight back. Casey told her in a gargled voice to run. She could not bring herself to. How could she? Sil knew she couldn't fight back either. She is a thief, not a warrior, and when the thief gets caught they must surrender.

The baron smirked as he watched the girl walk forwards with the meteorite in hand. He bent down to her level and smirked. A wicked thought passed by his twisted mind. He reached out a hand to remove her mask relishing quickly how the Silver Knight had tears in her eyes and wearing a look of defeat. Chuckling he turned her around and held her chin in a vice grip, craning her face forcefully to face the two boys.

Donnie fought back relentlessly against the baron's hold despite the knife shifting deeper into the skin of his neck, screaming threats, and profanities at the baron if he dared lay a hand Sil.

Casey. Casey Jones Jr, he had the world's most terrible deja vu. He knew those eyes, no. He knows those eyes. Dark and familiar, but caring all the same. He'd seen those eyes before when he was younger, in the future. The eyes of his cousin's mother. The eyes of someone he lost a long time ago. Casey began to shed tears, "It- it can't be,"

"I want you to remember this day as the day you failed to keep them alive." The baron whispered with a voice laced with poison. Sil broke down in tears but she made no sound, having no strength to fight back. The baron reached down to Sil's hands and plucked the meteorite. Pleased, he nodded to his goons "Bury them alive."

Three things happened. One, the hunters dropped an armed bomb between Donnie and Casey.

Two, the baron held Sil by her neck with one of his red tendrils and threw her over the roof before disappearing into the red portal with the hunters.

Three, Donnie had only felt this mass amount of range and protectiveness blooming from his chest. One when Raph jumped off the cliff, the first time the boys activated their ninpo. Two, when Leo was trapped in the Krang prison dimension, and three, when his precious Sil was thrown off the roof by some wicked scientist.

Even though he had only known the girl for a few days, Donnie naturally found himself in need of her. She felt like a missing piece of a puzzle for when she arrived, he felt complete. Donatello felt like he could do anything in the world when Sil was by his side. How uncharacteristic of him to feel such intense feelings over one girl he barely knew. Is this how future him felt towards his supposed wife?

Maybe this time, we would know.

Would teenage him in the now ever believe in destiny?

Who was he to say without experiencing it for himself? After all, the purple genius always made sure to conclude his findings with more than two data points. Searing power exploded from within Hamato Donatello. His Hamato Ninpo burst like flames, purple energy searching out like a firey sunburst all around him. Donnie's ninpo burned the tendrils holding him and Casey to dust.

In lightning speed, he pulled Casey off the roof and away from the bomb. The purple terrapin launched himself off the roof. His ninpo like an extension of him caught his damsel in distress. The trio fell off the roof, cushioned by Donnie's mystic energy as it formed a ball around them at Donnie's command. The bomb when off sending debris flying everywhere. In the mystic purple barrier, Donnie hugged Sil close to himself unknowingly shedding tears of his own.

When the debris settled enough, the mystic energy dissipated. Sil cried in Donnie's arms till she passed out of sheer exhaustion.

The boys remained silent as Donnie picked up Sil oh so gently. "Do you have any idea who she is?" Casey asked suddenly. His eyes had a sad glow to them. "What do you mean? We don't have time for this right now," he said softly and tried to walk by Casey.

"No. Listen, you have- you don't know do you?" The young human asked. Now pity was evident in his tone. "Tsk, I have no time to play guessing games, Casey. Contact Leo, and let him know to meet us here. I'll send the coordinates."

"I won't until you tell me you an inkling of who that woman really is!" Casey demanded.

Donnie grumbled and stepped closer, "What does it matter to you who she is, huh?"

"BECAUSE THAT'S YOUR WIFE!"

Donnie was silenced in shock. His eyes twitched in disbelief. "You're delusion Casey."

"I am not. You have no right telling me that I do not recognize my mother figure anywhere." Casey cried, feeling nostalgia and lost love looking at the woman in Donnie's arms. "Yeah well, you are delusional. You said that my supposed wife's name was Dianne. Her name is Sil," Donnie retaliated, nodding to the sleeping damsel in his arms., though he knew Sil was just a fake name.

"I think it's pretty clear you know that's fake." Casey pointed to the fear crossing Donnie's face. "Prove it," the purple turtle challenged. Casey's hand shook slightly as he reached for his top pocket. Donatello watched curiously as the young boy pulled out a lightly crumbled piece of paper.

A photo.

"Just see this. Look, Donnie. I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear but trust me when I say, I know those eyes anywhere. I know her eyes anywhere, anytime."

Donnie hesitated, then gently kneeled to let Sil's lower half body rest on the ground. Her head and torso leaned into Donnie's plastron.

Casey allowed Donatello to pluck the paper from his hands. Reality crashed down on him. "I-I," the soft shell turtle lowered the photo and looked to the girl, then back to Casey. Tears pooled in his eyes. "She's my wife.."

"She's my wife," Donnie whispered, unable to believe his eyes and ears. Casey didn't know how to comfort the genius, so he just sat with him in silence. 

How did Donatello feel? Donnie had the most amount of emotions ever experienced in his life. He felt scared. He felt tense. He felt betrayed that Sil didn't even think of sharing her real name with him. Donnie would have gone on forgetting that 'Sil' was just a shorter term for her alias. Would she have betrayed him though? She didn't know Donnie. She didn't hear what Casey said about her future. Or their future? 

"Master Donatello, are you alright?" 

Donnie frantically blinked away his tears, not knowing what to say or think. "You are sure- She is Dianne? Dianne Rosette?" 

No wonder being caring and kind came so naturally to him when Donatello and her were with each other. He knew her. He knows her. But she doesn't know him. Damn all the shameless flirting, lingering looks, and hand-holding. No wonder he didn't feel disgusted like he normally would with his brothers or anyone else. She was different. She was his? Was she his? Was he, hers?

"Yes. I know she is." Casey replied in a small voice. Donnie looked at Casey for a while, taking in the other male's demeanor. It isn't his fault, Donnie told himself. "It's alright. Sorry, I shouted, Casey. I just... have so much to think about now"

The younger boy nodded. Donnie decided to move from the current topic. He maneuvered Dianne-Sil, the girl in his arms to carry her again when he felt warm liquid dripping down her arm and onto his then the ground. "Shit. Shit shit shit!" 

"What's wrong?" Casey asked worriedly. "Her arm is bleeding. Casey, hold her sleeves up please," Casey did as Donnie requested. The both of them gasped as they saw silver cracks running up the brunette's brown skin. "Energy burns," the boys said together. 

Donnie nodded in finality, "Just like Mikey's when he opens portals. We need to get her home for medical treatment. She's losing blood, slowly but surely." 

Casey took the wristband that Donnie gave him to contact Leo and pass their coordinates. Above all else, he just wanted to get home.

"Oh, can Casey. Please don't tell anyone yet. I just... I need some peace before Mikey, Leo, or Raph, especially Splinter come to rant in my ear about ... her."

---

Back at the lair, Donnie left Casey to explain everything that happened with the Baron of the North. Baron Draxum was beyond furious that the filth and sorry excuse of a yokai laid hands on his little girl. After much explanation, they soon figured out that Donnie had begun treating Sil because of the burns on her arms. Draxum wanted to see Sil right away but Casey made some medical excuse as in to not interrupt the doctor. 

Donnie finally sat down with a huff, leaning back into his chair with exhaustion. A lot happened today. Too much in fact. The purple turtle watched the sleeping injured girl on the medical bed. Her vitals are doing fine and her body didn't sustain any major injuries. Just her hands. 

Donatello rubbed his face, "What the heck am I going to do." He peeked out from between his fingers, looking at Sil. No Dianne? Sil? The purple genius groaned, tilting his head back just as he felt a rush of warmth race to his face. Thinking of her real name in his head made him flush. He loved that feeling but hated it the same. Donatello didn't want to believe in destiny and things set in stone but it seemed that his future wife is now here right in front of his eyes.

Not that the others knew, except for Jones Jr. It's better his family does not find out about this right now. 

A knock drew Donnie's attention from the thief to the med door. Draxum asked silently if he could enter and Donnie allowed him to. Draxum walked to the other side of Dianne's bed and gently inspected her hands. "She's stable now. Didn't lose too much blood. She's healing well." Donnie offered a small amount of comfort. Draxum just nodded, "She's very hard-headed. Brave, intelligent though stupid sometimes driven by sentiment." Draxum let out a small genuine chuckle, "Still, she's a better person than I can ever be."

Donnie laughed lightly, "Yeah, she is," Draxum watched Donnie with keen eyes, especially at how the turtle seemed to grow softer near Sil's being and the fact that his eyes seemed to shine brighter when he was around her.

"Thank you for protecting Dianne." 

He heard it again. Her name. Donnie pretended not to know the name for he played false surprise and confusion. "Dianne?" 

Draxum nodded, "Dianne Rosette. That's her full name. Though please do not call her that. She rather reveals her name in her own time. If she knew I did mention her real name she'd have my head." 

Donnie blushed a little. Cute but mean, just his style. Damn her and damn time-traveling plot conveniences. Draxum patted the turtle's shoulders in a silent thanks before leaving the medbay. Draxum felt something emerging between the turtle and his niece, something good in nature. But the teens had a full day of extreme excitement and danger. He'll ask the turtle about Dianne at another time.

Donnie decided to call it a night after checking on a few more items on his list. Once satisfied, Donnie switched the night light on. He took one last look at ... at her face. Donatello made up his mind. He would pretend not to know Dianne's identity until she decided to tell him or maybe forever. 

He didn't believe in destiny. He didn't want destined love if it had to be forced. Donatello's bad-boy image began to surface, which was either good or bad. Definitely bad since Donnie already had some sort of hots for Dianne-no, Sil. He felt his heart twist. Donnie decided to pretend. Pretend that Dianne was still Sil. Pretend he did not know Dianne. 

His eyes trailed over the soft features of her face, admiring the way the lights gently bounced off her soft skin. For tonight, he bid her good rest without mentioning either of her names.

That was how Dianne Hamato entered his life in the future, it is how she will enter his even now.

Next

[ramensauce2pointoh-blog]

the get to know me thing, but only the prime numbers. (i'll give you a hint, 1 isn't prime, good luck figuring out the rest :P )

2. what would you name your future kids?

Tungsten and Francium so they can shorten their names to their respective periodic table elements.

3. do you miss anyone?

A lot of people. People come and go in your life like waves. That's why you wave "good bye" and wave "hello"!

5. is there anyone who can always make you smile?

7. what was your life like last year?

Honestly, it was a Taylor Swift song but in nightmare form. I hated it.

11. are you listening to music right now?

13. how do you feel right now?

Sleepy but my caffeine is kicking in

17. opinion on insecurities

Less secure than securities. Everyone has them you just have to work to overcome them or manage them.

19. have you ever been to New York?

Yes about 10 13 15 years ago. I'm going back in the summer though!

23. fear(s)

Ending up back with my parents. Nothing wrong with that, but I feel like I would be miserable living with them again. I love them and everything, however, they've become miserable bored old people that live in Pennsyltucky (also known as the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania)

29. favourite film(s)

Inside by Bo Burnham. I watched it a lot last year while I was dealing with my 8 year relationship ending. I understand he's not everyone's favorite.

31. 3 random facts

The first Champagne shown on film came from the champagne house of Piper and Heidsieck. The film was Sons of the Desert by Laurel and Hardy

Amatriciana is a classic Roman pasta sauce fortified with Guanciale (Rich man's bacon). It's fantastic!

Farm raised fish isn't bad for you and it's better for the environment.

37. favourite actor/actress

RDJ. I think his story of recovery is really inspiring

41. relationship status

Single

43. favourite song ever

It's either Run or To Noise Making both by Hozier (of course)

47. turn ons

Honestly this has been difficult to answer. I can't pinpoint why, but I'd say as many times as I've written and re-written this answer, it's enthusiasm.

53. 5 things that make me happy

Wine

Hozier

Baron

Food

Travel

59. why i joined tumblr

All the cool kids were doing it in college.

[tpc-tangled-au]

Chapter Six: Seeing The Lights

The magic of the fireflower healed the queen. And, just before dawn, a healthy baby boy—a prince—was born.

I’ll give you a hint, me lad: that’s your own Nuncle!

And for a time, his childhood was just as golden as his wild hair. Yes, it was, Baron, you needn’t give me that look. It truly was. I know.

Melisande was just closing the lid of her little box when something—and in a haunted castle, something could have been anything—burst into the kitchen like a fireball. If she hadn’t just set it on the counter, she’d have dropped it. But before she had time to think about the box, the fireball shouted in excitement.

“Sharp Eyes! Come see!”

She gasped and spun round to face the golden-haired boy and his grin. “Why, you silly, you nearly frightened me! Come see what?”

“It’s my birthday!”

“Aye, happy birthday again!” Her blue eyes widened. “Oh! I forgot your present! It’s still in my room!” And not wrapped either: the little felt cap, fashioned into the shape of a knight’s helmet, was still only hidden inside a pillowcase (and very carefully at that—she didn’t want the plume to break).

“But it’s not present time!” The five year old prince stamped his feet eagerly. “It’s time to come see! So come! Hurry! Hurry!” And he started pulling at her sleeve with impatience.

“Slow down, Naphetali! See what?”

He started to speak, but then stopped dead, staring at her for a moment. He looked perfectly flabbergasted. “You don’t amember?!”

“Ummm…” Little Melisande thought over all the things she could remember about her royal friend’s birthday. But she was six. There was only so much that stuck with her from year to year. “No?”

She almost expected Naphtali to be mad or disappointed. But she should’ve known better. A few seconds’ worth of time, and a humongous grin spread between his ears. “Then it’ll be a surprise! You can have a birthday surprise too! Oh, that’s defin’ly better.”

“Really?”

“YES! Now come here! Come see!”

And with that, he snatched her little hand and dashed off with her.

The pair of them scurried down the halls as quickly as if they were two little castle mice (though this castle had more ghosts than mice). They passed very few others, living or dead. That was something Melisande had noticed—there was almost no one in the castle. Most of them were gone, though she didn’t know or remember why.

That was why she was in the kitchen: she wanted to sneak some bits for her medicine box. Plants, herbs, little snips of things people weren’t using. Some of the things her grandad put in his medicine box. And she didn’t want to be in the way while she was getting them. Well, she also didn’t want anyone to see her doing it. She didn’t want anyone to take it.

“Oh, wait! My box!” And Melisande tried to stop, to go back. What if someone found it and didn’t know what it was? Or what if they did know?

But he pulled her on. “We’re gonna be late! We’ve got to hurry!”

In their hurry, they nearly barrelled right into two of the few still inside. When Melisande caught sight of their faces, she gasped so hard she could’ve inhaled her tonsils. But Naphtali only brightened.

“Hullo, Father! Hullo, Mother!”

King Frederick, the great lord and master who towered immensely over Melisande’s head, laughed. “You best watch your steps, son, or you’ll knock your royal mother right off her feet!”

“Oh! Pardon, Mother.” He let go his hold of Melisande to bow in apology.

But his mother, the wise Queen Eudoria whom any girl in the kingdom might want to learn from, only smiled. “All right, I pardon. At ease, my gallant little knight.”

Naphtali put his hands behind his back, but stood with feet together. Not quite how Melisande had seen soldiers stand “at ease.” But she had no time to consider it, for suddenly, the great kingly voice was speaking again… to her.

“You’re Jacob’s little granddaughter, aren’t you, lass?”

Speechless, Melisande bobbed a curtsy.

“She is!” Naphtali went on, stepping out of his ‘at-ease’ position. “She has a medicine box just like his, too!” At that, the startled Melisande shook his arm—she didn’t want it to be talked about! But Naphtali didn’t seem to notice. “It’s got all sorts of little bits and things! She left it in the kitchen. Oh! We need to make sure nobody messes with it!”

“Well, I’ll surely let the servants know,” nodded the king.

“Where are you and your little friend off to in such a rush?” asked the queen. “Or are you just excited to see the—”

“Mother!” exclaimed the prince. “It’s a surprise, because she doesn’t amember the—” He clapped his hands over his own mouth, as if stuffing the secret back inside. “You know!”

“Ahh, I see.” Queen Eudoria nodded knowingly. “Well, you have our leave to go. Don’t want you to be late to see your own celebration, do we?”

“Oh, thank you grandly, Mother! Farewell! And farewell, Father! Let’s hurry, Sharp Eyes!” He grabbed her hand and took off again, hardly giving her enough time to curtsy in parting. The two monarchs laughed as the youngsters departed.

“Where are we going?”

“Someplace high,” he grinned, never ceasing to move and run. “I wanted to go up to Ollie’s Ridge, but we’d be too late to see it if we walked all that way.”

She stumbled as she tried to keep up, and picked up her skirts with one hand. “Thank you, by the way. For making sure nobody touched my box.”

“Oh!” Naphtali gave her a funny look. “I didn’t know that was something to thank about.”

“Well… well, it is to me.”

They soon burst through a little door and out onto some of the battlements. Here, Melisande thought they might stop. But her friend kept bobbing and weaving and darting, constantly swiveling his head to look. Almost as dizzily as when he tried to end a dance. Well… perhaps not that dizzy.

“Aren’t we there?”

“It’s not high enough!” he protested, searching with a little agitation. “You’ve got to see it best!” His wandering eyes lighted on something. At that, his pattering footsteps stilled, and an excited grin was blazoned across his face.

Melisande followed his gaze. He was staring at a rooftop. One particular rooftop, higher than the battlements. Higher than anything in the castle, in fact, except for one, still-in-the-making tower. She’d seen some of the page boys climb up the side to that high rooftop on dares.

“It’s perf-ket! Why, it’s almost as high as Ollie’s Ridge itself!” And he scurried off toward it.

“Naphetali, wait!” This time, she did pull against him, eyes widening as they neared the side. “We can’t climb up there!”

“I’m not frightened! And you’ve got to see!” He let go her hand as they came to the battlements nearest it. He tried to clamber up onto them (though his legs were a little short for that). Melisande tugged on him again, but only lightly. She didn’t want to pull too hard and make him lose his balance. Her grandfather had tended too many lads who’d gotten hurt that way.

Before he could even get to a standing position, however, a figure in a red uniform swooped in and set him sturdily back on the ground. Melisande quietly sighed in relief. She couldn’t bear to see her friend get hurt like the other boys.

“Careful, Highness!” said a gently cautious voice, as the man attached to it steadied Naphtali on his feet. “I can’t let you go hurt yourself on your birthday.”

“But I wasn’t going to get hurt, Travers! I was just trying to get up high!”

A purposely patient tone entered his voice, as if repeating a well-worn conversation. “Well, accidents still happen, little prince. A lot of things happen when you don’t mean them to.”

“Well, not me.”

“And,” he added, settling a hand on the boy’s shoulder, “if we don’t hurry now, you might go and miss the ceremony when you don’t mean to!” And the raven-haired soldier started urging him along, though not roughly. “Let’s get you to your royal parents, Your Highness. I’m sure they’re waiting.”

Naphtali squirmed, trying to turn back. “Oh, but Travers—”

“Excuse me, Mr. Travers,” put in Melisande, tugging on his sleeve, “but the King and Queen did give him leave to go. I was with him when they said it.”

Travers turned his gaze toward her, head tilted. “Is that so?”

“Yes!” exclaimed Naphtali, whipping round. “They said I can go, and we haveto get up high, because Sharp Eyes doesn’t amember the li—I mean, the thing she has to see! And she has to see, cause it’s a surprise!”

The soldier glanced between them, seeming surprised himself. Then, he smiled softly. Melisande liked it when he smiled like that. It was kind. “Well… I suppose if it’s a surprise…”

“Yes! Yes! I can go!” And he started to scramble for the battlements again.

“Not that way, though! I do still have my duty to protect you, Prince Prometheus.”

Naphtali frowned, more at the name than anything else. But the man wasn’t finished. When he bent down to their level and continued, it was in a low, almost shrewd voice.

“But if you’d like to get to the height before it starts, and safely…” He leaned in with the utmost confidentiality. “There is a shortcut.”

Melisande’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. When she glanced over at her friend, his face wore the same look, if a bit more exaggerated.

“Just over to the right,” whispered Travers, jerking his head a little to the side, “there’s a pair of gargoyles. Slip behind them, and you’ll find a little stairway that winds through the stone. Then a flat place… and three large steps… and at the end is the rooftop.”

“Hurrah!” Naphtali clapped his hands, and his voice was half-hushed with the secrecy of the information.

“But…” Melisande hesitated, “mightn’t it be a danger?” She’d never been up on a rooftop before. She’d climbed trees, and she’d dreamed of flying, and she wasn’t really afraid of heights. But she couldn’t get the thought of those boys out of her head.

Yet it seemed Travers knew her fears already. “It was made to be a safe place to stand. It’s flat at the top, and wide. And see there?” He bent toward her and pointed it out. “Along the lower edge?”

Melisande nodded. “It looks like a fence.”

“It’s very like one. It’s meant to keep people from simply rolling off, and not just with a physical barrier.” When her glance fell, confused, he tilted her chin up with a gentle finger. “People may have hurt themselves in climbing foolishly up the sides, but no one has ever fallen from that rooftop. No one.”

At last, Melisande returned the smile. It seemed to brighten his mood as well.

But there was one whose mood never needed brightening. “Thanks, good Travers!” he cried, saluting widely. “You needn’t fret for us any longer!” Naphtali started to hurry off, but something stopped him, spinning him on his heels. “But are you sure the passage is still there? You don’t think the gargoyles moved it?”

For the first time that day (at least that Melisande had seen), Travers laughed. “Your Highness, I’m sure. If the gargoyles had moved it, I’d know. After all, I’ve been a soldier in your father’s service for five years! I know this castle like…” He held up his gloved left hand. He glanced at it. Then, on second thought, he lowered it. “…like the back of my hand.”

“And a good hand, too!” Then, with his own, Naphtali tugged along on Melisande’s. “Come now, Sharp Eyes! We must hurry ever so much if we want to see! Hurry!”

“I am!” But before she followed, she turned to the soldier and curtseyed. “Thank you kindly, Mr. Travers.”

At this, he said nothing. But he smiled that smile of his, and bowed slightly with a hand over his heart. And Melisande hurried on after her friend. Her little friend, anyway.

The two of them ran right and soon found the foretold gargoyles, side by side, as if guarding the castle’s secrets. “Greetings, good sirs!” saluted Naphtali cheerily as they passed. “It’s my birthday, did you know?”

“You’re doing quite fine jobs, too, gentlemen,” she added, hiding a secret smile of her own at the prince’s courtesy.

“Gentlemen monsters!” Naphtali laughed, but more delighted by the thought than scornful.

Just as Travers had said, there was a little stairway just beyond. Naphtali hurried them up it, pulling and urging. Melisande had to slow him a little to keep either from tripping. As they rushed, her friend chattered.

“Travers is really a fine fellow, you know, but he’s too official.”

“Well, he is a soldier.”

“But you call me Naphtali! You don’t mind! But he keeps calling me the other name.”

“Promitheus is your right name, though! And it’s sort of a nice name.”

“I don’t think so.” He frowned. “That’s why I picked a better one, from that old story Lazarus told us! Sir Naphtali was a knight of King Thomas the Fearless, and he helped fight off the shamans of Mount Redcap!” He brandished an imaginary sword and lunged at lengthening shadows.

“Aye, and a man of great name. I like it too.” She cocked her head, thinking it over. “But perhaps, someday, you might have both names, and put them together for a grand royal title. Naphetali Promitheus the Golden-Haired!”

“Hmm, I don’t think so!”

With that, and with a little smile, Melisande let it go. There was no talking him into it. He had an idea in his head, and he was holding onto it. He always did. He was so funny.

The stairs ended in a flat place, still surrounded by stone and tile. There were the three large steps leading up. But the two of them were too small to have any kind of view. The winter sky overhead was shifting from purple to blue.

“Don’t look!”

“What?”

“It’s almost gonna start, you have to close your eyes!”

She eyed the steps uncertainly. “But I’ll trip.”

“No you won’t, I’ll make you not trip! That’s the knightly thing to do, just like Father says. He’s always helping Mother not to trip.”

Hesitating, she covered her eyes with one hand. With the other, she gripped his tight.

Despite his best efforts, she did stumble a time or two. Partly, it was her own skirts getting in the way. Partly, it was the stairs themselves, which would have taken a man only a large step to mount. For them, it was all clambering and climbing. But he never let her lose her balance. He never let go of her hand.

They came to the end of the third and last step, and Melisande felt flat ground (though it wasn’t really ground) beneath her shoes. Still, Naphtali led her along, walking now instead of climbing. They stopped. Moved a few feet over. Stopped again.

“Now… look!”

Melisande opened her eyes at last. And she saw. At last, she saw.

The seeing took her breath away. From that high rooftop, she could see, from all over the town, from everywhere in sight, things floating into the air. So many colours, glowing like winter fireflies, like cardinals and greenfinches and bluebirds all with stars inside them. It was high, and huge, and heavenly.

“The lights!”

“Uh-huh!” She could sort of see Naphtali nod proudly, but she did not turn to look.

“Oh, Naphtali, the lights! I didn’t remember!”

“That’s why it’s a good surprise! Aren’t they so much nicer than fireworks?”

Melisande laughed. Out of awe and delight, she laughed, staring into the sky. She'd certainly dreamed of flying before. But oh, to fly now,  with the lights! To soar surrounded by this colour and beauty! Her breath escaped her, clouding the cold air.

She glanced at her friend, about to reply. But she stopped. Naphtali was staring at her, mouth slightly open. His grey eyes gleamed wide in the light.

“What?”

“I never heard you laugh afore.”

“Oh.” Melisande shrank, just a little. “Is it bad?”

“Nuh-uh.” He shook his head, his grin returning. “’s nice.”

Naphtali smiled at her, just a little moment more, before he looked back out at the lights. It didn’t take long for excitement to spark in him again, and he soon started eagerly pointing out the splendidest lanterns, guessing who made which one, and bouncing on his heels. And Melisande smiled too. She liked the lights. But she decided she liked them standing right here much better than she would like them flying.

She didn’t notice that he hadn’t let go of her hand. But then, neither did he.

~~*~~

[Chapter 1/Writing the Story]

[Chapter 5/The Impossible Blossom] ... [Chapter 6/you are here!] ... [Chapter 7/Frey]

Also found on AO3, if you'd like to hop on over!

[wolfbirbisme]

Wip Tag Game

Wip Tag Game: (tagged by @possumteeths)

rules: post the names of all the files in your wip folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it.

For this imma tag uh,,, um,, hm,,, all my friends are artists help damn literally everyone’s been tagged I think before for this uh,,, well um,,, HEY YOU. YES YOU. READER. IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE THIS, CONGRATS YOU’RE NOW TAGGED. only do it ofc if you want, but if you want an excuse to do it, just slap my name down for who you were tagged by. go crazy go stupid have fun promote your own work :)

My works on under the cut because I’m awful at being brief lol

Oh dear, hm, okay. I have a lot going on, but there’s only one I’ve really been working on at the moment lol, but here yall go in order of how recently I’ve worked on them: 

“Swinging on the Rails (train AU)”: 

I was trying to do NaNoWritMo with this but then midterms stole my kneecaps lol. I have a few chapters for this up on ao3 already but essentially its a historical fiction romance fic between my fallout OC Sawyer and a friend of mine’s OC Baron. Takes place in London during the 1920s and is a slowburn fic about them slowly getting to know each other and falling in love yada yada yada. Baron’s a railway worker and Sawyer’s an architect who rides his train every day. Eventually there’ll be some assassin’s creed stuff tied in because I love Syndicate to death and ofc there’ll be some fallout characters popping up as I write more. 

“Bawyer meeting number 2 electric boogaloo”:

This is technically my friend’s fic, but she’s having me write some of the dialogue and bouncing ideas off of me for it so imma include it in this for funsies. Basically is a small fic from Baron’s POV of him and Sawyer meeting up from the first time post-war with Elder Cross’s BoS negotiating with the MM about the missing Prydwen and her crew. Baron was the trusted pilot with transport to the very intense meeting and Sawyer’s the General who’s absolutely pissed the BoS are once again harassing the Commonwealth and wants them to leave them alone. Neither recognize each other for a solid ten minutes because they were convinced each other had died when the nukes fell ;w; 

“Jared snippit lmao”:

I actually just posted this W.I.P. a few days ago but I’m considering adding more maybe next year. Its about my RDO OC, Jared and his backstory leading up to the beginning of the game. Tossed in some ~demonic possession~ stuff to explain RDO’s game mechanics also ;)

“Fallout Fin”:

Oh lordy, I really need to work on this one more since clearly people love it haha, but it was originally my MerMay fic and then,,, then I kept writing and,,, now I have a whole story planned out and,,, haha yeah. It details an orca mermaid merman? Sawyer has an orca tail lol- but it details him meeting with a ~mysterious diver~ and ends up getting captured by the BoS (Brotherhood of S.E.A.L) for research. It’s going to be a slow burn and I have so many plans for it lmao

“Maxson/Prime fic :)”:

I’ve mentioned this fic in a previous post and lowkey writing it stresses me as I don’t usually do a lot with Maxson? Sawyer hates his guts so I haven’t ever,,,, done anything with him but. It’s a fic about Maxson surviving Prydwenburg and being saved by Liberty Prime. I don’t want to give away too many details, but I’m pumping a lot of love into some minor characters that fallout really dropped the ball on and who I feel the fandom forgets about often- and as with all my works ofc has some juicy juicy angst and questioning to one’s own humanity in it. Maybe there’ll be romance between a synth!Prime and Maxson, who knows honestly, maybe it will have it, maybe not, maybe its maybelline

“Lance fic?”:

I’ve been wanting to write a fic from a certain AI’s perspective who’s barely been mentioned on his blog and I really need to explain at some point in depth because I love him dearly but uh,,, yeah so the fic so far is just me struggling how I want to start his story and how I want to write him given,,, bodiless AI,,,, and also where I want the story to go as his is heavily involved with Baron’s when it comes to him escaping the Enclave and he even throws electronic hands with President Eden at one point who I know little to nothing about since I haven’t played fo3 yet but I still think its fucking hilarious

“warhammer au fic”

This is a well beloved au between my friend and I with our two boys (Sawyer and Baron ofc) in the warhammer 40k universe because we all have brainrot and I’ve fallen headfirst into the lore lol whoops. I uh,,, tried to write the beginning of Sawyer’s side of the story with him as a techpriest being transferred to Baron’s legion as a medic or,,, something but then I spent four hours studying the adeptus mechanicus ranks and then realized we still needed to homebrew the legion and don’t even have a name for it and also there’s so many specific names to all the equipment they use in this universe and 

anyways, only got a page done. did research. cried in the shower. bought Horus Rising in hopes that reading it would better prep me for writing about the universe. might fuck around and find an admech book to read also. I want to write the story so fucking bad but I also want to do the lore justice. 

“ranch fic ranch fic”

So you know how Baron and Sawyer during their pre-war military days how they used to spend breaks together and I mentioned at one point Baron spends a week with him at his ranch? No? Well it happened and this is a cute fic about it that I was just going to,,, write cute domestic shit in it and some,,, nsfw stuff you know,,, yeah,, 

“monster au bby :)”

yall are probably tired of be at this point but this is yet another Bawyer fic god help me I have brainrot for these two that we made for Halloween and I never got around to really writing much for. Essentially Sawyer is a vampire, Baron is a previous military experiment (instead of super soldiers its werewolves with trauma). Baron is struggling with dealing with the aftermath of everything and his sister finds out from one of Sawyer’s old friends (and ex-wife but that was centuries ago haha) that he’s a lonely vamp looking for a roommate. (insert: and they were roommates gif) Has a lot of the fallout cast in it and not really a full story yet? just a bunch of ideas we’ve tossed around. Fun stuff although I’ve only written a page or two so far for it. Some day I’ll write more, its good shit 

[lulu2992]

Uncovering the unreleased Far Cry 5 in-game Encyclopedia

The almost complete but unused in-game encyclopedia, reconstructed thanks to the oasisstrings file.

Please note that it’s still cut content, so some information might not be relevant anymore.

You can read the oasisstrings file here. Pictures from this encyclopedia were also extracted and posted by @xbaebsae here.

Part 3: Locations - Whitetail Mountains

PIN-K0 Radar Station

Part of the Pine Line early warning system, the K0 facility was shuttered in the early 90's and left to the elements.

Rattlesnake Trail Bridge

A footbridge along the Makwa Trail, it connects one side of the gorge to the other, like bridges are supposed to do.

Snowshoe Lake

A clear glacial lake high up in the Whitetail Mountains. The water is always near freezing which makes skinny dipping a terrible idea.

Hunter’s Pass Shelter

A remote cabin used as a place to warm up or stay the night by hunters.

Ozhigwan Falls

One of the highest in the area, Ozhigwan falls is one of the natural wonders of the Park.... just don't step too close.

Jefferson Lookout Tower

A watch tower in the middle of the forest, meant to keep an eye out for forest fires or bears... or bears on fire.

Whitetail Park Visitor Center

It's where you'd go to find out what's going on at Whitetail Park, back when it was operational.

Hawkeye Tunnel

A tunnel through the mountain that offers a bird's eye view of the valley below.

Whitetail Park Ranger Station

The Ranger Station that patrols the Whitetail Park to keep it safe back when it was still open.

McKinley Dam

Named after the 25th president of the United States, McKinley Dam is used to regulate water and supply power to the people of Hope County.

Jacob’s Armory

Jacob has converted part of the McKinley Dam power station to be used as sanctuary against the coming apocalypse.

Grand View Hotel

The historic hotel in the Whitetail Mountains it was once the crown jewel of the park. Financial problems shut it down in the 80's. It's been empty ever since.

North Park Entrance

The Northern most entrance to Whitetail Park, abandoned now that the park is closed.

Bo’s Cave

A renown survivalist, Bo lives deep in forest. He is completely off the grid with none of the comforts of modern life.

Cooper Cabin

Another cabin that can be rented at Whitetail Park. Lately has been used as a safe-house by the Whitetail Militia.

Red Tail Cabin

A cabin in Whitetail Park that Eli's Militia use to take refuge from the constant attacks from Jacob's patrols.

F.A.N.G. Center

Friends of the Animals Nursing Grounds is home to Cheeseburger the Bear. Feeding times are 12:00 and 6:00 daily.

St. Francis Veteran's Center

A medical center for returning veterans, St. Francis was shuttered in the 90's when a more modern facility was constructed in a nearby county. When Eden's Gate moved in, Jacob found use for it as a place to indoctrinate his new recruits.

Lansdowne Airstrip

A small airstrip used by the locals for shipping in supplies and sightseeing tours.

Elliot Residence

Home to Rick Elliot and his family, one of the last people to holdout against Jacob and his army.

The Grill Streak

When Chad's diner was burned to the ground he retreated to his food truck. He still works hard to find food for Eli and his Militia.

Breakthrough Camp

A camp where parents sent their rebellious youth in order to get a taste of clean, wholesome outdoor living.

Old Sun Outfitters

The main supply store for camping and survival gear in the area. Seeing the writing on the wall, the owners closed shop and left while they still could.

Baron Lumber Mill

The Baron family lumber mill was already failing financially when Eden's Gate moved in and bought it out.

McNeill Residence

This house once belonged to the McNeill family before they were deemed sinners in the eyes of the cult and were forced to flee.

Linero Building Supplies

A small building supply store that sold lumber and materials. The owners ended up joining Eden's Gate, though not all of them willingly.

Haskell Lookout Tower

A watch tower overlooking the north region of the Whitetail Park.

Fort Drubman

Pretty much all the Hurk Sr. has left after his divorce from Adelaide. It's from here he runs his senate campaign with the dubious help of his son, Hurk Jr.

MCA Mobile Lab

A mobile lab where the Montana Conservation Authority conducts research on the local flora and fauna.

Loresca Residence

Former residence of Jay Loresca, former Navy Seal. Rumor has it he joined the Whitetails, but it's certain that he’s long gone.

Whitetail Mountains Rail Bridge

A bridge connecting the Henbane River and the Whitetail Mountains. It's been out of use ever since the Copperhead Rail stopped running.

Elk Jaw Lodge

Part of the Whitetail Park the Elk Jaw Lodge was a nice place to relax near Silver Lake. Now... not so much.

Wolf’s Den

The secret bunker of the Whitetail Militia, home to Eli, their leader, as well as Tammy and Wheaty.

Oberlin Picnic Area

A nice place for a group to sit down, eat, and take in baseball game at the nearby diamond.

Osprey Cabin

One of the many cabins that visitors can rent at Whitetail Park. Named after birds of prey, thy are the perfect hiding places for Eli's Militia.

Kestrel Cabin

One of the handful of individual cabins available to rent at Whitetail Park.

Mansfield Lookout Tower

An abandoned fire watch tower overlooking the southern region of Whitetail Park.

Frank’s Cabin

A cabin owned by a recluse known as Lonely Frank. He seems to like it that way.

Dansky Cabin

This is where Dicky Dansky comes to write his books about Sasquatches, Bigfoot, and other cryptids.

Valley View Overlook

A place for visitors to stop and take in the view of the forest below.

Stone Ridge Chalet

High up on a rocky ridge is a Chalet where hunters and park visitors could come and warm up.

Silver Lake Parking Lot

A nice place to stop and take a refreshing dip in nearby Silver Lake.

Clagett Boathouse

A boathouse and docks maintained by the Old Sun Outfitters.

Salvage Camp

A small camp where a salvage company is attempting to recover items from the wreck of a sunken plane

Dylan’s Master Bait Shop

In case you needed some fishing pointers... Dylan will likely just point you somewhere else.

Langford Falls Parking Lot

A spot for visitors to pause and take in the beauty of the nearby Langford Falls.

Widow’s Creek

One of Skylar's favorite fishing spots. She'll probably tell you where it got its name.

Fowler’s Retreat

A not-so-secret place where Dave keeps all of his extra Cheeseburger merchandise.

South Park Entrance

The southern enterance to Whitetail Park. Once the gem of Hope County, it has seen better days.

[bunnirs]

Your Honor // Nakahara Chuuya x Reader

Synopsis: Chuuya’s home late, and you’re certainly not the forgiving type. What the fuck is keeping him away so late? What the fuck could be so important?

Warning: Cussing, Murder of a really good cheese pizza I was wishing I had in my freezer, Makeout session?

It was getting late, dinner was already cooked and set out on the table, a large spread of decently made food, something you had put a lot of effort into making though you wouldn’t call yourself the best cook.

But, nevertheless, you did your best in preparing a suitable dinner for your lovely boyfriend, who was taking his sweet fucking time getting home. It was already past eight when you decided to give the bitch a ring and chew the fedora off his head. And to your growing rage, the call rang through to voicemail.

Pushing yourself away from the dinner table, you stood up and walked to the couch, throwing yourself down as you went to find some shitty TV show to pass the time until Chuuya could get home, only for you to kill him for real. You found yourself dozing off until you finally heard the door open and the angry stomps that followed the sound of it slamming back shut.

“So, what? Mori hold you back to talk about the Monster High reboot or some shit? I went through the trouble of cooking your bitch ass a full course meal and what? You wanted to shoot the shit or something?” You snarked as you stood back up to face him, surprised when you saw him striding towards you with an equally pissed off expression.

“Excuse me–” You started, but were cut off as he took your face with both hands and forcibly dragged you downwards, crashing his lips with yours. Blushing in return, you go to lean into the kiss when you taste something strange on your lips. You put your hands on his chest and push him back slightly causing him to groan in disappointment as you surveyed his face.

“Chuuya, what happened?” You asked in a concerned voice, looking at the busted lip and purple forming on his brow.

He seemed pissed that you would even notice, too proud to bring it up to you in the first place. “It’s nothing. Come back here.” He went to grab for you to embrace you again, but you had already slipped away to the kitchen to find him something to put on his face.

You rolled your eyes, “Stop thinking with your dick, I’m just going to grab you some- uh-” You searched around the freezer. “Would frozen pizza work?”

“Are you stupid? No, frozen pizza wouldn’t work–” He hissed in pain as you shoved a Red Baron Four Cheese pizza onto his face.

“Care to explain?” You gestured at him.

Chuuya groaned as he pulled out a chair from the table, sitting down and taking a bite out of the spaghetti that you made for him. He grimaced in disgust. “Why is it cold?”

You plopped yourself down across from him, your anger slowly returning from when he was late. “Well, it would’ve been hot a couple hours ago but someone wasn’t fucking here to eat it.”

He glared at you. “Whatever.”

Later, you would surely laugh at the sight of your boyfriend twirling noodles with one hand and holding a frozen pizza pie to his eye with the other, but your current resentment and concern took precedence. “Seriously Chuuya, who fucked you up like this?”

He almost seemed hurt that you would think he could lose to anyone but his natural anger came through. “Well, maybe if someone wasn’t coming into headquarters ass out, I wouldn’t have had to deck a motherfucker.”

You sputtered for a second. “Huh?”

“Last friday, when you just had to come in wearing tight pants and that stupid fucking shirt you just had to walk by some shitbag lackeys, didn’t you?” He grabbed the already open bottle of wine and pulled the cork out with his teeth, sliding his chair back and propping his legs on the table as he drank straight from the bottle.

This didn’t come as a surprise to you, as you knew that he’s had issues with your outfits before. Not you specifically, of course, as he’s always held a certain appreciation for your body, but rather when the both of you were in public and you’d get quite the number of unnecessary stares from others.

“I told you to stop caring about what others think of me,” You rolled your eyes. “I get it a lot anyways so I’m used to it by now.”

“What? Having creepy ass men call you a whore?” You watched as he kicked his legs off and stood up to walk around the table to you, grabbing your chin so you could meet his eyes. You could very clearly smell the wine on his breath and smirked as you watched his attention slide down to your lips.

You turned your face away, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of some anger induced make out session. “I’m not in the interest of kissing brutes at the moment, try again later–” You were cut off as you felt his lips on your pulse point, causing a squeak to come out of your mouth and your breathing to turn shaky as you stuttered out. “Beside that, that pizza in your hand is a little unflattering.”

He groaned as he threw it away from the both of you, and you gasped as you felt the cold hand slipping up your shirt to grasp your waist. “Come on, let’s just make love. It’s the only thing that’ll make it better.”

“Stop changing the subject,” You stood up abruptly to glare at him, “I’m not in the mood when my boyfriend looks busted as hell. You shouldn’t fight for honor ‘cause we’re all born sinners.”

Chuuya bared his teeth at you as he grabbed your wrist to drag you back. “You should've heard the shit they were saying about you, calling you a fucking whore, I’m not just going to stand around and hear that from some shit eating lowlifes.”

“I know what I am and I know what I’m not, Chuuya, I don’t give a fuck what some nobody’s got to say about how I look,” You rolled your eyes as you lifted your hand to his face and ran a thumb under his eye. You huffed a laugh as he winced slightly, resting your forehead onto his.

He brought your body closer and eventually turned the two of you around so he could sit down with you in his lap. You hugged him as he shoved his head into your neck and mumbled quietly into it.

“What was that?” You question as you bring your hand up to play with his red hair.

“I said I fucking love you,” Chuuya grumbled. “And my hand hurts like a bitch.”

You giggled at his betrayed expression as you stood up out of his lap, leaning down to kiss him sweetly. “Hold on, your honor, I’m just getting some ice for your hand.”

cross posted on ao3: here!