#Author has no idea what they are doing

[kizzer55555]

Fenton Ghost Portal Science

This is my attempt at the science behind the Fenton Ghost Portal. And it was all started when I tried to make a fanfic where Danny would have to build the portal from scratch. Because my brain cannot let something rest as a character doing something just because he can. No, I have to go into excruciating detail on how this could possibly make sense. What is required to build the portal and why these things are necessary. Which means I have to figure out how the portal works in order to build it. Often involving actual science and research. Then going back and translating that into a way that not only doesn’t use the words and phrases I just looked up because they would just confuse my audience (the neutron degeneracy pressure will repulse gravitational collapse so long as the mass of neutron is below 3 Msun) but also makes sense in a way to people who aren’t me.

The portal is a mix of technology and chemicals. There are multiple small reactors making a circle around the portal and all are powered by a massive amount of electricity (some electricity was produced by an outside source and others were produced by inside machines creating friction). These reactors scattered around the entrance to the machine produce 5 separate forces. Each core force can manipulate the air as a concentration of them passes through, doing so twist the air in a different direction. Having one force twist the air can produce a certain powerful effect (such as the speed force, a burst of energy, gravity manipulation and more) but having all of them twist the air at the same time and in different directions basically creates a hole between the fabric of space and time. It’s like taking a piece of paper and twisting each end in a different direction until it tears. The machine around the actual portal is a complex system of wires, heating  and cooling to make sure the reactors don’t explode, a filtrator to suck in access ectoplasm that’s leaks from the newly opened hole (many of the first samples of portals leaked this ectoplasm into the world, blocking the actual portal. It’s that stuff that hit Vlad and created the ecto acne. Basically ectoplasm mixed with diet cola.) and protective lining to make sure the energy released from the ectoplasm doesn’t affect the machine itself while also safely containing it. The wires also power the machine and reactors. They must be activated at the same time. The portal also has a tunnel section. The air can't just twist, it must be directed at an angle. Warped all in one direction (like a spiral) to create an entrance people can walk through rather than just a leak between worlds. All allowing for transport between dimensions. The surrounding portal is then designed to hold in the ectoplasmic reaction and funnel the leak of ecto energy/ectoplasm into the filter. The air twists in an almost spiral shape. 

Danny’s parents studied natural portals and realized the five types of energy naturally found in this dimension along with all dimensions. They are basically like a different version of the light spectrum. The 4th wall. Or 4D. It’s like how humans are only aware of a certain spectrum of colors vs what actually exists. After the Fentons discovered these mysterious forces, they studied how they interacted. (One of these energies is the speed force). They basically recreated the speed force experiment but with 5 different energy sources. When these energys converge in equal amounts at equal velocities is when the portal to what is deemed the ‘ghost zone’ opens. Some energies are speed force, others are magic related. This is why time travel is possible using the speed force and magic. They can tap into these energies. The machine also requires certain chemicals to power some of the reactors and flow into them. Luckily, these chemicals only really are needed to create the reaction that creates the portal but once it’s open, the rest of the machine is designed to keep it open. There are sensors within to monitor the fluctuation of energies but as long as the core reactors are powered, they give enough energy to maintain the portal. It’s always open due to this. Which is why the portal has doors to close it. Because it cannot actually be turned off. At least not without the huge amount of energy and chemicals. Basically, the tunnel acts like a vortex or black hole that keeps sucking at where the five core reactors produced that first burst of energy. They tapped into the energy already in the mortal plane. And the vortex just keeps sucking them to keep pulling from that original energy source with very little effort from the core reactors. It acts kinda like a black hole. 

(The Fenton might even label each unknown energy source and Danny either looks up proper names for them (like speed force) or goes by the Fenton names which could be something like E Force or Fenton Force, Maddie Force, or something like that. Anyways, this is only the scientific version (and it might be in a place filled with enough ectoplasm. The five forces combined only make a weak spot between the veil and the living realm. There must be ectoplasm to connect to the ghost zone. Like a magnet. They chose Amity because of this but Gotham would also work. Not to mention a literal ghost lair. It’s possible to just tap into the energy between the ghost zone directly using magic. This is what Wulf and sorcerers use. The ghost zone itself is ectoplasm which is like a sixth force. It is made up of all the forces combined. Kinda like combining 5 formulas to create one new chemical. There is a different ratio of these five forces in every dimension. Scientifically, they can open a portal to other dimensions by figuring out the perfect ratio that corresponds to each one. (But then they would have to rework the portal). For magic users, they unknowingly tap into the pure state of ectoplasm that leaks into the world. This is produced by emotion and will which is why they can will their magic to do what they want. And also why Wulf is much better at it. He has a strong will and his claws connect to the ectoplasm in the realms. It’s also why other ghosts can make portals too. Their connection with ectoplasm directly plus their own power allows this. For everyone else, it’s harder. Magic users take multiple steps and use a variety of combinations and mystic items to enhance their connection to the zone/ectoplasm plus enhance their own will. Jack and Maddie discovered the theoretical idea of natural portals (unable to see them or just tracking where they opened up) and then discovered the various forces. 

From there, they studied how to recreate the phenomenon they were sensing in their devices to create the portal. Their studies started out as just trying to prove the existence of ghosts. They built things to track them because everything that exists must give off some kind of signature like humans give off heat or electricity in their brain signals. Even pure energy can be tracked. Once they figured out what could be tracked (labeled ectoplasm), they created better tracking equipment which is how they found the surges of ectoplasm followed often by multiple new ecto signals before the large signal disappeared. This was now known as natural portals. And if there are natural portals, it’s possible to make normal ones too right? This led to the study and discovery of what created these natural portals and the discovery of the five different energies/forces beyond things like the electromagnetic force, the strong force, the weak force, and the force of gravity. Also the speed force. (Yes, Danny’s parents did figure out how to do the experiment that gave the flash powers on accident. They just didn’t care because ghosts and portal). As for the black hole. Black holes are formed when a star collapses (Danny might actually have accidentally helped his parents with their research with his space obsession) and when a star collapses in on itself, which creates a lot of mass packed in a small amount of volume which thus creates a vacuum. An incredibly strong pull. The back of the machine in the tunnel mimics that by creating an artificial black hole and then containing it by making a contracting gravitational field around the outside of the machine. This way the pull is only directed towards the back. The sucking motion pulls each force created by each reactor into a central spot at the end of the spiral they are shaped into, thus perfectly combining them at a single point and this then creates the portal. 

The continuous sucking motion of the infinite black hole then keeps the portal open. (Yes, the Fentons also created an artificial black hole but were more curious about the ghosts). There is a lot to include in the machine. Rings layered in the tunnel to create a controlled gravitational field. (Multiple rings to make various layers to produce the force and mass necessary to make said black hole.), another device to then compress that artificial mass/gravity. The wires connecting to the 5 reactors producing the necessary force along with the chemicals necessary to charge electricity through in order to tap into some of those forces (one of these reactors is literally a mini particle accelerator). The tubes collecting the excess ectoplasm leaking from the new ghost zone opening to contain it in a separate filter. The power required to open the portal and keep it open Although once it’s open, again, it creates a repeat cycle of the events and the energy produced by the artificial black hole is something known as Hawking radiation. Black holes are not infinite, the mass compresses but the scientific law is that neither mass nor energy can be created or destroyed. So when the mass is being compressed to the point where it has nowhere to go, it is converted into what is known as Hawking radiation. This is a powerful energy which the Fenton portal then absorbs and converts into the energy source powering the 5 different core reactors instead of drawing on an outside source. These reactors then keep powering the forces used to open the portal. And then the ectoplasm leaking from the new portal opening contributes to the mass of the black hole (with any extra sent to the filtrator). Thus, the mass never runs out and the cycle repeats in an infinite loop. 

This is how the portal continues to stay open. The Fentons had some success making mini portals but they never stayed open for long. This cycle is also why this is the only permanent portal vs natural portals as they eventually fade over time as the ratio between the 5 forces fluctuates and thus, seals the opening between realms. With the constant maintenance between the power and ratio, the Fenton portal remains open unless another factor interrupts it (like a buildup of ectoplasm). This destabilizes the portal, disrupting the delicate balance of the cycle, thus causing everything to overload and explode. 

[tea-cat-arts]

I simply think this fandom doesn't give Wei Wuxian enough credit for the various ways in which he saved Lan Wangji

[mccoyquialisms]

am I the only one who feels like the crowd that’s always crying “ooo this piece of media addresses [this heavy topic] without a character explicitly calling it out as bad so therefore it’s ENDORSING it and bad media!” is the same crowd who wouldn’t shut up about “the curtains are just blue 🤪”? Like sorry you slept through English class and are incapable of recognizing subtext or unreliable narration while the rest of us learned how to read

[somsonsomsoff]

headcanons for the employers have somehow turned into a crossover with de skills

[isogenderskitty]

people who’ve only seen hatchetfield: starkid has like practically no gay characters :/

the avp trilogy which has been sitting right there for probably most of their lives and is the foundation of everything:

plus these less explicit more headcanony (but like, BARELY) examples that i really think are worth mentioning as well, i have receipts don’t tempt me i will literally make an entire video about this stuff (and i might actually):

[mityenka]

it's kind of insane to me how people write things like that. marxism was not invented on tumblr during the last 2 years. like oh you know there's this book actually.... and this other book....

[dykedvonte]

Can you talk about trans!Curly a little bit more? I'm curios if you have any headcanons and the like

-💀

It's just such a thing in my mind because it adds a truthful sadness and differing aspect to mouthwashing.

If Curly was trans it adds the horror of the horribly selfish thought he could have easily been in Anya's situation. It could've been him but it wasn't and he so conflicted on the pit it put in his stomach that brings and the shameful relief it wasn't. In this scenario he is friends with Jimmy for a long time still. Jimmy likely knew him pretransition. Maybe he gave Curly weird looks then, maybe they never stopped after, maybe they seemed meaner. They are guys now, bros, both of them are. He doesn't really have to worry what those looks mean anymore, Jimmy just has that face with him sometimes. It's recontextualizing a lot of things for him that he was in denial about or too ashamed to admit. How naive he was being and how he let that get another person hurt.

Specifically with Anya, it's he knows the dread and fear she's feeling. He can understand it because he had to live with it for a good portion of his life, he knows it cause he still does, just in a slightly different way. It makes him think of all the times he's been alone with Jimmy, all the times he's been way more drunk off his ass and not remember the night, Jimmy was always with him the next day. Makes him think of the comments he would laugh off both because that's what guys do but because that part of being a girl says to laugh so Jimmy doesn't do something. It's the selfish realization that he was never safe and he's uncertain now too. Mad at himself for forgeting that feeling, espcially since for a long time he would've been considered the only woman on a crew (with all that implies) for a long time.

He should've taken those blinders off, step back into that position for just a moment and it's so much more painful that Anya likely came to him because he should've gotten it. Those thoughts don't leave his mind after the crash when he's in an even more vulnerable position than she was...

[greenerteacups]

oooh please someday tell us what you think of GOT

oh, no, it's my fatal weakness! it's [checks notes] literally just the bare modicum of temptation! okay you got me.

SO. in order to tell what's wrong with game of thrones you kind of have to have read the books, because the books are the reason the show goes off the rails. i actually blame the showrunners relatively little in proportion to GRRM for how bad the show was (which I'm not gonna rehash here because if you're interested in GOT in any capacity you've already seen that horse flogged to death). people debate when GOT "got bad" in terms of writing, but regardless of when you think it dropped off, everyone agrees the quality declined sharply in season 8, and to a certain extent, season 7. these are the seasons that are more or less entirely spun from whole cloth, because season 7 marks the beginning of what will, if we ever see it, be the Winds of Winter storyline. it's the first part that isn't based on a book by George R.R. Martin. it's said that he gave the showrunners plot outlines, but we don't know how detailed they were, or how much the writers diverged from the blueprint — and honestly, considering the cumulative changes made to the story by that point, some stark divergence would have been required. (there's a reason for this. i'll get there in a sec.)

so far, i'm not saying anything all that original. a lot of people recognized how bad the show got as soon as they ran out of Book to adapt. (I think it's kind of weird that they agreed to make a show about an unfinished series in the first place — did GRRM figure that this was his one shot at a really good HBO adaptation, and forego misgivings about his ability to write two full books in however many years it took to adapt? did he think they would wait for him? did he not care that the series would eventually spoil his magnum opus, which he's spent the last three decades of his life writing? perplexing.) but the more interesting question is why the show got bad once it ran out of Book, because in my mind, that's not a given. a lot of great shows depart from the books they were based on. fanfiction does exactly that, all the time! if you have good writers who understand the characters they're working with, departure means a different story, not a worse one. now, the natural reply would be to say that the writers of GOT just aren't good, or at least aren't good at the things that make for great television, and that's why they needed the books as a structure, but I don't think that's true or fair, either. books and television are very different things. the pacing of a book is totally different from the pacing of a television show, and even an episodic book like ASOIAF is going to need a lot of work before it's remotely watchable as a series. bad writers cannot make great series of television, regardless of how good their source material is. sure, they didn't invent the characters of tyrion lannister and daenerys targaryen, but they sure as hell understood story structure well enough to write a damn compelling season of TV about them!

so but then: what gives? i actually do think it's a problem with the books! the show starts out as very faithful to the early books (namely, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) to the point that most plotlines are copied beat-for-beat. the story is constructed a little differently, and it's definitely condensed, but the meat is still there. and not surprisingly, the early books in ASOIAF are very tightly written. for how long they are, you wouldn't expect it, but on every page of those books, the plot is racing. you can practically watch george trying to beat the fucking clock. and he does! useful context here is that he originally thought GOT was going to be a trilogy, and so the scope of most threads in the first book or two would have been much smaller. it also helps that the first three books are in some respects self-contained stories. the first book is a mystery, the second and third are espionage and war dramas — and they're kept tight in order to serve those respective plots.

the trouble begins with A Feast for Crows, and arguably A Storm of Swords, because GRRM starts multiplying plotlines and treating the series as a story, rather than each individual book. he also massively underestimated the number of pages it would take him to get through certain plot beats — an assumption whose foundation is unclear, because from a reader's standpoint, there is a fucke tonne of shit in Feast and Dance that's spurious. I'm not talking about Brienne's Riverlands storyline (which I adore thematically but speaking honestly should have been its own novella, not a part of Feast proper). I'm talking about whole chapters where Tyrion is sitting on his ass in the river, just talking to people. (will I eat crow about this if these pay off in hugely satisfying ways in Winds or Dream? oh, totally. my brothers, i will gorge myself on sweet sweet corvid. i will wear a dunce cap in the square, and gleefully, if these turn out to not have been wastes of time. the fact that i am writing this means i am willing to stake a non-negligible amount of pride on the prediction that that will not happen). I'm talking about scenes where the characters stare at each other and talk idly about things that have already happened while the author describes things we already have seen in excruciating detail. i'm talking about threads that, while forgivable in a different novel, are unforgivable in this one, because you are neglecting your main characters and their story. and don't tell me you think that a day-by-day account tyrion's river cruise is necessary to telling his story, because in the count of monte cristo, the main guy disappears for nine years and comes hurtling back into the story as a vengeful aristocrat! and while time jumps like that don't work for everything, they certainly do work if what you're talking about isn't a major story thread!

now put aside whether or not all these meandering, unconcluded threads are enjoyable to read (as, in fairness, they often are!). think about them as if you're a tv showrunner. these bad boys are your worst nightmare. because while you know the author put them in for a reason, you haven't read the conclusion to the arc, so you don't know what that reason is. and even if the author tells you in broad strokes how things are going to end for any particular character (and this is a big "if," because GRRM's whole style is that he lets plots "develop as he goes," so I'm not actually convinced that he does have endings written out for most major characters), that still doesn't help you get them from point A (meandering storyline) to point B (actual conclusion). oh, and by the way, you have under a year to write this full season of television, while GRRM has been thinking about how to end the books for at least 10. all of this means you have to basically call an audible on whether or not certain arcs are going to pay off, and, if they are, whether they make for good television, and hence are worth writing. and you have to do that for every. single. unfinished. story. in the books.

here's an example: in the books, Quentin Martell goes on a quest to marry Daenerys and gain a dragon. many chapters are spent detailing this quest. spoiler alert: he fails, and he gets charbroiled by dragons. GRRM includes this plot to set up the actions of House Martell in Winds, but the problem is that we don't know what House Martell does in Winds, because (see above) the book DNE. So, although we can reliably bet that the showrunners understand (1) Daenerys is coming to Westeros with her 3 fantasy nukes, and (2) at some point they're gonna have to deal with the invasion of frozombies from Canada, that DOESN'T mean they necessarily know exactly what's going to happen to Dorne, or House Martell. i mean, fuck! we don't even know if Martin knows what's going to happen to Dorne or House Martell, because he's said he's the kind of writer who doesn't set shit out beforehand! so for every "Cersei defaults on millions of dragons in loans from the notorious Bank of Nobody Fucks With Us, assumes this will have no repercussions for her reign or Westerosi politics in general" plotline — which might as well have a big glaring THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT stamp on top of the chapter heading — you have Arianne Martell trying to do a coup/parent trap switcheroo with Myrcella, or Euron the Goffick Antichrist, or Faegon Targaryen and JonCon preparing a Blackfyre restoration, or anything else that might pan out — but might not! And while that uncertainty about what's important to the "overall story" might be a realistic way of depicting human beings in a world ruled by chance and not Destiny, it makes for much better reading than viewing, because Game of Thrones as a fantasy television series was based on the first three books, which are much more traditional "there is a plot and main characters and you can generally tell who they are" kind of book. I see Feast and Dance as a kind of soft reboot for the series in this respect, because they recenter the story around a much larger cast and cast a much broader net in terms of which characters "deserve" narrative attention.

but if you're making a season of television, you can't do that, because you've already set up the basic premise and pacing of your story, and you can't suddenly pivot into a long-form tone poem about the horrors of war. so you have to cut something. but what are you gonna cut? bear in mind that you can't just Forget About Dorne, or the Iron Islands, or the Vale, or the North, or pretty much any region of the story, because it's all interconnected, but to fit in everything from the books would require pacing of the sort that no reasonable audience would ever tolerate. and bear in mind that the later books sprout a lot more of these baby-plots that could go somewhere, but also might end up being secondary or tertiary to the "main story," which, at the end of the day, is about dragons and ice zombies and the rot at the heart of the feudal power system glorified in classical fantasy. that's the story that you as the showrunner absolutely must give them an end to, and that's the story that should be your priority 1.

so you do a hack and slash job, and you mortar over whatever you cut out with storylines that you cook up yourself, but you can't go too far afield, because you still need all the characters more or less in place for the final showdown. so you pinch here and push credulity there, and you do your best to put the characters in more or less the same place they would have been if you kept the original, but on a shorter timeframe. and is it as good as the first seasons? of course not! because the material that you have is not suited to TV like the first seasons are. and not only that, but you are now working with source material that is actively fighting your attempt to constrain a linear and well-paced narrative on it. the text that you're working with changed structure when you weren't looking, and now you have to find some way to shanghai this new sprawling behemoth of a Thing into a television show. oh, and by the way, don't think that the (living) author of the source material will be any help with this, because even though he's got years of experience working in television writing, he doesn't actually know how all of these threads will tie together, which is possibly the reason that the next book has taken over 8 years (now 13 and counting) to write. oh and also, your showrunners are sick of this (in fairness, very difficult) job and they want to go write for star wars instead, so they've refused the extra time the studio offered them for pre-production and pushed through a bunch of first-draft scripts, creating a crunch culture of the type that spawns entirely avoidable mistakes, like, say, some poor set designer leaving a starbucks cup in frame.

anyway, that's what I think went wrong with game of thrones.

[dieselocelot]

you're losing a savior and a saint

[lord-squiggletits]

What do you think is Tarn's favorite part of being ordered to do something? That he's worth something/seen as valuable or the idea of the reward at the end? Or something else entirely?

Probably closer to your first theory: my first instinct is that Tarn seems to derive a lot of his self-worth and purpose in life from an attachment to others/an ideology (see: his whole thing with Megatron), although I honestly doubt he was like that before Megatron fucked him up with brainwashing. Being ordered to do something = being needed, and being needed = having value and a reason for living.

It also seems to me that, even as Damus, Tarn has a bit of a rash/emotional/passionate streak: very much the type to fix an ideology/set of instructions upon himself, then charge forward with a sense of purpose. If we look at Damus getting irritated at Orion for "just sitting around and waiting for the Senate soldiers to show up," it seems this guy really wanted to ACT and DO, perhaps to the point of slight recklessness/thoughtlessness. As if he equated active "doing" with productivity and "having a plan" and taking initiative, but thought of waiting as a form of weakness/giving up/not being prepared. (Ties in rather neatly with his tendency for organization maybe... weird how he's simultaneously reckless with his individual actions but also needs a sense of Order And Hierarchy to feel fulfilled on a general life level.)

So I think Tarn also gets enjoyment from following orders bc eh... I'm genuinely not trying to make this a petplay thing 🤣but I'd say that maybe he gets a sense of comfort/security from being able to just charge forward and act, no need to worry about morality or questioning his own motives. Just outsource his thinking to someone else beloved, trusting, and all-wise (Megatron) so he can experience the pure bliss of fanaticism and utter self-righteousness/confidence in his own actions. He even admits to Deathsaurus that he let himself conflate Megatron with the Decepticon ideology when instead Decepticonism is based on a dream, an idea.

So on that note, it also seems to me that Tarn might like following orders specifically bc he feels a personal connection to Megatron? Megatron groomed him as a protege/his most dedicated and fanatical follower. Their conversation on Necroworld shows that Tarn quite obviously thinks the world of Megatron and wants to see him as that figure of legendary competence/willpower. I don't think Tarn just wants to have The Right Ideology so that he can Feel Good About Being A Good Person (TM); it seems like Tarn specifically wants* to have a personal connection, some sense of approval or specialness, a bond with some authority figure who not only assures that he can trust them, but that they also trust him utterly. I think it says a lot that Tarn was even able to fall in love (figuratively) with Megatron more than he was with Decepticon ideology itself. It points to the fact that what he's really missing is interpersonal connections. Er, as much as an incredibly toxic and manipulative parasocial relationship is an interpersonal connection, but I never said that it was a good connection.

*In light of recent panels of Damus I reviewed from a Tarn/Damus post I reblogged last night, Damus seemed to actually be quite comfortable challenging/questioning Orion to his face and wanting to know what their plan is and why. I think it says a lot that Damus' relationship with Orion was one between a leader and a soldier, yes, but it was also informal and non-hierarchical enough that Damus felt completely free to question Orion. When you contrast this with Tarn talking to Megatron ~4 million years later, he's suddenly switched to an attitude of absolutely worshipping Megatron and believing he has utterly absurd/impossible levels of ability, vision, confidence, willpower, etc. Seems to me like part of Megatron's brainwashing of Damus was specifically centered on wrapping his heart around his little finger for the purpose of cultivating that blind obedience. Given Megatron's thoughts at the end of his Spotlight issue (he refers to his soldiers basically as blind idiots who can be whipped into a furor with the right propaganda lines), this is a pretty common emotional manipulation tactic he used in general. It just seems like Megatron concentrated this manipulation by singling out Damus and making him feel special, that he saw himself in Damus, and that he truly cared about him and wanted him as a student. You know, an emotional connection.

Honestly, this is kinda dark tho, bc now I'm kind of sad and thinking that Tarn doesn't naturally have this level of codependence/slave-like devotion to a person and it was actually just something Megatron shaped him into as a leash of sorts... Damn, I can be horny about people sublimating their trauma/emotional issues through kink, but not in a guilt-free "haha he's a dog" way. 😔 JK I'll still call Tarn a dog (affectionate) bc it's just so true.

[kyouka-supremacy]

I fucked up

[krispiecake]

tell me why i can hear another tenants fucking music from my flat. HE DOESNT EVEN LIVE IN MY BUILDING. HE LIVES IN A COMPLETELY SEPARATE BUILDING ON THE SECOND FLOOR AND I CAN HEAR HIS MUSIC FROM MY FLAT. MY FLAT WHICH IS IN A DIFFERENT SEPARATE BUILDING.

[spacedlexi]

speaking of fucked up overly hated female twdg characters i find it Super Interesting how people will say carver was the best villain in the whole series, but when lilly is literally just a successful carver (iron fist leader of a community turning children into soldiers) suddenly shes a bad/lame villain for some reason 🤔

[clegfly]

“Of course you have an Other Brother,” he says, waving off her denial as he opens some nearby cabinets. “Who else would I be if I wasn’t?”

Small WIP sketch of the Other Brother from IDKSomethingClever99’s fic “Mari in the Pink Palace”!!! OMORI and Coraline are my two biggest interests ever so this fic was like winning the lottery for me. Not to mention how good it is… please go read it ragh

[quirkle2]

the angst in your zombie au bREAKS MY HEART INTO PIECES (I LOVE IT VERY MUCH)

okay, okay, so!! if the kagebros got separated from reigen and teru when mob is still fine, i imagine that their reunion would be hEARTWRENCHING also, i'm a bit curious, would mob still be able to recognize teru and reigen? or would he thought about them as strangers?

(tbh, following your lore, i imagine mob would act a similarly like nezuko from demon slayer? but instead of little hums, his zombie sounds would more like babbling and incoherent mumbles :"D)

the reunion is fuckin AWFUL man it's SO gut-wrenching. both reigen and teru feared this for Months while looking for the brothers; pretty much the worst case scenario was that mob or ritsu or Both turned—a lot of humans prefer death over being a zombie any day, so the idea of ritsu or mob having to go through that and wander around aimlessly until starvation or smth else gets them,,,

it hurts them so much to think about. teru forces himself not to dwell on it and he's pretty good at that but reigen thinks abt it a lot and he's honestly not sure what scenario is worse. best case is that they're both alive and unturned, obviously, but what's the worst case? you'd think it's both of them getting killed, or turning, but reigen also knows that if One of them got killed/turned, the other would probably lose their mind, especially if they had to watch. the fact that they're kids makes this all three times worse and reigen has to act like he's Not worrying himself sick over the brothers while he tries to keep teru in high spirits

the reunion itself is rly fuckin gut-wrenching for them. they see mob from afar, wandered off just a bit from ritsu and tome who are just around the bend looting a place, and they book it bc ofc they do, it's mob!! but then they see how pale he is, and when he turns around they don't see that light in his eyes that's usually there and the red is dulled and dead looking,, teru almost moves in for a hug before he realizes mob looks vastly different when he Rly takes him in, and mob doesn't rly react too much besides staring at them blankly. the obvious answer is almost too horrifying to even consider, so it takes them a minute to rly,,realize what's going on

tome comes around the bend and shouts, cuz when humans and zombies mix it's usually guns pointed at zombie heads. ritsu comes running out after her and when he sees reigen and teru his thoughts go, in order: holy shit is that reigen and tero ohmygod oh my god they're alive they're alive ohmy god i could fucking cry, and ohmy god they see shige ohno oh no oh no

ritsu sounds like a lunatic when he pulls mob away from them on instinct and says that he's safe to be around and that he's "still him" and he's "not gone" and he's very aware of that. he's very, intimately aware that he sounds fuckin crazy, bc ofc he does, this is what all the crazy people in zombie movies sound like. but he doesn't care, he doesn't care if reigen or teru dismiss him as nuts—he has to make them understand that his brother is still in there somewhere

and yeah, they both kinda think that ritsu's lost his marbles a little bit, but while teru is focused on that and the fact that mob doesn't look like he's rly tuned into Anything that's happening rn, reigen is a bit more focused on the fact that both ritsu and mob look awful? they're both very skinny and very dirty, obviously barely scraping by. they're cut up and ritsu's jacket is basically blood and dirt with a little bit of green fabric mixed in. and just by the look in ritsu's eyes, reigen can tell, man ... reigen can tell ritsu is like.not okay at this point he's kinda lost it.

i think the most painful thing about this whole reunion in general is that later that night, when reigen and teru r finally like ok we get it he's,, he's still mob. we believe you (they want to believe him... [they Do believe him, later, wholeheartedly]) and they settle down someplace safe, teru asks how long mob's been like this. and ritsu has to answer "since we got separated" and they both have that to stew over while everybody else sleeps

they realize that ritsu likely watched mob turn, watched the entire process, and that process takes a long time. it's at least a week of deteriorating motor functions and cognitive skill, and the fact that ritsu stayed for that to keep mob company is .ough. and it doesn't end there bc ritsu obviously stayed after that too

given how these things usually go, ritsu probably did think about killing mob. it probably did cross his mind, bc that's basically what everybody's been told to do. kill them before they have a chance to do any more damage. and it's obvious that ritsu did not have it in him

ritsu not only did not have it in him to kill him, he didn't even have it in him to leave him there. the kid fucking took him with him. a zombie. and he's somehow made it work, for months. and the next few days are filled with watching him still treat mob like a brother and take care of him and gently steer him away from a bird he tries to follow down the wrong street.ritsu is as gentle and kind as he's ever been with his brother. and even tho they're both hungry and tired and barely making it, ritsu is doing a rly good job taking care of mob with what he's been given

the kid obviously wholeheartedly believes in a cure and that mob is still There. he's gone through the trouble to take care of him, and the grief of continuously seeing a loved one that many would consider effectively dead, to get him that cure. to get him his brother back. and mob doesn't seem to be in any pain or distress, so reigen and teru think that this path ritsu has followed is probably infinitely kinder than the mercy kill method they've been taught to do

i think they have a new respect for ritsu, after that reunion

[longagoitwastuesday]

Every day I am haunted by the fact JJK could be amazing but it will be just idk Bleach or something