#I mean I have smaller ones/times where I go down rabbit holes but these are my big two media wise..

[allgremlinart]

fun lore about me I've only ever had two Main Hyperfixations even since childhood and its atla and dc comics and they've been battling inside my brain for control for centuries

[babyhatesreality]

Hey babes! Can you do a stucky mafia little reader where stucky and they reader are out at dinner or shopping and someone tries to attack them? The reader is ok but very shaken. 🥺

Fluff, angst, mentions of shock and doctors 🥺❤️

I love your page

Sure thing! And I love you back <3 Thank you for your patience, it means the world to me.

A/N- this is an AU outside of Katie Cat, and outside of my other series. I decided to try my hand at Dark Stucky for this one. This is a stand alone- and I'm excited to play in this sandbox for a minute, so thank you darling nonnie!

Down the Rabbit Hole

Pairing: Dark!Mafia!Stucky x little f!reader

Warnings: dark mafia Stucky, f! reader, severe Stockholm syndrome, Stucky both referred to as Daddy, pet names, reader is smaller than Stucky, language, an attack on all three, violence (not towards reader), shock, fear, angst, doctor talk, fluff.

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN MEDIA CONSUMPTION. THIS STORY IS SFW- THE REST OF MY BLOG IS NOT NECESSARILY SO. MINORS DNI. I DO NOT CONSENT FOR MY WORK TO BE STOLEN, COPIED, OR TRANSLATED ONTO ANY OTHER SITE BUT MY OWN. Likes, comments and reblogs are deeply appreciated.

"Mmmm," you couldn't help but say as you lingered on the last delicious bite of spaghetti. It was so rare that Steve and Bucky had a night away AND could take you out to dinner, that you'd almost forgotten what any other spaghetti other than Steve's tasted like. "It's so good."

"Good girl, you cleaned your plate. I'm proud of you," Steve said, the corner of his lip curling up in that smile that was almost a sneer, but you'd come to understand it meant he was pleased. You giggled and ducked your head, not wanting to admit that his praise in public made you feel all giddy.

"I think we should get the tiramisu to go. It's getting near your bedtime, little one," Bucky said, looking at his expensive diamond-encrusted watch. He chuckled when you pouted. "Now, now. None of that or we don't do this again." You instantly wiped the pout off your face. You couldn't remember the last time you'd actually gotten to leave the mansion for a date night with your daddies, and you weren't about to jeopardize that. Seeing the pout gone, Bucky purred. "That's better. Now let's go."

A waitress handed Steve a to-go bag with a large piece of the dessert in it as you all were heading out the door. You were surprised when you realized that neither Steve nor Bucky had paid, and couldn't help but look behind you as you all were exiting. "What's the matter, Princess?" Steve asked, taking a firm hold of your hand. "What's wrong?"

"Don't...don't we have to give monies to the people for making us food?" you whispered, a little afraid that this was going to be one of those questions that got your daddies mad when you asked it. But this was the exact opposite. Steve squeezed your hand a bit, and Bucky quickly took you other hand and kissed it as you all walked down the street to where Sam had parked the car a few blocks away.

"Look at our sweet little girl, Buck, making sure all her people are taken care of," Steve said, grinning at Bucky and then down at you. "Seems like she picked up a thing or two from the business."

"It's okay, Sweet Cheeks, Daddy and I know the people that run this place. They make us food for free, whenever we want," Bucky said, smiling down indulgently at you.

"Oh. That's nice of them!"

"Did you like going to that place?"

"It was...nice. The food was way yummy. There was lots of people there."

"Was that too many people, honey?"

"Um...it's okay. Just not used to anybody but Daddies."

"Well, how about we all go back home and it can be just Daddies again?"

"Yeah!" you cheered, relieved. It was weird being around people again- you weren't sure that you liked it. You hadn't been around that many people since your Daddies saved you from your boring life to make you their Princess. It had taken a long time, but now you couldn't live without them.

The three of you turned into an alley. Normally, it would have terrified you to walk down a place like this, but with both of your daddies holding your hands, you knew you had nothing to fear.

Suddenly, you heard a deep voice behind you. "Stay right where you are. Don't move."

Ignoring the voice's orders, both Bucky and Steve whipped around instantly. Steve forcefully shoved you behind him. Afraid, you buried your face in the back of his jacket and tried not to make a sound. As you did when you were home and their work people came over, you stayed silent, like a good girl does.

"Give me your wallets and no one gets hurt," the voice said, low and gruff. Bucky let out a bark of a laugh as Steve stepped forward.

"Oh, son. You have no idea what you've just done, do you?" Steve said lightly, but you could hear the undercurrent of violence in his tone. You felt Steve's arms shove aside his jacket lapels, but the next thing you knew, Bucky had you up against the brick wall of the alleyway. Everything got really loud really fast. You turned your head in terror to make sure Steve was okay, but Bucky forcefully grabbed your chin in his hand and made you look at him.

"Eyes on me, Princess," he commanded, and you obeyed instantly. "Good girl. You remember our codes?"

"Y-yes, Daddy."

"Good girl. Rabbit hole. Quick like a bunny. Go." He let your chin go and stepped towards Steve, leaving you alone with your orders.

After Steve and Bucky had rescued you and you'd grown accustomed to this new life, they had drilled code words into you in case of situations like this. "Rabbit Hole" and "Quick like a bunny" were codes for find a place to hide as fast as you can, and don't move until they come to get you.

You looked for a safe hiding space, just like Steve had taught you to, and found a slight notch in the brickwork of the alley- just large enough to hold a dumpster. You ran into it as fast as you could, squeezing yourself in between the dumpster and the wall. You huddled down, hands over your ears and eyes squeezed shut, pretending you were a rabbit in a hole, just like they taught you. Your hands over your ears mostly muffled the shouts, the grunts, and the loud bang. Then everything was silent.

After a couple minutes, you felt three taps on your arm. You opened your eyes to see Bucky kneeling in front of you, smiling. You peeled your hands from your ears just in time to hear him say "Good girl."

You flung yourself into his arms, sobbing and scared. He picked you up, balancing you on his hip, as you cried into his shoulder. He gently kissed the top of your head before pulling his phone out and making a call. Less than a minute later, Sam came barreling into the alley. Without a word, Bucky passed you to him and walked towards Steve.

You started crying even more hysterically. "No, Daddy, please don't go!" you wailed, trying to stretch out of Sam's arms to get to them.

"Hey," Steve's voice cut in sternly. You instantly stopped squirming, knowing better than to push Steve when he was angry. Seeing that you were behaving the way he wanted you to, Steve turned his attention back to what was left of the would be attacker. Sam pressed your face into his shoulder so you wouldn't look, and you stayed right there, unable to control your trembling.

A couple phone calls later and the situation was resolved. Your cries had quieted to occasional hiccups, but you were trying your hardest to be quiet and good, just like they wanted you to be. When you felt Steve's strong hands lift you out of Sam's arms though, you turned with lightning speed and latched onto him.

"Shhh, shhh, it's okay, Princess, Daddy is here now," he said in a much softer and more soothing voice that before. You sniffled a little.

"Daddy?" you whispered, looking up at him. He smiled softly at you.

"Hey there, Princess," he said, rubbing his nose against yours. You sighed in relief, and returned the butterfly kiss, before turning your head to look for Bucky. You didn't have to look far- Bucky was right behind Steve, smiling from ear to ear at you.

"Princess, tell Daddy what you just did," Bucky said proudly, lightly punching Steve in the back to get him to listen up.

"Runned to be a rabbit in a hole, like Daddy said to," you explained carefully, wanting to make sure you didn't mess it up. Steve's smug smile grew.

"Yeah? You were in a rabbit hole like Daddy told you to be?" Steve said proudly. "Well, how about that. You must have been a very brave little girl to be such a good bunny when the mean man came." At the mention of the attacker, you began to shake again.

"Shh, it's okay Sweet Cheeks, we're here and the bad man is gone. He didn't hurt us and he can't hurt you," Bucky crooned softly, stroking your cheek with his finger. But you couldn't stop shaking.

"Boss, you want me to call the doctor to come check her out?" Sam asked gruffly, seeing you beginning to tremble again.

"No! No doctor!" you whimpered before burying yourself in Steve's shoulder. You heard a smack and turned your head to see Sam holding the back of his head and looking annoyed, while Bucky stood next to him, fuming.

"Idiot, you know she hates doctors," Bucky hissed at their second in command.

"Sorry, sorry," Sam apologized, before looking at you. "Sorry, Princess."

"Is okay, Sammy. Thank you for...for helping me." You didn't really want to thank Sam for holding you back while your daddies were taking care of their business, but Steve and Bucky were very strict about manners and you knew they would want you to thank Sam. You were rewarded with kisses from the both of them, on either side of your head.

"Good manners, Princess," Steve whispered. "Come on. Let's go home. And see? Daddy didn't even let the bad man get our dessert. Let's go watch a movie and eat it before bed, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy."

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to go out to dinner, hm?"

"I'll do anything you want, as long as I can stay with you and Daddy forever."

"Good girl. That's what we want to hear."

[spineless-lobster]

Alright so I was reading the wikipedia article for the limpet mine because I am Very Normal™ about the antics my favourite characters get up to, and I went down a rabbit hole about this guy who I believe to have somewhat inspired the character of the Captain. (long post warning, TL;DR at the end)

I present to you, Cecil Vandepeer Clarke, the man who helped develop the limpet mine. (the last name Clarke might ring a bell to those who have read There’s A War Going On by Glowinggreeneyes)

Born in 1897, (which could’ve been the Captain’s birth year) he first served in WWI as a second lieutenant. He did quite a few things but the main thing that I want to focus on was his achievements. He was rewarded the Military Cross medal for his part in the battle of Vittorio Veneto in Italy in 1918. If you’ve seen my other infodump post you know that in the Captain’s pilot design, he had the Military Cross (underlined in red) and the Italy Star (underlined in blue) as medals (which later changed). Now, the Italy Star was specifically for WWII but I feel like we can excuse that because of creative licensing and all that. I just think the link between Italy is interesting. The France and Germany Star and the War Medal are part of his canon design, so which ever part of his story that relates to that must’ve made it through the cut which is 👀

Clarke married Dorothy Aileen Kendrick and had three children, which isn’t that important but my brain won’t let go of “a friend of Dorothy” so there’s that.

Clarke developed the limpet mine during WWII with his friend Stuart Macrae. They had to think of a detonation technique (remember, they had to attach the mine to the hull of the ship. You can’t have your frogmen blowing up) they found that an aniseed ball (a type of candy that resembles a gobstopper, only smaller) left by Clarke’s children in his office disintegrated at the perfect rate in water in order to detonate the mine.

While they were testing the limpet mine, they had to make sure it didn’t get damp in any way lest the aniseed ball starts dissolving. So naturally they wrapped it in a condom while not in use.

I initially made this post because the thought of the Captain being all flustered next to Havers while handling a detonator wrapped in a condom was sending me into hysterics but uhhh I got a bit carried away.

The Captain mentions that the limpet mine used suckers to attach to the side of the hull. But in reality they used magnets to attach them to the ship, which was the idea from the start. So tbh I have no idea what he’s going on about.

Now here’s something interesting; Clarke worked on improvements with the limpet mine in a country house called Aston House, which was acquired by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in 1939. The mine was being manufactured by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the house was handed over to them by the SIS where it was known as Station XII (hm, oddly close to Button House XI don’t you think?) Clarke also developed many other weapons at the house. Aston House is in Stevenage, Hertfordshire which means literally nothing to me but it might mean something to someone else.

While developing the limpet mine Clarke had come up with the idea of an underground tank (which sounds cool as hell) and proposed his idea twice, the first time to the Ministry of Supply (which was rejected) and the second time directly to Churchill himself (who essentially said “that’s great, but we’re making one of those already”). Although he was put in charge of the “trenching machine” as he was made assistant director in the Naval Land Section, he grew to hate his job and was called for military service shortly after he left. (Hm, who else absolutely despises the navy? Perhaps our favourite little army man?)

Clarke was later promoted to captain (but acted as a major) and was stationed at Brickendonbury Manor (Station XVII) where he trained SOE agents. There he suffered a bone fracture due to a rough landing during parachute training. The wiki article doesn’t mention where the fracture was but if it was in his knees I might punch a wall.

Clarke was released from the army in November of 1945. He returned to Bedford where he joined the Territorial Army as a captain and served there for six years before being transferred to the Intelligence Corps. Later he ran as like a counsellor or something and was part of the Labour/Liberal Party, but I don’t think that’s very relevant. He retired as a major at the age of 60 and died in 1961. The wiki article doesn’t mention a cause of death (which is just poetic irony at this point) but it does mention that he had a non fatal heart attack. But non fatal means he didn’t die from it so ?????

TL;DR:

- Possibly same birth year?

- Similar(ish) medals

- Developed the limpet mine with a close friend

- Stationed at a country house (twice in the case of Clarke) during WWII

- Hate the navy (though that seems to be common amongst soldiers)

- Fucked up bones

- Worked in intelligence and weapons development

- Prominently known as a captain

- Died under mysterious circumstances apparently

I am leaving out A LOT of other information so there might be more connections that I’m missing. If you wanna learn more about Clarke and the limpet mine I found this article which delves further into the development and it was a very fun read.

I… I need to lie down

[floripire]

this is an incredibly random ask & something i'm not sure if i've ever told you before but i just wanna say, i really really really love & appreciate your worldbuilding you do, not even just with flori but across all your blogs. the passion, the way you think of so many npcs, complete with fcs, to weave into your muses lives. & just the dedication generally you have to the smaller/background characters. like khione & eleusine - you've breathed such life into them. & your original characters too, of course. but just the way you make these characters & their canons feel so - real? & like idk i just love the work & dedication you have truly, it's something i enjoy every time i see it on my dash. i love going through & reading what i can, tbh multiple times i've gone down rabbit holes - just being lost in your worldbuilding tag(s)! you're literally doing an amazing job out here & i just - we love to see it, truly. i know we don't talk a whole ton but i am here silently admiring you & rooting you on, i hope you know that. & i hope you know how much your creative brain is appreciated <3

thank you so much, @theha1r, for the kind words! it means a lot! honestly, i've always loved minor characters because they have such potential and i find it fun to unearth that potential and turn it into something cool, together with all of my friends. shoutout to all of them, they know who they are! <3 and i think that's the beauty of it: a lot of my characters wouldn't be as well developed as they are right now, if i hadn't met the people i met across all of my blogs. truly though, this blog would not exist without arrow / @founderscouncil. i remember making a list of supernatural characters i wanted to write: some wolves, some vamps and a huntress. and then i saw arrow's dynamic's call for j/ed specifically: an inter-faction romeo and juliet type of thing where neither of their respective groups approve but they're drawn to each other anyway. and i was like: that dynamic is perfect for my new vamp baby! literally, it's been the fastest i ever came up with a fc + name + personality in my life. flori would not exist, as she exists right now, without arrow's j/ed and i will die on the hill that jedibeth is basically f/orwood 2.0. but it's not just j/ed. it's also loren bennett, arrow's take on a bennett daughter, shrouded in mystery. sincerely, i would have loved to watch a spin-off about loren figuring out life and who she is and where she came from and what her magic can do and then ultimately getting together with penelope ;) and then there is king's mia hirsch / @fellvespers. and mia is just a beautiful character study in regards to resilience. mia's story starts when people vanish on her. first, her parents and then, her uncle. and then things just go from bad to worse. mia's story is one of escaping harsh situations by the skin of your teeth and running towards the things and people you need, even if you don't yet know you need them. i also would have loved to see a mia spin-off, diving deeper into werewolf culture as a whole. reading king's writing across the board is just a masterclass in and of itself. flori loves mia and loren so much. in her eyes, this friendship saved her. they kept her upright through so much ranging from family drama to crushes drama. they are her heart and lungs as much as they are her backbone. mia, loren and flori are as much b/arolena 2.0. as h/ope, j/osie and l/izzie are imho. those three fit into this world so perfectly and i feel like they balance out the main l/egacies girls while still standing on their own. but i also want to give a seperate shoutout to tina / @troubleah because i never expected the leah and flori dynamic to blossom as it did but i am so glad it did. i think leah, unknowingly, became a dear friend and taught flori to not only make peace with what she became but to love it and to embrace it with open arms. and i also want to give a shoutout to z / @soulmateprinciple for not only writing a lot of the night world characters excellently but also for getting me into the night world books as a whole. they're very 90's and perfectly imperfect but i do so adore them and z for introducing me to them.

[kooldewd123]

one of the smaller leaked details from the teraleak about plza got me thinking about what i'd like to see in terms of shiny hunting mechanics, and i ended up going down a rabbit hole and ranking the games by how much i enjoy shiny hunting in them (roughly ordered within tiers):

reasonings beneath the break, i've got a LOT of thoughts to infodump:

SM/USUM: sos chaining is my absolute favorite shiny hunting method. there's a really fun element of preparation to it that i think most other methods lack - researching your target pokemon, looking for any recoil or status move that may be an issue, figuring out how to plan around it, etc. it's a fun planning game that can easily make individual hunts much more memorable than simply “wow this one was so quick/long” when you see your plans come to fruition. usum improved it even further with some small mechanical tweaks, plus an expanded dex to hunt through. also in usum is the ultra warp ride. the wormhole shinies are honestly so easy that their allure wears off super quick, but the actual minigame attached to them is pretty fun. that said, the real star of the uwr are the legendaries and ultra beasts, all available through soft resetting. i love soft resetting for mostly the same reasons as sos chaining: you've got one chance to catch this legendary, so you better go in with a solid game plan and make it count once you finally see those sparkles. or if you want a different sort of challenge, you can always go for one of the gift pokemon instead: poipole, type:null, and ash cap pikachu. no battle required, but no shiny charm, either, with the added clout value that their shinies haven’t been available since. alola was my gateway to shiny hunting, but even trying to account for nostalgia, i still think it has some of the most engaging hunts to this day.

XY: i feel like kalos is really overlooked nowadays when it comes to shiny hunting, but it’s one of my absolute favorites. friend safari is always one of the first things that comes to mind whenever i think about shiny hunting. it’s a really cool community-driven shiny hunting experience. i spent so much time just exchanging friend codes to find the shines i needed, and i was always able to find a thriving friend safari community all the way up through swsh’s lifespan until i finally caught every possible shiny i could from it (i wonder how they’re doing now that the 3ds servers are shut down?). this is also the best region for fossil resets - most of the fossil are readily available in large quantities, so you can stock up as much as you'd like and revive them all at once to see if any surprises pop out at you. between friend safari, fossil resets, and horde hunting, xy has a lot of good mindless shiny hunts. a lot of the time, shiny hunting is just something for me to do with my hands while i’m bored, and xy excels at that. oh yeah, there’s also pokeradar in this one, too. i could never quite figure out how to work it.

SWSH: swsh gets massive bonus points for being the only game where masuda hunting is actually fun tbh. the fact that zl can be used as a replacement for the a button means that you can just gather up eggs one-handed at the route 5 nursery, then you can use the 3d camera in the wild area to easily spin in circles to hatch them without even needing to return to a pc box every five minutes like before. as for the rest of the shiny stuff in this game… the intended shiny hunting method is laughably pointless and dynamax adventures, while a neat concept, are only fun if you actually have friends to play it with. otherwise, you’re stuck dealing with either braindead npcs or even more braindead randoms. like i said before, i love planning out big hunts, but in dynamax adventures, so much of it is out of your control that it’s just completely unfun to me (at least we got the regis and swords of justice huntable through run aways. those are some really fun hunts as a consolation prize). honestly, i’m definitely placing these games several spots higher than they probably should be, but sword is possibly my most played game ever due to the sheer amount of masuda breeding i’ve done in it, so that has to count for something.

GSC: okay i know these are a curveball compared to everything else on the list. when these games came to the 3ds virtual console, i did some rby glitching to get a shiny ditto into them and honestly? probably my second favorite game in terms of breeding after swsh. because shininess is determined by ivs in these games, a shiny ditto parent gives every child a flat 1/64 shiny rate, balanced by the fact that the oval charm and flame body don’t exist yet. what you end up with is a situation where you get eggs much more slowly, but with hunt times still comparable to modern-day masuda hunting, and i personally found something about this arrangement really satisfying. every egg has so much more build-up to it, and so despite the slower pace, it somehow still felt more consistently exciting than perhaps any other shiny hunting method. crystal has some additional shiny fun with the odd egg if you feel like doing a bit of save manipulation with it (plus obligatory shiny celebi comment).

PLA: i know this is a very niche and odd opinion to have, but pla handles loading pokemon into the overworld better than any other game with overworld pokemon. the format of having distinct separate regions that you can load and unload at will, with pokemon (even those not yet spawned) being preset at the moment of loading and persisting until being forcibly unloaded, is something that i truly hope carries forward into future entries. it creates a world that feels much more natural, and yet is also highly exploitable on a gameplay level. resetting the regions until you find an outbreak, and then traveling to that outbreak to search for shinies, is a compelling gameplay loop that implements very video game-y elements in a way that i particularly enjoy. the differentiation between mass outbreaks and massive mass outbreaks also adds a fun trade-off into the mix: do you target a specific pokemon at lower odds or do you go for a grab bag of random pokemon at higher odds? i do have one big complaint, however, and it’s gonna sound kinda insane. it is nearly impossible to actually fail a shiny in this game. they persist through saves, they don’t respawn when you run, they even give off a distinct jingle when they’re in your vicinity. if there is a shiny near you, you are gonna find it, and you are probably gonna catch it. and personally… i don’t really care for this arrangement. the risk of failure is an integral part of shiny hunting. making it too safe makes the accomplishment feel a bit more hollow to me. i wish there was a way to disable the shiny sound. i feel like if they weren’t so blatantly telegraphed and were still a bit harder to find in the first place, it would balance out the safety nets the game gives you somewhat.

LGPE: i feel like i’ve come to appreciate lgpe a lot more as time has gone on. the catch combo system is a nice simple numbers game - just keep catching the same pokemon and shiny odds go up. simple, elegant, satisfying. the big drawback is the fact that the motion controls are uuuhh. less than ideal. but it’s easy enough to build a combo back up that it doesn’t usually feel like too big of a setback if something goes wrong. also the fact that you can use the in-game trading mechanics to hunt the alola variants is pretty nifty! i should get back in and try one of those hunts sometime.

BDSP: after not being able to get into pokeradar hunting in xy or the original dp, i was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable i found it in bdsp. it has a really good sense of risk and reward as you try to map out the safest path you can, which makes it super gratifying when your skills and luck are good enough to bring your chain all the way up to 40. honestly, the fact that the shiny charm doesn’t work in this game is a complete nonissue for me, because the pokeradar doesn’t even need it. of course, this game also has the added fun of not shiny locking anything except some tie-in bonuses. you can shiny hunt any legendary from the first four generations, and you can even go for the sinnoh mythicals as well (the event to get their items is over now, but i believe it’s still possible to glitch your way to them anyway).

SV: sparkling sandwiches are probably the shiny hunting mechanic i’m most split on. once again, there’s a really good strategic element to it that i enjoy: trying to figure out where on the map you can locate your target pokemon with as little type overlap in the surrounding area as possible, and then once you’ve begun your hunt, finding the best path to spawn them in as quickly as possible. on the other hand, however, probably my biggest hot take of sv is that the sandwiches bump the shiny rate up way too high. in my first shiny hunting excursion of the game, i found five shinies in the span of two sandwiches, and as a whole, that’s been more the norm than an exception. most shiny hunts in this game are over so quickly that i don’t feel all that rewarded for accomplishing them. the process of acquiring herba mystica is a good bottleneck keeping it from spiraling entirely out of control, but it feels so distinct from the actual shiny hunting process that it doesn’t help alleviate those feelings for me.

ORAS: i don’t hate shiny hunting in oras or anything, but i don’t think it does anything exceptionally well, either. horde hunting is just as fun as it is in xy, although it’s fairly easy to exhaust the catalogue of huntable pokemon in both games. soft resetting legendaries is here, although for some of them, they require lengthy trips to the encounter point each time and you’re better off sticking with usum or even bdsp instead if you wanna hunt them. the standout is dexnav - frankly, i’ve warmed up to it a lot over the years, but i think it’s still the roughest chaining mechanic. the search function is simple to understand, and the mirage spots and hidden pokemon inject a bunch of new encounters to hunt for. that said, i think the sneaking aspect of it never feels quite right with a 3ds circle pad, and having to constantly swap between battles and sneaking means that it’s hard to stay in a groove. i don’t mind dexnav, but it’s rarely my first choice.

[crypticdesire]

Honestly would love to see a top reader and bottom Kifaji similar w/the breeding/pregnancy kinks going on in the Mozus Trein fic, considering no one gives enough love to the bird man :,,,)

oh anon i love you for this ask 🩷

this is kifaji from twisted wonderland that anon is talking about:

i've seen kifaji before but i didn't look into his character since he was in a jp server event and ngl i didn't know if i'd like him with him being based off of zazu from the lion king. i like/don't mind that zazu is stern, diplomatic, and loyal; however, i'm not the biggest fan of his pompous attitude, temper, and panic induced irritability

BUT with that being said, out of respect for a fellow appreciator of old men, i couldn't not look more into kifaji since you like him, and i was pleasantly surprised !! i don't really mind twst spoilers, especially when it comes to events, so i read a translation of the tamashina-mina event to get to know kifaji's character (which can be found here if anyone else is interested)

!! warning !! a couple of very minor spoilers ahead for that event, which aren't related to the event's plot

like i mentioned before, i was afraid that i would find his character annoying but i'm glad you made me challenge that assumption bc there were so many golden moments in the event, especially relating to kifaji's relationship to leona!!

i loved the fact that he taught leona chess and the fact that kid leona cried when he lost to kifaji. too adorable 🥹 and seeing his dynamic with leona and cheka made me think it is totally plausible that kifaji could have some major mommy potential and baby fever hehe. and i already know i'd have so much fun writing dialogue for him given what i read in the event

so anon, thanks to you, i will definitely be writing a fic for kifaji ! i don't officially take requests but i'd like to write something you'd like, since you brought this breedable bird man to my attention. i know you mentioned breeding kink and pregnancy kink, but i also know my trein fic had other kinks like emeto and piss so feel free to lmk if there's other kinks you want or not want included :))

also the fact that kifaji is a bird man sent me down a rabbit hole looking at mating habits of african red-billed hornbills, so i'm gonna ramble about that for a sec bc i was getting multiple fic ideas based off of what i found...

first of all, i was surprised i didn't know until now that only 3% of bird species have external sex organs. apparently while they're embryos they have a gene that stops cells from developing a penis. some scientists think this evolution happened bc females preferred males with smaller penises so they could have more control over who they'd pick as a mate (🗣️ make some noise for micro penises 🫶)

also fun side note: birds with a penis get an erection from lymphatic fluid instead of a rush of blood, which means they have trouble keeping an erection and only last a few seconds during copulation (veryyyy old man coded with the great combo of erectile dysfunction + low stamina + quick to cum)

birds without external sex organs just have an avian vent/cloaca that swells and sticks out during mating season. their copulation is referred to as a "cloacal kiss" bc they just rub their cloacas together to stimulate the flow of sperm into the female's cloaca. they only have one sex position where the male perches on top of the female who moves their feathers to one side to expose their cloaca (i can't be the only one that reads that and thinks of hairy t4t sex right?)

they have sex several times for about a week to ensure the sperm takes and, for african red-billed hornbills, the male finds the nest site

the rest of this is also specific to the african red-billed hornbills where they make a nest in a natural cavity and the female is blocked inside by a plaster of mud until the eggs hatch. they just leave a narrow opening for the male to put food into. (some inspo for some stuffing ideas) the females also moult while they're stuck inside and regrow their feathers back when they leave the nest after the hatching

so yeah that info is giving me lots of thoughts and ideas for the old bird man👍

[cyberkevvideo]

There was a 5e Monster to PC Experimental Challenge?

I don't exactly know when this started, or even where, but I know that this is a concept that has been around since at least 2003 when Wizards of the Coast released the first printing of the Savage Species supplement for D&D 3rd, which is the idea of playing monstrous races alongside PCs. I know that in AD&D there were modules where you played as monsters to try and defend against adventurers, and it was one of the first editions that allowed you to play as tieflings and cambions, and Dragon Magazine allowed the lupin from Mystara, but I don't know about whether or not if that also included included minotaur, medusa, and stone giants like Savage Species did.

Since then, it was more that third party creatives took the idea of monster PC and making their HD into class levels. For Pathfinder, Dreamscarred Press and Necromancers of the Northwest were the main two companies I saw doing this, do so successfully. Rite Publishing did a similar concept, but took it in a different direction.

What seems to have prompted the original challenge to get brought up again is Roll For Combat's new BattleZoo Ancestries: Titans Kickstarter that will be releasing 13 new monster species, including the troll, dullahan, recap, cyclops, kraken, and titans. The dullahan is the one I'm most interested by as it's not going to be the undead version we see in 5e, but the fey version we see in Tome of Beasts from Kobold Press, or mentioned with the alternate name, Gan Ceanns by Paizo. Essentially they're a fey that work for the Unseelie Court and their head is back in the Feywild.

The Pathfinder 2E versions of these will just be Lineages, which we've seen for kobolds, aasimar, tiefling, etc.

At the time of this post, the Kickstarter has 20 days left.

Not gonna lie, kind of wish I'd been part of a project like this. While I don't know Pathfinder 2e, I love the idea of taking monsters and making it possible to play them as PCs. Savage Species is probably my favourite 3rd edition book, and Necromancers of the Northwest was my favourite iteration of the concept for Pathfinder 1e (although I tweaked it a bit in my home games because they felt it was unnecessary to make base race versions of the monsters like Savage Species, did before taking the monster levels).

I didn't go that far down the rabbit hole, but did find the experimental challenge more or less briefly explained on Reddit in 2018 and expanded upon slightly more in 2022 on EN World. Essentially, the challenge was to take a standard monster (no named monsters like Tiamat, Bahamut, Pazuzu, or Belial) that had an Intelligence of a minimum of 8 (so no beasts or tarrasque), it couldn't be any larger than Large size or smaller than Small, and it could only be reasonably powerful enough that it would stand next to a standard race but not immediately overshadow it. Any powers that wouldn't make it into the race itself had to be put into racial feats or class levels. No creating a lich spellcaster as just a race with feats and then take 20 cleric or fighter levels on top of all that. However, that didn't mean you couldn't emulate feats like Feytouched or Magic Initiate. If the creature had multiple forms (such as a dragon), you couldn't immediately use the final form (or age category) for powers, and even with racial feats you couldn't have the creature grow size categories so that after four feats it was suddenly gargantuan. Again, it has to stand next to PCs and travel with them. Having a literal titan walk around at level 10 means you're making things more difficult for the rest of your party. A gargantuan creature would have difficulty going dungeon delving or fitting in the party's bastion. Even a huge creature would have issues without a permanent reduce spell. This meant that going with a Small, Medium, or Large monster was probably in the person's best interest.

In addition to everything else, it seems that ASI placement, age, alignment, and size were either eliminated or reduced to be more in line with Monsters of the Multiverse more minimal approach. Makes sense given that not all monsters are given much lore regarding those sections, and many have a multitude of massive ability scores.

The person on EN World that I learned about this original challenge from, decided to go with a mind flayer. There were a number of feats, and the consensus was that a fighter illithid would be beyond broken by level 12 with how the feats were laid out, and the sheer number that fighters can take. Using Action Surge after using a successful mind blast would be absolutely brutal. Putting that on an NPC mind flayer alone could be a possible TPK, so I definitely get it.

Before I even knew about this challenge, I had been experimenting with different monstrous races for 5e such as the fey dullahan and gnoll. I was partly inspired by Dungeon Dad's Monster of the Week. He converts D&D monsters from older editions, as well as Pathfinder 1e monsters, to the 5e (and now the 2024 5e) system.

Doing this made for interesting issues such as the 3.0 oread being immune to cold damage while the 5e oread being immune to fire and poison damage. Also, they know vastly different spells.

Since I've already got a few done already on a separate document, I might share them here and join in on the experimental challenge just for fun. About the only thing I don't have prepared already are the feats that boost their traits/abilities and allow them to get their full power over the course of the game.

[wcwick66]

Afternoon Tea

a friendly chat <3 [so disorganized but very excited] [[unedited. uuunnnedddiittteedd]]

I email my guitar teacher every week like clockwork, but he does occasionally get a couple more emails in when I don't quite notice. He's a lovely man, truly, and today I got to tell him - as my self proclaimed father, that I want to be In Showbiz. In very concise terms.

I told him I in effect was going to become Dr. Teeth and create the Electric Mayhem around me.

I am so serious.

I recently came across a website and a project that launched me down a rabbit hole of excitement and despair, and I've arrived on the other side covered in dirt to scream in your ear because you happen to be here that I am going to be a professional artist.

In about eight million different ways.

Hear me out!

I adore many things and started this blog to showcase my journey as an artist. A writer yes, but an artist most and writing is art and I will die on this hill, mother!

Cringe aside, I love how my mental crap allows me to create. What doors it opens to the horrors and beauty of what my hands can pull together. My brain weirdness also means that patterns [math] once I understand it, ends up actually fueling more creativity.

The project is from a guy who used to work at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. I think that's what it's called. It's where the puppets are designed, and this guy makes OPEN SOURCE [open tech? I am SO new to this part of robotics and this term] animatronics KITS so you can make your own puppets at home. As far as I know because I spent an honest five minutes looking at it through eyes of wow cool before immediately trying to refigure out how robots and animatronics even work.

A day later and I'm essentially re teaching myself math so I can understand the complete arsenal of robotics, electrical engineering, and physics information I now have so I can complete my first companion for my new band!

I already have my costume and I'm going to be working on finishing a musical album that has no description other than maybe micropop x midwest emo x opera.

My band is going to be me, four large animatronics, and two smaller robots that exist as my little dancers. When it isn't us, I'm going to put on plays based on stories I write, and play music live while a combo cast of unseen people and large scale puppets perform.

I live in an area where doing something like this might actually be a lot of fun for bored people, and I think we could be funny!

One day it might be nice to make a show or movie for YouTube or something, but I'm most excited about my animuppet band.

I'm basically going to record my songs in parts and edit and program them into the animatronics so I can have backup vocals, and I have all the instruments I need to do this thanks to the *years* of hours and effort put into saving up and getting them one at a time.

Writing is still my comfy passion, but music pushes so many other parts of my brain that feed back into writing that I feel I can do both. I want to be happy, and I think even just me and one seated swaying animatronic with a tambourine would be cute enough to get a $5 ticket at some point. I'd want to do free shows first because I am terrified and I haven't been on a massive public stage since I was about fourteen. So eight years of absolutely not performing for anyone. Spooky!

I need to come up with a name for my band, and what I'm going to call my style of puppet and animatronic. I'm excited to make sketches and little stories because these characters have my whole heart!

I can't wait for you all to meet us <3

[jupiterseemsnice]

oops its me again

I literally posted one thing on here then bounced apparently lol.

i fell down the rabbit hole of depression again oh man.

living with depression is so crazy because internally your telling yourself you need to get up and do things and its like your body is on vacation. I hate being the way I am. all messed up in the brain. I have good days I really do but sometimes the bad out weigh the good. which is so stupid because my life is a blip on the radar compared to a lot and I do mean a lot of other peoples struggles. And some people are literally dying right now and I'm posted up in my bed upset because of some chemical imbalance.

Now I'm not shitting on mental health because it is real I.e me, but its foreal wack. like its like an out of body experience when someone with a PHd tells me I have something wrong with me I'm like welp lol.

i just cant believe all of my life choices have led me to where I am now in life. Im 28, unemployed at the moment, No education like shit man I didn't even graduate highschool. Truthfully I wish just for one single day I can go back in time to slap the shit out of my 14 year old self and tell her to get her shit together. My school days consisted of boys and friends who weren't really my friends and gaucho pants. I'm not even kidding I am not even friends with the people I spent the entirety of my pre pubescent life with. My childhood bestfriends are just facebook friends, I cant even remember the names of the boys I used to chase around at recess. Then in highschool I was more concerned about older boys and what I was gonna wear to the school dances,which I wish the fashion in 2012 weren't so well I guess now they're an "aesthetic" vibe for kids today. Yikes.

BUT I will always hold onto my skinny jeans till the day I die lol.

finally killed off the side bangs when I was 22.

I finally took the initiative to go back to school though. signed up for classes cause 10 years out of highschool I've learned I've retained nothing except for stuff that isn't going to take me anywhere. like PEMDAS. did anyone else learn it as " please excuse my dear aunt sally"? or did I just grow up weird. even though I know what it means and can tell you what it stands for, if you put a problem Infront of me using that formula I'd look at you like a deer in the headlights.

I doubt anyone will ever read this but if by some chance you do... I cant promise its gonna get better, but you have to fight the battle more then once to win it. So keep fighting, keep loving, and never accept less then what you deserve. truly, I know trust me I know its easier said then done, but the universe needs you.

I really do be rambling on here lol.

its nice to get the internal thoughts...external? lmao.

I'm trying to find joy in the things I used to love.

I started reading again, I haven't gotten very far in the book I just got but I'm gonna get there. have been finally giving myself a proper bedroom. when I moved into my apartment the only thing I had for my room was a bed. now I got a big girl bed frame AND a new mattress oh and I replaced this giant desk I bought off market place for $30 dollars with a smaller one, more simple. and I got fairy lights for my curtains and today I bought a led salt lamp. very vibey in here. even as I'm dumping all this into endless typing I have lofi playing in the background. I hope oneday I can just breathe without a heaping pile of bullshit on my imaginary plate. fingers crossed.

I love you.<3

[goombasa]

Using Linux Casually

I really like using Linux.

I am also not much of a power user.

I'll admit, as someone who grew up in the 90's and sort of grew up alongside the internet, I've been glued to desktops for most of my life, and aside from a brief stint in college where I decided to change things up a bit, I used Windows for most of that time. But being so tied to the Windows infrastructure, I've paid a lot of attention to all of the various changes and alterations made to the operating system, and a few years ago, around the time when Windows 11 was starting to kick into high gear (might have been right around when they announced the EoL for Win10), I decided that I didn't really want to use Windows any more, but I wasn't about to drop a ton of money on getting myself an Apple. That stint in college I mentioned? Convinced me that, even if I could have afforded it, I really didn't want to be part of that particular walled garden.

I had only heard tangentially about Linux at this point and didn't really understand exactly what it was, so I started doing some research, and let me tell you, if you can grasp the basics about it, that is a very easy rabbit hole to fall down. It took a couple weeks of research and educating myself on the different distributions, the different desktop environments, and which of them were most well equipped for general day-to-day use before I finally settled on Linux Mint. I had already been slowly gathering together some parts for a new PC anyway, so this seemed like as good a time as any to make the switch.

That was back at the tail end of 2020 or so. I was very fortunate to have everything I needed in hand before supply and pricing went wonky in the PC parts space, especially for graphics cards. Still feel like I overpaid a bit, but at least I wasn't paying triple the price. Anyway, it was one of the most painless setups I'd had up to that point, and once I got it up and running and got into Linux… it feel good. It felt familiar and different at the same time, and apart from a more convenient means of installing the basic programs that I use day to day, not a lot has really changed for me day to day. 

I think the mainstream idea of Linux as an impenetrable tech-bro's paradise for hacking and coding and programming is still pretty prominent because there aren't a lot of less tech-savvy folks that use it, despite the fact that it is getting much easier to get into. Distributions of linux like Elementary OS, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, or Zorin OS are made to be much easier to use by those who are transitioning from Windows. Mint in particular really feels like it's trying to be close to Windows in terms of aesthetic layout. A few major PC retailers do sell a limited number of machines with Linux pre-installed. Dell, Lenovo, and even HP sell laptops with Mint and Ubuntu, and there are some smaller retailers like Tuxedo and System 76 that are completely dedicated to selling prebuilt machines with Linux preinstalled. It is easier than ever to get a lot of software from Windows, including a good chunk of the games on Steam, to work on Linux through things like Wine, Bottles, and Proton. Proton, if you don't know, is also what lets you play a lot of the games on the Steam Deck too.

But even with all of the steps forward Linux has made, it's hard to compete with something that got such a big head start. Windows is bloated, unwieldy, and in many cases is becoming more and more unfriendly to people who value their privacy, up to and including forcing people to have a Microsoft account to even set up their operating system if you don't have the time or inclination to find a work-around for that, and most folks who just want a computer to write documents, watch youtube, or keep in touch with friends and family aren't going to think twice about it. It's a convenience, and with how little Linux machines are actually marketed in the mainstream, most are still under the idea that they have to install it themselves. And Windows still wins when it comes to out-of-the-box compatibility.

If you use specific programs, well, Linux isn't really open to you. Adobe has no legit Linux version and Wine just doesn't help get it up and running. Davinci Resolve does have a linux version, but it only works for one specific distribution, and you have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops to get it working on any other ones, to the point where it really doesn't feel like it's worth it. Hardware is just as bad. Keyboards and mice will basically always work out of the box, and so long as you don't need those proprietary RGB programs, they're not going to give you any issues, but if you need a drawing tablet that isn't Wacom, and even then not every tablet from Wacom will work, good luck getting it working completely. There is a program that lets you use a stream deck on Linux, but it's very basic and requires you to utilize a plugin to even get it working with OBS, one of the main reasons you'd want a Stream Deck in the first place. As far as Linux has come, it can sometimes still feel like it's still a tinkerer's playground for people who don't want everything done for them.

Linux is in a fascinating position where it IS still a playground for people who want to tinker and learn and code, and develop, and even build portions of the system or software themselves if they want. But it's also approaching a point where it can be used by the average user pretty easily, with the biggest hurdle being just getting it in front of someone so that they can use it. There is a learning curve there, there always will be when you're changing to a fundamentally different system, but the hurdle is so low, I think that anyone who is comfortable with Windows is more than capable of casually using Ubuntu or Linux Mint once they're up and running. The problem is just getting there. And of course, if they want to do anything more complicated than the basics of running a computer, things might get a bit complicated depending on what they want to do, but if they want to watch videos, communicate, get online, or do quite a bit of creative work, from 3D modeling to 2D art to music and video production, so long as they don't need access to anything that's uber professional, Linux has them covered and makes it very easy to get at what they need.

I genuinely think that Linux is something that everyone should at least try once, something that's fairly easy to do if you're using a bootable USB drive. But even then, I don't think most people are interested in even going that far, seeing it as too much effort for something that they might not even continue using after the fact anyway. And that's fair, which is why I think having someone around who at least knows the basics to help them over the hurdles to get started is a necessity too, but like… not someone who's SUPER into Linux, not someone who's going to suggest the command line for every little thing. We need more people out there who will show new users how to use the basic graphical user interface means of doing a lot of this stuff, because that is how you get more people interested; you show them that what you want them to try out is at least close to usable compared to what they're using now, while also laying out the usual positives.

I hope I've actually hit on something with this rambling. Because I do love Linux, it feels very comfortable to me, and on the whole, I like it a lot more than windows. Switching to Linux was the right choice for me, but I had to do a lot of research to reach that conclusion. And I feel like if that information was more readily available, and if it was made clear that you can do almost everything on the desktop the same way that you would on Windows, more folks would be willing to give Linux a try.

If you've never tried it before, I'd recommend at least trying out Linux Mint. If you've only ever used Windows, you will feel pretty at home here.

[dessertgeek]

Let's talk where to find ethical chocolate!

Yeah! Because I feel like the hardest part is finding the dang stuff when you don't know what to look for. This is a not-so-quick overview, and I can answer questions if folks have them.

So the keywords you're looking for are "bean to bar chocolate" and "craft chocolate." Most bean to bar and craft makers will slap one or both of those labels on everything they make. And while the two terms are used relatively interchangeably by a lot of folks, myself included, because most makers of one are makers of both, they do differ.

Bean to bar chocolate refers to the manufacturing process. It's all about buying cacao from transparent sources (either direct from the farmers/cooperatives or from a group/coop like Meridian Cacao) and then making the chocolate in house. (There are also bean to bar chocolatiers, who work with pre-made bean to bar chocolate that they melt down and make stuff with, like Sugoi Sweets, and bean to bar chocolate makers who make their own truffles and confections, like French Broad.)

Craft chocolate is a movement within bean to bar chocolate, focused on small batches and high quality products. And yep, both Sugoi Sweets and French Broad are considered craft makers.

Still, if you asked me where to find either one I'd know what you're talking about, it's more nice to know where that's all coming from.

Generally you won't find bean to bar chocolate in grocery stores, likely because the demand just isn't there. (Though honestly most grocery stores aren't the best places to store chocolate anyway, but that's a side discussion.) You're mainly looking at buying from makers, bean to bar chocolate shops, and specialty grocers and cafes.

But if you ask me "Hey Jess, where can I get good chocolate?" you're going to get a kneejerk response of my asking in rapid succession:

What "good chocolate" means to you

What type of chocolate thing you're looking for

Your budget

How you like to shop

Because craft chocolate is a vast beast of options at this point, from craft white chocolate (it exists and it rocks) to unsweetened 100% cacao chocolate (it also rocks) to drinking chocolates to confections. Kasama Chocolate even has a durian white chocolate. You've got options, and that makes it hard to give quick and easy recommendations.

Still, if you're 100% just starting out, and you're in the US and you want to be pointed at the biggest online source with the most stuff, you want Bar & Cocoa. (I have a 10% discount code if folks want it, but since it's affiliate DM me for it I guess? But it's not sponsored, and they have flash sales and better sales posted usually on their mailing list.)

If you took one look at Bar & Cocoa's website and noped out from decision paralysis, I usually prefer to send folks to their closest in person bean to bar chocolate source, ideally either a bean to bar maker's physical shop or a bean to bar chocolate store like The Meadow or Yahara Chocolate. I personally prefer starting with shops so you can try a bunch of makers, but we lost so many chocolate shops in the pandemic and gained so many makers that there might more likely be a maker near you instead. The point is going in person means you can take your time getting recommendations, education, and learning how to taste chocolate. There will likely be cafes and specialty shops near you that carry bean to bar chocolate, but they will either have smaller stocks and/or not have the time to give education or information. If you can't go in person, most makers and shops have social media and generally love talking recommendations!

(And oh yeah, learning how to taste chocolate is a skill! It's neat! It's not half as intense as it sounds, and once you get the hang of it it's really fast to do. I've done videos on it and I really should make an update.)

So that should get you started! Just know that you're diving down a chocolate rabbit hole, and there's a lot more to bean to bar chocolate than I even hinted at here. It's so much fun.

[chaosworthy]

{➹} – THE RABBIT LOOKED uncertain but he was willing to give Dan the benefit of the doubt, it wasn't like he had much of a choice at the moment. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place and things weren't going to be getting better in the next few minutes. Not for any of them.

The more Dan gave his input the more sure Johnny was of that. This was going to be complicated, and messy if they weren't careful. Hell, even if they were the rabbit had every expectation that things might go south. But they were running out of time, and grasping at straws was only going to do so much.

With fingers drumming on his folding arms, the rabbit was clearly lost in thought, running over what Dan had said and poking holes here and there, repairing them with another alternative. And before too long he shook his head. Fuck it. They had to move.

"Fourth plan," he only paused a moment longer to gather his thoughts before looking at Dan with a fierce determination. "We set one charge here and keep another for whatever the hell we're goin' to run into down the line. We don't have enough time to find whatever is powerin' this place, but we can find these people and get them out. If they are being held somewhere, hopefully settin' off two blasts will divide the security enough that we can fight our way back to the tunnels. If we have to split up then to split Robotnik's attention, so be it."

He wished things could have been different. He knew what was likely powering the base and to get their hands on it...it could have meant a major turning point. But they didn't have the time, and they didn't have the first idea where the source could have been kept and the rabbit didn't enjoy the idea of wandering around aimlessly more than they had to.

The emerald would have to wait until next time.

Shifting to mess with his communicator, the rabbit soon slid back a small panel to reveal even smaller metal disks. A pair of them that he regarded with a grin. "I only have two of them, but they're strong. Tekno made sure of that. I don't know if they'll be enough to stop the masked guy, but I'll take any chance at this point. Worse case, we call for back up and hold things down until they get here."

Not ideal, but still an option if they needed it. What wasn't an option was just leaving. Johnny knew he would never be able to live with himself if they did that. And he knew Dan felt the same.

"We can't leave them, that's not the point of all this." It wasn't what The Resistance had set out to do. "It means we won't be able to tear this base down as much as we wanted but I don't think anyone's going to be upset if a few lives are saved in the process. We just have to find these people, blow a few holes in the wall, knock a few robot heads and get out."

That left one problem, and as he looked from the pipes to Dan, the rabbit frowned. "Think you can hold out a little longer?"

Even if Johnny had admitted such a thought directly, there would have been no judgment made from Dan whom had thought the exact same, but it was that nagging feeling and fear of doing nothing that was causing him to speak up about it in the first place.

“I can handle myself but you’ve already shown your better for balance, I couldn’t keep myself sturdy on those arms back there…..just gimme a sec.” Dan wasn’t stupid, it was a longshot no matter what choice was made, even just heading back from this far in wouldn’t be easy but his mind would continue to mull it over, trying to picture the best chance they had and any escapees.

“That ‘surprise’ you were planning on leaving behind? How much of it and how much of a bang does it cause? I assume its remote or on a timer?” He’d ask as a rough gambit of a plan formed in his mind, though it still wasn’t solid enough to be concrete. “You said it yourself, we won’t be able to get out if we try to bring them with us. We only need to open the door for them so to speak.”

“I can only think of two possibilities of how we can do this.” Sighing to himself as he hated the situation of it before explaining his thoughts. 

“We either split up so you’d be more likely to get in unnoticed from the pipes with your balance without me, You sneak in and find where they’re being held. I’ll head back to the security entrance we snuck by earlier and cause a scene, doing as much damage as I can as if I just escaped. It should divert attention away from you to blast open whatever’s holding the folks or even their access to outside, you then get back into hiding after the explosion and make your way to the tunnel. I’ll have to escape the hard way if I don’t wanna risk giving the tunnels away.”

Dan already predicted there would be an obvious argument that splitting up would be foolish given the sheer odds but it would in theory give a better chance to the rest if there’s less security currently observing them.

“Alternatively. We find the power source to the prisoner’s security and blow it. The prisoners will do their own thing, we make our escape to the tunnel as we planned initially. We’ll be together but I don’t need to tell you that most of the folks will get hurt or killed. Let alone we’d likely get caught or involved in the ensuring chaos as well if we’re not quick to escape or go back into hiding considering the number of bots that are sure to come running when they’re notified the prison’s security is down, which is likely to be near instant as well knowing Eggman’s tech…..not to mention that masked one and if that happens….well, we might end up giving the tunnels away anyway as we rush to escape. Might work for us but sure won’t be easy to do a stunt like this again if they learn it.”

Technically there was a third option too which Dan would also include, but it was evident he wasn’t as keen on this one given they didn’t want to just abandon those people to whatever fate their foe had in mind for them. “Course, We could just say screw it and not bother with either, you blow those foundries we just came through and we sneak back out. If nothing else it might slow down the industry and production a bit.”

[ehlnofay]

(immediate follow-up to this piece)

They stop halfway up the mountain to let the goats graze.

It’s not a very big mountain, smaller than Efri would like, but it’s something. She’s never been here before. She’s not supposed to go past the little grove with the big lavender bushes.

By the time they get halfway, it looks like it might be past nine in the morning. Sissel sits on a rock with her dress pulled tentlike over her knees, a crumb still at the corner of her mouth. Efri wants to wander around a bit, but if she keeps walking the goats will follow her, and it’s time for them to eat. So she finds a bigger rock than the one Sissel is sitting on and climbs it. She can watch all the goats from here.

She wants to get to the top of the mountain. She might be able to see into the valley of the Reach from there.

“How long do you think it will take to get to the top?” she calls to Sissel.

Sissel looks up, shielding her eyes. The sun seems about level with them right now, and the light is so bright it reflects off Sissel’s pale skin and hair, shining and ghostlike. “Don’t know,” she says, running the words together the way she does. “All day?”

“And then it’ll take all night to get down? We can camp and come down tomorrow!”

“We wouldn’t have anything to eat.”

“I could find food. I do it every day.” It’s true. Efri takes breakfast in the mornings before she takes the goats out, and she takes dinner every night. She always tells Ma that she’s taking bread or something to eat when she gets hungry, but more often than not she gives it to Sissel. There’s berries and stuff, if you know where to look. And she doesn’t get too hungry anyway. “There’s crumbs on your face, you know.”

Sissel wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “Not proper supper. I mean, you couldn’t find a proper supper.”

“I could so,” Efri objects, although she doesn’t necessarily believe it. The trouble with Sissel is that she’s very sensible a lot of the time, and that gets very boring. Efri is glad she’s not that way. “I could kill a rabbit or something. I have my knife.”

“We’d need to cook it.”

“Don’t be so dull,” Efri says, but when Sissel tenses, she slides off the rock and sits down next to her. Sissel has been chewing her thumb again – Efri can see the little holes and ugly tears in the skin. She knits their fingers together. “Besides, I actually have a fire-steel. And I bet you could make fire!”

Sissle tenses again. Efri pulls on her hand so that both of their arms waggle. “Don’t worry, there’s no-one else around.”

“I can’t make fire,” Sissel says. “Jouane won’t teach me.”

“That makes sense, I guess. I’ve heard magefire is dangerous.”

“Yeah.”

One of the kids trails up and starts sniffing the hem of Efri’s dress. She swings her leg to startle it away.

“I bet Onmund will learn to make fire,” she says. She tries to imagine it.

Sissel looks at her. “What?”

“Don’t tell,” Efri says. She looks away from Sissel’s shiny face, out at the goats and beyond them, the view. “But he’s gone to Winterhold.”

“No way. Really?”

“Yeah. I mean,” Efri tries not to let irritation bleed into her voice. Sissel gets nervous when she sounds angry. “No-one will tell me for sure. But it’s obvious – he’s been wanting to go for ever, he never shuts up. And this morning he’d had his bag all packed and they said he was going away.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

They’re quiet for a moment, watching the goats. One starts ambling back down the path they came, and Efri scoops up a stone and hurls it with her free hand. She’s gotten very good at throwing things. The stone clatters in the middle of the path, and the goat starts and trots back to where the others are browsing.

“I’d like to go to Winterhold,” Sissel muses quietly, resting her chin on her knees. “But I don’t know if the teachers would be as nice as Jouane.”

“I bet they’re super strict,” Efri says. “But really smart. You’d learn so much, and you’d become the greatest mage in all of Skyrim!” She unlaces their hands so that she can draw her dagger and hold it dramatically aloft. “And I’d go on adventures and be the greatest hero of this age! And we’d be unstoppable!”

Sissel snorts a laugh. “What, you want to be an adventurer now? Like Erik?”

“I think so.” Efri sheathes the dagger. “Or something. Maybe I could be a travelling merchant, like those ones with the caravans.”

“Aren’t they all Khajiits? Jouane said they’re Khajiits.”

“I’m sure I’d be allowed to travel and sell things even though I’m not a Khajiit. Or I could be a knight! That would be cool. Or even a courier, and I’d deliver packages to everybody all over the world. I just want to go places.” She’s rather sick of being told to go walk no further than the grove with the lavender bushes.

“Me too,” Sissel says.

“What are you going to be?”

Sissel shrugs and pulls her dress so far over her legs that the grubby tops of her knees are almost visible at the neckline. “Dunno. Jouane says I’m real good at magic. Maybe I could be a wizard.”

“You’d be the best wizard,” Efri says firmly.

“I don’t know.”

“You would so. Better than Onmund.”

“Are you going to miss him?”

The question takes Efri by surprise. She’s not sure how to answer it. “Maybe. I’ll miss him more’n you’d miss Britte.”

“I wouldn’t miss Britte.”

“I know.”

Sissel tugs her dress again. If she keeps doing that she’ll tear it.

Efri keeps thinking about that question. Will she miss him? She doesn’t know.

Truth be told, there’ll not be much to miss. Onmund’s always just been kind of there. Half of an argument at the dinner table. Another face in the fields. Sometimes a flash of light in the distance, a sparkle, a gleam. Sometimes when she led the goats back into town, she saw strange symbols seared into trees or patches of frost when the rest of the grass was bare. She never told on him.

She stands. “Come on,” she tells Sissel, taking up her stick again. “I want to go higher. And I have potatoes in my pockets! I can start a fire and we’ll have a feast.”

“It’s only been five minutes,” Sissel complains, but she unfolds her legs and stands too.

Efri raps the stick on the rock sharply and the goats all look up.

[tbznewberry]

The Madmen of Wonderland | TBZ [I]

Part I: Meeting an odd pair and attending a strange tea party. 

Genre: Yandere, horror

Warnings: mentions of death, drugs, creepy behaviour, nudity, MC feeling humiliated

Word count: 1.4k

Next

She sits down on a stone and lets out the waterfall that pushes inside of her. Letting it wet her entire face while she drowns herself in self hate and pity. Why did she have to follow that rabbit? Why did she have to be so curious? It never ended well! She had been sitting down in the grass and yawns, resting towards a tree. In her half awoken state, she thought she saw a white rabbit running past her. Normally, she wouldn't give it another thought. There were a lot of normal bunnies here, but this was not a normal bunny. Was he wearing a jacket? Y/N had opened her eyes quickly and seen the bunny stand by the little lake nearby with a golden watch in his hands.

"What?" she said to herself, straightening her back, suddenly wide awake.

The rabbit was indeed wearing a jacket! What was going on? Was she dreaming? Y/N stood up to walk over to him, but the bunny noticed her and starts to run, eyes wide like plates.

"No! Wait, little bunny!" she had begged and runs after him. "Please stay!"

He disappeared into the forest, and Y/N ran after. She'd seen it fall down a little rabbit hole and she sighed, curiosity taking over. The fall hadn't hurt ... she had floated down. 

And now ... she is here. Although she doesn't know what 'here' is. It doesn't look like anything she has ever seen before. Nothing makes sense. Trees have been growing upside down, apples fell upwards ...

"I did not say that! Stop lying!" a voice says rather angrily from inside the forest.

"Yes, you did!" another voice says.

Y/N looks to the side and sees two men walking. Both have the same platinum blond hair. They're quarreling like a wed couple.

"Why is that thing staring at us?" one of them says, noticing the girl.

"I don't know. Probably because you look funny!"

"Excuse me, where am I?" Y/N takes the courage to ask.

"Ah, it talks!" the taller one yelps and hides behind his friend.

"You're here of course!" the one with the smaller lips smile. "Where else would you be?" He points at a tree in the distance. "You're not over there, are you? You're right here. And you're ... I don't know who you are, but I know that I'm Kevin and that this is Jacob. Do you really need to know more than that?"

"I mean ... where? Like ... I'm not at home anymore. What do you call this place?"

"Call it?" Jacob asked as the two men looked at each other, completely dumbfounded. "We just call it-"

"That reminds me!" Kevin says and clasps his hands together. "There was a story about a girl looking just like you-"

"Right! I heard about that!"

"What story?" Y/N asks.

"Or...not a story-story, more of a legend!" Kevin says with a big smile.

"A legend?"

"Of the kings", Jacob continues. "That they're waiting for a lady looking just like you to come to Wonderland so they can kidnap her and find the way out to the real world!"

Y/N feels a shiver run down her spine hearing the word 'Wonderland'. It has a creepy tone to it, something that shouldn't be there...something sinister.

"Wonderland? I-Is that where I am?" Y/N asks.

"Did we say that?" Kevin says, suddenly looking ... scared?

"Yeah ..."

"U-Uh ...", Jacob says, looking at his friend for help. "T-That reminds me of a story-"

"No stories, please ... just help me", Y/N begs. "I want to go home."

This all is making her head spin. It feels like there are spiders crawling all over her skin, but she can't see any when she looks down on her arms.

"But everyone loves stories", Jacob mumbles, giving her a warningful gaze. "I think you'd want to listen."

"I do love stories, but it's not the right time! Please help me to someone that knows where to go!"

"Go to the Hatters! They'll tell you!"

"And where do I go?"

"It doesn't matter where you go, you'll end up there", Kevin says reassuringly. "And tell Haknyeon to quit down on the sugar. It's not good for him!"

"Alright ... I will. Thank you."

"Good luck, whatever-your-name-was!" They both smile before continuing to walk, picking up their quirrell about who had lied and who had not.

Y/N starts to walk down a pink gravel road. She turns around to look at the two men and gulps. Didn't they look awfully like skeletons from this distance...?

She sees a house at the end of the road. It must be that house they talked about, Y/N figures. She makes her way through the small gate and sees a big table out in the yard, filled with cake and teapots. Y/N stops abruptly when she sees the three men around the table, laughing and cheering. Should she really interrupt their sweet little get-together?

"Oh, a guest!" a voice shouts and the man stands up from his seat. "Come! Come!"

"Uh ... I'm sorry for interrupting", Y/N starts. "I just ... I needed some directions and the two men I met told me that you'd help-"

"My oh my, isn't this a human? A real human?" the youngest of them says.

"A human, you say?" the 'leader' of them said and stood up with his hand out to the confused girl. "Come closer, my child. Let me take a look at you."

Y/N walks up to him with unsure eyes. The man feels her face, hair, shoulders and hands.

"You are real", he says and slowly breaks out into a wide smile. "Welcome, welcome! Come sit down!"

She has no choice but follow him. Maybe because he's taken a steady grip on her arm. He pulls her down in the chair beside him.

"You have to try our tea, little human!" the leader says hectically and claps with his hands. "Oh, how rude! We haven't introduced ourselves! I'm Changmin and that's Eric and Haknyeon. And your name is...?"

"Y/N", the now confused girl answers.

"Y/N ... you have to try this tea!"

Haknyeon holds out a cup to her from a little pot none of them are drinking from. She holds the small, blue cup in her hands, contemplating whether to drink this unknown, green liquid or not. It doesn't feel good. Her gut is telling her not to, but how can she decline their hospitality and then be so rude to ask them for directions. She has to drink. After swallowing the entire thing, she turns to Changmin to ask for directions, but everything suddenly feels so...weird? It's tickling and itching in her body and she can't shake it off. The cup in front of her suddenly seems bigger.

"W-What's .... what's going on?" she breathes out. "Why can't ... why can't I breathe?"

Her entire body is sweating and suddenly it doesn't feel like it's fitting her dress. It's getting looser and looser.

"What is it? Are you going mad, little human?" Changmin whispers in her ear, standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders. "Are you going mad? Like us?"

"C-Can't ... can't breathe!"

He laughs and it's not long before the others join in. Humiliating laughs as she feels herself getting dizzier and dizzier. She watches how she sinks down in the dress and suddenly ... is in it?

"Would you look at that, there we have her!" Eric laughs as the three of them peek down into the dress.

She quickly tries to hide her now dollsized small and naked body. The three of them are staring down at her, as if they’re processing what just happened. Changmin grabs her hair and pulls her up, making her dangle in the air.

"So this is the little human the kings want, huh?" he smirks and looks over his shoulder. "Hak, give me a glass."

He gets a tall, see through glass. Changmin turns it around and places Y/N down on the table, trapping her in it. She bangs on the glass, begging to be let out.

"She's kinda cute", Eric says with a smile and taps the glass, making her flinch. "And small."

"What do we do with this now?" Haknyeon asks and takes the dress in his hands.

"Keep it ... and her", Eric says, half smirk on his face. "The kings won't get her, will they?"

"No, she's ours now. She'll fetch us sugar and run around on the table to entertain us", Changmin smiles. "She'll go mad — absolutely bonkers — just like us. Maybe then we'll let her get back to her normal size."

Y/N hides her face in her hands and cries.

[A/N: I hope you liked the first part of my little mini series! Feel free to send in feedback and please make sure you like/reblog, it’d make me happy and help me a lot <3]

[naladot]

Dasey fic recs from 2008-2010

 I’ve been procrastinating and somehow this led me down the rabbit hole of digging up old Dasey fics. Here’s a short and very random rec list of some of those. (Definitely not exhaustive; this fandom has a disproportionate number of great fics.) I provided AO3 links where they exist because, wow, fanfiction.net is decaying before our eyes.

How Emily Davis Got Her Groove Back by unoriginal_liz (43k, T); read on AO3 or fanfiction.net: "I'm beyond a Shleppette! I'm the uber-Shleppette! There are no depths to which I will not Shlep!"

This is, like, THE fic. It is even better than I remembered. Rereading it in 2021, I laughed and felt all the feelings and was utterly delighted by the whole thing. This should be required reading. Dasey is a background ship but it’s an amazing Dasey subplot. (There seems to be some issue with some missing text in the AO3 version, but it doesn’t really mess up anything but the flow.)

Tapedeck by sparzelli (6.5k, T): She experiences the most curious emotion then. She can feel something slide into place in her head, and then it’s like they’ve been this way their whole lives. It's not real, but it sort of feels like comfort. CxD

I always remember this fic for being a little angsty and having a strong atmosphere. It’s still quite vivid and a different Casey characterization than I often see/write, and the tension threaded through the fic is so good.

The Perils of Alphabetical Seating by TheBucketWoman (3k, T): "They'd agreed to be “friends” which, everyone but Casey knew, didn't mean that they would ever really be at ease with each other." Dasey and featuring, well, someone who used to be with Casey.

This is a Max POV story and it’s really well done. I love how it encapsulates a particular moment and gives such a strong feeling of high school. Dasey through someone else’s eyes is always good, too.

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation by hayseed42 (74.5k, M mostly for language): Nora said their summer trip to the country was going to be an adventure. She didn't mean it quite so literally, but when have Casey and Derek ever been any good at doing what they're told? A slow-building Dasey.

This is a fantasy adventure fic that I’ve never forgotten, but I had to do some digging to find again. It’s just as fun and fast-paced as I remembered, and with great character and ship development. (Content warning for one instance of offensive language referring to disability in Chp. 7.)

A Study in Desire by WhenLightningStrikes / youcallitwinter (1.5k, T); read on AO3 or fanfiction.net: Someone should really look into naming a pathological condition after her. 

One thing I really miss from fandom in the past was these smaller character study-type pieces. This one really achieves a lot in grounding the plot in Casey’s headspace, and the ending strikes the perfect note.

Two Ways It Could Have Happened, One Way It Did by justfallapart (700 words, K+): Two ways Derek Venturi could have met Casey McDonald, and the way he actually did.

Like I just mentioned, I miss these smaller character studies. This one explores the common agreement in this fandom that Derek Venturi fell in love first, and in just 700 words encapsulates all the angst you feel because of that.

back to the border by avocadomoon (4k, T): Casey makes the Dean's list. Derek takes up smoking.

I mean, everyone’s read this fic, right? But it was so definitive for the fandom that a Ye Olde Dasey Fic Recs post (even a short, random, and non-comprehensive one) would be incomplete without it. I still remember reading this for the first time. Each scene is so well-drawn, both perfectly connected to the show and establishing its own universe and tone. It’s efficient and elegant and amazing.

[autistic-katara]

(this isnt related to pjo at all btw and is just me rambling abt stars) just wanted to add as like a cool science fact that when the sun dies it wont go supernova, only stars above a certain mass limit do

there r 3 categories of stars, red dwarfs, which r a lot smaller and less hot than our sun and last for trillions of years before dying, meaning no red dwarf star has died yet since the universe is only 13.8B years old, and i cant remember the exact process of how they die but ik its less dramatic than the others and eventually they end up as a black dwarf (which i’m pretty sure dont exist yet cause yk not enough time for it to happen) and then theres stars like our sun (which i cant remember the specific name of) that r the medium kinda star and they last for around 10B years (the sun is abt half way through its 10B year lifespan) and when they die they expand rlly big, like the sun’ll reach where the earth is now (which to put that in perspective, it takes light, the fastest thing in the universe, 8 minutes to reach earth from the sun, so thats fucking massive) and then eventually shrink into a white dwarf (and i think a planetary nebula tho idk) which’ll be i think the size of a large city tho i could be mixing that up w/ neutron stars and i think eventually turn into a black dwarf aswell tho again, idk. and then theres stars that r alot bugger than the sun, blue giants, which last only a few million years and when they die they go supernova, which is how we get heavier elements like gold and iron, since thats the only place w/ idk the right environment to fuse into them and depending on their mass they turn into either a neutron star or a stellar black hole and yeah i’m just gonna stop myself here before i end up explaining everything the human race has learned abt physics anyways srry abt this i’m not trying to sound pretentious or condescending or whatever i just noticed a very very very minor thing in ur post which was mildly wrong abt smthn ive had a special interest in literally as long as i can remember and the spirit of my autism possessed me like i was going into the neurodivergent avatar state and yeah again i’m incredibly sorry if this comes off rude or obnoxious or anything i promise i’m not trying to do that also i simplified alot of the stuff here so if u found any of this interesting please look it up bcz there is like a never ending supply of knowledge on this topic with new stuff being discovered all the time and (at least to me) its one of the best things to get sucked down a rabbit hole of learning and yeah idk how to end this ramble but yeah have a nice day :)

Ok. So. I just remembered that when a star dies, it explodes, sending enormous energy and materials into space. The explosion is called Supernova, and in that instance, the star can shine as bright as even a galaxy with billions of regular stars.

So. If Rick's really planning to astound me, let me see Nico cross the border of life and death only to emerge then as the most stunning, gorgeous existence this universe has to offer.

Or Will. The sun is a star anyway. I'm not picky about it.